This Week in Cryptos: Bloomberg Touts Crypto Over Gold as Top asset for 2020 while Singapore KuCoin confirms hack
Key highlights that moved the crypto markets this week
Key highlights
- Bloomberg report crypto performing better than gold in 2020
- KuCoin crypto exchange hacked
- Pantera Capital’s Crypto Funds report 100 % return
- Ether Investors bought September Dip
- The Bahamas confirms the date of its Central Bank Digital Currency launch
The craze of crypto-mania surrounding the decentralized finance or as the call it DeFi has helped digital currencies become the top-performing asset, Bloomberg Intelligence reports. According to the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index of digital coins is up 66 % for 2020 outsmarting gold’s jump of more than 20% as well as returns of other assets like the global stocks, bonds, and commodities. Ethereum’s surge this year has been the key contributor for the index’s performance which accounts for more than a third of the crypto gauge’s weight.
The security and safety around crypto exchange have come under the radar once again as notorious hackers maliciously compromised the security of Singapore-headquartered digital asset exchange KuCoin. The exchange in its statement said that it detected large withdrawals of bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) tokens to an unknown wallet beginning at 19:05 UTC time on Friday. While the exchanges cold wallets were unaffected, KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu said that one or more hackers obtained the private keys to the exchange’s hot wallets. As a safety measure after the hack, KuCoin transferred what was left in them to new hot wallets, abandoned the old ones, and froze customer deposits and withdrawals, Lyu said.
The boom around DeFi and the rise of crypto markets have bought windfall gains for Pantera Capital, one of the early investors who has been bullish on the crypto space. According to the data, From Jan. 1 to Aug. 31, Pantera’s Bitcoin (BTC) fund gained 61%, its digital asset fund 168%, its initial coin offering (ICO) fund 323%, and its long-term ICO fund 270%, thanks in large part to Yearn Finance’s YFI, Terra’s LUNA, Polkadot’s DOT, Flexa’s AMP, and Ampleforth’s AMPL DeFi-related tokens, according to an investor letter sent out last week. Year-to-date, the funds have outperformed the S&P 500 stock index, as well as index and hedge funds.
Ether investors have shown their loyalty again as they have supported the coin again when there was a mild dip in September. According to the on-chain data, Ether‘s recent price drop has failed to deter investors from accumulating the cryptocurrency. While the coin suffered some sell-off in September the number of ether held by top non-exchange addresses has increased by 8% to 27.79 million from 25.54 million, as per data provided by the blockchain intelligence firm Santiment. Further data also stated that the total amount of ether held by non-exchange addresses has increased by 20% since mid-July.
While a lot of countries have spoken about Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) we haven’t seen any action from anyone. This is about to change as the Bahamas, the small island nation, on Friday tweeted that the Central Bank of the Bahamas has announced that on Oct. 20 it will begin the "gradual national release" of its consumer-facing "Sand Dollar" digital currency, perhaps the world's first retail CBDC. While it was already known that the Bahamas was eyeing a mid-October release, the Friday announcement sets a hard date for the historic event and sheds new light on the rollout.
Which crypto news had the most impact on you or your coin portfolio this week? Do let us know in the comments below.
