

By Pierre-Alexandre

July 22nd, 2019

Last week, China and the U.S. have discussed the legality of Bitcoin and its existence as a potential transfer of value.

With all the buzz around the U.S. Senate hearing for Facebook’s Libra Project last week, the traditional crypto markets got lukewarm attention.

Bitcoin had a rocky rise last week but ultimately managed to end the week on a flat note with just 3% price gains.

Last Monday, July 15, Bitcoin started the week at around the $10,300 level. However, within the next two days ,Bitcoin broke its crucial support of $10,000 and slipped a $1000 points to hit a weekly low around $9200 levels.

The price drop came amid U.S. President Donal Trump slamming Bitcoin on Twitter saying that the cryptocurrency facilitates “unlawful behaviour”. Making his message clearer, President Trump said that the U.S. Dollar will continue to stay the most-dominant cryptocurrency in the world.

The effect of Trump’s comments was short-lived as Bitcoin immediately gained its lost ground on Thursday, July 18, climbing over $10,700 levels. Since then Bitcoin is flirting around those levels.

At press time, Bitcoin is trading at $10,750 with a market cap of $189 billion. With this, Bitcoin dominates over 65% of the $290 billion overall cryptocurrency market cap. The 24-hour trading volume at the press time of $16 billion.

Top Recent Bitcoin News

In a first-of-its-kind event, Bulgaria’s Bitcoin holdings have surpassed the total gold reserves of the nation . At present, Bulgaria holds around 200,000 BTC tokens valued at $2 billion. While on the other hand, its gold reserves are 40 tons amounting to $1.8 billion.



Well, it happens so that the Bulgarian govt. is not investing in Bitcoin. Rather, this amount was seized by the authorities back in May 2017 unearthing some criminal modus operandi .





Another major Bitcoin development coming from the Chinese mainland is that the local courts have legally recognized Bitcoin as a “virtual property”.

WOW 😲 BITCOIN IS LEGALLY PROTECTED IN CHINA



Today the first property dispute case on Bitcoin finalized trial in a local Chinese court. The court confirmed the "virtual property" attribute of Bitcoin, recognized it as a virtual property with valuehttps://t.co/W8ZeqLCYge — Dovey Wan 🗝 🦖 (@DoveyWan) July 18, 2019

As per the local magazine Caijing, the Hangzhou Internet Court stated that Bitcoin can be treated as a virtual currency because it can be used as a transfer of value and is scarce.



Reposting to this development, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) told Global Times that "Indeed, Bitcoin is virtual property, but it's not fiat money."





One of Donald Trump’s close allies in the Congress, Kevin McCarthy, seems to differ from the President critical view on Bitcoin. Kevin McCarthy, the Minority House Leader, told CNBC that he likes Bitcoin and that he is a fan of the security offered by the blockchain technology. McCarthy also added that the government should make it as a top priority to invest in the blockchain technology is its several use-cases.





During the testimony on July 17, U.S. Congressman Patrick McHenry took a contrasting stand from his fellow Congressmen and showered huge praises on Bitcoin calling it as an “unstoppable force”. He stated that the government should “not attempt” to stop the crypto innovation.





Looks like US Congressman @patrickmchenry understands geo-strategic & national security implications of 'unstoppable' #Bitcoin. Russia disintegrated because of inability to produce. A predictable result of lacking ability to perform accurate economic calculation. China will also! pic.twitter.com/U6yw6hymZb — Trace Mayer (@TraceMayer) July 17, 2019

Coinshares Chief Strategy Officer, Meltem Demirors also said that the Bitcoin ecosystem will continue to grow.



"It is inevitable that the Bitcoin ecosystem will continue to grow and contribute to the economy. The question is: where?"



"Inconsistent treatment makes it challenging for companies to determine how to operate within existing regulatory frameworks in the US."

- @Melt_Dem pic.twitter.com/7CdYyLqy6s — Jameson Lopp (@lopp) July 17, 2019

Co-founder & Partner at Morgan Creek Digital, Anthony Pompliano said that Bitcoin has crossed all hurdles in the last decade. He is optimistic about the coming 10 years.





Bitcoin went from the basements and black markets to the Federal Reserve, Treasury, and White House in just 10 years.



We continue to underestimate what is possible in a decade.



Can’t wait for the next 10 years 🔥 — Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) July 16, 2019

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that strong regulations are needed to ensure Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies don’t become like the anonymous Swiss bank accounts. Speaking to CNBC, Mnuchin said : “We’re going to make sure that bitcoin doesn’t become the equivalent of Swiss-numbered bank accounts, which were obviously a risk to the financial system”.





Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin basically told everyone to follow the rules and not doing illegal things with Bitcoin or crypto.



Sounds like a green light for those who want to do things the right way 🙏🏽 — Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) July 15, 2019

Bitcoin Weekly Report Using Omenics Sentscore Analysis

The Omenics’ Sentscore chart shows that the overall market sentiment for Bitcoin remains “neutral” for the last week. By the end of the week, the sentscore chart looks moving upwards and is now back to the positive zone.

`

The news sentiment indicator graph oscillates between the “neutral” and the “negative” zone throughout the week. It means that the Bitcoin news flow remains neutral or relatively less. The graph shows an upward movement by the end of the week:

The social sentiment indicator oscillated with the BTC price movement and remain in the “neutral” zone between 4-6:

The buzz sent score graph shows a steep drop by the end of the week. It still manages to hold up in the “neutral” zone.

The Bitcoin technical indicator remains “neutral” but is on an upward trend: