Verdict lists the top five terms tweeted on blockchain in January 2021, based on data from GlobalData’s Influencer Platform. The top tweeted terms are the trending industry discussions happening on Twitter by key individuals (influencers) as tracked by the platform.

1. Bitcoin – 446 mentions

Bitcoin surging past $37,000, while the Coinbase site was down, Estonia being the first state to post the bitcoin whitepaper as a symbol, and crypto investment firm Grayscale seeing a 900% jump in assets amid bitcoin frenzy, were popularly discussed in January. According to an article shared by Tiffany Hayden, the co-founder of Casheer, a free mobile payment platform, Coinbase’s site was down as bitcoin surged past $37,000.

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While the site suffered an outage, popular crypto trading app Robinhood stated that it had halted crypto trading due to the current market conditions. However, customers could use their settled funds to buy crypto. The bitcoin shot up by 13% when Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk changed his Twitter bio to bitcoin.

Bitcoin also trended in a discussion that stated that Estonia is the first state to post the bitcoin whitepaper on the e-resident.gov.ee website, according to Balaji S Srinivasan, an angel investor and entrepreneur. Estonia used the digital ledger technology called Keyless Signature Infrastructure in order to preserve key government data and systems since 2008. Since then there has been an increase in cross border transactions.

In other discussions, Barry Silbert, the founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCG), shared an article on Grayscale witnessing a jump of 900% in assets to more than $20bn, driven primarily by a demand from institutional investors such as pension funds, hedge funds, and endowments. Institutional demand was cited as a key reason for bitcoin topping $40,000 in the previous week, the article noted

2. Crypto Currency – 354 mentions

New crypto currency exchange regulations in the US, and financial advisors’ growing interest in crypto currency, were popularly discussed in January. According to an article shared by Andreas M Antonopoulos, a bitcoin advocate and tech entrepreneur, the Trump administration was trying to push through bitcoin and cryptocurrency wallet regulations in the US. However, he opines that they cannot enforce regulations on self-hosted wallets.

He further explains that it is about requiring users to prove that when they are withdrawing from an exchange, they need to testify to the exchange platform that the address being drawn to belongs to the user. This could be worrisome for the exchanges, as many people maybe using these crypto wallets for various purchases.

In other discussions, Paul Brody, an innovation leader for blockchain and CoinDesk columnist, discussed how more financial advisors are allocating funds to crypto currency. The Bitwise survey of 1,000 America’s financial advisors allocating crypto increased by approximately 50% between 2019 and 2020, the article noted.

3. Ethereum – 90 mentions

The potential of Ethereum to change everything, and Microsoft adopting Ethereum blockchain for gaming royalties, were popularly discussed during the month. According to a video shared by Mike Novogratz, an ex-hedge fund manager, cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum has the potential to change everything we live with, right from gaming, business, to how we vote.

Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH) currently trades around $230 and has a market capitalisation of about $25bn, thereby making it the second most valuable cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. Ethereum was developed to improve Bitcoin and its capabilities. Ethereum can be used to secure, codify, decentralise, and secure just about anything, and raised nearly $18m in bitcoin through a crowd sale to fund its development in 2014.

In other discussions, Anne Connelly, a Bitcoin fundraising expert, Microsoft and Big Four firm Ernst & Young were expanding Microsoft’s blockchain solution on a private Quorum network based on Ethereum for gaming rights and royalties management. The blockchain solution will allow partners to know how much they earned in real time, while at the same letting Microsoft record the transactions in an automated and compliant manner.

4. Banking – 50 mentions

Federally chartered banks and thrifts using stablecoins to conduct payment activities, and cryptocurrency exchange platforms having a banking charter license, were popularly discussed in January. According to an article shared by Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer of CoinShares, an investment firm, national banks and federal savings associations can now validate, secure, and record payments on the independent node verification networks (INVN).

This implies that banks in the US can use INVNs and related stablecoins to carry out their payment activities. A bank must also comply with all the regulations and fair banking practices, apart from being aware of the potential risks associated with INVN activities while deploying these technologies, the article noted.

In other discussions, Riccardo Spagni, a member of Monero Core Team, shared an article on Kraken, a US-based cryptocurrency exchange, having a banking charter license and not being aware of any regulatory issues with handling the cryptocurrency Monero.

The anti-money laundering of regulation of privacy-enabled cryptocurrencies or privacy coins combines the benefits of both, the traditional financial system and cryptocurrencies and blockchain, to protect the financial privacy of businesses and individuals. Privacy coins also allow users to share limited information about themselves and the transaction, thereby providing financial privacy.

5. Wallets – 48 mentions

Payments over $500,000 being made to different virtual wallets right before the storming of the US Capitol Building, and knowing how to switch cryptocurrency wallets, were popularly discussed during the month. According to an article shared Vinay Gupta, founder and CEO of Mattereum, a smart contracts provider, payments in Bitcoin worth over $500,000 were made to 22 different virtual wallets that belonged to far-right activists and internet personalities, before the storming of the US Capitol Building.

A cryptocurrency compliance start-up Chainalysis, reported that they have now got evidence that many of the alt-right groups and personalities had received large bitcoin donations as part of the single transaction before the Capitol Hill siege. The report strongly suggested that the donor was a now-deceased computer programmer based out of France.

In other discussions, Andreas M Antonopoulos, discussed how to migrate from one cryptocurrency wallet to another. He further adds that users should know the basics, as Bitcoin owners can run into problems while moving funds from one wallet to another. For instance, newbies can face problems such as the wallet transferring to an address that one may not be aware of.

Antonopoulos stated that he has recently funded an idea, which is going to be merged into a popular software called the Electrum wallet to fix these problems. It is a desktop wallet that runs on Mac, Linux, and Windows, and is cross platform, and is full of features, he explained.