Binance, the world’s largest digital asset exchange, has noted in its weekly crypto market report that for most of the past week, Bitcoin (BTC) had been trading between the relatively tight $13,300 and $13,900 range. But then, over the span of just 48 hours, the flagship cryptocurrency rallied, first surging past the $14,000 threshold on Thursday (November 5, 2020).
Bitcoin then soared past the $15,000 mark on Friday (November 6, 2020). The leading cryptocurrency’s peak of $15,900 this week was notably the highest that Bitcoin has reached since January 2018, Binance confirmed in its report. The exchange pointed out that the last time Bitcoin was trading at $15,500+ was in the middle of the crypto bubble back in late 2017 and early 2018.
Binance further noted:
“Bitcoin’s bullish run rubbed off on most of the altcoin market as well. Ethereum rose from $380 to above $400 on Monday and then again on Thursday, before mirroring Bitcoin’s 48-hour climb to end the week at $440, a two-month high. However, not all altcoins benefited from Bitcoin’s record rise. Binance Coin (BNB) saw sideways price movement this week, descending from $28.50 as low as $26 on Thursday, before recovering slightly to $29 to close the week.”
The exchange added:
“The cryptocurrency industry’s total market capitalization started the week at $390 billion, with a sideways movement throughout the week, before starting to pump on Wednesday and reaching $446 billion on Friday, the highest point since May 2018.”
While sharing other crypto market updates in its report, Binance noted that it managed to recover more than $344,000 from the Wine Swap exit scam. The Binance Security team reportedly helped “recover 99.9% of an estimated $345,000 worth of funds stolen as the result of an exit scam.”
Earlier this week, Binance posted an article titled: All in on DeFi: Why the Days of Centralized Exchanges Are Numbered.
The article states:
“DeFi, or decentralized finance, finally found its footing this year, with numerous DeFi tokens and protocols gaining widespread traction amongst crypto users. Powered by smart contract technology, innovations like yield farming have allowed everyday users to earn unprecedented interest on their crypto assets.”
It also mentioned:
“It seems we’ve already reached ‘the turning point’ when it comes to DeFi adoption. After all, the enduring appeal of financial self-custody and decentralization is central to the original promise of blockchain technology. It has the capability of increasing the freedom of money for all who participate, bringing financial opportunities to more people than ever before.”
The article, which was authored by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, concluded:
“As such, DeFi provides the terminal trajectory for the future of crypto. However, it will need help from CeFi platforms, which will be, for many users, the gateway through which they access DeFi for the first time. We believe the future of the industry lies in decentralization, and with the momentum increasing, it’s time to go all in.”
In a recent interview with Crowdfund Insider, Dave Hodgson, CIO at NEM Group, predicted:
“2021 will see the DeFi space continue to mature and become more mainstream, driven by both the new retail and institutional moves into the crypto market and the wider macro environment (covid, political uncertainty, hyper-inflation etc). This maturation process is likely to present huge opportunities and risks as we go through the experimentation phases but it will be exciting and ultimately get us to somewhere that is better than the current state of Centralized Finance (CeFi). Finally, I think we will see continued moves away from centralized exchanges toward solutions such as Uniswap (DEX) and LeverJ (DEX + Derivatives).”