After making a strong recovery from $3,775 to $6,450, Bitcoins (BTC) price has traded in a tight range which has seen the price struggle to push above resistance at $6,400 and $6,850. Despite the current pullback, technical indicators like the Stock-to-Flow model and the networks consistent growth in hash rate show that investors have regained a small amount of confidence.

Another factor worth considering is Bitcoins mempool size as it also can provide some insight into how buyers and sellers are reacting during these uncertain times.

Cryptocurrency market weekly overview. Source: Coin360

The mempool is where all the unconfirmed Bitcoin transactions wait until all confirmations are released to conclude each transaction. The higher the mempool size, the longer it takes for transactions to be confirmed since more blocks have to be confirmed (more power input).

If a jam occurs in the memory pool due to an abnormal size of transaction waiting to be confirmed, the higher the probability to incur in a higher transaction fee to expedite it promptly.

Bitcoins mempool size reached a record-high value at over 130MB/block during January 2018, days after Bitcoin price slightly crossed its all-time high at $20,000.

Bitcoin Mempool size (in MB/Block) since June 2016-March 2020. Source: Blockchain.com

This could suggest a relationship between the number of transactions waiting to be confirmed and Bitcoin's price. If that is the case, the relationships would be inverse in times of corrections such as the one investors are facing now.

Considering a period from Feb. 19 until March 13, when Bitcoin lost 60%, we find that the correlation between the Bitcoin mempool size and its price is negative at -41.2%. This is a very high relationship considering that this correlation for the entire 2020 period available is almost non-significant at 2.34%.

A correlation of 100% means that the Bitcoin price and the mempool size move completely in the same direction, while -100% correlation means they are inversely related. A correlation of 0% means that the variables are not related in any way.

In correction periods during 2016, where Bitcoin lost more than 20% in price, we find the same negative relationship between the mempool size and Bitcoin price, even though both have a high difference in values one period is very inversely correlated (-83.1%) and the other period very slightly negative (-4.6%).

In the six periods where a correction of up to a 20% decrease in price during 2017 and 2018, we find an inconclusive relationship across the correlations and this makes it impossible to reach a solid conclusion.

Correlation between Bitcoin price and its mempool size for different correction periods during 2017

However, if we look closely at the two periods that occurred during the second half of 2017 when Bitcoin ended up reaching its record price, both periods show an inverse relationship between the mempool size and Bitcoin price.

Between Nov. 8 and Nov. 12, this relationship was very negative (-85.9%), while between Dec. 17 and Dec. 25, the correlation is very small (-5.6%).

Correlation between Bitcoin price and its mempool size during 2018 correction periods

During 2019, four out of the five correction periods identified showed a positive correlation between the Bitcoin mempool size and its price, except for the last periods, which showed a slight negative correlation.

Correlation between Bitcoin price and its mempool size during 2019

When considering the relationship during each year instead of only analyzing the corrective periods, we find a clear trend and a positive correlation between the mempool size and Bitcoins price.

Moreover, a high correlation is seen in 2017 (80.8%) and 2018 (72.2%), despite not being able to draw a conclusive trend when analyzing the correction periods within those years. The positive trend, although small in magnitude, is also seen between both variables in 2016 (26.3%) and 2019 (9.5%). While in 2020, the relationship is practically non-existent (2.34%).

Last week, there has been an increase in the mempool size even as Bitcoins price is going down. Looking forward, we may see the continuation of this inverse relationship contributes to the uncertainty of Bitcoins price in the short-term.

As Cointelegraph markets analyst filbfilb recently pointed out:

I just cant be long while I know there is so much BTC in transit.

The amount of Bitcoin possibly being moved into and out of exchanges in the last weeks raises further doubts about the inverse relationship between the mempool and Bitcoin price.

Data for the mempool size drawn from Blockchain.com and prices from coinmarketcap.com. The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Bitcoins on the Move Is BTC Price Inversely Correlated to Mempool Size? - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin has been searching for direction this weekstruggling to climb along with traditional markets after the historic coronavirus-induced crash earlier this month.

The bitcoin price, down around 25% over the last 30-day period, had recorded its best start to a new year since 2013 until the coronavirus crisis sparked global market turmoil.

However, with the long-rumored digital dollar appearing to take shape this week, bitcoin, as well as other digital assets, could be about to take a step toward mainstream adoptionand potentially see the kind of interest that pushed the bitcoin price to last year's highs.

If the U.S. moves to create a digital dollar, which we've seen this week there is some appetite for ... [+] in Washington, then it will spark a fresh wave of interest in digital assets such as bitcoin.

Plans for a new digital dollar were included in a draft stimulus bill put together by the U.S. Democratic Party as a means to make payments to people and businesses hit by coronavirus-induced economic turmoil.

According to the plans, the U.S. Federal Reserve would offer bank accounts to all Americans, branded FedAccounts.

The FedAccounts would allow the government to bypass commercial banks and turn retail banking into a public serviceeveryone would have a FedAccount just as they have a social security number that they could use to send and receive dollars.

It's unclear whether a new digital dollar would use bitcoin's blockchain technology or a traditional, centralized database.

Though the new digital dollar plans were ultimately cut from the bill before it was put to the the House vote, its brief inclusion rekindled a conversation about mainstream digital currency that was started by social media giant Facebook last year when it began work on its libra cryptocurrency projectsomething that caused the bitcoin price to more than double in under six months.

Last year, the bitcoin price was pulled out of a deep bear market by rumours some of the world's biggest technology companies, from iPhone-maker Apple to social media giant Facebook, were poised to jump into the cryptocurrency game.

Facebook moved first, revealing its plans for stablecoin libra and attracting a wave fresh criticism of the company that was still trying to repair its reputation following a string of privacy and data-sharing scandals.

The regulatory backlash against Facebook last summer almost derailed its libra plans and discouraged other technology or finance companies from trying anything similar, putting the bitcoin price back on a steep downward trendwith bitcoin interest and adoption struggling.

"[A digital dollar] would be a first step towards crypto technologies being widely adopted," executive director of Washington-based lobby group the Blockchain Association, Kristin Smith, told bitcoin and crypto news site Coindesk.

"Through dollar-backed stablecoins, people could [grow to] understand that they can have full access to their financial lives."

The bitcoin price has struggled to climb along with traditional markets this week after taking a big ... [+] step down earlier in the month--though bitcoin bulls remain confident the bitcoin price will climb in the medium to long term.

Other senior bitcoin and crypto industry figures are unconvinced a new digital dollar will be a positive development for bitcoin adoption, however.

"[A digital dollar] would be ... fascinating and a good move in the direction of leading the U.S.," chief executive of BinanceUS, Catherine Coley, told crypto new site Cointelegraph, adding: "In terms of how that actually affects the adoption rate or the financial inclusion that we see as benefiting from digital assets, it's a little bit different."

Meanwhile, the massive coronavirus-induced stimulus that propelled the digital dollar to the forefront of policy maker minds is itself pushing people toward bitcoin and other scare digital assetswith the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community convinced the "largest rescue package in American history" will mean a surge in bitcoin and crypto interest.

Some think the historic emergency rescue packages being readied by the Fed and other central banks around the world will still not be enough to support markets and the economy in the face of a prolonged pandemic-preventing shut down.

Meanwhile, after the digital dollar plans were scrapped from the coronavirus stimulus bill, a similar proposal cropped up in a draft Senate banking bill unrelated to the coronavirus pandemicsuggesting this conversation is far from over.

With a new digital dollar now on the table and confidence in Fed about to take a hit, bitcoin has a lot to gain.

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Bitcoin Will Moon If The U.S. Creates A New Digital Dollar - Forbes

The number of retail investors registering for an account with Japanese cryptocurrency exchange bitbank spiked by 40% in the week after the Bitcoin bloodbath.

The March 12 meltdown saw the price of Bitcoin (BTC) drop to a new 2020 low at $3,775. An official blog post by bitbank market analyst Yuya Hasegawa reveals that Bitcoin trade volume and account registrations both saw a significant surge in the wake of the crash.

Even the number of users going through KYC was above average on the day of the BTC downturn and the following couple of days.

Hasegawa contrasts the current situation to the period between November to December 2018 when the price of Bitcoin ground down. In that case, interest in the crypto market as a whole went down and bitbanks daily account registrations took a hit.

However, the price saw a 60% rebound while sustaining high volumes soon after the recent crash, which suggests to Hasegawa the intent to buy the dip is quite obvious:

When we take the increased daily account registrations into consideration, we can once again deduce that the current market recovery is driven largely by retail investors. Furthermore, as Forbes reports, this phenomenon is likely to be global, as Kraken, a San Francisco-based crypto exchange, experienced a steep increase in account registrations after March 12.

In just under 49 days, BTC will experience a halving where the block reward will decrease to 6.25 BTC. The last time this happened was in 2016.

Hasegawa writes that data from Google Trends suggests that investors in Japan and around the world are well aware of the possible price impact of the halving and will seize on any price drop to add to their holdings:

There is a good chance that, for this time around, there are many retail investors who want to buy Bitcoin or stack up their holdings at the cheapest price possible before its halving.

Read more:
Japanese Investors Rushed To Buy The Dip After Bitcoin Bloodbath - Cointelegraph

Byrne Hobart, a CoinDesk columnist, is an investor, consultant and writer in New York. His newsletter, The Diff (diff.substack.com) covers inflection points in finance and technology.

Bitcoin (BTC) was designed for many reasons, but one of the most important was to be a safe-haven asset during times of financial distress. From the genesis blocks coinbase parameter (The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks) to today, bitcoins fans have treated it as something worth owning when the market goes crazy.

So its disappointing, to say the least, that after the fastest market rout in recent history, an asset built to be a safe haven dropped 31 percent while the S&P dropped by a quarter. The daily correlation between the S&P and bitcoin went from slightly negative in February to 0.6 in March. Bitcoin barely responded to the Federal Reserve cutting rates to zero, and shrugged off other monetary interventions.

This is painful to anyone who owns bitcoin, especially to anyone who bought it as a hedge against exactly this kind of sell-off, and exactly this kind of central bank response. The money printer went brrr, and yet the store-of-value lost value.

When we talk about safe-haven assets, were really talking about three different kinds of assets, for three kinds of scenarios:

Safer versions of risky bets, of the sort youd invest in to hedge against a mild recession. These might include less-levered companies in a given industry, high-margin companies, corporate bonds rather than equities or any investment in a consumer staples company. When the economy shrinks, its bad news for companies in the champagne and luxury hotel business, but doesnt really dent sales of toothpaste and canned food.

Assets people borrow during good times: Yen and U.S. Treasurys are classic safe assets, in part because investors borrow them to make other bets. If you buy a 10-year corporate bond, youre making a bet on the creditworthiness of the company, and a bet on interest rates. Most of the people who are good at credit analysis are not experts in predicting the future course of monetary policy, so many of them buy the corporate bonds and bet against Treasurys of the same maturity to control their interest rate risk.

Its not the safe haven for this particular kind of crisis.

The yen is a similar case: Since yen rates have been so low for so long, a classic forex trade is to borrow yen and invest in a currency with higher rates. In both cases, when the trade unwinds when you sell your corporate bond or close out your bet on the Turkish lira or the South African rand, you end up buying the safe asset. Anything boring and borrowable goes up in price in response to bad news.

Things you want to own if the world is about to end. The best way to illustrate this is with a story: The financier Felix Rohatyn grew up in France in the 1930s. When Germany invaded, his family fled they had enough time to pack their bags, but they lost almost everything. He recalled his parents putting gold coins in tubes of toothpaste before leaving. Everything else they owned, they left behind. If youre living through a moment thats going to be in the history books, the only assets you can take with you are the ones in your head or the ones you can smuggle out. (A USB drive, conveniently, fits into a variety of toiletry containers.)

One interpretation of bitcoins price performance during the COVID-19 crisis is that it wasnt such a safe haven after all. But another is that its not the safe haven for this particular kind of crisis. The math of epidemics and immunity is such that, however bad they are, they eventually burn themselves out given a low mutation rate. Once the percentage of the population that has been infected is greater than 1 / R0, cases begin to fall even in the absence of countermeasures. With a case fatality rate of 2 percent, thats an extraordinarily painful process to go through, and it ends up being a disaster for humanity on a historic scale.

An intense disaster, but not one that lasts forever. The 1957-58 flu pandemic may have led to the sharpest postwar recession in U.S. history (at least as of Q4 2019), but the subsequent recovery was equally swift.

Right now, thats how most investors are thinking. Whether they think COVID-19 is overblown or underblown, they still think of it as a temporary problem from which well recover in short order. In fact, the very bailouts that Satoshi referenced in the Genesis block point to an argument in favor of the recovery consensus. Conventional wisdom among investors and policymakers today is the government didnt react fast enough in 2008 to forestall a deflationary spiral. This time around, central banks are moving fast to supply cheap capital to financial institutions. In that scenario, governments and economies dont collapse, and nobody has to flee their home hours ahead of disaster.

They do, however, need to scramble for dollars to service debts, so theyll sell anything stocks, bonds, real estate, crypto and convert it into an asset they can use to pay the bills.

Bitcoins drop doesnt disprove the safe haven argument. It just shows us bitcoin is designed to be a safe haven from a worse storm.

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.

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Bitcoin Is a Safe Haven for a Worse Storm Than This - CoinDesk

A twitter post on January 29 promoted a website selling a so-called cure for coronavirus, accepting Bitcoin as payment. Scams such as this have proliferated as the global crisis escalates.

The Russian-based website selling the fake cure has been deactivated. Screenshots show it offering the so-called vaccine in doses for up to three people. It claimed to be tied to the Australian National University in Canberra.

Although extensive research is underway, no cure or vaccine for COVID-19 presently exists. Nevertheless, it is not surprising that scammers would seek to exploit the current crisis by promoting hoaxes. Any so-called treatments sold online should be avoided. Some media personalities, such as Alex Jones, have been ordered to stop promoting supplements and alternative medicines that they have asserted will fight the disease.

Criminals are also attempting to profit by establishing fake charities and support organizations. Many seek donations via Bitcoin. Thus, any group claiming to provide relief during the current outbreak should be extensively researched. The Better Business Bureau has a website dedicated to this issue.

One safe way to donate is to choose a well-established organization such as the Red Cross. A drive by the Italian Red Cross has already raised thousands of Euros for coronavirus relief. Bitcoin donations to the International Red Cross can be made via BitPay.

There are a growing number of legitimate applications of bitcoins underlying technology blockchain under development that may help fight the coronavirus. One is Stanford Universitys [emailprotected] project, which now seeks help from bitcoin and crypto miners. For years volunteers have donated their computers unused cycles to this project for protein research. [emailprotected] is now setting up a version of this application for studying COVID-19 that can benefit greatly from access to GPUs.

Also, proposals to apply Blockchain technology to fight the virus has led to a number of collective initiatives. One is the Covidathon, an eight-week hackathon sponsored by SingularityNET and Ocean Protocol. Blockchain-based apps are also under development. Some seek to create anonymous interactive maps of infection hotspots that can provide immutable data for both health workers and the general public. Others promise to better manage the complex logistics of delivering desperately needed medical equipment.

Importantly, as the fight against COVID-19 grows, it will be increasingly important to draw a distinction between honest projects and those that seek to exploit the public by providing false hope.

We wish you stay safe amid this crisis and not fall prey to any such scams

Image via Shutterstock

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Fake COVID-19 Treatments Ask for Bitcoin Payments on Social Media - Bitcoinist

A San Francisco-based experimental art movement has created what they describe as an autonomously programmed art piece that changes appearance as the price of Bitcoin fluctuates.

Asynchronous Art revealed Matt Kanes Right Place & Right Time today, an artwork that evolves dynamically in response to BTC price action. As the value of the cryptocurrency changes, so too does the artwork, explained Kane:

"Each day, a new look for the Master is generated using a data feed of Bitcoin's last 24 hours of price action. Each hour's price programmatically controls rotation, scale, and position of a correlating layer."

The complete piece is referred to as the Master in async.arts parlance, because individual Layers discrete aspects of the piece are independently controlled.

Right Place & Right Time (Low volatility)

Right Place & Right Time (Bullish)

In a previous instance of this unusual artistic collaboration, the thirteen layers of First Supper were individually auctioned to different collectors. So while one collector owns the Master (which was sold for 103.4 ETH, a crypto art record), the owners of the Layers themselves can update and change them whenever they see fit.

First Supper, by thirteen artists, rendered on March 23rd at 8:23am ET

Some of the elements that can be changed include characters, walls, and the table in the artwork. Some Layers can change outfits, others can substitute faces, and still others can change size or orientation. async.art notes that this enables over 54 billion distinct state changes in the piece.

The individual Layers were sold for a total of 263 ETH, suggesting that collectors value the opportunity to have direct input into the appearance of the Master artwork.

In the case of Right Place & Right Time, the artist retains control of the Layers, which are controlled by API calls.

Kane explained that "I want to keep the artwork fresh and surprising for both collector and viewers as price volatility is visualized and maintain this as a living work-in-progress. Additionally, when Bitcoin's price reaches key levels, that achievement is recorded as part of the artwork that day."

async.art founder CEO Conlan Rios said that We are now truly on track to impact the art world it reinforces the fact that the entire NFT community believes in this movement.

The new piece will be unveiled at a virtual gallery showcase event, Citadel 6.15, hosted by crypto artist Coldie and opening on March 27th in the Cryptovoxels world.

Cointelegraph Magazine has been focusing on the crypto art movement this week, in a series of features exploring ephemerality, art communities and collaboratives, and censorship.

Original artworks by Cointelegraph artists will be on display at the exhibition, alongside works from noted crypto artists including Coldie, Hackatao, AlottaMoney, XCOPY, Josie Bellini, Shortcut, BlackBoxDotArt, MLIBTY, TwistedVacancy, Matt Kane, Rutger van der Tas, Vans Design, and Connie Digital.

More information on Cointelegraph Magazine Art Week and the Citadel 6.15 Virtual Art Show can be found here.

(Artworks courtesy async.art)

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Algorithmic Crypto Art Changes Appearance to Reflect Bitcoin Volatility - Cointelegraph

Source: Adobe/KittyKat

Johnson Xu is the Chief Analyst at TokenInsight, a token data and rating agency._____

The sharp market downturn in mid-March 2020 forced some Bitcoin (BTC) miners to switch off their mining rigs. As a result, the Bitcoin network hash rate plummeted to ~75.8 EH/s. After reaching its lowest recent point, down from its all-time high of ~136 EH/s, the network hash rate is currently hovering at ~100 EH/s.

Consequently, we have seen a fall of almost 16% in mining difficulty, resulting in the second-largest drop in history.As the price plummeted yet lower, the network has seen a surge on its mean block interval from roughly 10 minutes per block to 15 minutes per block before the scheduled network adjustment kicks in.

The MRI (miner's rolling inventory) provides valuable insights into how miners perceive the market.Prior to the market downturn (March 11, 2020), the MRI reflected the fact miners appeared conformable to sell, indicated by a >1 MRI. When the market stabilized, after bitcoin crashed to sub-USD 4,000 at its lowest ebb, the daily MRI dropped significantly to < 1.

That indicates a very different view from miners on the condition of the market, and means they are holding back on bitcoin and their inventories are growing (Bytetree, 2020). At the time of writing, the daily MRI is running at around 1 (or 100%).Miners are still comfortable selling into the market in the longer run, as demonstrated by the 1 week, 5 weeks and 12 weeks MRI ratios.

The recent market downturn has caused some miners to switch off their rigs, as indicated by the recent ~16% downward adjustment on network mining difficulty.

However, 1-week fees are slowly creeping up to 52-week fee levels, despite the recent market downturn. Rising fees reflect increasing network activity, which could well be a positive indicator for the bitcoin market.

The SOPR (Spend Output Profit Ratio) ratio, developed by Renato Shirakashi, is one of the many insightful indicators that help analysts gauge market participants sentiment and behavior.

This ratio dropped significantly to <1 during the recent market downturn, and backed up to near 1 when the market stabilized.

However, the ratios upward turn faces some difficulty in its quest to break the >1 mark strongly. This could be an indicator that market participants are waiting to hit the breakeven point before they sell.

Theoretical 24-hour attack costs have dropped significantly recently, and currently sit at USD 14 million. This does sound alarming, especially when we can see a large drop in 24-hour attack costs.

However, it is practically impossible to perform a 51% attack on the Bitcoin network, as an attacker cannot solicit enough hash power to perform such an attack, due to the following reasons:

All of the above is true unless we discover a direct channel, which could let an attacker to control 51% hash rate effectively. The risk of a 51% attack on the Bitcoin network is extremely low and such an operation is extremely difficult to realize.

View original post here:
Are Miners Waiting for Bitcoin to Hit Breakeven Point? - Cryptonews

The crypto market remains volatile, with analysts actively trying to seek insight into its next moves. Litecoin now appears ready for a notable correction. Such a move could set off a similar drop in Bitcoin and other cryptos, as it has done before.

As crypto traders attempt to find patterns in the present market environment, many look to altcoins which have lower liquidity and tend to be traded by more experienced players. Analyst Benjamin Blunt asserts that Litecoin may soon see a price drop. In a recent tweet, he stated:

Should Blunts prediction prove true, and Litecoin does tank to the low 20s, Bitcoin may soon follow. Litecoins curious relationship with Bitcoin dates to the earliest days of crypto adoption, with market action between the two frequently working in tandem. In fact, Litecoin moves can often be used as predictors for Bitcoin.

As with the rest of the cryptocurrency market, Litecoins price has swung wildly over the past several days. It is down two percent over the past twenty-four hours. This decline is understandable, as profit takers are now selling to reap the rewards of yesterdays big gains.

Much has been made of the uniform movement of all coins within the cryptocurrency market. Despite the tremendous differences between different platforms, they all seem to rise and fall together. Before the introduction of stablecoins, altcoins tended to move opposite of Bitcoin. More recently however, the market tends to move as one.

Litecoin critics have long claimed that its similarity to Bitcoin makes it unnecessary, and thus doomed to fail. Nevertheless, it has remained resilient, with a large group of dedicated advocates that have stood by the project even after founder Charlie Lee sold off his huge LTC stash. Longevity notwithstanding, Litecoin remains primarily a speculator coin used almost entirely for trading.

Altcoin advocates repeatedly assert that mass adoption of blockchain technology will lead some platforms to challenge Bitcoin for the top spot in the market rankings. However, Bitcoin remains by-far the most valuable and best-known blockchain asset, worth far more than all others combined. It has been almost three years since another coin presented a serious threat to this hegemony.

Following altcoin prices as a metric to gauge Bitcoin will no doubt continue. Such a strategy may be useful, yet all crypto trading remains risky. Blockchain adoption and mass use of cryptocurrency as a new asset class is a near certainty, but more time is needed for the space to become fully mature.

Do you think Litecoin is heading towards another crash? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!

Images via Shutterstock, Twitter @SmartContractor

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Litecoin Could See Another Price Crash Soon, Will Bitcoin Follow? - Bitcoinist

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold with dire consequences across the globe, desperate measures to keep the economy afloat continue to be taken by world governments. Currently the most notable example is the U.S., which recently announced an unlimited quantitative easing program and also reached an agreement for a $2 trillion stimulus package.

The unlimited quantitative easing process will entail the Federal Reserve purchasing assets in the amounts needed to support smooth market functioning and after the announcement was made Bitcoin (BTC) price rallied almost 10% from $6,300 to $6,900.

At the moment, Bitcoin has dropped to $6,630 and crypto markets have remained fairly stable throughout the day.

Crypto market data. Source: Coin360

Gold and silver have also recovered after several days of losses. Gold price dropped by more than 12% in 10 days but has since recovered to the $1,620-$1,680 price range seen between February 20 and March 9.

SILVER USD/m2 chart. Source: TradingView

Meanwhile silver has hit its generational low against the US dollar when money supply adjusted, a figure to keep in mind while the Fed prints billions of dollars. In the last 3 days, silver has seen modest gains, surging from $12 to $14.5.

As the U.S. government sets out to spend billions of dollars this week, stock markets reacted positively and the S&P 500 rallied over 9% on March 24, the biggest daily surge since 2008. The Feds QE efforts may prop up stock prices for now but the long-term consequences will likely have a significant impact on the economy for years to come.

While stock markets are currently reclaiming some of the ground lost during the past two weeks, the worst may be yet to come as the total impact of the Coronavirus and its effects on the population and on the economy are not yet visible.

At the time of writing the number of newly confirmed cases is growing at an alarming rate. Just yesterday, in the U.S. the number of confirmed cases grew by 10,270 to a total of 54,453. At this rate, the total number of confirmed cases in the U.S. may soon overtake Chinas.

Cumulative total number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. Source: CDC

As for Bitcoin price, it is showing stability and painting higher highs and lower lows on the daily time frame. It seems likely that Bitcoin will continue to hold its own as the dollar inflates, although its worth noting that today's difficulty adjustment may cause the digital asset to lose value as mining becomes cheaper.

BTC USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

To the surprise of many investors, precious metals had been falling alongside global equity markets which on March 9 saw their worst performance since the 2008 financial crisis. However, this isnt entirely new for gold or silver.

In 2008, safe-haven assets behaved similarly, dropping alongside stocks and rallying after the announcement of the Fed's quantitative easing program. For the time being, gold and silver seem to be back to providing security for traders and Bitcoin has been following the lead by holding its own in what could be its biggest test as a unique asset class so far.

The Feds unprecedented new measures highlight one of the primary value propositions of decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, the issuance rate cannot be tampered with.

As the current global financial meltdown has demonstrated, precious metals also have their weaknesses. On March 23, three of the worlds largest gold refineries announced that they would stop production for at least a week in order to comply with requests by local authorities. How this will weigh on price is yet to be determined.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, operates on a decentralized system that ensures that no geo-specific event can alter its production. Unlike precious metals, Bitcoins system allows miners to leave and join the network without severely impacting the amount of Bitcoin mined.

Over the past month the U.S. Dollar has also seen steady gains throughout the crisis due to the market participants quick exit from stocks and other risk-on assets. So far DXY has risen 6.35% in March but it has fallen by nearly 1% since the Feds announcement of unlimited QE.

Coincidentally, Bitcoin is set to have its next halving event in April which will lower its issuance rate drop from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC every ten minutes. This means the supply will increase less than 2% per year, and will drop to less than 1% after 2024, a rate which is similar to the average rate of increase of the gold supply.

As the Fed sets out to print an unlimited supply of dollars, Bitcoin is in a prime position to become the next ultimate store of value currency as its issuance rate remains relatively unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the upcoming halving continues as programmed.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Feds Unlimited QE Places Spotlight on Bitcoin Store-of-Value Narrative - Cointelegraph