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Bitcoins (BTC) recent price drop has erased a major portion of its year-to-date gains.

The top cryptocurrency by market value is currently trading near $7,830 up just 9.3 percent from the year's opening price of $7,160, according to CoinDesks Bitcoin Price Index.

Just a month ago, the cryptocurrency was reporting a year-to-date gain of over 45 percent. Back then, prices were trading at multi-month highs near $10,500.

Broad-based sell-off

Bitcoins recent price slide has occurred alongside a sell-off in the traditional finance markets.

The S&P 500, Wall Streets equity index and a benchmark for global equities, topped out near $3,400 in mid-February and fell to a nine-month low of $2,739 on Tuesday. The index is currently down 10 percent on a year-to-date basis.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil prices nearly halved to $27 in the two weeks to March 9 and are currently down 45 percent from the yearly opening price.

The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note hit a record low of 0.35 percent on Monday and was last seen at 0.70 percent down 122 basis points this year. However, gold, the classic safe haven asset, is up 10 percent since Jan. 1.

Though often touted as a safe haven, bitcoin looks to have behaved as a risk asset in line with traditional markets, as macro events prompted investor doubts.

A general sense of uncertainty seems to be the driving factor of investment decisions made by retail investors across different investment types, including bitcoin, said Ashish Singhal, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange CoinSwitch.

At press time, European equities are flashing green, possibly on the back of a surprise 50 basis point rate cut by the Bank of England.

Broader market sentiment, however, remains risk-averse with the futures on the S&P 500 down 2 percent, as the coronavirus spread is showing no signs of slowing down outside China. Meanwhile, oil prices on both sides of the Atlantic are down at least 1.5 percent.

The technical charts, too, suggest the path of least resistance is to the downside.

Daily chart

Bitcoin remains in bearish territory below the head-and-shoulders neckline resistance, currently at $8,460.

The cryptocurrency has produced a narrowing price range over the last two days, with Tuesdays candle falling well within Mondays high and low.

Such price action following a notable drop is indicative of seller exhaustion, but would be confirmed only if prices rise above Tuesdays high of $8,158. That could bring additional gains toward $8,460.

Alternatively, a break below Tuesdays low of $7,734 would imply a continuation of the sell-off and open the doors to support at $7,130 (200-week average).

A bullish reversal would be confirmed if and when prices rise above $9,219 (March 7 high), invalidating the lower-highs setup.

3-day chart

The MACD histogram is producing deeper bars below the zero line, a sign of strengthening bearish momentum. Meanwhile, prices are forming a bearish lower-highs, lower-lows (falling channel) setup.

As such, the odds of BTC falling toward $7,130 look high.

However, Alessandro Benigni, co-Founder at coinsflare.com, an exchange listing monitoring portal, thinks a new bullish trend will start soon, pushing prices to around $11,000 by the end of March/early April.

The possibility shouldn't be ruled out as bitcoin has historically performed well while heading into the reward halving, according to Nischal Shetty, founder and CEO of WazirX, told CoinDesk.The next miner reward cutting event is due in May.

There are 61 days to go for the bitcoin halving. Looking at past data, bitcoin prices have seen an uptrend after halving [events]. Also, more countries are coming with positive regulations on crypto. Im optimistic that these factors combined will have a positive impact on bitcoin's price, Shetty said.

Edit (13:15 UTC, March 11, 2020): A previous version of this article mistakenly stated that bitcoin is up this year by just 8 percent. It is actually up 9.3 percent. This has been corrected.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

The rest is here:
Bitcoin Price Is Now Up Just 9% This Year - CoinDesk - Coindesk

With global markets spiraling across the board from oil and stocks to crypto you may not want to invest in bitcoin right now. That said, if you believe in its long-term potential, pro-investors will always tell you to buy the dip.

Warren Buffett maintains that the best time to invest is in a climate of fearand its pretty scary out there right now. He may not be rushing out to buy Bitcoin, but you can bet hes eyeing up other assets at a knocked-down price. If you want to take his lead, check out these top five tools to help.

Hands down, if youre going to invest in bitcoin or any other cryptos for that matter, you need to have a Telegram account. Theres a myriad of information on this behemoth social media platform and you can join a specific group, get news, ask questions, and find out the general market sentiment.

Check out some of the top Telegram crypto groups here for trading, chatting, trolling and, most of all, for seeing what to expect when you invest in bitcoin.

Arguably, if you just want to invest in bitcoin and hold for the long term, you may not need to get too deep into TradingView.

But if you do want to understand more about what caused certain volatile moves, find out what price calls top analysts are making in the space, and even become part of a community, this is a top tool for all that.

Google Authenticator is a must-have app on your mobile phone if you open up an account with an exchange like Coinbase and activate 2FA. Its much more convenient than receiving a text message to your phone number since you may change the sim or be unable to receive texts when you travel.

With Google authenticator, you wont have that problem. Its free and you just scan the QR code once to receive a unique code each time you log in, adding protection to your funds.

While enabling 2FA is definitely a good start, its much better to keep your funds in cold storage if youre going to invest in bitcoin for the long haul. Some folks prefer Trezor with its wide touch screen while others are firm believers in Ledger.

Being able to link the Nano X with your mobile phone and make transactions on the go is definitely a cool feature. But Trezors Gray Corazon is definitely a thing of beauty. Ultimately, which interface you prefer is down to personal taste, but the correct storing of your bitcoin is essential.

Love it or hate it, Twitter is an absolute must if you want to stay informed about the latest going on in the cryptocurrency space. Youll find out so much from reading the comments of key players in the industry and take part in some heated debates.

Watch out though! Crypto Twitter is not for the faint-hearted. In fact, it can be downright toxic at timesand addictive. So just like with bitcoin, never invest more time (or money) than you can afford to lose.

What tools do you use when investing in crypto? Let us know in the comments below!

Images via Shutterstock, Twitter @blockfolio

Read the original here:
Top 5 Tools to Help You Invest in Bitcoin - Bitcoinist

The United Kingdoms central bank has followed the Federal Reserve in suddenly cutting interest rates by the most since 2009.

As various news outlets including the Financial Times reported on March 11, the Bank of England (BoE) said the move was in direct response to economic pressures posed by the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

The publication quoted a statement as saying:

The reduction in Bank Rate will help to support business and consumer confidence at a difficult time, to bolster the cash flows of businesses and households, and to reduce the cost, and to improve the availability, of finance.

The move takes the BoE base rate to just 0.25%, a reduction of 0.5%. The Fed rate is now 1.25%, with more cuts forecast this year.

The pound immediately reacted, shedding 0.5% against the US dollar, to subsequently recoup some of the losses.

While Bitcoin (BTC) failed to react, supporters of the cryptocurrency maintain that stimulating spending and borrowing by lowering rates is just one practice laying the foundation for the long-term ruin of the fiat economy.

To avoid recessions, a key fear of Keynesian economists, governments aim to increase spending while applying incentives such as tax cuts for businesses.

Additional spending against a backdrop of less income can only happen via the use of measures such as increasing the money supply, further debasing fiat currencies.

Nonetheless, Bitcoins lackluster reaction to the coronavirus crisis caught many by surprise. Among them was John Bollinger, creator of the Bollinger Bands trading indicator, who on Tuesday said that recent losses were unexpected.

Bitcoin fell victim to the COVID-19 panic. I truly did not see that coming, I thought it might act as a safe haven asset, he tweeted.

In another post, he added:

Safe-haven-ness is a matter of perception, not fact. If an asset is thought to be a safe haven, it is. The matter is entirely psychological.

BTC/USD traded at around $7,870 at press time, down 0.4% on the day after briefly rising above $8,000.

View post:
Bitcoin Steadies as Bank of England Suddenly Cuts Rates to 11-Year Low - Cointelegraph

So if you are not familiar with Elliott Wave the chart below can seem confusing. Here is a link that could help you understand what is going on (https://www.fxstreet.com/technical-analysis/elliott-wave)

Going back to the chart now, the price is still in a 5 wave low pattern but it is important to work out which wave the pair is currently in. The wave 1-2 is now set, this can often help you determine where wave 3 will end up as we can use Fib projection (blue). The Fib projection for waves 1-2 is telling us that the price has gone past the 261.8% projection so this could easily be wave 3 at the moment.

Wave 3 usually subdivides into smaller waves. This is also a 5 wave pattern lower following the rules of Fibonacci. I have marked these waves in red as it will be easier to follow. The wave pattern down in red might not be over. At the moment we are at the red 161.8 Fib extension. In theory, this can reach 261.8% so there could be another leg lower.

That is not to say there will not be some small retracements in the meantime. As you can see from the chart these Fib waves are pretty accurate and offered some great counter-trend trade opportunities. Having said that catching the waves in the direction of the prevailing trend is the best strategy.

Continued here:
Bitcoin Price Analysis: Elliott Wave Theory suggests price could fall further - FXStreet

Bitcoin-- probably the most iconic name in cryptocurrencies -- is proving it's not immune to the coronavirus crisis. But it could end up benefiting as a delayed side effect of the outbreak if inflation and tracking measures, in China especially, turn people to cryptocurrencies.

Right now, the problem for Bitcoin is that China, the world's second-largest economy, is a large participant of Bitcoin mining. As the nation is deeply caught up in one of the worst pandemics in recent history, it's taking a toll on Bitcoin, because major mining equipment makers had to delay production due to government imposed quarantines and mining farms were shut down. This has no doubt affected the level of Developer Behavior of the cryptocurrency, as Chinese mining pools control most of the Bitcoin network due to the countrys extremely cheap electricity.

Further, a slight drop in User Activity can be attributed to Bitcoin remaining a highly speculative cryptocurrency, where current investors are easily spooked by an expected drop in price. The fact that the search term bitcoin coronavirus has recently overtaken bitcoin halving on Google Trends is telling of the volatility many people are expecting to see with the spread of the contamination.

Created in 2008, Bitcoin (BTC) is considered the first cryptocurrency to be mined and traded on a decentralized peer-to-peer network. Rather than relying on a central authority to transact money, a decentralized network of nodes all verify transactions. The process of adding verified transactions to the public ledger and unlocking new bitcoins as rewards is called mining, and involves using computer power to solve complex mathematical puzzles, or hash functions.

But the Bitcoin blockchain suffers from important design limitations that make mining very expensive; slow down transaction throughput; and cause high volatility in price. Since the release of bitcoin, over 6,000 "altcoins" -- or alternative variants of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies -- have been created so as to improve the platforms scalability, security and speed.

Bitcoins FCAS has dropped 11-points (-1.23%) since mid-February, driven by an 18-point (-2.13%) decrease in Developer Behavior and 6-point (-0.62%) decline in User Activity. Market Maturity has also dropped 14-points (-1.68%) in the same timeframe.

TheStreet

While current investors might be turning away from Bitcoin, it seems likely that new buyers will start using the token as a safe haven. Right now in China, people are being quarantined based on surveillance of their spending, and punished for spreading news of the contamination. In this environment, and considering Bitcoins widespread use in the country, we can expect the token to gain traction as citizens aim to resist government control.

The Chinese central bank has also ramped up measures to sanitize old money, and plans to inject some $173.8 billion to calm people and markets as coronavirus fears worsen. The inflationary pressure this will cause is likely to drive demand for crypto assets globally, as other nations take similar measures to boost their economy. It will be interesting to see the level of demand Bitcoin will gain in comparison to other tokens.

The FCAS Tracker provides institutional and sophisticated retail investors a top-down approach to tracking 500+ cryptocurrencies fundamentals. FCAS Tracker is currently free to a select group of new users as we continue to develop the product. Visit us here to gain access to Flipside Analytics.

Read more here:
Cryptocurrency in Focus: Outbreak Takes Toll on Bitcoin - TheStreet

The Bitcoin.com Wallet app has reached almost 10.5 million wallets created across several million app downloads. This milestone follows last months release of the new app, which most notably included a redesigned, user-friendly interface along with the lightning-fast Instant Pay feature for bitcoin cash payments and support for SLP tokens.

Also Read: Bitcoin.Com Releases Fastest Ever Wallet App, With Built-In Support for Bitcoin Cash-Powered Tokens

The Bitcoin.com Wallet app has been one of the most popular wallets for bitcoin cash (BCH) and bitcoin core (BTC) users for several years. After the recent launch of the overhauled app, new and existing users have created a record number of wallets in-app to try out features like Instant Pay. Users rushed to try our new wallet app, highlights Bitcoin.com CEO Stefan Rust. Last November we surpassed five million wallets created. Nowless than half a year onweve surpassed ten million.

Instant Pay is an exclusive new feature that lets users auto-pay instantly with bitcoin cash. The user presets a spending threshold and then scans their app to make a payment, which will complete in microseconds. This contrasts with other wallet apps which require users to manually swipe to approve bitcoin cash payments, with these transactions also completing more slowly.

Instant Pay, which gives the Bitcoin.com Wallet app its title of the fastest Bitcoin wallet, completes transactions faster than traditional payment methods like Visa and Mastercard. Combined with the redesigned user-friendly interface which aims to make bitcoin management easy for cryptocurrency newcomers and more advanced users alike, the new app provides users with a seamless payment experience similar to the likes of Venmo and Cash App.

Users have also been trying out the apps SLP token protocol support, a feature which is currently only available in a limited number of wallet apps on the market. This means the Bitcoin.com Wallet now lets users send and receive tokens that can represent real or virtual goods, with the app providing a safe place to store tokens alongside bitcoin cash.

The goal behind the new Bitcoin.com Wallet was to create an app that maintains the key features legacy cryptocurrency users expect while also being accessible to new users. For many crypto newcomers, complex wallet apps are the stumbling block. Thats because these apps are typically built for techies: not for the everyday user, Stefan explains. The new Bitcoin.com Wallet app was built to be easy: its simple to use and, thanks to Instant Pay, its the fastest wallet on the market.

Users can download the new Bitcoin.com Wallet for free today. The app is available for iOS and Android.

What do you think about the new Bitcoin.com Wallet app reaching 10 million wallets? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Bitcoin.com Markets, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com.

Avi Mizrahi is an economist and entrepreneur who has been covering Bitcoin as a journalist since 2013. He has spoken about the promise of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology at numerous financial conferences around the world, from London to Hong-Kong.

Read more:
Lightning-Fast New Bitcoin.com Wallet Proves Popular With Over 10 Million Wallets Created - Bitcoin News

Over the past two days, we saw Bitcoin continued its correlation with Wall Street. After reaching a 2-month low at $7600, and finding support upon the historic trend-line, Bitcoin recovered to $8150, however, just like the Wall Street futures, BTC price lost momentum and now trading roughly around $7800 $7900.

In the bigger picture, Bitcoin touched the historic ascending trend-line two days ago, as can be seen on the following weekly chart. This historic trend line was started forming in January 2015, when Bitcoin found the 2014 bear markets bottom at $152 (Bitstamp).

The coronavirus had created a new financial situation that led Wall Street to its worst day since the Sub-Prime real estate crisis in 2008.

No one thinks that this is the end of the volatility, as the global markets continue to see extreme moves. Yesterday Wall Street produced a green correction of 4%, while todays trading is expected to open lower, as the futures pointing on a 2% decrease (as of now).

What is the relation? These days, Bitcoin is encountering its first major global financial crisis. During such times, most people tend to sell-off and hedge to cash.

Yes, Satoshi did plan to see Bitcoin as a safe-haven asset just like Gold, but so far, the past 2-3 weeks of trading proved something else, as the price of Bitcoin followed Wall Street and the global markets.

For the rest of this week, Bitcoin will have to deal with the historical trend line and especially the crucial support around $7600, which is this weeks current low. A weekly close below $7600 is likely to send Bitcoin to new lows.

So far, we can see that the support holds firmly, but anything can change quickly, and as we already noticed, it also relies on external forces like Wall Street.

Total Market Cap: $225 billion

Bitcoin Market Cap: $144.2 billion

BTC Dominance Index: 64.1%

*Data by CoinGecko

Support/Resistance levels: In case that Bitcoin maintains the crucial level of $7600, then the first resistance will be the $8000 benchmark, followed by $8150, which is the low from yesterday. Further above lies $8300 and $8500.

From below, the first level of support is $7700, before the critical $7600. In case of a break-down, we can expect Bitcoin to reach $7400, which is weak support, and $7200 which is the Golden Fibonacci retracement level following the June 2019 bull-run.

Below lies and $7000 and $6800, which is the 2020 low from January 3rd. Further below lies $6400 $6500, which is the double bottom from November December of 2019.

The RSI Indicator: following a failed attempt to break above the critical 50 RSI level, the indicator broke down violently. As of writing these lines, the RSI is trying to maintain above the 30-support level, along with the marked wedge as resistance.

Trading volume: The volume levels are increasing in the past days. Mondays drop volume marked the highest volume day in 2020.

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Disclaimer: Information found on CryptoPotato is those of writers quoted. It does not represent the opinions of CryptoPotato on whether to buy, sell, or hold any investments. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use provided information at your own risk. See Disclaimer for more information.

Cryptocurrency chartsby TradingView.

Read more:
Bitcoin Price Is At Crucial Historic Decision Point, Huge Move Is Coming Up? Analysis & Weekly Overview - CryptoPotato

Markets:

BTC/USD is trading below $7,900 during early Asian hours after a failed attempt to settle above $8,000 on Tuesday.BTC has stayed mostly unchanged both on a day-to-day basis and since the beginning of the day.

ETH/USD has settled below $200.00 in Asia. The coin retreated from the intraday high of $203.18.ETH/USDis currently trading within a short-term bearish bias amid expanding short-term volatility.

XRP/USD recovered above $0.2100 during early Asian hours.XRP/USD has gained nearly 2% on a day-to-day basis. Now it is trading with a short-term bullish bias amid expanding volatility.

Among the 100 most important cryptocurrencies, the best of the day are Contentos(COS) $0.0594 (+394.4%),Blockstack(STX) $0.1519 (+30.8%) and Waves(WAVES) $1.31 (+20.5%).The day's losers are Swipe(SXP) $0.7996 (-7.6%), Augur (REP) $11.76 (-6.5%),DxChain Token(DX) $0.0015 (-6.4%).

Chart of the day:

XRP/USD, 4-hour chart

Market

According to Ari Paul, the CTO of BlockTowerCapital, money-printing campaign launched by the global central banks to fight the economic consequences of coronavirus is the bullish case for Bitcoin and digital currencies as a whole. Speaking in the interview withTD Ameritrade Network, he said:

I totally agree with Novogratz that the strongest bull case for Bitcoin is what we are seeing right now, which is the entire U.S. Treasury curve below one percent.

Industry

The leading cryptocurrency wallet provider Blockchain.com launched a retail lending program that allows users to borrow fiat money against their cryptocurrency holdings. As the statement in the company's blog says:

Starting today, you can borrow USD against your crypto, directly from your non-custodial Wallet, for the first time ever. Users can now borrow USD Digital stablecoins against their Bitcoin, with support for Ether, Bitcoin Cash, and Stellar coming soon.

The service is available as of March 10.

The five years of research by the Cardano development team has resulted in a new Hydra sharding technology, which can significantly increase the second level scalability due to the so-called hydra heads. The news was reported by Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson.

Tests confirmed that each hydra-head can process 1000 transactions per second. With 1000 pools using the technology, throughput will reach 1 million transactions.

Hydra technology channels, designed specifically for Cardano's staking pools, are not integrated into the general ledger and process transactions outside the network. Hoskinson added that Hydra was quite "graceful" fit into the system. It is compatible with all versions of Cardano: Shelley, Goguen, Voltaire Cardano.

Robinhood users have been struggling with technical issues and app's outages, while the company has been grappling with financial strains, Bloomberg reports, citing knowledgeable sources. The company received $200 million credit facility from Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., amid growing market volatility caused by the spread of the coronavirus. Meanwhile, violent market swings and growing trading volume lead to at least three Robinhoods trading platform outages that outraged users. However, the company denied the allegations about the financial woes, claiming that the decision to raise financing had nothing to do with the outages.

Our capital position remains strong. We determined it was prudent to draw on our credit line during the week of Feb. 24 in light of market volatility. That capital was returned in full last week.

Regulation

Member of the US House of Representatives Paul Gosar introduced a number of amendments to the Cryptocurrency Bill 2020. Now the document includes a detailed definition of a distributed cryptographic ledger, mentions smart contracts and various consensus algorithms.

Also, digital assets are divided into three categories. Cryptocurrency is defined as an instrument pegged to the US dollar, or a synthesized derivative on the blockchain. Cryptocurrency exchange instruments are defined as interchangeable economic goods or services based on the blockchain. Cryptocurrency securities include all debt, equity and derivative blockchain-based tools.

Quote of the day

The point of using a blockchain is to ensure that cheaters never win.

Jameson Lopp,Co-founder & CTO CasaHODL

Excerpt from:
`Crypto Today: Bitcoin dives under $8,000, while XRP attempts a recovery - FXStreet