Bitcoin dropped on Friday, disappointing the investors who had hoped that it was mounting a recovery.
The price had continued to hover around $40,000, with some suggesting that it was readying for a “dead cat bounce” that could take it back comfortably above the milestone.
But it dropped through Thursday evening and into Friday, with other leading cryptocurrencies also continuing to stall. Ethereum(ether), Cardano (ada) anddogecoin were all down, having surged in value alongside bitcoin at the start of the week.
Market experts appear divided over whether the bounce back was part of a longer term bull market trend that will see bitcoin hit new record highs in 2021, or whether it is simply following the same pattern seen after the 2017 price peaks.
There has been plenty of good news in the crypto space in recent days, which has contributed to positive forecasts and price predictions in the region of $250,000.
The president of Tanzania has shown interest in adopting bitcoin as legal tender, Tunisia’s finance minister wants to decriminalise cryptocurrency and MicroStrategy is planning to plough another half billion dollars into BTC.
We’ll have all the latest news, analysis and price predictions right here.
Crypto limbo? What’s going on – and where do we go from here?
Here’s the latest of our ask me anything sessions with bitcoin experts, picking through all the latest news. In recent weeks, the cryptocurrency has seen its biggest technical upgrade in years, its first adoption as legal tender, and more – and our experts are here to pick through all of that news, and what it might mean.
Andrew Griffin18 June 2021 12:32
Market struggles to make its recovery
After hovering around $40,000, bitcoin has dropped today: it’s down 4.14 per cent. So is much of the rest of the market: ethereum is down almost 5 per cent, and everything from Cardano to Dogecoin is doing much the same.
The market is down 4.35 per cent overall, according to CoinMarketCap.
That hopes of a big bounceback doesn’t seem to be coming good – at least yet.
Andrew Griffin18 June 2021 11:40
Nobel prize for Satoshi Nakamoto?
Pseudonymous bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto should win the Nobel Prize in economics, according to renowned MIT researcher Lex Fridman.
Thousands of his followers appear to agree with him, including MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, who went one step further by arguing Nakamoto should also get the Nobel Peace Prize for inventing a monetary system that “doesn’t rest on the threat of violence”.
It would be hard to argue that the inventor of bitcoin and blockchain technology didn’t deserve the honour, though it would be unprecedented to award it to an unknown entity.
Anthony Cuthbertson17 June 2021 19:05
‘Bitcoin is bigger than Elon Musk’
Elon Musk has proved once again just how divisive he is within the crypto world. Many people welcome the polymath entrepreneur into the space, while others believe such a polarising figure distracts from bitcoin’s core mission of revolutionising the financial system.
Crypto pioneer Nick Spanos, co-founder of Zap Protocol, believes such arguments are irrelevant as “bitcoin is bigger than Elon Musk”. Spanos, who was recently featured in Neflix’s Banking on Bitcoin documentary, shares this comment and price prediction with us:
Even if the bottom isn’t quite here yet, it will be soon. The bust cycle ‘crypto winters’ are going to pass by more quickly than in the past, as general upward momentum of non-price fundamentals is sustained.
Once-scared newcomers realize that Bitcoin is bigger than Elon Musk — or even a certain Communist nation’s diktat. In this story, the forgotten people and the marginalized nations are going to be the victors.
So a place like El Salvador is going to be punching far above its economic weight very soon.
At this point it’s about education, so that fearmongering tweets from one person don’t pour fuel onto popular misconceptions. His currency in the crypto space might go to zero, but Bitcoin will go to the moon. In fact, it might even get to Mars before he does.
My analysts predict the price could very well breach the $90,000 mark by the end of the year.
Nick Spanos, co-founder of Zap Protocol
Anthony Cuthbertson17 June 2021 16:27
Kraken CEO says ‘Elon Musk has some more studying to do’
The head of leading cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has said Elon Musk should do more studying on bitcoin mining, prompting a response from the Tesla CEO.
Jesse Powell told Bloomberg that bitcoin “is a lot greener than a lot of people give it credit for” and suggested that Musk’s decision to halt Tesla’s acceptance of the cryptocurrency was misguided.
“I think it’s doing a lot actually for the renewable energy sector,” Powell said. “I don’t know how long Elon has been studying this but I think he’s got some more studying to do on this topic.
Musk replied on Twitter: “Based on what data?”
Anthony Cuthbertson17 June 2021 13:37
Crypto expert Q&A
A reminder that you’ve still got time to submit any questions you may have about bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency space to our experts.
In 20 minutes I’ll be joined by Dr Paul Ennis, an assistant professor at University College Dublin whose research focusses on cryptocurrency, and Fred Schebesta, a crypto advocate and founder of comparison platform Finder.com.
You can submit any questions you might have for them right here:
Anthony Cuthbertson17 June 2021 10:41
El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law receives no help from World Bank
El Salvador’s mission to introduce bitcoin as a mainstream form of currency within the next three months will receive no help from the World Bank, the international lender has said.
By passing the Bitcoin Law through Congress last week, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt the cryptocurrency as legal tender. The 90 day deadline put in place may be tough without the assistance of the World Bank, who cited environmental and transparency concerns.
“We are committed to helping El Salvador in numerous ways including for currency transparency and regulatory processes,” a spokesperson for the World Bank told Reuters.
“While the government did approach us for assistance on bitcoin, this is not something the World Bank can support given the environmental and transparency shortcomings.”
El Salvador Bitcoin Beach
(Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
Anthony Cuthbertson17 June 2021 08:21
Bitcoin price heading up or down?
The counter to the “dead cat bounce” argument is that bitcoin’s price trajectory is still yet to see its peak in 2021.
The most prominent advocate of this narrative is the pseudonymous Dutch analyst PlanB, who is best known for his Stock-to-Flow price prediction model.
According to one version of this, bitcoin is set for a “second run of this bull market”, which could push the cryptocurrency’s price north of $250,000 in the near-ish future. Similar market blips to the one currently underway were seen in 2013 and 2017, before new all-time highs were ultimately seen.
PlanB remains firmly behind his model.
Anthony Cuthbertson16 June 2021 20:25
Panama looks to follow El Salvador with bitcoin adoption
Panamanian Congressman Gabriel Silva is hoping his country could be the next to follow El Salvador by adopting bitcoin as legal tender.
Silva plans to present a bill next month that will begin the process to open up the country’s economy to the cryptocurrency
“I found El Salvador’s project positive, ambitious, interesting and with good acceptance,” he said following El Salvador’s announcement, and today said there is “strong citizen support” for the project.
Anthony Cuthbertson16 June 2021 16:29
Ask an expert anything
In an effort to make sense of this tumultuous time for the crypto market, we’ve invited a couple of experts to take readers’ questions.
Dr Paul Ennis, an assistant professor at University College Dublin whose research focuses on cryptocurrency, and Fred Schebesta, a crypto advocate and founder of comparison platform Finder.com, will join us tomorrow morning to give readers of The Independent an opportunity to ask anything they like about bitcoin and the crypto space.
You can find out more – and ask your questions in the comments – here:
Anthony Cuthbertson16 June 2021 14:23
This news is republished from another source. You can check the original article here.
Be the first to comment