India’s largest crypto exchange crossed $2 billion in trading volumes in Feb

India’s largest crypto exchange crossed $2 billion in trading volumes in Feb

NEW DELHI: India’s top cryptocurrency exchange nearly doubled its trading volumes month-on-month in February, despite fears of a government-imposed ban on crypto assets. According to a tweet by Nischal Shetty, founder of WazirX, the largest crypto exchange in India, the company hit $2.3 billion in trading volumes on 21 February. Volumes were at $1.4 billion on 21 January, and at $500 million as on 20 December.

WazirX has been growing fast 🚀

A major reason for our growth is YOU.

Volume growth:

Dec 20 - $500M

Jan 21 - $1.4B

Feb 21 - $2.3B

Thank you for placing your trust on us.

We’ll continue to work hard & serve all our customers.

We’re growing & learning#IndiaWantsCrypto — Nischal (WazirX) ⚡️ (@NischalShetty) March 3, 2021

Also Read | How citizen data led India’s covid battle

The future of crypto trading in India has been in question since the Budget session began in February. The Indian government was expected to bring a bill that bans “private cryptocurrencies" in the country, and lay framework for the creation of a digital rupee. While the definition of private cryptocurrencies wasn’t clear at the time, experts believed that the bill will make it illegal to buy, sell or deal in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies in the country.

At the same time though, interest in crypto trading grew, thanks to big moves made by global companies. Billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla announced that it has invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, while payments provider Mastercard said it would start accepting cryptocurrencies on its network from this year.

WazirX had earlier told Mint that it took the company 11 days to hit the billion-dollar mark in February, while its total for January was $1.84 billion.

“Crypto is a global phenomenon. The moment a Tesla spends $1.5 billion, your wealth in India has increased. Most of your investments are very local, but in crypto, anyone anywhere in the world can affect your wealth. People in India have been joining based on all of this positive news that’s been coming," Shetty had told Mint.

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Is the Crypto Bull Market Over? - CityAM

by Dr Chris Kacher

Has the Bitcoin bull market ended? Bitcoin has lost -26.3% and Ethereum -36.5% from peak-to-trough in the current correction prompting some to suggest the bull market is over.

My metrics suggest we are not even half way through this bull cycle.

To keep things in perspective, the market cap of cryptocurrencies in the last bull run achieved an aggregate value of just under $1 trillion. It currently stands at around $1.5 trillion. From the chart below, this crypto bull market is still in the early stages, if the market value of the whole cryptospace is any guide.

Further, the image below shows Bitcoins that have been moved over various time frames. The Bitcoins that moved last within a month or less as illustrated by orange and red shows there tend to be three stages of buying in each bull cycle. We just completed stage 1.

In addition, record levels of Bitcoin have been moving off exchanges as many are becoming long term ‘HODLers’ of Bitcoin as major institutions, banks, corporations, HNWIs, and even governments are waking up to the massive utility and onboarding of blockchain technologies including Bitcoin and Ethereum. This crypto bull market is far from topping out.

Retail and institutional FOMO combined with a serious supply shortage due to companies such as Grayscale and PayPal buying up Bitcoin should propel crypto valuations beyond $10 trillion. Corporations are using BTC to reduce the impact of falling fiat from seemingly limitless quantitative easing.

Further, DeFi is being used by Bitcoin to earn high yields. Anyone can also use BTC as collateral to avoid having to sell BTC to tap its value through collateralized loans, a nice way to sidestep capital gains tax on their Bitcoin while continuing to ride it higher. The amount of Bitcoin used for this purpose strongly adds to its supply shortage.

In consequence, the prediction I made in my keynote speech at the Geneva WealthTech event in 2017 of Bitcoin reaching $1,000,000 by the end of 2023 still stands. Based on S2F and other metrics, the current bull market should run through to at least late 2021 before the bubble, once again, blows apart, black swans notwithstanding.

Prime metrics reset

A number of other Bitcoin oversold metrics have reset or bottomed which, in prior corrections, often occurred near price lows in Bitcoin.

SOPR (spent output profit ratio) shows the number of Bitcoin that are in profit. Whenever it dips below the white line in the chart below, then traders/investors are selling Bitcoin at a loss on average which tends to curb selling.

The last two times SOPR dipped close to or below this white line was early September 2020 and mid-Jan-2021. Both were price lows for Bitcoin.

Also keep in mind that Bitcoin typically corrects 30-40% in bull markets as it did a few times in 2017, as shown in the annotated chart below. The annotations are my notes thus the image below is just a screen shot of a much more comprehensive in-house study thus the ‘user-unfriendly’ text in the image.

I cite various fundamentals and technicals as driving forces behind significant price moves. I have done this going back to 2011 for Bitcoin and 2015 for Ethereum as well as for alt coins.

Each time Bitcoin undergoes a correction of typically -25% to -40%, investors often give up as mainstream media dogpiles onto the FUD, marking a significant floor in Bitcoin each time.

My Bitcoin metrics are currently showing diminished selling from Bitcoin F2 miners, one of the largest mining pools, as well as a slowing of Bitcoins moving onto exchanges which also suggests less selling pressure.

Both of these metrics have been largely responsible for the recent sell-off in Bitcoin. They also contributed to the selling in January when Bitcoin had a steep correction, though I cite other reasons, as shown in the annotated chart below.

Bitcoin currently has decent technical support between the 40k and 42.5k price levels. The image below shows a high concentration of bids, as noted by the lighter coloured bars.

Other factors include support from Bitcoin’s 50-dema, double Fibonaccis, and the top of the prior base, all around this 40-43k range.

The chart below shows a seven day moving average of the number of Bitcoin entering exchanges. Large inflows are bearish since a spike in Bitcoin moving onto exchanges tends to be sold but also often marks major floors in Bitcoin after the selling completes.

The supply shortage of Bitcoin has been discussed in my prior reports and is well illustrated in the image below. This is due to major institutions buying up Bitcoin including PayPal, Grayscale, and Square as well as large hedge funds and corporations.

The whale map below shows areas of accumulation or distribution by whales, typically wallets holding at last 1,000 BTC. The blue bubbles are the sum total of whale transactions. We see that whales have been accumulating Bitcoin in the mid-$40k range.

So the case seems solid that the crypto bull run is far from over. Eventually, the bubble will likely burst once again, but each time since 2011, my metrics have moved me to safety within a couple weeks or less from the peak, and sometimes nearly to the day. Stay tuned.

Dr Chris Kacher, nuclear physicist PhD turned stock+crypto trading wizard / bestselling author / blockchain fintech specialist / top 40 charted musician. Co-founder of Virtue of Selfish Investing and Hanse Digital Access.

Dr Kacher bought his first Bitcoin just over $10 in January-2013. His metrics have called every major top & bottom in Bitcoin since 2011. He was up in 2018 vs the median performing crypto hedge fund at -46% (PwC) and has since achieved returns in excess of gains in Bitcoin and Ethereum with risk spread across more than 30 top performing alt coins.

Virtue of Selfish Investing Crypto Reports

https://twitter.com/VSInvesting/ & https://twitter.com/HanseCoin

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriskacher/

PayPal Bids $500 Million to Acquire Crypto Startup Curv: Report

Payments giant PayPal is considering to acquire startup Curv, which offers secure storage for cryptocurrencies, for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Multiple anonymous sources have confirmed to Israeli media Calcalist and crypto-focused news outlet Coindesk about the possibility of the acquisition deal. However, neither PayPal nor Curv officially made any confirmation.

But, sources of the media outlets are divided on the amount which PayPal is offering the crypto startup. While one is outlining that the deal could be closed for anywhere between $200 million and $300 million, another is expecting the offer to be as high as $500 million.

“From where I’m hearing it, I’m pretty sure it’s true,” a Coindesk source said, who is expecting the payout to be $500 million.

Founded in 2018, Curv is headquartered in New York, but its research and development offices are located in Tel-Aviv. The two-year-old startup promotes its multi-party computation (MPC) security technology, which includes hot and cold wallet deployment, and keyless security infrastructure backed by a team of cryptographers and cybersecurity experts.

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The startup closed its Series A funding round last October, raising $30 million from an array of venture capitals.

PayPal’s Crypto Ambitions

PayPal’s interest in crypto startups grew with the launch of its cryptocurrency services, which allows users to buy, sell and hold Bitcoin and a few other top digital currencies. The company tapped Paxos for facilitating its crypto services.

Moreover, the payments company made an attempt to purchase crypto custodian platform BitGo earlier, but that deal did not see the light.

Meanwhile, PayPal is slowly expanding its crypto services for its international userbase and is already on track to launch the services in the United Kingdom. Apart from buying and selling services, the company plans to allow crypto payments at all its global merchant partners.