#bitcoinlaws

[virtualcurrencyspace]

Chinese Money Flowing Into ICO's Despite Ban.

That means that clearly non-Chinese ICOs didn't kill their start-up funding plans because of bans in China (and subsequent bans in South Korea). Instead, most put their plans to launch on pause to figure out ways to legitimize their activity and find the right investors now that simple crowdsourcing these things in China is illegal under the ban. Chinese with crypto wallet accounts in Singapore, Hong Kong, London and elsewhere are still buying tokens of companies listing on exchanges and still speculating in cryptocurrencies.

Open Money found Chinese smart money. They built relationships with Chinese venture funds over the years and private asset managers who are now delving into the crypto markets. Those characters in China are known as "whales". The whales tend to be large funds with tens of millions of dollars to throw around, often belonging to the family offices of Chinese multi-millionaires and billionaires.

"We are definitely getting Chinese money and are still talking to a number of China-based funds," Sangha says

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2017/10/18/chinas-blockchain-bitcoin-ban-no-match-for-stateless-cryptocurrency-market/#d69756f2de6b

[truthblockchain]

Google May Be Entering Into The Blockchain Space

Google, arguably the most important company in all of technology, has largely held the crypto movement at arms length. That changes today.

Theta Labs, a venture-backed blockchain company, has struck up a new partnership with Google Cloud, the rapidly-growing Alphabet subsidiary. Google Cloud will offer a new service allowing users to deploy and run nodes of Theta’s blockchain network. Perhaps more importantly, Google Cloud itself will operate a validator for Theta’s network — servicing all of Europe.

It’s a baby step for Google, but make no mistake about it: the company is now engaging in blockchain. “This is one of our first validators, but we have many crypto customers,” says Allen Day, Developer Advocate for Google. “We had already made Bitcoin, Ethereum and six other cryptocurrencies’ data available through our public dataset program. This is the next step.”

A validator is a foundation of a blockchain network, deciding if a transaction is legit and vouching for that transaction. Without it a decentralized network doesn’t work.

This is a game-changer for Theta Labs. The San Jose, California-based company hopes to relieve overburdened networks everywhere, applying blockchain technology to online video distribution.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/coryjohnson/2020/05/27/google-goes-blockchain/amp/

[virtualcurrencyspace]

The Digitization Of Money

With the near-term picture cloudy, some analysts are focusing on a longer-term trend that could be surprisingly bullish for bitcoin: the emergence of digital currencies issued by central banks.

It’s not an obvious investment thesis, since bitcoin was invented to be used in an electronic peer-to-peer payment system that would be free of government control and operate outside of the traditional banking system.

And most central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs for short, would, by their very nature, be issued and controlled by governments, and in many cases distributed through banks.

But Jack Purdy and Ryan Watkins of the research firm Messari wrote last week in a report that the “coming digitization of money,” including the launch of CBDCs, could provide a “secular tailwind” for bitcoin.

CBDCs have gained momentum over the past year, as countries consider whether to roll out digital versions of their currencies to keep up with Facebook’s proposed Libra and China’s forthcoming digital currency electronic payment, which is already in testing.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-boost-central-bank-digital-currencies%3famp=1

[virtualcurrencyspace]

A Bitcoin Spring

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency investors have been waiting for an end to crypto winter since early 2018.

The bitcoin price has been trading at around half of its all-time highs of $20,000 per bitcoin for the last two years—but there are signs crypto winter is beginning to thaw.

Now, co-founder of social news aggregation site Reddit and early investor in major U.S. bitcoin and crypto exchange Coinbase, Alexis Ohanian, has said he sees the green shoots of a new bitcoin and “crypto spring”.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2020/05/25/a-new-bitcoin-and-crypto-spring-is-coming/amp/

[virtualcurrencyspace]

Uncertainty For Bitcoin Miners

Despite a post-halving rise in bitcoin’s price Wednesday, the current value may not be enough to keep less-efficient miners operating, and that could shift market dynamics.

At press time, bitcoin (BTC) was trading up 2.3% over 24 hours at $9,106. The world’s first cryptocurrency is trading above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, which is a bullish technical indicator, and has been on a steady uptrend since early trading May 13, 00:00 UTC.

The long-anticipated halving was, “a little uneventful,” said Jack Tan, founding partner at Taiwan-based crypto trading firm Kronos Research. But there has been one bright spot for traders: Bitcoin prices have been going up slowly but surely.

But market uncertainty lingers when it comes to cryptocurrency miners. The reward for miners to generate new bitcoin was cut because of the halving to 6.25 BTC, so the business of running machines to secure the network is much less profitable: “I think some of the miners might be in trouble. They just took a 50% pay cut overnight, with prices remaining where they are,” added Tan.

One mining metric that immediately changed after the halving was miner revenue from fees, which jumped from 4.6% right before the halving to 7% Wednesday, according to data provider Glassnode.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.coindesk.com/market-wrap-some-miners-face-an-uncertain-future-despite-rising-bitcoin-price%3famp=1

[virtualcurrencyspace]

Financial Stability Act Considered In Congress In Case Facebooks Centralized Libra Takes Over The Monetary Sphere

The bill requires the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to consider treatment of digital currencies as a ‘designated financial market utility’. In addition, it would require any non-financial company such as Facebook that enjoys a minimum level of profits from digital currencies, to become a Bank Holding Company supervised by the Federal Reserve. Hypothetically, Libra could then be considered systemically important to the financial system and undergo the highest level of regulatory scrutiny as well as additional regulatory reporting requirements as a result.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbrett/2020/04/28/congress-has-introduced-32-crypto-and-blockchain-bills-for-consideration-in-2019-2020/amp/

[virtualcurrencyspace]

Bitcoin Created For Ongoing Stimulus Measures That Reduce The Value Of Fiat Money

help ward off a recession and reduce the financial toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, central banks around the world have taken drastic measures to pump liquidity into the markets. While they could potentially help to stimulate the economy, these measures are also likely to deflate the value of the U.S. dollar and other fiat currencies, by increasing the amount of money available.

In many ways, this situation is exactly what Bitcoin was created for. The cryptocurrency has a hard cap on its total supply of approximately 21 million coins. By having a finite supply, Bitcoin was designed to maintain its value while other currencies lost purchasing power due to inflation. But so far, central banks' stimulus measures have had little effect on Bitcoin's price, and it's unclear if they will in the near future.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/03/18/should-you-buy-bitcoin-right-now.aspx

[virtualcurrencyspace]

Bitcoin Value Rises During Turbulence In The Foreign Exchange Markets

Bitcoin (BTC) is gaining amid a sell-off in fiat currencies and could rise further if the U.S. stock markets track European equities higher.

Technical charts indicate scope for a rise to key resistance at $5,926.

A move higher would confirm a breakout on the hourly chart and may propel prices toward $6,400.

Bitcoin is on the rise Thursday morning (UTC), showing resilience in the face of a global dash for dollars seen in the foreign exchange markets.

At time of writing, the cryptocurrency is trading near $5,670, representing a 9.4 percent gain on a 24-hour basis. Bitcoin found bids near $5,260 during the Asian trading hours and has been climbing since, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index.

While bitcoin is flashing green against the U.S. dollar, most fiat currencies are currently trading in the red. For example, the British pound-to-dollar exchange rate is hovering near 1.1555, the lowest level since 1980. The currency pair has dropped by nearly 8 percent this week.

The Australian dollar fell to a 20-year low of 55 U.S. cents early on Thursday and is currently reporting a 0.6 percent drop on the day.

The greenback has gained in the past six trading days against all major currencies, as noted by macro analyst Holger Zschaepitz.

https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-sees-9-gain-as-turmoil-hits-the-forex-markets

Bitcoin Sees 9% Gain as Turmoil Hits the Forex Markets - CoinDesk

Bitcoin is gaining amid a selloff in most fiat currencies and could rise further if the U.S. stock markets track European equities higher.