Crypto Today: Bitcoin bulls have an opportunity for greater upside

Here's what you need to know on Friday

Markets

BTC/USD is currently trading at $5950 (+19.65%), bulls make a big range breakout as price firmly reclaims $6000, gunning for $7000. 

ETH/USD is currently trading at $130 (+18.45%), a break down of resistance at $130-140 range paved way for decent bullish momentum. 

XRP/USD is currently trading at $0.15 (+11.90%), narrowing trading conditions has been breached by the bulls, with foundations laid for a recovery. 

Among the 100 most important cryptocurrencies, the best of the day are BSV $165 (+33.00%), MCO $4.33 (+29.65%) NEXO $0.121145 (+28.15%) The day's losers are STEEM $0.27696 (-12.42%), BCN $0.000219 (-10.30%), EURS $1.057 (-1.25%).

Chart of the day: BTC /USD daily chart 

Market

Reports detail that bidders have already committed to buying Maker (MKR) tokens for a total of $2 million in Dai (DAI) as the first phase of the MakerDAO debt auction reaches its final stages.

The majority of the current winning bids were placed at around 1:25 a.m. EST, March 20, so unless further bids come in, most of the lots will be sold at around 7:25 a.m. EST.

The open-source Baseline Protocol code allowing private systems to be built on the Ethereum public blockchain has now been published to GitHub, as of March 19. This means that the EY, Microsoft and ConsenSys-developed protocol is available to the public.

Regulation

An industry association of Europe’s clearinghouses said they’re in favour of a single classification that covers all crypto assets across the bloc. The EU is developing a broader push on how to handle the cryptocurrency industry, and clearinghouses will bear more of the burden.

Dubbed “On an EU framework for markets in crypto-assets,” the new legislation looks further to standardize regulatory approaches across the European Union.

Industry 

Growing crypto adoption and the COVID-19 outbreak has encouraged Italy’s Banco Sella to launch a Bitcoin trading service. Around 1.2 million Italians already use Banca Stella’s Hype to carry out transactions and not only will they be able to buy and sell Bitcoin, they’ll also be able to pay for goods and services with the cryptocurrency. 

According to a recent study published by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Australia’s central bank, less than 1 percent of Australians paid for consumer goods with cryptocurrency in 2019. Revealed in RBA’s triennial Consumer Payments Survey (CPS), the findings from about 1,100 respondents shows that while consumers are largely embracing digital and alternative payment methods over cash, they’re just not paying in crypto. RBA conducted the survey in October and November 2019.

South American blockchain firm IOV Labs along with Grupo Sabra have launched their Gasnet blockchain network for Argentina’s natural gas distribution system. Gasnor was the first to greenlight the project but was soon followed by Argentina’s gas regulator Enargas who approved the nationwide deployment of the blockchain solution. 

Hawaii is set to take a significant step towards cryptocurrency adoption after the state’s governor announced that it would be launching a testing program for digital currencies. 
 

Quote of the day

Bitcoin is only down 15% from 8k, where the massive drop began. It’s up roughly 88% from the bottom.

@scottmelker