From a bullish Bitcoin call by BitPay’s Sonny Singh to new support for Litecoin, here’s a look at some of the stories breaking in the world of crypto.
Bitcoin
BitPay chief commercial officer Sonny Singh says he thinks Bitcoin will hit $20,000 this year – but not because of the upcoming halving.
In a new interview on BloombergTV, Singh predicts macro factors and unexpected events will propel BTC to new all-time highs.
“A year ago I was on this show at exactly the same time and I predicted, when Bitcoin was only $3,500, that it would hit close to $15,000. And it actually did, pretty much…
I think Bitcoin passes the all-time high and goes past $20,000 this year. A lot of people think it’s going to be because of the halving, and that happens in May where the [new] supply of Bitcoin will drop in half. But I think that’s already factored in a lot. Bitcoin goes up high when the unforeseen things happen. So last year, the catalyst behind that was Libra happening with Facebook. No one saw that coming and that really made it go up fast.
This year, again, things like China, Russia, India could legalize Bitcoin. Some new companies, a competitor to Facebook could get involved. The American government could do something. Something unforeseen that can happen will really move it faster.”
Singh says the fundamentals are already in place for a renewed Bitcoin bull run, citing Fidelity and Square as two institutions leading the way to new adoption.
“Fundamentally, we’ve already seen Fidelity launch their product. Square has hired five engineers on the Bitcoin side. So all these large tech companies are already getting in the space. I think you’ll start seeing those have new products coming to market too. But it’s going to be the unforseen thing, I think, which happens every year, which will really make it go up fast and far.”
XRP
Bitbox, a digital asset exchange located in Singapore, says it’s about to remove all XRP trading pairs from its platform.
According to a notice on its website, the exchange will drop XRP/BTC, XRP/ETH and XRP/USDT on January 16th.
The exchange has not released specifics on why it’s removing the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, but it does list a number of reasons why it may decide to remove a coin.
“We keep a constant watch on all coins that are being traded on BITBOX. If a coin does not meet our standards based on its performance, reliability, liquidity, or law and regulatory requirements, it will be delisted from our exchange. To protect your assets and interests, we provide sufficient notice before delisting.”
Bitbox, owned by the Japanese messaging giant Line, opened for business in July of 2018.
Litecoin and USDC
The US-based crypto lending company BlockFi says it’s adding support for Litecoin and USDC.
The assets are available on a BlockFi Interest Account (BIA), which gives investors a way to earn monthly compounding interest on their crypto.
“The initial annual percentage yield (APY) for USDC is 8.6%—and as USDC is one of the most accessible stablecoins available today, BlockFi now provides crypto investors one of the industry’s highest interest-earning opportunities on their USDC holdings.
The initial annual percentage yield for Litecoin with the BIA is 3.8%. As one of the most widely used cryptocurrencies today, BIA support for Litecoin allows more crypto investors with diverse portfolios more options to optimize and grow their holdings without having to sell.”
BlockFi also supports Bitcoin, Ethereum and Gemini Dollar.