According to economic correspondents, the current situation on the digital currency market is marked by the sell-off of the cryptocurrency bitcoin (BTC), which fell close to US$ 52,000 per BTC during last weekend. This is a marked decline as a few days ago it was still above US$ 64,800 per BTC. At the beginning of the new trading week – the 17th one of 2021- on Monday 19 April it strengthened its exchange rate against the USD again but during Tuesday’s European trading morning bitcoin was weakening again.
On 20 April at 7:49 am CET, bitcoin traded on the Coinbase digital currency market at US$ 54,980.25 per BTC with the current daily decline of -1.86% against the USD. According to economic correspondents, the cryptocurrencies sell-off – especially bitcoin – was associated with rumours of a regulatory crackdown in the USA, which is a common fear amongst cryptocurrency investors. Oppenheimer Head of Technical Analysis, Ari Wald, told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Monday: “In August, bitcoin suffered a 20% drawdown, a 17% drawdown in November, 31% in January, 26% in February, 18% March, and now more recently down 16% about peak to trough. It must have been a tough nine months for bitcoin investors, right? Nope! … Through that period from the August peak into the recent low, bitcoin is up 315%.” In other words, Bitcoin has risen by more than 680% over a 12-month period.
Bitcoin is an internet open-source P2P payment network and also the crypto currency used in this network. Bitcoin’s main uniqueness is its full decentralization; it is designed so that no one, including the author or other individuals, groups or governments, can influence the currency, falsify, confiscate accounts, control cash flows or cause inflation. There is no central point in the network, and no one can make decisions. The final amount of bitcoins is known in advance and the release of bitcoins into circulation is defined in the network source code. There are minimal or no cost payments. The network has been operating since 2009 and it was created by a group of people known as Satoshi Nakamoto.
According to cryptocurrency analysts Bitcoin is the only medium of exchange that can offset central banks printing money. “Bit gold” and “b-Money” concepts were the basis for the creation of Bitcoin. There is now an official software client for payments, managed by volunteers from around the world and several alternative clients. Since 2011 conferences have been held all around the world on Bitcoin, economy, possibilities and implications of this currency. In September 2012, the non-profit company Bitcoin Foundation was established to take care of the Bitcoin infrastructure, monitor threats and possibly improve protocols, organize conferences and promote the currency. However given the decentralized nature of the network, the foundation has no special powers as the majority always makes decisions. In 2014, the Apache Software Foundation, a non-profit organization, began accepting donations in Bitcoins.
