Consumer attitudes are changing towards banknotes and credit cards as reports suggest that the deadly coronavirus can spread by their use. The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) has, therefore, urged the central banks to consider developing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). BIS believes that under the current circumstance, CBDCs will quickly gain prominence. However, it has warned that this move could have a “severe impact on unbanked and older consumers.” Chamath Palihapitiya, the billionaire CEO of venture capital firm Social Capital, believes that the setting is right for Bitcoin (BTC) to shine. However, he does not find Bitcoin as the …

Despite markets all over the world facing ever-worsening economic troubles amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it seems as though the crypto industry has been able to weather the storm, at least thus far. In this regard, Binance — the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange — has recently reached an agreement to acquire CoinMarketCap, one of the most prominent crypto data websites. The official announcement was made by both companies on April 2, with Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao telling Cointelegraph that CMC and Binance have from the very start been working to make the crypto ecosystem more accessible to people all over …

On April 2 the U.S. Labor Department reported that the U.S. weekly jobless claims skyrocketed to 6.6 million. In the previous week, the claims stood at 3.3 million, meaning over the past two weeks the number of laid off American workers seeking unemployment benefits has reached 10 million. If the numbers continue to grow, the government and Federal Reserve is likely to announce another round of stimulus measures. All the money printing is likely to erode the value of the US dollar. In such a case, the investors will search for assets that can protect their buying power and add …

The Dow Jones Industrial Average had its worst first quarter on record. Compared to that, Bitcoin only fell about 10% over the same period, which shows clear outperformance. The resilience of Bitcoin (BTC) in the current crisis shows that it has arrived on the big scene and that it can weather a storm better than some of the traditional asset classes. This is likely to attract several institutional players to Bitcoin. Now, what can we hope for during the second quarter? Bitcoin has a very important halving event coming up next month. This has been positive for the price action …

BitMEX Research recently pointed out that the correlation between the S&P 500 and Bitcoin (BTC) has reached a new high, eclipsing the previous high recorded in March 2018. This shows that with all the money being printed to support the economy, a tiny bit might be finding its way into the crypto space, which is a huge positive. Over the long-term, only a fraction of the total stimulus packages announced around the world are enough to boost the crypto market capitalization. While many are bullish in the long-term, several investors want to catch the bottom. Earlier in the year veteran …

The coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis that it has brought along is the first of its kind in this generation. For weeks now, global equities markets have been swinging wildly due to the uncertainty. However, compared to the traditional markets, Bitcoin has been holding up quite well and its volatility has been gradually reducing in the past few days. Pantera Capital Founder and CEO Dan Morehead believes that the current crisis “is like no other” and it can “have a larger global economic impact than any downturn in recent memory.” However, Morehead believes that after the initial days of …

The White House and Senate leaders finally agreed to a massive stimulus of $2 trillion to support the economy and Americans who are suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the equity markets are celebrating with a rally, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has projected a bullish figure of $100,000 for each Bitcoin. Zhao believes that with most Bitcoin in the hand of long term holders, even if a small portion of the new stimulus flows into Bitcoin, a market capitalization of $2 trillion is achievable. Trader Tone Vays sounded increasingly bullish on Bitcoin. He said that if Bitcoin breaks above …

Even after the announcements of massive stimulus by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the ECB, and several other central banks, the equity markets are still struggling to launch a sharp recovery from the recent lows. This shows that traders are not confident that the equity markets have bottomed out and possibly investors are slowly losing hope that the central banks can rescue them from any crisis. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market is showing a sharp rally from the recent lows. The total crypto market capitalization has risen from the recent low of about $118 billion on March 13 to about $191 billion …

The unprecedented volatility in the equity markets continues as the traders are trying to assess the economic damage and the remedial measures that have been taken to support the economy. A growing number of developed nations have announced huge stimulus packages to soften the impact of the pandemic. However, billionaire investor Tim Draper believes that Bitcoin (BTC) will lead the recovery from the ongoing financial crisis by transforming the ways in which industries function. Tone Vays expects Bitcoin to bottom out closer to $2,800. If the level is hit before the upcoming May halving, Vays is fine with it, however, …

The US Federal Reserve is at it again. For the second time this month, the Fed has done an emergency rate cut. On March 3, a 50 basis point cut was implemented and that was followed with a 100 bps cut on March 15. If that was not enough, the Fed also announced a $700 billion quantitative easing program. Surprisingly, in response to this, equities markets reacted by dropping over 11%. This shows that the markets are signaling to the Fed that rate cuts are not the solution for every problem at hand. After a few months when the coronavirus …

While most cryptocurrencies have seen their market capitalization slashed over the past month, the market meltdown has seen stablecoins ascend the market cap rankings. As of press time, six stablecoins currently reside among the top 50 crypto assets by capitalization. USDT ranks fourth The largest-stablecoin by capitalization, Tether (USDT), currently ranks as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $4.66 billion. Despite the total USDT market cap growing by just 0.5% in four weeks, Tether has crept up the ladder since ranking seventh by capitalization on Feb. 15. However, due to the plummeting prices of the assets that USDT …

Capitulation occurs when traders are scared. On March 12, most asset classes witnessed a massive selloff with no place to hide. Even gold declined 3.17%, which shows that the traders sold everything in their portfolio. The coronavirus pandemic has created a state of panic because it does not have any treatment and spreads quickly. As a result, large cities and in some cases, the whole country is in a lockdown, in attempts to control it. That led to panic selling in cryptocurrencies on March 12, which had been comparatively holding up quite well until then. The market capitalization of the …