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

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

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

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.

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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

Yet again, bitcoin bulls arguing that the popular cryptocurrency is a flight to safety investment during times of stock market weakness have gotten some discouraging feedback during the coronavirus-driven market sell-off. The S&P 500 has experienced one of its sharpest drops in history in the past month, but bitcoin has performed even worse during that time.

There are plenty of reasons for investors to be seeking a safe haven for their cash these days given stocks are tanking and bond yields are at record lows. Unfortunately for bitcoin investors, it seems the market doesnt see bitcoin as a viable way to preserve value.

In the past month, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) is down 17%. In that same stretch, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTC: GBTC) is down 23.9% and the price of bitcoin is down 20.9%. By comparison, the traditional flight to safety trade, gold, is performing well during the stock market sell-off. The SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD) is up 5.8% in the past month, including another 1% rally on Wednesday morning.

See Also: How To Play The 2020 Stock Market Crash: Like 1987, 2000 Or 2008?

Correlations

Heres a look at the Portfolio Visualizer daily return correlation matrix for the SPY, the GBTC, the GLD ETF, the United States Oil Fund LP (ETF) (NYSE: USO), the iShares Barclays 20+ Yr Treas.Bond (ETF) (NYSE: TLT) and the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short Term Futures TM ETN (NYSE: VXX). The correlations are calculated based on daily returns since January of 2018.

The good news is that the numbers suggest that the GBTC bitcoin fund does have a relatively low 0.12 correlation with the SPY ETF. In fact, the GBTC ETF has even less of a correlation to stocks than the GLD ETF, which has a negative 0.18 correlation. The negative correlation likely comes in part by the fact that investors tend to buy gold on days of market weakness.

Those arguing for bitcoin being its own asset class would point to the fact that the GBTC has very low correlation to stocks, gold, oil, treasury bonds or even market volatility, according to the table.

Unfortunately, the correlation between bitcoin and the SPY is positive, whereas the correlation between gold and the SPY is negative. In other words, bitcoin prices tend to drop when stock prices drop and gold prices tend to rise when stock prices drop.

See Also:Boredom Is The Enemy? A Look At Bitcoin Since Peaking At ,000

Benzingas Take

The point of a flight to safety trade is to find a stable place to park cash when stocks are falling. Unfortunately, bitcoin hasnt yet proven to be that place, and bitcoin investors have suffered even larger losses than stock investors over the past month.

Do you agree with this take? Email feedback@benzinga.com with your thoughts.

See more from Benzinga

2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Originally posted here:
Bitcoin Is Still Failing As A Flight To Safety Investment - Yahoo Finance

Tezos price is leading recovery in the cryptocurrency market, especially in regards to the top ten digital assets. XTZ/USD is up 3.83% in the last 24 hours while Bitcoin price has grown by 1.78% in the same period. In the last seven days, Tezos has lost 7.89% of its value while Bitcoin is down 9.76%. The biggest loser among the top ten cryptoassets is Bitcoin SV, after dumping 18.80% in the last seven days.

Bitcoin price recently sunk from levels above $9,000 to test the support at $7,600. A recovery ensued on Tuesday where BTC advanced past the resistance at $8,000. The bulls pulled the price higher but they lost steam short of $8,200. A reversal followed with the price diving back under $8,000. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $7,904 amid struggles to sustain gains past the $8,000 level.

The 4-hour chart for XTZ/USD shows the price gearing up to tackle the sellers congested at the confluence created by the 50 SMA and the 100 SMA. The groundbreaking milestone for Tezos would be a jump above the hurdle at $3.0. Other technical indicators such as the RSI suggest that the bulls are largely in control. The MACD is advancing towards the positive region while the bullish divergence from it signals that buying pressure is on the rise.

However, the formation of a pennant pattern threatens to end the upside action and force a continuation of the recent downtrend. If the breakdown occurs, support is expected at $2.50, $2.25 and $2.00.

Spot rate: $2.61

Relative change: 0.0259

Percentage change: 1.00%

Trend: Bullish

Summary

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Tezos Price Makes Gigantic Steps To $3.0 As Bitcoin Price Deals With Rejection At $8,000

Description

Tezos price bulls defy the selling pressure on the market to post over 3% gains in the last 24 hours.A formed pennant flag pattern hints that a reversal is possible in the coming sessions.

Author

John Isige

Publisher Name

Coingape

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Tezos Price Makes Gigantic Steps Eyeing $3.0 As Bitcoin Price Deals With Rejection At $8,000 - Coingape

Over the past few hours, Bitcoin has mounted a comeback; after falling as low as $7,590 in step with a similar drop in the price of equities, the cryptocurrency surged towards $7,900.

While some say this is just volatility, there is purportedly evidence that an uptrend is forming, one that could take BTC above $8,000, then potentially higher to recover some of the strong losses the asset incurred at the start of the week.

Analyst JB recently noted that there is a confluence of technical analysis signs suggesting Bitcoin could soon see some strength:

He continued his train of thought in a later tweet, noting that the one-day and three-day Stochastic Relative Strength Index, which is a measure of momentum and trends, is looking like they could turn here to the upside. Should this take place, Bitcoin could be cleared for a short-term bounce at the very least, one that will likely take it past $8,000 once again.

Importantly, the one-week Stoch RSI is currently charging down, but is nearing the oversold region, meaning that price may trend lower for maybe another week before a potential bounce can form.

Bullish reversals in the one-day and three-day Scotch RSI marked the return to a bull trend in December, prior to Bitcoin rallying 50% to $10,500, along with the bottom prior to the aforementioned China pump.

There are also fundamental signs that BTC could soon see some strength.

The difficulty of the Bitcoin network, meaning how hard it is to put blocks into the chain, recently increased by 7%, indicating that miners remain optimistic about the future of BTC despite the recent market weakness.

Also, governments have been forced to intervene to save a potentially catastrophic economic and monetary situation due to the coronavirus.

The Bank of England (the central bank of the U.K.) has cut its policy interest rate by 0.5% to 0.25% as an emergency measure, Italy has just announced a 25 billion package to deal with the outbreak after quarantining the whole country, and the European Commission has pledged to help member states get ready for the economic effects of the virus through more flexibility in budget rules.

Analysts say that this seeming move to MMT and Helicopter Money will spur the growth in scarce assets like Bitcoin and gold.

See the original post:
Heres Why Bitcoin Could Rip to the Upside, Moving Past $8,000 - Ethereum World News

Bitcoin saw a 2.5% price decrease today as it trades at $7,871. The bulls are trying to recover from the drastic weekend performance in which Bitcoin rolled over from $9,200 and plummetted as low as $7,630. However, they are struggling to even close any candle above $8,000.

Nevertheless, the bulls are still battling, however, it does look like Bitcoin is preparing for another leg lower. It still remains strongly supported by the downside 1.414 Fibonacci Extension level at $7,750 and a break beneath this would certainly signal that Bitcoin is likely to head toward $7,250.

Bitcoin Price Analysis

BTC/USD Daily CHART SHORT TERM

Analyzing the daily chart above, we can see that Bitcoin managed to find support at the .786 Fibonacci Retracement level priced at $7,630 on Monday. It bounced higher from here and has not yet returned to this level. However, Bitcoin is still struggling to close any candle above the $8,000 level which is a strong sign that we might be heading beneath $7,500 over the next few days.

Bitcoin remains bearish at this moment in time and would need to climb back above $8,500 to turn neutral.

If the sellers do push beneath the current $7,750 support (downside 1.414 Fib Extension) the first level of lower support is found at $7,630 which is provided by the .786 Fib Retreacemnet). Beneath this, additional support is located at $7,500, $7,417 (downside 1.618 Fib Extension), and $7,265 (.886 Fib Retracement level).

On the other hand, resistance is located at $8,000, $8,250, $8,500, and $8,672.

Support:$7,750, $7,630, $7,500, $7,417, $7,265, $7,100, $7,000.

Resistance: $8,000, $8,250, $8,461, $8,672, $8,979, $9,000, $9,100, $9,270, $9,506, $9,740, $9,975, $9,000, $9,270, $9,500.

Summary

Article Name

Bitcoin Will Likely Head Toward $7,250 If The Market Closes Beneath THIS Trading Level

Description

Bitcoin dropped by a further 2.5% over the past 24 hours of trading as the coin falls into $7,870.The cryptocurrency is now down by a total of 20% over the past 30-days of trading.

Author

Yaz Sheikh

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Coin Gape

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Bitcoin Will Likely Head Toward $7,250 If The Market Closes Beneath THIS Trading Level - Coingape