Bitcoin price today: muted at $88k after soft US CPI data
In the dark hours of the night, the cryptocurrency known as Verge fell victim to another major hack. Shortly after Verge had been assessed by the People's Bank of China as being on the same level as Bitcoin.
This incident is a perfect example of how even the most gorgeous looking piece of tech can be vulnerable if its assets are underutilized. In other words, the network effect is only useful if the network is popular. If the audience is simply not attracted the network itself becomes vulnerable.
The user that reported the whole affair, apparently the same person who reported it last time Verge was hacked, submitted this image to show what the hacker had done.
Now, I don't understand any of this code, but what happened here is quite clear. Basically, this guy just had his way with a network by exploiting the fact that it was going unused and now the evidence is everywhere.
Today's Highlights
Unsatisfied President
Evasive Founder
Some Dry Crypto Updates
Please note: All data, figures & graphs are valid as of May 23rd. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you can afford to lose.
Traditional Markets
The whole "trade war is on hold" narrative didn't seem to last very long at all. Yesterday, President Donald Trump expressed that he is not satisfied with the way things are going there, indicating that this whole saga is far from over.
In addition, Trump cast further doubt that the planned meeting with Kim Jong Un in Singapore June 12th will go forward.
Stocks didn't like these updates one bit and major indices around the world are in deep red.
What seems to me, the more defiant Trump gets the stronger the Dollar gets. The US Dollar is gaining against most of the major currencies in what we can see as a clear flight to safety in the FX market.
That big 1% green spike in the Japanese Yen is not normal and is a clear indication that Asian investors are searching for a safe haven.
This evening at 19:00 GMT, we'll receive the minutes from the Fed's last meeting and crude oil inventories coming out at 15:30 are forecasted to show 2.5 million fewer barrels of oil in the United States.
In Your Facebook (NASDAQ:FB)
Mark Zuckerberg's trip to Europe most likely didn't go as well as he'd hoped. Whether you heard Laurel or Yanni, you can probably tell that the Facebook Founder was dodging questions left and right.
EU lawmakers asked him some very pointed questions but the answers they received were incredibly vague. We can likely expect that privacy-centric Europe will not sit on their hands with this one as the Yanks have done.
If investors are worried, it didn't show up at all in the stocks price. As we can see, FB stock has already made a full recovery since the Cambridge Analytica revelations and is now holding near all-time highs.
Dry Crypto
It's hard to be happy when everything is in the red like this but we can probably be comforted by the fact that we're still off the lows.
As a reminder, here's the Bitcoin chart we've been watching. As you can see we're still a few hundred dollars above the main support level circa $7,100.
Two positive things that happened recently in this space are worth mentioning.
First, the CFTC has gone one step further into their support of cryptocurrencies by releasing an Advisory for exchanges to list cryptocurrency derivatives. In their own words....
The second update is not as clear-cut but could have much larger implications. This article was forwarded to me by a dear friend in India this morning.
As we know, India's central bank, the RBI, has released a circular ostensibly banning banks from dealing with crypto-affiliated businesses, something that has been choking the market in a key region.
The linked article explains that the Indian government may now be considering to release a full tax regime for Bitcoin and other digital assets, which would tax crypto-transactions as if they are considered actual property.
Now, the key source for the article is still anonymous so we would need to rely on Bloomberg Quint's assessment of if he/she can be considered a reliable witness or not, but if the government does implement such measures it could be an indication that they feel the RBI's ban will not last much longer. Otherwise, why waste your time collecting taxes on something that's not transactable?
For me, I can't help but get goosebumps every time I think about the possibility of the Bitcoin "digital gold" network being opened up to a country of 1.35 billion people, who are in dire need of a reliable payment network.
Let's have an awesome day ahead!!
eToro, Senior Market Analyst
Disclosure: This content is for information and educational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or an investment recommendation. Past performance is not an indication of future results. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you're prepared to lose.