Author: David

Bitcoin Price Analysis – The bottom is likely in

Bitcoin Price Analysis – The bottom is likely in

Bitcoin (BTC) has risen ~50% over the past week following a ~60% drop throughout early January and February. The leading cryptocurrency now has a market cap of ~US$150 billion, with over US$3.5 billion traded over the past 24 hours.

The mining sector is heating up rapidly all over the world, bringing additional decentralization to an industry that has been concentrated in China for many years. While being compared to a gold rush, there is an increasing focus on hardware and energy demands.

Nvidia stock continues to soar, in part due to GPU mining demand. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang admitted crypto was a “real part” of their business in Q4 2017 and that, “crypto is a real thing, it’s not going to go away.” Later this month the Toronto stock exchange will list the Vancouver-based Hut 8 Mining Corp, a company backed by Georgian mining company Bitfury – one of the main competitors of China-based Bitmain.

In order to maximize returns, miners are generally concentrated where electricity is cheap. These geographic locations typically have renewable or alternative energy sources, as is the case in Washington State and Iceland.

Washington State has seen a large uptick in mining activity recently due to relatively cheap hydroelectric power and a large quantity undeveloped land. Mining is slated to become a multimillion-dollar business in Chelan County, where the local power provider, Chelan Public Utility District (PUD), is dealing with a surge of requests to build large-scale mining facilities. The county of 72,400 residents already has 16 cryptocurrency mining operations up and running.

Iceland may be using more power to mine BTC than they use to power homes by the end of 2018, according to reporting from the BBC. Johann Snorri Sigurbergsson, a spokesman for Icelandic energy firm HS Orka, said that there is so much demand for BTC mining data centers in Iceland that the country wouldn't have enough electricity to supply them all were they to be built.

Japanese e-commerce company DMM also announced plans for a 1,000 unit mining farm in the Ishikawa Prefecture, taking advantage of low ambient temperatures and cheap electricity costs, while Italian utility company Enel Italy has decided against selling power for the purposes of cryptocurrency mining as it is an “unsustainable practice that does not fit with the business model.”

While mining operations across the globe expand, crypto has entered the zeitgeist of several central bankers and economists. The previous U.S. chair of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, held a hawkish stance on BTC, calling it a “highly speculative asset” that “doesn't constitute legal tender.” The Executive Director of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Austria’s central bank, agreed. Kurt Pribil said that “bitcoin price is pure speculation.” French and German finance ministers have also raised concerns over education and risk management, and plan to propose restrictions on BTC at the Argentinian G20 meeting in March.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde believes international crypto regulation will be necessary and “inevitable,” in regards to activities involving dark markets rather than crypto itself. President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draghi, has a warmer approach, suggesting “banks will show positive interest” and that the ECB cannot and will not regulate BTC.

Arizona state legislators have taken a warmer stance as well. A bill recently passed into legislation that allows taxes to be paid using cryptocurrencies. Several Libertarian-leaning U.S politicians have already accepted campaign donations in BTC, including; Colorado Democrat Jared Polis in 2014, Kentucky Republican Rand Paul in 2016, and most recently, Missouri Republican Austin Petersen.

In the meantime, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) and other police agencies remain focused on money laundering and other illicit activities using cryptocurrencies. The Executive Director of Europol, Rob Wainwright, estimates that about 3-4% of the £100bn in illicit proceeds in Europe are laundered through cryptocurrencies.

In the U.S., a resident of Ohio was recently arrested for allegedly running a fake ID ring where US$4.7 million of BTC was confiscated. In Russia, scientists were recently arrested for using a nuclear supercomputer to mine BTC. Computers within nuclear facilities are rarely connected to the internet as a preventative measure against hacking. However, the scientists apparently connected the computer and were promptly arrested.

In less nefarious bitcoin adoption this week, real estate sales for BTC transactions also continue to increase. A Florida company recently completed its third bitcoin-only transaction, selling a Miami townhouse for 41.35 BTC, or US$338,878. A previous bitcoin-only Miami transaction included a penthouse for 33 BTC, or US$547,000 at the time. Fifty luxury apartments were recently sold for BTC in Dubai as well, with one buyer taking 10 units.

However, banks outside the U.S. have begun to ban BTC purchases with credit cards, including the Bank of Ireland as well as several banks in the United Kingdom. Pantera Capital CEO, Dan Moorehead, continues to remain extremely bullish saying, “there’s such an institutional appetite to get exposure to this. It’s a half a trillion dollar asset class that nobody owns. That’s a pretty wild circumstance.” Institutional traders continue to gain exposure to crypto through CME’s BTC cash-settled futures.

Exchange traded volume this week has been led by U.S. Dollar Tether (USDT), U.S. Dollar (USD), and Japanese Yen (JPY) trading pairs.

Over the counter volume globally is nearing record highs set in December.

Technical Analysis

The current BTC trend is roughly neutral, based on high timeframe metrics. Indicators such as the Ichimoku Cloud, Exponential Moving Averages (EMA), Relative Strength Index (RSI), Pitchfork, and basic chart patterns help determine entry and exit points, as well as the state of the trend.

The Ichimoku Cloud on the weekly chart remains bullish, but its metrics do not provide any long entry or exit signals. Price bounced off the 50 day EMA, and 50 on the RSI, for the first time in several months. This indicates a sustained bull trend with a complete momentum reset. Bullish continuation is likely if the 50 level on the RSI continues as support. The previous weekly candle formed a dragonfly Doji, a bullish reversal candle, which will be confirmed as a reversal following a consecutive green candle this week.

The Ichimoku Cloud metrics on the daily chart are all bearish. Although this would typically trigger a short entry, the distance of price from the Kijun suggests that the asset remains heavily oversold. An optimal short entry would occur when price returns to, but does not breach, the Kijun. This would indicate bearish continuation.

February 6th also marked the highest daily trading volume since China banned trading in early 2017. Volume spikes such as this are highly suggestive of an interim trend reversal, as was the case on September 15th.

The next long entry signal indicated by the Ichimoku Cloud on this time frame, will not trigger until all its metrics flip bullish again. This may not occur for several weeks. The Kumo twist on March 6th is the zone with the highest likelihood of price breaching the Cloud. If price is below the Cloud at that time, it will treat this zone as a magnet for upward momentum. Price is also currently near but below the 200EMA, a litmus test for trend status.

 

A Pitchfork on the daily chart with anchor points in February, May, and July shows price reaching the 1.618 level on the recent drop. The 1.618 level is borrowed from Fibonacci extensions and was also roughly seen as resistance at US$15,700 and US$17,000.

Buying in the current zone comes with the risk of a bearish invalidation of the Pitchfork. A significant break below the lowest diagonal support would invalidate the Pitchfork entirely. The upside potential is a return to the median line, followed by a test of the upper limit.

A bullish reversal pattern, the inverted head and shoulders, with a 1.618 fib extension and measured moves of US$11,500 and US$13,105, continues to form. The horizontal levels of this pattern strongly correlate with support and resistance levels from previous order blocks.

Lastly, market cycles are loosely correlated with the OKEX (previously OKcoin) quarterly futures expiration dates. January and July have preceded the beginning of relative bearish reversal periods (red), whereas April and October have preceded the beginning of relative bullish reversal periods (green). This has occurred irrespective of the macro trend.

Conclusion

The ever-expanding mining data centers across the globe continue to add pressure to regional power supplies. Although mining profitability will inevitably be affected by any rise in the cost of power, the additional investment in the crypto industry lends sustainability to the industry as a whole.

Following the generally dovish Senate hearing on cryptocurrency last week, regulators around the world continue to reveal their positions. While most regulators have adopted a wait and see approach, law enforcement continues to report on illicit activities, in spite of the relatively minor use of cryptocurrency.

Technicals are neutral based on the trend metrics with a complete momentum reset. Exchange-traded and OTC volume continue to sustain levels seen during the ATH period in December. Low timeframes show a bullish reversal pattern which should conclude within the next 24 hours, eventually bringing BTC back above US$10,000 once the pattern completes.

 

Author osh Olszewicz, 13 Feb 2018

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

 

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

Prices Aside, Crypto’s Tech Stack Is Steadily Improving

Prices Aside, Crypto's Tech Stack Is Steadily Improving

Prices Aside, Crypto's Tech Stack Is Steadily Improving

Rachel Rose O'Leary and Alyssa Hertig

Feb 11, 2018 at 14:45 UTC

 

A look at the headlines of late may leave you with a familiar conclusion – with all the ups and downs in the market, it's just too early to take crypto seriously.

And it's true, despite the best efforts of even the industry's most notable developers, the world's largest cryptocurrencies remain not just volatile, but difficult (and risky) to use, at least in a way that their creators' intended.

Still, heading into 2018, enthusiasts the world over are hard at work on improvements.

As such, there's optimism advances could start to compound, creating a user experience that finally starts to transcend the issues – namely, the high fees and long wait times – users of most blockchains have become all too accustomed to.

In fact, in the year ahead, blockchain users could see exciting new features and scientific firsts that just might help push the industry closer to that vision:

 

1. Off-chain channels

What if it was possible for blockchain-based transactions to avoid using the blockchain at all?

That's the big idea behind off-blockchain payment channels, an idea that harkens back to 2015, but whose time may have finally come this year. Most associated with Bitcoin's Lightning Network, the idea is actually more general than this specific instance.

Essentially, off-blockchain payment channels would allow two people using any one cryptocurrency to send small payments back and forth, settling to the blockchain (and dealing with its high fees and slow transaction times) only when absolutely necessary.

Due to the potential impact, the idea is catching on – ethereum developers, while they often don't see eye-to-eye with their bitcoin peers, are at work on the same type of solution.

But there's more than just a rivalry at play, there's also reason to believe 2018 might be different in that actual live transactions could be sent in significant numbers.

The developers behind bitcoin's Lightning Network have declared the technology almost ready based on successful tests. Meanwhile, ethereum's developers have also unveiled successful tests for their versions of the concept, Raiden Network, with a more ambitious version, Plasma, potentially around the corner.

 

2. Real-live staking

As their popularity grows, attention is also being paid to the electricity required to sustain cryptocurrencies.

While the relevant data is difficult to pin down, proof-of-work, the consensus protocol that underlies bitcoin mining, is best defined as an energy-intensive process. As such, there are concerns about its electricity use could have large-scale environmental effects.

This is leading to new research on an idea from 2011. Called proof-of-stake, or "consensus by vote," the idea has been implemented, however, not at the scale intended by ethereum.

As such, it's long-awaited project Casper is likely to be under significant scrutiny this coming year, and early versions are beginning to see the light.

In a testnet released on New Year's Eve, one variation of Casper, was claimed to be functional. Karl Floersch, a leading developer behind the technology, told CoinDesk at the time that the code is working with "no hiccups."

Work remains to adapt this early version of Casper across the different ethereum clients, but ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin has said he expects the technology will be tested alongside proof-of-work sometime in the future.

 

3. Privacy advances

Privacy has been a somewhat neglected promise in the majority of blockchains, but it's nonetheless an issue that could see improvement this year.

Most notable is the advances in zero-knowledge proofs, what Buterin has called "the single most under-hyped thing in cryptography right now," are getting cheaper and easier to deploy.

A form of cryptography that hides information without risking validity, it's already been adapted to a small degree into ethereum, which could lead to a wave of startups experimenting with private smart contracts in novel and unexpected ways.

Plus, in a white paper published earlier this month, a system for achieving zero-knowledge without compromising trust – a point of contention in some earlier iterations of the tech – was released, an update which could have exciting consequences.

And as existing tech matures, privacy-centric cryptocurrencies such as monero and zcash are also set to improve.

In preparation for an upgrade, zcash has been steadily reinforcing its security, while monero is stepping up to implement "bulletproofs," a feature that could cut fees by 80 percent.

 

4. Decentralized exchanges

No, this isn't just a new version of Coinbase or Kraken.

As the industry's largest exchanges struggle to cope with the influx of new adopters, an increasing number of projects are at work developing something called a decentralized exchange. The term denotes not just a new browser-based exchange, but rather a type of software users can use to swap one cryptocurrency with another without a central entity.

2017 saw a flood of new decentralized exchange projects, such as ShapeShift's Prism, 0x, OmiseGo, Kyber Network, and many others.

Expect those efforts to accelerate this year.

So far, hardware wallet Ledger has already integrated with decentralized exchange Radar Relay, allowing users to trustlessly exchange tokens based on ethereum.

While functionality is limited (it's only supported by a single wallet and only ethereum-based tokens can be sent), many in the industry see it as a glimpse into the future of not just cryptocurrency exchanges, but the technology itself.

 

Posted By David Ogden Entrepreneur
David ogden Cryptocurrency entrepreneur

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

Is Darknet Done With Bitcoin

Is Darknet Done With Bitcoin

Is Darknet Done With Bitcoin?

A new study by Recorded Future has found that Bitcoin is losing its position as the number one currency on the Darknet markets. The Internet tech company analyzed 150 of the most active message boards, marketplaces, and illicit service providers and noticed that the Darknet communities sentiments toward Bitcoin have taken a turn.

The Darknet economy

The Darknet is an Internet that uses non-standard communication protocols and ports to make it a bit more difficult for the digital identities of users to be revealed. The Darknet requires users to run a special software, the most popular being TOR. to connect to the Internet. One of the main purposes of using the Darknet is to make the information provider and the person accessing the information difficult to trace. Because of this privacy feature, the Darknet has become famous for its Darknet markets like Silk Road that allowed users to effectively exchange anything, legal or illegal over an Amazon-like marketplace. The anonymous Internet is said to attract criminals and those interested in black market activities as well.

A backlogged network

In mid-2016, Recorded Future noticed that the 150 entities they were analyzing were all expressing concerns regarding the functionality, usability and security of Bitcoin in the Darknet economy. Although it was a relatively mild increase compared to the increase in interest in Bitcoin in the latter half of 2017, the Bitcoin network was beginning to become overloaded with traffic which resulted in higher transaction fees for those using the Darknet markets. On Dec. 23, 2017 transaction fees were $52.18.

Recorded Future found that the average transaction size on the Darknet is $50-$300. If an individual tried to transact on Dec. 23, 2017 – it could have been the case that the transaction fee was more costly than the amount being transacted. One member of a Darknet message board posted this on the forum he uses:

“What's happening at the moment is incomprehensible. Despite that I've used the recommended commission fees, my transactions have remained pending for the past three days, and my work has been paralyzed. Dear vendors, please implement alternative payment options; otherwise, I will miss out on this Christmas season.”

A Christmas miracle

The backlogged queue on the Bitcoin network was making it difficult for some individuals in the underworld to conduct their business. This users transaction was logged so far back in the queue that it took several days for it to become verified. To combat double-spending attacks, most vendors on the Darknet adopted a rule requiring three confirmations before treating transactions as complete. Because a transaction cannot be complete until the payment has been confirmed, this user was effectively frozen out of conducting his “business.”

Although he was worried he would “miss out on this Christmas season,” his Christmas miracle was about to occur. To combat, the exuberant transaction fees that were increasing daily, vendors began accepting alternative payment options. The study found that Litecoin was the second most popular currency with 30 percent of all vendors accepting LTC, and Dash the third most popular currency, with 20 percent of all vendors accepting DASH.

Other Darknet studies

Back in 2016, economist Tuur Demeester was in the process of researching the Darknet markets. Demeester turned to r/DarkNetMarkets to see if the community could provide him with the statistics he was looking for: what percentage of trades on the Darknet was conducted with BTC? Was DarkCoin used and how often? How many Bitcoins were spent on the Darknet on a daily/monthly/yearly basis? But Demeester was not met with any useful answers from the community.

Prior to Demeester's endeavor, The Digital Citizens Alliance released a table with statistics about the number of drug listings on the Darknet markets in August 2014, but this table provided no information regarded prices, trade volumes and preferred payment methods.

Furthermore, Nicolas Cristin, an associate research professor in the School of Computer Science and in Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) together with Kyle Soska, a Ph.D. candidate in CMU’s school of electrical and computer engineering back in 2013, conducted a study from 2013-2015 to get a handle on the Darknet market economy.

When the Silk Road was shut down in October 2013, Cristin and Soska noticed that the take-down spawned the development of anonymous online marketplaces, which continue to evolve to this day. Cristin and Soska used long-term measurement analysis on 16 different marketplaces for over two years (2013– 2015) to calculate the growth of the online anonymous marketplace ecosystem. Their research documented the types of goods being sold, the effect – or lack – of adversarial events, such as law enforcement operations and large-scale frauds, on the overall size of the economy. The two also gained insights into how vendors are diversifying and replicating across marketplaces, and how vendor security practices (e.g., PGP adoption) are evolving.

Payment methods are evolving

Recorded Futures study concluded by stating that the efforts that vendors are taking to diversify acceptable payment methods on the Darknet markets will continue. Although payment methods like Litecoin and Dash are becoming more popular, Recorded Future still expects Bitcoin to have a place in the Darknet economy- just a much smaller market share than it currently has. Recorded future also warns that with increased popularity in digital currencies will come an increase in malicious tools like ransomware that will try to take advantage of the mainstream trends in cryptocurrency.

 

Author Patrick Thompson

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
david ogden cryptocurrency entrepreneur

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

Russian nuclear scientists arrested for Bitcoin mining plot

Russian nuclear scientists arrested for Bitcoin mining plot

Russian nuclear scientists arrested for Bitcoin mining plot

Russian security officers have arrested several scientists working at a top-secret Russian nuclear warhead facility for allegedly mining crypto-currencies.

The suspects had tried to use one of Russia's most powerful supercomputers to mine Bitcoins, media reports say.

The Federal Nuclear Centre in Sarov, western Russia, is a restricted area.

The centre's press service said: "There has been an unsanctioned attempt to use computer facilities for private purposes including so-called mining."

The supercomputer was not supposed to be connected to the internet – to prevent intrusion – and once the scientists attempted to do so, the nuclear centre's security department was alerted. They were handed over to the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Russian news service Mash says.

"As far as we are aware, a criminal case has been launched against them," the press service told Interfax news agency.

Crypto-currencies like Bitcoin do not rely on centralised computer servers. People who provide computer processing power to the crypto-currency system, to enable transactions to take place, can get rewards in Bitcoins.

In the Cold War the USSR's first nuclear bomb was produced at Sarov, during Joseph Stalin's rule.

The top-secret town was not even marked on Soviet maps and special permits are still required for Russians to visit it.

Putin, power and poison: Russia’s elite FSB spy club

Sarov is surrounded by a tightly guarded no-man's-land, with barbed wire fences to keep the curious away.

There are suspicions that the radioactive polonium-210 used to kill ex-FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 came from Sarov.

The Federal Nuclear Centre reportedly employs up to 20,000 people and its supercomputer boasts a capacity of 1 petaflop, the equivalent of 1,000 trillion calculations per second.

Mining crypto-currencies requires great computational power and huge amounts of energy.

There have been reports of some other industrial facilities in Russia being used for crypto-mining, and one businessman reportedly bought two power stations for the activity.

 

Source BBC News 9th February

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

David ogden Cryptocurrency entrepreneur

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

Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis for 9th Feb 2018 – Slow But Steady Climb

Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis for 9th Feb 2018 – Slow But Steady Climb

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

  • Bitcoin price is testing an area of interest at the $8,000 major psychological level which lines up with several support levels.

  • For one, this is the bottom of a short-term ascending channel visible on the 1-hour time frame.

  • This also coincides with the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level, which already appears to have held as a floor.

  • Bitcoin price could be due for a small bounce off these short-term support levels as bullish pressure appears to be slowly returning.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is still below the longer-term 200 SMA to indicate that the path of least resistance is to the downside. This means that the selloff is more likely to resume than to reverse.

However, the gap between the moving averages is slowly narrowing to indicate that bearish pressure could be fading. The 100 SMA might also hold as dynamic support if this keeps up.

Stochastic is turning slightly higher to signal that buyers are returning, but RSI is still on its way south so bitcoin price might follow suit. If the $8,000 level holds as support, price could bounce up to the swing high or the channel resistance closer to $9,000.

Market Factors

Risk aversion returned to the financial markets and these days bitcoin price has been tracking equities and commodities, unlike in the past when the cryptocurrency tends to benefit from safe-haven flows.

However, analysts are confident that the market slump is just a mere correction from the overdone rallies earlier in the year. If so, higher-yielding assets including bitcoin could see the longer-term uptrend resume at some point.

For bitcoin price, it seems that traders are mostly waiting for a strong catalyst that could encourage investors to reopen their long positions. One possible factor could be the Senate hearing that called upon regulators to increase oversight without hampering development, something that could still be overall positive for the cryptocurrency industry.
 

Author SARAH JENN • FEB 9, 2018 • 05:02

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
David Ogden Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur

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

Wells Fargo strategist – Bitcoin and the market are correlated

Wells Fargo strategist - Bitcoin and the market are correlated

Wells Fargo strategist – Bitcoin and the market are correlated

  • Assessing risk is a good gauge for determining stock market and cryptocurrency movement, says Wells Fargo strategist.

  • Wells Fargo raises its price target for equities up by 10 percent this year.

  • Both the market and bitcoin are now beginning to recover from dips earlier this week.

If the bitcoin bubble bursts, the stock market may go down along with it, said Christopher Harvey, head of equity strategy at Wells Fargo, who sees a correlation between the two.

"On Monday what we saw is all risk products sell off," Harvey said Wednesday on CNBC's "Fast Money."

A hit on the market, he said, can cause investors to panic and begin selling bitcoin as well.

"It sometimes adds fuel to the fire," Harvey said.

Risk in the marketplace was at a high earlier this year as the stock market rallied, which led to more interest from investors who saw the potential for big gains in the crypto market.

"Last year what you had was money chasing performance," Harvey said. As volatility shot up, he said, there was a "massive" demand for liquidity.

Then on Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 1,175 points by the end of the day. Bitcoin also fell to one of its lowest points in two months on Monday, trading at $5,947.40.

Harvey said the best gauge for predicting future market movement and the price of digital currency is simply by assessing the risk.

"We think of it more as what we have to watch out for, what we have to … tell our clients to be careful of," Harvey said. "We don't make a call whether it's going to go up or down but that it's a risk in the marketplace, and it's really far out on the risk spectrum."

Wells Fargo raised its price target for equities, up about 10 percent over the next year. Its 2018 S&P 500 year-end target is 2,950, compared with the earlier target of 2,863. Cryptocurrencies and the market should trade in correlation over the next three to six months, it said.

"If we're right, what we should see is risk product going higher," Harvey said.

"If we're right and risk starts to be bid again, it wouldn't surprise us to see a bid in some of the crypto markets," he said.

All eyes remained on bitcoin Wednesday as the market began to recover. The cryptocurrency was trading above $7,000, even briefly tipping over $8,000 in the evening.

As the crypto market becomes more regulated some of the risk should disappear, Harvey said.

 

Author Kellie Ell News Associate for CNBC

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
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Bitcoin ‘SKYROCKETS’ Cryptocurrency soars 25 per cent in 24 hours as ‘investors celebrate’

Bitcoin ‘SKYROCKETS' Cryptocurrency soars 25 per cent in 24 hours as 'investors celebrate'

Bitcoin skyrocketed last year that saw the prized currency hit an all-time high of £13991.86 

 

Bitcoin ‘SKYROCKETS’ Cryptocurrency soars 25 per cent in 24 hours as 'investors celebrate'

 

A BITCOIN resurgence could be underway as the cryptocurrency soared over 24.5 per cent in the last 24 hours that has surely given investors an excuse to celebrate, it has been revealed.

Leading virtual currency tracker Coinbase declared that Bitcoin has seen an 24.5 per cent rise that saw its value climb back up to £5,288.03 ($7,383.45).

Bitcoin skyrocketed last year that saw the prized currency hit an all-time high of £13991.86 ($19,535.70) on December 17.

The increase will surely cause investors to let off a sigh of relief – the cryptocurrency had been plagued with severely declining values since it broke its price record.

As Bitcoin saw sharp declines, so too did other leading currencies Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple and Litecoin.

Ethereum is currently valued at £534.31 ($746.04) while Bitcoin Cash sits at £656.88 ($917.17).

Meanwhile, Litecoin is worth £97.29 ($135.84) per coin and Ripple is worth 53p ($0.74).

The dramatic fall in virtual currencies recently could have been caused by increased regulations around the world.

India has been labelled as the next significant nation to outlaw cryptocurrencies, according to a finance ministry official.

New Delhi’s economic affairs secretary, Subhash Chandra Garg, stated that the government is setting up a panel to analyse cryptocurrencies and aims to submit a report on them in the current fiscal year.

He explained: “The government will take steps to make it illegal as a payment system. As well as having a regulator in place.

“We hope now within this financial year the committee will finalise its recommendations… certainly, there will be a regulator.”

Meanwhile, there are fears that China could harness its Great Firewall to block access to virtual markets.

Any and all websites offering services related to cryptocurrencies have been wiped from search engines and social media in the Asian superpower.

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) have already been banned in China.

ICOs have been previously attacked for being harnessed by scammers in a desperate effort to steal investor funds.

The US could also be targeting “increased federal regulation” for cryptocurrency trading platforms.

 

By JOSEPH CAREY | UPDATED: 05:41, Wed, Feb 7, 2018

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

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Bitcoin drops below $6,200 for first time in three months

Bitcoin drops below $6,200 for first time in three months

Bitcoin drops below $6,200 for first time in three months

The virtual currency fell to $6,190 for the first time since mid-November, according to Bloomberg News, and represents the latest hammering for a unit that saw a stratospheric 26-fold rise last year.

Bitcoin plunged 20 per cent to a three-month low today, its latest sharp loss following a series of setbacks for the cryptocurrency that, with a collapse across global mainstream markets adding to the selling.

The virtual currency fell to $6,190 for the first time since mid-November, according to Bloomberg News, and represents the latest hammering for a unit that saw a stratospheric 26-fold rise last year.

Today's collapse comes just six weeks after bitcoin hit a record high of $19,511, fuelled by a flood of speculators looking to make a quick buck, with warnings it could fall another 50 per cent.

Since those heady days the cryptomarket — which includes dozens of other units — has been pounded by news of crackdowns by governments including in China, Russia and South Korea, one of the biggest markets for the sector.

On Thursday, India said it would "take all measures to eliminate" cryptocurrencies' use as part of a payment system and in funding illegitimate activities, while Japanese authorities raided a virtual currency exchange after it lost $530 million to hackers.

Central bank in Europe, Japan and the United States have also flagged concerns about the unit and this week saw several commercial lenders say they would stop allowing their customers to buy bitcoin through their credit cards owing to debt concerns.

Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia Pacific at Oanda, said "the dynamics behind the moves are regulatory clampdowns and investors losing confidence in crypto".

The sell-off on Tuesday was exacerbated by crushing losses on world stock markets, with the Dow on Wall Street suffering its biggest one-day points loss and wiping out all its 2018 gains.

The global rout comes as panicked investors fret over rising US borrowing costs, leading them to cash in profits after a stellar couple of months that have seen many indexes hit record or all-time highs.

Equities have enjoyed months of surges fuelled by optimism over the US economy, corporate earnings and the global outlook.

But while traders have been piling into equities, pushing many global indexes to record or multi-year highs, there has been growing concern on trading floors about elevated US Treasury bond yields — at four-year highs — and the likelihood of fresh Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.

"The risk-off tone is hitting Bitcoin almost as hard as a global regulator and bank scrutiny," said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at AxiTrader. "The latest dent to the Cryptospace has been banks saying they are shutting down the ability of clients to buy bitcoin with their cards."

"This could end up a full round trip back into the $1,850/$2,966 region.

Source: Feb 06, 2018 10:39 AM IST | Source: PTI

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

David Ogden Cryptocurrency entrepreneur

 

 

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Bitcoin Not Giving a Big Enough Hit as ‘Gateway Drug’

Bitcoin Not Giving a Big Enough Hit as ‘Gateway Drug’

Interest in Bitcoin hit its high point leading up to its own high of $20,000 in the middle of December last year. Interest peaked, not only in investing circles, but also in the mainstream as Bitcoin became the buzzword on everyone's lips.

This adoption was championed by Bitcoin as it welcomed millions of users to the cryptocurrency community, as expressed in Coinbase’s figures alone. However, in this fast paced ecosystem, Bitcoin is not enough to hold the attention of this vastly diverse community. So, while it may be the ideal coin to get people hooked on cryptocurrencies, once they are in and settled, there is time to seek out a multitude of other coins that are better suited to their needs or beliefs.
 

The draw of big growth

Bitcoin’s biggest draw was the incredible returns it was offering as it rallied from 2,000 percent in 12 months. This phenomenal growth continued to increase interest in the currency, and that sparked even further growth in this massive hype cycle. It has been correlated before that searches for on Google for Bitcoin are closely related to its growth – a phenomenon known as the ‘Satoshi Cycle’. In the lead up to December’s high, the Satoshi Cycle was in full effect as Google trends showed some interesting figures.

Nicholas Colas, a pioneering Bitcoin analyst in the world of traditional investments, has taken this correlation very seriously and states that it plays a big part in his predictions. "Going into December, [searches] skyrocketed," Colas said on CNBC’s Fast Money. He added that the total number of Bitcoin Google searches worldwide tripled that month:

"You saw that correlates to the total increased number of wallet growth, which doubled in December from approximately 5 percent to 10 percent as Bitcoin rallied.”
 

Already hooked

However, taking this metric into consideration, it could be argued that the new wave of adopters are now starting to disperse and find their way to other coins that are more suited to their individual needs. It makes sense that as people become educated and learn more about options in the crypto community that they begin to diversify and pick out their favourite coins to invest in. This often leads to money moving away from Bitcoin and into Altcoins.

Bitcoin, being the dominant, most adopted and scene-leading coin, will continue to be the ‘gateway drug’ of the community, but it is finding it harder to hang on to total support and dominance.

These sentiments are expressed by Colas, who adds:

"Bitcoin is considered the gateway drug to all cryptos and it has acted exactly that way. Right now [the Google search data] is telling me there's not really that next leg up in Bitcoin because there's not that interest that leads to wallet growth that leads to price appreciation."
 

Proof?

Colas tries to justify this position by explaining how Ethereum has been the only coin that has fared relatively well in the top echelons of the CoinMarket Cap:

“Some of the movement in Ethereum, which has traded much better [in January], is just money which is being pulled out of Bitcoin."

However, it is important to note that Bitcoin’s price fluctuations and movements are still heavily linked to all other coins. The saying that: ‘the tide moves all boats’ is still true in the cryptocurrency market with Bitcoin essentially being the tide. When Bitcoin is up, most coins follow, and when it is down, the same red graphs appear to follow suit across the board.

 

Author Darryn Pollock

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
David Ogden Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur

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

Cryptocurrency Markets Move Back Into Green After Substantial Selloff

Cryptocurrency Markets Move Back Into Green After Substantial Selloff

Cryptocurrency Markets Move Back Into Green After Substantial Selloff

Cryptocurrency markets are rebounding today, Feb. 3, following yesterday’s multi-month low in Bitcoin's price. Most of the top 50 coins are in green, with 24 hour gains over 20 percent.

In part due to pressure from misleading reporting on regulations in India, the overall cryptocurrency market took a massive nosedive starting Thursday, Feb.1, shedding more than $100 billion in market cap in the 24 hours following the news.

However, after the substantial selloff, the market has spent today bouncing back, with Bitcoin rising back above the $9,000 level. At press time, Bitcoin was trading at an average of $9,095, up 3.54 percent on the day.

Following Bitcoin’s lead, other coins have also rallied substantially. With the except of three coins, every top 50 cryptocurrency has seen gains, with Litecoin (LTC) and Cardano (ADA), and Verge (XVG) leading the pack with gains between 15 and 20 percent.

A quick glance at the Coin360 market snapshot indicates a clear positive turn after the substantial negatives of the week.

Despite the market lows this week, figures such as Litecoin founder Charlie Lee and CNBC’s Cryptotrader host Ran Neuner have made bullish statements recently about Bitcoin. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Lee in particular offered some level-headed perspective on volatility in crypto markets, often lacking in a market crowded with fearful newcomers.

News of the first Canadian Blockchain ETF approval may well have played into today’s rally.

Bitcoin hit a record high of 20,000 in late December, only to crash, along with the rest of the market, just a few days later, Dec. 22, when Bitcoin and altcoins lost 20-30 percent.

Since then, the leading cryptocurrency has yet to fully recover, hovering roughly between $10-$15,000 per coin, until this yesterday’s multi-month lows under $8000.

The entire month of January saw a market sell off, in part due to increased regulatory news from South Korea – and misleading reporting on it – that left many investors fearful.

 

Author Jon Buck

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
David Ogden Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur

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