This Bitcoin Update for 25 October 2019 provides: an overview of how Bitcoin (BTC) has been doing over the past 24-hour period; a recap of interesting recent news that might have affected its price (or might do so in the future); and useful observations from Crypto Twitter.

According to a report by China’s Xinhua News Agency (the official state-run press agency of the People’s Republic of China), which was published around 10:15 UTC on Friday (October 25), the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) completed the “18th collective study” on blockchain technology on the afternoon of October 24.

Apparently, China’s President Jinping Xi, who is also the general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC, gave a speech that “emphasized that the integrated application of blockchain technology plays an important role in new technological innovation and industrial transformation.” 

He pointed out that the application of blockchain technology has extended to digital finance, Internet of Things, intelligent manufacturing, supply chain management, digital asset trading and other fields. At present, major countries in the world are accelerating the development of blockchain technology. China has a good foundation in the field of blockchain. It is necessary to accelerate the development of blockchain technology and industrial innovation, and actively promote the development of blockchain and economic and social integration.

President Xi’s remarks were specifically about blockchain technology and not decentralized cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (which China does not approve of), but they should help to accelerate the development and launch of the digital Renminbi (RMB).

This news was first broadcast on Chinese TV at 11:00 UTC (or 19:00 Beijing time):

According to Dovey Wan, a Founding Partner of Primitive Ventures, the announcement of President Xi’s highly enthusiastic comments about blockchain technology did not get Bitcoin traders in mainland China too excited (presumably because they understood that the clear message was, as usual, “Blockchain, not Bitcoin”), and immediately after the news came out, there was only a small bump in the Bitcoin price in China and elsewhere, as you can see in the 24-hour price chart below:

BTC-USD 24 Hour Chart - 25 Oct 2019.png

It was only five hours later, i.e. around 15:15 UTC when the major price surge (around a $700 increase in 30 minutes), which took the BTC price from $7,727 to $8,446, started.

Here is Wan trying to explain this on Twitter:

Wan also points out that traders in China seemed much more excited about the prospects of Chinese blockchain technology companies (such as XNET):

So, how have other crypto influencers on Twitter reacted to today’s news from China and the over 14% Bitcoin price surge?

Here is what Anthony Pompliano (aka “Pomp”) had to say:

As for Gabor Gurbcas, Digital Asset Strategist/Director at VanEck/MVIS, he believes that today’s price surge was caused not just by President Xi’s comments:

Today’s price volatility also helped Bakkt set a new daily trading volume record for its monthly Bitcoin futures:

As you can see from the tweet below by crypto analytic startup Skew, things are pretty hectic also at BitMEX, where around $150 million worth of short XBTUSD perpetual contracts got liquidated:

Prominent macro economist and crypto analyst/trader Alex Krüger, who usually does not associate major Bitcoin price movements with news, conceded that today’s huge rise in the price of Bitcoin was caused by the news from China:

And finally, crypto analyst/trader Josh Rager, Co-Founder of Blackroots.com, offered this technical analysis:

 

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