Bitcoin [BTC] is probably the most hated currency by government officials. From labeling it a medium that facilitates illicit activities to comparing it to cigarettes and rat poison, BTC has seen it all. Clearly, government officials across the globe aren’t ready for the level of decentralization that crypto offers. As a result, BTC has time and again been thrashed by many. Despite the asset’s impeccable growth in terms of price and popularity, it is highly disregarded.
Janet Yellen, the US Treasury Secretary seemed to be brewing a love-hate relationship with crypto. While most of her comments regarding crypto are detrimental, her latest insight suggested otherwise. While speaking at the American University, Yellen addressed the emergence of digital assets. During her speech, Yellen spoke about how Bitcoin curbs the issue of double-spending.
In the video, Yellen can be seen saying,
“In 2008, a person – or group of people – using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto proposed a decentralized peer-to-peer system for making and processing payments. A key challenge in digital payments is to prevent the same assets from being spent twice. The Bitcoin white paper proposed a novel method for validating transactions using cryptography that addressed the so-called “double-spend” problem.”
This further led to an array of speculations about how Yellen had flipped her stance on Bitcoin. Previously, the Treasury Secretary had condemned Bitcoin by calling it “extremely inefficient.” She even suggested that BTC wasn’t widely being used as a transaction mechanism. Citing the amount of energy it consumes, she believed that it wasn’t a very efficient medium to carry out transactions.
Additionally, as this banter prolonged, Bitcoin had dropped below $40k.
The 1-year Bitcoin HODL wave is at its peak
After a promising uptrend, BTC slid down below $40k. This, however, did not last very long. Yet, the crypto market was experiencing quite a bit of a bloodshed. During press time, the world’s largest cryptocurrency was trading for $40,193 with a 5 percent drop over the last couple of hours.
This further led to the market speculating that Bitcoin was probably being sold. But, it was discovered that the amount of BTC that hadn’t been moved for a year was at its all-time high.