Did the IMF ruin El Salvador’s Bitcoin party? The president seems to think so
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Crypto at a glance
El Salvador is now, officially, the first country in the world where Bitcoin is legal tender.
But did the nation’s Bitcoin party pass without incident? Of course not. This is the curious world of cryptocurrency where volatility and controversy are seldom far from the spotlight.
In the hours leading up to going live and issuing $30 of free Bitcoin into the government-backed crypto wallets of any citizen who wanted one, Bitcoin took a spectacular tumble, taking with it nearly every digital asset on the market.
In the space of an hour it plummeted 10% – collapsing from $52,500 to below $47,000.
Eyebrows were raised across the globe, but perhaps none were raised quite so loftily as Nayib Bukele. The El Salvadorian president – a regular combatant with the International Monetary Fund – offered a spiky but veiled accusatory finger towards the IMF.
“Buying the dip! 150 new coins added,” he tweeted as soon as the flash crash was in full flow.
He later taunted: “It seems the discount is ending. Thanks for the dip IMF. We saved a million in printed paper. El Salvador now holds 550 Bitcoin.”
Wait. ‘Thanks for the dip, IMF’? Did the president of a country suggest the IMF has the ability to manipulate the price of Bitcoin?
Bukele’s skirmishes with the IMF and a plethora of other international financial regulatory bodies are well chronicled and, largely, consigned to history. But will such a blunt, straight-up accusation like that pass by without recourse?
Most probably. After all, El Salvador and Bukele are news gifts that seem to keep on giving.
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Yesterday’s Crypto AM Daily in association with Luno
In the markets
The Bitcoin economy
*Definitions and insights can be found at https://bytetree.com/insights/
Total crypto market cap
The total capitalisation of the entire cryptocurrency market at time of writing is currently $2,064,680,450,959.
What Bitcoin did yesterday
We closed yesterday, September 7 2021, at a price of $46,811.13 down from $52,633.54 the day before. The daily high yesterday was $52,853.76 and the daily low was $43,285.21.
This time last year, the price of Bitcoin closed the day at $10,131.52. In 2019, it closed at $10,441.28.
Bitcoin market capitalisation
Bitcoin’s market capitalisation at time of writing is $852.42 billion. To put it into context, the market cap of gold is $11.412 trillion and Facebook is $1.077 trillion.
Bitcoin volume
The total spot trading volume reported by all exchanges over the last 24 hours was $66,361,765,573, up from $40,918,439,095 the day before. High volumes can indicate that a significant price movement has stronger support and is more likely to be sustained.
Volatility
The price volatility of Bitcoin over the last 30 days is 45.46%.
Fear and Greed Index
Market sentiment today is 47.
Bitcoin’s market dominance
Bitcoin’s market dominance today is 42.21, Its lowest ever recorded dominance was 37.09 on January 8 2018.
Relative Strength Index (RSI)
The daily RSI is currently 44.23. Values of 70 or above indicate that an asset is becoming overbought and may be primed for a trend reversal or experience a correction in price – an RSI reading of 30 or below indicates an oversold or undervalued condition.
Convince your Nan: Soundbite of the day
“Today Bitcoin was formally recognized as legal tender in its first country. Beyond the headlines, there is now pressure on competing nations to acquire Bitcoin – even if only as a reserve asset – as its design massively incentivizes early adoption. Latecomers may regret hesitating.”
Edward Snowden on El Salvador’s landmark BTC adoption
What they said yesterday
McBitcoin…
Inspiring the rest of the world…
Remember this day…
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Cautionary Notes
It’s definitely tempting to get swept up in the excitement, but please heed these words of caution: Do your own research, only invest what you can afford, and make good decisions. The indicators contained in this article will hopefully help in this. Remember though, the content of this article is for information purposes only and is not investment advice or any form of recommendation or invitation. City AM, Crypto AM and Luno always advise you to obtain your own independent financial advice before investing or trading in cryptocurrency.
All information is correct as of 08:00 BST