Tax-Season Selling Pulls Down Bitcoin

Bitcoin has breached critical price support, hitting new lows as the U.S. tax season ends, Coindesk reported Monday (April 18).

The biggest cryptocurrency by market value fell to $38,577 during the Asian hours, falling below its support level of $40,000. That level was last seen on March 15.

The weakness seems to come from the tax season, with the related selling, as well as a hazy macro environment. The deadline to submit 2021 taxes was Monday (April 18).

Meanwhile, a new kind of cryptocurrency seeking to replicate the dollar’s stability might not be all it’s cracked up to be, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Algorithmic stablecoins have become more popular lately. These are something of an “upstart sibling” to regular stablecoins, with the report saying that, unlike regular stablecoins, they’re not backed by any assets — instead they are relying on financial engineering to keep the link to the dollar.

Failed ones in the past have led to losses for investors.

In other news, the Association of Banks of Russia is looking at criminalizing keeping one’s own cryptocurrency keys, Cointelgraph reported.

The association includes more than 300 Russian banks and financial institutions. It has called on lawmakers to criminalize storing crypto outside of centralized exchanges on noncustodial wallets.

The noncustodial wallets, unlike accounts at centralized crypto exchanges, let users store crypto without a third party able to freeze or block transactions.

Meanwhile, the “bearish” outlook on Coinbase isn’t really justified, according to Oppenheimer equity analyst Owen Lau, a report said.

The “bearish” points include the notion that the exchange is facing greater competition and fee compression, and that its stock is  overvalued and that the lack of profitability is a cause for concern.

According to Oppenheimer, the longer term trend of crypto adoption could mean better days ahead.

Finally, community members for Monero, a crypto focused on privacy, plan to withdraw their holdings from several exchanges, trying to prove that the exchanges are selling Monero they don’t really have.

Called the “Monerun,” it was planned for Monday, April 18.

“April 18th. We’re withdrawing XMR from exchanges. Any exchange that hasn’t disabled withdraws (which many of them have already), we’re pulling our funds,” user “bawdyanarchist” wrote on Reddit on Thursday.