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Bitcoin (BTC) Price Prediction: BTC/USD Rallies to $50,500 High but Fails to Sustain the Upturn

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Prediction – February 16, 2021
Today, Bitcoin bulls have broken the $48,000 and $50,000 resistance levels. BTC/USD has reached the high of $50,500 but was resisted. The bullish momentum could not be sustained because of overwhelming selling pressure above the psychological price level. The price eventually dropped and found support above $48,000.

Resistance Levels: $48,000, $49,000, $50,000
Support Levels: $35,000, $34,000, $33,000

BTC/USD – Daily Chart

Today’s price action is very significant as buyers were able to push Bitcoin above the $50,000 resistance but pulled back to $48,000 low. Analysts believe that if the $50,000 resistance is breached, Bitcoin will have an accelerated price movement on the upside. In today’s price action the candlestick has a long wick above the $50,000 resistance. The long upper shadow indicates that there is strong selling pressure above the $50,000 resistance. That is the reason BTC price fell from the high of $50,500 to $48,000 low. Bitcoin is trading at $48,309 at the time of writing. On the upside, if the bulls break the $50,000 resistance and bullish momentum is sustained, this will propel the price to rise and rally above the $60,000 high. However, if BTC price faces another rejection, the market will drop to as low as $44,000.

India Crypto Ban Is Like Banning the Internet, Says Former Coinbase CTO
There is an impending ban on Bitcoin and other crypto currencies by the Indian government. In late January, the Crypto currency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill have been introduced in India. The bill lays the groundwork for an official digital currency issued and overseen by the Reserve Bank of India. However, an anonymous senior Finance Ministry official spoke to Bloomberg that the upcoming ban was very likely to occur. He indicated crypto investors will have three to six months before converting their money to legal tender.

The former Coinbase chief technology officer, Balaji Srinivasan has indicated that India’s impending ban on Bitcoin and other crypto currencies is like banning the “financial internet.” He further indicated that: “It’s really important that the ban (India’s plan to ban owning, trading, mining or investing in crypto currency) should not go through. It would be a trillion-dollar mistake for India, without exaggeration.”

BTC/USD – Daily Chart

Meanwhile, Bitcoin has made a tremendous move as it broke above the $50,000 resistance. However, the bulls were overpowered because of strong selling pressure. On February 8 uptrend; a retraced candle body tested the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement level. The retracement indicates that Bitcoin will rise to level 1.272 Fibonacci extension or the high of $50,899.40. If price reaches that level, it is expected to reverse to level 78.6 % Fibonacci retracement level where it originated. The price action has already confirmed these levels and reversed.

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Prediction: BTC/USD Rallies to $50,500 High but Fails to Sustain the Upturn

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Personal Finance Survey Reveals that 67% of Individuals Trust Robots More than Humans to Manage their Investments

We’ve been trusting robots to manage money more than we “trust” ourselves, according to a recent study from Oracle and personal finance specialist Farnoosh Torabi. The global survey of over 9,000 individuals across 14 different countries revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic has “increased finance-related stress at home and in business, and people around the world are looking to AI for help.”

The Oracle study found that financial anxiety and sadness among individual consumers and business owners or leaders “more than doubled (increased by 103%) in 2020.” Notably, the study revealed that 67% of people “trust robots more than humans to manage finance.”

Around 85% of survey respondents “believe robots will replace finance professionals and 46% believe it will happen in the next five years.” Around 85% of business leaders “want help from robots for finance-related tasks.”

People are also “rethinking the role and focus of corporate finance teams and personal financial advisors,” according to the research.

Other notable results from the survey include:

  • Consumers want personal financial advisors “to provide guidance on major purchasing decisions such as buying a house (45%); buying a car (41%); and planning for retirement (38 percent).”
  • 60% of consumers “say the pandemic has changed the way they buy goods and services.”
  • 72% of consumers “say the events of 2020 have changed how they feel about handling cash, with people feeling anxious (26%); fearful (23%); and dirty (19%). More than a quarter (29%) of consumers now say that cash-only is a deal-breaker for doing business”.
  • Businesses have been “quick to respond as 69% of business leaders have invested in digital payment capabilities and 64% have created new forms of customer engagement or changed their business models in response to COVID-19”.
  • 51% of organizations are “already using AI to manage financial processes, compared with 27% of consumers”.
  • 87% of business leaders “say organizations that don’t rethink financial processes face risks, including falling behind competitors (44%); more stressed workers (36%); inaccurate reporting (36%); and reduced employee productivity (35%)”.

As noted in the update shared with CI, managing finances can be challenging during the best of times, and the financial “uncertainty” due to the COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated financial challenges at home and at work, according to Farnoosh Torabi, personal finance expert and host of the So Money podcast.

Torabi added:

“Robots are well-positioned to assist – they are great with numbers and don’t have the same emotional connection with money. This doesn’t mean finance professionals are going away or being replaced entirely, but the research suggests they should focus on developing additional soft skills as their role evolves.”

Research Methodology

Research findings are “based on a survey conducted by Savanta, Inc. between November 10 – December 8, 2020 with 9,001 global respondents from 14 countries (United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, France, China, India, Australia, Brazil, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Mexico and Saudi Arabia)”. The survey “explored attitudes and behaviors of consumers and business leaders towards money, finances, budgets, and the role and expectations of artificial intelligence (AI) and robots in financial tasks and management.”

Juergen Lindner, SVP, Global Marketing, Oracle, remarked:

“Financial processes in our personal and professional worlds have become increasingly digital for many years and the events of 2020 have accelerated that trend. Digital is the new normal and technologies such as artificial intelligence and chatbots play a vital role in managing finance. Our research indicates that consumers trust these technologies to accelerate their financial well-being over personal financial advisors and business leaders see this trend reshaping the role of corporate finance professionals. Organizations that don’t embrace these changes risk falling behind their peers and competitors; hurting employee productivity, morale and well-being; and struggling to attract the next generation of AI-empowered finance talent.”

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Fintech Adoption in Pakistan and Digital Transformation Supported by Local Fintechs Could Improve Tax Collection: PM Imran Khan

The team at Islamabad-based Fintech firm SadaPay has been introducing innovative and appealing financial products and services that are focusing on younger consumers in Pakistan.

SadaPay is offering black, sleek premium spending cards which may be comparable to some of the cards offered by European Fintech challengers such as Monzo or Starling.

SadaPay has also launched a Founder’s Club and allows its clients to get their hands on these premium black cards if they can get 10 of their friends or colleagues to register to use the company’s Fintech services.

SadaPay, which was recently approved by the State Bank of Pakistan to launch pilot operations, points out that Payoneer’s Global Gig Economy Index revealed that Pakistan was among the top freelance markets, even surpassing India, Bangladesh and Russia last year (following the COVID-19 outbreak).

The report from Payoneer confirmed that the United States saw the most growth at 78%, followed by the United Kingdom at 59%, Brazil at 48% and Pakistan following closely at 47%.

In Pakistan, there’s also a young workforce that is increasingly using digital banking and online payments services like EasyPaisa and JazzCash to settle daily transactions. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation in Pakistan and neighboring countries like India and Bangladesh as well.

Last month, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the Digital Pakistan initiative would help move the country away from a cash economy, which has become even more relevant in a post COVID world.

Prime Minister Khan had stated in January 2021 that the Digital Pakistan initiative would help the nation transition to a more modern economy. The premier, whose comments came at the launch ceremony for the ‘Raast‘ payment system in Islamabad, noted that the initiative could potentially play a key role in eradicating poverty in the country with a GDP of nearly $400 billion.

The Prime Minister remarked:

“Cash economy is an obstacle for the people.” 

He added that digital transactions will help Pakistan on its journey to prosperity. He also pointed out that tax collection is extremely low in the country and that out of the 220 million residents, just 2 million are paying their taxes.

He further noted:

“Only 3,000 Pakistanis pay 70% tax.” 

Khan explained that the low tax collection rate has been a significant challenge or obstacle in the country’s ongoing development.

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Blockchain tech makes sustainable development goals more achievable

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres estimates trillions of U.S. dollars per annum is needed to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The question is: “Where would it come from?” Official development aid, philanthropy and public finances cannot suffice, which means the needle is moving toward private capital to fund sustainable development projects.

Related: The UN’s ‘decade of delivery’ needs blockchain to succeed

But the gap between financing and the environmental impact does not exude the confidence of private investors to fund development projects. India, a center of sustainability risks and innovative interventions, offers an example of this gap. Between 2014–2015 and 2018–19, corporate social responsibility, or CSR, spent by the approximately 1,100 listed Indian corporates grew at a rate of 16%, while India’s score on the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index grew by roughly 1% compound annual growth rate, or CAGR. Ironically, most CSR spending by Indian companies goes to education and health — the very sectors the HDI index focuses on.

It is time for blockchain tech

Can blockchain technology be a workable solution? It can because development projects conduct measuring, reporting and verification, or MRV, processes measure the outcome and impact of projects. Most readers are aware that distributed ledger technology stores data batches in blocks on the network, and the need for independent verification from the network’s users makes the records transparent, secure, verifiable, and immutable. These are the very attributes by which blockchain can improve the MRV processes, thus improving data auditability and reducing misreporting/fraud of data. This can incentivize private capital to consider investing in this space.

Moreover, if we must identify the precise activity of a typical development project where blockchain technology can be leveraged, then it would collect and time-stamp project-level data for monitoring purposes. The challenge is many resource-crunched development projects, especially in developing countries, still collect field data by hand, which can lead to inaccuracies, mistakes and fraud. With a blockchain, such data can be collected and reported in a secure, transparent and verifiable manner.

What also adds adverse effects is the local institutions in the developing countries that implement such projects often lack the systems to ensure the data they report is verifiable. Weak regulations in such countries make it difficult to hold such local institutions to account. Add to this the distance between foreign investors and these local projects, and it becomes harder to stay on the same level.

Blockchain can reduce the data risks of local-level institutions, improve the validity of the data they report for impact, and instill confidence in foreign private donors/investors to fund such development projects.

Blockchain and MRV processes

What this implies is more financing flow can be committed to the local level. Back in 2017, the International Institute for Environment and Development estimated that only 10% of the $60 billion in public and private climate finance is directly committed to the local level, which is partly due to such perceived data risks. Using blockchain to improve MRV can facilitate greater access to capital for local-level institutions.

With blockchain enabling local projects to report verifiable performance as part of their MRV processes, local development institutions can gain a greater supply of capital. The Amazon in Brazil is an example. The Rainforest project uses blockchain and the Internet of Things to record and transfer data from electrical meters, robotic appliances and emission monitors on the environmental impact. Remote sensing satellites independently verify the status of patches, upon which blockchain smart contracts directly reward the farmers who preserve their rainforest patches. The outcome data is verifiable, and the exclusion of intermediaries while transferring incentives minimizes administrative costs and the siphoning of funds.

Blockchain-enabled MRV processes help disintermediate the intermediaries in a social or sustainability bond issuance, thus reducing issuance costs and making it possible for small enterprises to access the bond market or aggregate smaller assets into bonds. Already, leading Spanish bank BBVA uses blockchain to structure green bonds and loans.

As long as limitations such as internet capacity and technology literacy can be overcome, blockchain’s revolutionary role in improving the MRV processes around data can mobilize more private capital investments for development projects executed by local-level institutions in developing countries.

This article was co-authored by Sourajit Aiyer and Jae-Hoon Kwak.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Sourajit Aiyer is a consultant at South Asia Fast Track Sustainability Communications. Previously, he worked with traditional and sustainable finance organizations. He has written three books, over 160 articles for 60 publications, given over 30 guest-talks at various universities and conferences, and curated 20 webinars with over 50 international domain-experts.

Jae-Hoon Kwak is the CEO at Pan-Impact Korea, a company focusing on social impact via innovative technologies.

Blockchain tech makes sustainable development goals more achievable

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Breach at Indian exchange BuyUCoin allegedly exposes 325K users’ personal data

Users of Indian crypto exchange BuyUCoin have reportedly been affected by a breach compromising personal data of more than 325,000 people.

According to a report from Indian news outlet Inc42, a hacking group by the name of ShinyHunters leaked a database containing the names, phone numbers, email addresses, tax identification numbers and bank account details of more than 325,000 BuyUCoin users. However, a later report from Bleeping Computer shows the leaked data may only contain information from 161,487 BuyUCoin members.

Cybersecurity researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia posted screenshots of the leaked data — recorded until September 2020 — to Twitter last week, which included trading activity and BuyUCoin referral codes.

BuyUCoin initially claimed that “not even a single customer was affected” by the data breach and referred to the reports as “rumors,” but has since released a statement saying it was “thoroughly investigating each and every aspect of the report about malicious and unlawful cybercrime activities by foreign entities.” The exchange added that all user funds were “safe and sound within a secure environment” as it reported 95% were kept in cold storage.

Though no funds have reportedly been affected in the breach of the exchange, there are still potential risks to BuyUCoin users. Like the exchange’s customers, Ledger users had their personal data compromised in a June and July 2020 data breach affecting 272,853 people who ordered hardware wallets. Some users have since reported receiving threatening emails with demands for a crypto ransom to be paid within 24 hours or they will face “horrifying” consequences.

While real world attacks to steal crypto are much rarer than hacks or scams, they do occur. Whether concerned for their data or their physical well being, some BuyUCoin users expressed their frustration with the reports of the breach.

“What if someone used my account in any illegal activity?” said Rajaharia — also a BuyUCoin user — in a follow-up tweet, calling the exchange’s initial response “irresponsible.”

Cointelegraph reached out to BuyUCoin CEO Shivam Thakral for comment, but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

Breach at Indian exchange BuyUCoin allegedly exposes 325K users’ personal data

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