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Maker 'the central bank of crypto' sees 14% rally | The Crypto Mile Weekly Update

Brian McGleenon
·4-min read

Watch: Maker 'the Central Bank of Crypto' sees 14% rally | The Crypto Mile Weekly Update

Maker, the governance token behind the DAI stablecoin, has made an impressive rally of over 14% in a week of turmoil for the British pound.

Hailing itself as 'the central bank of crypto', Maker (MKR-USD) is a governance token and is used by its holders to vote on a number of different things within the MakerDAO organisation.

Voting is used to execute changes to parameters inside of the MakerDAO protocol code like stability fees, debt ceilings, and many others. Maker (MKR-USD) rose 13.8% in the last seven days to $766.30.

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However, the price of Maker (MKR-USD) is still a long way off its all-time high of May 2021 when it reached a value of $6339.

Check: Crypto live prices

Quant Network

Another crypto that has also shot up in response to the market volatility is Quant (QNT-USD), the native token of the Quant Network, which plans to make every separate blockchain interoperable. Quant rose almost 30% this week, to $135.57.

Read more: This AI tool ‘threatens human creativity’ and the art world is worried

The reason for the price rise could be related to data from crypto-metrics firm Santiment that shows whales holding between 100 and 1,000 QNT have increased their positions by 15.4% over the past five months.

Quant (QNT-USD) has an almost monopoly in the "state cryptocurrency" sector. Its multiple-bochachin expertise is sought by the builders of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The Quant Network has already managed to work with the Digital Pound Foundation on CBDCs for the Bank of England.

Sterling to bitcoin trade volume increases

Throughout the week there has been a spike in the volume of Sterling to bitcoin trades, despite the fact the Bank of England has weighed in to stabilise gilts.

Trading volumes between the British pound (GBPUSD=X) and bitcoin (BTC-USD) spiked at the beginning of the week, according to data from cryptocurrency market analysis firm Messari.

Read more: Bitcoin price surges over 7% as pound tanks

The week began with the British pound slipping to an all-time low against the dollar of $1.03. Its value has increased slightly, now at $1.12, but the long-term outlook still looks very uncertain.

Investors have various options to secure value as the pound and the euro depreciate and one alternative to investing in US Treasury notes and bonds is to purchase bitcoin (BTC-USD).

A photograph taken on April 22, 2022 shows pounds and US dollard coins and bankotes displayed on a table, in London. - The pound slumped more than one percent against the dollar on April 22, 2022 after official data showed tumbling retail sales as Britons grapple with a cost-of-living crisis. In London morning deals, sterling sank to $1.2887 -- its lowest level since October 2020, also as Britain's Prime Minister comes under renewed political pressure. (Photo by Tolga Akmen / AFP) (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)
The British pound slipped to an all-time low against the US dollar of $1.03 earlier this week. Photo: Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images (TOLGA AKMEN via Getty Images)

Bitcoin ends the week flat

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) has ended the week flat, plateauing at $19,583, as of the time of writing. As currencies around the world are losing their strength against the dollar, investors in the UK are looking for safe havens that are an alternative to the greenback.

Read more: Sterling to bitcoin buys skyrocket as pound falls

However, bitcoin is still showing its tendency to march in lockstep with equity markets, such as the S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Nasdaq (^IXIC).

Analysts are looking closely at this week's performance against the pound and euro as a sign that bitcoin's forecasted "decoupling" from traditional markets may be near at hand.

Representations of cryptocurrency Bitcoin are seen in this illustration, August 10, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Bitcoin ended the week flat as currencies around the world slipped against the dollar. Photo: Dado Ruvic/Illustration (Dado Ruvic / reuters)

Read more: Bank of England: What will the emergency action actually do?

Ireland's DeFi Conf 2022 takes place in Belfast next week

Next Thursday, sees Ireland's first Decentralised Finance Conference, called DeFi Conf 2022, with talks by Martin Scorsese's executive producer Niels Juul and representatives from Coinbase, Blockworks and the London Stock Exchange.

The one-day conference will include talks, panels and workshops on web3, non-fungible tokens, GameFi , MovieFi and the creator economy.

Speaking about the event, chief platform officer of crypto-exchange and wallet provider platform Uphold, Oonagh Van Den Berg said: “At this very minute finance services are changing in how both people and businesses are accessing, transferring and holding financial assets.

"It is redefining our industry – and it’s critical that we are providing sufficient education so informed decisions can be taken by all on how this impacts them.”

Watch: 'Bitcoin will eat into global finance until it's $1m per coin' | The Crypto Mile