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Bitcoin price rallied throughout Sunday to cross a much-anticipated mark of $4500 for the first time since September 8. Despite falling prey to the mid-week downtrend, the Bitcoin price rose 5.46% in the past 24 hours and is trading at $4572 with the market cap of $76 billion.
After the shutdown of Chinese cryptocurrency exchanges, resilience shown by Bitcoin is staggering. Segwit transactions, on the other hand, continue to accelerate – moving average now at over 9% of transactions even though very few wallets natively support it.
This upward trend could be because of the local Chinese news hinting that the country could introduce a licensure process for Bitcoin exchanges sometime in the mid-term future. While this uptick is exciting, let’s not forget Segwit2x hard fork is just around the corner.
If I remember correctly, just before Bitcoin Cash hard fork Bitcoin suffered massive losses and at one point BCH was more profitable to mine than BTC. Once again we could see investors and traders panic selling just before the hardfork, which could potentially split the chain and stall this ongoing rally.
Top Stories from the Crypto World
1. tZERO will raise a fortune, says Patrick Byrne
Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock, confirmed that SEC-compliant token exchange and marketplace tZERO will hold an initial coin offering (ICO) by Thanksgiving.
Last month, Overstock announced that tZERO, one of the online retailer’s blockchain subsidiaries, had entered into a joint venture with RenGen and the Argon Group to develop the first FINRA- and SEC-compliant ICO marketplace.
Byrne predicts the tZERO ICO could “easily” raise as much as $200 million to $500 million, potentially breaking the record for token sale fundraising.
A good thing to know: The current ICO fundraising record is $257 million, which was set by decentralized cloud storage platform Filecoin in September.
2. Coinbase to support both Blockchains after Segwit2x fork
One of the largest Bitcoin exchanges, Coinbase, finally broke silence on how they will deal with the upcoming Segwit2x hard fork.
In a blog post, the company’s vice president of operations, Dan Romero said, Coinbase will provide customers with access to coins on both blockchains, although they may restrict access following the fork until both blockchains are stable and secure.
However, Romero says they will not release a detailed plan for how they will name the two blockchains until closer to to the scheduled date for the fork.
3. Chinese investors say their government doesn’t know anything about Bitcoin
In September, the Chinese government, People’s Bank of China (PBoC), and local financial authorities imposed a nationwide ban on cryptocurrency trading platforms, shutting down some of the largest cryptocurrency trading platforms including OKCoin, Huobi, and BTCC.
Throughout the past month, traders and investors in China have criticized the Chinese government’s sudden crackdown on local cryptocurrency exchanges and trading activities.
hang Yanhua, a major Bitcoin investor and a founder of an investment fund focused in cryptocurrencies, stated:
“The authorities don’t understand anything about Bitcoin!”
Another investor said, “I expect nothing from the government… but the fate of Bitcoin does not depend on the Chinese authorities.”
But after this strict stance on cryptocurrencies by the Chinese government, there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. Lately, the Chinese government has expressed its optimism towards releasing a licensing program for cryptocurrency exchanges to prevent cryptocurrency transactions flowing into underground economies and black markets.
In hindsight, this nationwide ban turned out to be a good news for Bitcoin investors. It made them realize that Bitcoin is not depended on any country whatsoever.