Coronavirus Rebuilding for Blockchain Companies?
The coronavirus pandemic is affecting more and more aspects of the blockchain and cryptocurrency markets. As previously reported by news, more than half of the 2020 encryption conferences were canceled or postponed due to the outbreak of COVID-19, even mining manufacturers had to stop producing equipment in China.
At the same time, other companies were able to capture new opportunities by digitizing business processes and moving employees online. We analyzed how serious the results of projects using blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies were and how the coronavirus pandemic affected the roadmap and release schedule.
Geographic factor
The latest news related to digital initiatives shows that, in most cases, the degree of change within a project is directly correlated with the degree of coronavirus spread in a particular country.
For example, China, which is said to have stopped the pandemic in that area, has announced that it will launch a nationwide blockchain network in April 2020, as originally planned. A Chinese mining company has resumed work after recently closing offices and facilities.
Russia, on the other hand, whose COVID-19 cases are growing rapidly, has postponed the adoption of cryptocurrency laws indefinitely. Earlier, we also reported that the Russian government cut its budget for developing blockchain technology in half. Nearly all local blockchain companies have closed offices in New York City, where the vast majority of cases of coronavirus infection have been identified.
Other projects have temporarily suspended activities related to business in other countries. For example, Primetrust, a provider of open banking solutions in the blockchain industry, says everyone who works remotely is slow and late because they can’t visit a recently opened office in Cyprus.
The situation with new releases
The roadmap of the top 20 crypto projects in terms of capitalization does not seem to be affected by the coronavirus. This can be explained by the fact that the launch of a major critical update scheduled for 2020 is performed by the blockchain rather than by people and the employees involved are accustomed to working in a distributed manner.
Furthermore, due to the automation of the process, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Steemit (STEEM) have been successfully branched, and Tether (USDT) has launched a stable coin on the Bitcoin Cash network. The pandemic didn’t seem to have affected the day of the much-anticipated Bitcoin halving event, unless miners around the world turned off the equipment all at once.
Tokensales on hold
Restrictions and financial problems caused by the coronavirus have forced many tokens to sell without investment, forcing others to postpone their launch. The latest report from ICOBench shows that the project’s investment from the last week of January to the first week of February is significantly lower than it was last year.
A blockchain company, SWAZM, whose first transaction proposal was scheduled for the first quarter of 2020, reported the deferral. Vali Malinoiu, CEO and founder of the company, said:
“This forced us to implement work-from-home policies, delayed many partnerships, and put us in a general alerting state.”
Investors are now more focused on cash savings and are waiting for what their business and economic outlook will be after COVID-19 has passed. Token sales for her project, Market Orders, a blockchain-based marketplace for the gold and diamond jewelry industry were delayed by three months due to slower technological development.
However, some have announced that their token sales were not affected by the pandemic. For example, on March 5, the crypto exchange BTSE reported that the IEO was successful and the tokens were sold out in 4 hours, while the blockchain project Solana raised $ 1.76 million and sold all tokens at a Dutch auction.
Exchanges
Major cryptocurrency exchanges such as Kraken, Gemini, Pccex and Bitstamp are not affected by the coronavirus pandemic and are reporting user signups and volume spikes. Binance’s Futures Monthly Trading Report reveals an increase of 85% in trading volume across all exchange futures perpetual contracts in January 2020. In March, a user purchased a “crypto” Fiat gateway service to convert Fiat to cryptocurrency. There has even been a spike in Bitcoin purchases at Bitcoin ATMs. The google search “Bitcoin ATM near me” has been a top search for bitcoin enthusiast.
The massive spread of the coronavirus in Asia has not precluded the launch of Huobi Thailand, the other two major cryptocurrency exchanges, Poloniex and Bitfinex, have not postponed the launch base and stake reward programs scheduled for this month, respectively.
Although the Covid -19 pandemic has stopped some Blockchain projects, many are still proceeding with business as usual.
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