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Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey issued a stark warning to those investing in cryptocurrencies: Buy them only if youre prepared to lose all your money.

In response to a question about financial stability, Bailey said the central bank was well positioned to respond to any threats that might arise. However, he objected to the use of the phrase cryptocurrency and took the opportunity to push back on their growing popularity.

Im afraid crypto and currency are two words that dont go together for me, he said at a press conference Thursday. They have no intrinsic value.

Bailey has long been dismissive of the assets, and his comments follow yet another period of speculative excesses for a market Nouriel Roubini once described as the mother of all bubbles.

While in the past, trillions of dollars in stimulus by governments and central banks might have triggered a rush into gold for the inflation-wary and risky stocks for the intrepid, a deluge of cash this time round is flooding into the crypto market. Its even pushed up the price of digital tokens previously considered a joke, like Dogecoin.

Read More: Crypto Mania Sends Doge Soaring, Crashes Robinhood Token Trading

The BOE last month said it would join forces with the U.K. Treasury to weigh the potential creation of its own central bank digital currency, joining authorities from China to Sweden exploring the next big step in the future of money. If approved, the U.K.s digital currency would exist alongside cash and bank deposits, rather than replacing them, they said.

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Bitcoin (BTC USD) Cryptocurrency Price: Bank of England Warns of Full Losses - Bloomberg

The new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday that more investor protections are needed in the markets for bitcoin and other crypto assets.

Chairman Gary Gensler said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" that he sees the attraction to bitcoin for traders but regulation is needed to prevent fraud and other issues.

"It's a digital, scarce store of value, but highly volatile," Gensler said, talking about bitcoin specifically. "And there's investors that want to trade that, and trade that for its volatility, in some cases just because it is lower correlation with other markets. I think that we need greater investor protection there."

Gensler later added that he believes bitcoin is a "speculative" store of value and that the SEC should be "technology neutral" when it comes to innovations in markets.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have boomed since late last year, fueled by increased institutional adoption for some of the more established coins and interest from retail traders.

Bitcoin was trading above $57,000 per coin on Friday after hovering under $10,000 a year ago, while dogecoin, a digital coin that started as a joke based on a meme with a shiba inu dog, was trading near its record high.

Gensler, who previously taught classes about blockchain and other financial technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said there needed to be authority for a regulator to oversee the crypto exchanges, similar to the equity and futures markets. He said many of the crypto coins were trading like assets and should fall under the purview of the SEC.

"To the extent that something is a security, the SEC has a lot of authority. And a lot of crypto tokens I won't call them cryptocurrencies for this moment are indeed securities," he said.

Gensler also commented on social media's influence on financial markets.

"We need to update and freshen our rules to ensure that, while retail investors and any individual has First Amendment rights to speak and so forth, that they're not misleading the public, they're not manipulating the public, manipulating the markets," he said.

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SEC Chairman Gary Gensler says more investor protections are needed for bitcoin and crypto markets - CNBC

Ether, the cryptocurrency that runs on the Ethereum blockchain, hit a record high on Tuesday.

Though it is still second behind bitcoin in market value, there is growing excitement surrounding Ethereum and its capabilities.

According to billionaire investor Mark Cuban, "the number of transactions and the diversity of transaction types along with the development efforts in Ethereum dwarf bitcoin," he tells CNBC Make It. "The utilization of Ethereum is much higher."

First, the Ethereum blockchain consistently processes more transactions per second than bitcoin's, making payments faster and more productive.

Second, it can support the creation of applications. Ethereum is known for itssmart contracts, which power and build decentralized applications, likeDeFi (or decentralized finance)apps, andNFTs (nonfungible tokens).

"Right now, bitcoin is a more established store of value and there is no reason to think it won'tcontinue to be for a long time," Cuban says. "Ethereum, on the other hand, is booming with development that I think will create so many new applications."

Third, Cuban says that as an upgradeto the Ethereum blockchaincalled Ethereum 2.0, which launched in 2020, continues to roll out, "the impact of Ethereum could be greater than we currently imagine."

Investors agree that there are several benefits to Ethereum 2.0. First, it could make Ethereum even faster investors say the changes could allow several thousand more transactions per second on the blockchain,as CNBC reported. They also say it could be more secure, among other things, "all of which will be hugely positive as a whole for Ethereum," Cuban says.

The only "challenge with Ethereum as an investment" is that until its update is complete, it's difficult to predict which improvements will come to light and which will not, Cuban says, which can "create some confusion along the way."

Though he is overall bullish on both Ethereum and bitcoin, Cuban also notes that new entrants to the market can always disrupt the status quo.

"Just like all major tech companies are at risk of new technologies superseding them, there is always the risk of a better decentralized chain coming along to disrupt bitcoin and Ethereum," he says.

Billionaire investor Ray Dalio, founder of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, said similar in a January posttitled "What I Think of Bitcoin."

"I presume that a better alternative will be invented and pass it by," Dalio wrote, "because that is the way the evolution of everything works."

In Cuban's opinion, it's "not likely. But always possible," he says.

Cuban has been at the forefront of the wave of interest in cryptocurrencies and the technology that surrounds it. He has a portfolio ofbitcoin, Ethereum and other digital coinshimself, and hasinvested in many companiesin the space.

Check out:Meet the middle-aged millennial: Homeowner, debt-burdened and turning 40

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Mark Cuban: The 3 ways Ethereum 'dwarfs' bitcoin - CNBC

Blockchain technology has been used in the development of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin.

AUSTIN, Texas Researchers at Dell Medical School are researching technology linked to Bitcoin to help improve access to health care for the Austin area's homeless population, according to a report from KVUE's news partners at the Austin American-Statesman.

The report states that Dr. Tim Mercer, global health program director at the school's population health department, is working with his colleagues to use blockchain technology as a way for those experiencing homelessness to have their identities verified by their health care providers. That information would then be securely shared throughout the health and human services network.

Dr. Mercer told the Statesman that the lack of proper identification has been a big barrier in providing health care to locals experiencing homelessness. In fact, a study by the school found that one-third of that population entering the health and human services system did not have a basic identity document.

"It's a major issue. ... I wouldn't have realized it if I was not there on the front lines," Mercer told the Statesman.

According to the report, by using this technology, a patient's identity would already be verified each time they are checked in to a medical or service provider. They wouldn't have to repeatedly give their providers a photo ID, and each transaction between patient and provider would create a new block in the chain of information about that patient.

To read the Statesman's full report, click here.

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Report: Dell Med School researching technology linked to Bitcoin to improve health care for the homeless - KVUE.com

Teggy Altankhuyag is the COO and Co-Director of Coinfloor.

This is a time of great change and great opportunity both for the finance sector and, more widely, for society. We in the Bitcoin industry are actively participating in the evolution of money. Theres no denying that our current financial system has its benefits, such as affordable and fast banking and payment processes for some consumers, but it also has many drawbacks that, until recently, were not possible to address. The current financial system is centralized and enables inflation and exclusivity. The users dont have choice or power over the impact it has over them. Furthermore, these standards have a wider, graver influence. As humans, our actions became more inflationary and more exclusory. In my view, this is evident in how we consume resources without regard to the impact we have on other species and our planet.

Bitcoin is already contributing toward changing this by providing us with an alternative system. Public blockchains encourage everyone to rely less on central parties and be more independent and responsible with their money. By reducing inefficiencies in the current system, it also allows us to concentrate on more important societal matters like reducing financial crime, achieving better financial inclusion and, perhaps most importantly, promoting values designed to empower its users to be more responsible.

In my opinion, this last goal is something that everyone involved with Bitcoin should aspire to for the promotion of a financial system that will benefit all of humanity and our environment. Our industry is new, and its culture is still developing. We have the chance to shape its culture into something thats driven by values; something that encourages and enables us to act in a more sustainable, reliable and inclusive way than anything thats gone before.

Indeed, the basis for such a culture is embedded in the Bitcoin code: Bitcoin doesnt discriminate on the basis of race, creed, gender or nationality. Its up to us to work from this base and apply it to our everyday work and life. We can encourage, collaborate and appreciate even celebrate our differences. We can stop competing against each other and start competing against poverty, injustice and unsustainable practices instead.

Some people may think this is a little idealistic, but Im confident we can bring about these cultural changes and become a truly great industry. After all, collaboration and our ability to work together successfully have already brought us to where we are today.

Taking the next step requires us to identify the values and principles we want to live by then sharing and acting on these. Evangelizing and taking deliberate actions however small will help us make sure were continuously growing as an industry and progressing toward achieving our goal of a values-driven culture.

Were not there yet, of course, and there are obstacles in the way that we need to overcome; Ill explore these in more detail in my next post. For now, Id ask you to consider what your ideal Bitcoin industry culture would look like, and which areas you could tackle as part of this ongoing evolution. Each of us has an opportunity to contribute to our combined success which action will you choose?

This is a guest post by Teggy Altankhuyag. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC, Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.

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What Is The Ideal Bitcoin Culture? - Bitcoin Magazine

LONDON/GUANGZHOU, China Bitcoin and other digital currencies plunged on Friday as a proposed capital gains tax hike from U.S. President Joe Biden led to a wave of selling.

Bitcoin was down 7.3% at $49,730, according to Coin Metrics data. It's the first time bitcoin has traded below $50,000 since early March. Ether fell to $2,320, down 8%. XRP, the fifth-biggest cryptocurrency, plunged 16%.

Bitcoin rebounded late Friday to above $51,000.

This wiped out more than $200 billion of value from the entire cryptocurrency market, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

"The market has run up quite a bit overall, and it'sprobably cooling off before the next leg up," Vijay Ayyar, head of business development at cryptocurrency exchange Luno, told CNBC by email.

President Biden is expected to raise long-term capital gains tax for the wealthiest Americans to 43.4%, including a surtax. That would be higher than the top federal tax rate on wage income. The new tax rate would apply to returns on assets held in taxable accounts and sold after more than a year.

This triggered a sell-off in stock markets overnight, with all three major U.S. indexes ending Thursday's session in the red. Analysts said fears over Biden's capital gains tax proposal may be extending to crypto investors, who have had a great year with the price of bitcoin having climbed more than sixfold in the last 12 months.

Still, one crypto entrepreneur said Biden could be doing his industry a favor.

"It would make even greater sense to play that oldest trick in the manage-your-finances-smart book: borrow against your assets to avoid capital gains taxes," said Antoni Trenchev, co-founder of crypto lender Nexo.

"And what better collateral than one that despite today's price dip, likely caused by the said proposal appreciates in value like Bitcoin?"

"Things are getting more established," Eric Demuth, CEO and co-founder of digital asset broker Bitpanda, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" Friday. "The more money that gets into the market, the less volatility there will be."

"And for the retail investors who are going in there, the strategy is always never to put everything in one basket and just put a very small fraction of your portfolio into cryptocurrency, into bitcoin. It doesn't matter if you are a strong believer or not, the diversification of your assets is key."

However, concerns over a regulatory crackdown on bitcoin continue to cloud the market. Jesse Powell, CEO of a major cryptocurrency exchange called Kraken, warned governments could clamp down on the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

India is planning to introduce a law to ban the trading or even ownership of cryptocurrencies, Reuters reported last month. In February, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called bitcoin a "highly speculative asset" and said she was worried about potential losses for investors.

Authorities around the world are looking into how to regulate bitcoin. The Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China, called bitcoin an "investment alternative" last week, which marked a more progressive tone on cryptocurrencies after a fierce crackdown by the country's regulators on the industry in 2017 and 2018.

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Over $200 billion wiped off cryptocurrency market in a day as bitcoin plunges below $50,000 - CNBC

Bitcoins rally appears to be running out of steam, at least for now.

The digital currency dropped again Friday, briefly falling below $50,000a decline of more than 20% from its record of $64,829 on April 14.

Bitcoins high coincided with the stock-market debut of Coinbase Global Inc., the biggest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange. The two events marked the pinnacle of a heady rally for cryptocurrencies that began last year. Bitcoins price more than tripled in 2020 and doubled to start 2021 before slipping.

The rally cratered last Saturday when bitcoin suddenly fell as much as 17% to $52,149with half the decline occurring in about 20 minutes. Although it recovered some of those losses by Monday, the price has steadily declined, sitting Friday afternoon at $50,620.

Bitcoins momentum lately has been showing signs of flagging, said Michael Oliver of the research firm Momentum Structural Analysis. Since bitcoin crossed $60,000 in March for the first time, its pace of gains has slowed and it has traded in a relatively narrow range. That was a sign, he said, that the rally could falter, as it finally did over the weekend. We think bitcoins broken for the time being, he said, pointing to technical trend lines.

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Behind Bitcoins Recent Slide: Imploding Bets and Forced Liquidations - The Wall Street Journal

Yuriko Nakao | Getty Images

Bitcoin's big swing in prices over the weekend likely set the stage for a period of consolidation before the cryptocurrency can make another move higher.

The digital currency lost as much as 15% over the weekend, and rival coins like ethereum also fell.

Bitcoin traded around $55,970 at 4 p.m. ET. Some crypto-linked equities were lower. Coinbase lost nearly 2.6%. Meanwhile, Voyager Digital lost 9.6%, and Marathon Digital Holdings lost 8.7%.

"There's been a lot of rumors and speculation about what pushed the market down over the weekend. To me, it's boiled down to excess leverage within the system," said Leeor Shimron, Fundstrat vice president of digital asset strategy. "We've seen it over the last couple of weeks, especially in bitcoin, but it spilled into other asset classes as well."

Shimron said there was a big deposit of bitcoin over cryptocurrency exchange Binance over the weekend, which helped fuel speculation.

"When the sell-off happened this weekend, approximately $5 billion worth of bitcoin contracts was liquidated, and $9.5 billion was liquidated including altcoin markets," Shimron said.

"Notably, this is twice the notional value compared to Black Thursday 2020, when bitcoin's price dropped by ~50% in 24 hours. The fact this sell-off resulted in a drop of just 15% and quickly rebounded speaks to how much the market has grown and matured over the course of the last year."

Bitcoin tumbled below its 50-day moving average in weekend trading and was again below it Monday. The cryptocurrency recently traded close to $65,000, but was at around $55,900 Monday afternoon, according to Coin Metrics.

Julian Emanuel, head of equities and derivatives strategy at BTIG, said he expects bitcoin to trade in a range between $50,000 and $65,000 after the weekend shakeout. He said it could have entered a period of lower volatility while it consolidates before moving higher again.

Emanuel said he is watching the 50-day moving average at around $56,500.

A break below the 50-day moving average for a significant period of time warns of negative price momentum.

"The spike yesterday was to a low of $51,707. I would define it as literally the point of maximum frustration," Emanuel said. "If you're a bull or a bear, everyone has been keying off the 50-day moving average, and we think the best outcome is you stay pinned to the point of maximum frustration so volatility can come in and the price can correct."

"It's our expectation right now and our wish for the long-term health of the crypto market that we have a correction in time whereby both the bulls and the bears are frustrated by the price action," he said.

Bitcoin went on a tear to near $65,000 ahead of the recent Coinbase debut on the Nasdaq, which was seen as a new lure to bring investors into crypto assets. "The least healthy thing would be a near-term break to the downside or the upside for the range we established over the last week," Emanuel said.

Fundstrat's Shimron said he went into the weekend seeing the $60,000 level as the key level bitcoin should hold. But it failed and bitcoin moved closer to $50,000 temporarily

"I would not be surprised to see a greater period of consolidation for the next couple of weeks or so until $60,000 is regained," Shimron said. "We think bitcoin is going to move higher for the rest of the year, even if we consolidate over the next few weeks."

Fundstrat expects bitcoin to reach $100,000 by the end of the year.

Katie Stockton, chief technical strategist at Fairlead Securities, said if bitcoin closes below the 50-day moving average two days in a row, its next move could be to the support level around $42,000.

"I think right now, until we see the decisive breach of the 50-day moving average, we're keeping a neutral short-term bias," she said.

Stockton said on the upside for bitcoin, her next target is $69,000.

She said she is not surprised by the sell-off after the big surge. "It makes sense that any steep uptrend is prone to create digestion," Stockton said.

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After a wild weekend, bitcoin could take a breather before the next move higher - CNBC

Bitcoin is setting up for a near-term downturn that could see it shed a good chunk of its recent gains, even if the longer-term outlook appears healthy for the worlds No. 1 crypto.

Thats the view of a number of analysts after bitcoin prices BTCUSD, +9.25% breached a key technical level following the exuberance for digital assets in the wake of Coinbase Globals COIN, -0.63% listing on the Nasdaq last week.

Bitcoin was off 1.8% late-morning Wednesday in New York, changing hands at around $56,000 on CoinDesk. That puts the crypto about 14% below its all-time peak at $64,829.14.

On Tuesday, researchers at Bespoke Investment Group noted that Tuesday marked bitcoins first time, in a 24-hour period, in which it fell below its 50-day moving average since at least 2014, after recording 193 straight days of prints above that level. Bitcoin was first created back in 2008-09.

Market technicians use moving averages as barometers of bullish and bearish trends in an asset.

Pankaj Balani, CEO of Delta Exchange, in emailed comments, said that bitcoin has managed to hold above its 50-day moving average in recent trade but warned that a sustained breach of the short-term price could lead to a slide to around $40,000.

The 50 DMA has been a crucial support forBitcoinsince October last year and it has held this support every time in this rally. This time around however, we seeBitcoins momentum fizzling out and BTC struggling to hold this support, Balani explained.

The Bespoke researchers noted that bitcoin tends to see declines, in the one-week, one-month, three-month periods, after upward trends lasting at least 100 days are snapped.

One week later, [bitcoin] was down all four times for a median decline of 4.6% and declines all four times. One and three months later, performance was even worse with median declines of 6.5% and 13.4%, respectively, the report read.

Researchers at JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM, +1.91%, including Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, wrote in a Tuesday report that waning momentum for bitcoin could spell a spiral lower for the volatile asset. The analysts said a failure to retake $60,000 could be the trigger for a sharp drop.

The JPMorgan strategist point to bearish trends in bitcoin futures markets BTC.1, +3.20%, where institutional and professional investors go to hedge their exposures to the crypto.

Referring to the attached chart, JPMorgan says that the four episodes of greater than a 10% decline in their futures position proxy, including the one over the past few days, have been attributed to an inability to trend higher.

Similar to the previous three episodes, it is likely that momentum traders, such as [commodity trading advisors] and crypto funds, were at least partly behind the buildup of long bitcoin futures in recent weeks and thus also likely behind the unwinding over the past few days, JPMorgan concluded.

If the bitcoin price fails to break out above $60,000 soon, the momentum signals shown in Figure 9 will naturally decay from here for several months, given their still elevated level, the analysts wrote.

JPMorgan researchers arent 100% sure that this time bitcoin will follow a decline with a strong snap back higher as was seen in November and in mid-February. Notably, the analysts say that flows into bitcoin have been tepid and the downturn appears to be gathering steam.

So far this year bitcoin prices have been buoyant, up 94% year to date. By comparison, gold GC00, +0.26%, which is seen as a rival to bitcoin, is down 5.5% in 2021. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.67% and the S&P 500 index SPX, +1.09% are both up around 11% in the year to date.

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Bitcoin bears are stalking crypto prices --- here's how low they could go - MarketWatch

For some, it looked like the beginning of the end. For others, it was a great opportunity.

Bitcoins value took a deep dip over the weekend, falling by as much as 15% Sunday on a cocktail of regulatory concerns, power outages in China that limited miningand accusations of overexcitement.

But Bitcoin bulls big and small saw the weekend drop as an opportunity in the shorter term.

Oluwafisayo Williams, a 32-year-old doctor from Sheffield, UK, viewed the drop as a discount. Hestarted investing in cryptocurrencies earlier this year and now says 100% of his investments are in digital currencies. On Sunday, he said he bought 4,800 pounds ($6,710) of Bitcoin and now holds around 27,000 pounds worth.

Its just a matter of conviction, Williams said. If youre not convinced about Bitcoin, you might make the wrong decisions. If I werent convinced about Bitcoin, I might have sold it all.

On Monday, Bitcoin pared some losses and was trading at around $55,000 as of noon in New York after hitting a high of $64,617 on Wednesday.

After a period of relative stagnation, Bitcoins value took off in October as mainstream financial companies embraced crypto. Financial advisers started to feel more comfortable with their clients holding some crypto investments, and wealthy investors and family offices also piled in. On Monday, some money managers for the ultra rich were looking at the upside of a price drop.

Christian Armbruester, founder of the Blu Family Office, bought cryptos on the back of the recent slump for his personal account and also advised the same action for clients of his London-based investment firm, which oversees about $700 million for himself, his family and other wealthy investors.

I bought a bit, said Armbruester, who is planning to set up a dedicated crypto fund for Blu to trade the assets. If you invest in crypto, you have to take the volatility.

Some people, including CNBCs Jim Cramer, have decided its time to cash in. The TV personality revealed last week that he sold some of his Bitcoin holdings although he didnt specify how much, or at what price and paid off a mortgage.

I decided to become an apostate, he said. I know people are going to be angry with me.

There were other signals that other prominent investors thought the coin had gotten overheated during the hype around the public-market debut of crypto exchange Coinbase.

The market got too one way, long-time crypto advocate MikeNovogratz tweeted Sunday, after the price fell. We will be fine in the medium term.

Bobby Console-Verma, founder of London-based technology firm 1fs Wealth, said he isnow exploring buying again with a focus on cryptos outside of the mainstream coins.

Any dip in a market is a potential opportunity, he said. Its a traders delight.

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BloombergOpinion

From John Authers

Coinbase is a big moment for the emerging crypto world. It remains worth $68 billion. That is a remarkable badge of approval for the crypto-financial system. This could be a problem. When the most exciting thing to be said about an investment is that it has matured, the chances are that the excitement is over.

+

With assistance by Katharine Gemmell

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

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Bitcoin Price Drop Is a Moment for Some to Buy the Dip - Bloomberg