Bitcoin Turns South Towards $20K, Huobi Cuts Ties With HUSD Stablecoin
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Price point
Bitcoin (BTC) has erased gains from the previous day but remained above $20,000 on Friday. The cryptocurrency is up 5% on the week after hitting as high as $21,000 on Wednesday.
Popular meme token dogecoin continued its rally on Friday, up 7% a day after Tesla ( TSLA ) CEO and DOGE supporter Elon Musk completed his $44 billion takeover of Twitter ( TWTR ) . Crypto exchange Binance also confirmed on Friday that it was as an equity investor in Musk’s acquisition.
Dogecoin has gained 33% in the past seven days, making it the top crypto asset with a market cap of more than $1 billion.
Ether (ETH) was down 3.5% on the day to around $1,500.
Crypto exchange Huobi Global announced on Thursday that it will cut ties with its closely related stablecoin, the troubled asset HUSD. In a message to users, Huobi, the top trading venue for the $219 million market capitalization stablecoin, cited the rules to conduct “regular inspection” of listed assets. In August, stablecoin lost the dollar party shortly and crashed 8% after the issuer closed “several accounts” due to regulatory concerns.
Stablecoin HUSD was down 8% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The price of Huobi Token (HT), an ecosystem token launched by Huobi Global, was also down 7% on the day.
In traditional markets, stocks fell along with US stock futures after some disappointing earnings results from tech giants. Nasdaq-100 futures led the way down 1.1%, and S&P 500 futures fell 0.6%. Amazon’s ( AMZN ) shares fell 13% in premarket trading. Late Thursday, the company gave a sales forecast for the fourth quarter below analysts’ expectations.
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Today’s chart
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The chart shows changes in ether and bitcoin’s annual issuance rate since the Ethereum blockchain switched to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism on September 15.
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The annual issue continues to slide towards 0.0%. Since the technological upgrade, ether’s annual token supply change has decreased from 3.6% to 0.009%, making it more attractive than bitcoin.
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Therefore, ether may continue to outperform bitcoin.
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“Any increase in on-chain activity should bring ethereum well into deflationary issuance territory and could have a significantly outsized effect on ether’s price,” said Josh Olszewicz, head of research at digital-asset fund manager Valkyrie Investments.
