Bitcoin (BTC) is Stable Above $9,000 Even as Binance UK Prepares to Launch in August, but is Ripple (XRP) a Security?
Key Highlights:
- President Trump attempted to “go after” Bitcoin in 2018
- Ethereum’s Onyx test network is live
- Former CFTC executive says XRP is not a security
- Binance UK will launch this summer
Crypto Trending News: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple (XRP), Bancor, and Binance
Bitcoin is as interesting as it is controversial—to some. Regulators have learned to live with the disruptive effects of Blockchain technology.
With a distributed ledger and developers dotted around the world, Bitcoin as a network is resilient. It has made transactions cheap and accessible even to those with nothing but a smartphone.
Even with all these benefits, it has been revealed that Donald Trump wanted to “kill” Bitcoin in a yet-to-be-released book, The Room Where It Happened.
However, it is nothing surprising since, in the recent past, POTUS has made known his leaning, urging regulators to step in and force compliance.
Away from Trump’s futile attempts, Eric Savics–a podcaster who claimed to have lost his life savings to hackers sparking sympathy donations, has now disappeared from Twitter.
Earlier, Savics said he had lost $113,000 worth of Bitcoin—a stash he had been accumulating for over seven years, after downloading a fake version of a KeepKey mobile wallet.
Once he inputted his private keys, the hacker(s) wiped his account clean. After highlighting his plights on Twitter in a sensitizing campaign, he drew the attention of Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao—who offered to blacklist the receiving address, and other followers, as his story was published by news outlets.
It is estimated that after he received over $75,000, he made his account private and simply “disappeared.”
As Ethereum edges closer to ETH 2.0 Beacon Chain launch, the Onyx test network has been successfully activated. As the second test network after Topaz, the Prysmatic labs-released platform allows the staking of ETH, setting the ground for Beacon Chain.
The success of Phase 0, as mentioned in previous reports, will set the ball rolling for subsequent phases leading to Serenity as Ethereum resolves their scalability troubles.
Ahead of this expected launch, Ethereum transaction fees continue to rise and have now exceeded Bitcoin’s.
According to a Messari Crypto researcher, true adoption and on-chain related fundamental factors explain the change in demand and the developer preference of Ethereum over other smart contracting platforms.
Notably, the number of Ethereum addresses now exceeds 100 million while it remains decentralized just like Bitcoin.
A former chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Christopher Giancarlo, also known as the Crypto Dad, has reasons to believe that XRP, the native coin of the XRPL ledger is a utility outside the purview of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules.
He cites the network’s decentralization, utility as a liquidity tool, and the fact that there is no binding contract (therefore lack of a relationship) between XRP holders and Ripple Labs (the issuer) as some of the vindicating reasons. As such, the security-classifying criteria of the Howey Test don’t apply to XRP.
In other news, Binance UK will launch this summer.
Also, Bancor, earlier today, drained over $460,000 of BNT tokens after discovering a vulnerability.
Bitcoin Price Analysis
Week-to-date, Bitcoin is stable against the resurgent greenback. Although down three percent at the time of writing, BTC is trending within an ascending channel.
Thus far, bulls have managed to shake off bear attempts. Specifically, following the steep losses of June 11, 2020, BTC prices have largely stabilized and are oscillating inside the conspicuous bear bar trade range.
Although this is bearish from an effort versus results perspective, a close above $10,000 or June 2020 highs at the back of high trading volumes could pump bulls.
On the reverse side, the failure of BTC buyers to shake off bears and close above the resistance level may pave the way for sellers.
Any close below June 11, 2020 lows of $9,000 confirms the double bar bear reversal pattern of June 01-02, 2020, and may spark a wave of liquidation forcing BTC back to $8,500.
Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice, but the opinions of the author. Do your due diligence.
Dalmas is a very active cryptocurrency content creator and highly regarded technical analyst. He’s passionate about blockchain technology and the futuristic potential of cryptocurrencies.