Past Week in Review: Bitcoin’s crypto market cap sits above $1 trillion, outpacing US banking industry 

Global Crypto markets this weekend exceeded the $2 trillion mark for the first time, making crypto more valuable than the US banking system according to the head of analytics Bianco Research, Jim Bianco.

In Bianco’s chart, crypto’s doubling value through 2021 has put it ahead of the value of the S&P Composite 1500 Banks index, which tracks the performance of publicly traded banking institutions in the US.

Bianco also said that if crypto doubles again, it would be bigger than the entire US financial system, including banks, brokers, insurance, exchange firms, and asset managers.

Crypto has also become a much stronger contender to gold’s market gap, hitting 27.8% of its total value. What’s more, the trend doesn’t look to be ending anytime soon as investors ditch the supposed safe haven in favor of the US Dollar and broader markets.

Bitcoin’s market cap has now held above $1 trillion for 10 days now, hitting a new record. The coin’s now also hovering above $60,000.

SEC’s Heister Pierce: “You’d have to shut down the internet to ban Bitcoin”

There’s been a lot of talks lately of the US government considering “banning Bitcoin”. But SEC Commissioner Heister Pierce (AKA “Crypto Mom”) understands what most of the community already knows: it’d be “foolish” and also pretty impossible.

During a MarketWatch virtual panel discussion titled “How to Invest in Crypto”, Pierce reiterated that the US remains behind the rest of the world when it comes to the appropriate regulation of digital assets.

Pierce added the US could expect an improved approach in the form of the SEC’s new crypto-savvy Chairman Gary Gensler.

“I think we were past that point of banning Bitcoin in the US very early on because you’d have to shut down the internet,” Peirce said. “I don’t see how you could ban it. You could certainly make the effort. It would be very hard to stop people from doing it [trading Bitcoin],” she said. “So I think it would be a foolish thing for the government to try to do that.”

While certain countries like India have banned crypto transactions, Pierce iterated that in reality it would be a treacherous endeavor as the technology is set to outpace the government’s attempts to limit bitcoin usage. People will always be able to download a Bitcoin wallet, run a node and make transactions as long as they have an internet connection. We can, however, expect clearer bitcoin regulations, which is not necessarily a bad thing either.

Meitu now holds $100m in BTC and ETH

Last week, Chinese tech firm Meitu announced its latest crypto investment with a $10 million bitcoin buy. The publicly-listed company now owns $100 million worth of bitcoin and ether as part of its “crypto investment plan.”

In its latest investment, the smartphone selfie app company said it had bought over 175 bitcoin. In March, we reported that Meitu has begun by spending $22 million on Ethereum and $17.9 million on bitcoin. A few weeks later, it bought an additional $28.4 million Ethereum and $21.6 million Bitcoin, totaling $90 million in crypto.

But a $100 million digital asset investment was always part of the company’s investment plan as set out in company documents. They join MicroStrategy, Square, and Tesla, who’ve all recently made headlines for heavily betting on crypto – who’ll be next?

Ukrainian officials own $2.67bn in bitcoin

And it’s not only companies stacking sats, Ukrainian civil servants and officials are apparently holding a hoard of bitcoin and other digital assets, with some even earning the “whale” title, according to local data analytics platform Opendatabot.

According to the platform, “46,351 Bitcoin is accrued in the declarations of civil servants for 2020. As of April 5, 2021, this is almost 75 billion hryvnias.” In dollar terms, Ukraine’s civil servants combined bitcoin holdings amounts to roughly $2.67 billion – and this is only those who’ve officially declared their holdings. Only 652 officials reported owning the crypto, out of 791,872.