The Federal Reserve maintained its key interest rate, inflation in the US slowed, the ZKsync airdrop faced community criticism, Bernstein predicted bitcoin reaching $200,000 by the end of 2025, and other notable events of the past week.
The leading cryptocurrency began the week below $70,000. On Tuesday, June 11, the price of digital gold plummeted to $66,000. The following day, bitcoin neared the $70,000 mark but fell again. By Friday, June 14, the asset’s price dropped to $65,000.
At the time of writing, bitcoin is trading at $66,700.
Most digital assets in the top 10 by market capitalization ended the week in the “red zone.” The exception was Toncoin (+11.1%).
The total cryptocurrency market capitalization stands at $2.56 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance index is 55.2%.
On June 12, the US Federal Reserve maintained the key rate range at 5.25-5.5% per annum for the seventh consecutive time. The decision aligned with market expectations.
On the same day, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released a consumer price report. The index value was below the forecast — 3.3% versus 3.4%.
The token distribution of the ZKsync L2 network (ZK) faced community criticism as only 13% of 6 million unique wallets were eligible, many of which were “Sybil” accounts.
Users will be able to claim the coins from next week until January 3, 2025. Claims will be available from June 24.
However, some users complained about ineligibility for the airdrop. To qualify, they must meet certain criteria, including interacting with smart contracts and trading ERC-20 tokens in DeFi protocols.
According to Cinneamhain Ventures founder Adam Cochran, unlike regular users, airdrop hunters find it too easy to meet ZKsync drop criteria, as they could use scripts and bots to automate the process.
Polygon’s Head of Security Mudit Gupta agreed with this sentiment, noting that the ZK distribution “became the easiest for Sybil farm owners.”
Discussing the potential of digital assets in daily life, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin suggested the use of zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) and other blockchain technologies.
He believes ZKP mechanisms can be applied for verifying “identity, credentials, or reputation.”
For cross-border payments, cryptocurrency P2P platforms, which have improved interfaces and reduced fees in this cycle, are suitable, according to the developer.
Buterin sees potential in decentralized social networks. Additionally, he highlighted prediction markets, which are already in active use.
The Ethereum co-founder proposed integrating ZKP into corporate applications to enhance data protection. He also suggested using the technology in voting to make it censorship-resistant.
Bernstein analysts raised the target price for the leading cryptocurrency to $200,000 by the end of 2025, up from $150,000. The forecast is driven by expectations of “unprecedented demand from spot bitcoin ETFs.”
Experts believe bitcoin is in a new bull cycle. They described halving as a unique situation where the natural selling pressure from miners is halved or more, and new demand catalysts for cryptocurrency emerge, “leading to exponential price movements.”
Analysts pointed to previous cycles: in 2017, digital gold rose to a peak about five times the marginal cost of production, then fell to a low of 0.8 of that figure in 2018.
According to Bernstein’s base estimates, the price of the first cryptocurrency will reach $500,000 by the end of 2029 and $1 million by 2033.
Also on ForkLog:
Author of the bestseller “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and entrepreneur Robert Kiyosaki once again urged buying the leading cryptocurrency to avoid FOMO in the future.
According to Kiyosaki, at such times he repeats his rich dad’s investment lesson: “Your profit is made when you buy, not when you sell.”
This week, ForkLog explained how to recognize a rug pull.
In traditional digests, we gathered the main events in cybersecurity over the week, as well as the key metrics of mining companies for May.
The cryptocurrency industry is attracting an increasing number of institutional players. This is evidenced by new infrastructure investments and the growing attention companies are paying to bitcoin as an asset class. The most important events of recent weeks are in ForkLog’s review.
