As we’ve all seen over the past month or two, bitcoin has completely revamped itself and is now trading for well above the $10,000 range. Many people attribute this spike to many things, but one individual believes hype surrounding Libra has a lot to do with bitcoin’s recent good fortune.
Libra Could Be Behind Bitcoin’s Sudden Surge
To be completely fair, it’s not necessarily Libra itself, but rather words regarding Libra that have led to bitcoin’s growth. Vijay Ayyar – head of business development at the popular crypto trading platform Luno – points to recent verbiage from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that hinted at the stamina and properties of cryptocurrencies.
Particularly, Powell refers to Libra as a “wake-up call” that the United States is not where it needs to be when it comes to crypto regulation. He also says that a national digital currency should (and could) come “fairly quickly,” and that working on such a project would do wonders for the infrastructure of the United States.
Libra has been controversial since the day it was first announced in June of 2019. While many regulators are unsure of what to make of it, they’ve all expressed skepticism that a financial project of this breadth and scope is potentially being released by a company – Facebook – that has been wrought with scandal and other problems for so long.
But one thing that many regulators can seem to agree on is that the United States is behind when it comes to monitoring and governing cryptocurrency trades and activities. Libra was the kick in the pants it needed, and now, the country is building up its blockchain reserves and ready to spend billions to counter the activities of big-time competitors like China, which says it’s on the verge of releasing a digital version of its national fiat currency the yuan.
China has long been a haven for crypto and blockchain action, but its latest idea of releasing a national, digital version of the yuan is both prominent and controversial. On the one hand, China is likely one of the first countries instigating what will probably become something that every country will seek to do in the future. The future of money arguably lies in the digital sector, which means most countries will seek to produce electronic versions of their national currencies.
At the same time, many are concerned that China will potentially use this new digital yuan as a way of spying on its people’s spending habits. It’s a clear invasion of privacy, which is not only dangerous for everyday users, but goes against the central notions of crypto.
Time to Gear Up!
Nevertheless, the United States seems a little worried about the project and doesn’t want to fall behind.
At press time, bitcoin is trading for just shy of $10,400.