[Blockchain Hot Issue] The era of Bitcoin market cap of 1 trillion dollars is wide

[Digital Today Reporter Hyun-Woo Choo] The virtual asset (cryptocurrency) market, which had slowed somewhat in March, turned to an uptrend again. Bitcoin price exceeded $60,000 for the first time ever. Even in the domestic virtual asset exchange, 70 million won is right. Bitcoin’s market capitalization has exceeded $1 trillion, reaching $1.24 trillion.

The rise in virtual assets seems to have been driven by economic variables such as the passage of the US Senate’s $1.9 trillion stimulus law, a fall in the value of the US dollar, and an increase in the price of US government bonds. It is analyzed that it has led the overall rise in virtual assets by paying attention to bitcoin, which is treated as a safe asset similar to gold.

Bloomberg said the process of bitcoin’s replacement of gold is accelerating, and predicted the next price forecast of $100,000. The explanation was made on the background of the economic recovery following the spread of the Corona 19 vaccine, the Biden government’s economic stimulus, and the conversion of virtual assets into mainstream investments.

As Bitcoin has been recognized for its investment value, companies around the world, in addition to American companies such as Tesla and Square, are starting or reviewing virtual asset investments. The Norwegian oil conglomerate made an investment in bitcoin worth about 66.9 billion won. Chinese IT company Meitu has also invested 40 million dollars in Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Goldman Sachs, a large US investment bank, once again revealed its positive outlook for the virtual asset market.

“There is a growing demand for Bitcoin (BTC) among corporate customers,” said John Worldron Goldman Sachs Chief Operating Officer (COO). It is explained that how to meet customer demand within the scope of complying with various regulations regarding current meteorological asset investment is the top priority.

Vitalik Buterin’Expand 100x Ethereum’ Optimism Unfolds

The Ethereum camp, which is developing Ethereum 2.0, is also taking advantage of the rising trend of virtual assets.

Ethereum is scheduled to carry out its third large-scale upgrade, the Berlin Hard Fork, around April 14th. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said through an online podcast that “when Ethereum 2.0 is fully released, the blockchain scalability will increase by more than 100 times” and positively predicted the future of Ethereum.

NFT is emerging as the most noticeable keyword in the blockchain industry in recent years.

It is news that the work of digital artist Mike Winkelmann, widely known under the stage name’Beeple’, has been awarded a record high price of over 70 billion won. In particular, the non-replaceable token (NFT) technology was applied to Biffle’s new work. It is analyzed that the value of the work itself and the use of NFT to further emphasize scarcity became the background for recording high auction prices.

On the other hand, there are voices of concern about the activation of the NFT. Litecoin (LTC) founder Charlie Lee recently posted a strong warning about the NFT market overheating through his Twitter.

“The NFT is nothing more than a collectible digital certificate that can be easily, inexpensively and completely duplicated. Don’t expect too much of it,” he said. He pointed out that “just because an ordinary work puts NFT on it does not turn it into a luxury product.”

It is also noteworthy that Shinhan Bank has completed the pilot construction of a blockchain-based digital currency platform with LG CNS in preparation for the issuance of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) by the Bank of Korea.

In February, the US Department of Justice said, “We are prosecuting three North Korean computer programmers who participated in the crime of conducting a cyber attack and extorting more than $1.3 billion of money and virtual assets from financial institutions and companies.” As the virtual asset market rises, the threat of hacking from North Korea is increasing day by day.