Crypto Today: Bitcoin and major altcoins observe the ranges

Here's what you need to know on 

Markets:

BTC/USD hit the intraday high at $8,947 and retreated to $8,800 by the time of writing. The first digital asset has stayed mostly unchanged both on a day-to-day basis and since the beginning of Wednesday. BTC is moving within a short-term bullish trend amid low volatility.

The ETH/USD pair is currently trading at $224.8 (-1.50% on a day-to-day basis). Ethereum has retreated from the high of $228.80 hit during early Asian hours; however, the short-term price momentum is bullish. 

XRP/USD settled at $0.2345 after a move to $0.2399 on Tuesday. The coin has been moving in a tight range during recent days.

Among the 100 most important cryptocurrencies, the best of the day are Unibright (UBT) $0.3074 (+31.5%), Chainlink (LINK) $4.79 (+13.0%) and Matic Network (MATIC) $0.0236 (+12.7%), The day's losers are Kyber Network (KNC) $0.6408 (-10.7%),  Synthetix Network Token (SNX) $0.8215 (-6.7%), Ardor (ARDR) $0.0498 (-5.2%).

Chart of the day:

BTC/USD, 4-hour chart

Market

Co-founder of Morgan Creek Digital and a prominent Bitcoin supporter Anthony Popmpliano (aka Pomp) compared Ethereum to fiat in the recent post. Namely, he criticized the concept that ETH is money, promoted by Ethereum supporters. They believe that ETH will eventually become a medium of exchange, store of value and unit of account in the realm of decentralized finances (DeFi). However, Pompliano threw some cold water on their enthusiasm.

The issue is that Ether is no different than a fiat currency. Fiat currencies have (a) no fixed supply, (b) an inflationary supply schedule, and (c) monetary policy decisions that are decided by a small group of individuals. Ether has (a) no fixed supply, (b) an inflationary supply schedule, and (c) monetary policy decisions that are decided by a small group of individuals.

The managing director of cryptocurrency investment fund Grayscale Mike Sonenshine noted that digital assets are now a part of a new investment era. He believes that Bitcoin has secured the role of a store of value and confirmed its status of "digital gold".  Notably, he explained that Bitcoin does not have a clear advantage over other digital coins. Altcoins serve different purposes, he added.

Industry

Currently, there are over 7000 cryptocurrency ATMs located around the world, according to the latest data provided by Coin ATM Radar. The company created a map with all ATMs installed in 75 countries. The data shows that the majority of ATMs are located in the US.

China and US will embark on a digital war based on blockchain and cryptocurrency technology in 2020, according to the latest report published by SK Securities. The company believes that the countries are stepping up efforts to ensure superiority in the new field. 

It's time to pay attention to the competition between financial businesses launched by big U.S. tech companies such as Facebook which have billions of users around the world, and digital currency electric payments (DCEPs), which the People’s Bank of China will issue this year,  SK Securities said in the report. 

Regulation

The Ukrainian National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) provided guidance on digital assets in line with FATF recommendations. The authority classified them as an intangible asset. Notably, the guidelines will come in handy ahead of the tax season. They will help the Ukrainians to reflect their cryptocurrency-related returns in income declarations that must be submitted before April 30. According to the document, the citizens have to declare their crypto holdings along with other intangible assets.

The document shall include the name of the asset, the date of the last cryptocurrency purchase performed by the declaring subject, the amount and total value of the digital tokens that belong to the declaring subject or their family members as of the last day of the reporting period.

The US Treasury held a meeting with the representatives of the cryptocurrency industry and legal compliance experts. The participants of the meeting discussed the issues related to cryptocurrency regulation. Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin commented in the official press release:

The U.S. welcomes responsible innovation, including new technologies that may improve the efficiency of the financial system,”  “We must ensure that we balance innovation with the need to protect our national security and maintain the integrity of our financial system.

Quote of the day

The Fed just implemented an emergency 50bps rate cut. The last time the Fed did this was October 29, 2008. Two days later, an unknown person or group of people going by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published a paper called "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System."

Travis Kling, former L/S Equities Portfolio Manager