On May 7, the decentralized finance (defi) startup General Protocols revealed the team has raised over $1 million from investors. The creators of General Protocols have introduced innovative projects on the Bitcoin Cash network such as Anyhedge, and have also participated in helping forward the Bitcoin Cash Node (BCHN) project and Flipstarter.cash.

The BCH community was pleased to hear that a startup dedicated to the Bitcoin Cash blockchain and decentralized finance (defi) has raised $1 million this week. The company called, General Protocols, is behind the Anyhedge project which is a blockchain-enforced synthetic derivatives protocol for Bitcoin Cash (BCH). News.Bitcoin.com reported on the project during the first week of April. According to the teams press release, the latest funding stems from the cryptocurrency trader Marc De Mesel and a variety of other investors. The team is thrilled to get funding to push the startups goals forward in order to deliver defi to the BCH community.

We are delighted that aligned investors are supporting us in our vision to bring defi to Bitcoin Cash, said John Nieri a.k.a. emergent_reasons, President of General Protocols. We are building a team of dedicated supporters of peer to peer electronic cash here at General Protocols.

General Protocols team members helped with the construction of Flipstarter.cash, a noncustodial fundraising platform. Additionally, the startup also volunteered efforts toward the new Bitcoin Cash full node implementation called BCHN. The project Anyhedge aims to be the first defi protocol on any branch of Bitcoin and the platform will launch in cooperation with Cryptophyls new noncustodial exchange, Detoken.

Further two former Bitcoin.com team members Marcel Chuo and Rosco Kalis have joined the General Protocols company. Kalis is well known for his work on the Cashscript protocol in order to create a new generation of smart contracts on the Bitcoin Cash network. Chuo will handle business relationships and his background includes global expansion and coordinating with well known tech firms like HTC. During the investment announcement for $1 million into General Protocols infrastructure, Kalis said he looks forward to working on the blockchain-enforced synthetic derivatives protocol for Bitcoin Cash.

Im excited to be working on Anyhedge with the great team at General Protocols, Kalis explained during the announcement.

What do you think about the $1 million dollar investment into General Protocols? Let us know in the comments below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, General Protocols, Anyhedge

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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Decentralized Finance Startup Focused on Bitcoin Cash Raises $1 Million for Expansion - Bitcoin News

The price of Bitcoin (BTC), the top-ranked cryptocurrency, currently sits around $9,000, after last week's impressive 20% rally in a single day. With the halving now less than 2 weeks away, it might seem like a no brainer to go long on Bitcoin to catch the next explosive move.

However, there is one chart view that suggests we may have topped out, and that is what Ill start with today.

Daily crypto market performance. Source: Coin360.com

BTC USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

In last week's analysis, I shared two possible ascending channels, one of which was invalidated leaving one in play. This week, I want to look at the possibility that we were not inside either channel and the fact we could still be in a downtrend since the June 2019 pump that almost hit $14,000.

The upper trend line is validated by three touches. However, the lower trendline of this channel puts the immediate downside as low as $3,000 with the moving average around $6,300. These are not numbers that I expect Bitcoin to see again, but it would be foolish to not be prepared for it.

BTC USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

The Fibonacci retracement levels from the ATH of $20K per Bitcoin are showing us that a breakout today could see us return to much higher levels than previously expected.

$9,550 is the critical level to focus on. Its both the 0.382 Fib and the top of the channel. Claiming this level could see Bitcoin soar towards the 0.5 Fib of $11,50,0 which then realistically puts the 0.618 Fib of $13,500 on the table.

Now that's all well and good, but number go up doesnt always happen, and one such indicator that can be relied on to confirm the direction were headed based on the current momentum is the monthly Moving Average Convergence Divergence indicator or MACD.

BTC USD monthly MACD chart Source: TradingView

Last week, I highlighted the significance that the moving average divergence convergence (MACD) Indicator has on the price of Bitcoin when it crosses bullishly on the weekly timeframe.

However, with the bullish monthly candle close comes a new picture for the monthly MACD. Mapped out above is the monthly MACD bullish and bearish crosses with the weekly MACD bullish crosses highlighted with the dotted lines green for bullish crosses that saw a big run after, and red dotted lines for the false bullish crosses.

The reason for this map is to see if there are patterns that match with the 2017 weekly bullish cross that saw a 2,000% rise. But its also useful to see if the higher time frame view is showing us any contradictory momentum that could suggest a dump is due soon.

Moving from the left to the right of the chart, what this shows is that back in March 2017 when the weekly MACD crossed bullish, the monthly MACD was already in a bullish crossover from 2015.

Thus, at the point of the weekly bullish crossover, both the MACD and signal lines were on an upward trajectory. This resulted in a 2,000% increase in price for Bitcoin from the point of the weekly cross.

Later on, the false bullish crossover on the weekly in September 2018 shows us that the monthly MACD and signal line were both in a downward trajectory and that the monthly MACD was already crossing bearishly. Thus, the higher timeframe momentum was signaling that the move from weekly MACD crossover may not be valid.

The February weekly bullish crossover seemingly has exactly the same conditions as the September crossover with one difference. The histogram on the monthly MACD was losing downward momentum as can be seen by the paler pink color compared to the darker pink in the previous crossover. In this case, it resulted in a 400% increase in the price of Bitcoin.

Now looking at the 2020 momentum, we can see that the monthly MACD was chopping and changing direction between December and February, which led to the signal line and MACD having a sidewards trajectory quite literally a first for Bitcoin.

But if youve read this far, and youre still following where I am going with this, the monthly signal line is on an upward path for the first time since October 2015, back when Bitcoin was just $200 per coin, and if you take this to the $20K all-time high, thats a monstrous 10,000% or 100x move.

So with this in mind, will the next bullish cross on the monthly MACD happen in June? Are we in store for a 10,000% increase from the current price? Only time will tell.

BTC USD 1 hour chart. Source: TradingView

Drilling down to the hourly now, and we can see that Bitcoin was starting to form a pattern of lower highs and higher lows after its big leg up last night.

Typically this signals a potential continuation of the previous trend, and the upside potential is around $9,600. And if we had held this level for a candle close on the daily, then next week would have looked to be incredibly bullish.

As this has just broken down, a pullback to $8,400 throughout the week is to be expected.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of @officiallykeith 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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Bitcoin Hasnt Done This Since 2015 Before Its 10,000% Bull Run - Cointelegraph

Crypto analyst and Twitter personality, PlanB, recently said Bitcoin is serious business as he recapped the asset's journey over the last decade.

This thing is not a toy anymore," PlanB told Peter McCormack in a May 1 podcast episode. "Its maybe not an asset anymore as well," he said, adding, "It is going to be much bigger than that.

PlanB is known around the crypto space for his stock-to-flow model. The model takes into account Bitcoin's block reward, or current inflation, and halving events, factoring those into the asset's price.

According to that data, PlanB plotted a few future price targets for Bitcoin, ultimately showing the asset's potential for a $1 million price tag down the road.

PlanB published an updated version of his model in an April 27 blog post, making gold and silver part of the equation, while taking the time component out.

Referencing its early beginnings roughly a 11 years ago, PlanB said Bitcoin began its journey as a proof-of-concept, or PoC, for a peer-to-peer digital cash system. "It was kind of a toy," McCormack said a description PlanB agreed with.

PlanB noted Bitcoin did not even hold a $1 million dollar market cap in its first two years, although the landscape subsequently changed. "Then came the transition," he said. "It went from a toy, magical internet money, to dollar parity," he said, describing the credibility Bitcoin gained when it hit $1 per coin.

The analyst explained Bitcoin's price and usage journey over the years, as its identity transitioned from a payment avenue, to a status similar to gold, to its current position as a financial asset.

PlanB did mention the possibility of another transition, although he chose not to provide any speculation on what that might include exactly. The analyst and podcast host also dove into a bevy of other points and concepts in the hour-long podcast episode.

With Bitcoin's halving quickly approaching, time will tell how the coin's status will change in the upcoming days.

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Stock-to-Flow Creator Says Bitcoin Is Not a Toy Anymore' - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency investors are gearing up for the long-awaited bitcoin halving this monthwhich will see the number of new bitcoin entering the market cut by half.

The bitcoin price has soared this week and is now a strong contender for 2020's best performing asset, climbing to over $9,000 per bitcoin for the first time since late February.

However, while many traders are betting the bitcoin price will climb as a result of this month's cut to supply, the latest bitcoin bounce may have happened for entirely different reasons.

The bitcoin price has rallied hard since its massive sell-off in March, with many bitcoin investors ... [+] confident the price will continue to rise until a scheduled supple squeeze in May.

Shortly before bitcoin's 20% rally this week, a large transfer of the stablecoin tether was made to bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

Tether is a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar on a one-to-one basis with its creators claiming they keep one U.S. dollar in reserve for every tether token issued.

Tether tokens worth a little over $50 million were transferred to Malta-based Binance early on Wednesday, just hours before bitcoin began its $30 billion pump.

A Twitter bot that records major bitcoin and cryptocurrency trades, called Whale Alert, picked up the transaction.

Over the past month Tether Ltd, which controls the stablecoin tether and shares owners and senior staff with the British Virgin Islands-based bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, has ramped up the number of tether it's creatingminting over $1 billion worth of the stablecoin.

"[On Wednesday we] witnessed extensive buying activity and the high level of scalability and liquidity evident on our platform made us able to seamlessly service all these requests," boasted Bitfinex chief technology officer, Paolo Ardoinowho also serves as the chief technology officer of Tetherin a statement that pointed to major U.S. bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase's unfortunate outage during the sudden bitcoin rally.

The bitcoin suddenly shot higher earlier this week--catching many traders and investors off-guard ... [+] and causing a surge of demand that knocked major U.S. bitcoin and crypto exchange Coinbase offline.

There is currently some 6.3 billion tether tokens in circulation, compared to just 18 million bitcoin.

Last year, it was suggested around half of bitcoin's value between March 2017 and March 2018 was created by trades between bitcoin and tethercasting doubt over whether bitcoin's epic 2017 bull run happened organically.

Many have called for Tether's dollar reserves to be externally audited amid claims tether's dollar peg is "no longer credible."

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Forget The HalvingIs This The Real Reason Bitcoin Suddenly Soared Toward $10,000? - Forbes

Both Bitcoin and Ethereum have seen stellar performances from their 2020 lows, both gaining 140 percent since the Black Thursday crash seen on Mar. 12 and 13.

While impressive, top analysts expect for these two leading cryptocurrencies to head even higher in the months and years ahead, citing the imminence of two of the most important events ever in the calendars of Bitcoin and Ethereum holders.

According to David Hoffman COO at tokenized real estate platform RealT and the co-head of the Bankless podcast and newsletter there are two fundamental events in the coming months that will act in tandem to be a perfect bull market catalyst: the Bitcoin block reward halving and the introduction of Ethereum 2.0 in the summer.

Hoffman was so convinced of this that he wrote that if thats not a catalyst for a bull market, then nothing is.

Other analysts would agree.

In approximately 10 days as of this articles writing, Bitcoin will see its inflation rate instantly cut in half by a halving, when the number of coins per block is cut in half by the protocol.

Its an event that a top quantitative analyst with the moniker of PlanB found will give Bitcoin a fair value of around $288,000, over 3,000 percent higher than the current market price. This high value was derived by finding that BTCs market capitalization can be derived by analyzing its inflation rate.

Adding to the bull trend, in a few months, Ethereum developers will roll out Ethereum 2.0. Its an upgrade that will move the cryptocurrency awake from a mining consensus mechanism to staking, which incentivizes dedicated holders to stake their coins in exchange for rewards.

As Hoffman explained in a recent episode of Bankless, the introduction of staking will strongly decrease the amount of ETH on the open market, resulting in a supply shock that will favor price appreciation.

This was echoed by Adam Cochran, partner at MetaCartel Ventures, who wrote that the introduction of ETH 2.0 will create a massive societal economic shift.

Adding to these fundamental trends, analysts have observed that the macroeconomic backdrop is starting to favor decentralized cryptocurrency more and more.

As reported by CryptoSlate on an earlier date, Raoul Pal an ex-Goldman Sachs executive and former hedge fund manager suggested in a research note that he sees a genuine chance that there is a risk of the failure of our very system of money or at least a collapse of the current financial architecture.

This comment was made in reference to the fact that central banks are starting to debase their currencies at a record rate while theres a growing chance that some of the $250 trillion worth of global debt starts to unwind. Add potential deflation into the mix, Pal wrote, and you have a potential for fiat money to come under pressure.

According to the prominent investor, thats where crypto comes in. On Bitcoin, in particular, Pal said:

It is an entire trusted, verified, secure, financial and accounting system of digital value. [] It is nothing short of the future of our entire medium of exchange system, and of money itself and the platform on which it operates.

Cover Photo by San Fermin Pamplona - Navarra on Unsplash

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Ethereum 2.0 launch and Bitcoin halving are 2 perfect catalysts for a bull run - CryptoSlate

Yuri Molchan

John McAfee again contends Bitcoin no longer leads the market, saying that its crazy that the value of every crypto coin is tied to Bitcoins value, particularly Monero

Crypto baron John McAfee has taken to Twitter to remind the community of the fact that everyaltcoin, including those in the top-ten, is correlated with Bitcoin, following it up and down the price scale.

McAfee, the former outstanding Bitcoin supporter, who bet his manhood on a $1 mln BTC price, now says that such correlation between the altcoins value and Bitcoins value is insane.

In particular, he regrets that Monero, the most frequently used coin, as per McAfee, is also tied to Bitcoin.

The former antivirusmogul McAfee hasa new favorite on the crypto market. Previously, it was Docademic (MTC) and Bitcoin. Now, it is the privacy coin Monero (XMR).

McAfee states that it is insane to seethat Monero the most used currency on the Darkweb as per him whose value is in its privacy, has to be tied to Bitcoin which possesses no privacy what so ever.

McAfee has also stated that on the Darkweb nobody accepts Bitcoin anymore because it caneasily be tracked. Now, he says, Monero is the most widely-used crypto. As for Bitcoin, he believes thatBTC is the most-traded one. But theres a big difference, McAfeepoints out. Heinsists thatBitcoin is no longer the King of crypto.

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Moneros (XMR) Value Tied to Bitcoin's (BTC) Insane! John McAfee - U.Today

Its a cliche, but, growing up, my Dad always preached about how theres no free lunch in life. If you want something valuable, you need to put in the work to earn it -- or spend money to buy it.

This timeless notion also applies to getting bitcoins. If you want to get a substantial amount of bitcoins fast, you need to spend money buying them. If you want to get a substantial amount of bitcoins for free, you need to spend a lot of time earning them on websites called bitcoin faucets.Expending monetary or mental resources to get bitcoins is a necessity. But some methods of buying and earning bitcoins are more effective than others. Read on to learn the best ways to buy bitcoins and the best ways to earn them for free through bitcoin faucets.

There are two ways you can get bitcoins:

To buy or earn free bitcoins, you first need to download a bitcoin wallet, which is software that allows you to securely send, receive, and store funds in the bitcoin network. There are four types of bitcoin wallets that you can use: mobile, web, desktop, and hardware.

Once you download a wallet, you need to set up an account on a cryptocurrency exchange thats approved by your wallet provider. Cryptocurrency exchanges are market places where sellers trade cryptocurrencies to buyers in exchange for fiat money or other digital currencies.

Most exchanges accept bank transfer or credit card payments, and some even accept Paypal payments. Theyll also charge you a transaction fee for every trade you make. You can choose from hundreds of crypto exchanges, but the most popular and reputable exchanges are Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Coinbase, and Coinmama. Heres a list of more popular crypto exchanges.

If youd rather buy bitcoins in person, you have four options to choose from:

One of the most entertaining and fun ways to earn free bitcoins is by playing mobile or online games. Thats right -- you can play games on your phone or computer and actually get paid in bitcoin.But if these bitcoin faucets want to make money and pay their players, they have to serve a lot of advertisements to their users.

To avoid the ads, you can join a bitcoin casino, where you bet your own money or bitcoin on traditional casino games, sports matches, and lotteries to potentially win a higher payout in bitcoin.

Heres a list of some of the most enjoyable bitcoin games that you can play on your phone.

Another way to earn free bitcoins is by completing tasks on websites. Some companies will pay you in Bitcoin to test their web sites, take their surveys, retweet their posts, and complete other small tasks.

There are also websites that let people offer small bitcoin rewards to the person who can give them the best answer to one of their questions.

You can find odd-jobs that pay you in Bitcoin on BitcoinGet, and you can answer questions for Bitcoin on Bitfortip.

Paying people to play simple games and complete repetitive jobs sounds like a great way attract a lot of users and, in turn, tons of advertisers. But there are hundreds of bitcoin faucets competing for users and advertisers attention, making it hard to stand out from the crowd.

Users also dont rely on faucets as a main source of income, so, a lot of the times, a small bitcoin reward isnt enough to coax them into doing boring tasks during their free time.

To generate more user activity and advertising revenue, bitcoin faucets, like Bitcoin Aliens, knew they needed to find a better way to engage their users. So they decided to pay people to read. Their service, PaidBooks, compensates people in Bitcoin to read classic books like Pride & Prejudice, War of the Worlds, and over 600 other titles on their website. If you love a good book and want to earn free Bitcoin, consider trying it out.

Certain cryptocurrency blogs, news outlets, and forums will pay you in bitcoin to contribute your insights and write for them, if you have a lot of knowledge about the industry.

You can find article writing gigs for crypto blogs and news outlets on job boards like Coinality.

Popular cryptocurrency forums, like Bitcointalk, offer monetization opportunities to their established members -- companies can advertise their product or service in the signature of their posts.

Because advertisers usually want to partner with top-ranked members, and since the forum increases its members rank based off their activity, Bitcointalk makes it nearly impossible for them to spam their way up from the lowest rank of Newbie to the highest rank of Legendary Member. The only way you can increase your rank and earn free bitcoins is by providing a high quantity of high quality posts.

Bitcointalk lists all bitcoin signature campaigns and rates in this overview.

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How to Get Bitcoins: 6 Tried-and-True Methods

Bitcoin (BTC) price briefly broke above $9,000 as bulls appear to be in the process of trying to quietly move the price above the resistance level.

Since Friday trading volume for the top-ranked cryptocurrency on CoinMarketCap had been virtually non-existent as the price traded sideways between $8,750-$8,850 for the majority of the day but the weekend is bound to bring about a stronger directional move.

Crypto market daily price chart. Source: Coin360

As reported by Cointelegraph, the presence of a TD9 on the daily time frame, overbought technical indicators, and decreasing trading volume suggested that Bitcoin price had become overextended and traders believed that the loss of momentum would culminate as a retest of underlying support levels.

Although the TD Sequential has proven to be a fairly reliable indicator of trend changes in Bitcoin price action, the digital asset is known for its tendency to push higher even when indicators like the Stoch RSI and MACD are strongly overbought.

Given that the halving is a mere 9 days away, excited investors could simply be overlooking any bearish signals with the belief that the price will continue higher into the halving.

The move to $9,000 occurred on gradually increasing purchasing volume and a bull cross on the moving average convergence divergence. The MACD histogram has flipped positive as momentum continues above the 0 line but the relative strength index has dropped below 50 on the 1-hour timeframe.

BTC USDT 1-hour chart. Source: TradingView

While the move above $9K is encouraging, it lacks strength and the Chaikin Money Flow oscillator remains below 0, and even though there is an hourly pattern of higher lows the tight candlesticks slightly longer upper shadows show momentum and volume remain weak compared to the rally which occurred earlier this week.

As shown by the volume profile visible range indicator on the 1-hr and 4-hr time frame, Bitcoin price needs to hold above $8,950 as this resistance here has prevented the asset from moving higher for the past 2 days.

BTC USDT weekly chart. Source: TradingView

According to Cointelegraph contributor, Micheal van de Poppe, this weeks 35%+ rally ended right at a key resistance block located at $9,200-$9,500. Van de Poppe explained that:

This whole resistance zone provided support throughout the summer of 2019.

For the short term, traders should keep a close eye on hourly volume and whether or not the price can hold above $8,800. If $8,800 is lost, traders will look for the price to retest recent lows at $8,400 and $7,800.

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Bitcoin Rally Above $9K Stalls as Sellers Push BTC Back to Key Support - Cointelegraph

Traders work in a trading pit at the Chicago Board Options Exchange, Monday, Dec. 11, 2017, in... [+] Chicago, as they trade S&P 500 Options, unrelated to bitcoin futures. Trading in Bitcoin futures began Sunday on the CBOE. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

The Bitcoin price increased by 22 percent in merely two days, catching major investors in the cryptocurrency market off guard. It surged past several key historical resistance levels to peak above $9,400. But, BTC now faces a reversal in the short-term as large Bitcoin holders look to take profit from the recent rally.

According to a cryptocurrency options trader known as "Theta Seek," several over-the-counter (OTC) desks saw record high levels of sell-off as the Bitcoin price hovered over $9,000.

When BTC initially increased above $8,000, it broke its 200-day simple moving average (SMA), 200-day exponential moving average (EMA), and the 0.618 Fibonacci level calculated in between $3,600 and $14,000. These three levels are considered as the most crucial levels in technical analysis, especially in evaluating long-term trends.

As Bitcoin rapidly broke out of the $8,000 region onto the $9,000s, data shows that investors rushed to sell the dominant cryptocurrency in the $9,000 to $9,400 range.

"Spoke to a couple of OTC desks and heard that there were record amounts of BTC being sold at above 9K,." the trader said.

The abrupt upsurge of sell orders in the OTC market coincided with stacking sell orders on the OKEx futures exchange. OKEx is one of the two exchanges alongside Huobi that formed a relationship with the government of China to facilitate trades for Chinese investors.

Bitcoin researcher Nik Yaremchuk shared the orderbook of OKEx on top of the price chart of Bitcoin, and it showed significant selling pressure above $9,000.

Bitcoin orderbook on OKEx shows stacked sell orders

Based on market data from Skew, OKEx now has the highest open interest for Bitcoin futures in the global market at $710 million, as it overtook BitMEX. As such, the selling pressure coming from OKEx can have a strong effect on the short-term price trend of BTC.

One variable that could sustain the momentum of Bitcoin in the upcoming two weeks approaching the block reward halving is all-time high volume on top spot exchanges.

Binance, Coinbase, and several other leading spot platforms saw record breaking volumes in the last three days. It led to the theory that the recent Bitcoin price spike was primarily triggered by actual demand from retail investors rather than spoof orders in the futures market.

Daily Bitcoin spot exchange volume verified by Bitwise Asset Management

When a Bitcoin rally is triggered off of highly leveraged trades in the futures market, it leaves BTC susceptible to a severe correction in the near-term. In October 2019 and February 2020, as an example, the Bitcoin price fell from $10,500 to $6,400 within a month after surpassing $10,000.

Accumulation of BTC in the spot exchange market strengthens the fundamental basis of an extended Bitcoin recovery. It reduces the risk of a steep downtrend in the intermediate-term and wild price swings in the short-term.

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Bitcoin Rally Faces Steep Reversal As OTC Desks See Record High Bitcoin Sell-Off at $9k - Forbes

Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have long struggled to find their place on some of the world's biggest technology platforms.

Twitter, whose chief executive Jack Dorsey has emerged as one of Silicon Valley's biggest bitcoin proponents, is plagued by crypto scamsdespite the likes of Tesla boss Elon Musk raising concerns.

Now, some influential members of the bitcoin and crypto community have complained Twitter has "shadow-banned" them, limiting their reach and impressions.

Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey has praised bitcoin and cryptocurrencies but has previously ... [+] admitted Twitter needs to improve its algorithm.

"Theyre doing it, people," tech investor and founder of bitcoin and cryptocurrency news and analysis website The Block, Mike Dudas, said. "Crypto Twitter has been shadow-banned. Ive noticed this on my account this week."

Dudas was commenting on a complaint made by crypto developer Anthony Sassano who said: "Any tweets that I post get way less impressions than normal."

"I think [Twitter] limited tweet reach [and] impressions," said Neeraj Agrawal of Washington D.C.-based cryptocurrency policy think tank Coin Center.

"I started using LinkedIn again out of desperation," added partner at blockchain-focused venture capital fund, Castle Island Ventures, Nic Carter.

Twitter has yet to respond to a request for comment.

Twitter, just like most big technology platforms, regularly tinkers with its algorithm and it's possible that in an attempt to crack down on bitcoin and crypto scams, authentic accounts have been targeted.

The reports of shadow-banning come as the bitcoin community gears up to one of the biggest events in its 10-year history.

On May 12, the number of bitcoin rewarded to those that maintain the bitcoin network, known as miners, will be halved for the third time, dropping from 12.5 bitcoin per block to 6.25.

It's unclear how the looming supply squeeze will impact the price of bitcoin, however, many expect bitcoin and crypto trading volume to spike in the run up to May 12with a surge of media attention potentially pushing up the bitcoin price.

This week, the bitcoin price has soared almost 20%, making it one of the best performing assets so far this year.

Meanwhile, Twitter is embroiled in an internal battle that could see it drastically change how it deals with some of its most influential users, including U.S. president Donald Trump.

Earlier this year, Twitter was rocked by news the powerful Wall Street activist investor Elliott Management has bought $1 billion worth of Twitter stock and is working to oust co-founder Jack Dorsey from the company he helped build.

Dorsey, one of the tech world's biggest bitcoin cheerleaders, has spoken highly of bitcoin, crypto and blockchain technologygoing so far as to create a crypto division of his payments company Square to work on bitcoin development full-time.

Dorsey's Twitter bio currently reads, simply: #bitcoin

The bitcoin price has soared this year, boosted by excitement around the looming halving event and ... [+] global efforts to shore up the economy ravaged by coronavirus lockdowns.

Dorsey'sgrowing interest in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies has, however, caused him problems.

Dorsey attracted criticism from Twitter and Square investors last year whenhe promised to spend from three to six months in Africa to explore cryptocurrency opportunities in 2020. He has since cancelled the trip due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Silicon Valley's fraught relationship with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies has deteriorated in recent years as some of the world's biggest technology companies increasingly look toward financial services to bolster advertising revenue.

Toward the end of last year, Google sparked an ongoing war with the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community by removing many bitcoin and cryptocurrency videos from its video-sharing site YouTube in what was branded a "crypto-purge."

YouTube was quick to reverse most of the video removals, claiming they were made in error, however, crypto content has reportedly been targeted by attempts to limit the spread of false information amid the coronavirus pandemic.

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Twitter Accused Of Shadow-Banning Bitcoin And Crypto Accounts - Forbes