Summary:

• Bitcoin (BITCOIN on xStation5) declines following a Facebook ban on ads promoting cryptocurrencies
• German regulator orders Berlin-based digital currency exchange to stop doing as a financial broker
• Samsung is reportedly manufacturing the ASIC chip designed to mine cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin finally slipped below a magic $10k mark yesterday afternoon fuelled by the report that Facebook was banning all ads promoting digital currencies, including Bitcoin of course, in order to prevent users from advertising what the company was calling “financial products and services frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices”. Taking into account how important tool Facebook is, one may assume that it could cut back on possibilities of promoting of many cryptocurrency exchanges being a possible drag on their future activity. Do notice that it means complete prohibition of ads irrespective of whether a virtual exchange operates legally or not. It goes without saying that digital currency exchanges will be unable to promote not only cryptocurrencies but also such services as ICOs, binary options and so on. Moreover, adds violating the company’s new rules will be banned also in other places where Facebook sells ads including Instagram.

Bitcoin finally broke through a downward limit of the triangle pattern. That said, a possible comeback of bulls could be halted by a 61.8% retracement. In line with our previous analyses the base scenario still assumes a likelihood of subsequent decline in the nearest future. Source: xStation5

German watchdog orders crypto exchange to immediately wind down its business

Based on reports provided by Bloomberg German Financial Supervisory Authority or BaFin was to order Crypto-exchange GmbH being a Berlin-based digital currency exchange, to immediately stop acting as a financial broker. The order came after the crypto exchange inserted an ad on its website that it would sell customer’s Bitcoins for euros and sell them on a stock exchange. The BaFin took the decision when some users claimed they did not receive any money for cryptocurrency which was transferred to the company.

Will Samsung enter the blockchain wagon?

Bitmain may be afraid of the first real competitor at its expertise area. Source: Twitter

Samsung is reportedly working with Taiwanese manufacturer TSMC on mass productions of the ASIC chip. The chip (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) is a specialized piece of hardware designed to only mine cryptocurrencies based on a specific hashing algorithm which Bitcoin or Litecoin run on. According to Hwang Min-seong, an analyst at Samsung Securities, “Samsung Electronics could increase its revenues through ASIC chip manufacturing but because the foundry only accounts for a small portion of the company’s semi-conductor manufacturing plant, it is difficult to predict that the firm’s mining venture will have a significant impact on the company’s revenues”. Let us notice that TSMC already supplies the ASIC chips to Bitmain, a China-based Bitcoin mining company.