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The cryptocurrency prices are back in the limelight this week, as bitcoin and the altcoin universe have plummeted to the unseen lows since September 2017. The bitcoin hash war continued despite an early victory in the chain ABC, which has maintained the BCH symbol on the main markets. Calvin Ayre, one of the biggest supporters of the competitive bitcoin cash chain, has recognized that the opposing side has cheated his way to victory and has proposed a mechanism through which war can be resolved peacefully.
Volatility in traditional markets has intensified this week, as US stocks have turned negative for the year and oil prices have crashed to new annual lows.
Cryptocurrency continues to bleed
The total value of all outstanding cryptocurrencies hit the fund close to $ 136 billion on Friday, after declining the impressive $ 48 billion over the week and $ 73 billion from November 12 when the crisis began.
With the exception of USDT and TUSD, two stablecoins backed by the dollar, all the major cryptocurrencies in the top-30 recorded double-digit percentage losses in the last week. The price of Bitcoin has fallen by more than 22% to reach a minimum of less than $ 4,100 on Bitstamp Friday. Bitcoin's liquidity lost about half its value and for the first time in its history it was traded briefly under $ 200.
Ethereum has sold over 31%; Stellar XLM has lost 25%. EOS, Litecoin and Cardano were down more than 22% each. The XRP managed to outperform the market, but still lost 13% of its value over the seven days.
Issues related to the hard fork
The hash war between bitcoin cash ABC and the competing SV chain has intensified this week, although most major exchanges recognized the former as the main implementation for the BCH update. As such, the bitcoin money ABC has maintained the symbol of the BCH ticker, with CoinMarketCap which integrates both data flows in its calculation of aggregate prices and the overall market valuation.
CoinGeek founder and casino magnate Calvin Ayre issued a statement on his website acknowledging that the bitcoin money ABC had won the hash war, but he did it only by cheating. In his view, the SV chain would have prevailed if bitcoin.com had not moved the entire mining pool into BCH extraction. As previously reported by Hacked, bitcoin.com has frozen its BTC operations to free the ability to extract BCH exclusively.
Although Ayre believes that the hard rope is permanent, he said that a prolonged war could be avoided if both parties abandon the BCH label. In his view, the bitcoin money has already been replaced by ABC and SV.
Kraken's CEO Jesse Powell said the main problem with bitcoin SV is the "great personalities" that have fractured the BCH community. On a Wednesday Tweet, has issued the following declaration:
"Never had anything against Calvin Ayre, but this approach is an anathema for the community that you hope to have adopted your technology.The merits of BSV are overshadowed by the alienating threats of some great personalities.Most longer chain! = Adoption. be pirated. "
Kraken was one of a handful of exchanges that came out in support of ABC bitcoin money.
Stocks, immersion oil
US stocks declined dramatically in the first half of the week as a sell-off in the technology sector led the S & P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average to negative territory for the year. The technological rollover was subsequently accompanied by a sharp decline in energy stocks, as oil prices resumed months correction. As of Friday, both the S & P 500 and the Dow were down more than 1% for the year.
The oil price course intensified on Friday, while investors turned their attention to a forthcoming summit of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). US crude futures fell to a low of $ 50.60 a barrel on Friday, marking the second time this week that prices fell more than 7%. The Brent crashed to a low near $ 59 a barrel. Both contracts were traded at the lowest levels in over a year.
While OPEC is expected to announce new production cuts next month, it may not be enough to justify the expected decline in demand in 2019 and beyond. A slowdown in global economic growth is expected to limit the consumption of crude oil in the near future.
The week ahead
The crypto recession shows no sign of failure any time soon, which means that further losses will probably be in the short term. Bitcoin tested the $ 4,000 support on Friday, which suggests that bears have complete control. This is further highlighted by the increase in futures trading over the last two weeks.
While the recession was serious, the bitcoin became accustomed to high-value fluctuations during its brief history. This could be a bit surprising for new traders, especially for those who entered the market during one of the less volatile periods in bitcoin history. As recently reported by Hacked, bitcoins almost 80% of collapse is the fifth worst since 2011.
Disclaimer: The author owns bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. It holds investment positions in the currencies, but does not carry out trading activities in the short term or daily.
Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock.
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