Bitcoin is moving to $36,000 on Tuesday, after falling to $33,000 on Monday, losing up to 52% from its November record. The most famous cryptocurrency had then approached 69,000 dollars.
It is “a major support test”, according to Craig Erlam, market analyst at Oanda. “The psychological shock of a loss [à] $40,000 is nothing compared to what happens if [les] 30,000 dollars fall. » In a note published Monday evening, he points out that the cryptocurrency reacts like the world markets, but in an amplified way.
An opinion shared by Alexandre Stachchenko, Blockchain and Cryptos Director at KPMG France: “Limiting liquidity will have effects on the stock market and therefore on the cryptocurrencies, which are correlated to it. » He refers to the tougher tone of the US Federal Reserve, which is considering not only the end of its support measures for the economy, but also several rate hikes. The Fed committee meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday will be decisive from this point of view.
However, he is not overly concerned: “We are looking for an explanation for the drop, so we find it, but from a fundamental point of view, there has not been much. The network is more protected than ever. » The recent setbacks of miners in Kazakhstan, including a brief Internet outage, have not greatly affected the computing power of the network, which has since risen, higher than ever.
The hardening of KYC to watch
Over time, he cares more about strengthening the customer knowledge (KYC) measures of exchanges. One of the main ones in South Korea, Coinone, has thus recently taken the decision to no longer authorize transfers to wallets that do not apply such a procedure, which therefore includes “cold wallets” (not connected to the Internet ) of the Ledger type.
This Monday, January 24 corresponded precisely to the date of implementation of this provision, reports the specialized information site The Block. According to the media, it is possible that other Korean platforms will follow suit. They would thus align themselves with the very strict policy of the government.
This news has caused a stir since it is in opposition to the original spirit of Bitcoin, which is precisely not to require this type of information. Accounts on the blockchain are pseudonymized: that is, it is possible to follow their transactions without knowing who they belong to…unless the information is revealed (or the transactions betray the person).
“Withdraw your bitcoins[s] exchanges before it’s too late!! », tweeted the journalist from Cointribune, Nicolas Teterel, in reaction to this news.
Remove your #bitcoin exchanges before it’s too late!! https://t.co/6UqovSBR98
— Nicolas 21/∞ MASS TRAINING PSYCHOSIS ???? (@NTeterel) December 31, 2021
For Alexandre Stachchenko, this tightening of the control of platform customers is a phenomenon that is likely to increase: “My conviction is that we will take the same slope as the Internet. At the beginning, everyone participated freely, then the Gafa made it a very centralized space by denying the original principles of confidentiality; the slope we are taking is that everyone is at Coinbase [une des principales plateformes mondiales, NDLR]. I am quite pessimistic. »
Transactions directly on the Bitcoin blockchain will certainly continue, according to him, but they will no longer be reserved for a few geeks. If this scenario is confirmed, the value of bitcoin would be likely to be “drastically reduced”, without however falling to zero. However, he refuses to make any predictions.
Top EU official takes aim at proof of work
To all this news, we must also add the words of Erik Thedéen, vice-president of the European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma), at the FinancialTimes, last week. Concerned about the electricity consumption required to operate proof-of-work blockchains, such as Bitcoin, and therefore their consequences on the environment, he declares: “The solution is to ban proof of work”. This idea is not new (the researcher Alex de Vries is an ardent defender), but that it is issued by a senior European finance official is a sign that it is taken seriously.
However, China already enforced measures last spring against bitcoin mining when it was the country that accounted for the majority. And if a fall in computing power was indeed observed thereafter, this did not prevent it from progressing in the medium term.