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Over the weekend, the price of Bitcoin dipped as low as $7,300 on most major cryptocurrency exchanges. However, the start of the week couldn’t have been better for not just for the largest cryptocurrency, but the entire crypto market. Bitcoin price increased from $7,240 to $8,467 overnight.
Many analysts have attributed the recent increase in the price of Bitcoin to the result of the 2018 G20 Buenos Aires summit, during which the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the global watchdog that oversees banks and financial networks as a representative of 20 major economies, stated that existing regulations on cryptocurrencies like bitcoin will be held and no additional restriction or regulation shall be issued.
FSB’s official report referencing FSB Chair and Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney’s letter read:
“The FSB’s initial assessment is that crypto-assets do not pose risks to global financial stability at this time. The market continues to evolve rapidly, however, and this initial assessment could change if crypto-assets were to become significantly more widely used or interconnected with the core of the regulated financial system.”
While this news and events are keeping many investors at bay, Tom Lee, a managing partner at Fundstrat has a different opinion. He believes that Bitcoin can reach $91,000 by March 2020, if it repeats its past performance of rising from the ashes following sharp declines.
Cardano and EOS were the biggest winners yesterday, gaining 23% and 35% respectively.
It is highly unlikely that the G20 meetup was the sole factor behind the recent price surge of bitcoin and the entire cryptocurrency market. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $8,631, representing a market cap of $146 billion and 43.6% dominance.
Bitcoin is still in a downtrend, as it is trading inside the descending channel and below both moving averages. It is likely that the prices have already reached the bottom, if not, next major support lies at $6,075.04.
Top Stories from the Crypto World
1. Trump bans US citizens and citizens from Venezuela’s crypto ‘Petro’
US president Donald Trump has issued an executive order banning US citizens from buying, trading or dealing in cryptocurrencies (the Petro) related to the Venezuelan government.
In what is certain to be the first crypto-related executive action taken by a US president, the White House revealed Donald Trump’s executive order to unconditionally ban all activities related to Venezuelan government-issued or related cryptocurrencies within the United States.
Here’s an excerpt from the executive order confirmed:
“All transactions related to, provision of financing for, and other dealings in, by a United States person or within the United States, any digital currency, digital coin, or digital token, that was issued by, for, or on behalf of the Government of Venezuela on or after January 9, 2018, are prohibited as of the effective date of this order.”
2. Mastercard very happy to support state cryptocurrencies, just not anonymous “junk”
Payments giant Mastercard is fully behind supporting state-backed, central bank-issued cryptocurrencies, a senior executive has revealed.
Mastercard Asia-Pacific co-president Ari Sarker has opined that the world’s second-biggest payments company would be “very happy to look at” supporting national digital currencies that are issued and backed by central banks.
“If governments look to create national digital currency we’d be very happy to look at those in a more favorable way [compared with existing decentralized cryptocurrencies].” he said.
“So long as it’s backed by a regulator and the value…” he added, saying “it is not anonymous, it is meeting all the regulatory requirements, I think that would be of greater interest for us to explore.”
3. Keep financial institutions out of crypto, says France’s central bank
France’s central bank wants to keep banks and other financial institutions out of the cryptocurrency business.
In a report published at the beginning of March, the Bank of France proposes to ban insurance companies, banks and trust companies from “taking part in deposits and loans in crypto-assets.” It also advocates prohibiting all marketing of “crypto-asset” savings products to the public, save for the “most informed investors.”
“Very little value is expressed in these crypto-assets,” the authors claim. They remark further:
“The anonymity that characterizes the means of production and transfer of the majority of crypto-assets favors above all a risk of them being used to criminal ends (sold on the internet for illicit services or goods) or used to the end of money laundering and the financing of terrorism.”