Crypto Today: Bitcoin hovers around $5,200 – calm before the storm?

Here’s what you need to know on 

Markets:

BTC/USD has been hovering around $5,200, mostly unchanged on a day-to-day basis. BTC hit the intraday high at $5,452 but failed to hold the ground. 

ETH/USD has settled at $114.70, off the Asian high of $118.55 in Asia. The coin is down nearly 2% from the levels registered at this time on Tuesday.

XRP/USD locked below $0.1500. after an attempt to move above this barrier, the coins settled at $0.1458. XRP/USD is down 1.5% on a day-to-day basis.

Among the 100 most important cryptocurrencies, Bytecoin (BCN) $0.00024 (+22.7%), Aave (LEND) $0.0195 (+12.6%) and Lisk (LSK) $0.9359 (+7.5%) are in the green zone. The day’s losers are Dragon Coins (DRG) $0.0742 (-20.4%), Terra (LUNA) $0.1247 (-9.5%),Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR) $0.0349 (-8.4%).

Chart of the day:

BTC/USD, 30-min chart

Market

Bitcoin’s hash rate dropped by 40% in March and settled below 100 EHash/s. According to cryptocurrency research service Skew the situation is not typical as hash rate tends to grow ahead of halving, which is less than two months away. The lower hash rate may signal that Bitcoin miners have to capitulate in the current environment as mining becomes unprofitable for them.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s implied volatility hit the highest level on record on Monday, March 16. High volatility means that there is a great deal of uncertainty and fear on the market as investors cannot decide what to do in the current situation. 

Litecoin’s founder Chalie Lee confessed that Bitcoin ETFs would not help to kickstart the bull market, however, coronavirus would do the trick.

I used to think that a Bitcoin ETF will kickstart the next bull market. I was wrong. Joe Sixpack will, unfortunately, get hit very hard due to the aftermath of the coronavirus and the central banks will keep on printing money. Joe will wonder if there’s a better way. There is.

Industry

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss has started a new blockchain-based marketplace for digital arts. Users will be able to buy and sell digital collectibles and “truly own them” as the owner will be recorded on the blockchain. Also, the concept will allow artists to issue limited editions of their arts.

BlockFi, a lending platform for cryptocurrencies, raises interest rates on deposits in BTC and ETH, effective as of April 1. Users with their account balance of less than 5 BTC or higher will get the annual rate of 6% instead of 3.6%, while ETH holders (less than 500 ETH) will receive 4.5% instead of 2-3.6%.

Regulation

The US Securities and Exchange Commision (SEC) issued two subpoenas to a retail giant Overstock in relation to  tZERO token sale. The regulator requested the documents related to GSR Capital investment as well as ti the alternative trading system tZERO. According to the submitted document, the venture investor provided only $4.4 million instead of agreed $5 million.