Quedex, a Gibraltar-regulated derivatives exchange, recently launched a bitcoin contract with the longest expiration date in crypto.

The CEO of Quedex Bitcoin Derivatives Exchange, Wiktor Gromniak, told CoinDesk the firm had experienced a surge in investor interest in its new BTCUSD contract, which expires in December 2021 and only became tradable last Friday.

Quedex volumes surged past a record $5 million on Saturday, beating the previous all-time high of $2 million reached in February, according to the exchange.

"The new December 2021 products account for about 5 to 15 percent of total volume on the exchange ... we see it as relatively high and promising for a product which [has been] live for less than a week," Gromniak said. "What's interesting is that the new December 2021 expiry options are the most popular among options products."

Quedex's total volumes peaked at over $16 million between March 6 and March 13, more than the exchange's $9.8 million weekly average. Over the same timeframe, volumes for the December 2021 contracts came in at $1.2 million with most activity taking place on Thursday, where volumes peaked at nearly $900,000, according to Gromniak.

Operating since 2016, Quedex is regulated by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission and offers various bitcoin-denominated products. As well as the two-year product, the exchange also offers contracts with expiries ranging from a week, to a month, to a quarter. Clients can also use a margin trading facility that comes with up to 10 times leverage.

The new contract's launch came before the coronavirus pandemic triggered mass sell-offs across both traditional and crypto markets. Contrary to the widely held safe-haven narrative, bitcoin's (BTC) price dropped to a 10-month low on Thursday, taking many traders completely unawares. Forced liquidations of long positions on derivatives exchange BitMEX have soared past $700 million, adding further downward pressure to the spot price.

While volatility is likely to continue for contracts with short term expiries, Gromniak attributes surging interest in his longer-dated products to investors trying to hedge their long-term exposure. Contracts with longer expiry dates, such as in two years' time, are not influenced by market downtrends such as the one sparked by the coronavirus, he said.

Previously, exchanges OKEx and FTX had the longest-reaching contracts that expired in December 2020. The longest contracts available on Deribit lists expire in September. Gromniak said Quedex would consider adding contracts with even longer expiration dates, but added the company would wait to see first if there was sufficient demand from the market.

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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Investors Can Hedge Long-Term Risk With New 2-Year Bitcoin Derivatives - CoinDesk - Coindesk

Bitcoin prices fell sharply amid the global sell-off in equities.

Luke MacGregor | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Cryptocurrencies took a battering following a global sell-off in stocks, with bitcoin seeing a near 40% plunge.

The market capitalization, or total value of the entire cryptocurrency market plummeted around $93.5 billion in the space of 24 hours as of 10:07 a.m. Singapore time, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com.

Bitcoin was down 48% from 24 hours before at 10:24 a.m. Singapore time at $4,001.60, according to data from Coindesk.

The fall in cryptocurrency markets comes amid a broader sell-off in equities as governments worldwide continue to grapple with the new coronavirus that's spreading rapidly across the world. The number of global cases has now exceeded 128,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

In the U.S., theDow Jones Industrial Averageclosed 2,352.60 points lower, or 9.99%, its worst drop since the 1987 "Black Monday" market crash. That selling spilled over into Asiaon Friday morning, where stock markets in Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong saw heavy losses.

Investors are concerned about the global economic fallout from the coronavirus as businesses are disrupted and cities are locked down. Countries have taken different approaches with Italy, one of the worst hit-nations, shuttingdown shops and restaurants, and the U.S. canceling sporting events. Across the world, schools have been shut and people made to work from home.

Over the past few years, bitcoin has been likened to "digital gold" and has been seen by some as a safe haven asset to park money when markets are facing turmoil. But bitcoin, which has now erased all of its gains for the year and is in negative territory, is behaving more like a risk asset such as an equity.

And action by central banks has done little to soothe investors' concerns. This includes a recent emergency interest rate cute from the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Englandas well as further easing measures by the European Central Bank.

Other cryptocurrencies suffered similar drops on Friday. Ethereum tanked 49% at 10:24 a.m. Singapore time while XRP was down over 42%.

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Cryptocurrencies see $93.5 billion wiped off value in 24 hours as bitcoin plunges 48% - CNBC

The mother of all weeks has seen Bitcoin in freefall. The biggest price drop since 2013 followed a WHO announcement of a global pandemic, and President Trumps ban on flights between the US and Europe. Uncertainty gripped the financial markets, and sent cryptocurrencies plummeting along with other assets, stocks and bonds.

On Thursday, Bitcoin had its worst day in history. Its price dropped from $7,900 to $4,600 over 40%. It then continued to drop, reaching a low of $3,850.

While its bounced back to over $5,000 since then, the Fear & Greed Index is still at extremeshowing the market is still fearful.

But weve been here before right? Bitcoin has died approximately 380 times. And its still here. So is Bitcoin really dead this time?

Erik Voorhees, CEO of Shapeshift crypto exchange, thinks the idea is ridiculous.

No, Bitcoin as a store of value isnt dead just because it had a super shitty day, he tweeted. In the coming months the world will see what anti-fragile means.

Voorhees has lived through plenty of super shitty days, since he got into crypto more than eight years ago. Hes also seen how quickly things can bounce back.

But many of the respondents to his assertion on Twitter disagreed. So did libertarian and Bitcoin Cash proponent, Roger Ver. He believes that its precisely this idea which has to be knocked on the head.

"Obviously it isnt the end of Bitcoin, but it should be the end of the nonsense idea put forth by BTC maximalists that Bitcoin is a store of value because Bitcoin is useful as a store of value, he told Decrypt. The reality is that the only way anything can become a store of value is by having some other use case.

No doubt about it, the market making industrythe institutional investors who provide essentially liquidity to the crypto industrytook a gigantic hit, pseudonymous Bitcoin maximalist Loomer told Decrypt. But he remains optimistic. I think the bottom just got printed, we will probably consolidate in this range for a while as people finally get back to grips and normality, he said. As long as people in the world have money, Bitcoin will be around.

Adam Back, cofounder of Bitcoin developer Blockstream also brushed off the recent tumult in the markets. Bitcoin has been lower last year with a bottom around $3400, and is known for being volatile, he said.

He pointed out that as well as the biggest loss, the cryptocurrency also saw its biggest gain.

Yesterday we saw price appreciate rapidly by the biggest intraday gain in Bitcoins history from its bottom just below $4000 to over $5500 within 30 minutes. So I think it's safe to say Bitcoin isn't going anywhere, he said.

Investor Dan Tapiero agreed, tweeting that Bitcoin was the only asset that could go down 50% in one day that didnt need government intervention to stabilize its price. It will be fine, he said.

But not everybody is convinced.

On the other side of the equation, skeptics argue that this might be it for Bitcoin.

Bitcoin bear Peter Schiff tweeted, With Bitcoin crashing below $4,000 I don't feel so bad about having lost all my Bitcoin. At the rate my lost Bitcoin are losing value soon the difference between having Bitcoin and not having any Bitcoin will be too small to matter.

Bitcoin skeptic David Gerard told Decryptthat it's crunch time. "Everything bitcoin's ever done has been under the best possible circumstances. Coiners forget that literally the entire price history of Bitcoinsince it could first be said to have a price, in late 2010 or early 2011has been in a conventional asset bull market."

The falling price poses further questions for the viability of Bitcoins economic model. It costs miners a lot of money in electricity bills to mine Bitcoin, and if it drops too far in valuethen they might not be able to afford to keep supporting the network.

Bitcoin miners help to keep the network running. Image: Shutterstock.

Charles Edwards founder of digital asset management startup Capriole tweeted that, Bitcoin miners are now unprofitable.

As a result, he argued that Bitcoin miners will leave the networkwhich would make it weaker, and more vulnerable to attack. The hash rate is the amount of processing power being used to mine new Bitcoin. Expect we hold (mostly) above $5,000, and then start to see [the] Hash Rate drop, he tweeted.

But perhaps price isnt everything. Charlie Shrem, host of Untold Stories, tweeted, Has Bitcoin changed from last week to this? Is the network broken? Has someone hacked it? No, Bitcoin is working, chugging along and growing!

Meanwhile, Peter McCormack, host of the What Bitcoin Did Next podcast, told Decrypt: "My only thought right now is I never really care about price much anymore, all I care about is its existence, just by existing it is a win for freedom."

Thats maximalism and existentialism for you.

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Bitcoin is dead, long live Bitcoin - Decrypt

A famous painting by a Belgian Surrealist artist, Ren Magritte. It says: This is not a pipe.

Bitcoin's supply cap is one of its biggest selling points. Limiting the network to almost 21 million BTC, the cap makes Bitcoin a deflationary currency.

Naturally, people have been questioning whether it might be possible to remove this cap. In theory, by simply submitting a pull request to Bitcoin Core's GitHub, a hosting service that is most often used for code, repository, a developer could potentially have the cap's removal introduced into a future version of Bitcoin.

But according to Bitcoin developers and other industry players, the likelihood of this happening is very low. Yes, its technically feasible, but at least now there's an enormous social consensus against such removal. Even if such a pull request goes through, most likely it would end up with another version of Bitcoin while the original cryptocurrency would still have its supply cap.

The most recent debate kicked off with a tweet from Angela Walch, a research fellow at the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies.

As Walch points out, there are only so many reasons why a pull request to update Bitcoin Core's code can be rejected by an editor. These include duplication of effort, disregard for formatting rules, being too unfocused or too broad, being technically unsound, not providing proper motivation or addressing backward compatibility.

However, another cause for rejection is the failure to comply with Bitcoin's philosophy. It's here that Walch's suggestion falls down, since a raised or unlimited supply cap would almost certainly depart from this philosophy, and it would almost certainly confront widespread opposition from Bitcoin developers.

"In order for a pull request to be accepted, it first needs to go through peer review," explains Benedict Chan, the chief technical officer for BitGo.

"A change to the supply cap would represent a significant modification to the behavior of the software properties, and would likely generate substantial discussion and pushback "NACK"s [negative-acknowledgments]. Without clear consensus, no Bitcoin core maintainer would merge it into the code repository."

But even if Bitcoin developers were to insert the removal of the cap into a new Bitcoin Core version, this doesn't necessarily mean that Bitcoin would have its cap removed.

"Once the new release is distributed, different stakeholders - users, miners, and various organizations that service the industry (exchanges and wallet providers) must all download and run it," says Benedict Chan.

Watch the latest reports by Block TV.

"These stakeholders are incentivized to verify the behavior of the code, understand what they are running, and (hopefully) act in a manner that will be positive for themselves and Bitcoin. They may not see the removal of the supply cap as an improvement, and thus not move forward to run it."

In other words, even if the developers release a new version of Bitcoin without the supply cap, the people who actually run Bitcoin may refuse to use it.

Guardian Circle CEO/Co-founder Mark Jeffrey agrees.

"If a change of this magnitude WERE to somehow make it through the Bitcoin developer community, there would be a revolt at the miner and exchange level," he says. "I'd expect a major fork to occur, and I would expect the market to largely rally around the fork where the 21m cap was preserved."

A fork into two separate cryptocurrencies would occur, and this leads CEO and co-founder of Bull Bitcoin, Francis Pouliot, to argue that the forked cryptocurrency without the 21 million supply cap would no longer be Bitcoin.

He tells Cryptonews.com, "Bitcoin's supply cap cannot be lifted, because whatever shitcoin is airdropped to existing Bitcoin users, even if its promoters call it Bitcoin, will be incompatible with the existing Bitcoin network and therefore would not be Bitcoin."

Meanwhile, there is another Bitcoin supply cap-related narrative, popular among the Bitcoin skeptics and in the camp of altcoins and altchains.

For example, Emin Gn Sirer, CEO of AVA Labs, the developer of the AVA blockchain, says that an alteration to the 21 million cap might be necessary after three more Bitcoin mining reward halvings due to security reasons.

"As the amount of awards given to the miners dwindles down, the security of the network will drop, he says, forecasting massive double-spend attacks targeting exchanges and suggesting that removing the supply cap would solve this.

However, Bitcoiners say that Sirer is wrong and halving block rewards wont weaken Bitcoins security. Read more about it on Cryptonews.com tomorrow, March 15.

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Attempts to Increase Bitcoin's Supply Would End Up With Another "Bitcoin" - Cryptonews

Once set up with a bitcoin or bitcoin cash wallet and some coins, using and sending them is pretty easy. Part of this process involves paying a transaction fee, which is a small amount of coin included in a transaction incentivizing miners to work the tx into a block. Both BTC and BCH transactions have fees, with BCH fees being much lower. This post will detail some ways to find and track the best possible fees, set tx fees in your wallet, and make the most of this aspect of using peer-to-peer electronic cash.

Also read: How To Start Using Bitcoin: Buying, Storing, and Spending Crypto

A transaction (tx) fee is a small amount of bitcoin included in a transaction that rewards miners for validating a payment, which results in confirmation on the blockchain. Higher fees generally will result in a tx being processed more quickly. Depending on the nature of your transaction, you may not be in a hurry to have it confirmed, and can set a lower fee in your wallet which might result in the tx being confirmed in a later block. In a more urgent situation, a higher fee will get your tx processed more quickly. This post will look at both BTC and BCH tx fees, and how to make the most of them.

For starters, the highly customizable chart above from bitinfocharts.com, shows average BTC fees (blue) as compared to average BCH fees (red) over the past three months in USD. BCH fees are generally much cheaper thanks to a larger block size limit, meaning more transactions can fit into each block and the network is less subject to congestion. When a network is congested, users set higher and higher fees to outbid each other so their transaction will be processed first.

Another site that displays fees in a readily digestible, comparative format is bitcoinfees.cash, which shows the median Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Core network fees. Typically, most people using Bitcoin as a currency dont want to wait many blocks for their transactions to be confirmed, the site maintains, so they pay next block fees to get their transaction confirmed within 10 minute block times. Median fees are just the middle range of all the fees to give users a better idea of the average amount being paid by everyone, discarding high and low fees.

One thing that the average user or crypto newcomer might not be aware of is that calculating an appropriate tx fee can be much more involved than just looking at averages and medians. Transaction size (measured in bytes) also affects miner incentive to take your tx out of the mempool waiting room and process it.

Miners are looking for value, so even if a high fee is paid, if the tx size is huge, there is no guarantee it will be processed as quickly as others paying the same amount. This is why some wallets offer highly customizable fee adjustment options and detailed tx info which can be used in conjunction with real-time network data to customize a fee. Luckily for most users, however, built-in fee estimators are fairly reliable for general purposes, taking tx size and fee rate into account automatically.

For those wanting to see current tx size info on both the BTC and BCH networks, charts.Bitcoin.com provides this resource.

Fees (often measured in satoshis per byte) can typically be adjusted in bitcoin wallets depending on the users individual needs. For users of the Bitcoin.com wallet both desktop and mobile there is a section entitled Network fee policy in the settings menu. Once tapped or clicked, a new menu is displayed which allows users to select their level of urgency, with options like priority, normal, and economy. This takes some of the guesswork out of setting fees where manual adjustment might be challenging for beginners, or inconvenient for everyday users.

Some wallets, such as the Electrum BTC wallet and the Electron Cash wallet for BCH, feature a slider by which the tx fee can be adjusted manually.

In the Electron Cash wallet the satoshi/byte fee rate is set as an integer from 1 to 10. In the Electrum wallet for Bitcoin Core, the fee rate is set according to a block target estimated time of arrival (ETA) as seen in the image below. The Electrum BTC wallet also provides further options for customizing fee settings such as the choice to estimate by mempool status, or to simply set a fixed fee rate. Fees can also be edited manually, and unconfirmed Replace-By-Fee (RBF) transactions batched (grouped together into a single transaction) to save on prices.

This likely sounds complicated for newcomers to crypto and everyday users, which is a large part of the reason Bitcoin Cash features a larger block size limit than Bitcoin Core. The greater capacity allows for less congestion and negligible fees, making many of the complications found in adjusting fees on the BTC network often seem unnecessary. BCHs Electron Cash wallet also allows for a custom fee rate to be set, beyond the default slider options, but as RBF is not part of the Bitcoin Cash codebase for security reasons, RBF batches arent available in this wallet.

As with traveling, sending a bitcoin tx is most easily and efficiently done when the roads are clear and traffic is light. If the side streets are clogged and you have to take a toll road, your trip is going to cost more. Also, depending on the time of day there may be traffic jams or rush hour congestion. Txstreet.com provides an excellent resource for viewing tx and mempool data, so bitcoiners can see the best time to send a transaction and a reasonable fee to pay.

When it comes to the best time to send a tx, that depends on a variety of factors. Price spikes can see network activity increase dramatically, and with it, fees. For example, just days after BTCs historic all time high in December 2017, the average tx fee in USD was over $37 per transaction. This resulted in legions of everyday bitcoiners having to wait days for their txs to be validated. While this was certainly a special event, network congestion nonetheless plays a role in determining daily fees.

A highly detailed resource for analyzing both the BTC and BCH mempool and tx fee activity, and getting familiar with daily, weekly, and market-correlated patterns across time can be found at Johoes Bitcoin Mempool Statistics. As the image directly above shows, the early a.m. hours of March 14 saw more unconfirmed transactions in the mempool as compared to other times of the day. The correlating Pending Transaction Fee in BTC chart on the site shows generally higher fees during the same interval.

The site notes: The data is separated into different fee levels given in satoshi per bytes. The lowest colored stripe is for transactions that pay the lowest fee. Higher fee transactions are stacked on top of it. Since miners prefer high fee transactions, a new block usually only removes the top 1 MB from the queue. If a colored stripe persists over several hours without getting smaller, this means that transactions paying this amount of fee are not confirmed during this time, because there are higher paying transactions that take precedence.

Sites like this and others can help bitcoiners, regardless of wallet or preferred network, be sure theyre setting a good tx fee that will help them save money and get their transaction validated in a timely manner.

How do you find the best fees when sending bitcoin or bitcoin cash? Let us know in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship 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.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, fair use.

Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The Local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here.

Graham Smith is an American expat living in Japan, and the founder of Voluntary Japanan initiative dedicated to spreading the philosophies of unschooling, individual self-ownership, and economic freedom in the land of the rising sun.

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How to Track, Get and Set the Best Transaction Fees with Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash - Bitcoin News

The coronavirus: cases are now above 120,000 worldwide, and the World Health Organization has officially determined its a pandemic. Its torn families apart, tanked the global economy, and world leaders are calling it the biggest global crisis in decades.

So, uh, hows the coronavirus affecting crypto? Though some claim that Bitcoin doesnt track regular marketsthis week it did. Just as global markets sharply dropped this week, on early Friday morning, the price of Bitcoin sunk to its lowest since March, 2019, valued at $4,106, according to metrics site CoinMarketCap. Like global markets, its recovered slightly, now valued at around $5,425.

So, are people getting rid of magic money so they can feed themselves under quarantine? Or will Bitcoins price pump back up as global markets decline, proving it to be a safe haven after all? We asked the crypto-experts, in the latest edition of Bulls vs Bears.

Eric Wall, CIO at crypto investment firm Arcane Assets, told Decrypt that this short-term volatility is down to people de-risking their portfoliocryptos a risky asset, even when the economys doing well. But in the longer term, Wall said, coronavirus-related stimulus packages from governments are likely to further bankrupt fiat's reputation as a form of store-of-value.

He thinks that the crisis will reveal to investors that cryptocurrencies represent the only non-inflatable monetary asset that exist in a digital form that we have access to. COVID-19 is a much greater stress test to the fiat currency system than to cryptocurrencies, Wall pointed out: In a way, they're excellently positioned to benefit from this tragedy.

In a way, [cryptocurrencies are] excellently positioned to benefit from this tragedy.

Eric Wall

Jack O'Holleran, CEO of SKALE Labs, a decentralized application startup, thinks its business as usual for Bitcoin, except we're doing more virtual events and less handshaking. He acknowledges that public market drops will certainly affect new financings in crypto and overall assets flowing in, but that crypto wont feel the economic shock as much as the travel, oil, and gas industries.

If anything, the funding shortages that follow the coronavirus will cut the fat off of the crypto economy, allowing well funded and well executing projects to come out of this in an even stronger position."

Mike Alfred, CEO and Co-Founder of Digital Assets Data, which builds software for crypto hedge funds, told Decrypt that Bitcoin is setting up for a very bullish 18-20 months, and I don't think coronavirus will have any long term impacts on it. He thinks that Bitcoin has behaved well amidst coronavirus scares; some days it appears to be correlating with certain assets, but in the long run it is not correlated with anything, he said.

If anything, Alfred said, the recent interest rate cuts are bullish for Bitcoin, as they create more liquidity for investors. And in 2020, Bitcoin has the highest daily average price over any year of its existence, he said. Granted, 2020 hasnt lasted that long, but this further supports a more bullish backdrop for the upcoming Bitcoin halvingwhen, in mid-May 2020, the supply of Bitcoins issued as mining rewards will cut in half. (Some think the halving will lead to a price bump for Bitcoin.)

Dan Schatt, CEO of Cred, a crypto loans company, told Decrypt that the euphoria that had been predicted in the run-up to Bitcoins May halving looks to have been dampened. He pointed out that governments around the world are creating fiscal stimulus packages, including the delivery of so-called helicopter money. But aside from further rate cuts, which are already historically low, theres not a lot else that policymakers can do, he said. He expects high volatility over the next few weeks, though thinks that the market will pick up following the Bitcoin halving.

Brian McCabe, Head of Market Insights at Paxful, a peer-to-peer crypto marketplace, takes a cautious approach. He thinks that Bitcoin could benefit from economic pain caused in countries that must pay debt back in the US dollar.

If the coronavirus continues to weaken local currencies and makes the dollar stronger, McCabe said, money will continue to flow out of these economies and their relative debt will increase. That could lead to Bitcoin once again becoming the alternative, if these economies continue to come under pressure and people are unable to preserve wealth in their own currency.

But equally, McCabe said, Margin calls and investors losing money in equities and other higher-risk markets should lead to more people having to close positions in Bitcoin to reduce overall risk exposure. He notes that its a similar flight to safety to that which caused the yield on US 30-year treasury bonds to reach a record all-time low this week.

David Gerard, blockchain critic and author of Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain, pointed to the impact of the coronavirus on crypto conferences. Conferences are important for generating buzz around coins and new crypto financial instruments as well, Gerard said. Video can replace the main sessions, but it can't replace the "hallway track"meeting people you didn't expect to and talking, he said.

The death of conferences is not, of course, fatal to crypto, but if companies cant meet investors, then business cant flow, and deals wont be made. Decisions might be postponed until the conference circuit is revived, whenever that may be.

Of course, with Bitcoin forming such a minor part of the global economy, cryptos future may be out of the hands of a group of pundits. According to Ido Sadeh Man, founder and chairman at the board of Saga, a reserve-backed global currency: "If coronavirus teaches us anything is that we live in a hyper-globalized world, whether we like it or not. The exact same virus in the 1980's would have been a Chinese crisis, not a global one."

Sure, Man adds, in such unstable times, people seek first to regain the security they feel is not provided by their national institutions. But perhaps a truly international currency like Bitcoin will show its worth. As uncorrelated as it maybe, Bitcoin may reside in the side of crisis opportunities, he said.

But one things for sure, as Sinjin David Jung, founder and Managing Director at the International Blockchain Monetary Reserve, a social impact economic development reserve and advisory, pointed out: There are no bulls or bears when the entire global economy is being brought down to its knees as the very issue of life and death now take center stage.

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Bitcoin and the coronavirus: bulls vs bears - Decrypt

With everybody busy bulk buying toilet paper and bemoaning the decreasing value of their portfolio, nobody seems to have noticed the crash in Bitcoin Cash transaction numbers. Until this morning that is, when Jameson Lopp pointed it out in a tweet.

Joking that The bcash (transaction) halving came early, and someone turned off their transaction generator, Lopp highlighted the extreme drop off in transactions since March 8.

Prior to this date, the number of daily bitcoin cash transactions was generally in the 40-50k range or thereabouts. However, since then not a single day has seen more than 20k transactions.

There have been individual low days in the past, the most recent being January 1 this year, which might be expected the day after New Years Eve. However this is the first time such a dip has lasted for more than a day.

Interestingly, the two low days before January 1 also fell on the first of the month. Both December 1 and October 1 saw under 20k transactions, although November 1 was a fairly typical day, with a healthy 42.7k.

It is possible that the drop off is related to the drop in markets and panic over coronavirus, although bitcoin and ether have not suffered the same fate.

Over the same period, the number of bitcoin transactions has remained steady, within volatility realms, in a range of between 300k and 350k per day.

If anything, the number of daily ETH transactions has gone up since March 7, when the network saw 630k transactions, to 760k transactions yesterday. AsBitcoinist reported, at the height of network congestion yesterday, transactions on the Ethereum network were taking up to 44 minutes to be processed.

Bitcoin Cash has had a rather tumultuous start to the year. While the community was split over plans to implement a tax on miners in order to support developers and ensure the health of the network, the network itself stopped producing blocks for five and a half hours in January.

Things were going a little more promisingly for price, which gained 150% from the start of the year to hit almost $500 in mid-February. However the latest markets crash across the entire cryptocurrency (and non-crypto) sector, has wiped out all gains this year, with price currently languishing at under $170.

Why do you think Bitcoin Cash transactions have dropped off all of a sudden? Add your thoughts below!

Images via Shutterstock

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Did Somebody Turn Off the Bitcoin Cash Transaction Generator? - Bitcoinist

Binance chief Changpeng Zhao referred to it as Bloodbath day, and many in the cryptosphere will echo those sentiments, as fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic reverberates through global markets. As crypto exchanges were thronged by frantic traders looking to capitalize on or seek refuge from the unprecedented market dump, several platforms buckled under the pressure.

Also read: Market Update: Global Economy Jolts Bitcoin, Overall Crypto Cap Loses $50B

A panic-stricken sell-off of bitcoin and other risk-on digital assets has led to a number of crypto exchanges experiencing outages. On Thursday, March 12, Binances CZ noted that the platforms load was 5x greater than all previous peaks. The exchange was handling 146,500 messages per second, with a 30GB/s market data push from a lone source. Aside from the occasional glitch, Zhao says systems appear to be holding up for now. Kraken was also briefly down earlier today.

Over on Bitmex, the Seychelles-based exchange experienced the most liquidations in 16 months: $702 million worth, $698 million of which were longs. The Ethereum network, meanwhile, has been toiling under heavy network congestion, with gas prices spiking to as high as $3.70 today, and transactions waiting hours to be processed. Binance has temporarily increased withdrawal fees for ETH and ERC20 tokens.

Network activity has been driven up by traders seeking to sell their holdings and under-collateralized defi positions being forcibly liquidated. ETH also nosedived by 35%, its most significant one-day decline since 2018. The price of BTC, meanwhile, fell below $6,000 for the first time since May while altcoins also plummeted. Against this wild backdrop, we have a halving on the horizon.

The theory that bitcoin might be a safe haven as oil, stocks, equities and bond yields plunge has been disproved: but even gold, widely viewed as the ultimate safe haven asset, dropped by more than 1% on Changpeng Zhaos aptly-titled Bloodbath Day. Most crypto traders are seeking refuge by switching into stablecoins while knife-catchers have been buying up cheap coins in anticipation of the next rally. Volatility remains a traders best friend. As Bitmexs Arthur Hayes put it, I know all you HODLers say you love cheap coins, but will you really back up the truck if the S&P is flirting with 2,000? We shall see. He added:

The time to back up the truck is when the futures basis goes flat or negative. That will signal an evaporation of optimism. Then you must surf the tidal wave of free money, and begin buying crypto with both hands. First fill your Bitcoin handbags, then acquire all the other dog shit even CRipple might pop. Long live volatility, and stay healthy.

To say the economy has experienced turbulence in the wake of coronavirus would be a gross understatement. Assets are in virtual freefall across traditional and crypto markets, with pledges by the Fed and the Bank of England to cut interest rates seeming to have little effect.

Cruise liner and airline stocks have been some of the worst hit, with Boeings stock dropping 50% from last year. Numerous flights have been cancelled, and President Trump has announced a travel ban on 26 European countries in an attempt to contain the virus. Italy, one of the worst-hit countries, has come to an eerie standstill, all shops and restaurants except pharmacies and food outlets closed to the public. Many believe their own nations will soon follow suit, as infection spreads at a frightening pace.

Although the short-term outlook for bitcoin remains bearish, and sentiments like keep calm and HODL have been doing the rounds on Crypto Twitter, the sense of frenzy is impossible to ignore. As Messaris Ryan Selkis urged, Its ugly today, but this too shall pass. Stay safe. Keep building.

Where do you see the crypto markets heading from here? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see whats happening in the industry.

Kai's been manipulating words for a living since 2009 and bought his first bitcoin at $12. It's long gone. He specializes in writing about darknet markets, onchain privacy, and counter-surveillance in the digital age.

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Crypto Exchanges Overwhelmed on Bitcoin's Most Volatile Day of the Year - Bitcoin News

While the global stock market, major economic sectors, and world economies take a hit amid strong rumors of a looming economic recession, the crypto market especially Bitcoin has had struggles of its own. The weeks following the opening of 2020 looked all god for Bitcoin as the crypto mounted a bullish move in preparation for the reward halving in May. Generally, the halving has always been a bullish event.

However, the continued negative sentiments as a result of the spread of the CoronaVirus has put a block on Bitcoins path to the moon, sending the cryptos price rolling South to the lows of $5,000 from a previous optimistic high of $10, 500. In a tweet, one technical analyst opined that the price will take a while to get back up. He explained whats happening.

First off, a sudden price crash like what happed with Bitcoin ends up creating a relatively uncertain environment due to fears of the unknown. This can be summed up as some kind of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that is now keeping the market under pressure and scaring away buyers and new investors that would otherwise fuel a buy pressure and push the price back up.

Thats not what happening right now, and it could explain why Bitcoins price keeps swinging up and down within a short-range. Basically, the market is still uncertain about which direction to take.

A look at the Fear and Greed Index indicates that, currently, the market sentiment is at the extreme fear region, meaning that people are backing away from Bitcoin.

Going on, the analyst argued that Bitcoins price movement is actually fueled by the people themselves. Whenever theres a positive sentiment, FOMO takes over the price spikes as more money flows in due to increased buy pressure. However, the current atmosphere is that of diminished positive sentiment.

However, some analysts have argued that this is just a passing cloud that should be over soon, in which case Bitcoins price will recover and retrace its bullish trajectory.

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The views expressed in the article are wholly those of the author and do not represent those of, nor should they be attributed to, ZyCrypto.This article is not meant to give financial advice. Please carry out your own research before investing in any of the various cryptocurrencies available.

Excerpt from:
Bitcoins Fear And Greed Index Suggests BTC Price Might Take A While To Recover - ZyCrypto

Bitcoin was born out of a financial crisis, its debut announced in early 2009 with a block of data containing a headline referencing bank bailouts. Since then, a popular narrative around the technology has been that it's a hedge against the rest of the worldwhen the Black Swan finally rears its ugly head, the unwashed masses with their worthless dollars will grovel before the fleece vest-wearing, cryptocurrency-wielding elite. Ha-ha!

Anyway, none of that shit has happened during the first real, global test of this theory: the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

As the US stock market saw its worst crash since 1987, Bitcoin price has taken a serious tumble, actually, and currently sits at roughly $5,500 USD, down from around $9,000 a week ago, and with a 24-hour low of $3,867. Anybody who was hoping to sell any recently-acquired bitcoins for a profit in the near-term is probably sweating bullets right now, and everyone should say a little prayer for folks who bought in mid-plunge, believing with their genius brains that it had definitely reached the bottom.

So, what's happening here? Maybe Bitcoin isn't the "safe haven" asset (like gold) that some thought it was? This has led to a lot of crowing from critics, but many Bitcoiners are ideologically-driven and devoted to the project, which may ultimately be its saving grace during the current dip.

On Twitter, Bitcoiner Pierre Rochard went as far as saying that Bitcoin has proved itself to be the "ultimate safe haven asset" because "the network stays up, the exchanges trade 24/7, and the market found a healthy clearing price abovewell above the 2015 low." While it's, uh, let's just call it an overstatement, to say Bitcoin is the "ultimate" safe haven asset while it's actively crashing, Rochard has a point: Bitcoin isn't doing that badly, at least for now. It might not be an unflagging stalwart amid global chaos, but it has seen worse.

Between late 2017 and 2018, Bitcoin crashed from nearly $20,000 to below $4,000 after a wild speculative bubble popped, and it's still here. Maybe external factors such as the coronavirus will end up doing more to damage it than its own hype diddebts must be paid in dollars, after allbut Bitcoin keeps proving that we shouldn't underestimate the willingness of rich nerds with an apocalypse fetish to pour money into this thing over the long haul.

Jill Carlson, a principal at Slow Ventures, made another great point over at Coindesk: Perception is everything, and if Bitcoin isn't seen as a safe haven by the majority then it won't be. Still, she suggests this perception is wrong, and that Bitcoin is in many ways an ideal safe haven. She writes:"It can be self-custodied, so even when systems of trust and rule of law breaks down, it can be held. It is open and borderless, with relatively liquid markets in every country in the world. It is censorship-resistant, meaning no government nor institution can, practically speaking, prevent investment or transaction in bitcoin. Bitcoin has a fixed supply, much like gold."

All fair points, but in practice we are seeing that Bitcoin is not living up to its promise of being a tower from which the moneyed and prepared can laugh at everyone else below. It is simply freaking out.

I own no bitcoins (go on, roast me), but for years I've found it fascinating as an economic and technological site of ideological contest. There's just not a whole lot of things out there so directly predicated on everything else going to shit. That being said, this aspect of Bitcoin's narrative is extremely powerful and is probably going to continue to appeal to the types of people who might buy a luxury emergency bunker or just keep a well-stocked bug-out bag in their closet.

I don't know if this is a good thing, but it's real, and it's why even a crash seems like an opportunity to buy more bitcoins to some. In fact, most of these people are probably already looking ahead to the next big technical event in Bitcoin, the "halvening" in May. Now there's another rabbithole to go down.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

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Bitcoin Price is Plunging During the Coronavirus Pandemic - VICE