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Double Bottom Pattern Playing Out in the Bitcoin Market, Is $50K in Sight?

by Blockchain NewsMarch 3, 2022

Bitcoin (BTC) has remained steadfast above the psychological price of $40,000 for the past few days after nosediving to lows of $34K amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The leading cryptocurrency was up by 24.38% in the last seven days, hitting $43,421 during intraday trading, according to CoinMarketCap.

As a result, a double bottom pattern continues to play out in the BTC market. Crypto analyst Lark Davis explained:

“Bitcoin double bottom pattern in play! If we break the line of resistance, then the breakout could send BTC back into the mid 50K range! Only valid on the break of the top line.”

Source: TradingView

Davis acknowledged that Bitcoin had to break the $44,000 resistance level if a surge to $50K was to become a reality.

On the other hand, Jurrien Timmer, the director of global macro at Fidelity, echoed similar sentiments that a double bottom structure was materializing for Bitcoin.

Source: Fidelity

A double bottom pattern is a bullish formation that happens near the end of a downtrend. Therefore, it depicts a bearish-to-bullish reversal structure, illustrating the start of a future uptrend.

Is the resumption of a bull market in play?

Bitcoin finds itself at a critical point in the weekly chart as it tries to trade above the Parabolic SAR indicator. Historically, a trade above it has triggered significant bullish momentum.

Market analyst Ali Martinez pointed out:

“Bitcoin to resume its bull market. According to the Parabolic SAR, the BTC trend has reversed back to bullish. Notice that the last four times the SAR dots moved below the weekly candlestick, #BTC surged by 73%, 644%, 43%, and 250%, respectively.”

Source: TradingView

Nevertheless, Bitcoin needs to stay above the $43,100 level to gather sustained bullish momentum needed to take it to the next level. Crypto trader Rekt Capital stated:

“Great reaction from #BTC, as it is in the process of breaking out from the Ascending Triangle. Over the coming days, the ~$43100 needs to stay as support to confirm the breakout.”

Source: TradingView

Meanwhile, Bitcoin hodlers are not relenting in their quest to accumulate more coins.

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Tagged : #BTC / Bitcoin / Crypto / Cryptocurrencies / Investment / Market Analysis / PRICE ACTION

EU Ensures Russia Cannot Bypass Sanctions thorugh Crypto, Says French Finance Minister Le Maire

by Blockchain NewsMarch 3, 2022

French Finance Minister Bruno le Maire said on Wednesday that the European Union (EU) is looking for ways other than cryptocurrencies to impose EU sanctions on Russia, Reuters reported.

The EU is currently imposing economic sanctions on Russia in three situations over Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine, including freezing the assets of the Russian Central Bank and disconnecting seven Russian banks from the SWIFT financial information system.

On Sunday, the Ukrainian government urged cryptocurrency exchanges to block all transactions from Russia, which could provide a backdoor to circumvent sanctions. However, so far, most major exchanges, including Binance, Coinbase, and others, have refused to block Russian accounts on a large scale.

Le Maire told a news conference after talks with EU finance ministers:

“We are taking measures, in particular on cryptocurrencies or crypto assets which should not be used to circumvent the financial sanctions decided upon by the 27 EU countries,”

Le Maire said the current sanctions on the Russian financial system are very effective, weakening the ability of the Russian central bank to protect the Ruble.

The EU is a political and economic union jointly established by many European countries. It now has 27 member states and is the third-largest economic entity globally. Germany and France are the two core member states of the European Union.

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Tagged : Bitcoin / Blockchain / BRUNO LE MAIRE / Crypto / Eu / Politics / Russia

Ethereum Needs to Hold $2,800 for Sustainable Bullish Momentum

by Blockchain NewsMarch 3, 2022

With Ethereum being treated like a stone’s throw away from the psychological price of $3,000, its upward momentum continues to gain steam.

The second-largest cryptocurrency based on market capitalization was up by 22.21% in the last seven days to hit $2,911 during intraday trading.

Nevertheless, Ethereum needs to continue holding the $2,800 level for a sustainable upward trend. Market analyst Ali Martinez explained:

“On-chain data from IntoTheBlock shows that as long as ETH remains trading above $2,800, ETH has a good chance of recovering and advancing further because there is no major supply barrier ahead.”

Source: IntoTheBlock

On the other hand, a bullish sign continues to pop up, given that Ethereum has been leaving crypto exchanges in droves. Data analytic firm IntoTheBlock acknowledged:

“ETH has seen 7 days of consecutive outflows from exchanges. As the price increases, the supply available to buy from exchanges has been decreasing non-stop in 2021. Over 327,000 ETH left exchanges since Feb 22nd.”

Source: IntoTheBlock

Whenever cryptocurrencies leave exchanges, a holding culture is demonstrated because they are usually transferred to cold storage and digital wallets for future purposes. Therefore, this is a bullish sign because selling pressure gets tamed.

As Ethereum continues trading above the psychological price of $2,500, whether the $3,000 level will next remain to be seen.

Meanwhile, the much-awaited Ethereum’s proof of stake (PoS) consensus mechanism is deemed a game-changer that will prompt the adoption of energy-efficient technology. A recent review by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ranked Ethereum’s PoS among the top 10 technological breakthroughs of 2022.

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Tagged : #ETH / Analysis / Crypto / Ethereum / Hodling / HOLDING / Market

Crypto Market Cap Returns to $2 Trillion

by Blockchain NewsMarch 3, 2022

Global cryptocurrency markets have rallied strongly in recent days in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with Bitcoin’s rising to $44,188 on Wednesday after falling to $36,370 last week. Other leading cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum, ripple and Solana, were either flat or up at least 2%.

According to CoinGecko, the value of the cryptocurrency market was back at $2 trillion as of 10:15 a.m. ET, and the overall cryptocurrency market capitalization is now as high as $2.04 trillion.

The total cryptocurrency market value is still below the $3 trillion since four months ago.

At the time of writing, bitcoin was up 25.06% over the past 7 days, trading at $43,403.16. Ether has also gained over 24% over the past 7 days, trading at $2,904.60 at present, according to Coinmarketcap.

But as the U.S. and European Union announced tough sanctions, Russian investors flocked to the cryptocurrency market to avoid the ruble’s devaluation.

Bitcoin’s ruble volume topped $16 million on Thursday, its highest level this year. On Monday, the total was about $8.5 million.

In a bid to avoid bitcoin’s price volatility, ruble-denominated transactions with Tether, a so-called stablecoin, hit $29.4 million, the highest level this year, in a week.

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Tagged : #BTC / Bitcoin / Blockchain / Crypto / ETHER / Market Update

Federal Reserve Chair Powell Sees Interest Rate Hike This Month

by Blockchain NewsMarch 3, 2022

US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced on Wednesday that the central bank is set to begin raising interest rates this month as part of efforts to combat high inflation, strong economic demand, and a tight labour market.

The Fed chair said that the central bank is likely to increase interest rates by a quarter percentage point this month.

“I’m inclined to propose and support” a quarter-point rate hike to fight the rise of inflation that has plunged nations into periods of instability in recent months, Powell told the House Financial Services Committee on the first of two days of semiannual testimony to Congress.

In recent weeks, most other Fed officials have supported a similarly modest increase, though a few others have suggested a half-point rise or are at least open to such a hike. Higher Fed rates normally lead to higher borrowing costs for businesses and consumers, including for homes, credit cards, and auto loans.

Mr. Powell told the House Financial Services Committee that the central bank will proceed with caution, as Ukraine’s crisis adds more uncertainty to the economic outlook.

Crypto Market Struggling

Higher interest rates are on the way coming. While the market already suspected that, the speech yesterday by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell confirmed that the central bank will raise rates this month. The crypto market should therefore brace itself for a parallel rise in risk aversion.

Higher interest rates typically mean a lower appetite for high-risk/high-return assets like cryptocurrencies. That means that the cryptocurrency market will experience declines in prices at various points this year.

The stock market likewise has been reacting badly to recent threats of hikes. As the crypto market is becoming increasingly correlated to stocks, cryptocurrencies could be in for a bearish year because of the changing macroeconomic outlook.

The Fed already signalled in December that it planned to increase rates in 2022. As a result, some formerly high-flying asset prices started returning to lower levels. The price of Bitcoin fell 50%, from a high of almost $70,000 in November last year to about $37,983 as of January 31 2022. However, Bitcoin has shown some signs of recovery as it currently is trading at around $43,350 at the time of writing.

But many questions still remain as to what extent would the interest rate rise be? How many hikes could follow in 2022? and how will they further affect the prices of stocks, cryptocurrencies, real estate, and more?

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Tagged : Cryptocurrencies / Fed / Finance / INTEREST RATE HIKE / Market / Us

LocalBitcoins Cuts Fees to Zero for Ukrainians Both Locally and Abroad

by Blockchain NewsMarch 3, 2022

To ease transactions amongst Ukrainians as they face the Russian Army Invasion in their nation, the world’s leading peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace, LocalBitcoins, has removed all fees for them both locally and abroad.

Based on its primary objective of rendering freedom, the firm’s CMO, Jukka Blomberg, acknowledged that this decision was reached as Ukrainians face unprecedented times of war. He added:

“LocalBitcoins’ core value is freedom. We understand that at the moment, Ukraine is facing extremely challenging times. For this reason, LocalBitcoins has removed all fees from its Ukrainian users.”

Therefore, this revelation means that Ukrainians will have a free BTC wallet that they can use to exchange their national currency, the hryvnia, at zero rates.

The crypto community has also shown its lending hand by donating crypto worth more than $30 million to aid humanitarian efforts.

Some of the notable faces in the crypto space that have channelled their funds to support the Ukrainian humanitarian crisis include Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, with a $10 million donation.

The funds were to be split between top non-profit organizations with whom Binance had prior partnerships like People in Need, UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, iSans, and UNICEF.

Furthermore, Canada-based crypto exchange CoinSmart had raised funds to the tune of $19 million to support the people of Ukraine and assist the international community in alleviating their immense suffering.

CoinSmart is among six crypto platforms registered as a securities dealer and market by the Ontario Securities Commission. The others include Wealthsimple, Coinberry, Netcoins, Fidelity, and Bitbuy.

The gesture by LocalBitcoins is a welcome move for Ukrainians because it recently hit a new milestone of surpassing 200,000 mobile app downloads.

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Tagged : Bitcoin / Cryptocurrencies / Exchanges / INVASION / Localbitcoins / P2P / Trading / TURMOIL / Ukraine

Payments Firm FIS Worldpay Taps Shyft Network, Enhance Global Crypto Regulation Compliance

by Blockchain NewsMarch 3, 2022

FIS, a US multinational corporation that offers a wide range of financial products and services, on Wednesday announced that its subsidiary business, Worldpay, has selected the Shyft Network, as part of its commitment to help its merchants comply with cryptocurrency-related regulations designed to build a secure transaction ecosystem.

The partnership will enable Worldpay’s clients (merchants, companies, and businesses) to use Shyft’s Veriscope solution to meet multi-jurisdictional requirements set out by the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) Travel Rule.

The FATF Travel Rule targets the anonymity of crypto transactions and transfers and focuses on fighting money laundering and other financial crime in the crypto ecosystem.

Shyft created the Verified Shyft Compliant Optimized Participant Exchange (Veriscope) to enhance data collection and compliance for custodial wallets, cryptocurrency exchanges, brokerage companies, and other virtual asset service providers (VASPs).

Worldpay, which offers card-to-crypto processor services to the majority of major crypto exchanges, will become a member of the Shyft Federation. Worldpay platform will be powered by Shyft’s Veriscope solution to validate transactions and provide data attribution.

Nabil Manji, head of crypto and emerging business at Worldpay, talked about the development and said: “Worldpay from FIS is thrilled to join the Shyft Network as a federation member. Our partnership with Shyft reflects our ongoing work to support growth in the cryptocurrency sector and our commitment to connecting the world to the digital asset economy, all in a safe and secure manner.”

Meanwhile, Joseph Weinberg, co-founder of Shyft Network, also commented about the partnership and stated: “We are very excited to work alongside Worldpay from FIS to accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrencies. Regulation and compliance are critical to continued institutional growth, and infrastructure that can enable institutions and merchants to mitigate risks while reaping the benefits these technologies have to offer is crucial to accelerating adoption.”

Enhancing Financial Services

While digital finance has facilitated cross-border transactions, it has made the monitoring of transactions more complex for financial institutions and competent authorities.

As part of efforts to reshape the financial sector, FIS is working hard on know-your-customer (KYC) rules to meet the standards set out by the FATF.

Headquartered in Florida, FIS has continued to be a leading provider of technology solutions for banks, merchants, and capital markets firms across the world.

In April last year, FIS expanded its payment processing capabilities into the rapidly growing markets of Nigeria, Malaysia, and South Africa. FIS obtained a domestic acquiring license in Malaysia to provide its Worldpay payment processing platform. In Nigeria and South Africa, FIS is providing domestic payment processing services through its partnership with payments technology company Flutterwave.

Through its Worldpay product portfolio, FIS processes billions of transactions every year across 146 countries and more than 300 payments types in 126 currencies.

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Tagged : Compliance / Crypto / FIS WORLDPAY / News / Partnership / Regulation / Shyft Network

Animoca Brands to Halt Trading Services to Russian Users

by Blockchain NewsMarch 3, 2022

Animoca Brands, a leading blockchain company and venture capital firm based in Hong Kong, announced on Wednesday that it would stop its trading services to Russian users in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Animoca further mentioned that besides blocking the accounts linked to Russian users, it would also halt selling shares to Russian investors.

Yat Siu, the co-founder and Chairman of Animoca Brands, talked about the development and said: “the legal advice we’ve been receiving is we now have to impose some restrictions. It’s a sanctioned country on par with North Korea. The moment we end up doing business in those areas, we might ourselves become financially excluded from the financial system.”

Siu also stated that the decision would apply to the company’s subsidiaries, such as Gamee and Lympo. However, the executive said that the decision would not have any material impact on the company’s performance because the firm doesn’t have many Russian users.

Gamee stated on Twitter that: “Ukraine, we stand with you,” and said that it is shutting down its services to Russians. Likewise, Lympo also mentioned in a Medium blog post that it would stop onboarding new Russian athletes, halt publishing Russian athlete NFTs, and stop negotiations for new partnerships with all Russian athletes.

In doing so, Animoca has joined other major crypto firms, which have also stopped providing services to Russian users amid the security crisis.

Building Metaverse Reality

Headquartered in Hong Kong and launched in 2014, Animoca Brands serves as a major investor in NFT games and metaverse startups.

In January, Animoca raised almost $359 million, an investment that has given a valuation of more than $5 billion. The funding round was led by Liberty City Ventures. Other companies such as Winklevoss Capital, billionaire investor George Soros’ Soros Fund Management, Sequoia China, Gemini Frontier Fund, and 10T Holdings also participated in the seed funding.

Animoca has invested in over 100 startups, including some of the major builders in the NFT landscape. Among its investments are Axie Infinity developer Sky Mavis (valued near $3 billion), NBA Top Shotmaker Dapper Labs (valued at $7.6 billion), and the leading NFT marketplace OpenSea (valued at $13.3 billion).

Apart from investments, Animoca also publishes its NFT-driven games. The company is best known for The Sandbox, an upcoming Ethereum-based metaverse game, which has formed partnerships with Atari, Adidas, Snoop Dogg, and other brands and celebrities. Animoca also publishes licensed racing game F1 Delta Time, among other crypto game projects.

Animoca mainly invests in projects that aim to develop an open, interoperable metaverse, in which NFT assets can be used across various immersive platforms.

Image source: Animoca Brands

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Tagged : Animoca Brands / Politics / Russia / Trading / Ukraine

MoonPay Lands $750K World of Women NFT in Christie’s Auction

by Blockchain NewsMarch 3, 2022

Digital currency payments startup, MoonPay, has come off as the lucky winner of an auction for a World of Women (WoW) Non-Fungible Token (NFT).

Reportedly, acting on behalf of a client, the WoW NFT #5672 was snapped up for £567,000 ($754,340) at the auction conducted at Christie’s London Evening Sale announced on Tuesday.

The WoW NFT is a collection of 10,000 unique digital drawings of women with various traits. The collection sought to celebrate women ad its community is dedicated to celebrating representation, inclusivity, and an equal opportunity for all. Based on the ideals that the WoW NFT stands for, the collection has been attracting high-profile sales in recent times.

As reported earlier by Blockchain.News, financial advisory services firm KPMG in Canada was amongst the prominent buyers that snapped up the WoW NFT in the past week. In justifying its reasons, the company said the values represented by the WoW NFT collection resonate with its broad tenets.

The floor price of the WoW NFT is currently pegged at 8.74ETH, with a total of over 54,000 ETH in volume sold thus far. The #5672 is one of the NFTs that has a rare trait, described as having a night goddess skin tone and a tuxedo with full black hair and a conspicuous reddish lip.

While it is unclear who the buyer MoonPay purchased for, the service rendered compliments its tailored services which it floated last year and described as a “White glove service for high net worth individuals who want to purchase NFTs most simply without all the hassle of setting up a wallet, buying crypto, using that crypto to purchase an NFT, and then taking custody of it.”

The recent purchase by MoonPay generally echoes the building hype around NFTs, and apparently, more corporate investors are becoming more interested in becoming proud owners of a rare collectable.

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Tagged : Christie'S / Moonpay / NFT / WOW

Ukraine Opens Channel for Dogecoin Donations Towards Relief Efforts

by Blockchain NewsMarch 3, 2022

As the Russia-Ukraine war rages on, Ukraine has increased the number of digital currencies it now accepts from donors, particularly those in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

In a tweet shared on Wednesday by Mykhailo Fedorov, the vice prime minister of Ukraine, holders of Dogecoin (DOGE) can now send donations to the memecoin’s address he shared via the tweet.

As Ukraine continues to fight to liberate itself from the Russian invasion which began on February 26, a number of well-wishers have donated a cumulative of over $35 million. However, the new allowance being given with the announcement of Dogecoin will go a long way in bringing more donors to support the almost war-torn country.

“@dogecoin exceeded Russian ruble in value. We start to accept donations in meme coin. Now even meme can support our army and save lives from Russian invaders,” Mykhailo said in the tweet, tagging Elon Musk and Billy Markus, the founder of Dogecoin in a bid to help the tweet gain publicity.

Beyond Dogecoin, a lot of blockchain protocols have also been making contributions to the relief efforts in Ukraine as well as in the support of the army. For instance, Gavin Wood, the founder of the Polkadot blockchain donated the sum of $5 million to the Ukrainian government in DOT tokens, a move that has earned accolades from Mykhailo.

“Crypto community continue to support Ukraine. I am grateful to @gavofyork, who made an impressive donation of $5M from @Polkadot $DOT. This will certainly contribute to the Ukrainian victory as well as support civil people. We will win — the best people with us,” Mykhailo said in an earlier tweet.

Protocols like Binance, Solana, and Uniswap have also established an avenue through which donors can convert tokens native to these ecosystems in support of the Ukrainian government and the people.

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Tagged : Altcoins / Dogecoin / Donation / Polkadot / Russia / Solana / Ukraine