Cryptocurrency price: Bitcoin plunges as recovery dashed – ETH and DOGE also tumble

Etherium could end up exceeding Bitcoin according to a cryptocurrency expert.

Speaking to Express.co.uk Billy Bambrough warned against assuming Bitcoin will always retain its current dominance.

He said: “It’s perfectly possible the market value of Etherium or any of the others could far exceed Bitcoin’s value.”

The value of Bitcoin has fallen further to $34,633 from $35,035 earlier this morning.

The cryptocurrency has declined substantially since April, when it reached highs of $65,000.

A top asset manager has said she is “skeptical” about Bitcoin’s future as a payment system.

Francesca Fornasari, head of currency solutions at Insight Investment, delivered the warning.

She commented: “We’re skeptical in terms of the ability of Bitcoin to take over as means of payment.”

Bitcoin billionaire Mircea Popescu has drowned off the coast of Costa Rica according to local media reports.

The crypto invester was an early adopter of Bitcoin and promoted the virtual currency via his blog.

Former CoinDesk editor-in-chief Pete Rizzo tweeted: “Mircea will endure as one of bitcoin’s most vilified figures and inarguably one of its greatest philosophers.”

Bitcoin will remain a “risky and speculative investment” according to Randal K Quarles, a member of the US Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors.

Speaking at the 113th Annual Utah Bankers Association Convention he said: “Unlike gold, however, which has industrial uses and aesthetic attributes quite apart from its vestigial financial role, Bitcoin’s principal additional attractions are its novelty and its anonymity.

“The anonymity will make it appropriately the target for increasingly comprehensive scrutiny from law enforcement, and the novelty is a rapidly wasting asset. Gold will always glitter, but novelty, by definition, fades. Bitcoin and its ilk will, accordingly, almost certainly remain a risky and speculative investment rather than a revolutionary means of payment.”

The value of Bitcoin has fallen to $35,035 since the day began (UK time).

It had been on $35,904 at midnight.

Bitcoin has fallen dramatically from its high point of over $60,000 in April.

Institutional investors have become more interested in the crypto sector.

This week has seen an announcement by Germany’s Deutsche Börse has taken a majority stake in Crypto Finance AG of Switzerland.

The Swiss firm provides services to institutional investors trading in digital assets.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase sharre price is up nearly 4 percent today.

Price per share as of time of filing is 255.85 USD, +9.16, up 3.71percent.

Ripple (XRP) is in a highly bullish condition, with bid orders pouring in, Ripple will likely retest the 70.5 percent Fibonacci retracement level at $0.783.

The upcoming Flare Network, a start-up backed by Ripple, seeks to devise a two-way bridge connecting XRP to the Ethereum ecosystem by integrating the Ethereum Virtual Machine into its digital framework.

Those with XRP in the Uphold mobile wallet can take advantage of the upcoming Flare Network airdrop.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, Josh Greenwald, Uphold Chief Risk Officer said: “We’re expecting mainnet launch in July. Uphold is working towards having support for Flare as soon as possible after their launch both in terms of providing each customer their airdrop tokens and supporting on and offboarding. We’re especially excited to see the launch of FTSO and fAssets and the early dapps that they empower.”

The Chinese government’s move harmed confidence in the currency, but experts believe this is where the influence of these threats end.

Andrea Barbon, Professor of Economics at the University of St Gallen, is one of them.

He told Express.co.uk decentralised currency is, by nature, near impervious to attempted crackdowns.

Attempts will only serve to bolster trust in the decentralised method, in the end, he said.

Dr Barbon said: “Cryptocurrencies’ primary purpose is to avoid government censorship, and their decentralised nature makes it virtually impossible for ‘crackdowns’ to be effective.

“The longer-term impact of government attempts to control cryptocurrencies might be positive, as they showcase the censorship-resistance of blockchain technology.”

The Telegraph reported that customers wanting to withdraw money earlier today given the warning: “This payment channel is closed for maintenance.”

Card withdrawals were the only way left for customers to withdraw funds after the Faster Payments network, which is used by banks to process money transfers, was also suspended on Binance yesterday.

Bitcoin is at $35,664.60

The dogecoin price is back above $0.25.

It comes following plans for a huge new update to its network being published.

The Fee Policy change proposal proposes seeing the cost of a standard dogecoin transaction, which currently stands at 1 DOGE, decrease by 100-times.

The proposal said: “Since inception, the goal of dogecoin has been to be accessible to everyone, but with current exchange rates, transacting DOGE is kept artificially higher than instated on bitcoin’s and litecoin’s chains.”

Although the FCA does not regulate the trade of cryptocurrencies, exchanges that list virtual currencies are required to register with the FCA.

Binance drew the FCA’s ire by not registering with the regulator.

According to Alexandra Clark, Sales Trader at the UK based digital asset broker GlobalBlock, the ban effectively prevents Binance from advertising or carrying out regulated activities in the UK.

She said: “This comes after Japan’s Financial Services Agency warned last week that Binance was conducting unauthorised trade in cryptocurrencies with Japanese citizens.”

Binance, however, has informed its clients the FCA ban will not have a “direct impact” on its services.

Ethereum was at $2,132.67 at 8.56am, up 4.34 percent.

Adam Speakman, head of fraud and investigations at Metro Bank, told Express.co.uk: “Fraud related to Cryptocurrency is so prevalent, a number of British banks are preventing their customers from transferring funds to crypto trading platforms.

“However if consumers follow our simple steps and make the appropriate checks before investing – like they should with any other investment opportunity –  they can reduce the fraud risk, however the risks associated with any investments still exist.”

People are advised when choosing to invest to research the organisation thoroughly.

Also, check consumer-protection websites and independent reviews. Many cryptocurrencies are not registered with Financial Conduct Authority. Always use a firm that is on the FCA register .

Metoro Bank added that no matter how professional looking the website is,  if you are being offered significant high returns, or out of the blue contact promising big profits – this is potentially a scam. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Also, celebrity endorsement does not mean the opportunity is genuine and don’t respond to cold calling or uninvited approaches.

China’s ban on cryptocurrency mining delivered a blow to an industry criticised for its environmental impact, but emissions from the sector could grow as a result unless other countries follow China’s lead, climate and tech experts said.

Bitcoin’s value tumbled last week after China’s central bank urged banks and payment firms in the country to crack down harder on cryptocurrency trading, in the latest tightening of restrictions on the sector by Beijing.

It comes as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are created or “mined” by high-powered computers competing to solve complex mathematical puzzles, which guzzle energy and fuel planet-warming emissions unless they consume electricity from renewable sources.

Pete Howson, a senior lecturer in international development at Northumbria University, warned cutting off access to China’s power grid, with its plentiful supply of affordable renewable energy, could push miners towards dirtier sources of electricity.

He said: “China produces enormous amounts of cheap hydroelectricity, especially in Sichuan province – all of which is now pretty much off limits to bitcoin miners.”

Ray Youssef, CEO of peer-to-peer crypto exchange Paxful, speaking coinesk said: “I really see El Salvador as being the Switzerland of Latin America, if this experiment goes successfully.”

On September 7, El Salvador will become the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender.

The Bitriver data centre provides CO2-free power, internet connection, and maintenance services to an international network of clients looking to mine bitcoin.

The cryptocurrency price has been boosted by news from Mexico that a major bank will accept bitcoin, as well as positive developments elsewhere in the world. However misleading reports concerning the crypto exchange Binance appears to have stalled the bounce back on Monday morning.

Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas said, “me and my bank (Banco Azteca) are working to be the first bank in Mexico to accept #Bitcoin.”

Banco Salina will be the first Mexican bank to accept bitcoin.

The London Hard-Fork could come by the end of this week. It is one of the Ethereum upgrades with lots of improvement protocols. This will see a set limit on transaction fees.

The US star who recently came out as a bitcoin bull acknowledged that prices have dropped since he revealed his support for the cryptocurrency publicly.

Brady changed his Twitter profile photo to include “laser eyes” in May.

Many bitcoin enthusiasts show their “laser focus” to reveal themselves as BTC proponents.

Mr Brady’s tweet read: “Alright the laser eyes didn’t work. Anyone have any ideas?”

Morgan Stanley Europe Opportunity Fund has reported that they now own 28,289 shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust as of April 30th.

The Grayscale bitcoin dollar value is $1,325,339.

Morgan Stanley allowed Bitcoin exposure for a slew of mutual funds back in April, including Institutional Fund, Variable Insurance Fund, Institutional Fund Trust, and others.

A major Ethereum upgrade via the London hard fork is coming in July.

Experts call this a ‘seismic shift’ for the industry.

Alan Chiu, CEO at Enya.ai, which provides layer 2 scaling services for Ethereum, in an interview with Forkast.News said: “Ethereum’s a huge driving force in the blockchain industry and probably one of the dominant chains that users interact with typically through some sort of DeFi product or an NFT product.”

According to data by Chainanalysis, a prominent blockchain analysis firm, crypto investment in India grew from somewhere around $200 million to close to $40 billion within the last year.

Popular crypto-exchnage Binance has already entered the Indian market in 2019, with their acquisition of WazirX, India’s largest crypto exchange.

In response to the UK’s crackdown on Binance, Mode CEO Ryan Moore warned “fintech innovation must not be at the expense of transparency and regulatory oversight”.

He told Express.co.uk: “Fintech innovation and disruption must not be at the expense of transparency and regulatory oversight.

“That’s why we decided to list on the London Stock Exchange in 2020 and why we applied for AMLD5, the anti-money laundering requirement for businesses conducting cryptoasset activities in the UK, which we were granted last week.

“Mode is one of only three UK companies to have achieved this.

“The regulatory process is not always easy – nor should it be – and we’ve been working closely with the FCA since our listing to ensure that we’re embracing the appropriate standards. Smart but effective regulation is needed to protect consumers whilst empowering businesses to build the technology of tomorrow.”

Bitcoin was down 1.4 percent at around $34,200.

Panel member and University of East London senior lecturer Iwa Salami said: “[DeFi], which is so far building an alternative financial system that is more accessible and democratised, is largely built through decentralised applications on the Ethereum network.

“These developments indicate the future of finance and are very promising, and well-balanced regulation would facilitate the credibility of this growing industry.”

Bitcoin was at $34,202.70 at 11.09am.

Vijay Ayyar, head of Asia-Pacific at crypto exchange Luno Pte, told Bloomberg: “We’re seeing the $30,000 level on Bitcoin being defended quite well with a number of tests at that level over the past month.

“We saw a lot of downward pressure on prices being defended, so this looks quite bullish at this point.”

Bitcoin was up 1.5 percent at around $35,100

Bitcoin price has suffered a huge hit over recent weeks due to China’s crypto mining crackdown.

Elon Musk’s concerns over bitcoin’s energy use has also helped wipe more than $1 trillion from the market.

Michael Saylor, the chief executive of business intelligence software company-turned bitcoin accumulator Microstrategy, has warned this could be a “trillion-dollar” mistake.

He told Bloomberg: “I think, given the bitcoin growth rate, this will prove to be a trillion-dollar mistake for China.

“It’s a tragedy for Chinese miners [and] it’s a geopolitical mistake for China the country – but I suppose they could afford to make a trillion-dollar mistake.”

Cryptocurrencies hung on to a bounce from weekend lows this morning.

However, they were still tracking towards a second monthly loss.

Bitcoin last traded at $34,281, while ether fetched $1,973.

This is not far from Tuesday’s three-month low of $1,700.

Source: Express