Black Friday sales ended with a bang for Bitcoin, as the mainstream cryptocurrency climbed back up and regained value, after plummeting to lows of $16,500.

Bitcoin’s price sunk shortly after its run to $19K at the end of last week, as it was unable to maintain a support level above the psychological barrier. However, it has since regained a bit of its strength. Currently, it is trading north of $18,530.00 on CoinMarketCap.

With Black Friday just ending, many crypto enthusiasts have capitalized on sales and bought Bitcoin at a discounted price.

Cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance had offered Black Friday promotions, where digital assets could be bought by newly registered investors for as low as half the original price. Special draws were also offered on crypto exchanges, with Binance promoting a one-time deal where investors would have a chance to buy Bitcoin for 20% off, after spending at least $1,000 on the crypto exchange.

Other crypto firms such as TradingView, which offers insights on the market, provided deals of up to 60% for anyone wanting to subscribe to its trading analysis platform.

Barry Silbert, the renowned founder of Digital Currency Group, tweeted:

“Guess the Black Friday bitcoin sale is officially over. Hope you stocked up.”

The founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group – the parent company of Grayscale, the largest institutional BTC investor – has long been bullish on Bitcoin, even tweeting “#DropGold,” implying that cryptocurrency purchases such as Bitcoin were more worth one’s while. His comment on capitalizing on Black Friday sales was met with enthusiasm by crypto Twitter.

While some indicated that they had purchased Ripple (XRP) in large quantities, with the token experiencing phenomenal gains last week on the market, others said that they purchased more of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Wall Street veteran Raoul Pal replied to Barry Silbert’s tweet and said:

“Ok, last bomb – I have a sell order in tomorrow to sell all my gold and to scale in to buy BTC and ETH (80/20). I don’t own anything else (except some bond calls and some $’s). 98% of my liquid net worth. See, you can’t categorize me except #irresponsiblylong.”

Bitcoin’s price drop was an opportunity for investors

Despite Bitcoin’s recent pullback in price, many are still bullish and remain optimistic that the cryptocurrency will gain significantly in value in the long run. Well-seasoned investors have capitalized on BTC’s recent price dip to buy the cryptocurrency on sale. Bitcoin bull Anthony Pompliano explained his strategy previously, stating, “I bought more Bitcoin last night. Dollar cost averaging and multi-year time horizons allow you to view price decreases as opportunities to buy a greater asset on sale.”

Why Bitcoin will inevitably surge again

Some indicators that seem to point towards the mainstream cryptocurrency’s upward trajectory include the increase in daily BTC active addresses, plans from central banks to roll out another COVID-19 economic stimulus package, larger inflows of Bitcoin into North American cryptocurrency exchanges, and the depreciation of the US dollar.

This year, Bitcoin’s bull run has also been backed by institutional investors, as opposed to its rally in 2017, which was supported by retail investors, namely numerous small-sized investments.

With all these factors in play, it should come as no surprise that institutional leaders such as Barry Silbert have advised investors to secure Bitcoin as a store of value.

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Source: https://blockchain.news/news/bitcoin-black-friday-sale-ends-crypto-stock-up-is-advised-digital-currency-group-founder

According to The Financial Times, the Libra cryptocurrency being developed by Facebook’s Libra Association could be launched as early as January next year but in a limited format.

In April this year, Libra Association, which now has 27 members including Facebook, intended to unveil an electronic version of several traditional currencies, plus an electronic digital composite of all its coins. This came after global regulators raised concerns over the Association’s initial plan to create one synthetic stablecoin pegged to a basket of government bonds and fiat currencies.

But now the Association only plans to launch a single coin backed by the US dollar. The other currencies and the composite would be rolled out later in the future.

However, the exact launch of Libra cryptocurrency would depend on when the regulator (the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority) approves the project to operate. Such approval could come as soon as January. FINMA stated that it would not comment matters on Libra’s application whose licensing process was initiated in May this year.

Although the limited scope may appease wary regulators, critics have laid complaints that a move to launch a single-currency coin could hit customers seeking to convert currencies with additional costs, thus undermining its far-reaching ambition to enable greater financial inclusion by empowering billions of people and addressing the needs of the poor and unbanked.

Libra Cryptocurrency Facing Greater Hurdles

Facebook released its white paper in June 2019 with a mission to launch a simple financial infrastructure and global currency in the first half of 2020. However, the announcement received skeptical reception from financial regulators around the world, saying that Libra digital currency backed by traditional money and other assets could threaten the world’s financial stability and monetary system and hinder cross-border efforts to fight terror financing and money laundering and throw up problems for privacy, taxation, and cybersecurity.

Facebook’s cryptocurrency efforts have been met with questions and doubts almost from the time the company announced it in June 2019. The troubled cryptocurrency initiative suffered new blows in October 2019 as the departures of key founding members became an exodus. Visa, Stripe, eBay, and Mastercard dropped out of Libra, a week after PayPal became the first company to pull out from the controversial project.

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Source: https://blockchain.news/news/facebook-to-launch-libra-cryptocurrency-january-2021-but-in-limited-format