International Monetary Fund (IMF) urges regulation of cryptocurrencies
In a blog post, Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), urged regulators to crack down on cryptocurrencies’ potential as a “major new vehicle for money laundering and the financing of terrorism.”
Lagarde cited the example of the “darkweb” marketplace AlphaBay that was used to launder more than $1 billion before it was stopped. Lagarde also claimed that the extreme volatility of cryptocurrencies could create new vulnerabilities in the financial system.
IMF view not entirely negative
However, Lagarde also noted that the blockchain technology that is used in producing many cryptocurrencies could itself be used for regulatory purposes.
Lagarde said: “The technology that enables instant global transactions could be used to create registries of standard, verified, customer information along with digital signatures. Better use of data by governments can also help free up resources for priority needs and reduce tax evasion, including evasion related to cross-border transactions.”
Google bans ads for cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings (ICO)
Early Wednesday Google also announced the ban on crypto-ads.
Facebook made a similar move earlier in the year although some inventive ads have escaped the filters. Some are quite simple actually. One ad spelled “bitcoin”, bitcOin to evade the filters. Several scams have avoided the filters
Bitcoin’s price movements
According to a technical analysis of price movements in a Coindesk article bitcoin could be heading for a sharp sell-off after it had failed to move up further during a recent price recovery.
BItcoin appeared to be in recovery mode after a temporary low of $8,371 on March 9. By March 11 the price seemed firmly established well over $9,000. But the recovery appeared to stall. For about 2 days, the price ranged from $8,800- $9,400.
Trading volume has now dropped more than 50 percent since March 9. This may indicate that traders lack confidence in any higher corrective move. A move above a recent high of $11,700 would be bullish but there is no sign of that. The downside could go as low as $5,500 according to the analysis, breaking through the February low.
As of UTC 15:07 the price of bitcoin was just over $8,700 down a little less than 5 percent for the day although the decline appears temporarily stopped.
