Cryptocurrency News Update: Bitcoin starts the week on a bullish note, gains ground above $9,200

Here's what you need to know on Monday

Markets:

BTC/USD jumped above $9,200 during early Asian hours on Monday. At the time of writing, the first digital coin is changing hands at $9,200, having gained 1.00% on a day-to-day basis and 1.36% since the start of the day; The coin is moving within the short-term bullish trend amid shrinking volatility.

At the time of writing, ETH/USD is changing hands at $232.10. The price touched $227.15 during early Asian hours, but managed to regain ground. ETH/USD has grown by nearly 2% since the beginning of Monday and gained about 1.5% in the recent 24 hours. The coin is moving within a short-term bullish trend amid shrinking volatility.

XRP/USD is hovering at $0.1800, staying close to the intraday high. The price has gained 1.7% since the beginning of the day moving in sync with the market. Now the short-term bearish trend amid low volatility.

Among the 100 most important cryptocurrencies, IOST (IOST) $0.0067 (+18.5%), Bytom (BTM) $0.0832 (+15.5%), NULS (NULS) $0.6570 (+12.7%) are the most successeful . The day's losers are Celsius (CEL) $0.3922 (-13.85%), Loopring (LRC) $0.0967 (-12.5%), Bitcoin Gold (BTG) $9.36 (-8.1%).

Chart of the day:
BTC/USD, 30-min chart

Markets

A popular Crypto Twitter analyst and an author of the stock-to-flow (S2F) model as applied to the cryptocurrency, PlanB, carried out a poll among his followers. He asked how much one Bitcoin would cost by the end of 2021. 

A new survey launched by PlanB, the crypto analyst known as the first apply the stock-to-flow (S2F) ratio to Bitcoin, reveals where members of the crypto community believe BTC is heading. It turned out that nearly half of the respondents did not expect BTC price to exceed $55,000 (42.5%). Meanwhile, 22.9% are confident with $100,000 forecast and only 17.4% bet on $288,000. The proposed choices are based on the different iterations of his S2F model, except for the last one (below $50,000).

Industry

Over 230 blockchain companies operate in Singapore, which is more than 50% increase when compared with the previous year, according to the map, compiled by the companies. The map is a collection of company logos organized by a specific business sector, and it reflects the blockchain landscape of Singapore. The blockchain-related business spans across various segments, including smart cities, corporate services and infrastructure. Notably, DeFi (decentralized Finance) sector has been gaining ground recently with Temasek one of the biggest market players. The company recently became a partner to Libra Association.

Expedia users now can book accommodations with cryptocurrency, thanks to the company's partnership with the crypto travel platform Travala.com. Expedia added over 700,000 accommodations to help Travala to scale up its business, Cointelegraph reports. The platform is available in 230 countries and offers over 2 million accommodation options. 

Regulation

Head of Government & Regulatory Affairs for Asia Pacific at Ripple, Sagar Sarbhai, believes that India should stop criticizing cryptocurrencies, otherwise the country won't be able to benefit from the global trend on CBDC. 

Potentially a wholesale CBDC where the central bank issues tokens to the regulated banks, that could be a possible use case as a compliment or a substitute to the already existing system within India, he said in an interview with Forkast.