Crypto market overview – Bitcoin, Ethereum go down; Goldman predicts more pain

Crypto market overview - Bitcoin, Ethereum go down; Goldman predicts more pain

Crypto market overview – Bitcoin, Ethereum go down; Goldman predicts more pain

  • All major cryptocurrencies lost positions in recent 24 hours.

  • Goldman experts believe that the upside was temporary.

  •  

Cryptocurrency market continued sliding from recent highs. All major coins finished Monday in a red zone, while the total cryptocurrency market value slipped to $290B against $296.9B this time on Monday. EOS proved to be the worst-perfomer out of top-10 (the coin has lost over 9%), while Bitcoin went down 2.5% .

 

Bitcoin, the digital currency No.1, is changing hands at $8,100, the coin has lost 0.7% in recent 24 hours and touched $7,850 during Monday trading

 

Ethereum, the second largest digital coin with current market value $45.8B, broke below critical $460 to trade at $452 at press time, down 2.5% on a daily basis. ETH touched $516 high on July 18 and lost nearly 10% since that time.

 

EOS is the worst performing cryptocurrency out of top-10. The coin has lost over 7% to trade at $7.65 amid a combination of a technical and fundamental factors. Thus a sustainable movement below $8.00 handle increased the bearish pressure and triggered new selling orders.

 

Meanwhile, institutional bankers came up with gloomy forecasts. Thus, Goldman Sachs experts believe that the recent upside of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies will be short-lived.

 

“We expect further declines in the future given our view that these cryptocurrencies do not fulfill any of the three traditional roles of a currency: they are neither a medium of exchange, nor a unit of measurement, nor a store of value,” Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani from bank’s Investment Strategy Group wrote.

Tanya Abrosimova Tanya Abrosimova

FXStreet

 

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

Bitcoin Is Set To New Highs, Spencer Bogart Says

Bitcoin Is Set To New Highs, Spencer Bogart Says

Bitcoin Is Set To New Highs, Spencer Bogart Says

Blockchain Capital’s Spencer Bogart, reiterated his bullish position on Bitcoin, affirming he is definitely expecting for it to begin its race towards new highs.

In an interview for CNBC’s Fast Money, Bogart explained his impressions of Bitcoin’s current situation in the market. For the well-known businessman, Bitcoin has already experienced the 2018’s record lows, and for the rest of the year, a bullish trend is expected.

His comments show a more enthusiastic attitude compared to previous participation in which he has been more cautious:

“It’s Possible we’ve seen the lows, and I’m definitely expecting to see new highs, I mean, listen I think prior times I’ve been in the show I’ve said expect to see new lows before new highs… That low may already be in.”

Bitcoin’s current reality justifies the reasons for Mr. Bogart’s recent optimism. From his point of view, many possible catalysts could start a Bitcoin price boom:

“Bitcoin is kind of a tinderbox right now, waiting for reasons to go higher; whether that’s global currency wars, trade wars, whether there is an ETF approval; I think any number of catalysts can send Bitcoin exploding higher.”

Although there has been speculation and analysis about a possible ETF approval in 2018, Mr. Bogart believes that this is much more likely to happen by 2019:

“My guess is sometime in 2019. I think the SEC is going to be thoughtful and take some time but… the cat is already out of the bag here.”

 

Bogart Focuses on Fundamentals

For Bogart, the conditions for ETF approval are becoming increasingly favorable. Not only from a legal point of view but also from an economic one. He says that there is already high exposure to blockchain technologes, and the adoption of cryptos is increasing.

Also, institutional investors are gaining exposure to cryptocurrencies too, which may increase regulators’ interest in approving crypto ETFs soon.

He commented that currently, the investments he finds most interesting are those of traditional equity startups. He told the staff at Fast Money that “We’ve found great opportunities there.”

As stated By Cryptocrimson.com, Bitcoin is on a bullish run. Thecnical Analysis confirm Mr. Bogart’s opinions. However, being a volatile market changes can happen quite unpredictably:

“There wasn’t much to chew on for bulls last week as market watchers were mostly focused on the SEC decision on the bitcoin ETF applications. Some of these were shelved for a later decision date while the application filed by the Winklevoss twins was denied again.

With that, investors are hoping to get more positive industry updates this week to see the climb sustained. Security troubles like hacking incidents might force a larger retreat but more signs of institutional interest from big names could be enough to spur more gains.”

Currently, Bitcoin is trading above 8.2k. The bullish run has increased its value after bottoming to historical lows of near 6k. During this week it has remained relatively stable within the 7.5 – 8.5k range.

 

By Jose Antonio Lanz Last updated Jul 30, 2018

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

Opinions – What Experts Think about a Possible Bitcoin ETF

Opinions - What Experts Think about a Possible Bitcoin ETF

Opinions – What Experts Think about a Possible Bitcoin ETF

Since 2017, SEC has turned down at least three bitcoin ETF applications (including the Winklevoss twins on two occasions) from different groups citing specific reasons for such denials. This has not stopped the surfacing of new applications. Just last month three groups that have been turned down before (CBOE, VanEcK and SolidX) returned with revised applications.

This latest development has reignited the influx of opinions and predictions to how necessary the ETF is to bitcoin and the possible effects of any form of approval of such. While some experts do not see the necessity of an ETF for bitcoin, others believe that is will be a major catalyst for the next big move and possible establishment of the cryptocurrency in the mainstream.

Here are the opinions of a few experts who told CCN how much they believe an ETF will affect the development of bitcoin.

 

An Interesting Idea

Founder of Netcoins, Michael Vogel sees the possibility of a bitcoin ETF as “an interesting idea” even though he does not think that such is crucial to bitcoin’s long term success.

According to Vogel, many see an ETF approval as another step forward to legitimizing bitcoin in the eyes of Wall Street and the world of traditional finance because it would ultimately put bitcoin (as a trading instrument) in the hands of conventional traders. However, he believes that it would also denote a significant step forward in terms of the comfort level that regulators display around cryptocurrency, given the extreme hesitancy around past ETF applications.

“A large ETF would likely have a significant impact on bitcoin prices as well, not just due to trading volume but simply because of the volume of bitcoin that it would remove from the liquid trading market (because the BTC would need to be permanently held by the ETF corporation)”.

 

Absolutely Not Necessary

Another expert who aired her view on the developing event is the founder of Trezor and business strategy advisor for crypto companies, Alena Vranova.

In Vranova’s opinion, an ETF is absolutely not necessary for the development of bitcoin. However, she notes that it will open doors to a substantial mass of new investors who believe that some kind of regulatory approval makes bitcoin legitimate. Vranova indicates that in the short-term, bitcoin will benefit from a positive publicity and the price will probably skyrocket, even as she advised hodlers to ensure the security of their coins.

She said:

“Everyone who wants to hodl on, please make sure your bitcoin is safe against hackers, because their interest will skyrocket too. I’d recommend to abandon any custodian service, set up some of the proven hardware wallets (TREZOR or Ledger), set up a non-custodian multisig wallet (such as CASA) and read Pamela Morgan’s book on crypto asset inheritance.”

 

Nothing Spectacular

For Dana Coe, Partner at CryptoCrest, an ETF is simply any fund (mutual, hedge, whatever)traded on a listed exchange.

He explains that ETFs are mostly trading SEC- or CFTC-regulated assets and, right now, many or most cryptos are neither. Consequently, a fund trading them would have to register its shareholders’ interests in the fund as securities but the traded assets are unregulated. This may add to the reticence of the SEC to allow such a thing.

Coe continued by noting that as far as the importance of an ETF to bitcoin, what would really be a good way around is for funds that use large broker-dealers to sell membership interests in whatever fund type they have. So it wouldn’t be an ETF, but the funds themselves could have their membership interests be bought through Vanguard or similar.

“In the end that’s how it works anyway – difference being they aren’t listed on an exchange,” concluded Coe.

While the ecosystem awaits the new September appointment by SEC in making a decision on the ETF applications, investors and other bitcoin users will continue to ponder on both the long- and short-term effects that may arise. No matter the outcome, the increase in awareness and interest in bitcoin is becoming more certain. Also, with the various development across the entire blockchain ecosystem, improved robustness and industrial stability is becoming more obvious.

Article courtesy of CNN

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

3 THINGS PEOPLE GET WRONG ABOUT BITCOIN, ACCORDING TO AN EARLY INVESTOR

 

3 THINGS PEOPLE GET WRONG ABOUT BITCOIN, ACCORDING TO AN EARLY INVESTOR

 

Famous Bitcoin early investor Jeffrey Wernick — who also got into Uber and Airbnb as an angel investor — recently told Business Insider that people get a lot of things wrong about the first and foremost cryptocurrency. Here’s some of what he had to say.
 

When asked by Business Insider‘s Sara Silverstein what “most people get wrong about bitcoin or cryptocurrency,” the successful financial expert had a lot to say on the matter.
 

‘IT’S A PEOPLE’S MONEY’

Firstly, Wernick claims most people today have either neglected to recall or totally forgotten the philosophical purpose which underlined Bitcoin’s creation — namely, that it would be an alternative currency outside the reach of governments and traditional financial institutions. He explained:

 

People who have got into it now talk more about blockchain than bitcoin, because they’re just looking for an alternative model to make money and they don’t care about — they’re agnostic to the initial philosophical framework that drove people to adopt bitcoin to begin with and kept it alive from 2009 through 2013 or ’14, when all of a sudden, adoption started to grow. There was a small universe of people that actively worked to keep it alive by continuing to mine and continuing to buy and they were doing it because of the concept that they believed in, and that it’s a people’s money.

 

Indeed, one doesn’t have to look very far to see that every traditional financial institution under the sun is looking to utilize blockchain technology for their own purposes — none of which align with Bitcoin’s ethos.

IT ONLY FACES HEADWINDS’

And while the eyes of the market focus firmly on the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s pending exchange-traded fund decisions, it might be worth examining what such derivatives have done to another ‘people’s money,’ silver. Also, is Bitcoin meant to be a speculative investment or a currency that undermines an unfair and unjust global financial system, which itself aims to destroy Bitcoin?
 

Wernick explained:

 

Since bitcoin has been created in 2009, it’s outperformed every currency, even with governments hostile to it, and a regulatory regime that’s an uncertain regime and the governments have been designing, have been managing it in a way so people cannot know what to expect. So it’s amazing the valuation it has today given the fact that it only faces, it only faces headwinds, no tailwinds. Every government throughout the world is trying to figure out how to stop and kill bitcoin.
 

THE ‘ONLY ANSWER’

Investing in Bitcoin, according to Wernick, should be seen as a form of protest against the government and its financial policies — and it’ll probably be a profitable investment at that. He explained:
 

I think over five years, you’re going to accumulate a lot more wealth than you would in any other alternative investment, but again, you don’t want to buy more than you can afford to lose, because I could be wrong, and you’d be making a statement to the government that says, “What you’re doing is completely unacceptable.” Because if you think about how the financial system works, the financial system punishes the saver and benefits the borrower, but only benefits a small classification of borrowers.

 

Then the question is, is what, what for a typical middle class person — how do they accumulate wealth? And I think their only answer is to put a certain percentage in crypto.
 

ADAM JAMES · @SHASDAM | JUL 27, 2018 | 20:00

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

Bitcoin Sparks PE Fund to Back Wind Farm on Manhattan-Sized Plot

Bitcoin Sparks PE Fund to Back Wind Farm on Manhattan-Sized Plot

Bitcoin Sparks PE Fund to Back Wind Farm on Manhattan-Sized Plot

 

Brookstone Partners is planning a 900 megawatt wind farm in southern Morocco to power a data center and Bitcoin mining operation

as assets attractive to fund managers is breathing life into a spit of land the size of Manhattan located on the southern coast of Morocco.

New York’s Brookstone Partners, a private equity company with $150 million in assets, says it’s raising cash to develop the first phase of a 900-megawatt wind farm near Dakhla, Morocco. The remote location, wedged between the Sahara Desert and Atlantic Ocean some 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) south of Marrakesh, has gained in value for its potential to mine cryptocurrencies and manage data using clean energy.

“We have exclusive rights to the area for a wind farm, but the issue was there’s no real place to put” the electricity, said Michael Toporek, managing general partner at Brookstone, “These days, what you can do with stranded power is set up a computing center, develop this as an off-grid project.”

Renewables have become the preferred means of mining digital currencies like Bitcoin after the cost of electricity surged last year, forcing the industry to spend more money on computing power. While traditional fuels like coal remain staples for many utility grids, some of the biggest miners have tapped into cheap renewable power from Canada to Iceland and Georgia as a way to lure investors worried about the industry’s carbon footprint.

Brookstone founded Soluna earlier this year to develop the wind farm after acquiring rights to the property from Germany’s Altus AG. It plans to raise $100 million this year in an initial coin offering to build the first 36 megawatts of turbines. Those will feed crypto-mining and data centers processing blockchain transactions, which run on 18 megawatts of power, according to itswhite paper. Completing the entire project could cost as much as $3 billion.

A challenge common to data center operators that Soluna may struggle to overcome is the issue of intermittency. Even when the wind doesn’t blow, all the company’s machines processing currencies and data will still need power to function.

“The power from the wind farm is intermittent and will probably reduce the utilization factor of the data center as long as it is off-grid,” according to Itamar Orlandi, head of frontier power analysis at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “Their revenue from the mining operation will be unpredictable and possibly volatile. It’s not clear to me how they make a 20- to 30-year infrastructure investment backed against that kind of revenue stream.”

Soluna is part of a trend led by technology giants including Facebook Inc. and Google to power operations solely with renewables. Tech giants have as contracted more 9 gigawatts of clean electricity to date, signing purchase agreements with solar and wind farm developers worldwide.

“When we say we’re matching our energy, we mean that for every terrawatt of power that we consume at Alphabet, we’re matching that by a physical terrawatt-hour that’s being generated somewhere else,” said Neha Palmer, head of energy at Google’s parent company. “We are looking at ways on how to match our actual consumption.”

Soluna says it wants to combine its data processing even more tightly with renewables by co-locating wind generation next to their servers.

“Our power cost will be among the lowest in the world,” said John Belizaire, Soluna’s chief executive officer. “That gives us benefits and allows us to keep participating in the ecosystem while others might not be able to sustain their businesses.”

With the price of Bitcoin down more than 60 percent down from its peak in December, the power price that miners pay to mint new currency is becoming more important.

The increasingly difficult computations for creating new blockchains — the encrypted digital ledgers that underpin cryptocurrencies — require ever-more powerful computers. And many of the big server farms need air conditioning to keep from overheating.

The industry’s electricity use has increased exponentially over the last year and can consume as much as 60 percent of mining revenues, Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates.

“All of those machines are consuming at least as much as Ireland and probably a lot more, especially by the end of the year,” said Alex de Vries, the PwC consultant who founded Digiconomist, a website that calculates the energy consumed by bitcoin. “It could be as much as the whole of Austria in terms of energy consumption.”

 

 

By Anna Hirtenstein

27 July 2018, 05:00 BST

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

‘Any number of catalysts could send bitcoin exploding higher,’ says blockchain venture capitalist

‘Any number of catalysts could send bitcoin exploding higher,' says blockchain venture capitalist

‘Any number of catalysts could send bitcoin exploding higher,' says blockchain venture capitalist

  • Bitcoin trading at about $8,200 as of the earlier hours of Thursday.

  • Blockchain venture capitalist Spencer Bogart says many things could cause the coin to gain value — or fall — rapidly.

  • "Bitcoin is kind of a tinderbox right now, waiting for reasons to go higher," he says.

Bitcoin has seen strong gains over the last week — trading at about $8,200 as of the earlier hours of Thursday.

But the largest digital currency by market cap still isn't close to its December, 2017 high of $19,783.21. Now, market watchers are waiting in anticipation for the next jump — or decline.

"Any number of catalysts could send bitcoin exploding higher," Spencer Bogart, a partner at Blockchain Capital, told CNBC on "Fast Money" Wednesday.

Those catalysts include global trade tensions, the possibility of a bitcoin ETF, rising currency rates and Mastercard's recent announcement of a new patent that could allow bitcoin transactions on credit cards.

"Bitcoin is kind of a tinderbox right now, waiting for reasons to go higher," said the venture capitalist.

In May, even as bitcoin continued to fall, Bogart said it was the only digital coin worth buying, as more banks and large institutions were beginning to accept the coin, and urged long-term investors to get on board.

Other cryptocurrencies, he said, were "over-promising and under-delivering. Meanwhile you have a few that are kind of excelling at their use cases. Bitcoin being one of them." He said bitcoin, which was priced around $7,400 at the time, would likely go lower before hitting at least $10,000 by the end of 2018. The coin fell below $6,000 the following month.

On Wednesday, Bogart said bitcoin may have hit its bottom for the year, but that he was "definitely expecting to see new highs" and told investors to expect more regulatory approval of the space in the coming year.

"The cat’s already out of the bag," Bogart said, adding that "innovation is going elsewhere if the SEC doesn’t get on board soon."

 

Author Kellie Ell |

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

Bitcoin Elliott Wave Analysis – Close to Ending 5 Waves

Bitcoin Elliott Wave Analysis -  Close to Ending 5 Waves

Bitcoin Elliott Wave Analysis – Close to Ending 5 Waves

Bitcoin Ticker symbol: $BTCUSD short-term Elliott wave analysis suggests that the decline to $6072 low ended Minor wave 2 pullback. The internals of that pullback unfolded as Elliott wave Flatcorrection where Minute wave ((a)) ended in 3 swing at $6445.31 low. Minute wave ((b)) bounce ended in 3 swing at $6820 high and Minute wave ((c)) ended in 5 waves structure at $6072 low.

 

Above from there, the Bitcoin’s rally to $7696.88 high ended Minor wave 3. The internals of that rally higher unfolded as Elliott wave impulse structure where Minute wave ((i)) ended in 5 waves at $6337.25, Minute wave ((ii)) ended at $6121.01, Minute wave ((iii)) ended in 5 waves at $7599.98, Minute wave ((iv)) ended at $7338.91 and Minute wave ((v)) of 3 ended at $7696.88 high.Down from there, the pullback to 7253.21 low ended Minor wave 4.

 

The rally higher in Minor wave 5 is nesting higher as impulse structure looking to extend higher 1 more time approximately towards $8678.62 0.764% Fibonacci extension area of Minor 1+3 to end the Minor wave 5. The move higher should also complete cycle from 6/29 low in intermediate wave (A) of a possible Zigzag structure. Afterward, the instrument is expected to do a pullback in intermediate wave (B) in 3, 7 or 11 swings to correct cycle from 6/29 low before another extension higher in intermediate wave (C) is seen. We don’t like selling it.


 

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

Bitcoin Price Set for Major Bullish Breakout – Traders

Bitcoin Price Set for Major Bullish Breakout – Traders

Bitcoin Price Set for Major Bullish Breakout – Traders

 

According to sources who are analysing the current situation regarding the bitcoin price consistently, it appears that the cryptocurrency may be in line for a major breakout.

An analysis from Telegram groups and recent comments on Discord channels have also appeared to confirm this sentiment.

Bitcoin has officially made a higher high on the daily, testing a big resistance at $7,800 (inverted head and shoulders target) and testing the mid-term downtrend line. The top line has now broken and one can expect a big run up in the days ahead. According to sources, if the line is broken more this week at the right time, it will cause a flood of buying followed by a small retracement or correction.

At present, the bitcoin price is trading just above the $7,700 level on Bitfinex, with turnover slightly on the lower side when compared to last week’s levels. What is different from the usual is that all major cryptocurrencies have either registered small drops or are stable, with BTC being the only real gainer alongside bitcoin cash and cardano. Sources said that it is still not the season for alts –- these continue to perform sluggishly although that could change when bitcoin starts its upward ride.

 

The fact that BTC pushed a higher high is already bullish, and we also closed the daily with a higher low. The RSI keeps peaking into overbought conditions and cooling off, maintaining bull momentum for the upcoming ETF news. The news regarding a new bitcoin ETF would certainly send the market skyrocketing upwards.
 

It appears that bitcoin is nearing bull confirmation, with high volume coming from buyers. A break of $7,800 can send BTC into a run to $8,250, which is the level needed to break and confirm at least mid-term bull, as it is a swing high of the recent downtrend.
 

Sentiment remains bullish, with bears struck in fear with every leg up. This is looking great for BTC; however, we are still in a 6-month bear market trend, so it would be good to keep an eye on price movements.
 

Supports and Resistances have been identified by traders in Telegram group RSSignals as follows:
 

Key Supports:

$7339

$7214

$7075

 

Key Resistances:

$7798

$7943

$8225

 

AUTHOR  Gerald Fenech

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

BTC/USDUptrend Aims at 10k after Bulls Regain Control

BTC/USDUptrend Aims at 10k after Bulls Regain Control

Bitcoin (BTC/USD) is showing strong bullish momentum because multiple daily candlesticks are managing to stay above the 21 ema zone, which indicates that the bulls are fully in control at the moment

2 hour

BTC/USD’s lack of any bearish retracement indicates that more bullish continuation is likely at the moment, which is confirmed when price manages to break above the long-term moving average. A bullish breakout (blue arrows) could take price up to the Fibonacci targets and complete a potential wave 3 (purple). Then a mild bull flag chart pattern is expected (wave 4) and one more push within wave 5 (purple). This will complete a potential wave 1 (blue) – see next image.
 

The wave 1 (blue) could stop at for instance the previous resistance zone (orange lines), which is also the 10k round level. If price makes a wave 2 (blue) as expected, then price should fall in a corrective 3 wave pattern (ABC zigzag) back to support. The inverted head and shoulders pattern (purple box) could kick start a larger bullish reversal by completing the wave 2 (blue) correction and starting a bullish wave 3 (blue).

 

4 hour

Price is building a consolidation zone (green box) on the 4 hour chart after showing strong bullish momentum (green arrow). Usually the breakout (2nd green arrow) travels the same distance after pushing through the range (green box) as the original impulsive swing (1st green arrow), although the momentum could be less strong. For instance, a bullish channel (purple) could emerge as well. I’m expecting bull flags and continuations towards the Fibonacci targets and weekly Pivot Points for the moment.

1 hour

The ecs.SWAT software can be used on Bitcoin as well the 1 hour chart shows. Blue ECS candles above the 21 ema indicate momentum or a new breakout (if its first blue candle), whereas bullish blue arrows indicate potential continuation or loss of momentum (red arrow). The green candles indicate breakout setups.

 

 

 

Author Chris Svorcik

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

South Korea Makes 2018 the Year of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Acceptance

South Korea Makes 2018 the Year of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Acceptance

South Korea Makes 2018 the Year of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Acceptance

 

South Korea has done a crypto pivot. Regulators announced today that the Financial Services Commission (FSC) is establishing a policymaking body to lead the country’s efforts in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era, commonly characterized as the emergence of robotics, artificial intelligence, blockchain, biotech, nanotech, quantum computing and the Internet of Things. The newly-created Financial Innovation Bureau will focus on blockchain, cryptocurrency and fintech.

The decision was made during an FSC cabinet meeting with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

The FSC plans a major organizational reshuffle to “better protect financial consumers and proactively respond to financial innovation,” according to a statement by the FSC. “The new Financial Innovation Bureau will be tasked with policy initiatives for financial innovation – e.g. innovative financial services using fintech or big data and responses to new developments and challenges such as cryptocurrencies.”

The proactive response is widely regarded as a major positive step toward regulating, and not stifling, cryptocurrency innovations.

In January, 228,295 citizens petitioned the government over regulations banning ICOs and forcing investors to verify their identity to trade crypto on virtual accounts opened at local banks. The people demanded to know why regulators wanted to restrict certain crypto-related activities – crushing their dreams of a happier life.

Petition December 28, 2017

I want to ask the government:
Has the government ever dreamed a happy dream for our people once?

Many people have suffered from virtual currency? 
Investment is the responsibility of an individual who has failed or failed. 
Damage caused by unreasonable investment is not only the virtual money, but also the stock. 
Just as the people who make virtual money do damage, they dominate the media and declare war again. 
We can close even the virtual currency exchanges, so please listen carefully.” 
Our people have been able to make a happy dream that they have never had in Korea due to virtual money.
I might be able to buy a house in Korea where it is hard to buy my house. 

Maybe I can live by doing what I want to do. Maybe I can 
become a little bit of my life and I can breathe. Do our people illegally gamble? 
People are not stupid. In the flow of time, virtual money is invested in the fourth revolution
It is not just a random investment, but also a company that sells virtual money exactly like a stock, and 
invests wisely enough to make sure that you do not overdo it. 

The large number of petitioners legally compelled the government to respond. The blowback set into motion a rigorous debate about government oversight in the crypto space.

Subsequent events made it difficult to impose a comprehensive ban on cryptocurrencies.

 

  • January – It was revealed that the South Korean National Pension Fund made indirect investments in four cryptocurrency exchanges – Korbit, Upbit, Coinplug, and Bithumb – totaling 2.6 billion won, making a proposed comprehensive ban on cryptocurrencies impractical.

  • March – Bithumb, Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced a breakthrough platform that will allow 6,000 physical stores across the country to sell a variety of products, including meals, for cryptocurrency. The platform, which is set to launch at the end of the year, is a joint venture with mobile payment operator and gift-card platform Korea Pay’s Service.

  • May – South Korea’s Supreme Court officially proclaimed that Bitcoin is an ‘asset with measurable value.’

The government has been working to come up with a regulatory framework that can advance cryptocurrencies and spur innovation while protecting consumers. As a global movement in a global economy, regulators in every country risk ending up in last place in the race for technological supremacy by imposing any heavy-handed actions to eliminate cryptocurrencies. Because of their decentralized nature and accessibility through the internet, they cannot be shut down.

It’s also hard to separate blockchain from cryptocurrencies. Many tech experts, financial analysts and admired investors have spoken fondly of blockchain while condemning cryptocurrencies, but the distinction between the two is difficult to reflect in policymaking since blockchain technology is what underpins cryptocurrencies and because cryptocurrencies are often the underlying instrument that fuel innovative blockchains. The two are commonly and inextricably linked.

The new Financial Innovation Bureau will take a holistic approach to integrating cryptocurrencies and blockchain. The bureau will coordinate three divisions: the Financial Innovation Division, the Electronic Finance Division and the Financial Data Policy Division.

According to a study released in December 2017, one third of South Korean professionals are invested in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, making South Korea one the biggest cryptocurrency markets in the world.

 

David Ogden – Http://markethive.com/david-ogden