The assassination of the Iran guy on Bitcoin’s birthday, and the ensuing price jump
Assassination happened on Bitcoin’s 11th anniversary. Bitcoin jumped as much as 5 per cent.
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Gold and other safe-haven assets jumped on Jan. 3 as the U.S. killing of a top Iranian commander in an air strike in Iraq sparked fears of a new war.
As I wrote in a previous newsletter:
… uncertainty has traditionally caused investors to take money out of conventional instruments ... Unlike, say, a company’s stock or a country’s currency, gold’s price is largely immune to geopolitical factors.
Because of Bitcoin’s decentralized nature, it has that same appeal as gold, perhaps more. Data by Bloomberg show Bitcoin’s price correlation to gold doubling over the last three months [ending in August 2019].
Rather serendipitously, the assassination of Iran’s Qassem Soleimani happened on Bitcoin’s 11th anniversary. In the wake of the news, Bitcoin jumped as much as 5 per cent, recovering all of its recently lost ground.
Bitcoin is at $7,453 (C$9,681) as of noon Sunday, Eastern Time, unchanged for the week after having dipped below $7,000 the day before the assassination.
There is, of course, dispute on how much Soleimani’s assassination truly influences prices.
Bitcoin is likely to move up, having gone beyond $7,400-levels, but it’s anyone’s guess if that confirms a wider ascending trend, technical analysis suggests.
News: Ethereum’s Griffith granted bail on N. Korea charges
The Ethereum research scientist Virgil Griffith, accused of teaching North Koreans how to use cryptocurrency to evade sanctions at a conference in that country, has now been granted bail, two reversals after the initial decision to release the man pending trial. The actual process of bailing someone, though, does take a while, so Griffith remains detained for now.
Telegram has been ordered by a judge to explain why it should not have to turn over financials concerning its $1.7 billion initial coin offering (ICO), among the world’s biggest. U.S. authorities have blocked the fundraising sale of the Russian messaging platform’s cryptocurrency, GRAM, and its executives are due to be questioned by the regulator next week.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says the country’s national cryptocurrency Petro will be the medium of exchange for selling its oil and part of the gold it produces. The state energy company of the oil-rich Venezuela has struggled to get paid by customers because major banks shun it.
The Chinese asset management firm Penghua Fund, with over $80 billion in client assets, has filed an application for listing a blockchain exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the country. Such funds deal with stocks in blockchain-related companies.