The United States Securities and Exchange Commission continues delay in making decisions about Bitcoin (BTC), exchange-traded funds. Two new deadline extensions notices have been issued.

The SEC delayed two major Bitcoin exchange-traded offerings proposals on Wednesday. These included NYSE Arca’s ‘actual’ Bitcoin ETF Trust named Bitwise Bitcoin ETP Trust and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust’s Bitcoin ETF.

Now, the SEC expects to make a decision on whether Bitwise’s BTC ETF or Grayscale’s BTC ETF will be approved or disapproved.

“The Commission considers it appropriate to give the Commission a longer time period to act on the proposed change to the rule, so it can have sufficient time to review the rule change and respond to any comments,” the SEC stated in both notices.

Bitwise Asset Management applied for a physical-backed Bitcoin ETF in October 2014. This was to give exposure to actual Bitcoin and not derivatives such as Bitcoin futures, or any other indirect exposure. In November, Bitwise Asset Management dropped its Bitcoin futures-based ETF application. Many of these products were being launched in the United States.

Grayscale, the largest Bitcoin fund in the world, has total assets under management of $45.6 billion. On Oct. 19, the company applied for an ETF to convert its flagship Bitcoin product.

This latest news is coming amid the SEC maintaining its strict stance on crypto ETFs. However, the SEC approved a variety of industry ETFs with indirect exposure to cryptocurrency. After delaying a June decision, the SEC rejected WisdomTree’s sport Bitcoin ETF in December.

VanEck’s physical Bitcoin ETF was rejected by the SEC in November. VanEck is one of the first companies to file for a Bitcoin ETF. However, the company decided to trade a Bitcoin futures ETF on the Chicago Board Options Exchange.

Twelve years after its inception, the Bitcoin network has already processed more dollars than PayPal, an American digital payment company. Experts believe that the network could surpass Mastercard, the giant credit card company, in dollar transactions value. This is impressive, but experts also think it could be even more powerful, by 2026.

According to a Blockdata report, the Bitcoin network generated approximately US$489 billion in quarterly transactions in 2021. This is more than Paypal’s US$302 trillion.

The report is titled “When might the Bitcoin network process volumes such as Mastercard and Visa?” The report stated that Bitcoin has processed about 27% of Mastercard’s US$1.8 Trillion per quarter and 15% of Visa’s US$3.2 Trillion every day after only 12 years of existence. It added that if Bitcoin could transfer 260% more value per transaction, it would process an equivalent amount to Mastercard daily.

The three main factors that could lead to Bitcoin reaching the same level as the credit card giants are the total number and average transaction amount, as well the increase in the price of Bitcoin.

However, the report could not find any data that would indicate an increase in the average Bitcoin transaction. Blockdata stated that while it is possible that this trend will change, an increase in Bitcoin’s price to US$245,000 at current volume would bring Bitcoin to equal Mastercard by 2026.

It is possible that Bitcoin’s average annual price could be as high as 2060 before it can match Mastercard’s. The report found that Bitcoin performed admirably for a network that was established just over a decade ago.

Bitcoin’s value has risen steadily over the years, compared to other cryptocurrencies on the market. Many experts believe that Bitcoin will soon surpass the US$100,000. However, it is uncertain when this could happen due to its volatile nature.

There are a growing number of companies in a variety of industries who are adopting cryptocurrencies. Customers can use them to pay for goods and services. PayPal, Mastercard, and Visa are just a few of the many.

In an interview, Twitter’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Ned Segal stated that crypto investing is ‘not a good idea right now’ because of extreme market volatility and industry accounting rules. Segal pointed out that Twitter would need to alter its investment policies in order to invest in crypto companies or related avenues. Currently, Segal’s current investment policies allow the company to only hold assets that are more stable, such as securities, on its balance sheet.

Segal, according to a Wall Street Journal report , points to a common concern over crypto’s volatility among finance heads at Tweet. He claims price swings are one of the main reasons that the company doesn’t use crypto to fund their corporate investments.

Numerous finance departments from multiple companies based in the US have raised the question of whether there should be specific accounting regulations or systems for cryptocurrency assets. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), a private standard-setting organization that creates and issues financial accounting standards within the US, has been approached by industry giants to establish the ground rules for how crypto assets should be treated.

Twitter’s CFO appears reluctant to invest in cryptocurrency, but Twitter CEO and cofounder Jack Dorsey enthusiastically embraces the world of digital assets. Dorsey’s first tweet, which was the first ever to be posted on Twitter, was converted into an FFT in March. These were sold through Valuables, a marketplace that was worth $2.9 million (roughly Rs. 21.5 crore) to Bridge Oracle CEO Sina Estavi. Dorsey is a self-proclaimed “Bitcoin maximalist” and has also experimented with NFTs.

Although Twitter is not investing directly in crypto, it announced that it had set up a Blockchain team headed by Tess Rinearson, a seasoned blockchain engineer to ‘explore how to incorporate decentralized technology into our products or infrastructure’. The team’s first priority will be to create decentralised apps (dApps), which allow creators to manage virtual currencies and virtual goods. It will also provide ways for fans to support the community. Rinearson suggested that her team would then look into crypto tech to enhance identity, community and ownership on Twitter.

Twitter introduced a way to tip creators using Bitcoin via Lightning network. They also suggested that they are experimenting with ways to verify non-financial transfers to be used as profile photos.

A new study has revealed that nearly half of all Bitcoins, the digital currency decentralized by Elon Musk is owned by just a few people despite its popularity. This was according to a report from Bloomberg.

It was also revealed that Bitcoin mining has a high concentration by a small percentage of all miners. This could potentially leave the market vulnerable to colluding miners.

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, approximately one third of all Bitcoins in circulation is owned by the top 10,000 investors. NBER researchers used data collection methods that distinguished individuals and organizations to help them organize and sort difficult-to-track crypto addresses. The researchers found that approximately 8.5 million Bitcoin is owned by individuals and that at least three million of the cryptocurrency’s top 1,000 investors own it.

Researchers Igor Makarov, Antoinette Schor and others believe that this measurement of concentration is an exaggeration. We cannot rule out the possibility that some of the most important addresses are controlled or managed by the same entity. Satoshi Nakamoto was the creator of Bitcoin. He held Bitcoins at around 20,000 addresses. This made them appear to belong to 20,000 people.

A 51 percent attack on Bitcoin could result in the loss of bitcoin

Researchers also found that 90 percent of the global Bitcoin mining capacity is owned by the top 10 percent. Only 0.1 percent of miners own 50 percent of the mining capacity.

The new study shows that this high concentration makes the Bitcoin network vulnerable to a 51 per cent attack. This is where miners work together to control the majority of Bitcoin and hold it hostage.

The researchers stated that, despite all the attention Bitcoin has received in recent years, the Bitcoin ecosystem remains dominated by large and concentrated players. These could be large miners, Bitcoin holders or exchanges. This inherent concentration makes Bitcoin vulnerable to systemic risks and means that most of the benefits from further adoption will likely fall to a small number of participants.

Bitcoin hit a new record of $65,000 this month shortly after it entered the New York Stock Exchange on October 19. This year, the cryptocurrency saw a huge rise in popularity due to a prominent $1.5 Billion investment by EV automaker Tesla and endorsements by its CEO Elon Musk.

To bypass the need to have a central regulatory body, the digital currency is processed through the blockchain. The NBER’s latest study shows that Bitcoin is not as decentralized as the label suggests.

Bitcoin surged, climbing in minutes to its largest daily gain since July. Other digital currencies also rose in shock rallies that followed the biggest monthly drop since May.

Before paring gains, the largest cryptocurrency in terms of market value rose by 10% to $47.884 in New York trading early. EOS, Litecoin, and Ethereum all saw a jump, with the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index increasing as high as 8.9%. Concern about rising regulatory pressures in China and the U.S. had caused Bitcoin to plummet 7.6% in September.

While traders offered many possible explanations for the gains they pointed out that digital assets are vulnerable to price swings due to the fractionalized market making them more volatile than the rest. Some traders cited Thursday’s remarks by Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve Chair, that the central bank had “no intention” to ban cryptocurrency. Others cited price levels like moving averages which are closely monitored by technical analysts.

“Markets have been trading sideways over a lack regulatory clarity and statements by U.S. authorities indicating that they were seeking significantly to curtail crypto activity,” stated Leah Wald (chief executive at Valkyrie Investments, crypto asset manager). This, along with the weakness in the stock markets and October being a traditionally bullish month for crypto markets, could indicate a shift towards risk-on trading within crypto markets over the next few weeks as investors seek returns from non-traditional assets.

As Bitcoin surged, crypto-related stocks like Marathon Digital Holdings Inc., Riot Blockchain Inc., and Bit Digital Inc. also gained Friday.

In a Thursday hearing before Congress, Powell stated that he has no intention to ban cryptocurrency. Powell did however mention that regulation of stablecoins may be necessary.

Stuart Alderoty (general counsel at Ripple Labs) tweeted that a press release claiming the company had settled a lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, was false. The XRP token, which is the subject of the lawsuit, jumped up to 13% before paring losses.

Although Bitcoin fell in September, it posted a 25% gain for the third quarter. This compares to a 41% drop in the previous three months.

Charts were used by technicians to find clues about where Bitcoin might go next. Antoni Trenchev (Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Nexo, a Crypto lender) said that he was encouraged by the quick move that took Bitcoin over its 20-50 and 200-day moving averages in a single pass.

Earlier: Bitcoin rises as technicians investigate whether rally is sustainable

The MACD gauge, or moving average convergence divergence, has also turned positive, which confirms the upward shift in sentiment.

Trenchev said, however, that ‘be careful, sudden accelerating prices can hastily unwind.