Crypto Roundup: Who Pumped Bitcoin?

What caused Bitcoin's recent price spike? Has VeChain bought Ambrosus? What does the SEC think about digital assets? Read on to find out in our latest crypto roundup.

Lone wolf may have triggered Bitcoin buy frenzy

Every crypto traders felt the 20% price increase of Bitcoin on April 2, but it left a lot of questions in its wake.

Despite market analysts predicting that a large upward or downward movement was on the cards, most crypto enthusiasts didn’t see it happening quite like it did.

A large price increase happens when demand largely exceeds supply. Reuters published an article shortly after this happened, claiming that the massive price surge was caused by one anonymous buyer.

The report states that there were orders placed for around 20,000 BTC, or about 100 million USD, spread over three high profile exchanges. Synchronized volume spikes of each exchange support this theory.

As price action and analysis are largely based on psychology, a big buy like this can often be enough to sway market outlook, as we saw this week.

Outside of this theory, it was also said by Bloomberg that Bitcoin had reached an 18-month low in terms of volatility, which suggests that Bitcoin may have reached a bottom in terms of price. In this case, the large buy order may have simply acted as a catalyst to a number of technical traders. 

Or...

Was it all an April Fools joke? An article falsely claimed that the SEC has approved Bitcoin ETFs – which would be huge news. This could possibly have indeed had an impact, if Bitcoin traders had believed this news to be real. 

Supply chain communication breaks down

VeChain and Ambrosus are both blockchain projects with a focus on the supply chain and digital tracking of goods.

Community members recently noticed that Ambrosus Technologies GmbH changed its company name in Switzerland to VeChain GmbH.

Naturally this raised a number of questions: had VeChain acquired Ambrosus?

However, Sunny Lu, CEO of VeChain, released a statement on Twitter:

Official statement: VeChain has not considered acquiring Ambrosus GmbH and is not acquiring any interest in Ambrosus GmbH.

— Sunny LU, VeChain (@sunshinelu24) April 3, 2019

VeChain intends to enforce its rights to stop and prevent any misuse of its VECHAIN trademark which is 100% owned by subsidiary of VeChain - Shanghai Weilian Information Technology Co,Ltd.

— Sunny LU, VeChain (@sunshinelu24) April 3, 2019

This would be last message on this topic: No one from VeChain team globally including myself ever knew or meet or discuss anything with Ambrosus. I found out the “name changing” through the noise in community. If deceitful should be asked, ask why change name to someone else’s.

— Sunny LU, VeChain (@sunshinelu24) April 3, 2019

Angel Versetti, CEO of Ambrosus, addressed the community on Reddit, and said that Ambrosus had not been sold and the name change was performed by a team member on a company that is not currently actively working Ambrosus.

The community then discovered that the company which changed its name is controlled by the CTO of Ambrosus.

SEC releases digital asset framework

The SEC has released a framework that provides some guidance on the SEC's view of digital asset regulation. (But keep in mind that the framework only represents staff views and cannot be taken as rule or regulation.)

Regulatory clarity progression is healthy for the development of crypto, especially in a world economy powerhouse like the USA.

The framework covers a wide variety of topics, looking at areas such as holding, trading, running exchanges, advertising and hosting token sales.