New records: BTC $7475

This week brings a great profit to the absolute majority of investors in cryptocurrency since almost all coins with a capitalization of more than $1 billion show substantial growth. According to CoinMarketCap, the market capitalization exceeded $220 billion. The BTC price twice tested $7475 level. At the same time, the current year’s highs, and as a result of the test of the noted level, Bitcoin trading volumes exceeded $30 billion. We recall that the previous high of BTC trading volumes was near $24.5 billion, the growth of this indicator exceeded $ 5billion or 20%.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin (BTC) were the leaders of growth last week, adding more than 24%. While 7 and 14 coins with a capitalization of more than $1 billion showed more than 10% growth.

Trading volume

According to CoinMarketCap, BTC trading volume exceeded $30 billion, while updating the current year highs - $7474. The previous high of trading volumes was set on April 3, 2019, at the level of $24.5 billion, but at that moment the  BTC price slightly exceeded $5000. Thus, we can note the growth in trading volumes in dollar terms, but the actual BTC trading volume did not exceed the April high.

US-China trade war

It has been noted that cryptocurrencies, in particular, BTC, perform the function of “protective asset”, partially replacing gold and Japanese yen. It can explain the growth of most TOP-10 tokens.

At the end of last week, Donald Trump significantly increased tariffs on imports of goods from China. Experts note that the increase in taxes from 10% to 25% will be approximately equal to $200 billion a year. It is an extremely negative factor not only for China - the second largest economy but also for the world economy as a whole. Accordingly, the deterioration of trade relations between the two largest economies in the world increases external geopolitical risks. Therefore, the demand for “protective assets” is growing.

PayPal: time for Bitcoin has not come yet

John Rainey, the Financial director of PayPal, in an interview with Yahoo Finance, said that the time for Bitcoin had not come yet.

Rainey notes that PayPal has tested the ability for merchants to accept Bitcoins for payment. At the same time, users quickly converted BTC to Fiat. It may be due to various reasons, including increased market volatility. However, the company continues to actively explore cryptocurrencies and their capabilities, having teams working with blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.

On the other hand, Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal, is active in venture capital activity in the cryptocurrency sector. Therefore, it is evident that PayPal will not stay away from the cryptocurrency market.

TRON scandal

The trend in the value of TRON (TRX), in dollar equivalent, is moderately positive. Over the past week, we have seen the growth of more than 7%, while most of the coins added more than 15%. Accordingly, it is logical to pay attention to the dynamics of changes in the value of TRX expressed in BTC. Since the end of January 2019 to date, the price has decreased by more than two times.

The situation is quite logical because there were significant disagreements at the highest level of the company.  Due to this, Lucien Chen, the technical director and co-founder of TRON, quitted the company. It is also important to note that he accused the head of Justin San that TRON had become centralized. Lucien Chen gives several arguments, confirming his accusations.