Bitcoin UP nearly 10 per cent after shock cryptocurrency plunge – Ethereum, Safemoon and Dogecoin latest updates

BITCOIN JUMPS 12PC

Bitcoin jumped as much as 12pc on Monday to over $53,000.

The cryptocurrency was on course to snap five straight days of losses, though it slumped almost a fifth from its all-time high hit earlier this month.

VEHICLE DEALER TO ACCEPT BITCOIN PAYMENTS

Major recreational vehicle dealer Camping World will start accepting bitcoin payments, report Bitcoin Magazine.

Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis said: ”Accepting cryptocurrency is simply another part of our vision to make RVing easy in an increasingly digital world

“The partnership will allow Camping World to maximize convenience for the customer and attract new consumers without holding the currency on its balance sheet.”

JPMORGAN TO OFFER BITCOIN TO CLIENTS

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is preparing to offer a Bitcoin fund to wealthy clients, according to Bloomberg.

It is reportedly the latest sign Wall Street is warming to the cryptocurrency.

The actively managed fund will be available as soon as this summer, CoinDesk reported Monday, citing sources familiar with the plans.

NYDIG will be the custody provider, a person with knowledge of the situation said, asking not to be identified because the decision hasn’t been made public.

Spokespeople for JPMorgan and NYDIG are yet to comment.

WHAT IS SAFEMOON?

Not a huge amount is known about Safe Moon and whether it’s legit, meaning the risk to your investment is very high.

SafeMoon technically isn’t a cryptocurrency but a DeFi token, which stands for decentralised finance token.

They are very complex but essentially aim to disrupt the finance world to enable people to follow and lend in peer-to-peer networks, without needing a bank.

Like Bitcoin they use a complicated method called blockchain technology.

SafeMoon claims it will reward people who buy and hold onto the cryptocurrency.

TURKEY 5TH BIGGEST CRYPTO MARKET WORLDWIDE

Data from the Chainalysis and Kaiko crypto analytics firms show the daily volume of all crypto purchases in Turkey rising from around 500 million liras ($60 million) in November to as much as six billion liras in March.

Coinhills ranks Turkey as the fifth-biggest crypto market in the world.

But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government is reportedly preparing to quickly tighten regulations after deciding to ban crypto from being used for purchases of good and services starting on April 30.

The Turkish central bank warned last week that cryptocurrencies “entail significant risks” because the market is volatile and lacks oversight.

“Wallets can be stolen or used unlawfully without the authorisation of their holders,” the central banks said.

VEBITCOIN: ‘WE HAVE DECIDED TO CEASE CRYPTO ACTIVITIES’

Officials in Turkey have blocked the account of the Vebitcoin exchange – one of Turkey’s five-largest – and launched an investigation after it abruptly stopped its operation, citing financial reasons.

Local news reports said cops detained Vebitcoin chief executive Iker Bas and three other company employees on Saturday as part of a broader fraud probe.

“Due to the recent developments in the crypto money industry, our transactions have become much more intense than expected,” Vebitcoin said on its website.

“We would like to state with regret that this situation has led us to a very difficult process in the financial field. We have decided to cease our activities in order to fulfil all regulations and claims.”

LATEST BITCOIN PRICE NEWS – UP 10%

In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin today reclaimed the $50,000 mark, jumping 10%.

This put it on course to snap five straight days of losses exacerbated by US President Joe Biden’s plan to raise capital gains taxes for wealthy investors.

It was last up 9.5% at $53,770, reported Reuters on Monday.

CHINA ‘TO UNVEIL DIGITAL CURRENCY’

China looks set to unveil its own digital currency.

Trials have been running since last year for Digital Currency Electronic Payment – a system controlled by the central bank.

But the DCEP is not like other cryptocurrencies.

Experts actually say it is the antithesis of the world’s biggest digital currency Bitcoin, ABC reports.

This is because it is increased control and regulation rather than the opposite.

WHAT IS POOCOIN?

PooCoin launched on March 8, 2021.

Little is known about the cryptocurrency and whether it is legitimate, meaning the risks to your investments are extremely high.

Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, told The Sun: “There are now thousands of cryptocurrencies and tokens in circulation with the names becoming weirder by the day.

“[PooCoin] is the latest to be pushed out, and traders would be wise to hold their noses and keep their distance.

“The latest coins to be dropped into the crypto wild west slot machine may appear to be a joke, but could be no laughing matter for traders who dabble in products they don’t fully understand with money they can’t afford to lose.”

THE MYSTERY OF WHO INVENTED BITCOIN

The iconic white paper that unleashed Bitcoin upon the globe said the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto lived in Japan and was born in 1975.

The world’s media thought they had found the elusive character in 2014.

Apparently, he was Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, a computer engineer living in Temple City in Los Angeles County.

The Japanese-American man firmly denied that he was the shadowy force behind the infamous cryptocurrency, and the plot thickened.

It soon emerged that computer scientist Hal Finney, who was the recipient of the first Bitcoin transaction, lived a “few blocks” from the seemingly-oblivious Nakamoto.

BITCOIN CREPT UP OVER WEEKEND

Bitcoin was last up 6.7% at $52,452 after touching its lowest since early March on Sunday.

Other major coins Ethereum and XRP, which tend to move in tandem with bitcoin, were up around 5% and 11% respectively.

BITCOIN RISES 8% MONDAY – AFTER SLUMP

Bitcoin jumped as much as 8% on Monday and was on course to snap five straight days of losses, though the cryptocurrency has slumped almost a fifth from its all-time high hit earlier this month.

Bitcoin was last up 6.7% at $52,452 after touching its lowest since early March on Sunday.

Other major coins Ethereum and XRP, which tend to move in tandem with bitcoin, were up around 5% and 11% respectively.

Cryptocurrencies fell sharply on Friday on concern that US President Joe Biden’s plan to raise capital gains taxes would curb investments in digital assets, though they later recovered some of their losses.

HOW DOES BITCOIN WORK?

Bitcoin works using a system called ‘blockchain’, explains Which?

The consumer champs add: “Blockchain is a network of computers that all have access to every Bitcoin transaction that takes place.

“Each time a Bitcoin transaction is completed, the entire network is updated with this information so it can be validated by users on the network.

“The transaction information on the network is encoded using cryptography, which keeps the transaction data secure and prevents anyone from tracking who it belongs to.

“Once validated, the transaction information is added to a chain of previously approved transactions.”

WHAT IS BITCOIN AND CRYPTOCURRENCY?

Bitcoin is a digital currency (also referred to as ‘cryptocurrency’) that isn’t controlled by any country, treasury or central bank, explains consumer advocates Which?

It was created in 2009 by an anonymous developer, who goes by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, and hit the mainstream in 2013 following a rise in its value.

You can use Bitcoin to buy or sell items from people or companies that accept Bitcoin payments.

Bitcoin doesn’t exist as a physical currency, which means that there aren’t any actual coins or notes.

HIGHS AND LOWS OF BITCOIN

Bitcoin’s recent surge was helped by Coinbase going public – it’s the first cryptocurrency exchange to trade its shares on a stock exchange.

The cryptocurrency hit previous highs in February, when Tesla announced it would soon allows customers to make purchases using Bitcoin.

That announcement came with the revelation that Elon Musk’s tech firm had also invested $1.5billion in Bitcoin.

Bitcoin broke through the $20,000 price mark for the first time in December as interest in Bitcoin becomes more mainstream.

But the price previously plummeted when the coronavirus crisis first hit, sinking to £3,300 in March 2020.

FIVE RISKS OF CRYPTO INVESTMENTS

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has warned people about the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies:

• Consumer protection: Some investments advertising high returns based on cryptoassets may not be subject to regulation beyond anti-money laundering requirements.
• Price volatility: Significant price volatility in cryptoassets, combined with the inherent difficulties of valuing cryptoassets reliably, places consumers at a high risk of losses.
• Charges and fees: Consumers should consider the impact of fees and charges on their investment which may be more than those for regulated investment products. 
• Marketing materials: Firms may overstate the returns of products or understate the risks involved.
• Product complexity: The complexity of some products and services relating to cryptocurrencies.

WHY DID BITCOIN GO DOWN LAST WEEK?

The price of Bitcoin plunged by $15,000 on April 23, falling to its lowest value since March, the Sun reported last week.

The cryptocurrency dropped from an all-time high of $63,745 (£45,918) on April 14 to $48,409 (£34,871) at around noon that day.

It was a stark reminder of the high risks that come with investing in cryptocurrency. You should never invest unless you understand it and can afford to lose cash.

The fall came over fears that US President Joe Biden could slap a capital gains tax worth up to 43.4% on investments held for longer than a year.

It would reverse former President Trump’s 2017 tax cut for the wealthy and could hit the pockets of those who make serious gains on cryptocurrency.

BITCOIN RISES 8% MONDAY – AFTER SLUMP

Bitcoin jumped as much as 8% on Monday and was on course to snap five straight days of losses, though the cryptocurrency has slumped almost a fifth from its all-time high hit earlier this month.

Bitcoin was last up 6.7% at $52,452 after touching its lowest since early March on Sunday.

Other major coins Ethereum and XRP, which tend to move in tandem with bitcoin, were up around 5% and 11% respectively.

Cryptocurrencies fell sharply on Friday on concern that US President Joe Biden’s plan to raise capital gains taxes would curb investments in digital assets, though they later recovered some of their losses.

WARNINGS ABOUT ‘THE NEXT INVESTMENT BUBBLE’

Investment bubbles are a regularly occurring feature of the financial markets, writes Jeffrey Kleintop for Charles Schwab UK.

He adds: “The conditions appear ripe again for the start of the next investment bubble.

“They are born of easy money, grow on speculation fuelled by a strong fundamental theme and high investor confidence, and collapse as money tightens.

“The specific set of conditions that characterise the start of an investment bubble appear to be forming.”

This includes those seeking “easy money. Currently, signs of easy money abound in the form of record-breaking fiscal and monetary stimulus around the world, abundant private sector investors seeking investments… [such as] the GameStop retail trading frenzy… [and] cryptocurrencies.”

BITCOIN PRICES ‘NOTORIOUSLY VOLATILE’ – REPORT

The prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are “notoriously volatile” says The Times.

It adds: “Bitcoin is the most popular of all the cryptocurrencies, which exist only as computer code.

“There is about $930billion of Bitcoin in circulation in a global digital currency market worth nearly $1.9trillion.”

GERMAN SOFTWARE DEVELOPER WANTS DIGITAL CURRENCY BANNED

A German software developer who made a fortune from Bitcoin has given the environmentalist Green Party one of the biggest political donations in the country’s history.

He hopes it will win this year’s national election – and consider banning the digital currency.

Moritz Schmidt’s donation of one million euros to the Greens made headlines, as the party traditionally receives only small sums. Such a large gift is rare in German politics. Parties in the country receive most of their funding from members’ dues and state aid linked to election results.

“I have benefited immensely from the Bitcoin bubble. It’s been a wild ride, and the proceeds are unearned riches really,” Schmidt told the Associated Press. “I’ve been sort of waiting for the right opportunity to donate a larger sum,” he added.

The 39-year-old from the northeastern town of Greifswald, said he bought a couple of thousand euros worth of bitcoin in 2011, shortly before it crashed, wiping 90 per cent off the value of his holdings. Since then, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have repeatedly surged and slumped on investors hoping to turn a quick profit.

BEWARE OF CRYPTO RISKS – YOU COULD LOSE A FORTUNE

Bitcoin can be risky to buy because its value rises and falls unpredictably.

Cryptocurrency’s volatile nature means you should be aware of all the risks involved. Because your cash can go down as well as up, you’ll need to be prepared to lose any money you invest.

Money expert Martin Lewis told the Mirror that when it comes to cryptocurrency, “if you can’t afford to lose the money you put in, do not invest in it”.

He added: “It’s a gamble like all forms of stocks and shares, like all forms of investment, and putting money in gold.

“That’s your choice, but if you do it the right way, the investment should work for you – that doesn’t mean you won’t lose money though.”

YOUNG BRITS WITH £1,000 SAVINGS LIKELY TO INVEST IN CRYPTO – STUDY

Young people with about £1,000 in savings are more likely to invest that money in cryptocurrencies, according to a Nationwide survey.

The bank’s research revealed that 28 per cent of Brits aged 16-24 with at least £1,000 in savings were more likely to dabble in the crypto market, compared to 22 per cent of the wider population.

SECOND CRYTOCURRENCY PLATFORM CLOSED IN TURKEY

Turkish authorities have announced that four people linked to the cryptocurrency platform Vebitcoin have been nabbed after being accused of fraud.

BBC News reports that more people are using cryptocurrencies in Turkey to protect savings from a sharp decline in the value of the local currency, the lira.

But the Turkish cryptocurrency market is unregulated, it points out.

Turkey officials announced the banning of cryptocurrencies being used to pay for goods and services from April 30.

LATEST ON CRYPTO MARKET

In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin reclaimed the $50,000 mark and smaller rival Ether rose – recouping some of their losses from last week triggered by US President Joe Biden’s plan to raise capital gains taxes for wealthy.

The dollar edged lower on Monday amid speculation that U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will shun talk of tapering bond purchases at a policy meeting this week.