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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk

It's been an intense week, especially here in Silicon Valley, the first area of the US given 'shelter in place' orders. Why we were first hasn't been explained, but it's likely because of the amount of economic power in an area where Google, Apple, and Facebook employees live on the same street.

Since the Coronavirus pandemic took full effect, Bitcoin crashed down to the low $5000 and spent over a week floating around this zone.

Stocks performed the same, causing many to point out once again how the two markets often mirror each other, even though there's major fundamental differences.

Those differences may allow for a much easier recovery, as stocks continue to suffer, Bitcoin broke out with a 20% surge, peaking around $6900.

Read more on this in the Forbes article "Bitcoin Rally Leaves Stocks In The Dust".

With the initial shock of everything wearing off,  I wanted to take a deep breath, followed by a rational look at where things stand, and where they could go next.


No Safe Haven In a Panic...

While some have used the last couple weeks as evidence against claims Bitcoin was a safe-haven asset, I have to say - I never thought we were talking about situations like this.

Rather, a safe haven for crashes like the one we saw in 2008, where bankers and Wall St abused the traditional finance system, and the public would then be asked to trust that the people who just destroyed the system would now turn around and fix it.

That situation (which describes most historical economic crashes) makes Bitcoin look pretty damn appealing, and I think we will see a lot of people turning to it the next time it happens.

But scare like a virus, with people panicking and seeking cash fast - they're going sell whatever gets them that cash.

I'm not sure why anyone ever thought that wouldn't include crypto.

I'll take it one step further and say - an asset immune to panic selling triggered by global pandemic does not exist.


Crypto May Be First To Recover...

When something major happens that causes investors to panic sell, it's no surprise both crypto and stocks take a hit.

But crashing together doesn't mean they need to recover together.

Recovery is a very different game for each. The stock market wants to hear about company profits, see earnings reports, and hear statements from CEO's about their path forward.

The decentralized nature of cryptocurrency means the traders and investors alone can drive recovery - we're not waiting to hear from any person or company. 

There's no "CEO Of Crypto Inc" putting out statements for the media to pick apart - for or better or worse, we're on our own.

Currently it seems to be for the better, but keep in mind this is a double edged sword - for example, we'll never see a bailout for the crypto industry, or a coin considered "too big to fail" and government stepping in to save it.


What To Watch For Next...

What happens in the US will determine what happens next in the market.

The panic has is gone, but people are still on edge - there's two very different possibilities.

The best case scenario - we continue as-is for the next few months.  Cases of the virus popping up at a pace they can be dealt with, eventually ending with a vaccine or some other viable treatment that officially puts an end to the whole thing.

The worst case scenario - as you know people can carry the virus for weeks without feeling ill, and during this time they can spread it to others. It was just a week ago where people were still gathering in large crowds - Las Vegas for example just went dark days ago.

There could be a massive number of people infected who currently don't know it. Not saying there is, just saying it's possible.

So we now enter a phase that could last for 1 to 2 weeks, of waiting to find out which scenario is real.


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Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk

Crypto markets are in free-fall as investors in areas most effected by the Corona Virus sell off their investments.

This is a two-fold reaction.

Asian investors continue to sell off as South Korea and China battle the viruses continued spreading.

At the same time, Europeans are bracing for the effects of the just announced US travel ban, which will halt travel between the United States and Europe for at least 30 days.

Bitcoin's success comes back to bite...

Remember, panic selling isn't based on logic, and there's an interesting thing that happens in these conditions - people don't sell investments that have lost money, but rather the ones that have made a profit.

Taking a loss is just a harder pill to swallow, compared with the winning feeling of cashing in a profitable investment.

Now that you're aware of this common mistake, you can make sure to play it smart and sell your losing investments first!

With Bitcoin being the top performing investment of the year, that makes it first to go.

But They'll be Back...

The flip-side of this is, most crypto investors believe a 'come back' following a crash is pretty much a sure thing. They've watched it happened so many times, people speak of a recovery in terms of 'when' not 'if'.

Once the market agrees the sell off has hit bottom, the same people who just sold are likely to jump right back in, and the long term outlook remains extremely positive.

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Author: Harvest Hill
Silicon Valley Newsdesk

We're going to assume you already know what halving is, and have seen at least some the hype surrounding the upcoming halving of BTC.

For the few who haven't, the shortest explanation we can give so you know the basics is:  As you know, mining a cryptocurrency will earn you some of that cryptocurrency.  Halving is when miners pay gets cut in half. Token creators plan this from day one to occur in the future as a way to keep the coin scarce when millions of their coins total supply has already been released. The idea is, the more coins that are already floating around the market, the harder it should be to earn free coins by mining.

There's a several reasons why people believe this will trigger an increase in a coin's price.

First, it has in the past.  In the case of Bitcoin, halving has happened before, and each time was followed by a price increase.  When Bitcoin launched, 50 BTC per block was given out to miners. Halving has occurred every 4 years since then, and the next halving will bring it down from 12.5 to 6.25 BTC.

Second, many miners sell immediately. Especially the large mining operations, these are big companies with investors who want to see quarterly profits like any other company. They tend to immediately sell the coins they mine. But halving has already caused some to sell less and HODL more as they became harder to get. More coins off the market increases the value of those on it.

Lastly, simply the concept of scarcity. The market knowing less coins are being created every day, means any dilution that may have caused now happens at a rate half of what it was before.

But Bitcoin isn't the only one coming up this year, so we thought it would be worth taking a look at the other potential chances to profit from coins that will be going though the halving process.


The Big One - Bitcoin...

Bitcoin's halving is expected May 12, 2020.  Expect to see prices rise before this, as many people plan to load up their bags weeks/months ahead of this date. What will happen on this date is a mystery, the market is so different than it was the last time, I don't like looking back at anything from 2016 as a way to predict what will happen in 2020.

There's a lot more people in it, but among them is a lot more looking for a quick profit.  Will the halving date simply be when they plan to dump? Or, will they want to horde/HODL their coins believing the value will continue to climb, especially now that it's become more scarce?

Your guess is as good as mine.


Both of the other Bitcoins too...

Everyone has an opinion when it comes to Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) and the miners are no exception.

Currently, most miners for these coins already work for a loss, that's how you know they're die-hard believers, they're betting it all on the token's value increasing in the future.

Regardless, all you need to know is - both have halvings coming sometime in April 2020.|


Zcash Follows in Bitcoin's footsteps...

Just like BTC, there will only be 21 million coins ever created.

The current reward for miners is also the same - 12.5, and will be reducing to 6.25 ZEC.

The block that will trigger the halving will come sometime in October 2020.


Ethereum Classic...

Not to be confused with ETH, Ethereum Classic (ETC) does basically the same thing, but calls it a tithing. In ETC's case, the mining reward is reduced by 20% every 5 million blocks.

At the time of publishing, they're on block 9,949,107 - block 10,000,000 will bring about the tithing and will hit sometime in 2020.


Dash, but don't get too excited.

Just including this to be complete, but I wouldn't expect a huge price increase here... a slight one perhaps.

Dash decreases mining rewards by 7.14% every 210240 blocks.

It's on block 1,234,495‬ as of publishing this article, with the halving coming on block 1,261,440 - so, very soon.


In Closing...

My strategy (insert standard 'don't blame me, do your own research' disclaimer here) is to watch how BCH and BSV perform in their halvings, since they come first. Then assume Bitcoin will do whatever they do but on an even larger scale, then assume Zcash will react similar to BTC.

In other words, be positioned for the best case scenario, but have those stop-losses ready just in case of the worst.

What's your predictions for the 2020 halvings? Tweet us @TheCryptoPress

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Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk

Bloomberg Intelligence's Mike McGlone examines the Bitcoin price, and Gold price movements finds some things in common...

Video courtesy of Bloomberg news

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Bloomberg tries to get to the bottom of what happened today to cause Bitcoin's rally...but no one is sure. Sonny Singh, CEO of Bitpay says he believes it's likely the Asian market providing the momentum, because of the time it began.

The surge does not appear to be manipulation, the price has held and many think after lingering around $4000 for so long, some larger institutional investors called the bottom, and jumped in big.

Video Courtesy of Bloomberg