Bitcoin gravitates to south

On Friday morning, the benchmark cryptocurrency loses 2% and changes hands around $8,200. The last thing the market needs now is another sideways trend, so this time the events can develop faster and the price impulses can be sharper. Altcoins to a greater or lesser extent duplicate the dynamics of the benchmark cryptocurrency, remaining in a generally depressed state without any clear direction. All fundamental news about cryptocurrencies has also lost shape.

The market participants less and less often remember that they own “currencies”, and all the information reasons began to come down to the probable rise or decline in price. Cryptocurrencies after years, still far from being an alternative of the financial system, as they did not replace traditional money, did not attract money from the mafia and offshore, and are still regarded as no more than just a speculative tool.

This scenario was predicted by many old-timers of the traditional financial market, so the emergence of cryptocurrencies did not cause any concern among central banks and politicians. Except for the one-time populist Trump attack against Bitcoin, no one is intentionally interfering with the development of cryptocurrencies. Only the appearance of Libra by Facebook on the horizon caused a stir among officials at all levels. The confrontation turned out to be so fierce that, according to WSJ, MasterCard and Visa considering to refuse from participation in the project. Companies are very closely associated with the traditional financial system, and the regulators’ increased attention is the last thing they would like to get.

It should be understood that other large companies participating in the consortium may also be under pressure from central banks and officials. In this case, Facebook will have several options: admit a deafening failure, or try to run the project entirely on its “firepower”. Facebook has it, but if we remember which country the company operates in, we can assume that Libra will be allowed to work only outside the developed markets.

The situation around Libra also raises a lot of questions for the future blockchain of Telegram. At the moment, there are no attacks against this project – everyone is too keen on Libra. Nevertheless, in the case of TON, the developers’ plans are also quite ambitious, and a fierce reaction against this project is likely to put an end to other similar initiatives.

So, what do we have in 2 years since the crypto boom and the digital currencies reached their historic highs in December 2017? Cryptocurrencies have lost their original goals and can’t be used as a means of payment. If they want to work in large markets, they have to ask the regulators for permission, which distorts the original idea of the “crypto-project”.

The FxPro Analyst Team