Cryptoassets have begun a slow march back in the last week, with both bitcoin and ether recovering small amounts of lost ground from precipitous falls in the weeks prior.
Bitcoin began the week trading above $35,000 but fell to nearly $33,000 on Monday. However, since that low point the cryptoasset has begun something of a recovery, with a major rise above $37,000 in late trading on Monday, peaking above $38,000 on Tuesday. The cryptoasset has held its value in the range of $37-38,000 since.
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Ether meanwhile had a more volatile journey through the week, reaching lows of under $2,200 on Monday before climbing to above $2,600 on Wednesday. The cryptoasset has now settled to trade in a range between $2,500 and $2,600.
Crypto lender begins accepting NFT collateral
Crypto firm Genesis has said it intends to accept non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as collateral on loans and derivative deals.
Genesis is one of the leading institutional crypto investment platforms. The firm says it already holds some “curated” NFT collateral from clients.
The firm’s head of derivatives trading at the platform said it would be taking a ‘very conservative’ approach to the use of the technology against loans.
Major financial firms using collateral as protection against loan failure is not unusual, but the introduction of the use of NFTs is a major step toward validation of the sector, which has exploded in growth in the past year.
Genesis wrote $50 billion-worth of loans in the last three months of 2021, which demonstrates the enormous potential scale for NFTs as collateral.
Belgian politician to take bitcoin salary
Belgian member of parliament Christophe De Beukelaer has said he will convert his salary to bitcoin each month.
The MP will use platform Bit4You to convert his €5,500 salary into BTC. De Beukelaer said he was following the example of the Mayor of New York in his decision to put his salary into the cryptoasset. The politician says he hopes the move will help to promote Brussels and Belgium as a European crypto hub.
De Beukelaer is the first European politician to say they want to earn their salary in cryptoassets but follows on from the likes of New York mayor Eric Adams and Miami mayor Francis X. Suarez.
De Beukelaer commented in a blog post on his website: “I am the first in Europe, but not in the world, to want to shine the spotlight on cryptocurrencies with such an approach.”
IMF continues war of words with El Salvador
The IMF has said that El Salvador’s use of bitcoin as legal tender is a threat to the nation’s stability.
The Central American nation became the first in the world to adopt bitcoin as an official currency in September last year, with the IMF a staunch critic of the move spearheaded by President Nayib Bukele.
The IMF has said there are “large risks” associated to the use of BTC for “financial stability, integrity and consumer protections.”
The organisation has urged El Salvador to narrow the scope of its project and remove the cryptoasset’s status as legal tender.
Bukele has been defiant however, with the country continuing to purchase BTC, with it recently buying 410 more tokens as prices in the wider market fell.
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