PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024

Bitcoin Daily: Bitcoin Rises Above $15K; Spanish Firms Reveal Blockchain-Based Digital Identity Project

bitcoin

As stocks rallied Thursday (Nov. 5), bitcoin followed suit, rising to over $15,000, signaling a continued confidence in the cryptocurrency.

The stock hit $15,017.05 at 10:50 a.m. (ET), reported CoinDesk, its highest level since January of 2018, and continued to rise throughout the day, hitting $15,237.78 at 5:01 p.m., according to Yahoo Finance.

Investors have continued to accumulate bitcoin throughout the year, specifically during the March and September price crashes, according to CoinDesk, signaling long-term confidence in the digital coin. Accumulation addresses are up 9 percent in 2020.

“It shows retail flow … investors accumulating amid the price rally,” Bequant Head of Research Denis Vinokourov told CoinDesk.

In other news, ten Spain-based tech and finance companies are developing a self-managed digital identity using blockchain and have completed the concept test phase, according to a Santander press release.

The project, called Dalion, gives users more control over their personal data and makes it easier for them to share it where they choose, such as when opting to auto-fill forms. A self-managed identity also protects the security of the information and ensures that it cannot be altered.

Along with Santander, partners include CaixaBank, Bankia, and Liberbank, as well as BME, Inetum, Línea Directa Aseguradora, Mapfre, Naturgy and Repsol, and the Alastria consortium.

The self-managed digital identity project is expected to be brought to a real production environment in May 2021, after completing phase two of testing, which is set to roll out this month.

At this time, testing has occurred on one Ethereum-Quorum, one of the Alastria consortium’s blockchain infrastructures, but future testing will also be tried in other use cases.

Also, predictions market Polymarket has eclipsed SushiSwap as the fourth largest blockchain project in fee generations, reported CoinDesk, citing Cryptofees.

The Ethereum-powered platform, which lets users trade real-money markets over predictions of current event outcomes, is taking in, on average, over $100,000, behind only Bitcoin, Ethereum and Uniswap.

The rise can partly be attributed to focus on the U.S. election, staying live throughout the entire entire election process, unlike other blockchain-based prediction sites, according to Coindesk.

“Just in this election cycle alone we have seen our volume surpass $10 million, which is a lot higher than we expected in such a short time frame,” said Shayne Coplan, Polymarket founder and CEO, according to CoinDesk.

PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024