Crypto News of the Day (18.3.) | Google’s search for “buy Bitcoin” outpaced the “buy gold” in crisis and other news
4 min readTable of Contents
Here you can find an overview of the most important events that took place during the last day in the cryptoworld.
Markets
After massive interventions, markets have been somewhat stabilized. Despite pessimistic forecasts, Bitcoin is still above $ 5,000, but the price is currently falling. The US Fed issued an emergency rate cut of 100 basis points and announced a new quantitative easing of at least $ 700 billion. The Trump administration also said it plans to send checks directly to US citizens under a $ 1 trillion stimulus program. Nonetheless, the main stock markets are flashing red, which probably suggests that investors are concerned that currency easing will not be sufficient to trigger economic activity following the end of the coronavirus pandemic.
You can monitor the current cryptocurrency prices – here.
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Cryptocurrency
- Google’s search for “buy Bitcoin” outpaced the “buy gold” in crisis
- Steem is planning a hard fork on Friday and moving to Hive.io to avoid Justin Sun
Hacking, Scams
Blockchain, Technology
Google’s search for “buy Bitcoin” outpaced the “buy gold” in crisis
Google Trends searches for bitcoin show significant interest in the crypto-asset even after suffering one of the worst single-day losses in history. Despite bitcoin dropping briefly to $3600 last week and losing more than 60% of its value over the last month, Google Trends data shows interest investing in cryptocurrency. Search queries for bitcoin jumped last week, even amidst the market panic and global economic uncertainty generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Searches for ‘bitcoin’ nearly doubled on Mar. 12 to reach their highest point since June 2019 and remained elevated in the aftermath.
Google Trends data shows that ‘buy bitcoin’ has remained higher in the aftermath of last week’s crash than through the month of February and beginning of March.
— f i l ₿ f i l ₿ (@filbfilb) March 16, 2020
Steem is planning a hard fork on Friday and moving to Hive.io to avoid Justin Sun
The blockchain for bloggers, Steem, is moving to Hive.io. The hostile hard fork is scheduled for Friday. For this initial hard fork, one key thing will change: The tokens from the original development fund controlled by Steemit will not be carried over to the new chain. Everyone else’s will be ported over.
“He didn’t understand that the underlying value of those tokens is the community,” Notestein said. “In the end, if not enough people support those tokens, they become worthless.”
In short, rather than continue the fight for Steem, prominent community leaders hope to take their community with them to greener pastures. More details.
Hackers use coronavirus spread maps to infect your computer with malware
Hackers have been using the fear of the coronavirus to spread an infection of their own in the form of malware that has been discovered within coronavirus tracking maps. This marks yet another way that bad actors have taken advantage of the fears of the current virus outbreak, which is already disrupting businesses around the world on its own.
As usual, cybercriminals are using any confusion, fear, resulting in chaos to capitalize on people’s fears. This is not even the first time something like this was done — back in January of this year, hackers launched a coronavirus-based email campaign to infect people with malware. Now, they have expanded their reach and are using online maps for the same purpose. More details.
Revolut launches Revolut Junior, an app for kids
Revolut, one of the biggest fintechs in Europe, introduced Revolut Junior, a money management application aimed at children of the Generation Alpha and Generation Z. The accounts connected to the app will have their own bank cards for the kids to use. The product is currently available to the children of British Premium and Metal clients, who pay £6.99 and £12.99 per month, respectively, for the top-tier accounts offered by Revolut. Later on, the product will reach children of clients with free accounts and beyond the UK.
Junior accounts can be opened only by parents or legal guardians. They will have the right to manage and monitor their kids’ balance through an app. By the end of this year, the account will have the ability to set financial goals, saving options, spending limits, reports, and financial guidance. More details.
