The start of February brought respite for many cryptocurrency investors as crypto prices began recovering. But investors are still on edge with uncertainty widespread in the market. So, we're bringing you this week trending stories to make sense of the turbulence.

Crypto Rebounding

It been the worst start to a year for cryptocurrencies since 2018. At time of writing Bitcoin is priced around $58,800 (AUD), which is 10% down from the beginning of the year. Ethereum is slightly worse off, currently priced around $4,250 (AUD) and down 17.8% for the year.

However, both currencies are recovering quickly. Over the last five days, Bitcoin rose 8.2%, while Ethereum is up 8.7%. Analysts are unsure if this is simply a bounce before another drop, but on current trends cryptocurrencies are moving in a positive direction.

JP Morgan v Ark Invest

Two noteworthy cryptocurrency reports have dropped from J.P. Morgan and Ark Invest. Chairman of J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management, Michael Cembalest, has ripped into cryptocurrencies with a report highlighting several key criticisms to the future of crypto. Here are two key takeaways to summarise Cembalest 30-page report:

• Bitcoin store-of-value thesis is unlikely to come to fruition as crypto is highly volatile and susceptible to inflation and other systematic risks. Part of the volatility relates to 2% of Bitcoin holders owning 72% of its value, which creates extreme concentration and price swings.

• Cryptocurrencies have failed to capture the cross-border payments market and sits at only 1% of cross-border remittances. A key issue is that potential cost savings are lost by recipients needing bank accounts in destination countries to off-ramp' their transactions to fiat currencies.

On the other hand, Ark Invest has released their report, which had bold predictions for cryptocurrencies. The report hypothesised that Ethereum will be priced at $170,000-$180,000 (USD) within the next 10 years. Moreover, Bitcoin could exceed $1 million (USD) per coin by 2030.

Key to Ark Invest prediction for Bitcoin, however, is the assumption that Bitcoin accounts for 50% of global remittances by 2030. This puts Ark Invest and J.P. Morgan at odds on a foundational part of the future of crypto. We expect analysts will be combing through both reports over the next few weeks to decide which thesis they prefer.

Global Crypto Regulation

It been a big week for crypto regulation around the world. Here three of the main news stories:

1. President Vladimir Putin has rejected the proposal from Russia central bank to ban cryptocurrencies completely. When asked about crypto regulations in Russia, Putin acknowledged the consumer risks to cryptocurrencies but noted that we also have certain competitive advantages here, especially in the so-called mining.

2. Sources close to President Joe Biden have said that the White House is planning to issue an executive order that will assign government entities to study crypto, stablecoins and NFTs with the aim of developing a set of policies in crypto space.

3. India has announced that profits from the sale of virtual assets will be taxed at a flat rate of 30%, which is equivalent to India highest income tax rate. Perhaps more importantly, India also introduced a 1% tax on cryptocurrency trading (TDS). The TDS will be deducted at the source of each trade and will be the equivalent of adding 1% to any brokerage fees. This will hit high-frequency traders hard, and potentially wipe out crypto-day traders in India.

Upcoming Initial Coin Offerings

An initial coin offering (ICO) is the cryptocurrency equivalent to an initial public offering (IPO). During an ICO, cryptocurrency projects will raise interest in their project and sell an initial allocation of coins to investors to raise funds.

Here a list of the latest ICOs that are about to drop:

CoinICO End DateMYTE8 Feb 2022Etna Metabolism9 Feb 2022Adadao10 Feb 2022NYM17 Feb 2022Legion Network18 Feb 2022

[Source: Coin Market Cap]