There has been zero respite from the heavily downtrodden cryptocurrency market, even though Saturday saw it shed roughly 10 percent of its value as part of a widespread sell-off led – in absolute terms – by Bitcoin (BTC).

Indeed, after Saturday saw the pioneering cryptocurrency shed over $US10 billion in market cap (i.e., over a 10% drop) en route to test the psychologically-significant $6,000 level, the BTC price ultimately kept falling on Sunday, to now reside in the $5800s.

Buyers Swoop on “Bottomed Out” Prices

In a sign that the bears are well and truly in control of the Bitcoin market, the continued slump in BTC’s value – the lowest it has been since November 12 of last year – came despite the preeminent cryptocurrency’s price having managed to successfully resurface above $6,000 earlier on Sunday; peaking at $6,224 at 7:10 AM (JST).

Red Market Returns as “Rally” Proves a Red Herring

Any hopes of an ending to the strong Bitcoin selling activity that, unlike most other significant price movements, was almost exclusively technical in nature (and not borne out of any major fundamental news), was short-lived, as BTC once more headed downwards as Sunday transpired.

Once it became clear that any would-be price resurgence was highly unlikely, the selling accelerated yet again. Notably, between 13:54 PM and 16:44 PM, the price of Bitcoin decreased by just over 4 percent from $6,096 to $5,860.

Follow the Leader

Such is the standard course of action in this immature cryptocurrency market, basically all crypto coins and tokens (i.e., altcoins) mimicked the weekend’s harsh depreciation seen in BTC. Incredibly, the total market cap has plummeted to a lowly ~$240 billion, its lowest valuation since last November 21.

Just as altcoins tend to rise by proportionately more than Bitcoin in bullish market conditions, the opposite has held true in this multi-month bearish period. The weekend further instilled this, with the prices of many popular top-20 cryptocurrencies (by market cap) falling by roughly 20 percent, as compared to Bitcoin’s ~12 percent slump.

The “worst of the worst” was undoubtedly EOS (EOS). Having recently launched their mainnet and closing their record ICO, the EOS token fell by some 30 percent in value across the weekend, as the broader market conditions only exacerbated the selling activity that had already been prompted by investors fed up with lingering issues surrounding EOS’ governance model.

As for 24-hour price movements, other large-cap cryptocurrencies that have been among the hardest hit include Stellar Lumens (XLM; down 10.3%), Binance Coin (BNB; 10.7%), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH; 8.8%).

All price data used in this article was recorded at the time of writing and was retrieved from CoinMarketCap.

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Despite the positive news of Mt Gox trustees no longer being allowed to sell off Bitcoin assets, a year’s worth of exchange hacks seem to have diminished investor trust in cryptocurrency.

For the first time since the $5922 low of February this year, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) is nearing the significant support point of $6000.

This year has seen a huge amount of digital assets lost to exchange thefts, including the largest in history so far – Coincheck’s $534 million hack back in January. Other devastating hacks include that of the $150 million BitGrail hack the following month and most recently the $40 million Coinrail hack and $31 million Bithumb hack.

While exchange thefts have certainly increased since the massive cryptocurrency bull run of late 2017, previous years were not immune either. Following the 2014 Mt Gox hack, the year 2015 opened with Bitstamp being taken for $5 million in Bitcoin, an amount that would be worth $120 million today. Next was BitFinex in 2016, losing $70 million in Bitcoin (a potential $800 million in today’s prices), coincidentally the same amount NiceHash were robbed of just one year later in 2017.

Not only do these continuing thefts cost exchanges millions of dollars, they rattle investor confidence and often instigate market-wide panic sell-offs.

Victims of the Mt Gox theft have only today received the first sign of good news regarding a potential refund of their lost investment and it could still be a year before they receive any of it.

Increased regulation by countries like Japan, China and the U.S are also putting strain on cryptocurrency adoption. The news today of Japan’s largest exchange bitFlyer having to cease the creation of new accounts due to stricter legislation may well have been responsible for Bitcoins sudden drop. Allegations of insider trading, market manipulation and fraud have all drawn criticism from regulatory bodies who are scrambling to inject some level of control into the industry.

Other forms of cryptocurrency theft including cryptojacking, illegal mining operations and fake ICO’s have all been prevalent this year. A number of arrests have been made in Asia and the U.S, with the latter mostly focused on fake and unlicenced cryptocurrency operations with the former clamping down on illegal mining and similar operations.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, with this year seeing a number of positive blockchain projects being rolled out in developing African nations. Countries with struggling economies like Zimbabwe and Kenya are starting to reap the benefits of digital assets and decentralized ledger technology.

Stronger security measures implemented by exchanges and cryptocurrency platforms are key to solving the issue of thefts and increasing investor fears. In addition, well-planned and properly implemented regulation from authorities is necessary for stable growth within the industry.

Let’s hope both parties can achieve these goals before prices slide even further.

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The first stage play to be funded completely by cryptocurrency, in this case Bitcoin, is to have a run of dates at the world-renowned Trafalgar Studios later this year.

Alex Oates’s show, controversially titled ‘Silk Road (How to Buy Drugs Online)’, was mysteriously crowdfunded in almost its entirety four years ago by an anonymous Bitcoin doner. That donation saw Alex take the show to festivals such as VAULT and the Edinburgh Fringe.

Oates conducted extensive interviews with real-life online drug sellers on which to base the pay. It centers on a teen boy, a Geordie named Bruce Blackmore, as he and his grandmother navigate the unfiltered, uncensored and completely unmonitored Dark Web.

Back in 2014, Bitcoin was a bit of a novelty so I couldn’t be more thrilled that Silk Road (How to Buy Drugs Online), which was initially made possible through an anonymous donation of Bitcoin, is back with a run at Trafalgar Studios this summer. It seems clear that Bitcoin is here to stay and it was a great honour to be the first play funded by cryptocurrency – it undoubtedly won’t be the last.” said Oates.

It was revealed in an editorial penned by Oates that he initially received a donation of 2 Bitcoin to his crowdfunding campaign to take his show on the road.

Initially we crowd-funded it to raise the money to get to Edinburgh and my family and friends were beyond generous. We also received 2 Bitcoin which at the time was worth £500 but I kept them and traded for other cryptocurrency over the last 3 years, I wont say how much they’re worth now but anyone who follows the crypto market will understand why that donation made this the best paid writing gig I’ve ever had.” he wrote.

The show will run from August 7 to September 1.

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New Yorkers now have another means by which to buy and sell the world’s leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), thanks to payments company Square, Inc. having officially been granted a virtual currency license (dubbed a “BitLicense”) from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) on Monday.

With the BitLicense now in hand, Square – which is headed by vocal crypto-advocate Jack Dorsey (Co-Founder & CEO, Twitter) – can now provide New York State residents with the ability to exchange BTC through its Cash mobile payment app; a feature introduced for other U.S. states in January.

🚨 Our customers in New York state can now buy and sell Bitcoin instantly with Cash App! https://t.co/4R0n5sbNpM 🚨 pic.twitter.com/1WzjiQ751I

— Cash App (@CashApp) June 18, 2018

No Easy Feat

It is hard to downplay the significance of the NYDFS having decided to grant Square a BitLicense, for it represents just the seventh time this has happened since the New York State department introduced them in mid-2015; a controversial decision that prompted numerous cryptocurrency exchanges like Kraken, Shapeshift, and Poloniex to terminate their respective New York operations.

Be it coincidence or otherwise, Xapo, Inc. – a digital financial services company offering Bitcoin products and services – became the sixth such firm to receive the highly sought-after virtual currency license just last Thursday. In this same press statement issued by the NYDFS, they authorized Paxos Trust Company LLC to “offer exchange and custody services for Ether, Litecoin, Stellar Lumens and Bitcoin Cash,” some three years after they were issued a virtual currency charter. Notably, Gemini Trust Company remains the only other firm granted a bank charter by the NYDFS.

Apart from Square and Xapo, the only firms to have been granted a BitLicense are Circle Internet Financial (acquired in September 2015), XRP II (June 2016), Coinbase Inc. (January 2017), bitFlyer USA (November 2017), and Genesis Global Trading Inc. (May 2018).

Such scarce issuance of these licenses speaks to the strict standards that presumably adhered to by the NYDFS when they take to reviewing license/charter applications. Supporting this was today’s press release, where the NYDFS disclosed how they “conducted a comprehensive review of Square’s application, including the company’s anti-money laundering, anti-fraud, capitalization, consumer protection, and cybersecurity policies.”

Things to Note

Whether or not it was of any relevance to the application review process, it’s worth noting that Square would already have been known to New York State’s financial watchdog, for they’d already granted them a money-transmitter license in the past.

Also, it became public knowledge today that extant-BitLicense holder, Genesis Global Trading, has established a partnership with Square “over the past year” – per the below tweet from Barry Silbert (Founder & CEO, Digital Currency Group). Of course, we are by no means suggesting that this connection played any significant role in the NYDFS decision to grant Square a BitLicense.

Finally get to publicly disclose the partnership that Genesis built over the past year with @Square. It’s been fantastic to collaborate with @jack and his team https://t.co/9Kvq5EAaIh

— Barry Silbert (@barrysilbert) June 18, 2018

Square Rallies on BitLicense News

In a down day for traditional stock markets, Square (NYSE: SQ) jumped 2.67 percent for the day, with most of these gains coming after the news out of the NYDFS. For the calendar year, SQ has almost doubled in value, as has Dorsey’s other tech company, Twitter (NYSE: TWTR).

As Does Bitcoin, Crypto Market

The BitLicense news was likely a major reason behind the strong buying seen in the cryptocurrency market in the past half day, given that Bitcoin jumped by over 5 percent within hours of the NYDFS’ press statement – according to TradingView.

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Symbolic of how far the topics of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), and blockchain technology have seeped into the public psyche, a number of notable blockbuster names have agreed to feature in Crypto, an aptly-titled independent film about cryptocurrencies.

Per reports coming out of The Hollywood Reporter, Crypto is set to include some of the acting industry’s most familiar faces, including Kurt Russell [Hateful Eight, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2], Alexis Bledel [Gilmore Girls, Handmaid’s Tale], Beau Knapp [Seven Seconds], Vincent Kartheiser [Mad Men], and Luke Hemsworth [Westworld]. The latter, of course, is the oldest of the three Hemsworth brothers, with Chris best known for portraying the Marvel character ‘Thor’, and Liam, for The Hunger Games series.

We’re so proud to announce our latest project, CRYPTO, starring Beau Knapp, Alexis Bledel, Luke Hemsworth, and Kurt Russell, will be coming your way to… https://t.co/jGrH0LVjgC

— Yale Productions (@yaleproductions) June 15, 2018

The indie film will focus on a young anti-money laundering agent (played by Knapp) who is tasked with investigating a tangled web of corruption and fraud. Before too long, he finds himself entrenched in an unsafe, online black marketplace widespread with cryptocurrency usage. Directing Crypto, which is currently shooting in New York, is John Stalberg Jr.

Cryptocurrency has captured the attention and imagination of consumers and entrepreneurs all over the world but has never been explored in film in such a nuanced and exciting way.” – Jordan Yale Levine (Producer)

News of Crypto is certainly representative of a significant cultural milestone for the largely misunderstood space. It comes after months of pop culture having slowly embraced the complex, tech-heavy concept of cryptographic coins and tokens.

Indeed, in recent times, popular television shows like Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, House of Cards, Big Bang Theory, and Silicon Valley have done their best to explore the cryptosphere in numerous ways.

Additionally, last month’s Cannes Film Festival saw the full-length documentary Beyond Bitcoin be acquired for a seven-figure sum.

There is no shortage of passion-driven projects available, too. The latest of these came via Brit Cruise’s Art of the Problem YouTube channel, which recently uploaded The Trust Machine: The Story of Bitcoin (24min 13sec).

I just posted a Bitcoin video inspired by many great thinkers including @aantonop @NickSzabo4 @VitalikButerin + Satoshi https://t.co/RZ3P68VGMJ

— Brit Cruise (@britcruise) May 28, 2018

Further, the KevCoin: The Movie mockumentary is set for its premiering in less than two weeks.

And to think, these are just some of the crypto-inspired films and documentaries that currently exist. Then, of course, there are the accelerating amount of celebrity endorsements, charitable donations, ready-to-use payment applications for retailers, books and other media; all working to help cryptocurrency establish a long-lasting cultural relevancy.

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A Reddit user has discovered a financial analysis chart that may predict a surge in Bitcoin’s price in the near future. The chart, which graphs a hypothetical price reversal, was created by analyst Richard Wyckoff in the early 20th-century.

Wyckoff is a hugely respected figure amongst Wall Street traders and is featured in many teachings regarding price analysis and predictions.

With undeniable accuracy, Wyckoff’s graph perfectly mirrors Bitcoins recent price movements and resistance points. If the popular cryptocurrency continues to mirror the charts movements it will soon be seeing a significant surge in price.

The Wyckoff method is a well-known analysis instrument that uses market laws and trading scenarios to predict price movements:

– Law of supply and demand determines price direction

– Law of cause and effect: a significant event determines price

– Law of effort: The presence of volume

If Bitcoin continues to make gains over the next few days and breaks through key resistance levels of $7800 then we will almost certainly be seeing a recovery in the near future.  

However, some users on Reddit have pointed out that if you look hard enough you will likely be able to find a graph that fits any scenario you desire. One user commented that “S**t goes up, s**t goes down. That’s all you need to know.”

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Appearing on the panel of CNBC’s popular American post-market show, Fast Money, Christopher Matta (Co-Founder, Crescent Crypto Asset Management) explained why he left Goldman Sachs last fall to co-launch a passive crypto index fund. Matta also discussed Thursday’s significant revelation involving the SEC, before going on to provide comment on what requirements he believes need to be met before the nascent cryptocurrency asset class is able to accommodate an influx of institutional-based capital.

Matta, having recently left his role as Vice President at the investment banking giant – where he was responsible for the management of over $7 billion in assets for the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund and Trust Company – told Fast Money that his decision was the result of “perfect timing,” having observed first-hand the acceleration in demand for “a complexity-free product” that didn’t involve paying exorbitant fees to active crypto fund managers.

Whilst encouraged by Thursday’s much-publicized comments made by the director of the SEC’s corporate finance division, William Hinman, Matta concluded that “this is just one piece of a broader picture.” Questions that “really need to be answered before more institutions feel more comfortable” entering the space, he believes, pertain to matters of custodianship and exchange-traded products (ETPs).

Exchange-traded products are something that we’re really focussed on as a big catalyst in the space over the next year or two.” – Matta

For one of the Fast Money panel members, Brian Kelly (Founder & CEO, BKCM LLC), Hinman’s comments represent yet another roadblock the cryptocurrency asset class has managed to overcome. Liquidity, he told viewers, had previously caused issues for crypto fund managers, but “has improved a lot over the last six months.”

Former Goldman trader explains why he left to jump into crypto and why he would be willing to put his mother’s money in #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/r4tjXVin0p

— CNBC’s Fast Money (@CNBCFastMoney) June 14, 2018

Leading Fund Creator Goes Zen

One of the more prominent players in the crypto fund space, Grayscale Investments LLC, announced on Thursday the ‘Zencash Investment Trust’; a product focused on the emerging cryptocurrency Zencash (ZEN) – a private, decentralized, and reliable platform for communications, transactions, and publishing.

This new offering, which is expected to go live in 3Q18, marks the ninth passive investment vehicle launched by the Digital Currency Group Inc. subsidiary for the year; indicative of the flourishing realm of crypto funds.

ANNOUNCEMENT: We are excited to share that we will launch our 9th product, ZenCash Investment Trust, during Q3!

Learn more about $ZEN ️ https://t.co/LRkn6hL7Gc

Stay tuned for more details!$BTC $BCH $ETC $ETH $LTC $XRP $ZEC $ZEN

— Grayscale (@GrayscaleInvest) June 14, 2018

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On Monday (PT), host of CNBC Africa’s Crypto Trader and founder of OnChain Capital, Ran Neu-Ner, appeared on popular CNBC business program Fast Money to provide insight on the recent sell-off experienced in the cryptocurrency market; totalling some $US50 billion across just over thirty hours.

Bitcoin Bears Thriving on Low Volume

According to Neu-Ner, the weekend’s BTC price action is nothing but a continuation of the bearish sentiment that’s controlled the cryptocurrency market for basically all of 2018.

Having failed to garner support at ~$6,800 – and then ~$6,650 – in recent days, Neu-Ner warned investors to monitor the key support level of ~$6,250. Should the Bitcoin price fail to find support here, the next point to watch is ~$5,900.

What if BTC Falls Below Mining Costs?

On the BTC price range where the cost of Bitcoin mining starts looking commercially unviable, Neu-Ner stated:

At about five-thousand dollars [is] when the miners can look at this and go, ‘is it actually worth keeping the machines on?’ So that really is a key level.”

Of course, there remains debate over whether such a range is even influential, as pointed out by panel member Timothy Seymour, given that real-world demand for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies has not yet been established relative to commodities like gold and copper, for example.

Adding Context to Coinrail Hack

Although many attributed the crypto market’s ~$50 billion slump to the weekend’s ~$40 million hack launched upon South Korean crypto exchange, Coinrail, Neu-Ner argued that reaching such a conclusion was too big a stretch.

40 million dollars is a very small hack in the big scheme of things…I think the exchange hack was coincidental.” – Neu-Ner

Whilst admitting to troublesome “flaws in the crypto infrastructure,” the CNBC Africa presenter added that this shouldn’t come as a surprise given the infancy of the cryptocurrency market; one that is valued at just ~$300 billion.

Crypto Profiteers Should “Probably Get Out”

Fast Money host Melissa Lee asked Neu-Ner if there were any circumstances where he’d advise Bitcoin HODLers to sell, given even he is expecting the BTC price to keep falling.

“If you believe in distributed ledger technology (DLT) – in the blockchain – [and] in the effect that it’s going to have [on] every single industry in the world,” Neu-Ner responded, “now is a great time to buy.”

Playing devil’s advocate, Lee countered by arguing that Bitcoin and DLT enthusiasts are eternally suggesting it’s “a good time to buy,” when clearly this advice has been repeatedly disproven throughout 2018.

Responding, Neu-Ner took to qualifying his earlier statement; emphasizing that “now is a great time to buy if you believe in the long-term [potential] of blockchain.” In this sense, he suggests that it’ll be of trivial importance whether a Bitcoin investor buys in at a BTC spot rate of $6,000 or $8,000 should prices escalate deep into five-figure totals over the upcoming years.

However, for short-term investors and day traders, Neu-Ner foresees “better opportunities to buy in” later in June; reinforcing his belief that BTC will continue its downward trend toward $6,000.

A major exchange hack sending #bitcoin below $7K, and @cryptoranman says the bottom isn’t in yet pic.twitter.com/eqH8qCGMay

— CNBC’s Fast Money (@CNBCFastMoney) June 11, 2018

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The Bitcoin price fell sharply last night, down 10% in just a few hours. Having spent most of the weekend around $7600, by the early hours of this morning the price was as low as $6709, leaving Bitcoin down around 50% this year.

Low liquidity; high volatility

Trading volumes in the cryptocurrency markets are much lower than they were in late-2017, which means that big price movements can happen quickly, without the need for a large number of transactions to drive the move. This low liquidity is the main reason behind Bitcoin’s notorious price volatility. In the absence of big institutional players, most market participants are retail investors who can get “trigger happy” with buys and, especially, sells.

Though many commentators pointed to the hack of Korean exchange Coinrail as the cause of yesterday’s sharp decline, in reality that exchange is relatively minor. However, it may have acted as a trigger. Once people start selling, for any reason, the price can move rapidly.

Nevertheless some are claiming that the market fall was a coordinated move by a few big traders to force down the price. Prices fall when there is more selling pressure than buying pressure: a Sunday night when liquidity is thin would be a good time to put in some sell big sell orders and startle the market.

In fact, regulators are investigating the possibility that price movements in Bitcoin markets may be more controlled than most market participants believe. News broke on Friday that US regulators will be investigating market manipulation on Coinbase, Kraken, Bitstamp and itBit. Data from these four exchanges are used to price the CME Bitcoin futures contracts.

Nothing New

For colorful crypto character John McAfee the price drop is simply an overreaction to the news of the above investigation and will not delay the long-promised bull run more than a month. “Don’t buy into the fear,” he said, “buy the coins.”

Do not panic about the drop in Bitcoin’s price. It is an overreaction to the news that Bitstamp, Coinbase, itBit and Kraken are being investigated for price manipulation. This will delay the bull market by no more than 30 days. Don’t buy into the fear. Buy the coins.

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) 10 June 2018

Certainly a sudden adjustment in the price of Bitcoin is something that everyone should be quite used to be now. As pointed out by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, as the BTC price is so much higher than it used to be, the volatility of previous years is much less visible. However, as Zhao says, “it’s the same pattern every year.” Bitcoin has always moved a lot, in percentage terms, and it has always moved very quickly.

Many people seems to think BTC price was flat before this year, as they appear to be on the graph. To the old timers, it’s the same pattern every year. Just the units on the left is different. pic.twitter.com/mwu8U3jn0J

— CZ (@cz_binance) 10 June 2018

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Despite a falling Bitcoin (BTC) price having triggered a widespread devaluation for basically all cryptocurrencies, trading volumes on peer-to-peer (P2P) Bitcoin trading platforms – namely LocalBitcoins and Paxful – are seeing record highs, particularly in countries located in the Americas.

LocalBitcoins With More All-Time Highs

Per newly published data retrieved from Coin.dance, LocalBitcoins – the world’s most popular platform to execute peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchanges on – has experienced recent record-breaking weekly trading volumes in each of Peru, Chile, Venezuela, and Canada.

Of the three South American nations, Venezuela is the one that continues to set new weekly trading volume records, having done so for each of the past five weeks. For the week ending June 9^th, 7.6 million Venezuelan bolívar (Bs) was exchanged for Bitcoin; nearly double that of four weeks prior. Worth noting, however, is that Bs has been suffering from unprecedented rates of hyperinflation.

More genuine growth on LocalBitcoins seems to have been experienced in Peru, with weekly Bitcoin trading volumes having produced all-time highs – when measured against both BTC (106) and Peruvian sol (over 2.7 million, or, ~$US830,000) – for the week ending May 26^th.

Chile has been the other South American country that LocalBitcoins has thrived in recently. Earlier last month, the most Chilean pesos (over 234 million, or, ~$US370,000) were exchanged for BTC in one week than ever before.

Up north in Canada, the week ending May 19^th saw record LocalBitcoins trading volumes when paired against both BTC (1,265) and the Canadian dollar (over 12 million).

Paxful Proving Popular

As for the second most used P2P Bitcoin trading platform, Paxful has seen its customers in Sweden and the U.S. transact with one another at (or near) record totals.

For Sweden, the week ending June 9^th marked the second most Swedish kronor traded (22,700); with the third most having occurred on the week ending May 19^th.

As for the U.S. Paxful market, a new record was set for the week ending June 2^nd, with almost $US17.8 million having changed hands. Interestingly, the past six weeks now account for Paxful’s six highest volumes recorded by their U.S. customers.

Privacy a Priority for P2P Traders

Whilst LocalBitcoins.com is by far the most established P2P Bitcoin exchange, Paxful has achieved significant growth over the course of 2018; tracking at near-record weekly volumes (USD). All this has transpired whilst LocalBitcoins’ weekly volume has continued to decline.

The reason behind these opposing trends is likely (at least in part) due to LocalBitcoins’ recent decision to start requiring Know Your Customer (KYC) details from customers deemed to be using their services on a frequent basis.

Previously, the anonymity that came with using LocalBitcoins represented a key drawcard versus centralized exchanges like Huobi Pro or Binance. Having not yet enforced such KYC requirements, Paxful (and to a lesser extent, Bisq) seem to have benefitted from their competitor’s unpopular policy change.

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