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Bitcoin price continues the bullish rally breaking past $4000 mark and bringing the entire cryptocurrency above $140 billion market cap. It remains to be seen whether it will lead the cryptocurrency to breach much awaited resistance level of $4100.
The crypto market cap has grown by about $10 billion since the start of the week, potentially indicating that traders are adjusting to the post-China bitcoin exchange ban environment.
One of the factors influencing Bitcoin’s climb is the continued development of Asian cryptocurrency infrastructure following China’s hostile stance towards local Bitcoin exchanges. South Korea and Japan are expected to fill the void created by the Chinese Bitcoin giants like, OKCoin, Huobi, and BTCC.
So much so that Kakao, South Korea’s largest messaging platform, announced plans to to create a major cryptocurrency exchange, and NXC – a Korean holding company for the $10 billion Japanese gaming firm Nexon – has just purchased a majority stake in Korbit, Korea’s second-largest bitcoin exchange.
Geopolitical factors still continue to play between the US and North Korea. Although, in the past two days, it has gotten a bit quiet so a bit of profit-taking from the earlier risk-off flows is happening.
Top Stories from the Crypto World
1. Another Bitcoin hard fork is on the way
After Bitcoin Cash, miners and a bunch of developers are getting together to create their own version of Bitcoin. The upcoming one is Bitcoin Gold, which aims to follow a similar launch plan as Bitcoin Cash. The idea of the project is to release an improved protocol, one that will challenge Bitcoin Cash in particular.
Led by Jack Liao, CEO of Hong Kong mining firm LightningASIC, bitcoin gold is slated to launch on October 25, with its cryptocurrency being opened to exchanges on November 1.
Why it matters: While these forked Bitcoin version will never be valued close to the original Bitcoin, they will only create confusion for new investors. Now that we know how a Bitcoin fork works out, most of the seasoned investors will be looking to make quick money off it.
2. Chinese ICO ban may end soon
Next Communist party elections are to be held on Oct 18. New elections spell change for most governments, and this is certainly true in China. Even though the elections are not democratic, there is a good chance it will contribute substantial changes to the governance of China.
Most notably, the election will include the retiring of five of the seven current members of the Politburo, the main governing body of the Chinese government. According to Forbes, there may well be political motives to the recent ICO ban that will make it unnecessary after the elections are complete.
3. Japan considers launching J-coin ahead of 2020 Olympics
Banks in Japan are looking to create a digital currency, the J-Coin, intended to eliminate cash as a payment option. The coin is being planned with the blessing of financial regulators for before the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo and is intended to streamline the financial system.
A good thing to know: Recently, Japan once again became the largest Bitcoin exchange market with 50.75 percent market share of the global Bitcoin exchange market.