Bitcoin Soars to Yearly High As US Congress Tries to Clamp Down on Facebook’s Crypto

Bitcoin has reached a new all-time high for the year, reaching $9,768 after soaring past the next resistance level of $9,400.

BTC is currently trading at $9,708, up 4.34% within the past 24 hours. Crypto analysts are predicting that FOMO (fear of missing out) may kick in if Bitcoin can climb above $10,000.

Says Fundstrat Global Advisors co-founder Tom Lee,

“I think Bitcoin ultimately becomes a reserve currency in crypto. Bitcoin at $9,000 has only been at this level in 4% of its history. We’re deep into a bull market and people are pretty silent about it. I think Bitcoin is going to easily take out its all-time highs.”

The topic of cryptocurrencies at large is triggering a media blitz as discussions about Facebook’s controversial Libra stablecoin heat up on primetime. Congress is expected to move “aggressively” and “quickly” on Facebook’s Libra to determine the scope and breadth of the project that is set to face off against the US dollar and the banking industry.

Facebook has the power to put its new digital money into the hands of its 2.5 billion monthly active users.

Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters who chairs the House Financial Services Committee appeared on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” to spell out the threat of big tech and to double down on her efforts to halt Facebook’s new cryptocurrency project.

“I’ve asked them to place a moratorium on moving forward with Libra. We don’t have a regulatory agency to oversee who they are and what they’re doing. This is like starting a bank without having to go through any steps to do it.

And of course, we have some questions about Facebook and some of the ways that it has conducted itself in the past. But they’re creating their own cryptocurrency. They’re going to be located in Switzerland. It’s going to be an alternative to the dollar.

And so yes, I think it’s very important for them to stop right now what they’re doing so that we can get a handle on this. We have not held any hearings. We’ve got to protect consumers. We don’t know who all is involved in this. We know that there are about 27 other companies in this network. And we’re talking about big companies that are involved with them where they will all be an alternative to the dollar.”

Libra’s messaging is simple and direct: issue a stable, global currency that can move around the globe as fast as email – no banks involved, no SWIFT for electronic funds transfers, no legacy infrastructure.

The fear is that Libra can move extremely fast, revolutionizing the industry upon its launch date in 2020. If Libra coin is a streaming file, big banks are Blockbuster Video.

As word spreads about Libra, crypto leaders are hailing Facebook for spurring interest in alternative digital assets such as Bitcoin and XRP. Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, which uses XRP to power its cross-border payment solution, says he’s sending a bottle of champagne to David Marcus, head of blockchain at Facebook, for sending more business their way.

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