5 Things to Do Other Than Worry About Coronavirus and Bitcoin Price
Whether you’re an avid crypto enthusiast or just mildly interested in this blooming industry, chances are you’ve read, seen or heard more stories about the coronavirus and the Bitcoin (BTC) halving than you’d probably like to.
In all fairness, the coronavirus led to the world has collectively agreeing to press pause in an unprecedented manner, so the fact that a global pandemic happens to be taking place around the same time as the most important event in crypto means that full-on, 24/7 media coverage is to be expected.
However, sometimes people just need a break from the constant bombardment of grim news stories and Bitcoin halving technical so here are five things you can do that are not related to the coronavirus and Bitcoin halving.
Get your hands dirty and build mining rig
Learn about options and margin trading
Decentralize by running a Bitcoin node
Diversify by researching other interesting high-tech industries
Osho Jha is an investor, data scientist, and tech company executive who enjoys finding and analyzing unique data sets for investing in both public and private markets.
The week of March 9 was a ride regardless of what market you trade and invest in. Markets spiking up, markets spiking down, longs taking drawdowns, shorts getting stopped out on intraday bounces. While investor sentiment across markets was negative, there was also a sense of confusion as “there was nowhere to hide” in terms of assets. Interestingly, I’ve yet to speak with anyone who made a “real killing” in that week’s trading. The ones who fared best are the ones who moved out of assets and into USD/hard currency and now have many options as to where to vest that capital.
On March 12, bitcoin having already traced down from $9200 to $7700 and then to $7200 in the prior few days, plunged from $7200 to $3800 before spiking up and settling in the $4800 to $5200. The move tested the resolve of bitcoin bulls who had expected the upcoming halving to continue to drive the price higher. Similarly, sentiment towards the crypto king and leading decentralized currency plunged with many pointing to bitcoin’s failure to be a hedge in troubled times - something that was long assumed to be a given due to the “digital-gold” nature of bitcoin. I, however, believe that these investors are mistaken in their analysis and that the safe haven nature of bitcoin is continuing.
See also: Noelle Acheson - Why Bitcoin’s Safe-Haven Narrative Has Flown Out the Window
Earlier that week, I wrote a short post on my thoughts around the BTC drawdown from $9200 to $7700. In it, I pointed out that gold prices were also taking a drawdown along with stocks and rates. My suspicion was there was some sort of liquidity crunch happening causing a cascading fire sale of assets. This more or less played out exactly as one would expect, with all markets tanking later in the week and the Fed stepping in with a liquidity injection for short
Bitcoin has been consistently processing blocks more slowly as of late. For the past few days, the block time on the network has been more than 13 minutes.
Blocks times are slowing down on Bitcoin’s network. Although block times have a tendency to stay stable, this is the first such spike since late 2018.
Bitcoin's difficulty is set to plunge
As reported by U.Today, Bitcoin's mining difficulty hit an all-time high of 16.55 trillion on March 10. Its adjustments occur every 2016 blocks to reflect market conditions.
After the historic 38 price drop on March 12, many miners were forced to shut down their rigs that are no longer profitable, but the expected difficulty decline will allow them to get back to business.
It is worth noting that Bitcoin's hash rate also plunged to 82 TH/s due to miner capitulation, Blockchain data shows.
To thrive amidst your competitors in this digital age, you need to work on having an effective communication network, and blockchain technology is revolutionizing how businesses function due to its range of benefits. Industries including finance, healthcare, manufacturing, education and telecommunications have made its adoption a criticial priority. According to a Deloitte survey, 53 percent of fintech companies believe blockchain has become vital for their organization. PwC’s 2018 global blockchain survey also confirmed that 84 percent of companies, including the likes of Amazon and Facebook, are already dabbling in it. And expectations are high that blockchain will become even more widespread over the next several years.
Data Security
Data security is everything for businesses, as it ensures that their records are not susceptible to an attack. Nonetheless, businesses have been hacked time and again for relying on traditional methods of storage. In 2013, there was a data breach on Yahoo’s database and three billion records were affected. Likewise, data pertaining to Capital One credit cardholders (100 million Americans and six million Canadians) was hacked in 2019.
Blockchain, on the other hand, is a secure platform for storing information. It uses cryptographic techniques, Merkle trees, hash functions and public and private keys to make it difficult for a hacker to alter its content. The immutable nature of this technology ensures that stored content cannot be changed. Also, its high-level security makes it less susceptible to cyberattacks. Interestingly, there are many blockchain projects (e.g. Eximchain and Signal) working on enhancing how businesses would safely communicate data.
Data Privacy
While blockchain's content is open and accessible to anyone, there are permissioned and permissionless blockchains. The latter ensures that sensitive information is kept away from the public's eye.
The top coins failed to fix their short-term growth. As a result, most of the cryptocurrencies have returned to the red zone. The only exception is Bitcoin SV (BSV), whose rate has increased by 1.58% over the last day.
BTC/USD
Yesterday's Bitcoin (BTC) price forecast came true as the correction occurred. However, the daily candle closed above $6,000 which means that the short-term bullish trend is about to continue.
The more likely projection is that Bitcoin (BTC) could reach $6,400, which is the nearest resistance zone.
At press time, Bitcoin is trading at $6,143.
ETH/USD
As it usually happens, when the rate of Bitcoin (BTC) falls, the price of the chief altcoin travels downwards even faster. The current situation is an exception to the rule. Over the last 24 hours, the rate of Ethereum (ETH) has declined by 7.54%.
At press time, Ethereum is trading at $131.57
XRP/USD
XRP is showing better price dynamics than Ethereum (ETH), but worse than Bitcoin (BTC). Since yesterday, the rate of the third most popular crypto has gone down by 6.36%.
The growth of XRP has not been cancelled. According to the daily chart, bearish sentiments are getting weaker. This is confirmed by the declining selling trading volume. Moreover, the blue line of the Moving Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD) indicator is about to cross the red line, which is a bullish signal. All in all, traders might see XRP trading at $0.17 next week.
At press time, XRP is trading at $0.1570.
The digital currency is now up 30 percent from its March lows, outperforming the likes of S&P 500 (25 percent), Nifty (27 percent) as well as most other major markets.
The world's largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin soared over 14 percent on April 30 reclaiming its pre-coronavirus bull run of 2020.
It was quoting at $8,852.46, up 14.1 percent, at the time of writing this copy. It touched an intraday high of $8,973.08, nudging the crucial $9,000 levels and an intraday low of $7,755.07.
Bitcoin is now trading at a critical inflexion point, where significant Fibonacci retracements, 50-day moving averages, and 10-day moving averages converge on the daily chart," said Forbes report, quoting analysts at Singapore-based bitcoin index fund Stack.
The turning of this resistance to support could see "further price action upside towards $9,300".
With the sharp surge, Bitcoin has reclaimed its position as the top rising asset class of 2020 once again, outperforming the likes of gold, crude, stocks as well as corporate bond
Is FOMO playing out?
The amount of new Bitcoin mined every 10 minutes or so will drop by 50 percent from May 12. Sharp price surges were seen in the past adjustments of 2012 and 2016, which could potentially mean that the Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) could be playing out in the top digital currency.
This was also evident from the 21 percent rise in Bitcoin prices in the last five days.
"The media coverage of the halving over the last five months, combined with continually increasing Google search volume for ‘bitcoin halving’, suggests that we may see similar FOMO around the upcoming halving event," Danny Kim, head of revenue at SFOX, told Coindesk
A court in Shanghai, China, has reportedly ruled that bitcoin is an asset protected by Chinese law in a case that has dragged on for years. The case involves a theft of two different cryptocurrencies, one being bitcoin, from an American. The defendants argued that bitcoin was not recognized under Chinese law; the court disagreed, citing documents by the central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).
Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People’s Court has reportedly ruled on a bitcoin case that has dragged on for multiple years, Chinese media reported on Thursday. The case involved three Chinese and a Malaysian who broke into the home of an American and his Chinese wife on the night of June 12, 2018, East China daily media Shine detailed. After locking the couple up and beating them, the intruders forced them to transfer 18.88 bitcoins and 6,466 skycoins to their account.
The first hearing of this case found that there was an economic dispute and the perpetrators were sentenced to prison for six and a half months to eight months. The defendants agreed to give all the skycoins back but not bitcoins, arguing that cryptocurrencies were not assets under Chinese law so the couple did not have the right to demand them back. The court disagreed and ordered them to return all the cryptocurrencies they took from the couple or pay them what the coins were worth. When the couple received neither the bitcoins nor the equivalent funds, they filed a lawsuit.
The four defendants appealed, reiterating that cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and skycoin, were not legal property under Chinese law. However, Shine news outlet reported on Thursday that the Shanghai court has ordered them to return the coins, adding:The court found bitcoin to be a digital asset that should be protected by law.
Liu Jiang, the chief judge in the case, explained that the documents released by the central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), have never denied bitcoin as an asset and the laws in China do not prohibit citizens from holding them.
Several other Chinese courts have made a similar ruling on cryptocurrency. For example, the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration recognized cryptocurrencies in a case involving 20 bitcoins, 50 bitcoin cash, and 13 bitcoin diamond in 2018. Last year, the Hangzhou Internet Court also legally recognized bitcoin. Recently, the Shenzhen Futian District People’s Court in Guangdong Province declared ethereum legal property in China.
A man who enforced anti-money laundering under two U.S. presidents has been named the CEO of the Libra Association
May 6, the Libra Association announced the appointment of Obama’s former under secretary for terrorism as its first CEO.
Stuart Levey served as an under secretary for terrorism under the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, focusing on the enforcement of all U.S. anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing laws by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). In his most recent position, he served as the chief legal officer at HSBC.
Levey’s appointment continues a trend of Libra trying to make peace with regulators
Bipartisan support
The press release quotes Katie Haun, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz and Libra Association board member who led the CEO search committee:
“Stuart brings to the Libra Association the rare combination of an accomplished leader in both the government, where he enjoyed bipartisan respect and influence, and the private sector where he managed teams spread across the globe. This unique experience allows him [...] strike the right balance between innovation and regulation.”
Empowering billion people while keeping bad players out
In his statement, Levey emphasized the importance of empowering a billion people while preventing illicit activity:
“I am honored to join the Libra Association as it charts a bold path forward to harness the power of technology to transform the global payments landscape. Technology provides us with the opportunity to make it easier for individuals and businesses to send and receive money, and to empower more than a billion people who have been left on the sidelines of the financial system.”
Under scrutiny from the U.S. government, Libra has had to make some compromises to its original vision. Perhaps, Levey, who enjoyed bipartisan support while in office and who has vast experience in the field of financial regulation is the man who will move the project forward in the face of increasing competition.
Radio host Randi Zuckerberg, who is better known as a sister of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, recently posted quotes from notable figures in the crypto space with whom she did interviews on Sirius XM.
One of them was Ripple's senior vice president of product management Asheesh Birla who predicted that Ripple would be 'really taking off' in the next two years.
"I think will be really taking off in the next 2 years. The world order will be reshuffled using the blockchain technology. I think Asia will lead the pack," he said.