By 
Bitcoin on Thursday smashed previous price records to hit an all-time high of $7,367 for the fourth day in a row, however, it soon corrected to below $7100. At the time of writing the cryptocurrency is trading at $7017, posting a market cap of a whopping $117 billion.
After gaining 7.85% in the last 24 hours, Bitcoin single-handedly took the entire crypto market cap to $191 billion and raised its dominance to 61.4%.
Bitcoin’s bull run seems unstoppable from here. This rally is still riding on investor’s optimism over CME Group’s announcement that it will list bitcoin futures contracts on its derivatives exchange.
Soon after setting an all-time high of 7367, Bitcoin price flash crashed by $600 reaching as low as $6821, but immediately recovered back to $7,000. The bitcoin price demonstrated resilience following the flash crash, and its quick recovery is evidence of investor and trader optimism about derivatives exchange operator CME Group’s announcement.
Furthermore, the launch of Bitcoin futures is widely expected to lead to the first Bitcoin ETF, an exchange-traded fund that will hold bitcoin futures contracts.
Bitcoin couldn’t have asked for a better start to this month. Looking back, Bitcoin had a great start to September as well, but we all know how it went. China’s regulation made Bitcoin lose 30% of its value overnight. At one point the cryptocurrency was trading below $2900. Let that be a great reminder of how volatile cryptocurrency market really is.
Altcoin market, on the other hand, continues to bleed. The Bitcoin price rally has left Ethereum struggling. On Thursday, the ETH price dipped 4% to $288. Over the course of the past week, Ethereum’s value against Bitcoin has declined by 20%, reducing ETH/BTC to a seven-month low. “Flippening” now looks more like “Slippening.”
Bitcoin Cash was the only major altcoin to register gains – rising 15.26% to $577 making it third largest cryptocurrency, overtaking Ripple. At present, Bitcoin Cash has a market cap of $9.6 billion.
Top Stories from the Crypto World
1. SEC warns against celebrity ICO endorsements
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which in a ruling issued over the summer legally qualified ICOs as securities, said today that celebrities who endorse token sales might be violating so-called “anti-touting” laws if they don’t state what compensation they received if any.
We’ve seen Floyd Mayweather, Paris Hilton, Jamie Foxx, Dennis Rodman and many, many others who have embraced this trend. In some cases, the celebrities apparently experienced a twinge of regret and deleted their endorsements from their social media platforms, like Hilton did with Lydian Coin.
Broadly speaking, regulators from Canada to China to Singapore are cracking down on ICOs to try and protect gullible investors, which is probably a good thing.
The SEC said:
“Celebrities and others are using social media networks to encourage the public to purchase stocks and other investments. These endorsements may be unlawful if they do not disclose the nature, source, and amount of any compensation paid, directly or indirectly, by the company in exchange for the endorsement.”
2. Blockchain and cryptocurrency regulations are unnecessary, says Reserve Bank of Australia
Australian central bank Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) has claimed that the cryptocurrencies and their underlying Blockchain technology do not pose urgent regulatory issues so far. The officials also stated that the central bank will not support any efforts to regulate the core protocols making up the Blockchain networks.
Since 2015, the position of the Australian central bank on the digital currencies and Blockchain technology has been consistent so far. This could be an indication to Bitcoin and Blockchain companies to consider moving to Australia, in case they are facing issues with the banks in their country.
3. Ron Paul worried Big Brother can spy on Bitcoin
Ron Paul a retired Republican lawmaker with strong libertarian leanings, has long advocated that the U.S. should return its currency to the gold standard. In a recent interview, he said, this year’s rapid Bitcoin price rally has not yet convinced him to trade his gold bars for bitcoins.
Paul conceded that he does not understand the technology behind cryptocurrency, but expressed concern that the government can easily track cryptocurrency usage.