Many investors, including Romanians, continue to play in the cryptocurrency market, even as the stronger currencies have dropped dramatically in recent months. Some believe this money can be a safe haven in a recession.
The cryptocurrency market continued to grow in September, which was historically the worst month for Bitcoin (BTC), writes Forbs.
And Ethereum (ETH) has completed its long-awaited transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, but it was not the bullish catalyst investors were hoping for.
What’s happening with Bitcoin and Ethereum
The completion of the merger of ETH on September 15th was seen by investors as more of a marketing event.
This summer, Ethereum prices rose 32%, compared to a 2.8% drop for Bitcoin over the same period. After the merger, Ethereum prices fell 18%, while Bitcoin prices fell only 1.9%.
For now, the analyst Bank of AmericaAlkesh Shah says Ethereum will likely continue to lose market share to competing cryptocurrencies such as Tron (TRX), Avalanche (AVAX) and Solana (SOL).
“The significant appreciation in ETH prices from mid-July to mid-August continues to reverse as investors understand that the Ethereum transition does not face scalability issues or high transaction fees and move towards a wait-and-see approach for future updates,” he says. Shah.
Investor concerns over inflation and rising interest rates continue to weigh on cryptocurrencies and other risk assets. In September, the US Federal Reserve issued its third consecutive interest rate hike of 75 basis points (bps).
Bitcoin prices are more or less flat from month to month, but have dropped 58% since the beginning of the year. Ethereum prices fell 12% in September and dropped 63% year to date.
How strong is Bitcoin even though it has dropped dramatically
analyst financial Claudio Nasui he explained in an interview for Ziare.com what he thinks will happen on the cryptocurrency market in the next period.
“Also, it seems to me that it is an investment that will work in the long term. I would still make this distinction between Bitcoin and all other cryptocurrencies. And even if it is a risky bet, I think that in the very long term there is no talk of the next few years – when it is possible. swing, even decrease, I don’t know what will happen in the short term – it has every chance to grow, “said Claudiu Nasui.
According to the expert, “Bitcoin is considered a kind of digital gold”.
“A long time ago, currency world trade was gold. And our coins were actually x ounces of gold. For this reason and the exchange rate was equal to each other. That is, if one coin had one gram of gold and two more grams, it was clear that the second was worth two of the other. It was just about how much gold you put into one and how much into the other, “the specialist recalled.
Why did humanity abandon gold as a currency?
“For several reasons, mainly because states wanted to print money and couldn’t print gold. You can put as many zeros as you like on a piece of paper and devalue the currency. Gold cannot be devalued.
Bitcoin is similar to gold in that it has a predictably growing money supply and growing quite slowly to a maximum. So we can say that it has the monetary qualities of gold, in the sense that it is deflationary, it cannot be devalued “, explained Năsui.
Cryptocurrencies, the target of hackers
The cryptocurrency platform Binance would have been the target of a cyberattack on Friday, October 7, following which hackers were able to steal $ 570 million worth of cryptocurrencies, he reported. Reuters.
The attack would have targeted Binance Smart Chain (BSC Token Hub), a bridge between two Binance systems.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the hackers stole assets worth around $ 100 million. BNB Chain later stated in a blog post that a total of 2 million BNB cryptocurrencies – worth around $ 570 million – have been withdrawn by the hacker.
Binance reported that a large portion of BNB’s assets remained in the address of the hacker’s digital wallet, while approximately $ 100 million of assets remained unclaimed.
This is not the only attack on the cryptocurrency market.
In March, hackers stole around $ 615 million from a blockchain bridge called the Ronin Bridge. It was one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts ever recorded in this market, and the United States linked the attack to North Korean hackers.
Bitcoin is currently below the $ 20,000 mark and Ethereum is below $ 1,500.
