Market Overview of the Crypto Sector for March 2020

In this post, we will be showing you the market overview of the crypto sector revolving around cryptocurrency capitalization, exchanges, and regulations.

Table of Contents

Cryptocurrency Capitalization

The crypto market is highly volatile and never known to be stable. Looking at the crypto market capitalization on Coinmarketcap, the top traded cryptocurrencies this month is the Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Tether, and Bitcoin Cash.

In fact, there have been a lot of price changes both in February and March that have caused some uncertainty in the crypto industry.

At the end of January 2020, the bitcoin was trading for about $9,300, but by the end of February, bitcoin sold for about $8,500.

Conversely, the value of Ether tells a different story. Ethereum being the altcoin with the highest market capitalization, was trading for about $180 at the end of January and sold for about $219 at the end of February.

While Bitcoin lost a bit of value the previous month, Ethereum gained. Such changes in prices for cryptocurrency are not new, but for the last month, there are specific forces that drove the prices up and down.

Notably, the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), which has killed more than 6,500 persons globally, had a significant impact on the crypto sector as well as other market sectors. The reason is that investors are scared of the economic effect of the virus.

Ordinarily, this should not affect the crypto sector as it is an unregulated one. But, as the virus hit the United States – the country with the most crypto holders – market activity reduced, which led to a price drop. Despite this, some traders are still making massive purchases as they consider it an opportunity for buying cryptocurrencies at a low cost.

Unfortunately, since the start of March, there has been no significant improvement as top cryptocurrencies are still experiencing severe price falls. At the beginning of March, it seems like a growth trend had begun as prices went up.

However, as of mid-March, the Bitcoin sells for about $4,600, which is nearly half the price for it at the beginning of the month. Conversely, Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin have also experienced price falls.

Crypto Exchanges

Based on the trade volume of the previous month, the top traded crypto exchanges are Binance, EtherFlyer, BitMEX, MXC, and BKEX. Transactions on crypto exchanges have been less and slower than before as a result of the effect of Covid-19 on the market cap.

It is known that the value of cryptocurrencies is determined by how much they are needed. As a result, the drop in trading volume resulted in a massive drop in price.

No doubt, exchanges were overwhelmed, but none of the major crypto exchanges experienced a closure despite the deflation of the crypto-market.

On the day when the Bitcoin dropped massively in price, Malta-based crypto exchange OKEx had its website down for maintenance. This got users worried but, in no time the site was live, and users were met with a surprising bitcoin value.

Furthermore, OKEx reported that they experienced two DDoS attacks even though their services were unaffected. Also, Bitfinex was hit by a DDoS attack, which saw the exchange platform unavailable for about an hour.

In a different situation, Australia crypto users saw the invention of a new cryptocurrency exchange platform from a Biteeu and Bittrex partnership.

Similarly, OKex partnered with CoinDCX to offer future products in India. An update from Coinbase reported that the exchange no longer issues bitcoin transactions one-by-one; instead, they are being grouped to cut blockchain load.

Regulations

While the bitcoin and crypto market remains unregulated, so many regulatory events have been going on. Starting from Africa, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (the country’s Apex bank), is looking at regulating cryptocurrencies in the country. The bank has thus far prepared a sandbox scheme to be used by crypto companies.

Furthermore, a ruling by France’s Nanterre Commercial Court classified bitcoin as money; hence, bitcoin loans are now considered consumer loans.

In eastern Asia, a bill has been passed by the South Korean National Assembly for the regulation of cryptocurrency using standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). As of March 2020, trading and holding of cryptocurrency are legalized in South Korea.

Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority which has been regulating cryptocurrency in the country since the start of the year 2020 closed down some bitcoin ATMs. In fact, the closed ATMs were said to be unauthorized.

In the United States, a bill for the reformation of the US cryptocurrency regulation act was introduced amidst mixed reactions. If such an act is approved, it could have a positive impact on the crypto market, considering that the US has significant cryptocurrency holders.

Rounding Up

Due to the nature of events happening – notably the Covid-19 pandemic, the crypto market is a bit fragile at the moment. Will there be a price increase by April? The chances are not that high unless the panic caused by the pandemic is gone.

In the meantime, you can keep up with the latest happenings in the cryptocurrency world for real-time monitoring.

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