Summary:

  • Large Bitcoin holders aka whales have been blamed for sudden price movements coming out of nowhere
  • Mastermind behind Bitcoin-related theft escaped from a prison and fled to Sweden
  • Indian Bitcoin community prepares a petition to the court against the actions taken by the Reserve Bank of India

The past days on Bitcoin were remarkably hectic which was reflected by price movements coming out of the blue. Some blame big Bitcoin holders known as ’whales’ which throughout selling or buying notable amounts of the cryptocurrency sparked quite bizarre price swings. Just take a look at the chart below illustrating price action over the past three days or so.

link do file download linkBitcoin witnessed odd price swings over the past days caused possibly by Bitcoin whales. Source: xStation5

This view seems to be shared by the most prominent people in the cryptocurrency industry. For instance, Jonathan Benassaya – the founder and CEO at IronChain Capital being headquartered in San Francisco – said that “the best explanation is coming from those whales in the market who want to have some sort of control on what’s going on”, and he adds “it’s some sort of manipulation from actors”. On the flip side, other crypto pundits call into question this theory recalling that choppy trading is nothing new when it comes to Bitcoin. Anyway, the common denominator is that there is no certainty whether current price swings are offering any buying signals.

link do file download linkAlthough price movements might be impressive when one look at a lower time frame they are not from a daily interval standpoint. As a result, the price keeps moving below its upper limit of the channel and until it breaks above this line any quicker swings to the upside may be unlikely. Source: xStation5

Mastermind behind Bitcoin-related theft escaped from a prison and fled to Sweden

Sindri Thor Stefansson, who was a mastermind behind the theft of 600 computers used to mine Bitcoin in Iceland, escaped from a country’s prison and fled to Sweden by an aeroplane reportedly carrying the Icelandic prime minister. According to local police he travelled under a passport in someone else’s name, but was identified via surveillance video. Police chief Gunnar Schram told local media outlets that “he had an accomplice, we are sure of that”. Let us remind that the computers, which were stolen in four thefts and have yet to be found, have been valued at 1.45 million GBP and therefore it was dubbed by local media as the “big Bitcoin heist”. 22 people have been arrested thus far, the number which includes a security guard.

link do file download linkRipple managed to beat a local resistance nearby $0.69 opening a way for rises toward $0.86. Source: xStation5

Indian Bitcoin community prepares a petition to the court against the actions taken by the Reserve Bank of India

In response to the lately undertaken steps by the Reserve Bank of India, which prohibit banks from servicing businesses dealing in cryptocurrencies, the Indian Bitcoin community decided to hit back and prepared a petition to the Supreme Court in New Delhi against the central bank. According to the document a directive violates of the Constitution of India and therefore it needs to be quashed. Let us recall the the similar situation took place in Israel where the High Court judged the central bank violated people’s rights, so if history repeats itself it could result in the same fallout in India.