Bitcoin Price Forecast: Déjà vu Moment for Investors as China Triggers Another Crash
Daily Bitcoin News Update
Investors reckon with another cryptocurrency crash triggered by the Asians. This time, we have the Chinese government to point fingers at.
The Chinese government blocked out all access to cryptocurrency exchanges on Friday. This includes any indirect gateways on social media, including through popular messaging app, “WeChat.”
In particular, two of the world’s largest exchanges, Binance and Bittrex, which were previously forced out of China after the government imposed a ban on their domestic operations, are facing the brunt of this new firewall.
Both were found to be inaccessible to Chinese investors on Friday. Mind you, these two exchanges had set up their operations in Hong Kong to sidestep the government’s ban on mainland China.
Now, Binance and Bittrex are among the top exchanges where Bitcoin is traded. In the past 24 hours, for instance, nearly 18% of the trading volume in Bitcoin flowed in from these two exchanges.
It’s obvious that the Chinese investors are flipping out in fear of losing access to their money. The BTC to USD rate crashed to as low as $8,400 before bouncing back above $9,000. It’s still down more than 8.72% in the past 24 hours, as I pen this update.
Chart courtesy of TradingView.com
Adding fuel to all this fire are the underwhelming remarks from the Governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC). The chief of China’s central bank took the convenient opportunity on Friday to reiterate the government’s negative stance on cryptocurrencies.
“We don’t like (cryptocurrency) products that make huge opportunity for speculation that gives people the illusion of getting rich overnight,” said the governor, loud and clear. (Source: “PBoC Governor Blasts ‘Explosive’ Cryptocurrency Speculation,” CoinDesk, March 9, 2018.)
Basically, that includes every cryptocurrency. Let’s not forget that Bitcoin, too, began to lose its appeal as a medium of exchange—the primary purpose that it was created for—as it became more of a speculative tool for storing value.
Analyst Take
It seems like Chinese investors looking to trade cryptos are temporarily out of luck. Until the playing field is leveled for Chinese crypto buyers, chances are that many of them will remain at bay. Albeit, the more tech-savvy Chinese investors, who are able to work their way around these firewalls, may remain active in the market. Nonetheless, this roadblock will certainly affect prices in the short term, but in our view, prices should stabilize in the long run.
We’re not losing sight of the big picture here as Bitcoin overcomes its shortcomings, solves its scalability problems with “SegWit” and the “Lightning Network,” and silences its skeptics. So, we’re optimistic in our Bitcoin price forecast for 2018, maintaining our price target of $15,000.
