What’s Fueling Bitcoin’s Stellar Rally?
Why is the Bitcoin price pumping?
After over a year of unprecedented lows and painful losses, the cryptocurrency market has come roaring back. Well — not all of it. While the majority of the crypto market stagnates or capitulates, Bitcoin has gone on a solo rally, leaving other so called blue-chip digital assets in the dust.
A variety of fundamental factors going on behind the scenes have coincided to launch the world’s number one digital asset to soaring yearly highs. Additionally, this fiscal quarter is slated to be BTC’s best performing quarter to date.
In 2017, Bitcoin’s rise also lifted the tide on the rest of the market. This time around, the landscape is much different, but what changed?
Facebook’s Libra Coin Is Raising the Crypto Stakes
The news of the year is undoubtedly Facebook’s entry into the cryptocurrency space with its Libra project. Libra is a fiat reserve-backed stablecoin slated for use within the Facebook ecosystem and network of partners.
To some, it may not be immediately obvious that Facebook’s entry as a competitor to Bitcoin is also great news for BTC itself. The thing is, up until now, most of the discussion about cryptocurrency has been purely about price speculation. With Facebook throwing its hat in the ring, the world is now paying very close attention to blockchain — which, it turns out, is a revolutionary technology (something HODLers have known for a long time).
Let’s face it — Facebook has just legitimized cryptocurrency in the eyes of billions of people worldwide. Additionally, Facebook has over a billion active users, making its population greater than China’s. That’s a whole lot of people who are about to become cryptocurrency users.
So, now that crypto has gone legit, where will all those people go when their interest and curiosity in the digital asset class expands? That’s right — Bitcoin. It’s still the world’s most well-known cryptocurrency and will be Libra’s competition.
Altcoin Money Is Flooding Into BTC
Earlier this month, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, suddenly announced that it is ending support for American traders on its global exchange. Soon after, Bittrex, yet another leading exchange, announced it will follow suit.
Both exchanges have plans to launch America-specific exchanges. The kicker is that no one knows exactly which assets will make the cut. The whole issue boils down to regulatory concerns. American regulators at the SEC are currently engaged in a lawsuit against Kik for it’s $100 million ICO. The regulators have signaled they’ll continue pursuing other projects that resemble unregistered securities. Owners of exchanges are worried they are operating on the wrong side of the law. This means Americans are about to lose access to much of the digital asset market.
The upside for Bitcoin is that it’s without a doubt going to be one of the assets that Americans continue having access to. Long ago, American regulators deemed BTC a digital currency, not a security, so there’s no ambiguity there. With traders certain about Bitcoin’s future, they’ve started exiting alts in favor of BTC.
Between Facebook making a splashy entrance into crypto and regulatory woes for altcoins, things are looking great for Bitcoin to continue its stellar run.
Originally published at https://bittreo.com on July 5, 2019.
