Bitcoin (BITCOMP) performed strongly over the Christmas period, but has lost momentum around the new year. The world’s largest cryptoasset looked to be reversing losses from earlier in the month, having traded below $46,000 by 20 December. 

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BTC rose strongly in the subsequent days over Christmas, trading up to near $52,000. But it has since lost momentum and fallen below $46,000 briefly again. It is now trading just above this mark, around $46,300.

Ethereum (ETH-X) meanwhile struggled over the Christmas period, only maintaining a price above $4,000 briefly. ETH has been on a downward trend all of the last month and since the beginning of the new year has only briefly managed to trade above $3,800. The cryptoasset is currently trading around $3,700.

El Salvador President makes bitcoin predictions

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Forthright pro-bitcoin president of El Salvador Nayib Bukele has made a series of predictions for the cryptoasset in 2022. 

Bukele believes BTC will hit $100,000 per token in value in the next year, which would be a major price rally akin to that which began in July last year. 

He also predicted that two more countries would follow El Salvador’s lead in adopting bitcoin as legal tender.

El Salvador is currently the only country in the world where BTC is an official legal tender, although in many others it is now an accepted form of transaction, if not officially sanctioned.

The Central American nation made bitcoin an official currency in September last year. Other Central American nations and countries such as Ukraine will no doubt continue to watch Bukele’s project with interest. 

Bukele also said in his predictions that BTC would become a “major electoral issue” in the US this year, and that El Salvador’s so-called “Volcano bonds” would become over-subscribed.

Finally, he also said there would be a “huge surprise” at The Bitcoin Conference, which is set to take place between April 6th and 9th.  Bukele has been announced as one of the speakers already, however. 

Bitcoin hits hash rate all-time high

Bitcoin’s hash rate hit an all-time high of 207.53 exahashes per second (EH/s). 

The new record arrived on Saturday (1 January) just ahead of the cryptoasset’s 13th birthday. 

BTC’s hash rate corresponds with the strength of the network and the number of active miners. The record hash rate is a positive sign for its development after numbers plummeted in the wake of the blanket ban in China.

However, with many miners moving to more open territories and new operations setting up the hash rate appears to have bounced back strongly since the end of June last year. 

Square Enix to move into NFTs

Major video games publisher Square Enix says it has big plans for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain gaming.

In his New Year’s letter president of the firm Yosuke Matsuda said the firm could be set to issue its own NFTs, and its plans for the metaverse. 

However, Matsuda issued a note of caution on NFTs despite his apparent enthusiasm for the technology, saying: “We do observe examples here and there of overheated trading in NFT-based digital goods with somewhat speculative overtones, regardless of the observed value of the content provided. 

“This, obviously, is not an ideal situation, but I expect to see an eventual right-sizing in digital goods deals as they become more commonplace among the general public, with the value of each available content corrected to their true estimated worth, and I look for them to become as familiar as dealings in physical goods.”

On blockchain gaming Matsuda said he saw many people cold at the idea of “play to earn” when the main focus of gaming is fun, but he added that “play to contribute” could be a valuable middle ground for the firm instead.  

He added that advances in “tokenomics” will play a big part in how gamers interact with blockchain gaming, creating self-sustaining participation and contributions to projects.