Price Monitor:
Bitcoin is up 15% this week following a slight increase a week ago and an about 20% drop the prior week. In the wake of balancing out at $7,100 not long ago, the price soared above $8,000 in an emotional green flame. The cost has hit a wall (sell) over the $8,000 point, analysts remain optimistic. For the first time for half a month, we have seen quite a few personalities revealing their bullish price targets in a similar manner near the latter half of 2017. However, the recent price rise also brought down Bitcoin's dominance slightly, reversing the gains achieved in the past few weeks.
Ethereum rose 30% this week. The currency was trading flat in the last week and encountered a month of twofold digit drops in the weeks earlier. As with Bitcoin analysts remain optimistic that the rally will likely continue in the coming weeks. Looking deeper into the Ethereum environment, Golem is scheduled to go live this coming week.
Overall, the crypto market achieved gains of 20% this week which equates to a total market capitalization of $325 billion. The market has suffered in sideways trading for several weeks, and the reintroduction of bullish momentum will no doubt bring some level of comfort to the community.
Bans:
Donald Trump's (DT) enforced a crackdown on the Venezuelan Petro backfires: A representative from the Venezuelan government was thankful to DT for the amount of public coverage that came from the Petro ban. The individual also claimed the presidential order has increased investor interest in the United States. However the community is not entirely sold on these statements, earlier reports have accused the Venezuelans of spreading false statements to shill the Petro during its presale earlier in the year. The Venezuelan government continues to make bold forecasts for the future of the Petro, stating significant impact of the cryptocurrency will yield results within the next 3-6 months.
In Pakistan, the government banned banks from transferring cryptocurrencies this week, in a move that closely followed it's neighbour India. Currently, the following countries have enforced bans on cryptocurrencies in various forms: Bangladesh, Bolivia, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Nigeria, Russia and Vietnam.
Jamie Dimon (CEO of J.P. Morgan) a frequent commentator on Bitcoin and labelling the cryptocurrency as a "fraud", suffered some negative press this week. The firm was served with a class action lawsuit concerning "hidden fees" users incurred when using their credit cards to buy Bitcoin.
In Poland, authorities revealed that controversial cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex might be implicated in an ongoing investigation into money laundering estimated to be in the region of $ 371 million. The money laundered in question may have ties to the Colombian drug cartels, Colombia, as stated earlier, is one of the nations with an enforced ban on cryptocurrencies citing money laundering issues as early as 2016.
Hard Forks:
Another class-action lawsuit filed by victims of the BitGrail Nano breach have asked for developers to create a hard fork. If the lawsuit is successful, the hard fork will provide an opportunity for developers to return lost assets to the victims (investors). The Nano foundation has also declared it's support to the victims by sponsoring a legal pot; this pot will ensure that victims who can not afford legal representation are provided with the opportunity to participate in the legal action against the Italian Exchange. Cryptocurrency investors, in general, should pay close attention to the outcome of this lawsuit as it may set a precedent for future exchange hacks.
Vitalik Buterin (VB) has opposed potential hard forks that will stop ASIC mining. Following the recent Ethereum Improvement Proposal post, it stated the community utilizing/ working on the Ethereum Blockchain Network (EBN) should consider the necessity of revising the mining process to resist ASICs. Vitalik urged the community to exercise caution in the wake of Monero's recent hard forks and should rather focus more on the upcoming development's on the EBN.
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