Its exactly why bitcoin (BTC) was created, Michael Novogratz, CEO of the cryptocurrency-focused investment firm Galaxy Digital, told CNBC last week.

Its a common refrain heard these days from bitcoin bulls:The U.S. dollar and other currencies will eventually be debased by the injections of trillions of dollars of coronavirus-related aid and monetary stimulus bygovernments and central banks. That should, theoretically,strengthenthe case for bitcoin, the oldest and largest cryptocurrency, as a hedge against inflation.

Youre readingFirst Mover, CoinDesks daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you dont have to. You can subscribe here.

Related: Blockchain Bites: Major Crypto Players Sued, Steem Froze Accounts and More

Such predictions might eventually come true, but for now bitcoin investors are stuck in a holding pattern: The cryptocurrency pushed above $7,000 on Monday, but for the past couple weeks it has struggled to hold that level, whichit hasntreliably traded above since early March.

Anice recovery from the lows leaves investors hopeful, cryptocurrency analysis firmArcane Research wrote Friday in a report. However, this is not yet reflected in the market sentiment.

Any inflationstemming fromfiscal and monetary stimulus could take a while to appear partly because of higher unemployment and a drop-off in economic demandcould relieve upward pressure on consumer prices in the near term. In the U.S. alone, roughly 10 million new unemployment claims were filed during the last two full weeks of March, and JPMorgan economists predictthat a report this week will reveal another seven million claims were filed last week. Bank of America says the lack of an effective policy response to control the spread of the virus will push 2020 global growth to a contraction of 2.7 percent, instead of an expansion of 0.3 percent.

Nic Carter, a partner at Castle Island Ventures and co-founder of the blockchain analytics startup CoinMetrics, wrote last week for CoinDesk that the devaluation of money does not happen immediately, but over time.

Related: Introducing CoinDesks All-New Newsletters

The 2008 financial crisis prompted the Federal Reserve to doubletotal assetsin a matter of weeks, and then doubled the size of the balance sheet again to more than $4 trillion over the next few years. But it took the money supply, as measured by M2, more than 12 years to double, at least partly because of low demand for loans in the years after the crisis.

The bitcoin markets tepid reaction thus far to the Federal Reserves announcement of essentiallyunbounded quantitative easingmight disappoint some bitcoiners who are looking for a faster pump.

Sylvain Saurel, author of the blogIn Bitcoin We Trust, wrote last week that a separate move by U.S. regulators to reduce bankreserve requirements could lead to new money creation ad infinitum.

This unprecedented currency devaluation in such a short period of time has been decided by the Federal Reserve in a totally arbitrary manner, Saurel wrote. His conclusion,essentially, was that people should buy bitcoin.

Jay Hao, CEO of the Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange OKEx, wrote last weekin a blog postthat more proactive measures would be needed beyond QE infinity. Those could include anew super-sovereign currency to address trade and economic imbalances created by the U.S. dollars dominant role in global finance.

At present, bitcoinpossesses the characteristics of a super-sovereign currency, Hao wrote.

The investment narrative that bitcoin is a harder currency than U.S. dollars and is getting additional traction from next months halving on the bitcoin blockchain the once-every-four-years occurrence by which the pace ofissuance of new units of the cryptocurrency gets cut in half.

Traders are expected to get a chance this week to observe how prices oftwo bitcoin-offshootcryptocurrencies, Bitcoin SV (BSV) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH),perform as they go through their own quadrennial halvings.

Story continues

Someanalysts said last month that bitcoin was trading in syncwith U.S. stocks. That was seen as a sign thatsome investors were selling the cryptocurrency as part of anindiscriminate flight to safety into dollars.

Olga Feldmeier, CEO of the digital-asset exchange Smart Valor and a self-described outright bitcoin maximalist, says bitcoins price plunge earlier this year undercuts hopes that the cryptocurrency would serve as a safe-haven assetin times of market turmoil. She instead recommended tokenized gold digital tokens like the Pax Gold (PAXG) that offer a crypto-friendly way of investing in the yellow metal, long seen as a reliable inflation hedge.

Kraken, a San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange, noted in an April 4blog postthat the volume of PAXG trading on its platform surged to $13 million in March, a six-fold increase from February levels.

Kraken clients appear to see PAXG as a safe haven of late since it is backed by gold, which typically acts as a safe haven amidst economic uncertainty, according to the post.

But there are some indications that bitcoin might be trading more like gold in recent weeks. VanEck, a money-management firm that offers a bitcoin trust to qualified institutional buyers, saysbitcoins price correlation with gold jumped to 0.47during the last couple weeks of March, from an average 0.03 over the past eight years. (A correlation of 1 implies perfect synchronicity.)

The next couple months could prove pivotalfor bitcoin as the U.S. suffers theworst stretch of thepandemics health crisisand moves into the economic-recovery phase. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, told CNBC last week the recently passed $2 trillion aid packagewould not be enough. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he wouldask Congress for more moneyif a $350 billion pool for small businesses runs out.

More bazookas needed, executives for the Wall Street dealer Jefferies wrote Friday in an open letter to clients and colleagues.

Is bitcoin the real digital gold? With more financial bazookas getting hoisted into position, cryptocurrency markets will serve as theproving ground.

Many Bitcoin advocates think it will prove to be a better long-term store of value than gold, according to the Kraken blog post. Only time will tell.

Editors caveat: No idea if this $20 Bitcoin Logo V2 Neck Gaiter Face Mask is real. If so the free publicity heredoes NOT representan endorsement. It seems like a high price for a mostly polyester bandana. But itcertainly isa sign of the times.

Bitcoin is again looking to establish a strong foothold above $7,000, having tested dip demand with a pullback to $6,600 over the weekend. The cryptocurrency printed a high above $7,100 early Monday and is currently changing hands around $7,090.

The bulls have repeatedly failed to keep gains above the $7,000 mark over the last three weeks, forcing investors to question the sustainability of recovery rally from the March 19 low of $3,867.

Even so, the bias remains bullish, as a pennant breakout confirmed April 2 is still intact. As a result, the cryptocurrency remains on the hunt for a test of the descending 50-day average, currently at $7,522.

If the upside break of $7,000 resistance again proves to be short-lived, the immediate bullish outlook would be neutralized. The bias would turn bearish if prices fall below support at the weekend low of $6,610.

That would open the doors to the higher low of $5,856 created March 30.

Read more:
First Mover: Trillions in Coronavirus Stimulus Bring Out the Bitcoin Bulls - Yahoo Finance

If/when cryptocurrencies based on official legal tenders become the new banter of the financial market, China has the potential to top the list by being one of the early adopters.

China introducing its own cryptocurrency based on its legal tender Yuan is one of the much-anticipated news of the cryptospace. Nevertheless, things have slowed down due to numerous reasons such as the Bitcoin crash, the current pandemic Coronavirus and much more.

While companies are laying off employees, and people are reporting bankruptcy, Alibabas Alipay has been registering several patents for Chinas own cryptocurrency.

Recently, a Chinese local blog reported that Alipay has been making preparations for the central banks cryptocurrency.

From February 21st to March 17th, 2020, Alipay has disclosed five patents related to the digital currency of the central bank. [You can find all the patents here]

On 21st, Method and device for executing transactions with digital currencies and electronic devices was registered followed by A method and device for managing accounts in digital currency on the 25th.

On 28th they published, a method and device for opening a wallet in digital currency and electronic device and recently on March 17, Alipay issued a patent on a digital currency-based anonymous transaction method and system.

The Chinese central banks digital currency DCEP adopts a two-tiered structure and requires operating institutions to participate in the secondary issuance of digital currency. This patent revealed in the background introduction that Alipay is likely to participate in secondary issuance, which is on an equal footing with commercial banks.

The decision-makers have also stated that the cryptocurrency may not have a blockchain necessarily but will comply with the traceability requirements of the digital asset. That said, the registered patents most important invention is how digital currencies can be traced.

Alipay decided to split the digital currency transactions into two; transaction execution instructions corresponding to each participant, and priority-based execution instruction. By sorting the results of transaction execution instructions, digital currency transactions can be traced back to the entire life cycle of digital currency circulation, while concurrent processing can be satisfied, which facilitates the controlled and anonymous circulation of cryptocurrencies.

Not just this, the second patent introduces a specific form of front-end encryption machine.

It can be a hardware device equipped with a secure computing environment. In the secure computing environment equipped with this hardware device, the public and private key equivalent data of the central bank can be maintained. This secure computing The environment can take on some of the cryptographic operations involved in the DC / EP distribution process.

Additionally, the patent released on 25th Feb provides a solution for the lack of supervision on crypto accounts. The patent introduces a method/device for controlling a digital currency account. Certain account restrictions will be deployed between each supervisor and the operating agency on the wallet server. This will help regulators to keep an account of the transactions.

Lastly, the most recent patent released on 17th March is about making transactions anonymous and how the cryptocurrency would be separate from cash money. The patent describes that digital currency is different from the electronic amount in the existing electronic account, but is the digitization of cash banknotes, which has the characteristics of a virtual entity.

Continued here:
Alipays Progress in Developing the Official Chinese Cryptocurrency Amidst the Global Chaos - TWJ News

Lukka, which makes a tax preparation platform for cryptocurrency, has debuted Lukka Library, an interactive collection of academic papers dealing with controversial legal and tax questions that lack official guidance or regulatory frameworks.

The papers are mostly short form, and each addresses a specific issue and is meant to provide viewers with cutting-edge perspectives on issues related to the crypto ecosystems most hotly debated topics. Currently, more than two dozen authors from companies and firms are contributing to this library of information including McDermott Will & Emery; Steptoe & Johnson; Mayer Brown; Baker & Hostetler; Ivins Phillips & Barker; Simmons & Simmons; and the University of Pennsylvania.Some topics available to browse now include identifying the options a crypto holder has to file their taxes, and suggestions on how to value a cryptocurrency that fluctuates frequently. The content will provide insights not only for the existing crypto ecosystem, but is intended to empower existing companies and professionals to break into the crypto market.

Readers of the Lukka Library can submit requests for more topics, adding to the 170 already identified for creation. The collection also provides complete transparency and access to the authors, so that subscribers can solicit opinions and conversations from subject matter experts who wish to be contacted.

The Lukka Library is a unique and important new resource for the crypto tax and legal community, said Andrea Kramer, partner at McDermott, Will & Emery, in a statement. It provides thought leaders from many different, leading firms a platform to share their unique perspectives. At the same time, it offers subscribers a central database from which to gather various points of view to make informed decisions, a task that could normally cost clients many thousands of consulting dollars and potentially weeks to research.

We dont know of any resource that exists today for professionals that provides this level of knowledge from independent sources, added Roger Brown, Lukkas head of tax and regulatory affairs, and one of the content authors. While the IRS has continued to provide guidance on crypto assets, weve assembled comprehensive viewpoints on a number of issues that remain unsolved. Centralizing knowledge in the library reduces the cost of guidance, aligning with our mission to make tax and legal knowledge more accessible to everybody.

Currently, an individual subscription to access all of the Lukka Library content costs $99.95 per year.

Information and access to Lukka Library can be found at https://www.lukkalibrary.com/.

Read more from the original source:
Lukka debuts resource library on all things cryptocurrency - Accounting Today

By Coinlist Posted on 27 March, 2020 0 Comments

One of the most recurring problems of the contemporary trader is detecting price movements before it is too late. In the cryptocurrency market, which trades tirelessly in an environment where volatility reigns, the challenge of identifying price actions in time can be even more difficult. However, there are several strategies that can help you be one of the first to enter at the right time. Find out how to identify when a cryptocurrency is about to skyrocket.

If you have technical analysis knowledge, you will know that there are a series of signals and indicators that can help the investor understand which direction the price of an asset is likely to take. In the case of the crypto industry, it is very important to detect them in time, since market cycles are usually shorter and less stable.

There are different types of breakouts. For example, when the price of a digital currency demonstrates a clear bearish channel, a bullish break is said to have been reached. When the opposite occurs and a well-established bullish guideline is broken, analysts call the case a bearish breakout. But these are not the only cases to identify. There are simple moving average crosses for different periods that allow changes in price movement to be detected. The crossing of death and the golden crossover are very important.

In any case, these will require some experience, or the follow-up analyses published by experts. Also, some of the more advanced platforms allow you to configure price alerts once you identify interest levels. This is an extremely useful tool, but it is only recommended to use for analysis with larger time frames in order to receive notifications that are really worthwhile.

TradingView charting platform allows you to configure notifications in your browser. Other investment platforms are even more powerful and allow you to configure notifications that you can receive through your mobile phone. Some examples include Coinbase and the eToro exchange platform.

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Coinbase is one of the first places that made it easy to buy bitcoin and has since become a widely trusted exchange in the market.

Key Features

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eToro is a multi-asset investment platform with more than 2000 assets, including FX, stocks, Crypto, ETFs, indices and commodities. eToro offers a wide range of cryptos, such as Bitcoin, XRP and others, alongside crypto/fiat and crypto/crypto pairs. eToro users can connect with, learn from, and copy or get copied by other users.

Cryptoassets are highly volatile unregulated investment products. No EU investor protection. eToro USA LLC does not offer CFDs and makes no representation and assumes no liability as to the accuracy or completeness of the content of this publication, which has been prepared by our partner utilizing publicly available non-entity specific information about eToro. Your capital is at risk.

The Internet is used to heavily influence the media and social networks. Thus, it is important to identify which digital currencies are setting the trend. Many analysts find a correlation between price movements and search interest on a digital currency through Google, for example.

In this case, Google Trends can be a strong ally to identify search interest in specific cryptocurrencies. In relation to social networks, the most important discussed topics related to bitcoin, blockchain and altcoins are often found on Twitter and Telegram. If you make a living through trading, then you will want to be subscribed to the most important cryptocurrency forums.

A little-known tool of CoinMarketCap is the summary of winners and losers over a given period. This shows a list of the cryptocurrencies with the highest percentage movement in three different time frames: 1 hour, 24 hours and 7 days. With this tool, the user can get an idea of where there is a significant price action, both up and down. However, to narrow the sample more precisely, we suggest filtering those currencies with very low trading volume. The latter are more volatile and the risk when investing rises considerably.

Other similar portals like Coin360 can also give similar metrics that help identify which cryptocurrencies are experiencing significant moves.

The list closes with the favourite of those who prefer to opt for smaller alternatives. When a small-cap cryptocurrency hits a large exchange like Coinbase or Binance, its price tends to gain traction. These platforms follow a rigorous process to admit new currencies into their offerings, a factor that may be considered positive and encourages them to invest in smaller projects that could gain importance in the future.

Making the analogy to the great market leaders, it is the equivalent of what happens when BTC or Ethereum start trading on institutional financial platforms, for example, futures at Bakkt or the CME Group in Chicago.

Continued here:
How to identify when a cryptocurrency is about to skyrocket? | The Home of Altcoins: All About Crypto, Bitcoin & Altcoins - Coinlist

During the coronavirus crisis, a lot of focus has shifted to online meetings and virtual communication. All of this seems to indicate that virtual reality will become more popular, even in the cryptocurrency space.

Virtual reality remains a very niche technology for most consumers and companies.

It is something no one really needs, despite its potential.

During the coronavirus crisis, the demand for online social solutions is on the rise.

As such, now is the time to shine for virtual reality, even in the world of cryptocurrencies.

Several cryptocurrency-oriented meetings have already taken place in VR over the past few months.

Although the user pool is still relatively small, it shows how much potential this technology has.

That being said, there is still a lack of VR-oriented crypto and blockchain projects.

So far, it seems Decentraland is the only real option worth exploring, at least for now.

Until VR takes off on a larger scale, there isnt any real need for developers to explore that technology either.

Only time will tell whether VR and crypto can flourish together, or remain separate niche markets.

It is evident that innovative technologies will need to get to the next level of adoption.

Right now, it appears that such a shift will happen for cryptocurrency, but not necessarily for virtual reality.

Image(s): Shutterstock.com

Read the rest here:
Coronavirus Crisis Shows Benefits of Virtual Reality to Cryptocurrency Enthusiasts - The Merkle Hash