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While there is a lull in the markets because everyone is waiting for today’s US Federal Reserve press conference, we will try to take a look at cryptocurrency. One of the most interesting things that has happened recently is the acceptance of bitcoin by JPMorgan, which just 4 years ago promised to fire any employee who bought the cryptocurrency.
BTC
Why is this such a significant development? JPMorgan is the latest major bank to recognise cryptocurrency as a separate asset class. The bank is about to launch a special bitcoin fund that will allow customers to buy cryptocurrencies and store them in their bank accounts.
It’s clear to everyone by now, that none of the big whales want to miss out on the opportunity to make money and provide their clients with the latest tools, though mostly useless. After all, having thought out good speculative schemes one can perfectly try to earn in this market with rather low capitalization.
The excitement about bitcoin investments is growing again. The Coinbase IPO added 2.5 million new users in a matter of days. Cryptocurrencies are getting a lot of publicity, but it’s very likely that most buyers of bitcoin as an investment don’t know what it’s even for.
What is bitcoin for? What are its advantages or disadvantages?
One might assume that bitcoin is decentralised and can be transferred to anyone. Yes, you may agree, but in real life the cryptocurrency transferring costs at least 2-3% from transfer value and you may lose additionally 10% because of strong exchange rate fluctuation, because of strong volatility by the time when transaction will reach the recipient. This is more of a disadvantage than an advantage.
The blockchain depends entirely on the miners. Most of them are concentrated in China. China is now busy developing the digital Yuan. They don’t need any bitcoin. Therefore, any blocking of Chinese miners will very seriously affect the speed of transactions, as well as the bitcoin exchange rate. There were already cases, when due to blocking of 20% of miners the commission in network reached $70, and cheaper transactions could wait for up to a week.
Overall, bitcoin itself is growing more on hype than on its usefulness. Hardly anyone can now name a few important points about what bitcoin is actually useful for humanity. One of the most important is that it gave a boost to the blockchain industry as a certain technological process, but nothing else comes to mind. So think a lot about why you need bitcoin in your investment wallets.
03.30 Australian Consumer Price Index Q1 2021
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20.00 US Federal Reserve interest rate decision
20.30 Press conference of US Federal Open Market Committee
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