50 Keywords Influencing the Cryptocurrency Industry in 2020
2020 is coming to an end. This year, the global situation has fluctuated and Corona 19 is sweeping the world. The blockchain and crypto industry experienced fears of’Black Thursday’, and as bitcoin recorded the reported price, the market was also energized, and the madness of DeFi and the greed of institutional capital were witnessed. Chinese cryptocurrency media Bitpush has looked at events large and small in the past year and summarized the most prominent keywords in the blockchain and crypto industry into 50. #Global Environment 1. Corona 19 Corona 19 is the’Black Swan’ incident in 2020. It has had a profound impact on the lives of 7.8 billion people around the world and has transformed all countries and industries. However, for the crypto and blockchain industry, this is a golden opportunity. Digital currency and payment systems are accelerating development, and blockchain technology is becoming more widely used. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have become the best option to hedge against fiat currency inflation. 2. Black Thursday As the global asset market collapsed on March 12, crypto assets also did not survive. Bitcoin, the most valuable cryptocurrency in the marketplace, plummeted to almost half the price, and people rethinked about the connectivity between cryptocurrency assets and traditional assets. Fortunately, there is still a strong correlation with traditional assets, but we are happy that crypto assets have recovered quickly. 3. Negative oil prices Early on the morning of April 21, the May delivery price of US WTI crude oil futures fell to -37.63 dollars. As the fluctuations in crude oil prices have grown so large, even those who have argued that the fluctuations in cryptocurrency prices are too large have nothing to say. In fact, for most of 2020, the price fluctuation of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin was not large, and the maturity of cryptographic assets became visible to the naked eye. 4. US-China relations The geopolitical situation has always been a special area of interest in the crypto industry and cryptocurrency market. Amid the deteriorating relationship between the United States and Iran earlier this year, the fight between the United States and China also affected the crypto industry. When geopolitical relations are tense, from signing the first stage of trade negotiations to closing each other’s consulates, cryptographic assets will play a role as a king’s’hedging asset’. 5. Brexit Brexit in the UK has a far greater impact on the cryptocurrency market due to the uncertainty brought about encryption and digital regulation. This may lead some investors to convert fiat assets into cryptocurrency, but the greater impact on the cryptocurrency industry is that some companies currently based in the UK are moving to other countries in Europe to avoid regulatory uncertainty. will be. 6. US Presidential Election In the second half of this year, the industry made countless inferences about the outcome of the US presidential election, but it turned out that no matter who was elected, the trend of the crypto industry and the market could not change. The outstanding performance of the U.S. stock market under Trump’s dominance is also helping the crypto market, and Biden will also benefit the crypto industry because it can bring some certainty to regulation. #Bitcoin and institutions 1. Half-life With the US presidential election, Bitcoin block rewards are halved every four years. The half-life, as scheduled in May, initially affected the trend of the entire cryptocurrency market, like a blunt knife. Bitcoin price didn’t skyrocket immediately that month, but the bull market in the second half of the year confirms that there was a drop in supply due to the halving of Bitcoin’s third block reward. 2. Digital Gold In a report released after Bitcoin’s half-life, Bloomberg noted that 2020 is a key year for Bitcoin’s transition to digital gold. Despite the spread of Corona 19 around the world this year and the economy suffered, Bitcoin came up with a fairly good answer. When the traditional asset market collapsed in the first half of the year, it did not make a leap, but with Bitcoin’s outstanding performance in the second half, investors are cheering that’digital gold’ is replacing’real gold’. 3. $10,000 The fierce price range between long and short in 2020 was $10,000. Prior to September, $10,000 was Bitcoin’s most important level of technical and psychological resistance. Bitcoin has been trying to break through this price level for more than half a year, and after more than 10 attempts, it finally made a breakthrough and entered the bull market. 4. Historical report on December 1st, Bitcoin finally broke through the previous highs it achieved on December 17th, 2017, followed by breaking $20,000 and breaking new highs several times. This is an event that marks a milestone in this year’s cryptocurrency bull market, symbolizes the maturity of Bitcoin, and can be accepted as the recognition of crypto assets by the mainstream society. 5. Mainstream recognition of institutional cryptographic assets emerged as an inflow of institutional funds. Industry insiders believe that if the 2017 cryptocurrency bull market was driven by individual investors and the ICO boom, the 2020 bull market will be reasonable and sustainable. The driving force is believed to be the need for institutions to hedge against inflation and the devaluation of the statutory currency. 6. If you want to be good at grayscale work, you need to trim the tools first. Institutional funds do not choose cryptocurrency exchanges that may face risks such as security, regulation, etc. Regulated Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust Fund and Ethereum Trust Fund provide institutions with the least risky bitcoin investments. Billions of dollars in flow this year is the best recognition for Grayscale’s crypto investment vehicle. 7. MicroStrategy MicroStrategy represents Wall Street’s’smart money’. In the second half of this year, the company announced that it had invested $425 million in Bitcoin and achieved a 50% liquid profit in three months. This is the best guarantee for Bitcoin and crypto assets. MicroStrategy hasn’t stopped investing in bitcoin since the bitcoin price hit an all-time high in December. The company issues $650 million worth of convertible bonds and continues to expand its Bitcoin position. 8. Unlike Square MicroStrategy, Square has always been deeply involved in the cryptocurrency industry. The company’s Cash App provides investors with a convenient way to invest in cryptocurrency. In the second half of this year, Square announced that it would invest $50 million in Bitcoin. In addition, Square established the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance, which aims to increase access to cryptographic technologies by creating a joint patent library. 9. PayPal PayPal’s participation has been an important step forward in bringing cryptocurrency mainstream this year. Currently, PayPal’s platform allows cryptocurrency transactions only to US users, but it has already demonstrated tremendous purchasing power. Once PayPal’s billions of users and 28 million merchants around the world support cryptocurrency payments, unimaginable things will happen to the cryptocurrency industry. #Central Bank Digital Currency 1. CBDC As Corona 19 spreads around the world, leading to a decrease in bill usage and an increase in digital payments, central banks in each country began to study digital payment systems and central bank digital currency (CBDC) in earnest. Among them, the digital renminbi of the People’s Bank of China has taken the lead, and the digital dollar and digital euro of the US and the European Union are also at an important stage. 2. Digital yuan Digital yuan, the digital currency of China’s central bank, seems to be developing every day in 2020. From closed tests to pilot tests, digital renminbi wallets and digital renminbi Hongbao, China’s digital renminbi is moving step by step into large-scale applications, which sparked competition for central banks’ digital currency development worldwide. 3. Digital Dollar The US believes that the’digital renminbi’ developed by China will pose a huge threat to the US dollar hegemony, and discussions about the digital dollar in the US this year have also heated up. Several hearings in the US Congress have been linked to the digital dollar, and the Federal Reserve has said it is conducting research. 4. The digital euro The digital euro is also one of the European central bank’s priorities this year. European Central Bank Governor Lagard said the digital euro will become a symbol of the ongoing European integration process and will ultimately help to unify Europe’s digital economy. Although the final decision on whether to issue digital euros has not yet been made, conditions are ripening in many respects and preparations for the release of digital euros are underway. #Project 1.Diem In 2020, Libra strives to keep people unforgettable (released the Libra 2.0 white paper), while making efforts to make people forget themselves (abandon Libra and rename it Diem). ) At the same time. To gain regulatory approval, Diem abandoned its original multi-currency supported stablecoin plan and changed its strategy to a single currency stablecoin. It is expected that next year, a new USD stablecoin Diem will be released. 2. USDT, the largest stablecoin based on the USDT market capitalization, issued an additional $16 billion this year, which is four times the amount of $4 billion at the beginning of the year, increasing to $20 billion at the end of the year. There is no doubt about the importance of USDT stablecoins in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, but it will have to overcome doubts about whether they actually hold dollar assets as much as the USDT they issued, and the issue that regulators can withdraw at any time. 3. Ethereum 2.0 The release of the Ethereum 2.0 mainnet and beaconchain may be one of the most important advances in the technology field of the crypto industry in 2020. This is because Ethereum, the second largest blockchain network, has finally taken the first step toward the development of a proof-of-stake (PoS) network. The future of Ethereum 2.0 will be bright if the problem of Ethereum network congestion and high fees can be solved within a few years as planned. 4. Filecoin Filecoin is another project that was finally released this year after delaying the mainnet launch several times. Filecoin, the incentive layer of IPFS, aims to solve the IPFS problem through its own blockchain and economic model. The Filecoin blockchain itself is not suitable for storing large amounts of data. However, if IPFS and Filecoin can provide a storage method that enables long-term storage, low cost, excellent security and strong personal information protection at the same time, it will become an important infrastructure of the blockchain. 5. BSN In April, China-led Blockchain Service Network (BSN) was officially launched. BSN aims to solve the problem that blockchain’s high learning cost, long development cycle, high application distribution cost, and various basic app data cannot be used with each other. As part of China’s’New Infrastructure’, BSN intends to serve as a blockchain infrastructure that fosters numerous application innovations on top of it. 6. Polkadot Polkadot, also known as’Ethereum Killer’, is another project launched in 2020. The polka dot ecosystem has created a consensus in the crypto industry, and on the other hand, the development of the polka dot parachain is also in full swing. The market value of DOT in the cryptocurrency market also entered the top 10 this year. 7. Chainlink Chainlink, the leader of the Oracle project, has achieved remarkable achievements this year. In particular, with the development of DeFi this summer, Oracle has become an integral part of the entire ecosystem. In 2020, Chainlink has cooperated with various projects and companies inside and outside the industry to provide Oracle services, and the market value of token LINK is also expected to rank in the top 10. 8. JP Morgan JP Morgan represents the attitude of Wall Street banks to the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry. In a report released earlier this year, JPMorgan did not recommend investors to invest in cryptocurrency, but they are actively embracing blockchain technology. After selling the blockchain platform Quorum to ConsenSys, JPMorgan established its own blockchain department, Onyx, and actively promoted the application of its own digital currency JPM Coin. 9. Visa In 2020, the bank card conglomerate Visa launched an encrypted bank card in collaboration with several crypto companies, which accelerated the spread of cryptocurrencies. In addition, Visa applied for a patent for a digital currency, began to integrate USDC stablecoin into the platform in cooperation with Circle, and started to support USDC payments to a network of 60 million global affiliates. 10. Coinbase There were rumors that Coinbase, a major cryptocurrency exchange, will be listed on the NASDAQ in the middle of this year, and this news was confirmed in December. If Coinbase succeeds in entering the NASDAQ, Coinbase will become the first major cryptocurrency exchange to be listed on the first NASDAQ, and this will also be a sign of cryptocurrency entering the mainstream society. In addition, Coinbase’s institution-oriented consignment business is growing this year, and MicroStrategy made a purchase of $425 million of bitcoin through Coinbase. #DeFi 1. DeFi Boom In the summer of 2020, what was hotter than the weather was the DeFi boom in the cryptocurrency industry. The various DeFi projects reproduced various parts of the traditional financial system on the blockchain as an ant moves, and showed amazing potential. In just one year, the total value of assets locked up in DeFi rose from $675 million to about $15 billion, growing 20 times as much. 2. Liquidity mining Liquidity mining is the essence of the DeFi boom this summer. A lot of funding came in, and every week, even every day, a new project launched an economic model of liquidity mining. As a result, some projects, such as Yearn Finance and Harvest Finance, have gained explosive popularity, but as the DeFi craze subsides after September, the sustainability of these projects still needs to be verified. 3. The compound lending protocol has always been the most popular application in the field of DeFi, and Compound’s launch of the governance token COMP in mid-June this year was the driving force behind this sector. The total value of assets locked up in lending protocols such as Maker and Aave has maintained a high level. In particular, thanks to the soaring price of COMP, the DeFi project appeared one after another and a large inflow of funds occurred. 4. Yam Yam showed the madness of the DeFi craze just a week after its launch, which gave a worrisome cross section of the DeFi boom. Because no code audits were done for the project’s bugs, Yam discovered the problem immediately after a surge in the initial release. Despite 24 hours of hard work, the bugs weren’t fixed, and Yum became a teacher, while revealing that problems could appear at any time in an unfinished DeFi project. 5. YFI YFI (Yearn Finance) was one of the most popular DeFi projects this year, and after September the DeFi fever subsided, it is still pursuing development. The YFI token price once exceeded $40,000, which was four times the price of Bitcoin. YFI’s founder Andre Cronje has become a celebrity in the field of DeFi and continues to use his influence to launch new DeFi projects. 6. Swap SushiSwap and anonymous founder Chef Nomi sparked a debate over how the’centralized’ DeFi project would be decentralized. After the launch of Swap, a security issue and suspicion of fraud were raised, and it was discovered by community members that Chef Nomi turned coins into cash. Eventually, the founder of the Swap project handed over all authority to FTX. 7. Uniswap decentralized exchange, DEX, did not miss the DeFi boom. DEX’s leader, Uniswap, dominated DEX’s market share to a large extent. Uniswap became the biggest beneficiary of the DeFi boom this summer because it offers the widest range of assets and the listing process without the need for approval. 8. NFT After the DeFi boom, NFT is considered to be the most likely to become a new hotspot in the industry. In 2020, many digital artworks and encrypted collectibles are sold at high prices, and more and more digital artists are entering the field. Currently, NFT-related projects are warming up enough, and 2021 is likely to be the hottest project in the industry. #Regulations and Events 1. Russia This year, Russia has made significant progress in the area of crypto asset regulation. From 2021, Russians can trade using digital financial assets, but payments using cryptocurrency are still not possible. In addition, Russia plans to require cryptocurrency miners to report mining data, cryptocurrency traders to report taxes on cryptocurrency assets, while government officials are required to report cryptocurrency assets. In addition, Russia is expected to use the blockchain for regional voting. 2. The US Treasury Department’s Currency Supervisory Service (OCC), led by former Coinbase Exchange executive Brian Brooks, is committed to providing an excellent business environment for cryptocurrency companies. The draft regulatory draft is aimed at allowing cryptocurrency companies to access more banking services as long as they are not involved in certain risks. 3. US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) This year, the SEC has stepped up a follow-up investigation into ICOs that are considered undocumented securities. In the past 11 months, the SEC has collected more than $46.8 billion in illegal revenue and fines alone, of which more than a quarter has come from Telegram’s sale of Gram tokens. In terms of ICO funds alone, $1.26 billion was transferred to the SEC. 4. Telegram On May 13, Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced through an official Telegram channel that the blockchain project, TON, was officially closed due to regulatory agency’s deterrence. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission prosecuted Telegram last year and stopped the sale of TON tokens to U.S. investors. 5. BitMEX In 2020, the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX is also subject to large regulations. On October 1, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) determined that BitMEX was illegally operating a cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform and violated anti-money laundering regulations, and BitMEX Exchange CEO Arthur Hayes They filed a lawsuit against the executive. This incident once had a huge impact on the cryptocurrency market. 6. Craig Wright Another thrilling drama of 2020 is the multi-billion dollar bitcoin inheritance debate between Craig Wright and Ira Kleiman. The Tulip Trust, mentioned by Craig Wright, has expired this year, but if you put together the evidence, he has not been able to bring real evidence to court. Currently, the case has been postponed to 2021. 7. Flashron Flashron attacks are becoming the most feared killer for the DeFi project. In 2020, bZx, Balancer, Harvest Finance, Value, Cheese Bank, OUSD and many other projects were attacked by Flashron, causing losses of tens of millions of dollars. . This is a reminder of how important security issues are to the DeFi protocol, and shows that security is a top priority for DeFi as more and more funds are flowing into DeFi. 8. Twitter is attacked On July 16, social media Twitter was attacked. As cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase, Gemini, and Binance and Twitter accounts of celebrities such as Buffett, Obama, Biden, and Jeff Bezos were robbed, “Bitcoin Scam” information was distributed at once will be. This has raised concerns about the security of centralized platforms inside and outside social media. 9. OKEx Withdrawal Suspension On October 16, OKEx, a Chinese cryptocurrency exchange, withdraws because a senior executive in charge of the private key is cooperating with the investigation by the public security agency. Announced that it will be suspended. This incident gave a temporary shock to the cryptocurrency market. Although OKX resumed withdrawal on November 27, a large amount of bitcoin flowed into competitors such as Binance, which had an irreversible impact on the exchange. 10. PlusToken Fraud The PlusToken incident, the largest fraud in the cryptocurrency industry, which began in 2019, inflicted at least $3 billion in losses to investors. In September this year, six core members were prosecuted by the Chinese prosecution. In the second half of this year, 27 major criminal suspects and 82 key members were all arrested and brought to trial. According to the criminal judgment of the Yancheng Intermediate Court in November, all digital currencies confiscated were converted into cash and returned to local government treasury in accordance with Chinese laws. 11. Bitmain The fight between Jihan Wu and Jan Ketuan, the founder of Bitmain, a mining giant, continued throughout the year. Both sides attacked each other by using the Bitmain communication channel under their control, and legal disputes over the change of corporate representatives and resolutions at the general shareholders’ meeting were also fought. Reports came out last week that the two sides reached an agreement, but it is clear that it has affected Bitmain’s competitiveness. On the one hand, Yibang Global and Kanaan, the big three of the mining industry, have been listed on NASDAQ, and Shenma is still pursuing Bitmain. Even if it divides the material through the shareholders’ meeting on December 28th, it seems that Bitmain should quickly restore the situation. #Celebrity 1. Paul Tudor Jones The 2020 cryptocurrency evangelists are no longer just insiders. Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones recently became a believer, and he not only announced that he had invested in Bitcoin, but encouraged everyone to add Bitcoin to his portfolio. As a Wall Street investor and macro investor whale, his testimony has made more investors believe in the value of Bitcoin. 2. Joanne Rolling The frequent mention of Bitcoin outside the industry this year is an important sign that crypto assets are becoming mainstream. Many people in the entertainment industry are either expressing interest in crypto assets or are already investing in Bitcoin. The most influential person is undoubtedly Harry Potter’s author Joanne Rowling. She tweeted about the situation in Bitcoin on May 16, and Vitalik, Brian Armstrong and Elon Musk also responded to his tweet.