Cryptocurrency’s one step forward, two back
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Cryptocurrency’s one step forward, two back
We’re at about $4,000 per Bitcoin, roughly the price in early 2017. A lot has happened since then, yes. But we seem to be back where we began.
Bitmain, the Chinese mining giant, made its fortunes during the last price surge and was on the verge on what could be the world’s largest initial public offering. The past week, that plan has become officially dead. The company now eyes 2020, when it see another price surge, as its salvation.
Other crypto-blockchain companies have gone public successfully. Yet now the mainstream financial world — in Canada, at least — has started shunning them, just like before.
Vancouver’s QuadrigaCX started off as a one-man show and became the biggest player in Canada. But years before its fateful collapse in January, the exchange fired all of its lawyers and accountants and returned to being a one-man show, a former legal representative revealed the past week.
Since before the price surge to $20,000 per Bitcoin a lot has happened in the cryptocurrency world, but somehow, nothing has changed.
Canada: hearing for denied Bitcoin fund
Toronto’s 3iQ has gotten its wish for a public hearing after the Ontario Securities Commission slapped down its proposed Bitcoin investment fund. It will happen April 3.
Innisfil, Ont., a town of 40,000 about an hour north of Toronto, says it will offer cryptocurrency payment options for municipal taxes. The move, a one-year pilot project, is done in partnership with Toronto-based digital assets trading platform Coinberry.
In the Wall Street Journal: the Calgary energy company Black Pearl Resources is mining Bitcoin from electricity generated from its natural gas; there’s a hard paywall, but here’s a News BTC summary. That’s not new, though. If you’ve been with this newsletter, you’ll remember that Iron Bridge Resources did it more than a year ago.
World: LocalBitcoins no more anonymity
LocalBitcoins, which operates from Finland, is among the largest platforms for buying and selling Bitcoin anonymously — but no longer. It now will comply with anti-money-laundering and know-your-customer procedures.
Price action: better days ahead, again
Bitcoin is likely to go up in the short term, its charts mirroring price movements right before the great surge of 2017, technical analysis shows. The world’s largest cryptocurrency is at $4,169 (C$5,565) as of 10 a.m. Sunday, Mountain Time, up about 4 per cent for the week. Crypto-blockchain stocks are reflecting that rally, too.
Last paragraph: I wrote about New Zealand
Forgot to mention this last week. I wrote in The Independent on the New Zealand mosque shooting, arguing that we need to talk about why the suspect praised China in his manifesto.
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