Seeing red

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March 12, 2020 HISTORIC DROP: Bitcoin suffered its biggest drop in seven years, as fears over the spreading coronavirus triggered a new wave of selling in everything from stocks and junk bonds to cryptocurrencies. The 26 percent tumble, which wiped out bitcoin’s gains for the year, has undermined the investment narrative that the cryptocurrency is a safe-haven asset like traditional-market alternatives of U.S. Treasury bonds and gold. Full story BROKEN RECORD: Ether fell by 33 percent in early morning trading, marking the asset's biggest drop in percentage terms in its five-year history. In terms of absolute numbers, ether saw greater declines during the 2018 bear market, when it fell from highs around $1,400 and saw price swings of several hundred dollars. Enter the ether CRASH FALLOUT: Bitcoin’s flash crash on Thursday triggered the most long-short liquidations on crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX in 16 months. The market plunge caught most traders off guard, forcing liquidations worth $702 million on BitMEX alone. Crash course BITCOIN BIOHACKERS: Anonymous bitcoiners are taking the search for a coronavirus vaccine into their own hands, bypassing academia, pharmaceutical companies and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The “biohacking” effort by a group known as CoroHope is crowdsourcing bitcoin donations to fund the work. Full story SURVEILLANCE SPREAD: As governments look to contain the spread of COVID-19, they’re turning to every tool at their disposal, including large surveillance networks, personal cell phone tracking, and AI and facial recognition. “Over time we see more and more intrusive use of technology and less ability of people to push back," Maya Wang, a senior China researcher for Human Rights Watch, told the Guardian. Full story FRAUD WARNING: Scammers have been sending fake versions of CoinDesk's daily newsletter to try to trick recipients into visiting a suspicious "XRP giveaway" site. If you received this message, which copied our logo and design and even used our executive editor's name in the "from" field, know that it did not come from us. (Note that the actual sender's address is not a CoinDesk.com domain.) Please forward to fraud@coindesk.com and nik@coindesk.com, and block the sender if received.   SHOCK DROP: Bitcoin fell sharply to 10-month lows below $6,000 on Thursday, forcing massive liquidations and convincing the analyst community of its growing use as a source of liquidity in the stock market sell-off. With panic across the traditional markets showing no signs of subsiding, the cryptocurrency may continue to lose altitude. Full story MONTHLY REPORT: CoinDesk Research's latest Monthly Report examines Binance, Cash App and Coinbase fiat onramps, crypto's faltering narrative as a safe haven asset, and “criminality” as a use case for crypto networks. The report also looks ahead (and back) to bitcoin halving impacts, as preview to the event slated later this Spring. Full report   EMPOWER & SUBVERT: CoinDesk reporter Leigh Cuen is joined by Elena Giralt, the Electric Coin Company’s product marketing associate known for her research on cryptocurrency usage in Latin America, to talk about how digital assets can subvert power dynamics and how financial privacy is crucial to women’s rights. Leader to listen to WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER   Copyright © 2020 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.  Our mailing address is:  250 Park Avenue South New York, NY, 10003, US  Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or  unsubscribe from this list