Bitcoin & Ethereum weakened - despite Google Cloud & BNY Mellon

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High inflation readings from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics have kept investors away from cryptocurrencies for the time being. It was the fourth week in a row of losses or no movement for Bitcoin and Ethereum. Both fell later this week after more high inflation readings from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Bitcoin is down 2% over the past week and is currently trading at $19,126. Ethereum fell 3.5% to a current price of $1,282, according to CoinGecko data.

Notice

On Monday, Bitcoin mining difficulty hit a new all-time high after rising 14%. This is the biggest increase since May.

As the difficulty level increases, miners may face smaller profits if the Bitcoin price remains flat. After all, mining requires more computing power and electricity. However, the increase in mining difficulty also reflects a strong and growing network.

Ethereum supply turned deflationary over the past weekend. This means that more ETH is currently being burned (taken out of circulation) than is being created. This is no surprise to Ethereum fans – it was announced as part of the post-merger process. However, the news had little impact on prices this week.

The so-called “Ethereum killers” (layer 1 blockchains with highly functional smart contracts) have had a rough week. Among these are Cardano (ADA) down 14% to $0.36 and Solana (SOL) down 9% to $29.91.

The Solana network has also struggled with ongoing stability issues, although Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko emphasizes that a “long-term fix” is on the horizon and that fixing outages is a “high priority” for Solana.

Uniswap (UNI) is down 8% at $6.13, Chainlink (LINK) is also down 8% and is currently trading at $6.95. Ethereum Classic (ETC) and Near Protocol (NEAR) are also down 16% this week.

Crypto adoption is on the rise

Two major institutional players announced their entry into cryptocurrencies this week: Google Cloud and BNY Mellon.

For example, Google’s cloud division announced on Tuesday that it will use Coinbase to accept crypto payments for cloud services early next year. A “handful” of customers will be able to pay in cryptocurrencies through the integration of Coinbase Commerce, a payment tool for businesses.

Coinbase Commerce is expected to move “data-related applications” from Amazon Web Services’ cloud to Google’s as part of the deal.

Investment banking titan BNY Mellon, one of the oldest continuously operating US banks, launched a Bitcoin and Ethereum custody service on Tuesday on behalf of select investment firms using software developed with crypto custody provider Fireblocks. BNY Mellon leveraged Chainlink for compliance software. The company will store customers’ private keys and provide accounting services for their crypto portfolios.

A year ago, in a different economic cycle, these two movements could have moved the crypto markets. Not so this week in the current macro environment.

News from Brussels and Washington

European Union lawmakers voted 28-1 on Monday to pass the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) Regulation. A cutting-edge legislative package designed to regulate cryptocurrencies within the block.

If it survives the next round of voting, the implementation of MiCA will impose stricter requirements on crypto companies, stablecoin issuers, and miners.

As early as April last year, the G20 (an association of the world’s 20 largest economies) commissioned the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to “develop a framework for the automatic exchange of tax information on crypto-assets” between countries . The OECD presented its framework to the G20 on Monday.

Finally, this week brought another SEC rejection of a bitcoin spot ETF (exchange-traded fund) – this time from Cboe BZX Exchange.

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Text proof: Decrypt