The coronavirus has physically separated people. This creates a problem in a world where in-person interaction is commonplace. Technology existed for years to alleviate this situation yet was not embraced. Due to the virus, institutions are having to look at the different technologies to see how they can be implemented. The United States Congress is also affected. Their votes are conducted on premise in person. Obviously, this is not easily accomplished due to the virus. So what is the answer? Congressional votes are done in a manner that can leave no issue with who voted for what. This is bringing up the prospect of blockchain. The Senate is now looking at implementing blockchain as part of its voting process. This would lead to the establishment of verified votes. One issue that is being looked into is one of security. Since blockchain is open to 51% attacks, the chain that is used, whether public or private, needs to be free from this. How can this be accomplished is the question. This is a reversal in the stance by the United States Government. I maintained for a while now that the United States, because of its loyalty to the bankers and lack of understanding of technology by its political leadership, is falling behind the rest of the world. Blockchain and cryptocurrency are growing yet the United States is not the place to develop these technologies if you are a company. Start ups are best served going elsewhere. A turn in the mindset of the Senate could go a long way towards changing the stance of the government in general. Thus far, the Administration showed itself to be an enemy of these new technologies. Blockchain actually fits into a world that is advancing forward rapidly due to technology. It is a data structure that can allow for distance interaction while presenting an immutability. The fact that it is also transparent, public blockchains at least, also lends itself to government voting. A bill was presented to move in this direction. We will have to see if it passes and how they work out the details.

Bitcoin is all the talk right now. The run up to $10,000 put the largest cryptocurrency on track to be the best investment of 2020. What we saw so far could be just the beginning. A signal that was issued in 2016 that took BTC from $700 to $20,000 is back. It also signaled the move from $5,000 to $14,000. Now, it is showing a clear path to all time highs. This has Bitcoin whales loading up on their favorite token at an increasing pace. Many question how Bitcoin would hold up given the nature of the global economy at the moment. For whatever reason, it has been following the stock market. The price tanks in mid-March along with the market yet has recovered nicely. The run to $10,000 is significant only if it can hold above that level. In the last 24 hours, we saw a pullback towards the $9,500 range. After such a burst, a bit of consolidation is very healthy. However, it is easy to move into a topping pattern is we are not careful. This would bring on lower levels for Bitcoin. Whatever the near term move, it is evident that the major Bitcoin players are feeling confident about the longer term prospects going forward. Bigger traders are increasing their positions to take advantage of big moves forward. With such a tailwind, even a pullback towards $8,000 might not be enough to stop its ascent. This could produce a sling shot effect which blasts the price through the $10,000 level, sending it much higher. We see the halving take place in the next couple days which throws a lot of uncertainty into the equation. Nobody truly knows what will happen post-halving. Nevertheless, at some point, things will get back to normal and the current trend will be repeated. Over the next year, we could easily see new all time highs in Bitocin.

The price of Bitcoin surges above $9,000 ahead of a Goldman Sachs client call about gold and BTC. The price of Bitcoin (BTC) surged above $9,000, demonstrating a decent recovery in the last 24 hours. Market data shows a further upsurge to the $9,300 to $9,400 range is likely in the near-term. Three key reasons increase the probability of a minor rally: liquidation of 25x to 50x shorts are at $9,300, whales using the Goldman Sachs narrative and low funding rates in the futures market. Liquidation price of 25x to 50x shorts According to a cryptocurrency trader known as “Crypto ISO,” the liquidation range of 25x to 50x shorts filed in the high-$8,000s is at around $9,300. The $9,300 resistance level also has sufficient liquidity, which gives whales incentive to bring up the price of BTC above it. The trader said: $9,298 is 25x liq, $9,336 is 50x liq. Around the throwback channel line and fib zone. Price ran most of the liqs down today. Maybe it shoots for topside liquidity before further distribution. Goldman is having a client call and one of the topics is BTC. In April, when the rally of Bitcoin from $7,000 to $10,000 was primarily led by the spot market, the futures market had less impact on the price of BTC. In recent weeks, the open interest of BitMEX, OKEx, and Binance Futures recovered. It indicates more traders are active in the futures market. As such, futures data such as liquidation ranges and funding rates can have a bigger effect on the price trend of BTC than before. Whales using the Goldman Sachs narrative Goldman Sachs is having a client call on May 27 with Bitcoin, gold, and inflation as the main topic. It may increase the exposure of high net-worth individuals to BTC over the medium to long-term. It also improves the perception of Bitcoin as a store of value among institutional investors. But the Goldman Sachs client call is unlikely to lead to any short-term institutional buying spree. Instead, the price of BTC going up based on the news is more likely to be whales using the narrative to trigger a minor rally to a liquidity area at $9,300. A similar trend was seen in October 2019. At the time, Chinese President Xi Jinping encouraged the acceleration of blockchain development. The news itself was unrelated with cryptocurrencies but the price of BTC surged from $7,000 to $10,000 within a 48-hour span. Low funding rate The funding rate of perpetual swap futures contracts on BitMEX, Bybit and Binance Futures was negative on May 26. It has increased slightly to below 0.01%, but it is still historically low for Bitcoin. It indicates that a large number of traders are shorting Bitcoin and possibly trapped in underwater short positions. That increases the probability of a short squeeze to the $9,300 to $9,400 resistance area. The low funding rate, minor fear of missing out (FOMO) around the Goldman Sachs call and the liquidation zone of shorts at $9,300 may lead to a small upsurge of Bitcoin.

Facebook continues sprucing up for regulators. Facebook-owned digital wallet Calibra rebranded itself as Novi earlier today, sharing new details about the project. The primary reason for the name change was to avoid the confusion with the Libra cryptocurrency, a representative for Novi told Cointelegraph. “When we announced Libra and Calibra last June, we wanted to demonstrate that Calibra, the digital wallet, was closely linked to Libra, the global payment system. Both brands were born out of the same vision, to give people more access to the global economy. However, we’ve found that Calibra and Libra sounded too similar and people were getting confused, so we set out to create distinction between the two.” The new name, which comes from the Latin words “novus” for “new” and “via” for “way”, intends to signal that the Facebook-developed product won’t be the only wallet available on the Libra blockchain. “We hope that Novi will be one of many wallets,” the spokesperson said. Asked about a timetable for launch, the representative said, “Our hope is to introduce an early version of Novi when the Libra network is available and we have secured all the licenses or approvals necessary to offer the services.” According to the official press release, Novi will be released as a standalone app as well as be integrated into Messenger and WhatsApp, two Facebook-owned messengers boasting around 1.3 billion and 2 billion active users respectively. All customers will be asked for a government-issued ID, while “fraud protections will be built in throughout the app” — a move that seems to stress the company’s compliance in light of the regulatory scrutiny surrounding Facebook’s cryptocurrency project. Although the wallet’s new design is supposed to “represent the fluid movement of digital currencies,” it does not currently plan to cater to any cryptocurrencies other than the Libra Coins. These are represented by single-currency stablecoins like LibraUSD, LibraEUR and Libra GBP. There is also a multi-currency coin called LBR. Libra has been making adjustments Earlier this year, the Libra Association introduced a number of changes in a bid to make the project more attractive to regulators. It applied for a payment system license from the Swiss financial regulator FINMA and updated its white paper to introduce a more compliant roadmap for Libra’s future, essentially limiting what users and hosts can do on the network. To further cement its commitment to abide by crypto regulations, the Libra Association has gone on a hiring spree, tagging in compliance veterans like Robert Werner and Stuart Levey. Werner resume boasts names like the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, while Levey was the chief legal officer for HSBC Holdings.