BTC Price Increase Expected after US Tax Season:
In light of US tax season and the inclusion of cryptocurrencies into the equation, the past couple of weeks have seen (relatively) moderate declines in Bitcoin prices, much to the dismay of HODLRs. (The price dropped from $9,084 USD on March 21, 2018 to as low as $6,549 on April 1, 2018). The more bullish of HODLRs were anticipating a price spike at the close of tax season yesterday (April 17, 2018). However, it seems slow in coming as the price has remained fairly stable as it has remained around the $8,000 since April 13, 2018 (Coinmarketcap).
The lack of a BTC price increase could be due to a number of crypto-world events that took place over the last week, including:
- The New York Attorney General’s office announced that it would be opening inquiries into thirteen cryptoexchanges (April 17, 2018).
- Owners of the India-based crypto-exchange platform, Consecure. that it was the latest victim of a crypto-exchange hack, with around 438 bitcoins stolen from its platform (April 13, 2017),
- Similarly, another major ICO scam, Pincoin, succeeded in disappearing with about $660 Million USD worth of raised funds (April 13, 2018),
- Russia bans telegram, which raised $1.7 Billion USD during its ICO (April 16, 2018),
- Malta, one of the major centers for ICOs, seems to be in the final stages of developing a test to determine whether an ICO should be classified as a security or not (April 16, 2018),
- Taobao, a subsidiary of Alibaba, decided to ban any services connected to ICOs from being offered on its platform (April 12, 2018),
- Riot Blockchain was subpoenaed by the SEC on April 9, 2018 based on suspicions of fraud after the company changed its operating name (April 18, 2018),
- Famous crypto currency Youtube personality, Ian Balina had approximately $2 Million USD worth of Ethereum stolen from his account during a live stream on April 17, 2018,
- A single investor sold 6,000 BTC (valued at about $4.8 Miilion USD) in one go, rapidly decreasing its value within minutes (April 18, 2018),
- And Ripple’s Head of Regularoty Relation, Ryan Zagone, publicly called on the British government to move towards outlining real legislature to protect ICO and cryptocurrency investors (April 15, 2018).
Although this list may seem bleak, the truth is that the legislative moves might have positive effects for the crypto-economy. After, all this may lead to many players who were previously afraid of investing in ICOs and cryptocurrencies in light of the fraud and theft that is prevalent in the community, might just see these regulations as the security and reassurance that they needed to begin dabbling in this industry.
On the bright side, there are also a couple of other glimmers of positivity that could turn things around in the coming days, namely Samsung’s interest in exploring applying blockchain as an IoT tracking solution for its products, as well as the city of Louisiana’s hope to produce its own government-backed cryptocurrency to sell in an ICO event, pending government approval (April 13, 2018).