Coronavirus, Bitcoin and the stock markets: Live updates

In Brief

Rolling coverage on how the industry is responding to the financial crisis.
How the coronavirus is affecting the wider economy.

Developing stories:

March 12

A sudden market shock: The price of Bitcoin crashed by $1,000 in under an hour. All coins—barring stablecoins—are in the red, with many seeing losses between 20-30%.

March 11

UK announces £30 billion coronavirus package: Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled a £30 billion package to help the economy through the coronavirus outbreak.
Altcoins showing signs of life: Though roiled by the market crash, everyone’s favorite altcoins seemed to come back a bit today. Here’s a look at some of them.
Coronavirus could cause economic crisis on a par with 2008, warns European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde.
US responds to the mounting crisis.

#BREAKING Virus disrupts supplies at nearly 75% of US firms: Institute for Supply Management pic.twitter.com/3O4rzv4woA

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 11, 2020

March 10

National Guard deployed to contain virus spread in New York.
Coronavirus is killing the Bitcoin conference business: Major global cryptocurrencies such as Paris Blockchain Week are being canceled or rescheduled. It could be time for a more decentralized approach.
Markets are in meltdown, what do the experts say? It's the worst market sell-off since the 2008 global financial crisis. Here's how the crypto industry is making sense of it all.
Bitcoin's hashrate unaffected by Coronavirus: With a decline in the number of new coronavirus cases in China, Bitcoin mining operations in the country are showing signs of recovery.
Goldman cuts its Asia earnings forecast yet again after sharp sell-off in oil prices.
Bloomberg has created a chart showing the virus' spread

Mapping the coronavirus outbreak across the world https://t.co/272s7bYPhJ pic.twitter.com/6RbDGfaTJB

— Bloomberg (@business) March 10, 2020

March 9

Bitcoin can still be a safe haven, experts say: A global plague, oil price war, and a swooning stock market ought to be Bitcoin’s shining moment. Here’s why crypto could yet be the safe haven we were promised.
Coronavirus crisis betrays our Bitcoin nihilism: Markets are in meltdown and the deadly coronavirus is spreading globally. Is this good for Bitcoin? That's the wrong question.
Market update: crypto recovers $4 billion as Dow closes down 8 percent: Crypto is showing signs of life, as total market cap has risen another $2 billion since this morning. Oil continues its downward spiral.
Markets in meltdown: What crypto experts are saying: It’s the worst market sell-off since the 2008 global financial crisis. Here's how the crypto industry is making sense of it all.
Market update: crypto recovers slightly as oil, Dow slide further: Crypto, stocks and oil all fell hard earlier this morning. Here’s the latest on what’s going on in the markets today.
Market nose-dive drops Ethereum below $200: Ethereum (ETH), the world's second largest cryptocurrency, has shed nearly 10 percent of its price, now trading at its lowest point since early February.

Bitcoin price crash wipes out $200 million in long positions: Traders betting on the future price of Bitcoin were left in disarray after the price took a sudden plunge downwards.
Bitcoin down 10% as brutal weekend sinks the market: Bitcoin drops nearly 10% as the crypto market takes a beating.
Robinhood app goes down again, causing outrage: Popular trading app Robinhood has suffered another outage, on one of the biggest days of trading. And it's not the first time this month.

March 8

China's pending bitcoin "mining catastrophe:" The upcoming bitcoin halving is creating a perfect storm for miners in China, who need to get more powerful rigs. But the virus has compounded supply shortages and money woes.

Corona Babies lets you collect digital bats infected with Coronavirus: But are they “Cute but deadly,” as advertised, or insensitive and opportunistic?

Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP all took a nosedive overnight: A weekend lull? A whale took a dump? Coronavirus? Speculators wonder as markets continue to turn red.

Other stories of note and reactions from around the Web

Filthy lucre

All St. Patrick’s Day parades cancelled in Ireland

Coronavirus latest: All St Patrick’s Day parades in Ireland set to be cancelled https://t.co/ebAnefDch8

— The Irish Times (@IrishTimes) March 9, 2020

The ongoing spread of coronavirus is forcing institutions around the world to rethink one particularly germy surface that most consumers touch every day: cash https://t.co/5gmpFJqBLZ

— CNN Business (@CNNBusiness) March 9, 2020

Kim Dotcom rings the death knell for the economy

Kim Dotcom, the former founder and CEO of the defunct file hosting service Megaupload has taken to Twitter to proclaim the financial crisis is on par with the Great Depression. The solution? Buy Bitcoin and Gold.

Prepare for the worst economic crash since the Great Depression.

Sell stocks and fiat currencies while they still have some value.

Buy Crypto and Gold.

Do it now. Trust me.

This is not a drill.

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) March 9, 2020

Bloomberg summarizes the market meltdown

Earlier in the day Bloomberg put together a bruising summary of how the market has been responding to the fallout: Oil crashed by a third, European futures down nearly 10%, Japanese stocks down 6% and sovereign bond yields plumb record lows.

The latest as panic appears to grip markets:

• Oil crashes 31% in worst loss since 1991
• European futures slide about 8%
• S&P 500 futures fall about 5%
• Japanese stocks sink nearly 6%
• Sovereign bond yields plumb record lows

More: https://t.co/n65ZvPCPtK pic.twitter.com/1sj94OSbcR

— Bloomberg (@business) March 9, 2020

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