Cryptocurrency prices were climbing Monday as some of the biggest names in the tech sector looked to expand their reach into digital currency.
Bitcoin, the top cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was up 2.5% to $61,868, according to CoinDesk, while ethereum was up 4.1% to $4,372 and dogecoin was up 5.6% to 27 cents.
Amazon.com’s (AMZN) – Get Amazon.com, Inc. Report Amazon Web Services unit is looking to hire a specialist to foster digital asset underwriting, transaction processing and custody in the cloud, according to a recent job posting.
This is another sign the Seattle tech and e-commerce giant is pushing forward with offering more crypto and digital services for businesses.
James Edwards, cryptocurrency specialist at Finder, said “the ‘Uptober’ meme has lived up to its name, with bitcoin setting a new all-time high.
“There is a range of indicators that suggest bitcoin’s recent [all-time high] is the start of a new bull run rather than the top of a cycle,” Edwards said.
“Analysis of bitcoin address activity by Kraken shows that long-term holders did not sell during October despite the new [all-time high] of $67,276. The same is true for the preceding months where the price reached as low as $38,021.”
Instead, he added, long-term holders have been accumulating coins, which suggests confidence that the price is set to continue higher.
Edwards said the same analysis shows that mining pools have been holding since mid-September, choosing to move bitcoin onto their balance sheets instead of swapping for cash.
“Collectively, these metrics indicate bitcoin could be poised to enter a ‘supply shock’ whereby sell-side liquidity starts to fall short of demand,” Edwards said.
“If the supply shock theory is true, then it could be a catalyst for bitcoin to take the next leg up into further all-time-high records.”
Winston Ma, a former managing director and head of North America at China Investment Corp., said the gaming industry is fast-becoming one of crypto’s most potent areas of application.
“As Facebook changed its name to Meta to highlight its focus on the ‘metaverse,” most game concept tokens have enjoyed a significant jump, because many believe that immersive and interactive gaming is closely related to the metaverse,” he said.
Ma, author of “The Digital War – How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace,” said that play-to-earn and nonfungible-token-powered games are some of most exciting developments in the space.
He noted that the game company Ubisoft just said it would pursue creating its own blockchain-implemented projects. And its games, such as “Assassin’s Creed” and “Tom Clancy,” will enable a play-to-earn experience, letting players own in-game content and profit off it.
David Lesperance, managing partner of immigration and tax adviser Lesperance & Associates, stressed the importance of security.
He said the idea of DeFi, or decentralized finance, “as a silver bullet” to counter China’s crypto crackdown or the expected regulatory tsunami took a hit recently: Hackers stole $130 million of cryptocurrency assets from the DeFi platform Cream Finance.
“So now, choosing the right DeFi platform can be added along with which exchange; which cryptocurrency; and whether to buy, sell or hold to the list of mission-critical decisions that a crypto-enthusiast must get right to be successful,” Lesperance said.
Major players in crypto are adding qualified advisers on tax, regulation, platform viability and cryptocurrencies to their teams, he added.
Success “requires that there not be a poor decision on any of these facets of investment,” he said.
