Kategorie: Bitcoin News

There is no precise regulation of cryptocurrencies in the United States at the moment, but regulators are focusing their attention on the industry.

Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), has pointed out that he believes Bitcoin is the only security. He made this statement during an interview with CNBC on Monday.

When asked about the regulatory efforts by the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Gensler said most cryptocurrencies fall under securities. He added that he believes only Bitcoin is a commodity. Gensler said;

“This is a highly speculative asset class. We’ve known this for a long time. The ups and downs of this speculative asset class. When people invest in bitcoin and hundreds of other crypto tokens, they hope for a return, just like when they invest in other financial assets. Many cryptocurrencies have the key attributes of securities, which means they fall under the SEC. Some, like bitcoin, and that’s the only one I’m going to say, are commodities.”

Gensler pointed out that there needs to be a collaboration between the SEC, the CFTC and the banking regulator to ensure that cryptocurrency investors are adequately protected. 

He complained that most tokens currently available in the cryptocurrency market are non-compliant with the financial regulators in place. 

The SEC chair was also asked about stablecoins. Stablecoins have become a hot topic within the financial ecosystem. The recent collapse of the UST stablecoin has seen regulators in various parts of the world turn their attention to stablecoins.

Gensler pointed out that work needs to be done around stablecoins. He added that banking regulators need to ensure that the investing public is protected from stablecoins. He stated that;

“There’s a lot of risk in crypto, and there’s also a lot of risk in classic securities markets. In the U.S, we have market regulators like the CFTC and the SEC to help protect the public against fraud and manipulation in the markets.”

Bitcoin has dropped below $21k after losing more than 1% of its value in the last 24 hours.

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Bitcoin has lost more than 60% of its value in the last seven months, but that hasn’t changed its status as a macro asset.

In a recent interview, Mike Novogratz, the CEO of Galaxy Digital, told the New York Magazine that Bitcoin is not going away as a macro asset.

He made this statement when asked about the ongoing bear market. Novogratz said;

“You have to put things in perspective. If I told you at the beginning of the pandemic you could buy Zoom stock or bitcoin — today, you would have doubled your money on bitcoin, and you’d have made nothing on Zoom. So that’s what I think is hard for people to get their heads around. This has been a complete and total old-school ass-beating. But it’s important not to throw the baby out with the bathwater because we had a speculative mania in lots of asset classes. Bitcoin is not going away as a macro asset. Web3 is not going away.”

Novogratz believes that the metaverse will grow more prominent over the coming years, and more people will spend digital assets within the metaverse. 

When asked if the current market crash is similar to what we saw in 2018 and 2014, Novogratz said each bear market is different. He stated that;

“I’m hoping we saw the worst last weekend. I’d be more confident of that if I knew where inflation was going to be in the next two quarters. But if you had a sell order, you most likely sold — ethereum went down to $890, bitcoin went down to $17,900. And so I think now you’re going to see the triage you see after big crashes, where people are a little less risky or a lot less risky. And so, in all likelihood, we have a big recession coming. And that’s not terrible for crypto, but it’s terrible for the economy. And it’s not good for the stock market.”

The crash of the UST stablecoin a few weeks ago sparked fear of stablecoins within the cryptocurrency ecosystem. However, Novogratz said even the crash of the leading stablecoin Tether wouldn’t be catastrophic to the cryptocurrency market.

Bitcoin is trading above the $21k mark after adding more than 4% to its value over the last seven days.

The post Bitcoin is not going away as a macro asset, says Mike Novogratz appeared first on CoinJournal.

The CoinJournal podcast sat down with Jake Yocomm-Piatt, who formerly worked on Bitcoin before fleeing to co-found Decred, which is now a top 100 coin. 

Our discussion meandered through the topics of Bitcoin, self-sovereignty, and Central Bank issued digital currencies (CBDC’s), often taking a philosophical angle and hypothesising about what the future may hold. Personally, it was fun to examine the potential dystopian scenario of CBDCs being used for malevolent purposes, and how sovereignty over ones money is such a vital factor in today’s world. 

We also touched on how this bear market differs from previous cycles and the issues driving the macro climate, including diving deep on money printing. 

Of course, you can’t talk about crypto these days without mentioning some of the knock-on effects of the contagion triggered by the Luna and Celsius insolvencies, and how regulation could protect (or even harm) consumers going forward. 

Full interview is below – enjoy! 

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Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, among other major altcoins started the week on a surge after a bloodbath that saw the majority of cryptocurrencies nosedive below expected levels over the past two months of 2022.

Yesterday, BTC reached a new three-month high after hitting a high of $47,765 before retracing back to $47,506.06 at the time of writing.

This article focuses on the forces behind the current Bitcoin price comeback.

Factors behind the current BTC rally

There are two main factors that are being attributed to the current Bitcoin (BTC) price surge that has seen Bitcoin maintain above $47K as it heads back above $50. 

These factors include increased short-sellers and a surge in BTC whale addresses.

• Short Sellers

Glassnode, a well-known crypto analyst, investigated to see what the surge is all about. In a video, the analyst said that those betting on a protracted drop in Bitcoin price (Short Sellers) are the ones responsible for the current market trend.

Besides, when the market experiences dramatic upswings, there are short liquidations too.

The analyst said:

‘’They can watch it falling, down, down. They eventually get enough confidence to say, “You know what? I’m tired of being squeezed out of my long position. I’m going to go short.” They did it at the exact bottom, which is impressive, but then they are squeezed out oppositely, and the trend begins to shift.’’

The current bitcoin bullish trend started on February 24, 2022, after ’short‘ liquidations started gaining momentum. At the time BTC was trading at around $37000. 

According to the analyst, although ’short sellers‘ are responsible for the surge, they need to have an organic demand.

• A surge in BTC whale addresses

Another factor for the current surge is the growing number of BTC whale addresses.

Glassnode said that there has been a huge increase in the overall accumulation balance which shows that more people are stacking the coin. From the address growth, we can also see that there is a genuine organic demand.

The post Bitcoin price surges above $47.5K: what is fuelling the comeback? appeared first on Coin Journal.

• Pompliano says Bitcoin has shown greater decoupling from stocks and is now positive year-to-date.

• The Fear & Greed index jumped from “neutral” to “greed” between Sunday and Monday.

• Nexo and BitBull executives are also bullish about Bitcoin, with $46,000 now a key price level for bulls.

Bitcoin’s breakout over the past few days has included a rally to highs of $48,075 as seen in intraday trades on Monday.

The upside has pushed BTC price into the positive territory year-to-date while showing a greater decoupling from the stock market.

BTC is up, stocks are down YTD

In Pomp Investments founder Anthony Pompliano’s words, “Bitcoin is destroying stocks this year,” even as the “haze” that shrouded the market at the start of the year begins to clear. 

He notes that Bitcoin is up while stocks are down, with the sideways action giving way to fresh gains in BTC that have left equities in the dust.

“We are watching Bitcoin outperform the equities market year-to-date, just like it did last year and just like it’s done over the last decade or so,” the entrepreneur said.

Looking at the S&P 500, we see its year-to-date performance at -4.61%. The Nasdaq Composite is 9.33% down, while the Dow Jones Industrial is -4.45% YTD. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is nearly 4% up year-to-date, with gains since the YTD low of $33k now around 44%.

Fear & Greed index

Pomp also points to the Fear & Greed index and says it’s undergone quite a shift in just a few days.  There’s a lot of buy-side pressure as the “greed” index hits slightly above 60. On Sunday, the metric was around 49 (neutral) and it hovered in the mid-20s last week.

The rally to highs of $48k proves Bitcoin remains the king even when there’s „blood on the streets,“ Pompliano added.

He says Bitcoin continues to show it’s the „ultimate safe haven asset.“

Pandemic-fueled recession occurred & bitcoin appreciated in price.

QE-fueled inflation occurred & bitcoin appreciated in price.

War-fueled market chaos occurred & bitcoin appreciated in price.

Bitcoin continues to serve as the ultimate safe haven asset.

— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) March 28, 2022

According to the co-founder and managing partner at Nexo Antoni Trenchev, Bitcoin’s rally has seen it test 2022’s peak for the fifth time. With more people likely to “pile” into the market, as a result, it is possible to see further buying propel BTC-USD even higher.

“It might just be time to awaken from the Bitcoin-sideways slumber that’s been 2022,” Trenchev said in a quote Pompliano highlights in his YouTube comment.

Joe DiPasquale, the CEO of BitBull Capital says bulls might now want to see BTC-USD stay above $46,000 to give room for new momentum. “The coming week is also important as it marks the end of the quarter, and we could see increased volatility after that,” he told Pomp.

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