Crypto Today: Bitcoin resumed the decline amid increased risk-off sentiments

Here's what you need to know on 

Markets:

BTC/USD is trading below $7,600 during early Asian hours as the inability to settle above $8,000 attracted new sellers to the market. BTC/USD has lost over 3% on a day-to-day basis and over 4% since the beginning of Thursday.

ETH/USD dropped below $180.00 in Asia to trade at $174.73 at the time of writing. The coin retreated from the intraday high of $195.83. ETH/USD is currently trading within a short-term bearish bias amid expanding short-term volatility, down 10% on a day-to-day basis.

XRP/USD crashed below critical $0.2000 during early Asian hours. XRP/USD has lost over 9% on a day-to-day basis. Now it is trading with a short-term bearish bias amid expanding volatility. 

Among the 100 most important cryptocurrencies, the best of the day are Aave (LAND) $0.0313 (+14.4%), Bytecoin (BCN) $0.00035 (+4.8%) and DxChain Token (DX) $0.0015 (+3.5%). The day's losers are Matic Network (MATIC) $0.0162 (-22.7%), Blockstack (STX) $0.1185 (-22.5%),Aion (AION) $0.0934 (-20.4%).

Chart of the day:

ETH/USD, 4-hour chart

Market

According to a famous cryptocurrency trader Scott Melker, know on Twitter as The Wolf of All Streets, noted that Bitcoin (BTC) was "looks weak" on the intraday charts, implying that the first digital coin may face another sell-off. The inability to settle above $8,000 worsened the immediate technical picture and pushed the price below $7,600 during early Asian hours.

A prominent blogger and cryptocurrency supporter Tiffany Hayden sold all her XRP coins citing the hostility of XRP community as one of the key reasons behind the decision. She wrote on Twitter:

"I’m not holding $XRP anymore, XRP supporters, so find something else to talk about. 

Hayden was attacked by XRP community when she pointed out some system deficiencies. She ran a node a participated in validating transactions, which gave her some privileges and allowed to bypass certain restrictions. According to the blogger, XRP haters chased her for about e year because she revealed the fragility of the system. Meanwhile, she used to be XRP supporter and often discussed XRP benefits with her followers on Twitter.

Industry

The police in Tokyo detained two persons for purchasing cryptocurrency NEM related to Coincheck hack in 2018 that resulted in $530 million being stolen from the exchange. The local media outlet reports that the suspects knew about the coin's origin. One of them is a doctor from Hokkaido, the other one runs a business in Osaka. According to the investigators, the suspects exchanged Bitcoins and other digital assets to the stolen tokens in February-March 2018.

The US-based cryptocurrency trading platform Kraken has launched FX-trading for its customers. Currently, new currency pairs are available for Kraken users, which allows them to directly trade between CAD, CHF, EUR, GBP, JPY and USD. Apart from that, Kraken supports fiat-crypto trading between Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin against several fiat currencies, namely the US dollar, the Canadian dollar, Euro, British pound and Japanese yen.

Regulation

The United Kingdom’s finance and economics department has issued the addition of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations to better fight the risks related to cryptocurrency transactions. According to the authority, the new measures will lower the risks of money-laundering and other crimes that involve virtual currencies. Therese Chambers, Director of Retail and Regulatory Investigations, explained that the new Money Laundering Regulations (MLR) entitles the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) with overseeing powers for some crypto objectives.

The State Senate of South Carolina has recognized the potential of blockchain technology. A new bill passed by the Senate of the State on March 10 highlights the priority and importance of adopting emerging technologies throughout the state. with the aim to become "the capital for the real-world application of the emerging technology of blockchain.”

Quote of the day

If you still naively consider "exchanges will block PlusToken tainted coins" you are WRONG. PlusToken liquidated mostly on KYC'ed exchanges such as Huobi and Okex, VERY concerning

Dovey Wan, Founding Partner of Primitive Crypto