Resorts in Soneva hotel chain can now be paid for in Bitcoin or Ethereum, review by our experts Crypto-Upvotes

Resort chain Soneva hotels in Thailand and the Maldives are now accepting payments in Bitcoin and Ethereum. Cryptocurrency payment provider TripleA and payment platform Pomelo Pay are helping to make payments.

The cryptocurrency payment option will be available at Soneva Fushi hotels. As well as Soneva Jani and Soneva in Aqua in Maldives. And in Soneva Kiri in Thailand. Also for Bitcoin and Ethereum it is now possible to buy real estate in the Maldives at Soneva Villa Ownership.

The resort network can directly book rooms. And pay with cryptocurrency through a secure link. In addition, you can use a QR code to pay in cryptocurrency. Soneva adds that while any payments made using Bitcoin or Ethereum are 100 per cent non-refundable, credits can apply in line with its flexible cancellation policy.

“At Soneva, we have always endeavoured to be a pioneer in the hospitality industry, hence accepting cryptocurrencies as a payment method is another example of enabling our international guests to easily make payments from anywhere in the world,” said Bruce Bromley, chief financial officer, and deputy CEO of Soneva.

Our experts told us what prevents Bitcoin from rising in price. And what the prospects are for it to return to its maximums as it was in fall 2021

In November 2021, 12 years after its appearance, Bitcoin reached a price high of about $69,000. On January 1, 2022, the cryptocurrency was trading at $46,200. In June, its price fell to $17,600, renewing its low from December 2020.

Proponents and critics of cryptocurrencies make various predictions about the direction in which Bitcoin will go next. And what levels it may reach.

Optimistic prognosis

A return to the historical high around $69,000 is hardly possible on the horizon of the next 12 months.

Our experts believe that the fundamental factors for Bitcoin growth. Growth in the cost of money in USA and Europe (an increase in key rates) is necessary. Despite the existing name of BTC “digital gold”, it has not yet become a protective asset. But nothing prevents BTC from becoming such in the future.

With the current volatility of Bitcoin, its price can change by $20,000 in half a year. And if volatility does not increase, the approach to the historical highs will not happen earlier than in a year.

Pessimistic prognosis

Bitcoin follows the rate of U.S. stock exchanges. And this has been observed for a long time. For example, during the growth of indices, the price of bitcoin also grows. And during the fall – it goes down. The downtrend on the U.S. stock market is for a long time. Because the dynamics of inflation in the U.S. promises a further increase in Fed rates. And accordingly, a decrease in the quotations of the technology sector.

Our expert says that according to different estimates, recovery of stock indices in USA. Which have lost more than 10% since the beginning of the year, will take at least three years. That means the same recovery period to record levels can be predicted for Bitcoin. Most likely, the coin will reach above $60,000 only in 2025.

Our experts listed factors affecting current cryptocurrency prices. And discussed possible bearish trend change to bullish and possible Bitcoin growth.

Bitcoin price has fallen 70% from its all-time high of $69,000 in November 2021. In 2022, the value of the first cryptocurrency reached a maximum of $47,500 at end of March and has since fallen to current prices around $20,000. Crypto-Upvotes experts listed reasons for price declines in cryptocurrency market and told when a bull market may start.

Bears are winning now.

Now few people are willing to take risks. And the reason for this is the rising cost of funding after a Federal Reserve rate hike. This also says the financial director and head of trading operations ICB Fund Chen Limin. In his opinion, the situation could be exacerbated by a possible decline in the U.S. economy and turbulence in raw materials markets.

Our experts also believe that most likely current bear market will drag on. Growth of cryptocurrency capitalization may start not earlier than 2024, and before that the market will need to go through “self-cleaning from the most unstable crypto projects. Some institutional investors and lenders have already seen problems with these projects because of falling quotes.

According to our experts, the price of bitcoin now tends towards $10,000. But lower values of the price are also possible. Price of $20,000 proved to be difficult to break through for a complete departure below this price now needed a pause. But everything goes to a soon victory of sellers over buyers.

According to our expert, the reason, which initially contributed to the growth of the market – purchases from institutional investors. Now it has become a main driver of price falls. When Federal Reserve decided to raise rates, funds and lenders left the risky cryptocurrency market to free up funds to support more important positions.

The next rise will require a return of capital back into cryptocurrency markets. And that will only happen after the Fed decides to stimulate market activity again. And that is a long way off, because the Fed will want to make sure that inflation is completely beaten and only after that will it start to ease monetary policy again.

Has Bictoin reached bottom? Will bear market end soon and start bull market?

Now there is a major outflow of bitcoin from exchanges. And this indicates that investors see it as a certain area of interest. And the very withdrawal of assets means moving them to long-term storage. Our experts believe that this is one of the signals that this cycle of decline is coming to an end.

Investors do not trust CEX exchanges because of blockages and restrictions on their exchange accounts. CEX exchanges support different sanctions, they have security problems and many other reasons forcing investors to withdraw assets from exchanges to a more secure place, such as cold wallets. This is already a very good signal for the crypto market, our experts believe.

Crypto-Upvotes experts did an analysis and saw that the balances on exchanges have been systematically decreasing since 2020 and are now at 2018 levels. But the number of non-zero balances is increasing all the time. This fact signals that more and more people are “accepting and trusting” Bitcoin, total number of users and wallets is increasing.

Many Whales have been active since mid-June, when the bitcoin price went down to a $20,000 zone , and smaller investors have been active since the $30,000 mark.

Our experts think it is quite likely that we have already reached bottom or are very close to it. And a loosening of Fed policy could positively motivate markets.
Exactly then the recovery period will begin, the Fed rate will be 3.23%-3.5% by the end of the year. And improvement of situation on crypto market and start of a new growth phase is predicted already in 4Q of this year.

One of most popular platforms WeChat in China with more than 1.2 billion users imposes restrictions on content containing information about cryptocurrencies

WeChat, the largest messenger in China, has updated rules of use, forbidding placement of information about services or offers related to cryptocurrency or NFT.

Crypto-Upvotes team experts found out that information about issuing, trading and transactions with cryptocurrencies got under the ban. Also WeChat bans recommendations, links and guides on cryptocurrencies and NFTs. New rules also apply to accounts that provide advertising services for crypto projects in China.

If such information is detected, the platform will notify the user that the rules have been violated. WeChat gives a certain period of time for correction and restricts the functions of the account. If the user does not correct the information posted, the account will be blocked.

Advertising in China is still possible and our crypto marketing agency “Crypto-Upvotes” is working on this issue. Already now we can offer advertising of your project in popular Chinese Media and Weibo influencers. In the near future we will be able to offer billboard advertising in China.

But despite WeChat and other prohibitions in China, cryptocurrencies in China are very popular. Chinese investors take leading role in the world. We do articles in popular Chinese media. To order you need to provide us with text and a picture for your article. Our team will translate the texts into Chinese and prepare them for publication.

Additionally you can order Weibo influencers, we can offer influencers for any marketing budget. To order you need to provide a text and a picture or video, texts in Chinese we make ourselves. Weibo is very popular in China and they haven’t introduced restrictions for cryptocurrencies yet, so you have time to order now.

Crypto marketing agency “Crypto-Upvotes” will help to tell about your project to millions of new investors from China.

Crypto market is experiencing hard times – the most famous cryptocurrencies have fallen in price two or three times since the beginning of the year and continue to fall rapidly. Large blockchain projects are closing or stopping their development. Experts are predicting a harsh crypto winter. Why is this happening? How long will it last? And is bitcoin worth selling for $20,000 a coin now? Or, on the contrary, is now the best time to buy? Let’s find out together with experts of Crypto-Upvotes team.

Bitcoin in middle March could be bought at $41,000 per coin. Now, three months later, it is trading at around $20,000, having fallen in price by almost half. Fall affected other cryptocurrencies, for example, Ethereum lost almost two-thirds of its value at the same time.

Panic in markets has even affected Stablecoins. Some of these coins have lost that bind. The most famous scandal was the collapse of UST steibcoins, which fell in price a hundred times within a month. As of June 21, their exchange rate was only $0.008. The U.S. authorities even announced their intention to open an investigation into what happened to UST.

Against this background, on June 12, a major platform Celsius temporarily banned users to transfer and withdraw funds (this led to the collapse of the company’s own token by 50%). The next day, the popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance suspended bitcoin withdrawals. And another day later, Coinbase announced that it was laying off 18% of its employees. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong warned of a possible “crypto winter”.

Has crypto winter come?

Experts have different opinions on the state of affairs in the crypto market. “Crypto winter is harsh and the market may face cataclysm in the form of another collapse and slow price recovery, which may take several years,” Crypto-Upvotes experts believe, “After the pandemic, the G7 central banks printed a lot of money to support the economies. And now they don’t know how to contain high inflation due to the energy crisis. The U.S. Fed is fighting inflation by raising rates. The U.S. Federal Reserve’s tightening of monetary policy strengthens the dollar, raises government bond yields and pressures the stock market. Cryptocurrency is a risky asset class, so a sell-off in stocks causes a sell-off in cryptocurrencies.”

Our team’s experts also attribute the collapse to the general economic situation. The inflow of new money into cryptocurrencies is declining amid record inflation in the U.S. and an increase in the key rate by the U.S. Federal Reserve. This, in turn, will affect the availability of credit. “Large investors prefer to invest in cryptocurrencies with money that is easy to get, in an environment where it can be profitably borrowed at any time,” say our experts.

One of experts on Crypto-Upvotes team believes that the current drop is only part of the general cyclicality of cryptocurrency market. “The exchange doesn’t produce money, it redistributes it,” he insists, “there are people who bought bitcoin at $40,000, even at $60,000, now they need to be persuaded to sell it for $20,000. It’s not easy to do, so there’s pressure on new investors to get non-professionals out, and professionals would buy the cryptocurrency at low prices.”

What will happen next? Sell or Buy Now?

Against the backdrop of a sharp drop, many users are getting rid of their crypto savings, even despite the large losses. However, our experts say that this should be done only as a last resort.

Our experts have different views on mid-term prospects for the crypto market. Those who entered bitcoin above $30,000 should first of all prepare themselves emotionally and thank the fate for the valuable experience, from the point of view of the historical context the assets which fell in price during recession sooner or later will grow to new ATH.

Any successful cryptocurrency has a large scope for applications: NFT projects, meta worlds, game projects. As long as there are people who see the sense in it (and there are 300 million people using cryptocurrencies in the world now), it will be impossible to talk about domino effect and the whole market falling to zero.

As for what to do with investments in cryptocurrency – there is no universal advice – say experts of Crypto-Upvotes team. It all depends on the investor’s capital and willingness to take risks. A year ago, some famous billionaires invested a small part of their savings, which they manage, in cryptocurrencies. They might as well buy now, since the losses won’t be sensitive to them, and the gains in the future will be nice. Many of us will not be very upset to lose $100 in a slot machine and everyone will be glad to get a profit of $10,000 or more in a couple of years.

Our experts expect BTC to fall to $8000

People are used to making predictions based on experience. We remember that in the spring of 2021 some experts started talking about the beginning of crypto winter. At that time, the market held steady, and after that it showed record growth. Which means that now there are several options for future.

Some assure that we are in the state of crypto winter right now. While others believe that the events happening before our eyes are just the beginning of a big rally, in which there will be no winners.

Let’s look at both positions and draw some conclusions. The first ones refer to the mind of cryptocurrency holders and the financial cushion of the Whales. Argument is as follows: a huge number of people bought Bitcoin and Ether at the very tops. Undoubtedly, some of the unlucky investors will start to get rid of their savings, which has been happening in recent days. But most do not want to lose their money, so will hold positions despite the further decline of the rate. Also worth paying attention to the actions of Whales (wallets with more than 10 000 BTC). These guys have not changed their tactics lately, slowly accumulating large amounts. It turns out that for some, cheap cryptocurrency is the way to ruin, while the big fish are looking to make money by buying up coins at low cost.

As a zone of support for collapse of Bitcoin was the mark of $20,000, but the price has fallen below $19,000. And further there are no short positions, which means the price will fall further.

In this regard, our experts have estimated that BTC might fall to $8,000 very soon. But we should not forget that there are many people who keep their money in Ether, and in the next few days the rate can go down to $800 and then to $400. Bitcoin storm grows stronger, but this is a general trend for the market, but Ethereum has also a number of internal problems. To begin with, the developers’ uncertain position on timing a move to PoS. Merger has been postponed so often that many have already stopped believing Vitalik Buterin words. Many investors no longer believe that Ether and Bitcoin can escape cold embrace of crypto winter.