Cryptocurrencies have the potential to disrupt global money as the world shifts away from a dollar-dominated system.
That is the view of Nigel Green, CEO of independent financial advisory, asset management and FinTech organisation deVere Group.
He says the International Monetary Fund’s new Global Financial Stability Report is both right and wrong on cryptocurrencies.
The IMF says that ‘strengthening macroeconomic policies is necessary’ to fend off ‘cryptoisation risks’.
“The IMF is correct – cryptocurrencies are indeed ushering in a new world order,” said Green. “The times ahead are destined to be radically different from what we have all experienced in our lifetimes so far.
“One way in which we will see this each day is with currencies, which are mediums of exchange and store holders of value. Increasingly, there will be a mixed system. Some will be currencies from governments, including digital and non-digital, and some will be digital and decentralised, such as Bitcoin.
“The US dollar has reigned supreme for around 75 years. But there’s no doubt that the world is shifting away from a dollar-dominated system.
“This is because astronomic levels of debt, and the enormous, ongoing amount of money printing to monetise these debts, have caused the considerable drop in the long-term value of the global reserve currency.
“Investors – including individuals and governments – are therefore looking for alternative currencies, such as cryptocurrencies.
“Moving forward, these will increasingly compete with traditional, fiat ones and this will help trigger the decreasing dominance of currently leading international currencies.”
Green says the IMF should embrace Bitcoin, which will “inevitably play a critical future role” in the global monetary system.
Binance launches ‘swastika’ emoji, immediately scraps it
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance launched a swastika-like hashflag then immediately scrapped it following criticism from Twitter users.
A hashflag is an emoji which appears alongside certain hashtags on Twitter.
The Binance emoji featured its distinctive diamond logo inside a golden square, with L-shaped arms emerging from the four sides.
The company said it was “embarrassed” that the design had passed through several layers of review without anyone noticing the resemblance to the emblem of Nazi Germany.
The swastika was a symbol of good fortune used in religions including Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism before Adolf Hitler’s fascist party adopted it and changed how it was viewed forever.
Binance, which deleted tweets featuring the offending hashflag – alongside CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao – said it is designing a new emoji.
Cryptocurrency shorts
Following a U-turn, Binance is to move users in Russia with more than €10,000 in assets to ‘withdrawal-only mode’, with no deposits or trading permitted, to follow European Union sanctions imposed over the invasion of Ukraine.
A report from Morgan Stanley says collaborations between crypto companies and physical shops are a key milestone in the “evolution of bitcoin usage as a medium of payment”. The investment bank pointed to a recent deal between payments company Strike and point-of-sales supplier NCR and payments firm Blackhawk Network.
The Bank of England has upped the fees it collects from City firms by 9% – amounting in total from around £300 million to £321m – as it looks to add 100 staff to monitor the boom in cryptocurrency trading as well as new policy responsibilities it has inherited sine Brexit.
Crypto prices
The overall market cap of the more than 19,000 coins is at $1.89 trillion, a 1.6% decrease in the last 24 hours, with Terra the only cryptocurrency to gain value.
Market leader Bitcoin – the original cryptocurrency created by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto – is around $40,700 at the time of writing (7am UK) following a 2% decrease in value. BTC is 1% up in a week.
Ethereum, the second most valuable crypto coin – created as a decentralised network for smart contracts on the blockchain – lost 2% to $3,000. ETH, set for a huge upgrade soon, is 1% down over the course of a week.
Binance Coin is a cryptocurrency created by popular crypto exchange Binance to assist its aim in becoming the infrastructure services provider for the entire blockchain ecosystem. Its BNB token dropped 2% to $411, leaving it 2% down over seven days.
The XRP token of Ripple, a payment settlement asset exchange and remittance system, acts as a bridge for transfers between other currencies. XRP dropped 2% to below 74 cents, which leaves it 5% down over seven days.
Solana is a blockchain built to make decentralised finance accessible on a larger scale – and capable of processing 50,000 transactions per second. Its SOL token fell 3% to $103 while it is up 1% on its price last Friday morning.
Terra, described as a programmable money for the internet, gained 2% to $94.50. Its payment token LUNA is 15% higher than its price a week ago.
Cardano is an open source network facilitating dApps which considers itself to be an updated version of Ethereum. Its ADA token, designed to allow owners to participate in the operation of the network, fell 2% to 92c. It is 3% down over the course of a week.
Avalanche, a lightning-quick verifiable platform for institutions, enterprises and governments, came out of nowhere months ago to break into the top 10 currencies. Its AVAX token fell 2% to $76.87 and is 1% down in a week.
Polkadot was founded by the Swiss-based Web3 Foundation as an open-source project to develop a decentralised web. Its DOT token, which aims to securely connect blockchains, dropped 3% to $18.46 and is 1% higher than its price a week ago.
Meme coin DOGE was created as a satire on the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies but is now a major player in the space. DOGE dropped 2% to fall further away from 14c while it is 6% down over seven days.
To see how the valuations of the main coins have changed in the last few days, click here.
For valuations of the top 100 coins by market cap in US dollars, plus 24-hour price change, see below.