Bitcoin (BTC) is on a tear and continues to break new yearly highs. In the past 24 hours, the cryptocurrency has hit a high of $18,376.51. At the time of writing this article, Bitcoin was trading at $17,955.73, reflecting a gain of 1.5% in 24hours. Ether (ETH) has lost 1.3% to trade at $479.36. XRP has lost 3% to trade at $0.2934.
Other major altcoins, which have rallied in the past 24 hours are Tether (USDT-$1, 0.1%), Litecoin (LTC-$74.26, 0.5%), Huobi (HT-$3.81, 3%), Stellar (XLM-$0.0834, -2.9%) and OKB (OKB-$4.63, -0.5%).
Major altcoins which have lost value in the past 24 hours include ChainLink (LINK-$13.42, -3%), Dash (DASH-$80.05, -2.6%), Tezos (XTZ-$2.08, -3.5%), Cosmos (ATOM, $5.13, -2.1%), Bitcoin Cash (BCH-$248.02, -2.7%), Binance Coin (BNB-$28, -1.6%), Polkadot (DOT-$4.73, -1.5%), Cardano (ADA-$0.1066, -2.8%), Bitcoin SV (BSV-$161.91, -3.5%), EOS (EOS-$2.62, -2.7%), Monero (XMR-$122.31, -0.3%), IOTA (IOTA-$0.2564, -3.1%) and Tron (TRX-$0.0264, -0.2%).
Government level initiatives
Bank of Iwate developing IBM’s My Number Cards
The Bank of Iwate has stated that it is in the process of developing IBM’s Blockchain platform for electronic contract verification utilizing My Number Cards. Launched five years ago, My Number card is Japan’s social security and taxation ID card.
The card stores the user name, date of birth, address, sex, and number allotted to the individual. Iwate Bank binds the My Number card with blockchain technology to digital ink agreements, with corporate deals being the initial target. The system does not have a need to manage digital certificates or IC cards, the pre-paid smart cards frequently utilized for buses and rail.
Other than being tamper-proof, blockchain facilitates the control of data, while automating business processes. Both firms have welcomed companies and banks to join hands with them. The trial is expected to begin in April 2021 and end in September 2021.
Private sector initiatives
Chainlink backs project by Etherisc and ACRE Africa
Blockchain-focused firm Chainlink is backing a project established under a partnership between ACRE Africa, a microinsurance issuer focused on Africa, and Etherisc, a decentralized insurance protocol. The low-cost insurance venture is supported by the Chainlink Community Grant.
The venture intends to create an insurance platform on the blockchain which will offer cost-effective coverage for the roughly 250,000 small-scale agriculturists in Kenya. The country’s farmers are anticipated to be severely affected by climate change in the next three years.
The intended platform will also offer insurance cover with payment installments beginning with only the equivalent of $0.50 in domestic currency. The funding will be used to complete several aspects of the project, including the creation of smart contracts, developing a simple user interface for farmers to interact, and the incorporation of local payment modes.
Furthermore, a portion of the funding will be used for supporting studies associated with the economics of insurance for agricultural crops in several African countries, with the objective of identifying sustainable coverage plans for both farmers and insurers.
The CEO of ACRE Africa, George Kuria, spoke highly of the award while explaining the benefits of the partnership: “We’re excited to be able to further our work with farmers in East Africa by receiving support through the Chainlink Community grant to help build out and implement a more reliable and cost-effective model for crop insurance with the collaboration of Etherisc.”
Galaxy Digital partners with CI Global Asset Management
Galaxy Digital, a cryptocurrency-focused merchant bank established by Mike Novogratz, is expanding its operations in Canada through a partnership with CI Global Asset Management (GAM), a Canadian investment company.
Under the partnership, Galaxy Digital will set up a public Bitcoin (BTC) fund in Canada. The closed-end investment fund intends to offer unit-holders exposure to Bitcoin. The fund will invest directly in Bitcoin using Bloomberg’s Galaxy Bitcoin Index as a reference.
As a portion of the latest initiative, CI GAM has applied and received approval for offering Class A and Class F units priced at $10 each. Galaxy Digital will function as a sub-advisor, while CI GAM will act as administrator of the Bitcoin fund.
Miscellaneous
Bitcoin market cap surpasses $330 billion
Bitcoin’s market cap crossed $330 billion for the first time as prices breached the $17,750 level. The earlier peak market cap of Bitcoin (BTC) of $329.30 billion was recorded on December 16th, 2017, when Bitcoin hit a high of $20,000.
Before the price crossed the earlier all-time high, Bitcoin’s market cap hit a record high as the total quantity of Bitcoins available has been increasing in the form of block rewards. On December 16th, 2017, there were nearly 16.746 million Bitcoins. Since then, 1.80 million Bitcoins have been mined, reflecting a 10.75% increase in overall supply.
For the first time since February 2018, the aggregate market cap of all cryptos has increased more than $500 billion. As per World Bank, Bitcoin’s market cap has surpassed that of all publicly traded companies in Belgium, Iran, Norway, Sweden, and the Philippines combined. Likewise, Bitcoin’s market cap is double the market cap of publicly listed enterprises in Denmark, Qatar, Vietnam, Colombia, and Poland put together.
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