On-chain data indicates crypto investors arent taking profits but are holding on despite uncertain economic conditions and bitcoins strong performance.

At the time of publication, 60.63% of all bitcoins have not moved in at least a year, according to data from Glassnode. This data suggests bitcoin ownership is consolidating, and investors who bought at the cycle bottom in 2018 have been reluctant to take profits and relinquish their bitcoin holdings. Its been over four years since a percentage of supply this large has been inactive.

One method to analyze inactive bitcoins has been to group them by the length of time theyve been inactive. Called HODL Waves, this data analysis was pioneered by Austin, Texas-based Unchained Capital to display macroscopic shifts in bitcoin ownership and use. It may also give a sense of investor preferences.

Each wave one day, one month, six months, two years, five years, etc. represents the period of time in which a percentage of the issued supply has not been used in a transaction, or, in other words, has been inactive.

The term HODL represents the behaviour of die-hard bitcoin investors who chose to hold bitcoins with practically no intention of using or selling those coins. Thus, each wave visualizes what percentage of the bitcoin supply has been HODLed and for how long.

Dhruv Bansal, co-founder and CSO at Unchained Capital, explained that this HODL Wave data suggests investors who bought bitcoin on the way down from $6,000 to $3,000 in 2018 are still holding it despite the tremendous gains since then and the recent economic turbulence.

Curiously, the two age segments that have grown the most are coins held for more than 10 years and those held for two to three years, which are up 31% and 26% year to date, respectively. In 2020, the two- to three-year band represents coins held from the 2017 market all-time high to present.

Every bitcoin investor might not intentionally HODL though. Speculating on the two- to three-year band waves growth, Yassine Elmandjra, cryptocurrency analyst at ARK Investment Management, told CoinDesk his guess is growth in this coin age group could, among other things, be a function of retail investors who bought at the peak and lost their Trezor [wallet] or cant log into Coinbase.

Despite an extremely volatile Q1 2020 and ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, an increasing amount of dormant bitcoins confirms that buyers still believe in their investment more than ever.

According to Bansal, If you believe bitcoins price history repeats or at least rhymes, then this may be a bullish sign, the market consolidating into strong hands as macro trends highlight bitcoins value proposition.

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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Inactive Bitcoin Supply Reaches 4-Year High, Pointing to Bullish Sentiment - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

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I have come to the conclusion that bitcoin is going to $1,000,000. This number, which you will see tossed out into the crypto narrative, comes from the idea that there are 100 million subunits of bitcoin and if each was worth the quantum unit of 1 U.S. cent, then a bitcoin would be worth $1 million. This is a non sequitur argument as there is no causal link why this should be so. In fact, you can fractionalize a bitcoin satoshi in to as many sub-satoshis as you like. It does have plenty of sizzle as an idea and while it has seemed extremely unlikely to me until now I suddenly see that mirage as being a possibility.

I now believe this is a possibility not because the value of bitcoin will go up, though I believe it will, but because the value of money is about to fall heavily and quite possibly into the depths of monetary hell.

This is why a bitcoin could be worth a million dollars or more.

A one hundred trillion dollar note from Zimbabwe

If there is not a startling recovery in the global economy this year, then government budgets will collapse and those governments will be forced to print cash and monetize bonds. You might say this is QE, but QE isnt the same thing at all, because it doesnt print new money and hand it out. It prints new money and swaps it for not so acceptable assets that are a step or two and a haircut or two away from being swapped by others for lovely cash. QE is a generous swap with a kindly pawnshop that is happy to take a view on the creditworthiness of a lot of dodgy assets. Handing out to the general public money still almost wet from the presses because they might get sad and uppity or simply because they need money to pay their mobile bill to keep the phone company solvent to keep their employees working to pay taxes to the government, is another thing entirely. Printing money to spend in that states economy is straight South American-style inflationary fiat creation.

If tax budgets crater, this is exactly what is going to happen, because austerity on the scale necessary to claw back broken budgets is not going to happen and perhaps even shouldnt. Like it or not, the lockdown has made everyone poorer, in what are highly leveraged economies. The trouble with leverageas anyone with a nice life style, a pile of debt and sudden unemployment knowsis that leverage is great on the upswing but awful on the downswing. Any trader will tell you, leverage kills and like any leveraged trader caught with the markets in reverse, we must hope for a sudden semi-miraculous reversal in direction to save us from being irreversibly crushed by the mathematics.

Right now, there are plenty of firebrands wanting to smash the capitalist system or what passes for one in these mixed economic times. It may be proven ironic that it has already been smashed. Who owns the aftermath is yet to be established and we can hope the outcome will not be worthy of a record in the history books. Either way the outcome of sovereign budget collapses is not going to be resolved by deflation and the only solution to such a situation will be to print and to flush the system with money at every level without recourse to caring about inflation.

So I can imagine a scenario where recovery comes quite quickly and governments print hard but not so hard as to hit the sort of inflation made famous in Argentina, Turkey or even in history Japan, Hungary and Germany. A strong recovery means rebasing currencies by 100% over say 6 or 7 years, which would do the trick of crawling back to a new normal. You would see inflation around 7%-9% a year and the rest of the dilution would be magicked away with statistical tweaks to help the optics of it all. That would be a fine accomplishment by those holding the bag of the next few excremental years. It would be like a plane crash where there were only concussions and broken limbs. But this soft landing is by no means a certainty.

The second virus wave is already apparently shaping up and countries are unlocking at a pace that might go on into the autumn and perhaps will take even a year or two to revert to a status where economic activity can fully recover, the damage is still building. Is the timetable for a return to normal levels of economic activity going to allow state expenditures to continue at anywhere near old levels?

Its hard to imagine it will while it is easy to imagine a biblical outcome.

Doling out millions of new money is the classic answer to such chronic straits so bitcoin to $1,000,000 could happen in short order in such circumstances and in real terms that might be only a few multiples higher in purchasing power.

Right now there are only about 18 million bitcoins (with a maximum of 21 million) and if any major economy or group of minor countries melted down into hyperinflation that alone would drive crypto into orbit in dollars.

So while the halvening chips away towards high prices for bitcoin, there is an inflation bomb ticking away that in short months will quickly resolve its probabilities.

So what is an investor to do? Simply watch prices at your local supermarket and watch the pace of stimulus and government deficits. This will help you gauge if the wheels are coming off and if they do, as is becoming increasingly possible, bitcoin will go vertical.

That inflation is already baked into U.S. equities and bonds care of QE, and if there is another round of U.S. stimulus and its the kind that goes straight into the pockets of people, then that will be the starting gun for a financial reset that will see everyone with plenty of zeros added onto their net wealth but sadly with significantly less ability to buy the things they want.

Clem Chambers is the CEO of private investors websiteADVFN.com and author of 101 Ways to Pick Stock Market Winners and Trading Cryptocurrencies: A Beginners Guide.

Chambers won Journalist of the Year in the Business Market Commentary category in the State Street U.K. Institutional Press Awards in 2018.

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Bitcoin To $1,000,000 Might Sound Crazy, But Is It? - Forbes

A Bloomberg senior editor today argued there were six reasons why 2020 was bad for bitcoin. Heres the opposite case.

Bitcoinis up more than 30% on the year. After a crash alongside equities, it has proved incredibly resilient. There are famous new entrants to the space like Paul Tudor Jones II.

So how can a Bloomberg editor argue the year has been bad for bitcoin?

In this response podcast, NLW argues that most of the arguments are about narrative, not the underlying fundamentals. He presents six reasons why not only has it not been a bad year, but the exact opposite is true:

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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6 Reasons Why 2020 Is a Great Year for Bitcoin - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

LONDON, June 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Bitcoin Association, the international industry body that works to advance business with Bitcoin SV, today officially announces that Bitcoin SV DevCon 2020 a two-day virtual developer conference - will be held on July 18-19 in partnership with WeAreDevelopers and nChain.

The weekend-long virtual event will feature leaders from across the Bitcoin SV ecosystem teaching sessions to educate and upskill developers interested in working on the Bitcoin SV blockchain. The presentations will cover topics designed to provide a foundational knowledge of the Bitcoin network and its programming language (Bitcoin Script), as well as the practical understanding necessary to begin building powerful applications on the blockchain. Attendees will also be treated to a fireside chat with Dr. Craig S. Wright, who will discuss the origins of Bitcoin Script and the potential it represents for future blockchain endeavours.

A full agenda for the Bitcoin SV DevCon 2020 is available at bsvdevcon.net

Bitcoin Association supports the Bitcoin SV blockchain because it is the only blockchain that adheres to the 'Satoshi Vision' and protocol of Bitcoin's creator Satoshi Nakamoto.That vision includes massive scaling to support higher volumes of transactions and diverse data use enabling Bitcoin to function both as a digital currency and a global public ledger for enterprise applications. The Bitcoin blockchain has seen application development explode globally, with over 400 known ventures and projects already making use of BSV's greater scaling, data and micropayments capabilities.

To meet the growing interest in Bitcoin SV development, Bitcoin Association are proud to partner on this first Bitcoin SV DevCon with WeAreDevelopers, a leading online community platform for developers, with a track record of producing best in class educational resources and events, and nChain, the global leader in research and development of enterprise-grade blockchain solutions.

The Bitcoin SV DevCon 2020 is free to attend and registration is open now on the WeAreDevelopers website.

Speaking on today's announcement, Jimmy Nguyen, Founding President of Bitcoin Association, said:

"I'm delighted that today we are able to announce our first ever Bitcoin SV DevCon will be held completely virtually next month. The immense potential that the Bitcoin SV blockchain has for enterprise-grade applications can only be realized with the developer talent there to capitalize on it. That's precisely why we're so excited to be running this event and doing so in partnership with WeAreDevelopers and nChain, both of whom bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise that will ensure that Bitcoin SV DevCon is both an enjoyable and educational experience. There's never been a better time to learn to build on the Bitcoin SV blockchain and there's never been a better place to start that journey than with the Bitcoin SV DevCon 2020."

Also commenting was Steve Shadders, CTO at nChain and Technical Director of the Bitcoin SV Node project, who said:

"The opportunities for developers with the skillset required to build applications on the blockchain are only going to continue to expand. I expect that in the coming years, we will see a new class of specialist developers or "Bitcoin engineers" emerge as businesses look to harness the power and potential of blockchain technology. Bitcoin SV is the only blockchain with the capabilities to fulfil the needs of enterprises and the Bitcoin SV DevCon 2020 is the perfect place to start learning how to work with and develop on it."

For more information on Bitcoin SV DevCon 2020, visit bsvdevcon.net

In August 2020, Bitcoin Association intends to host a China-focused version of the Bitcoin SV DevCon; more information about the China DevCon will be forthcoming.

About Bitcoin Association

Bitcoin Associationis the global industry organization which advances Bitcoin SV. Based in Zug, Switzerland, the non-profit Association brings together enterprises, start-up ventures, developers, merchants, exchanges, service providers, blockchain transaction processors (miners), and others in the Bitcoin SV ecosystem to advance the growth of Bitcoin commerce. The Association seeks to build a regulation-friendly ecosystem that fosters lawful conduct while encouraging digital currency innovation.

SOURCE Bitcoin SV

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Bitcoin Association Announces Bitcoin SV DevCon 2020 in Partnership with WeAreDevelopers and nChain - PRNewswire

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. The year was 1944 in the United States. The 44 allied countries met in Bretton Woods in order to confer on moving towards fixing and backing the US dollar, along with other currencies, with gold, thus starting an era when currencies were fixed or to gold.

For the next 26 years, this standard remained and the US dollar became the de facto reserve currency of the world. At the end of World War II, the US controlled about two thirds of the worlds gold reserve.

Countries that have the worlds reserve currencies are powerful and tended to get away with borrowing a lot. Thats because other countries were inclined to hold the debt/money as it can be used for spending around the world. All of that borrowing will have to be paid back one day.

By 1971, the US Federal Reserve had printed so much debt that they didnt have enough gold to back up the US dollar. As a result, the Bretton Woods monetary system broke down in 1971 when President Nixon, like President Roosevelt in 1933, defaulted on the USs promise of allowing holders of paper dollars to turn them in for gold.

Therefore, the dollar is no longer pegged to gold and it devalued against gold and other currencies. During this period, the US and all countries went into a free-floating currency era where the value of each currency was not backed by a particular asset but remained relative in value to other asset classes.

The move to a fiat monetary system gave the Federal Reserve and other central banks the ability to print dollar-denominated money and credit, which led to the inflationary during the 1970s. During this period, there was a flight from dollars and dollar-denominated debt to goods, services, and inflation-hedge assets such as gold which many considered to be a good store of wealth. During this period we moved from asset-backed money towards a floating fiat currency not backed by assets. And for the next 50 years, this worked fine.

In 2008, interest rates hit the lowest levels during the economic recession and the US government decided to initiate quantitative easing by printing more money and buying financial assets. Fast forward to today, their debt has ballooned to US$24 trillion dollars as of April 2020.

But something unexpected happened. The coronavirus triggered the economic and market downturns all over the world, which created holes in incomes and balance sheets, especially for indebted entities whose incomes have been affected by the downturn.

So, on April 9, 2020, the US central government and the US central bank or the Fed announced a massive money and credit creation program that included helicopter money (direct payments from the government to citizens) that eclipsed anything theyve done before. This was essentially the same move that Roosevelt made in 1933.

However skeptics point out that the hope for growth, created by the debt printed by the Fed, is not reflected by the productivity gains from businesses around the world. This scenario tends to lead to inflation. If we looked back historically, these periods tend to be characterized by people converting assets to those that are not inflationary in nature, such as gold or assets that have a fixed amount or a scarcity quality to it.

In 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin with the idea of building an alternative currency as a response to the financial recession of 2008 and the burgeoning debt around the US dollar. The hope was to create an alternative financial system that is resilient against socio-economic changes and geopolitical fights.

The idea behind bitcoin is simple. At its core, bitcoin is an alternative currency that is among other things:

(1) Decentralized and not controlled by any person/entity being (built through a decentralized network).

(2) Scarce in nature (only 21 million bitcoins will ever be created) and therefore deflationary in nature- over time it becomes more and more difficult to produce bitcoins (thus, theoretically making its value go up).

Over the past 10 years, bitcoins growth in acceptance and value has kept rising and the currency has shown its resilience over many peaks and troughs throughout its short lifetime. In the backdrop of what is going on in the world today, many believe that bitcoin can be the next global reserve currency and become the safe have asset.

We have already seen Bitcoin being used more in countries where its national currency goes through massive inflation (such as Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Zimbabwe).

Bitcoin is set to go through its scheduled halving on May 11, 2020. This means that it will technically be two times as hard to mine new bitcoins, forcing miners to sell their bitcoins at a higher price in order to cover the operational cost. This will change the supply and demand dynamics with many predicting the price to continue going up.

The next few months will be an exciting time for bitcoin, as the macro-economic changes in the world set up the stage for a good testing ground for Bitcoin to prove itself. Now, its your turn to choose. May the force be with you. Always.

***

The writer is founder of Pintu, a government-registered platform to trade cryptocurrencies, and graduate of Harvard Business School, where he did research at the MIT Media Lab on cryptoasset valuations. The original article was published in Medium.com.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.

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Currency wars: The rise of bitcoin - Opinion - Jakarta Post

People around the world are increasingly trusting Bitcoin over big banks, according to a new survey conducted by fintech news site The Tokenist. The survey, which polled 4,852 participants across 17 countries, found that 47% of respondents trust Bitcoin over big banks, an increase of 29% in the past three years.

The survey also showed a striking generation gap when it comes to Bitcoin and the banks. While over half (51%) of millennials trust Bitcoin over big banks, an increase of 24% over 2017, over nine in ten (93%) of over-65s trust big banks over Bitcoin.

The over-65s are wary of Bitcoin in general, with half of those polled thinking that its a bubble, versus less than a quarter (24%) of millennials.

Millennials embrace of Bitcoin is partly down to increased familiarity; 78% of millennials are somewhat familiar with Bitcoin, versus 61% of total respondents, and 14% of them have owned Bitcoin. In the next five years, 44% of millennials expect to buy some Bitcoin.

Not surprisingly, then, the survey also found that 59% of millennials are confident that Bitcoin will see mass adoption within the next 10 years, and that most people around the world will likely be using it by that time.

While millennials may be leading the way in Bitcoin adoption, the survey found increased knowledge of, and growing confidence in, Bitcoin among all age and gender groups surveyed, its writers stated.

Six in ten (60%) of those polled felt that Bitcoin is a positive innovation in financial technology, an increase of 27% in three years. And over 45% of respondents preferred Bitcoin over stocks, real estate and gold.

Three years ago, many of the largest BTC brokers were relatively new and were therefore accorded a low level of trust, said the reports writers. Now, there appears to be an appreciation of the maturity, and stability, of these providers.

With stocks and shares taking a beating in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown, some Bitcoin advocates are arguing that this is the cryptocurrencys moment. Though with Bitcoins price fluctuating in recent days, it clearly has some way to go yet.

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Bitcoin is becoming more trustworthy than big banks, says survey - Decrypt

A report published by blockchain and AI investment firm Outlier Ventures has found a decline in developer activity of roughly 20% on average across 12 leading blockchain and cryptocurrency projects.

In Outlier Ventures Blockchain Developer Report for the second quarter of 2020, the firm notes that development fell by half for top markets Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Eos (EOS), and Tron Tron (TRX).

Despite the retraction in building, the firm notes that some signs of strong developer activity surrounding various crypto projects, with Theta (THETA) and Cardano (ADA) seeing increases in core code updates of 931% and 580% respectively.

Eos saw the fastest drop in development, with the projects mainnet launch in June year precipitating an 86% fall in building taking place.

Bitcoin Cash saw the second-largest decline in activity, with development falling by 63%. Outlier Ventures attributes much of the drop to the Bitcoin SV (BSV) fork that took place in November 2018.

Tron also saw a heavy retracement in development, with a 53% drop in activity.

Monthly active development on Tron, Eos, and Bitcoin Cash: Outlier Ventures

Cardano, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Corda all saw activity fall by nearly 20%, while Ripple (XRP), Hyperledger, and Stellar (XLM) also saw development declines year-over-year.

Polkadot and Cosmos (ATOM) were the only projects to exhibit an increase in total development, increasing by 15% and 44% respectively.

The report also measured the number of weekly commits and code updates for the top 30 open-source protocols by market cap, plus Corda and Hyperledger.

Weekly code updates for Eos, Tron, and MakerDAO (MKR) saw huge update decreases of 94%, 96%, and 98% respectively, with VeChain (VET), Stellar, BSV, Neo (NEO), Crypto.com (CRO), Cosmos, IOTA (MIOTA), and Polkadot also posting declines overall.

However, more than 50% of the projects examined saw a significant increase in code updates, including Ethereum Classic (ETC), Chainlink (LINK), and Bitcoin.

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Developer Activity Surrounding Eos, Tron, and Bitcoin Cash Plummets - Cointelegraph

The new top banking regulator for the Trump administration sees huge and great promise in cryptocurrency. Focusing on decentralized networks, bitcoin, and rewriting existing regulations, he shares his views on cryptocurrency and the creation of the digital dollar.

Brian Brooks recently became the new acting Comptroller of the Currency, the top banking regulator for the Trump administration. The 51-year-old has experience in crypto, having previously served as general counsel to bitcoin exchange Coinbase. Discussing his views on cryptocurrency, regulation, and technology, Brooks told Forbes:

There is huge and great promise in blockchain and crypto.

He elaborated: Blockchain has potential to connect up, in a decentralized network, all kinds of data It has the ability to create large, friction-free, decentralized networks of people. Brooks believes that blockchain is the solution to our problems, Forbes conveyed. Im very bullish on technology Things like AI, things like blockchain have a better ability to leverage the wisdom of crowds, he was quoted as saying.

As acting Comptroller of the Currency, Brooks is the administrator of the federal banking system and chief officer of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC supervises nearly 1,200 national banks, federal savings associations, and federal branches and agencies of foreign banks that conduct approximately 70% of all banking business in the U.S. The Comptroller also serves as a director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

A lawyer by trade, Brooks joined the OCC in March as chief operating officer, appointed by Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin. The former banker was previously executive vice president and general counsel at Fannie Mae. He, Mnuchin, and former Comptroller Joseph Otting worked together at Onewest Bank in Pasadena, California, which was heavily criticized for its foreclosure practices in the years after the financial crisis.

Discussing his views on cryptocurrencies, Brooks told the publication that he is looking for decentralized networks in general he cited bitcoin, ether and XRP in particular to solve many of the problems hindering more than one-thousand financial institutions under his purview, Forbes contributor Cory Johnson detailed.

The new acting comptroller also revealed that he is focusing on rewriting existing regulation on bank digital activities. Citing banks antiquated money transfer methods, he said that it takes three days to transfer money from the U.S. to Europe on the SWIFT network. Not only is peoples money at risk during that time, but they also incur foreign exchange fees, he noted, adding that these problems can be eliminated using digital assets.

Moreover, Brooks sees a threat in other countries modernizing their payment systems, leaving the U.S. lagging behind. Criticizing the Feds version of faster payments, he revealed: There are certain O.C.C. regulations that require that certain things be transmitted by fax and require banks maintain a fax number. Those were written at a time when faxes were a cool technology. Now theyre mandates.

Regarding the digital dollar, Brooks is skeptical about the federal government issuing one. He opined:

Im not in favor of a government-created token I just dont think thats the role of government, quite honestly. But I think that the Fed and the SEC need to be putting up frameworks of what that digital currency needs to be.

Meanwhile, the most crypto-friendly commissioner with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is set to serve another term. Commissioner Hester Peirce, often known in the crypto community as crypto-mom, has been nominated for another term as an SEC commissioner. Her existing term expires this month but commissioners may serve up to 18 months beyond the expiration of their terms. Peirces nomination needs to be confirmed by the Senate.

A strong advocate of the SEC approving bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF), she introduced the Token Safe Harbor Proposal in February to fill the gap between regulation and decentralization, proposing a grace period of three years for tokens. The commissioner recently said that there is an increasing demand for cryptocurrency, particularly from institutional investors.

What do you think about the U.S. having a crypto-friendly top banking regulator? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, OCC

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Bitcoin-Friendly Top US Banking Regulator Aims to Solve Banks' Problems With Decentralization | News - Bitcoin News

Bitcoin proved itself a resilient asset, if not a stable or useful currency, during Marchs global financial meltdown, according to analysts at one of the worlds largest investment banks.

In a note to investor clients circulated June 11 and obtained by CoinDesk, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts described how bitcoin has shifted from a fairly uncorrelated asset to one whose price more closely tracks traditional stocks.

Though correlations were modest and mostly mean-reverting around zero for much of the past couple of years, in recent months they have moved sharply higher in some cases (equities) and lower in others (U.S. dollar, gold), wrote the team of strategists led by Joshua Younger.

The analysts, who normally cover bonds, noted bitcoins success in outperforming traditional assets in March on a volatility-adjusted basis. The report also found that liquidity on major bitcoin exchanges was, surprisingly, more resilient than for traditional assets such as equities, gold, U.S. Treasury bonds and foreign exchange.

The results of their analysis suggest that bitcoin saw among the most severe drops in liquidity around the peak of the crisis in March, but that disruption was cured much faster than other asset classes, the researchers wrote. At this point, bitcoin market depth is above its 1-year trailing average, while liquidity in more traditional asset classes has yet to recover.

Stablecoins, whose values are generally pegged to government currencies, got a brief mention and were described as relatively unscathed by the March turbulence.

From March 2-23, the S&P 500 plunged 29% as investors looked to cash out amid increasing concerns about the coronavirus.

The JPMorgan analysts reckoned that cryptocurrencies successfully passed their first stress test during this period despite volatile price action. During the March panic, crypto valuations did not diverge all that much from their intrinsic values, showing little flight to liquidity within the asset class, the analysts wrote.

While the market structure for crypto during this period was more resilient than its traditional counterparts, according to the report, bitcoin did not quite live up to its reputation in some corners as a port in a storm.

There is little evidence that bitcoin and others served as a safe haven (i.e., digital gold)rather, its value appears to have been highly correlated with risky assets like equities, the report concluded. This all likely points to the continued survival of the asset class, but likely still more as a vehicle for speculation than as a medium of exchange or store of value.

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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JPMorgan Analysts: Bitcoin Is Likely to Survive (as a Speculative Asset) - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

The average fee for a transaction on the Bitcoin network has fallen roughly 91% from $6.56 on May 20th to just $0.56 on June 14th, reaching back below $1. The amount represents a low that the network hasnt seen since April, before the Bitcoin halving that took place on May 11th.

The Most Diverse Audience to Date at FMLS 2020 Where Finance Meets Innovation

Over the past several days, falling transaction fees have coincided with a small slump in the price of Bitcoin: on Thursday, June 11th, Bitcoin briefly reached as high as $9,930; at press time, that figure was just $9,160.

However, Bitcoins price and the amount paid off in transaction fees have not always correlated throughout the past several months; when Bitcoin transaction fees were at their highest on May 20th, the price of Bitcoin was roughly $9,685; as transaction fees were falling on June 2nd, several weeks later, the price briefly rose above $10,100.

Fees started to notably increase several weeks before the halving occurred. On April 28th, the average fee was $0.66; by May 1st, that figure had nearly quintupled to $2.84.

On the Bitcoin network, transaction fees typically increase when the network is experiencing periods of heavy usage; because the Bitcoin network can only process between 3.3 and 7 transactions per second, a backlog of transactions can easily form during periods of high trading volume.

Therefore, its no coincidence that as Bitcoins fees increased, Bitcoins mempool sizewhich is the aggregate size of transactions waiting to be confirmedalso skyrocketed during the periods when Bitcoins transaction fees were at their highest.

FBS CopyTrade Became the Best Application for Copy Trading in 2020Go to article >>

Ryan Watkins, who works as a research analyst in Messari crypto, pointed out on Twitter that while fees have continued to fall on the Bitcoin network, there was a prolonged spike in the price of transactions on the Ethereum network, bringing fees on Ethereum above Bitcoins for several days.

While Ethereum fees have previously surpassed Bitcoin fees multiple times in the past, most instances were just momentary spikes, a report from Messari reads. The last time Ethereum fees were above Bitcoin fees on a sustained basis was mid-2018, during the tail end of the ICO craze.

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Bitcoin Transaction Fees Fall 91%, Back to Pre-Halving Levels - Finance Magnates