Bitcoin Starts Recovery – Other Cryptos Mixed

The world's largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin started a modest recovery on Boxing Day rising to just over $16,000 following some interesting news regarding the SegwitX2 hard fork which is now scheduled for December 28. At one point, the price dipped to below $15,000 but strong demand from institutional investors tipped the price up to $16,500. The next largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Ethereum showed quite big gains during the day gaining over 15% to top the $800 mark and there are strong signs that it will be trading at $900 in a very short time. Ripple was also up by at least 20% over the past 24 hours and is now trading at about $1.13 which is a considerable increase over its recent values of $0.85-$0.95. Analysts are predicting that this cryptocurrency will be the next to explode upwards with values of $2.50 not that far away. Bitcoin Cash also saw a modest increase and is now trading at around $3,000 for sell positions which is also quite high when compared to recent lows of below $2,000. Strangely enough, BCH still gained alongside BTC's gains when they usually go in the opposite direction.

Out of the main coins, Litecoin still appears to be the slowest mover with gains of just around 7% for highs of $280-290 although a recent rally in the past few hours has pushed the price up. Dash also showed strong gains and is now trading at well over $1100, occasionally topping the $1200 mark whilst Ethereum Classic seems to be testing the $30 mark with regularity. Other relatively new cryptocurrencies posted quite strong declines. NEM was down by 10% whilst IOTA saw its price tumble by 5% although the decline was quite less marked when compared to other cryptos. Monero performed relatively well with a decline of just over 1% which was quite negligible.

Bitcoin fork coming soon

In other news, the Segwit 2X team have now stated that the next Bitcoin fork is coming on December 28. This fork was originally scheduled for November but there was some controversy in this regard and the move was put on hold. There have already been a number of forks this year and these included Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Cash as well as Bitcoin Diamond. Some analysts are sceptical about how much the Bitcoin brand can be forked as this creates turmoil amongst investors which could be detrimental to the overall price position in the long run. However the block times will be reduced and block size will also grow so that does seem to be quite a positive thing.

Belarus legalizes Bitcoin and Blockchain technology

Another interesting development is the legalization of Bitcoin and blockchain technology by the Belarus government. This means that the country will not be taxing bitcoin transactions, blockchain developments and ICO's up till 2023 giving the country a free reign for those who wish to invest in it. The document legalizing these transactions was issued by Belarus' President Aleksander Lukashenko - a quite controversial figure who has been in power for more than two decades.

This development is similar to what takes place in Zug, a city in Switzerland where there is absolutely no taxation on Blockchain, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency developments. Belarus is hoping to offer investors the option of going forward with this new technology and using the country for these kinds of investment.