While the market is pretty calm for now there are still big news to talk about during this week. Today we are going to talk Kraken, Bitcoin's ATM, Uniswap's token and Ethereum 2.0. Let's just dive straight into it.
1. Kraken just became a bank :
This week the exchange platform Kraken announced that Kraken Financial just obtained the title of Special Purpose Depository Institution. This is important because it will enable Kraken teams to build a “trust bridge” between the economy of the future of the crypto-sphere and the current economic system.
The platform becomes the first regulated U.S. bank to provide comprehensive deposit and custody services for digital assets and conventional fiduciary currencies. As a result Kraken's users will be able to deposit USD into a deposit account, keep digital assets with the same level of collateral as any bank and finally make bank transfers.
2. Uniswap launched its own token :
The famous decentralized exchange Uniswap has just unveiled its governance token, the UNI. The token is already listed on Binance and Coinbase Pro, this ERC-20 token exchanges around $4 and all users of the platform before September 1st can receive 400 UNI. This token will allow its owners to have an impact on the protocol in the future.
Uniswap's Team announced that 1 billion UNI will be distributed on a 4 year period, and after that a 2% annual inflation rate will be applied on the token. Uniswap actually made the biggest airdrop we have ever seen with over 150 millions UNI distributed to old users.
3. Ethereum 2.0 :
It's almost a meme now when we talk about Ethereum 2.0 launch date but it seems that we are getting closer and closer from a possible launch. Indeed the 5th and last testnet called Medalla which started back in August has now brought in play more than 2 millions ETH on the Beacon Chain with over 50.000 validators which is very encouraging for a possible launch by the end of the year.
It appears that this launch will come at the right point because the Ethereum blockchain is really struggling, the network usage rate is 97% and the average transaction fee is at a record high. However according to Justin Drake (an ETH researcher) a launch on January 2021 is more probable than any other options, let's just wait and see.
4. Bitcoin's ATM number is increasing :
I did an article on Bitcoin's ATM number earlier in the year and it seems that this number is continuously increasing. As we are speaking there are over 10.000 machines in the entire world which is a 67% increase in 2020, quick reminder this number was 5.700 in 2019. The main cryptocurrencies exchanged in these ATMs are Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, and the country with the most ATMs is (of course) the USA.
This increase is simply the reflection of cryptocurrencies popularity who is growing each and every day. I think it's a pretty good news because it reveals that the global interest for cryptocurrency is more and more important, these ATMs are a good way to democratize cryptocurrency in the entire world mainly because ATMs are familiar to everyone.
