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What happened in crypto this week?
Price Watch
- Bitcoin is up 16% this week to $9,000. This comes as part of an increase across the entire cryptocurrency market. It’s also likely the result of higher trading volumes. Fundstrat’s Thomas Lee made a price prediction of Bitcoin reaching $91,000 by March 28, 2020. Morgan Stanley likened Bitcoin to the dotcom crash.
- Ethereum is up 4% this week to $539. As usual, it’s trailing Bitcoin in its recovery. Barring any sudden crash from Bitcoin, many analysts expect a strong week.
- The entire crypto market is up 10% this week. Although the market was mostly sideways, it appears to have finished strong.
Regulation:
- More Ad Bans: Twitter announced this week it’s banning cryptocurrency ads with limited exceptions. This comes on the heels of a similar ban from Google last week. Competitor Facebook had banned the ads in January.
- No Petro: Trump signed an executive order this week banning US residents from engaging in transactions related to Venezuela’s “Petro”. It’s ambiguous at the moment how this will be enforced. Petro has faced many obstacles after reportedly raising $5 billion. It’s been declared illegal by Venezuela’s Congress despite support from the President. It’s also been linked to Russia which some consider a reason for Trump’s ban.
- G20 Calls for a Report on cryptocurrencies to be released by July. Cryptocurrencies have had mix reactions from G20 countries. Some nations, like Brazil, have already announced they will not regulate cryptocurrencies. This has been an area of great concern for governments seeking to prevent money laundering.
- Hong Kong: Hong Kong this week ordered a shut down the highly anticipated Black Cell ICO. Despite repeated warnings, this was the first actual enforcement action in China. This comes on the heels of local news reports citing the many workarounds Chinese citizens and investors have been using to participate in the crypto markets.
Startups
- The Carribean goes Crypto: Overstock announced it will be investing $3 million into Barbados based Bitt is a blockchain based payments provider that caters to the Carribean. The Carribean is well known to have underdeveloped financial institutions and investors hope Bitt can change that.
- ICO Packs a Bunch: World famous boxer and Phillipino Senator Manny Pacquiao has become the latest celebrity to promote an ICO investing in Singapore-based Global Crypto Offering Exchange(GCOX). The startup allows celebrities to create their own cryptocurrencies which fans can then use to pay for access to exclusive celebrity-related content.
- VCs love CryptoKitties: Wildly-popular Ethereum application CryptoKitties has raised $12 million in a funding round led by venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures (USV).