ETH and SOL hit all-time highs; CBA to offer crypto services

Transcript

Crypto markets are buzzing, and so are we.

Welcome to The Daily Forkast November 3, 2021. I’m Angie Lau, Editor-in-Chief of Forkast.News covering all things blockchain.

Well, Ethereum and Solana are on a roll. Both coins hit all-time-highs Wednesday morning Asia time, with Solana overtaking Cardano to become the fifth largest cryptocurrency by market cap. We’re going to take a look at what’s driving markets and a whole lot more coming up.

Let’s get you up to speed from Asia to the world.

Well, let’s kick off with some of the top stories out of Asia today.

Australia’s largest and one of its oldest banks, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, is going crypto. CBA is partnering with Gemini and Chainalysis to become the first bank in the country that allows its customers to buy, sell and hold crypto assets directly through its app, including Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin.

And over in Thailand, Siam Commercial Bank Securities, a subsidiary of Thailand’s oldest bank, has acquired a 51% stake in the country’s leading crypto exchange Bitkub for a little over US$500 million.

Bitkub, which is licensed by the Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission, reported, get this, a trading volume of over US$30 billion in the last quarter. And that is a 92% share of the market in Thailand.

When the old world and the new world collide in finance, it is happening more and more, and you can find out more on those stories at Forkast.News.

Meanwhile, the all time highs seem to be coming all the time these days.

Amid growing hype over the metaverse and NFTs, Ethereum crossed US$4,600 mark for the first time, hitting a new all-time high Wednesday morning Asia time.

And Solana also hit a new all-time-high of just a touch under US$230.

Forkast.News, Michelle Lim reports.

According to data from CoinMarketCap, Ethereum’s skyrocketed to a new all time high of US$4,638 Wednesday morning Asia time.

While Solana’s new peak saw it overtaking Cardano as the fifth largest cryptocurrency by market value.

The global cryptocurrency market cap is now over US$2.7 trillion with altcoins clearly following Bitcoin’s surge last month. But with altcoins rallying, Bitcoin’s dominance is down to 51.5%.

One expert took Forkast.News the fourth quarter is typically a period of good price appreciation for the crypto market.

“We find ourselves in Q4, which provides a kind of, you know, a bullish context. But specifically, I think that you know what we saw with Squid Game token, which was a classic rug pull, it will drive people to focus more on quality and longevity, projects they’re going to make it and they’re not going to scam you, basically.”

And Carney Mak from FXHB Asset Management said that with the rise of DeFi, GameFi, NFTs and institutions increasingly exploring blockchain, programable blockchains like Ethereum and Solana that can support such use cases are going to see continued traction.

For Forkast.News, I’m Michelle Lim.

And we are live and in person in Hong Kong – Hong Kong Fintech Week officially kicked off on Wednesday.

The annual event, which went virtual during the pandemic, has come back this year as a hybrid event and back in physical space with attendees and speakers in person, including our own Forkast team.

Forkast.News Danny Park was there.

Crypto and CBDCs took center stage at day one of Hong Kong sixth Fintech Week. Hundreds gathered to check out what’s what in fintech, with booths set up by crypto and DeFi names including AAX Exchange, Crypto.com and HashKey Group.

Paul Chan, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary, raised the curtain with a short speech where he reiterated Hong Kong CBDC developments.

“Equally significant is the continuing collaboration between our Hong Kong MA and the People’s Bank of China in the testing of the use of digital renminbi here in Hong Kong. The goal is creating a convenient means, of cross boundary payments for Hong Kong and Mainland residents.”

Chan also revealed that the HKMA is looking into issuing its own CBDC for retail use.

And Fintech Week dug deeper into crypto with insights from industry speakers.

“Some things just triggered in the last few months from sort of still being a bit old, to I need to figure out what crypto is, to actually there is a lot of activity from corporations, institutions, you know, there’s a whole parallel financial markets infrastructure that’s being built, but it’s not just being built. It’s actually being adopted, I would say we’re at that hockey stick moment, really.”

The event continues through to Friday.

For Forkast.News, I’m Danny Park at Hong Kong Fintech Week.

And by the way, if you happen to be in Hong Kong at Hong Kong Fintech Week, please do drop by the Bitcoin and Beyond area and our summit partner AAX’s booth.

The top speakers in the world curated for their leadership and all in the same room in our first global virtual summit.

Almost 3,000 attendees have signed up for our summit and we hope that you’re going to join us, November 9 in the U.S, November 10 in Asia.

And that’s The Daily Forkast from our vantage point right here in Asia. Hit like, hit subscribe, hit the alert button. We have fresh content Monday through Friday.

Top news of the week in crypto and in blockchain, and we always appreciate it when you do, it helps us reach our goal to reach more of you.

For more, visit Forkast.News. As always, I’m Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau. Until the next time.