NYDFS crypto coronavirus letter / BoE's releases CBDC discussion paper / Veteran trader Peter Brandt says Bitcoin under $1k is possible

Inside Cryptocurrency .

Presented by Subscribe | View in browser Dear subscribers, And so we come to another Friday...how time flies when you're having fun! Welcome to your Friday newsletter! Many of you will already know but for those that don't, earlier this week we to change the Inside Bitcoin newsletter to Inside Cryptocurrency. Given the fact that I cover a wide range from the space, rather than solely focusing on Bitcoin-related news, it made sense for us to reflect this with a name change. I hope you all approve : ) For those who are still on the fence about subscribing to premium and questioning what it is I can give you, here are a few pointers that may give you the nudge you need: The latest news from the space. Information that you may otherwise miss. Inside news from industry professionals. A jam-packed newsletter that does the hard work of sourcing news for you. I will also be interviewing leading figures from the space, which will be featured in upcoming issues of my newsletter. The only way to read these is by subscribing, which you can do here. By paying around $2 a week ($100 a year), you'll be getting plenty of value for your money with my newsletters five days a week, ad-free! I hope to see many more of you enjoying my newsletters, and until then - have a lovely weekend! Rebecca Market Watch: Coin prices remain down during Friday trading and have fallen further compared to yesterday. U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to restrict travel from Europe to the U.S. is having a knock-on effect, which is seeing traders selling their assets as they turn to cash amid the market turmoil and pandemic. Bitcoin: $5,052 (⬇️ 16.14%) // $92.3 billion market cap. Ethereum: $120 (⬇️ 12.11%) // $13.3 billion market cap. XRP: $0.144 (⬇️ 11.12%) // $6.3 billion market cap. Tether: $1.02 (⬆️ 1.72%) // $4.7 billion market cap. Top 100 Winner: Tether: $1.02 (⬆️ 1.72%) // $4.7 billion market cap.  Top 100 Loser: Algorand: $0.130 (⬇️ 27.29%) // $85 million market cap. Prices are as of 2 p.m. ET. A round-up of what you may have missed this week: French international banking group BNP Paribas is reportedly blocking customers from sending money to crypto platform Coinbase. An anonymous source said that a BNP Paribas representative informed them that the bank had stopped transactions on Coinbase because "it's considered as an illegal operation." -COINTELEGRAPH Crypto exchange Kraken is set to increase its operations in India following the lifting of the crypto ban last week by the country's Supreme Court. The platform said that its "growth in the market had been limited by a 2018 ruling issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that prohibited banks from opening accounts for crypto businesses," adding that it is "excited to again help Indian customers" as things move forward. -KRAKEN Two men were arrested in Japan for allegedly obtaining crypto that is connected to the Coincheck exchange hack, which was targeted in 2018. One of the accused is a doctor from Hokkaido, an island in Japan, and the other is a company executive from Japan's city of Osaka. According to a report, police believe that the two arrested individuals have been exchanging the stolen coins for other assets, which they have been doing since February. -JIJI PRESS Australian crypto investors are set to receive a warning from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) in the coming weeks to "remind them" of their tax obligations. The ATO is in the process of contacting 350,000 individuals, either by letter or email. -NEWS.COM.AU YouTube has reportedly deleted two videos from two crypto channels. Ivan on Tech, a crypto programmer, is one such person who has said that the platform took down one of his videos on March 9. The Moon, a technical analyst, is another. -CRYPTO POTATO Mark Carney, the outgoing Bank of England (BoE) governor, has said that a central bank digital currency (CBDC) could pose "challenges" if it were to launch in the U.K. -REUTERS BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes has said that Bitcoin could hit low levels of between $6,000 and $7,000 but that he doesn't believe the market will drop to $3,000. -@CRYPTO HAYES/TWITTER 1. New York's Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has sent a letter to all regulated crypto firms to provide detailed "preparedness plans" in response to the coronavirus pandemic. "At a minimum," some of the preparations that institutions need to cover include employee protection strategies, such as steps to how staff can reduce the likeliness of contracting COVID-19, heightened cyber risk mitigation, and a communication plan to communicate with customers, counterparties, and the public. It must also produce a separate three-point plan - again as a minimum - to tackle financial risks. The NYDFS has asked for crypto companies to respond no later than 30 days. -COINDESK 2. The Bank of England (BoE) has released a discussion paper on the pros and cons of issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). While the report - titled Central Bank Digital Currency March 2020: Opportunities, Challenges and Design - noted that a digital pound could destabilize the banking system, it went on to say that such a development could use the latest fintech, making transactions faster and easier for consumers. It points out that the bank has "provided safe money and a risk‑free means of payment to households, businesses and the wider financial system" for the past 325 years. However, it notes that a CBDC could "provide households and businesses with a new form of central bank money and a new way to make payments." The report comes at a time when outgoing BoE governor Mark Carney said earlier this week that a digital pound could "raise significant challenges" for the country's monetary stability. -BANK OF ENGLAND A MESSAGE FROM HOPZERO Security Institute Offers New Security Certification There’s been a paradigm shift in Data Security using technology that’s been keeping BGP Internet Routers safe for over 30 years. DataTravel HOP Essentials Training and Certification opens eyes to a novel way to protect vital server data. Get Certified and learn to stop data exfiltration. Click to receive a free Certification promo code 3. Follow Friday: Jill Carlson Carlson is principal at Slow Ventures, managing the blockchain portion of the $220 million fund. A former Goldman Sachs trader, Carlson was accepted to Oxford University, where she wrote one of the first academic papers on Bitcoin.  She has worked as strategy lead at Chain, which was sold to Stellar, and co-founded the Open Money Initiative, a non-profit studying how people in the developing world use cryptocurrency and fiat money. She also co-hosts a podcast about cryptocurrency called What Grinds My Gears. Some of the things she's tweeted about recently include the impact coronavirus is having on markets and photos of puppies! 4. Veteran trader Peter Brandt, who predicted that Bitcoin would not go any higher once it reached its all-time high of $20,000 in 2017 if "cryptocultists" remained, has indicated that Bitcoin under $1,000 is possible. His comments come at a time when there is extreme volatility in the markets due to the coronavirus outbreak. Bitcoin has fallen again overnight and is down nearly 35 percent. It's currently trading at just under $5,000, according to CoinMarketCap. The steep dive follows after U.S. President Donald Trump announced travel restrictions yesterday from Europe to the U.S. in response to the pandemic. Taking to Twitter, Brandt said: " if I interpret the chart without bias, I would say sub $1,000." His comment was in response to a Twitter user who questioned whether Bitcoin had reached a bottom at $5,500 or if things had changed following the coronavirus. Just yesterday, BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes, wrote in the latest edition of the exchange's Crypto Trader Digest that he doesn't see Bitcoin dropping below $3,000. -@PETERLBRANDT/TWITTER A MESSAGE FROM SALESFORCE Drive Productivity for Enterprise Employees with Salesforce Learn how savvy IT departments can provide better workplace technology as the key to improving employee experience and driving organizationwide growth. Learn More 5. Crypto exchange Coinbase has announced the launch of its Bitcoin transaction batching, a feature that reduces the strain on the Bitcoin blockchain. In a blog post, the platform said that they will be bundling several sends into a single transaction. Eli Haims, Coinbase product manager, wrote: "We anticipate that this will reduce our load on the Bitcoin network by more than 50 percent." Haims goes on to add that network fees customers pay will "automatically be reduced." Batching is already live, with Coinbase stating that there will be a "small delay in a transaction being broadcast to the network." -COINBASE 6. Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, has implied that confidence in Bitcoin has "evaporated." Taking to Twitter today, Novogratz said that "$btc was always a confidence game. All crypto is." He added that global confidence in "just about anything has evaporated. What brings it back to $btc?" One user tweeted in response that confidence will return because Bitcoin is "seizure-resistant, censorship-resistant, digital, global, permissionless, [and a] credible and sound monetary policy." Another, however, questioned who had lost confidence, adding that "fundamentals didn't change overnight, just a worldwide pandemic and panic sellers causing more panic selling." -@NOVOGRATZ/TWITTER 7. Edward Snowden has said that he feels like "buying Bitcoin." Snowden, who is well known for disclosing top-secret documents that revealed British and American surveillance operations, wrote on Twitter today: "This is the first time in a while I've felt like buying Bitcoin. That drop was too much panic and too little reason." His comments come at a time when Bitcoin's value dropped to yearly lows of $3,782 following U.S. President Donald Trump's travel restrictions yesterday from Europe to tackle the coronavirus outbreak. -@SNOWDEN/TWITTER 8. Alex Mashinsky, CEO at Celsius Network, a crypto lending and depository company working to decentralize banking, has given his view on the crypto market meltdown. In his opinion, the last 24 hours doesn't prove that Bitcoin isn't a safe haven; rather, it proves that its investor base isn't broad enough to "prove its function as a safe-haven." He went on to say: "The traders, risk-takers, and speculators that are dumping their equities are the same ones selling their crypto. In a panic as severe as this one, investors are racing to safety in the form of cash, but under the surface of liquidations in the futures and options markets there still is a growing and broadening base of users who believe that all roads lead to decentralization and that BTC & ETH are the horses who are going to get us across the finish line." -ALEX MASHINSKY 9. Consensus 2020, a crypto and blockchain-focused event, is going virtual as it changes its plans amid fears around the coronavirus outbreak. Rather than let event organizers and attendees miss out on the annual conference in New York, CoinDesk, an industry publication and organizer of the event, has stated that this year's event will be a "completely virtual experience." Attendees from around the world will be able to participate online at no charge. The notice goes on to say that the team is "working with best-in-class platform providers" and that they are "committed to bringing the entire crypto community together with the high-quality content," that will be an "enriching experience for our audience." -COINDESK 10. The South African Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution is turning to artificial intelligence and the blockchain to help reduce unemployment in the country. Commissioner Mpho Dagada said to Blockchain Africa Conference in Johannesburg this week that the blockchain could bring economic benefits. Dagada said: "We face two significant challenges in the country: reducing unemployment and increasing our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). [The] Fourth Industrial Revolution policy creation can create economic growth in the country." -COINTELEGRAPH This newsletter was written and curated by Rebecca Campbell. She has been writing and reporting on various industries for the past 10 years, more specifically tech in the last three. Connect with her on Twitter. Edited by Beth Duckett, staff writer at Inside. Ad Visit SecurityInstitute.com to Learn More.   Ad Empower everyone to build apps fast with low code on the Lightning Platform.

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