Daily Crypto News 4 October
10-04-2021
El Salvador
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has announced a $0.20 per gallon decrease in gasoline costs for those who pay with the government-backed Bitcoin wallet Chivo. The discount has no limits, according to Bukele, and any local individual or business may take advantage of it. He went on to say that the reduction will cancel out "multiple rises in international gasoline prices" and "lower transportation costs in supply chains." However, some Salvadorans are skeptical that the subsidies would help the general people. Bukele also said that he has established a fund to “stabilize” the local pricing of liquefied natural gas. While the international market expects a $1.17 increase in the price of 25-pound cylinders of liquified gas, the president claims that Salvadorans would see a “slight reduction” in cost. He went on to say that the government would absorb the rise for a year, and that any decreases in worldwide gas costs would be passed on to consumers during that time.
Bitcoin
Bulls made their intentions apparent on Sunday by temporarily lifting the price of Bitcoin (BTC) above $49,000, prompting several traders on crypto Twitter to demand for the top-ranked digital asset to break through psychological barrier at $50,000. Bulls managed to soar to an intraday high of $49,242, marking a 20% recovery after trading at a low of $40,890 on Sept. 29 after trading in a range with an upper limit at $48,200 for many days. The weekend gains for Bitcoin came after a wild week in which markets struggled to find traction as intensified regulatory crackdowns in China impacted on investor mood. By the end of the week, Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, had reaffirmed that the Fed had no plans to prohibit cryptocurrencies. The bullish rise in BTC reverberated across the markets, helping to boost altcoin values, with many currencies in the top-200 seeing double-digit increases.
Tech
The performance of Algorand smart contracts has been improved. The proof-of-stake blockchain's creators issued a back-end upgrade on Wednesday to boost the computational capacity of Algorand-based apps. Newcomers will find it easy to create applications on top of the chain thanks to the Algorand Virtual Machine (AVM). Chief Product Officer Paul Riegel stated that AVM puts Algorand smart contract creation "closer to the mental model" that developers on other blockchains are used to. The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is extensively utilized, and EVM compatibility is a significant factor in gaining traction for new networks like Avalanche and others. Getting more developers to write quicker code might be critical to Algorand's success in the crowded decentralized finance (DeFi) market. According to DeFi Llama, it is the 29th biggest blockchain by total value locked, trailing Ethereum, Solana, and Tron. AVM, according to Riegel, makes it easier for smart contracts to handle escrow payments, transmit transactions, and handle trade slippage. It also improves the complicated arithmetic that underpins "complex DeFi applications," such as the authentication methods that safeguard cross-chain mechanisms, or bridges, he added.
NFT
Gary Vaynerchuk's digital scans of his hand-drawn "VeeFriends" doodles have sold for more than $90 million. But on Friday, the workaholic investor and serial entrepreneur demonstrated that paper drawings can still be valuable in the digital era, selling five of them for $1.26 million at a Christie's auction in New York, outselling Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock. Each of the five hand-drawn VeeFriends paintings went for over six figures. Empathetic Elephant, Gratitude Gorilla, "Diamond Hands" Hen, "You're Gonna Die" Fly, and Tremendous Tiger were among the “ink on paper” variants for sale. The day was won by the Emphatic Elephant, which sold for $412,500. Vaynerchuk only took a few minutes to sketch the doodle.