Day: June 12, 2018

Even though it appears the Tezos team has successfully addressed most of the problems holding the project back, more controversy looms on the horizon. More specifically, the team has made it clear they will perform thorough KYC and AML checks for all investors. It’s a remarkable decision, considering that those users contributed nearly a year ago.

More Worries for Tezos Users

It has not been the best of years for Tezos. While this prominent project successfully completed a big ICO, a lot of problems have ensued ever since. An ongoing spat between the founders and the Tezos Foundation has left contributors unable to access their purchased tokens. Additionally, various lawsuits were filed against the Tezos founders, mainly because investors were getting fed up.

Although all of those issues are seemingly resolved at this point, there is still plenty of work to be done prior to satisfying everybody. Users are still waiting to access their tokens, and it remains unclear if these tokens will have any real value by the time they are issued. Additionally, it seems likely that a lot of investors will simply dump their coins as quickly as possible, which is only understandable.

To make matters even more complicated, the Tezos Foundation has announced they will impose a thorough KYC/AML procedure upon all investors. It is a remarkable development, especially after the company collected millions of dollars worth of funding from investors all over the world. One would have expected such a prominent project to deploy KYC checks when people were contributing, but for some reason, the Tezos Foundation wants to do things differently.

The Foundation announced the decision in a blog post Sunday night. While the team values the privacy of its contributors, they say they still have to comply with the “rapidly evolving regulatory landscape”. As such, the Foundation deems it paramount to perform KYC and AML checks. The process will be conducted with the help of a third-party service provider, which is another somewhat debatable decision.

There are other aspects of this development which will raise even more questions. Users will be able to undergo this AML/KYC procedure after the launch of the betanet, which is rather unusual. Even so, it is advised that users complete this procedure as soon as possible to avoid major problems. Rest assured not all contributors will do so, as this decision will annoy a lot of people.

The bigger question is why the Tezos Foundation is only performing these checks as of right now. The group explains there was no “industry consensus regarding this subject during the donation period in July 2017”. That’s a bit of an odd statement, considering that KYC and AML have been integral parts of cryptocurrency for as long as people can remember. For the time being, it remains to be seen how Tezos’ backers will respond to this new challenge, and whether or not additional lawsuits will be filed in the process.

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales believes that regulatory measures would do little to negatively impact the development of cryptocurrency and blockchain. He shared his views about blockchain technology when he addressed crypto developers at last month’s Berlin Blockshow, according to CoinTelegraph.

When asked about regulation, Wales argued:

“You can’t ban math. You can’t ban blockchain. It’s math. At the same time, we see a lot of things going on that it’s very difficult to say they’re anything other than just scams. People are making millions of dollars of other people’s money with no accountability and that deserves law enforcement for investigation.”

Wales is an American internet entrepreneur who co-founded online encyclopedia Wikipedia, and who founded web hosting company Wikia.

Wales was addressing both investors and regulators at the conference. In most countries across the globe, regulators have been tasked with attempting to make space for blockchain and cryptocurrencies in financial systems, while also addressing government concerns about misuse in the space.

When Wales was asked if he still thought cryptocurrency was a bubble, the question referring back to an earlier stance on digital currency, he replied:

“I’m old now, and I was in the internet world during the dot-com bubble, so when I say something is a bubble, it doesn’t mean that I think there’s nothing of value there. It means there’s a lot of noise and there’s a lot of investment money flowing in, and a lot of things are being invested into what does not actually make sense.”

He added that due to scams, some failed ICOs, and other “crazy stuff”, people should just take care when investing, saying that he had some crypto in the past, but had no plans to become an investor.

When asked about the current data protection situation, and blockchain’s role in that, Wales was somewhat reticent to promote blockchain, arguing that were certainly pluses and minuses in using the technology:

“I think that the biggest thing that is happening, is that consumers are beginning to wake up to the idea that sharing all of your data has consequences that you might not have thought about. There are good consequences. One of the good consequences is that advertising is more relevant, and I think consumers appreciate that.”

“…but, you know, the first person who comes by and [tells you] “We’re going to put all of your health records on the blockchain”, [you need to ask them] “Really? What does that mean exactly? How exactly is that going to help? What exactly does that entail?” ”

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With the current parcel delivery system somewhat antiquated in many ways, Triwer was determined to provide a solution that matches the demands of the industry. And they did it. E-commerce is moving at a rate of knots and consumers expect their goods to move at the same pace, yet the current system is anything but.

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Demand high but so are customer expectations

The consumers expect personalized, seamless, fast, affordable and secure delivery for online purchases and Triwer have addressed inefficiencies and bottlenecks in the Courier Express Parcel Market (CEPM), allowing logistics companies and couriers to make better use of spare capacity. In fact the CEPM industry in Europe is poised to grow to € 72.9 bln by the year 2020. It’s a huge sea change for the way parcels are delivered and it will benefit businesses and shoppers. The focus of the industry is shifting from B2B segment to B2C and C2X segments. The change in the industry is being driven by e-commerce, which has led to cut throat competition and lower margins. There is increased demand volatility and the market is being influenced by downstream integration from customers and competition from existing specialists. The power in the industry today lies with customers and receivers of goods instead of the deliverers.

Triwer aims to be an innovative disruptor

Using the Triwer App, online shopping is a seamless process with empowerment of consumers and businesses the key. – and with Triwer’s built-in price comparison engine, everyone gets the best deal possible. Online shoppers will also be able to personalize their profile with delivery preferences and carry these settings across multiple online stores to arrange the arrival of their purchases at the time and location most convenient to them with real time last mile tracking features. No more tiresome forms to fill in; no more payment details to add and no more repeatedly writing your address – plus load more benefits

Technology behind Triwer

The Triwer decentralized Blockchain Technology, Smart Contracts and Token – TRW – are core to the Triwer delivery management platform, and will bring benefits to both consumers and deliverers; from transparent agreements to direct and instant payment upon fulfillment. In fact Triwer takes advantage of this multi technology solution and leverages it to the benefit of every stakeholder. Smart contracts for example can be used to enable tracking across the sidechain and the package in question traced between various waypoints and inter-carrier transfers even till the final mile. This provides comfort to the receivers using the system as they have the ability to change the delivery time in a given window of time. For other participants in the process, upon completion of the delivery, the completion is recorded on the main Triwer blockchain and payment can be processed instantly to all the parties of the contract.

Crowdfunding to change the face of e-commerce

In short, online shopping will never be the same and finally, the Triwer App is bringing e-commerce parcel delivery in line with the technology available. The project has taken the crowdfunding route to enable the public to participate in the change that they are ushering in. The TRW token is sold during the token sale that is set to conclude on June 30, 2018. A total of 375 mln TRW is up for grabs for investors at the rate of US$ 0.08 per token. During the tokensale a bonus of 15-25% is available for investors. Triwer have released a whitepaper that has the details of the project. Investors that are interested in participating in the token sale can do so by registering themselves at the Triwer website. One thing is for certain that with the approach that Triwer is taking, receiving packages would be changed forever and so would be the process of purchasing things on the internet. Exciting times indeed!

The Financial Action Task Force reportedly aims to develop compulsory rules for the world’s cryptocurrency exchanges.

Summary

NEO, frequently nicknamed within the cryptocurrency community as The One,Ethereum ‘‘killer’’ or Chinese Ethereum, is a blockchain platform that implements digital assets, dApps and smart contracts, and tries to solve some scalability and regulatory issues of its competitors. With strong partnerships and support from the Asian cryptocurrency community, NEO is one of the most promising currencies in the crypto-assets space, with the ambitious goal of becoming the main “smart economy” of the world during the next few years.

“A word to the wise. All cryptocurrencies, including NEO, are still largely considered to be in the experimental stage and as such should be treated as high-risk assets. In any investment account, high-risk assets should only represent a small portion of your overall portfolio. That said, we hope you enjoy this market analysis. Feel free to contact us with any questions or feedback.”

-Mati Greenspan, Senior Market Analyst @eToro

History

NEO was introduced in 2014 under the name Antshares by China-based company Onchain, a blockchain-specialized company founded in 2014 by Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang. Two crowdsales in late 2015 provided the founding for the project. On these crowdsales, 17.5 million and 22.5 million NEO were sold for $550,000 and $4.5 million, respectively.

On 22nd June 2017, in an event at the Microsoft Headquarters in Beijing, the re-branding process from Antshares to NEO took place, what vastly increased the renown of the project that was soon to become one of the most prominent projects in the whole cryptocurrency sphere.

Basic stats

• Crypto-asset type: Utility
• Maximum supply: 100,000,000 NEO
• Circulating supply: 65,000,000 NEO
• Market Capitalization: $3.1 bn
• Inflationary cryptocurrency
  • Non-circulating supply periodically released until max supply is reached.
• Protocol: Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (dBFT)

Technical Description

Ethereum changed the whole cryptocurrency sphere by introducing a new layer when compared to Bitcoin and developing a platform where smart contracts and other tokens and ICOs can be developed. In the case of Ethereum, smart contracts are written using special programming languages like Solidity. NEO, on the other hand, allows programmers to use a variety of already established languages making software development in the platform much more approachable.

The goal of NEO is to establish itself as the main smart economy of the world. A smart economy implements digitized physical assets whose ownership is stored and guaranteed by the blockchain. The NEO environment, and the different dApps built on top of it, allows users to identify themselves on the blockchain, store and trade digital assets or create decentralized organizations, among many other things.

NEO implements a modified Proof-of-Stake model named Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (dBFT), as opposed to the more classical Proof-of-Work model used by Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The NEO network can be thought of as a two-tier system. All token holders are able to vote on the consensus nodes that will validate the network. These consensus nods will then be the ones that validate each block in the blockchain. These consensus nodes are identifiable, and can even be contacted if necessary. This makes the system different from the majority of the most popular blockchains, and especially attractive for regulation.

Even though the design of the system is delegated, an important criticism of NEO is that its implementation is very centralized. All nodes are currently owned by the NEO Foundation, but they will soon start to be run by relevant foundations, organizations and communities. All consensus nodes will also go through rigorous identification that could hold the owners legally liable.

Many argue that this system goes against the decentralization principles of blockchain technology, but it will make it easier for regulators and institutions to interact with the network, undoubtedly one of NEO’s main goals.

Token Metrics Analysis

The equation of exchange can be used to estimate the actual valuation of a crypto asset when considering its use as a means of exchange. This equation is as follows:

MV = PQ

where:

• M is the total supply of the cryptocurrency.
• V is the velocity of money, which measures how many times a unit of the currency is used in a certain period.
• P and Q are the price and quantity of the digital service or resource, and can be thought of as the transaction volume of the blockchain (the economic value transacted in a certain period).

A possible way to assess the transaction volume of the blockchain is to analyze the target market of the cryptoasset. In the case of NEO, ICOs and dApps are arguably the main addressable market. Although dApps will likely be the primary market in the future when cryptocurrencies are more stable, right now they are relatively small compared to ICOs.

ICOs raised 5 billion dollars in 2017 and this figure will likely increase in 2018. We will assume a total market of 10 billion dollars during 2018 and a 20% market share for the NEO blockchain. This would yield a transaction volume of 2 billion dollars.

Assuming a value of the velocity of 2 (an approximate value for similar blockchains like Ethereum), the value of the NEO network would be:

And, considering the total token supply of 100 million, this would yield a value per coin of approximately 10 dollars, considerably inferior to the actual market value. However, this simple model does not take into account the growth of the ICO and dApps markets in the future, as well as the transaction volume of other possible applications of NEO.

Use Cases

As stated before, smart contracts are a revolutionary concept that eliminates the need for a centralized third-party during the definition and enforcement of a contract. NEO in particular aims to make smart contracts more approachable, scalable and regulatory compliant.

The range of industries that can benefit from the implementation of smart contracts is vast. Some examples are:

• Financial Services: smart contracts can be used to automatically execute commercial transactions, payments and agreements, eliminating any delays and any needs for a middleman, while maintaining any compliance authority involved.
• Real Estate: in an industry with such a vast amount of legal contracts and third-party agents, smart contracts could greatly simplify and reduce the costs of many operations. Property rental or transfer of ownership is a great example, with the possibility of automatic payments in a completely traceable way.
• Government: governments are studying the possibilities of blockchain technology for a huge variety of issues. A good example is voting, West Virginia is currently implementing a pilot for a blockchain-based online voting system. The African country Sierra Leone recently executed a successful democratic election in a country where election results were frequently disputed and led to violence.
• Supply Chain: several companies are introducing projects to make tracking of goods during the supply chain automatized thanks to blockchain technology, with the goal of preventing fraud and theft.
• Accounting: Managing budgets and reconciliation of expenses.

All these applications and many others are made possible by the use of smart contracts and can be readily implemented on the NEO network. As stated before, NEO wants to focus on making the digitalization of assets efficient and compliant with regulatory institutions, with the goal of becoming the smart economy that will be trusted by institutions and organizations worldwide.

Development Team

The team behind the development of the cryptocurrency is one of the first things cryptoassets investors research before taking investments decisions. This Section shows a brief overview of the major faces behind NEO.

	Da Hongfei is the most recognisable face behind the project and now one of the most respected experts in cryptocurrencies in the world, particularly in China. His good relationships with the Chinese government can be a key factor for the upcoming development of NEO.
Erik Zhang is Co-Founder of NEO and CTO of the associated company OnChain. He is the mastermind behind the dBTF consensus algorithm, one of NEO’s cornerstones.

Onchain is the main company behind NEO. Their Distributed Network Architecture (DNA) system aims to become the main blockchain contractor in East Asia and uses NEO as its foundation. They have strong partnerships with companies like Alibaba and Microsoft.

Investment Risks

Trading cryptocurrencies can potentially be very profitable as seen in the past, but it is also a very challenging activity that can carry a significant level of risk. Cryptocurrency markets are associated with high volatility, and NEO is no exception.

It is important to carefully assess your investment goals, methodology and level of experience before deciding to start investing in a new market. It is also extremely important to diversify and view cryptocurrency as an additional element of your portfolio. Given the high risk associated with this type of asset, it is recommended not to allocate more than 20% of your portfolio into cryptocurrencies. Given that the possibility to lose a part or even all the money invested exists, it is extremely important to invest only money that you can afford to lose.

In any case, all the information presented in this Market Report does not constitute financial advice, and introduces no obligation or recommendations for action.

Current & Upcoming Projects

NEO is experiencing a surge in the number of dApps developed for the platform that could bring the possibilities of the network closer to or even surpass Ethereum. For instance, some extremely popular platforms that have already proven successful on Ethereum are now being supported by the NEO Global Capital fund and might find some integration on the NEO network.

• Bluzelle is a decentralized database service that allows people to rent their computer storage for dApps and developers to use.
• Zilliqa is a high-speed blockchain that uses a new technique called “sharding” to greatly increase the speed of the system.

Native ICOs and dApps on the system are also flourishing. Some of the best examples are:

• Redpulse, which can be thought of as “decentralized Bloomberg”, was the first ICO on the NEO
• Switcheo is NEO’s first decentralized exchange and has already become the fourth largest decentralized exchange by volume. It will provide easier access to NEO-based tokens in the future.
• NEX is another decentralized exchange built on the NEO network that is gaining a lot of traction with their upcoming ICO.
• Thor provides a blockchain-based market for contractors and freelancers
• Thekey is developing an identification verification service that will provide a means to verify government-issued personal identity online.

These and many other projects, which implement their own NEO-compliant tokens, will give further utility to the blockchain and will likely bring more adoption and value to the NEO network.

Future Developments

The number of ICOs and projects described on the previous Section show the great potential of NEO in the future.

On January 2018, during the NEO DevCon, CEO Da Hongfei presented “NEO’s New Vision” and set up the objective to further scale up the platform and become the most important blockchain by 2020. If these ambitions are to become true, the room of growth for NEO is certainly huge.

Technical  Analysis

Exhibit 1: Historical Evolution of NEO/USD price.

Exhibit 1 shows the historical evolution of the NEO price since February 2017 (at around $0.12) until April 2018 (currently trading just short around $73). During the great cryptocurrency bull run of late 2017 and early 2018, NEO achieved an all time high price of $197. The subsequent bear market has brought the price down 76%, with the last few days bringing a bounce from the bottom.

NEO’s price follows quite closely the trends of Bitcoin, still the clear dominant asset in the space, although to a somewhat lesser extent than other cryptocurrencies. NEO has also shown a clear correlation with the price of Ethereum, which makes sense considering they are offering two quite similar products and are competing for the same sector within the cryptomarket. The correlations with Ethereum and especially Bitcoin become more acute during bear markets.

Exhibit 2: Historical major trends (bull and bear markets) of NEO/USD price.

Exhibit 2 shows the major bull and bear markets experienced by NEO since February 2017. With the exception of the initial bull run that raised the price almost a hundred times from the initial $0.12, the two subsequent bull markets raised the price between 6 and 7 times in a very short period of time, between 2 and 5 weeks. These sudden and extremely rapid increases in value are a pattern very typical in cryptocurrencies that is generally not seen in other types of assets.

Exhibit 3: Evolution of NEO/USD price since December and 7-day RSI indicator.

By comparison, bear markets following these quick upside movements have been significantly slower, following a more “bleeding out” pattern, though also fast when compared to major corrections in the stock market for example. The current bear market since the All-Time High prices in January has been particularly devastating, with NEO falling back to the prices of Summer 2017.

The last few days have shown a relief of this correction, although as seen on Exhibit 3 the high values of the Relative Strength Index (RSI) indicator could suggest that NEO is slightly overbought right now. The whole cryptocurrency market is currently longing for a bull-run driven by Bitcoin, but any fundamental developments on the space (whether positive or negative) could drive the trend of the following months.

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There has been a growing influx of hard forks and airdrops pertaining to Bitcoin, although Bitcoin is still Bitcoin and remains the world’s leading cryptocurrency. In fact, there are so many different iterations of Bitcoin, it is impossible to keep track of them all. Most people will have never heard of most of them, nor will they in the future.

A Growing Pile of Bitcoin Clones

While it is certainly evident that Bitcoin is not a perfect cryptocurrency, improving upon this concept can be done in many different ways. As is evidenced by all the hard forks one can find on Reddit, there is still plenty of work to be done. Additionally, there is also a growing number of coins simply capitalizing on the Bitcoin name first and foremost, yet they all seem to be struggling.

Among the better-known currencies which successfully hard forked from Bitcoin is Bitcoin Cash, and perhaps Bitcoin Gold. The latter currency has seen its fair share of issues, though, as there have been multiple 51% attacks against the network. Additionally, Bitcoin Gold doesn’t serve any real purpose as of right now, nor will it in the near future.

There are a lot of Bitcoin forks which will never see any real traction, for rather obvious reasons. Some of the more unique names on the list include Bitcoin Hot, Oil Bitcoin, Bitcoin World, Bitcoin Faith, Bitcoin File, and so forth. People tend to get a bit creative with these names, although it is slowly turning into a very silly industry. With other currencies such as Bitcoin Pizza, Bitcoin Ore, and Bitcoin Lunar also circulating, it is evident something will need to change sooner rather than later.

Even so, it seems highly unlikely there will be fewer Bitcoin forks in the future. This industry has grown into a sandbox for money grabs and people with get-rich-quick expectations. Additionally, anyone can take Bitcoin’s existing code, change a few names and variables, and create their own hard fork in the process. It is a downside to the open-source nature of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Even though virtually none of these coins will make any meaningful impact moving forward, they will not disappear into obscurity either. These “shitcoins” have a tendency of sticking around far longer than they should, although it remains to be seen what the lifespan of Bitcoin Pizza will be, for example. Additionally, it will be interesting to see how many more of these forks will come to market, as some of the initial hype has quieted down in the past few weeks.

One positive side to all this is that the free market can decide whether or not any of these new currencies are worth keeping tabs on. Every coin will find its initial niche and community, although the hype surrounding most of these coins will die down pretty quickly. For the time being, the list of Bitcoin hard forks will continue to increase, but only time will tell if that is a good thing.

Russia: state-owned Gazprombank and several other corporate giants have created a $450 mln venture planning projects in blockchain, IoT development

In a world that develops faster than ever and becomes more globalized and individualized by the day, it’s a challenge for manufacturers to keep up. Today’s consumers want something more, something unique and tailored just for them. But for manufacturers, this is too costly to provide. To meet the new demand, ARXUM, a company run by experienced German engineers, provides a solution based on blockchain technology. ARXUM’s Connection Box interconnects production machines in manufacturing facilities and even across factories, countries and continents. When connected to the ARXUM Connection Box, the machines can communicate on the ARXUM Production Network, downloading information like process orders directly from the blockchain. All information sent on the network is kept safe by ARXUM’s Production Protocol. The technology that ARXUM has developed saves time and radically lowers manufacturing costs. New business opportunities arise, as everyone have access to the network and can exchange information and services. Manufacturers can even provide consumers with personalized products – at the cost of mass production.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

According to an article by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), companies will spend an incremental €250 billion on IoT in 2020 (over and above their normal technology spending). The blockchain technology used in ARXUM can become a major part of this. ARXUM has already established relations with businesses who are integrating the ARXUM Connection Box in their system. And investors have bought ARXUM tokens in an initial investor round.

The ARXUM ICO

Through the ICO, the public can join and support this paradigm shift in manufacturing. The ARXUM token, AX, are used across the ARXUM Production Network and allow investors to benefit from the use of IoT and blockchain within manufacturing. ARXUM has submitted a proposal to the financial authorities of Switzerland, FINMA, and is waiting for the final approval to conduct the ICO. There is a total of 125,000,000 AX token. 80 % of the token are for sale, 16 % are for the team and 4 % are for the Bounty Campaign. The funds will be used for Industry-specific adaptations to ARXUM’s Production Protocol and for the market penetration and worldwide roll-out.

The Smart Contract is published on Github: https://github.com/Arxum/Token

Join our Telegram group for more information and updates on the ARXUM ICO: t.me/arxumforall

Contact
Markus Jostock
Founder and Managing Director
Phone +49 171 4404755
E-mail [email protected]

Jens Harig
Founder and Managing Director

Phone +49 172 5222792
E-mail [email protected]

Website: https://.arxum.com
Whitepaper: https://arxum.com/downloads/

According to Fereshteh Forough, the founder of Code To Inspire, ether bounties can be a tool for teaching Afghan women about financial empowerment.

A little-known company based in Estonia is looking to raise funds up to USD 180 million an obscure ‘GoWeb’ token sale, reports Coindesk.

The SAFT Project is a forum for the discussion of a compliant framework for token sales. Notice of the company using the fundraising sale was published through US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) EDGAR document system on 4 June.

The company, NewTech Myning OU, will become one of many blockchain startups and projects which have raised money using the SAFT model, by selling tokens with promises of the distribution at a future time. In this case, the offering is for the “sale and issuance of rights to receive GoWeb tokens in the future via a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens”.

The total of USD 180 million is significant as it would represent one of the larger recent token sales, but NewTech Myning is still a minnow in fundraising when compared to Telegram who raised USD 1.8 billion early this year, while EOS raised about USD 4 billion in a token sale over a one-year period starting in June 2017, according to MSN.

There is little information about the Estonia-based company which was only established in March, but startups are increasingly making a home in the country that has become a proactive space in the industry.

Estonia is becoming increasing crypto friendly, with its government previously linked to a national cryptocurrency project which has since been abandoned. The plan to introduce its own cryptocurrency was dumped, following the President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi’s warning that no EU member can have its own currency apart from the Euro.

Many crypto companies are now doing business in Estonia with Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia also experiencing an economic boom recently. Estonia’s widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies and fintech has become a breeding ground for new startups.

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The uneasy situation affecting all cryptocurrency markets will remain in place for some time to come. Despite some minor gains for most currencies, it seems there is still plenty of negative pressure. As such, the question becomes whether or not the Bitcoin price will remain above $6,800 today. So far, it’s not looking too promising.

Another Rough Day for Bitcoin Price Watchers

Watching the Bitcoin price for several hours a day tends to inflict different emotions on people. It is usually a mix of uneasiness, optimism, despair, and every emotion in between. Throughout most of 2018, the negative feelings have taken center stage first and foremost, and it seems that situation will remain in place for some time to come. This is not the year of Bitcoin so far, although anything can happen in the coming six months.

Even so, the Bitcoin price has shown some positive momentum earlier today. With a minor 0.99% price increase, things are not looking all that great, for rather obvious reasons. Over the past 24 hours, there has been a Bitcoin price dip to $6,700 and slightly below, even though the value has recovered to $6.861. Maintaining a foothold above $6,800 will not be easy by any means, but it needs to become the new level of support regardless.

It remains to be seen how the Bitcoin price evolves in the coming hours and days. As of right now, the negative pressure is more than capable of pushing the Bitcoin price to $6,500 in the coming days. At the same time, it may recover to $7,000 and beyond. There is no sanity in the world of cryptocurrency, nor should anyone expect anything more.

One thing that is well worth keeping an eye on is how the overall Bitcoin trading volume evolves. As of right now, that volume has taken a $1.5bn decline compared to yesterday despite the Bitcoin price going up ever so slightly. A peculiar trend which doesn’t instill a lot of confidence in the market by any means. Without trading volume, there will be no Bitcoin price recovery to speak of anytime soon.

Despite the declining trading volume, Binance’s USDT pair remains extremely popular. It is well ahead of OKEx’s USDT pair, whereas Bitfinex’s USD market only comes in third place. LBank is the surprising fourth entrant and Huobi adds another USDT pair to the top five. Nothing about this list is exactly impressive, albeit there is zero reason to be overly concerned.  The markets will head in either direction regardless of what people may want to see happen.

As is always the case where the Bitcoin price is concerned, anything can happen in the blink of an eye. With a massive amount of money wiped out over the past seven days, it is evident the recovery process will take equally as long or potentially much longer. For now, it seems maintaining the status quo near $6,800 is a lot more favorable compared to chasing quick profits. Whether or not the rest of the market agrees, is a different matter altogether.

The financial system is still under a lot of pressure. Since the financial crisis of 2008, very little has changed to alleviate existing concerns. IMF chief Christine Lagarde acknowledges the global economy is not in the best of places right now. Additionally, she remains optimistic about the future of various cryptocurrencies.

The Global Economy is in Bad Shape

The 2008 economic crisis has shown the world how fragile the global economy really is. No country has been spared from the proverbial onslaught at that time. Ten years later, a lot of countries are still recovering from those setbacks. It seems as if the situation only grows worse as more time progresses. The recent development between the G7 and President Trump further confirms the situation isn’t evolving in a positive direction.

The G7 setback can turn out to be rather problematic. During the latest meeting, the objective was to create a free, fair, and mutually beneficial trading ecosystem for all parties involved. President Trump seemingly agreed at first, yet backed out of the deal in the end. Instead, he is showing signs of US-oriented isolationism, which will further fracture the brittle global economy.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde shares her concerns regarding this topic. She is convinced Trump is challenging the way trade is conducted and aims to damage business confidence. Additionally, Lagarde confirms the “dark clouds are forming” and the situation will continue to escalate beyond repair. Tensions are rising in the financial world, which also creates new opportunities for new assets to rise to the top.

The IMF and Cryptocurrency

Despite these ongoing struggles in the financial sector, Christine Lagarde has an optimistic view for cryptocurrencies. More specifically, she previously reported how Bitcoin can enable fast and inexpensive transactions. It is a solution the financial sector has been looking for over the past few decades. However, this currency will not be used globally unless the proper regulation is put in place.

According to the IMF chief, the crypto assets which survive “can play a role in how people save, invest, and pay their bills”. That in itself is a major nod of approval toward Bitcoin and other similar currencies. Without the confidence and support of authorities and consumers, however, the cryptocurrency will continue to face an uphill battle first and foremost.

For the time being, it remains how the IMF will move forward. There is little the organization can do to make President Trump rethink his current stance. Additionally, the favorable mindset toward crypto assets can have some interesting consequences in the years to come. Whether or not Bitcoin can save the global economy, is a different matter altogether. It is a global currency at its core, but it still needs to undergo major scaling improvements prior to being used on a much larger scale.

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