Liquidity crisis? We don’t know her.

This week: An update on the Biden administration’s approach to crypto, Altcoin season is here, and some fresh reads to get your crypto knowledge on point.

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Liquidity Crisis? We don’t know her.

Have you seen all the news about exchanges running out of BTC and ETH? CoinFlip has got you covered. The liquidity crisis afoot does not impact our business, and our ATMs are ready to get you that sweet, sweet BTC, FAST.

Find your closest CoinFlip ATM to get the crypto you need today!

Fresh Reads to get your crypto knowledge on point

How to Use a Bitcoin ATM in 8 Simple Steps: Are you ready to buy Bitcoin at an ATM but don’t know how? This article shows you how to buy cryptocurrency safely and stress-free in 8 simple steps.

How to Report Bitcoin on Your 2020 Taxes: Bitcoin investors saw impressive gains in 2020, so make sure that you declare them correctly on your taxes. Fear not, CoinFlip has all the info you need to get started in this article!

Bitcoin’s Value

It was another quiet week for week Bitcoin, while the cryptocurrency teetered between the $30k and $40k price points. Despite the slow week, Bitcoin is still up 47.2% over the last 30 days.

“If Bitcoin breaks $42k, it’s going to run to test $50k pretty quickly,” predicted Vinny Lingham, investor and founder of crypto wallet and identity verification firm Civic, in a tweet last Thursday.

On Monday, JP Morgan warned that investors might pull out if the price of BTC doesn’t reclaim its $40k highs again soon.

Grayscale is not turned off by Bitcoin’s slow week. The asset manager added 16,244 BTC ($607 million) to its balance sheet on Monday.

Altcoin Season

The real crypto news this week is all about AltCoins. Ether, the leading coin on the Ethereum blockchain, hit a new all-time high of $1,439.33 on Tuesday for the first time since 2018. Some are predicting that Ether’s price will continue to increase as demand increases and ETH supply decreases. One analyst predicts ETH will reach $3k in the coming weeks.

Chainlink also hit a new ATH this week, at $23.68 on Monday. Since then, however, LINK has dropped to around $20. Are you looking to brush up on your LINK knowledge? I’ve got you covered here.

Binance completed its most extensive coin burn ever, burning $166 million worth of BNB. Curious how BNB burns work? I’ve explained it all in this article.

Are you looking to get in on altcoin season? CoinFlip has you covered.

Find your closest CoinFlip ATM here.

The Biden Administration is Here

2021 already feels like its own lifetime, but we are just 21 days into the year. Yesterday, Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States, as well as a new Democratic-ruled Congress.

What will this mean for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies? Let’s break it down.

Janet Yellen breaks her silence on crypto

On Tuesday, at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Yellen’s Treasury Secretary nomination, she warned that cryptocurrencies are “a particular concern” for terrorist financing.

“I think many [cryptocurrencies] are used, at least in transactions sense, mainly for illicit financing, and I think we really need to examine ways in which we can curtail their use and make sure that anti-money laundering doesn’t occur through those channels,” Yellen said Tuesday.

In the past, Yellen has said that she does not want to over-regulate the crypto space, and I hope those sentiments ring true in her potential new position as Treasury Secretary. However, I’m disappointed to hear her say that crypto transactions are mainly used for illicit financing.

As Treasury Secretary, Yellen would be responsible for taking the reins on FinCEN’s controversial rule that would require exchanges to collect and store identifying information for non hosted wallets.

FinCEN’s Rule

After receiving significant criticism for appearing to rush the process during the holidays, FinCEN has extended the comment period by 60 days to their proposed rule. The rule would require crypto exchanges to record name and address info for transactions aggregating over $3,000 per person per day that go to private wallets.

Now that this regulatory task has been pushed onto the Biden Administration, it is hard to tell if anything will change.

New OCC Head Incoming

Politico has reported that Biden might select UC Irvine Professor Mehrsa Baradaran to succeed Brian Brooks as the Acting Comptroller of the Currency. This is a piece of political news that I’m actually quite excited about as a fan of Baradaran’s work. Baradaran is an expert on banking and inclusivity.

Last year, I enjoyed seeing Baradran speak at the University of Chicago’s Stigler Center. I believe she has a very realistic perspective on how traditional banking systems create inequalities in our economy.

In the past, Baradaran has testified on crypto multiple times in Congress, stating once: “The problems of low-income and underbanked customers is not that they’re unsatisfied by existing tech, the problem is they live in a banking desert … there is no place to [use a card] because banks are no longer interested in serving those customers.”

Mehrsa, if you’re listening, CoinFlip ATMs are one solution to bringing alternative financial solutions to banking deserts. We are all about serving people that are unbanked and promoting financial inclusivity in the US.

Side note: I highly recommend her book The Color of Money.

According to Politico, the alternative option for the OCC head is former Treasury Department official Michael Barr. I am less familiar with Barr, but I know that he once served on the board of Ripple Labs and played a significant role in crafting financial safeguards in the wake of the 2008 Wall Street meltdown.

What I’m Reading

Have I Already Missed My Time To Buy Bitcoin? — Bitcoin Magazine

This article breaks down the backbone of Bitcoin economics: supply and demand. The writer explains how bitcoin is designed to become increasingly scarce over time. He uses graphs and historical data to make easy to understand price predictions in the future. Spoiler alert: you have not missed your time to buy bitcoin.

I very much enjoyed the way he compared Bitcoin to other asset classes. He says, “almost every new investment is first available to the top 1 percent…Bitcoin reverses this trend. It can be acquired by anyone with an internet connection.”

And this is precisely what I love about Bitcoin.

When you’re continually being swamped with news about big names buying billions in bitcoin, it is refreshing to be reminded of Bitcoin’s raison d’être: an inclusive monetary movement for the people by the people.