The United States is losing the "technological cold war" to China due to its tough regulatory approach to blockchain and cryptocurrency-related companies, a senior executive at Ripple believes. In an opinion article for The Hill on Aug. 21, Chris Larsen, co-founder and chairman at major crypto payments firm Ripple, said that China’s digital currency leadership is a “once-in-a-century opportunity” to replace the U.S. dollar with the digital yuan as the world’s reserve currency. Larsen set out the main reasons for China winning the U.S. in the ongoing technological struggle. Namely, China has “already achieved near universal use of digital payments” …

On Aug 21, Bitcoin (BTC) price declined by more than 3% from around $11,880 to $11,511 on Coinbase. Coincidentally, the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) started to rebound from its 4-month downturn. BTC/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView.com As the dollar increased by 1.3% from $92.28 to $93.20, Bitcoin, major cryptocurrencies, and gold fell in tandem. The seemingly inverse correlation between the dollar and Bitcoin might indicate that the weakening dollar partially catalyzed BTC’s recent rally. Will a strong dollar rally reverse Bitcoin’s momentum? Since the major Black Thursday Bitcoin correction, analysts have attributed the current BTC rally to the fading dollar. …

The Neutrino protocol, a price-stable multi-asset protocol running on major blockchain platform Waves, is introducing the Neutrino dollar (USDN) on Ethereum. The Neutrino dollar, an algorithmic stablecoin collateralized by the Waves (WAVES) native token, is now available for all Ethereum users as the token has been ported to the Ethereum blockchain, Waves announced on Aug. 18. With the porting, Neutrino USD becomes accessible on Ethereum, enabling Ethereum users to stake rewards by just holding USDN in their Ethereum wallets, Waves CEO and founder Alexander Ivanov told Cointelegraph. The new integration also allows Ethereum developers to use USDN in their decentralized …

Gemini, a major cryptocurrency exchange founded by the Winklevoss brothers, has just added support for three new fiat currencies on its platform. According to an official announcement on Aug. 17, Gemini now allows users to trade in the Hong Kong dollar (HKD), the Australian dollar (AUD), and the Canadian dollar (CAD). The three new fiat currencies come in addition to the United States dollar, allowing Gemini users in Hong Kong, Australia, and Canada to buy and sell crypto with native currencies. However, HKD, AUD, and CAD are currently not offered through Gemini’s crypto trading platform known as the Active Trader …

The United States dollar index is currently testing the bottom of a 12-year trendline. But some traders are calling it the “most pivotal moment” for the global reserve currency since 2008, as they believe that continuous depreciation will likely boost the price of Bitcoin (BTC). For over three months since April, the dollar has declined against other reserve currencies. Some investors believe that the fall in the value of the dollar has affected the price of Bitcoin. Prominent cryptocurrency trader Scott Melker said: “This is arguably the most pivotal moment we have seen for the United States Dollar since it …

Cryptocurrency advocates have long been keen to point to the weaknesses of fiat currency. Now an uncertain world rocked by a global health crisis and geopolitical flare-ups is bringing them into dialogue with the mainstream more than ever. In a tweet thread published on Aug. 3, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse engaged with a recent article in Bloomberg, which had surveyed the gamut of potential alternatives to the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The article spanned gold, several major fiat currencies — the yen, yuan and euro — the Special Drawing Rights issued by the IMF, and ended with cryptocurrencies. …

A Bloomberg article claims that Americans are foregoing the safety of the dollar for more speculative assets like stocks, gold, and Bitcoin (BTC). High saving rates, low yields Because of the COVID-19 lockdown, the personal savings rate in the U.S. is at a historic high. The yield offered by the financial institutions on savings accounts, however, is close to zero. At the same time, assets as Bitcoin, equities, and gold, all have made double-digit gains since March. This is making them an attractive option for investors. Source: Bloomberg. The article mentions a 28 year-old Californian, who told the reporter that …

Since Black Thursday, Bitcoin (BTC) has become a better hedge against the U.S. dollar than gold. At the same time, its correlation with the S&P 500 Index reached unprecedented highs. Correlations chart. Source: Coinmetrics. Diverging paths after Black Thursday Since the disintegration of the Bretton Woods system in 1971, investors have looked to gold as a hedge against fiat. Gold has consistently exhibited a negative correlation with the dollar with some very rare exceptions, while Bitcoin and the dollar have been uncorrelated with each other until recently. U.S. Dollar Index (DXY). Source: Trading Economics. However, starting from the Black Thursday …

Ray Dalio, the billionaire hedge fund manager and founder and chief investment officer of Bridgewater Associates, believes capital markets are no longer free. Speaking to Bloomberg, Dalio said markets have changed a lot so central banks like the Federal Reserve no longer act within the confines of the traditional economic system. “There are markets that are driven by central banks not only their actions but their desire to be an owner of those assets. Their priorities about that ownership when they buy and when they sell are not the same as the classic free-market allocations. And as a result, the …

USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin project founded by Coinbase and Circle, has hit a major milestone in market capitalization. On July 3, 2020, USDC market cap broke the $1 billion threshold for the first time since the stablecoin was launched in October 2018. According to data from Coin360, the coin has seen sharp growth since March 2020. USDC, the second-largest USD-pegged stablecoin after Tether (USDT), is ranked the 17th largest cryptocurrency by market cap as of press time. USD Coin all-time chart. Source: Coin360 Announcing the news on Thursday, the Centre Consortium — an organization co-founded by Circle and Coinbase …

Parker Lewis, Unchained Capital's head of business development, said he sees recent government stimulus talk as a sign that it’s time to pick up more Bitcoin (BTC). "Every time that I hear a new trillion-dollar stimulus will be announced, I immediately buy Bitcoin," Lewis told Morgan Creek Digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano in a June 26 interview. "That's my new trigger and I seemingly get to buy Bitcoin every week." The U.S. government keeps spending After coronavirus took center stage as a pandemic in March 2020, the U.S. government took numerous measures to stop viral spread, including shelter-in-place orders and business …

In advance of its coming annual report, on June 24 the Bank for International Settlements released a special chapter from that report on digital payments — especially central bank digital currencies, a topic that’s attracted tremendous interest in recent months. The report encourages central banks to treat CBDCs as their future, saying: “One option at the frontier of policy opportunities is the issuance of CBDCs, which could amount to a sea change.” A recent shift in favor of CBDCs The BIS found that there had been a major bullish shift in sentiment for CBDCs since the beginning of this year …