Cryptocurrencies Pick Up – Bitcoin Emerges As Safe Haven
Investing.com – Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies steadied on Thursday morning in Asia after days of plummeting.
Bitcoin rose 2.08% to $6,394.7 at 10:30AM ET (02:30 GMT) on the Bitifinex exchange.
Ethereum climbed 4.29% to $188.72 on the Bitifinex exchange.
XRP/USD also edged up 4.9% to $0.27088 on the Poloniex exchange, while Litecoin rose 3.83% to $52.866 on the Bitifinex exchange.
Despite the volatility of recent weeks, Bitcoin’s value has risen 0.1% over the past 30 days, making it something of a safe haven among digital currencies. Ethereum, on the other hand, has slumped about 45% over the past 30 days.
“In this case, Bitcoin is acting like more of a safe haven for cryptocurrencies – it’s kind of consolidating,” said Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at cryptocurrency brokerage eToro.
Market Intelligence platform CoinFi’s data revealed that short-sellers are putting pressure on markets as bets against Ethereum is at all-time high.
“Retail investors were completely euphoric a few months ago. Now, that emotion has flipped and they’re panicking. Shorts are going to ride that wave,” said CoinFi CEO Timothy Tam.
Chinese Wuhan General Group (China) Inc. is seeking to acquire a former U.S. Department of Defense data center to transform it into a digital currency mine and house 1,200 mining machines there.
“We had planned to build this operation three months ago, but with the bearish cryptocurrency market, we took a step back to reassess our strategy,” said Wuhan Group’s CEO Ramy Kamaneh.
On Tuesday, U.S. securities regulator announced tighter measures on companies involved with cryptocurrencies.
On Monday, Mexico also took steps to required crypto exchanges and banks offering crypto services in the country to obtain a permit from the Bank of Mexico. Users will also not be allowed to access cryptocurrencies on the same day their accounts are created, under new rules.
Assets acquired by crypto beneficiaries need to undergo additional validation checks to prevent money laundering and illicit activities.
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