Simon Peters' Cryptocurrency Corner [Market Comment]

We invite you to read the weekly market commentary on cryptocurrencies, in which the situation on Bitcoin, Ethereum and NFT tokens.

Bitcoin continues to retreat from record levels

Bitcoin continued to retreat from its all-time high from last week, hitting just $ 55 on Friday morning, after four days of fairly consistent decline from a weekly high of $ 911 last Monday. BTC then stabilized somewhat over the weekend, ending Sunday at $ 65 before returning to $ 988 early this morning. Similarly Ethereum It opened just below $ 4630 last week, before dropping lower in the following days. However, ETH fell slightly earlier than bitcoin, hitting $ 3974 on Thursday evening and rebounded slightly faster, ending Sunday at $ 4266. Today at the beginning of the day it fell again to USD 4130.

What caused bitcoin to decline?

Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies have plunged sharply in the past week - for a few reasons. First, Taproot's upgrade to the bitcoin blockchain has created uncertainty in the investor community. Perhaps the most important network update in the last four years, Taproot aimed to streamline cryptocurrency transactions by making them faster and cheaper. These kinds of updates can create short-term uncertainty as investors hold back to see what happens to the network. The US infrastructure law has also recently affected the price level.

The bill, led by President Joe Biden, could place companies subject to stricter crypto asset reporting and handling laws, which has created further investor uncertainty. Finally, when bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies hit all-time highs, this is always a measure of how investors are reaping profits, which then translated into price weakness. Both BTCand ETH are on the rise, and the ups and downs of the market are part of the story.

Ticketmaster works with the NFL to issue NFT tickets

Ticketmaster ticket seller has teamed up with the US National Football League to issue NFT commemorative tickets. American football fans can now exchange their NFT along with their match tickets as a "token of appreciation" for purchases on the platform. To redeem NFT tickets, fans must log into the NFL game by scanning the Ticketmaster Safetix ticket. They can then receive one NFT per qualifying match - but most importantly, they must attend the match in order to be eligible for it. The program allows you to create digital souvenirs for fans, but it omits one key aspect of buying and reselling tickets - scalpers.

Technology NFT it can largely eliminate the scalping problem, but Ticketmaster appears to have held back from taking this step at the moment. Hong Kong Monetary Authority Announces HK Two-Tier Digital Dollar The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) recently published a white paper on the potential composition of the HK digital dollar. The analysis proposes a possible two-tier system for digital HKD, which would include the "interbank layer", which is a wholesale issuance and redemption system that can be used by Hong Kong's central bank and commercial banks in this financial center.

The second tier of the system would be a wallet layer for end users or consumers, in theory allowing the direct distribution and circulation of e-HKD through such wallets. The plans reveal a tempting set of ideas where both institutional actors and individuals can use CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) technology, reducing the need for intermediary transactions but still maintaining the ability to circulate HK digital dollars at the institutional level . HKMA, however, wanted to emphasize that at this point, the ideas are for now a white paper and not a roadmap for its digital currency.