Cryptocurrency News Update: Bitcoin dragged down by stock market collapse

Here's what you need to know on Friday

Markets:

BTC/USD recovered to $9,372 after a sharp sell-off to $9,000 on Thursday. The first digital coin has gained about 1.5% since the start of the day, though it is still down 5.2% on a day-to-day basis. Now it is trading within the short-term bearish bias amid shrinking volatility.

At the time of writing, ETH/USD is changing hands at $234.17. The price touched $228.00 during early Asian hours, but managed to recover above the psychological $230.00. ETH/USD has gained 1.7% since the start of the day and lost over 5% in the recent 24 hours moving within a short-term bearish trend. The volatility is low.

XRP/USD tested $0.1846 on Thursday amid massive sell-off on the cryptocurrency market. At the time of writing, the coin is changing hands at $0.1920, down 5.4% on a day-to-day basis. From the short-term perspective, XRP/USD is trading within a bearish trend amid low volatility.

Among the 100 most important cryptocurrencies, aelf (ELF) $0.1153 (+8.5%), DigiByte (DGB) $0.0214 (+7.5%), Kyber Network (KNC) $1.16 (+2.9%). The day's losers are Numeraire (NMR) $24.35 (-13.9%), THETA (THETA) $0.2130 (-12.8%), Basic Attention Token (BAT) $0.2250 (-11.2%).

Chart of the day:

BTC/USD, 30-min chart

Market

Bitcoin and major altcoins experienced a sharp sell-off late on Thursday amid global stock markets collapse caused by the renewed fears of a second coronavirus (COVID-19) wave. According to the recent reports, the new cases in the US and across the world are rising again, which will have its toll on the global economy. The S&P 500 lost 4.5% on Thursday, the Nasdaq 100 went down by 3.3%. Bitcoin stopped within a whisker of $9,000 amid worsened market sentiments and risk aversion. The market reaction is another evidence that the cryptocurrency tends to behave like a risky asset at a calamitous time.

Industry

China is losing its dominance over the Bitcoin mining industry, according to the estimates of crypto analytics firm TokenInsight. The experts pointed out, that the electricity used by Chines Bitcoin miners dropped from 75.63% in September 2019 to 65.08% by the end of April. The survey was performed in partnership Cambridge University’s Centre for Alternative Finance. It also revealed that electricity consumption from Bitcoin miners in the US has increased from 4.06% to 7.24% of the hash rate. Russia and Kazakhstan are also among the top Bitcoin mining regions.

Bitcoin trading volumes in US Dollar terms on P2P platform Paxful reached $42.8 million by the end of the week and surpassed the volumes of its closest competitor Localbitcoins ($41.7 million) for the first time on record, according to the data provided by the founder of analytical service Usefultulips Matt Alborg.

A truly tectonic week for P2P exchanges with Paxful and LocalBitcoins setting new combined weekly YTD records! This was also the first week in history where Paxful exceeded LocalBitcoins trading with $42.8M to $41.7M in USD equivalent volume, he wrote on Twitter.

Bitcoin trading volumes on peer-to-peer platforms has been growing at record pace since the beginning of the year. The residents of the USA and Canada are the largest contributors as Bitcoins worth over $29.85 million changed hands in those countries during the recent week. About $24.12 million came from Paxful, the rest from Localbitcoins.

Regulation

On June 11, the Ukrainian Parliament (the Verkhovna Rada) of registered a draft law “On virtual assets”, which would bring the cryptocurrencies into the regulated field and oblige cryptocurrency exchanges and trading platforms to register with the Ministry of Finance. The final version of the document has undergone several changes. In particular, the definitions of “exchange”, “token” and “stablecoin” have been removed from the conceptual and terminological part. The lawmakers also abandoned the most controversial part about the relevant location of virtual assets.

The Russian Ministry of Economy criticized the new version of bill on digital assets being discussed in the State Duma. If the current bill is signed into law, cryptocurrency traders in Russia may face prison terms and large fines; however, the ministry proposed mechanisms of imposing new rules for cryptocurrency transactions to ensure “the controlled circulation of virtual money” the local media outlet Kommersant reports.