Cryptocurrency Weekend Roundup: Friday 13th Horror Edition
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We try to cover all the big news in cryptocurrency, but there are plenty of stories that we miss. Between publishing high quality code reviews and in-depth news analysis, it’s easy for a small-but-interesting story to slip past the cracks.
Here are some of the top marginalia from the week of July 8-13:
John McAfee Addresses Blockchain Conference from a Top Secret Bunker
Some people will do anything to avoid sharing a room with John McAfee. The future president was forced to cancel his live appearances at the Blockchain World Conference, which was held in Atlantic City this week. The change in schedule was apparently requested by BWC organizers after receiving apparent death threats against the aspiring statesman.
However, it takes more than a death threat to get McAfee to stop talking. Mr. McAfee apparently delivered the closing keynote as scheduled over livestream, from a secure location.
The BWC, which advertises itself as “the largest crypto event in history,” had over 4,000 attendees and 80 exhibitors, according to its website. Mr. McAfee was one of 666 speakers scheduled to appear. Wait, that’s a typo – sorry, 66. When dealing with McAfee, it just slips out sometimes.
Prices Still Tepid
We’re all in it for the tech, at least until the price starts slipping.
To take the temperature of the markets, Crypto Briefing launched a highly sophisticated study of market sentiment, in an open Twitter poll between the Dogecoin memes and McAfee jokes. According to our highly scientific findings :
- 22% of our followers think Bitcoin will be under $6000 next month.
- 44% think it will stay in the range of $6-8,000
- 12% predict think it might go as high as 10k
- 22% think it might go back over ten thousand.
Based on these not-so-significant figures, most traders are guardedly optimistic and it seems that the market may be close to the bottom. Although Friday the 13th is not a traditional time to make investments, it could be time to consider spending those Tethers.
This methodology might raise a few eyebrows, but it’s still more reliable than most Technical Analysis.
Persian Moon
Earlier this week we reported on the use for crypto in countries like Venezuela, a country whose government pays its bills by printing new ones. Now, Iran has also emerged as a likely beneficiary for cross-border crypto payments.
Iran is facing increasing isolation after the failed Nuclear Agreement. The US Ambassador has pressured German banks to prevent the Islamic Republic from making withdrawals, and the country may once again face sanctions. The last time that happened, Iran was cut off from international banking for four years.
The crypto advantage lies in enabling ordinary Iranians to make payments and store value without any banks. Nor can it be taxed, seized, dutied, or otherwise used for the benefit of local authorities, at least not without the cooperation of the hodler.
At the time of writing, the price of Bitcoin in Iran was $11,293, nearly twice the global average. That’s a nice chance for arbitrage, if you can get the money out.
Robinhood adds new cryptos
Robinhood, the investment broker for broke Millenials, recently integrated two new cryptocurrency investments: Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash, bringing the total up to four.
We’ve previously reported on Robinhood’s quest to make crypto more investor-friendly, an effort that was somewhat hindered by the limited crypto options, state-by-state restrictions and the lack of a functional wallet.
Since then, Robinhood has expanded to seven new states, for a total of seventeen altogether, and twelve new cryptocurrencies are waiting to be added. There’s still no way to spend your coins, but if you’re committed to hodling that might be a feature rather than a bug.
The author is invested in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.
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