The 17 Millionth Bitcoin Is About to Be Mined

Bitcoin's limited supply is about to get a bit more limited.

Barring an unforeseen event, the 17 millionth bitcoin is likely to be mined in the coming days, a development that would mark yet another milestone for the world's first cryptocurrency. That's because as per bitcoin's current rules, only 21 million bitcoin can ever be created.

Stepping back, the milestone, the first million-bitcoin marker to be crossed since mid-2016, is perhaps noteworthy as yet another reminder of the technology's core computer science achievement – digital scarcity created and enabled by shared software.

In short, bitcoin's code, since cloned and adapted by scores of other upstart cryptocurrencies, ensures that only a set number of new bitcoins are introduced to its economy at intervals. Miners, or those who operate the hardware necessary to track bitcoin's transaction set, are rewarded with this scarce data every time they add new entries to the official record.

Still, there's a lot of variability in the process.

Of note is that it can't be precisely predicted when the 17 millionth bitcoin will be mined or who will mine it, due to the many minute variances that are created in keeping a common software in sync. That said, there's a relative predictability. Each bitcoin block produces 12.5 new bitcoin, and as bitcoin blocks occur roughly every 10 minutes, about 1,800 new bitcoin are created each day.

As such, it's perhaps best to view this event as a "psychological barrier," Tetras Capital founding partner Alex Sunnarborg told CoinDesk, one that is interpreted differently by different communities.

Sunnarborg, for example, sought to stress that another way to interpret the result is that 80 percent of all the bitcoin that will be ever created have now been mined. In other words, only about one-fifth of the eventual supply remains for miners and future buyers.

Others see the milestone as one that's ripe for appreciation of the technology and its achievements.

"I think it is awesome," Tim Draper, the venture capitalist who bought millions of bitcoin seized by the U.S. government at auction in 2014, said of the coming milestone.

He told CoinDesk:

"I would bet the founders wouldn't have imagined how important bitcoin would become in their wildest dreams."

Way with words

Others sought to suggest the milestone is one that should be considered as an opportunity for education about both the features of bitcoin, and those of cryptocurrencies broadly.

For example, unless all of the humans who operate the computers running the bitcoin software decide to make a change (a perhaps unlikely scenario today), there's really no way to ever introduce more new bitcoin. This achievement, a technical reality, has played a key role in bitcoin's association with money, economics and other scarce, naturally occurring assets.

In this way, the goldbugs and readers of Austrian economics who piled into bitcoin early on were quick to realize the value of the feature, perhaps giving rise to the term "cryptocurrency" itself.

Trace Meyer, one of this group's most vocal members, summed up the philosophy in a recent tweet, in which he argued governments might seek to prevent users from holding bitcoin in the future.

"Increasing money supply is a means to confiscate through inflation which is a form of taxation without representation or due process of law," he wrote.

Even the new way new bitcoins come into being, called "mining," is a nod to the gold analogy.

Rather than being issued by a central bank, bitcoin is created by a network through the work of maintaining the blockchain. When a miner finds a valid hash for recent transactions, solving the bitcoin protocol's puzzle, he or she is rewarded with a "coinbase transaction," bitcoin credited to her account.

A little bit of cryptocurrency is created and deducted from the final supply

The bitcoin supply curve

How participants have been rewarded has, of course, changed over time.

When bitcoin's founder Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first bitcoin block on Jan. 3, 2009, he created the first 50 bitcoins. This reward stayed the same for another 209,999 blocks, when the first "halvening," or reduction in rewards, took place.

It didn't come as a surprise. Every 210,000 blocks, according to a hard-coded schedule, the network reduces the block reward by 50 percent. Following the most recent halvening, in July 2016, the reward is 12.5 bitcoin.

That means that while there are only 4 million bitcoin left to mine, the network will not reach its final supply in anything like the nine years it's taken to get this far. As the halvenings halven, the rate of monetary inflation – supply growth – slows.

BashCo, a pseudonymous moderator on the r/bitcoin subreddit, has plotted the trajectory of bitcoin's total supply (blue curve) against its rate of monetary inflation (orange line).

Source: BashCo.

Assuming the bitcoin protocol remains the same (a new block is mined every 10 minutes on average and the halving schedule and supply cap are unchanged), the last new bitcoin will not be mined until May 2140.

The next 120 years

With this in mind, the chart hints at another common talking point when acknowledging the milestone – that bitcoin is programmed to run for a very long time.

Jameson Lopp, lead infrastructure engineer at wallet provider Casa, was quick to remind CoinDesk that bitcoins are divisible, and that as such, the smallest parts of each bitcoin can hold seemingly infinite value.

He said:

"While 17 million BTC may sound like a lot, it's incredibly scarce – there won't even be enough for every current millionaire to own a whole bitcoin. Thankfully, each bitcoin is divisible into 100 million satoshis, thus there will always be plenty to go around!"

But there are other quirks to the software as well.

For one, bitcoin will never actually reach 21 million units, as barring a protocol change, the total supply will fall short by at least one satoshi. That's because on May 17, 2011, the miner "midnightmagic" – for reasons that remain unlear – claimed a 49.99999999 block reward, rather than an even 50.

Further, to be clear, bitcoin does not stop running when 21 million bitcoin are produced. At that point, the idea is that miners would be compensated purely through the fees, which they already collect. (Though some scientists have sought to project whether such a market would work in practice).

With so many questions left unanswered, if anything, the event serves as yet another reminder of how far bitcoin has come, and just how far it has to go.

In the words of long-time developer Adam Back:

"Another million down four more to go."

Author David Floyd Updated Apr 26, 2018 at 03:33 UTC

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

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

Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis 23 April â Bulls Back in Action

Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis 23 April – Bulls Back in Action

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

Bitcoin price has gained some traction since breaking past its inverse head and shoulders neckline.
Price is now trading inside an ascending channel and testing the resistance.
A return in bearish pressure could take it back down to support around the Fib levels.

Bitcoin price is trending higher but might be due for a pullback to its channel support.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is above the longer-term 200 SMA to signal that the path of least resistance is to the upside. This indicates that the uptrend is more likely to resume than to reverse.

Applying the Fib tool to the latest swing low and high shows that the 61.8% retracement level lines up with the bottom of the channel at $8338.30. The 38.2% retracement level is close to the mid-channel area of interest at $8600.

The 100 SMA is above the longer-term 200 SMA to confirm that the path of least resistance is to the upside. In other words, the uptrend is more likely to continue than to reverse. The gap between the two is also widening to reflect stronger bullish momentum.

Stochastic looks ready to turn up from the overbought zone to signal a return in buying pressure. In that case, bitcoin could even attempt to break past the channel resistance or swing high at $9000 to establish a steeper climb.

Market Factors

Exchanges are reporting that buy orders are nearing 92% of activity, drawing even more investors in so as to not get left behind in the rally. Some predict that bitcoin could surge past the $20,000 highs within the quarter.

Risk appetite has also been mostly supported in the markets, which means that traders are willing to place bets outside of traditional assets like stocks and commodities. Sentiment in the cryptocurrency industry itself has also improved significantly over the past couple of weeks, spurred by news about big hedge funds and acquisitions in the space.

Author SARAH JENN | APRIL 23, 2018 | 5:37 AM

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

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

Is Bitcoin Repeating Its own history

2014 Bitcoin crash layout by trader babyjungle — published April 20 .

2 weeks ago I found this fractal made from trader @chewner. We all know that trading is based on news and history, and it was funny just to watch how the price was following almost exactly the same path as in 2014. Of course now the scenario is quite different, we are not in a massive adoption yet, but there is a lot of industry and big players in this space. Despite those facts, the price is moved by cicles and by repetitive patterns and today the price just hit exactly the level marked on the chart.

It may be just a coincidence, but I´ll watch the chart just for fun. I´m actually expecting the price to reach around 9200 before a correction.

Here is the chart.

Posted by David Ogden

Link to Original Post https://www.tradingview.com/chart/BTCUSD/EbhIJvue-2014-Bitcoin-crash-layout/

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

What is the price of bitcoin today – Why is BTC rising

What is the price of bitcoin today - Why is BTC rising

What is the price of bitcoin today? Why is BTC rising?

BITCOIN prices are back on the rise today, as the cryptocurrency posts strong results mid week. What is the price of bitcoin today? Why is BTC rising?

Midweek charts show bitcoin prices are back on the rise.

The cryptocurrency has been steadily rising overnight, increasing by more than 2.44 percent in the last hour.

Bitcoin prices were trading at $8,239.66 as of 4.30pm today.

The rest of the cryptocurrency market has also seen a bumper rise in prices.

Ethereum stays ahead of resistance at $544 and Ripple increased 6.83 percent to trade at $0.728 percent.

Bitcoin spin-off, Bitcoin Cash, rose by 13.11 percent to hover just below £1,000 a coin at $940.78.

Litecoin also rose 4.14 percent to trade at $142.

Why is bitcoin rising?

Bitcoin maintains its bullish trend throughout the week as the cryptocurrency recovers from April 17’s tax sell-off.

Investors and analysts feared the US tax deadline on Tuesday would fuel a flurry of crypto-selling, driving prices down.

After a brief wobble, BTC recovered and has been rising steadily ever since.

Tom Lee, founder of hedge fund, Fundstrat, suggested pressure to sell off coins in response to the tax deadline would ease off in the weeks following.

And it appears that his prediction is correct, as prices float higher across the week.

US bitcoin investors owed around $25 billion in capital gains taxes for 2017 following a surge in its price in December, according to Mr Lee.

He told CNBC: “There is quite a lot of discussion in a lot of the crypto groups about the magnitude of tax selling.

“I think we ended up just taking a lot of these thoughts, putting it into a spreadsheet and we came up with an estimate that $25billion would be the tax bill owed to the IRS for realised gains for US households, which is a windfall for the IRS.

“The most that they ever received in capital gains in any single year was 144billion.”

It seems that investors are happy to dip back into the market, as the London Block Exchange (LBX) has discovered.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, LBX CEO, Benjamin Dives, said there has been a notable increase in the amount of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple, handled by his firm.

He said: “The common assumption is that institutional investors shy away from new asset classes such as cryptocurrency.

"However, that’s not what we are seeing here at LBX; we've seen a huge uplift in institutional interest recently. Since Q1 2018, we're now handling many millions in trades each month.

“From hedge funds to pension funds, institutional investors are taking cryptocurrency seriously.

"At LBX, institutional investors have had access to our over-the-counter desk for some time, which allows investors to trade cryptocurrencies under preferential conditions for high volume orders."

Author OWEN GOUG UPDATED: 18:14, Thu, Apr 19, 2018

Posted by David Ogden Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur

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

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Monero Prices Surge–Is The Train Leaving The Station Again

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Monero Prices Surge--Is The Train Leaving The Station Again

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Monero Prices Surge–Is The Train Leaving The Station Again

Shaking off a host of negative news, major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Monero continued to surge recently. Bitcoin is up 2.05% over the last 24 hours and 17.53% over the last seven days, Ethereum is up 1.95% and 21.74% over the same periods, while Ripple and Monero registered even higher gains—see table 1.

Table 1

7d Price Change For Major Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency %24h %7d

Bitcoin 2.05 17.53

Ethereum 1.95 21.74

Ripple 5.47 37.56

Monero 14.45 35.84

Source: Coinmarketcap.com 4/18/18 at 4:30 p.m.

The cryptocurrency rally comes as markets shake off a host of negative news ranging from regulators cranking down on cryptocurrency exchanges to large Bitcoin sales by major investors, and tax sell-offs, and extends across the entire chain, with 96 out of the top 100 cryptocurrencies advancing—see table 2.

Table 2

Number of Cryptocurrencies That Advanced/Declined In The Top 100 Ranks

Cryptocurrencies Advance/Decline Number

Advance 96

Decline 4

Source: Coinmarketcap.com 4/18/18 at 4:30 a.m.

Does this mean that the cryptocurrency train is leaving the station?

Todd Rowan, President and CEO of Rewardstoken.io, thinks so.“Bitcoin is the current engine pulling the crypto train,” said Rowan.“It seems to have found traction post-tax season selloffs; this is good for everyone. Ethereum is finding strong support along with Ripple and others. Next week will tell us if we are leaving the station. We could be off for another bull run.”

Ben WayCEO of Digits.io also thinks so. For ICO’s with real value, that is. “The train has definitely left the station for entrepreneurs trying to do an ICO on the back of a napkin,” he says. “However just like the shakeout in the dot-com bust, the ICO's with real value and real technology and concepts will be in good shape…..this happens in almost every market at some point, next we will see the same in AI and Robotics.”

Michael Collins, Founder and CEO of GN Compass, is bullish on Bitcoin and Cardano. “After a four-month bear, there are now strong indications that we are heading towards a bull,” he notes. “Bitcoin dropping to about $6600 on the 5th of this month was probably the bottom for the year, its price will continue to climb and will probably hit a peak of $15,000 this year. Other coins are following suit with Cardano being the most impressive so far.”

And Roman Guelfi-GibbsCEO, Lead Systems DesignerPinnacle Brilliance Systems Inc. thinks that investors have little time to get aboard the cryptocurrency train. “Investors have some time to make up their minds before the train leaves the station, but they will have to decide soon,” hesays. Guelfi-Gibbs sees Bitcoin heading to 10k, once crossing the $8500 mark.

What about Ethereum? “Ethereum has been recovering nicely over the past two weeks and was able to surmount the $500 hurdle,” notes Guelfi-Gibbs. “Whereas Bitcoin has been subject to some while swings, Ethereum has been moving steadily upward. I would expect that trend to continue after a brief pullback to support.”

Panos Mourdoukoutas , CONTRIBUTOR

Posted by David Ogden Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur

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

HODL On – In Defense of Bitcoin’s Best Investment Strategy

HODL On - In Defense of Bitcoin's Best Investment Strategy

HODL On – In Defense of Bitcoin's Best Investment Strategy

In 1987's Black Monday stock market crash, Sam Walton, the world's richest man, lost more than half a billion dollars in a few hours.

When reached for comment, Walton said, "It's paper anyway. As far as I'm concerned we're focusing totally on the company doing well and taking care of our customers."

He didn't care about dollars; he cared about his asset Wal-Mart, and he still owned that.

History of the #HODL
In bitcoin's volatile and roller coaster past, "HODL" was the meme that bound the cryptocurrency community together. It stood for the proposition that we all believe in the future of bitcoin. It's both funny and insightful.

Here is the original post by GameKyuubi on a Bitcoin Talk forum (spelling errors and profanity included):

It was not about bitcoin versus bitcoin cash or 1,000 other cryptocurrencies. It was bitcoin vs. the world and we ALL embraced it.

It only took 11 minutes for this post to become a meme that became the rallying cry for the entire crypto world. We were all on the same rollercoaster ride and GameKyuubi, in the depths of his frustration, had (sort of) elegantly articulated both what it feels like and the best trading strategy for an asset this volatile.
Buy and HODL.

The good traders
GameKyuubi was wrong about only one thing: There aren't any good traders.
There are lots of us who believe we are good traders. But we aren't. Of course, some of the loudest voices on Reddit regularly remind us about how well they time the market. Except when they don't time the market well.

A paper published last October by the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley entitled "Do Day Traders Rationally Learn About Their Ability?" used nearly 15 years of stock market day trading data to conclude that all day traders are irrational, the vast majority of day traders lose money, and even when day traders are successful, they "irrationally attribute success disproportionately to their ability rather than luck."

This sounds exactly like the crypto trader. Any post you see mocking HODL is likely someone who thinks they are really smart because they made money by trading crypto last year.
Of course, their success was due to their unique trading ability and not the fact that the entire market rose like a rocket.

HODLing works
Still, empirically, even in volatile assets like bitcoin, carefully choosing an asset and holding long-term positions has proven to offer the best return.

Warren Buffett, the most successful investor of modern times, has often said that he only invests in what he knows. His preferred holding period: forever. With that model, his company, Berkshire Hathaway, has averaged a 19 percent annual return since 1965 which means it has risen more than 1 million percent.

Theoretical models that assume participants know when markets will move against them can offer better returns but, in practice, market movements cannot be reliably predicted so even when people like Bernie Madoff try to make us think that they've figured it out, they haven't.

Long-term investment in quality assets remains the only reliable investment strategy.
Simply put, HODLing works.

More possibilities
For those not interested in limiting their activity to HODLing, there are two new and useful ideas that have begun bouncing around that really do advance cryptocurrencies: #BUIDL and #SPEDN.

BUIDL has been used to help remind us that, in the words of a CypherPunk's Manifesto, "Cypherpunks write code." In order for the blockchain to really be useful and valuable, we need to build stuff on it. Watching the price go up and down either as a trader or a HODLer does nothing to make bitcoin work better.

We need to create some of the promised applications that can really change the world. To date, the blockchain community has fallen short in this regard outside of the areas of payments but there are some real wins.
Just this weekend, Voatz, a Medici Ventures portfolio company is running party county convention voting in Utah, state convention voting in Michigan and state primary voting for overseas and military voters in West Virginia, all on a blockchain platform.

Blockchain voting is a simple application, but it is one that can bring a much-needed security and transparency to elections. And we are doing it now.

SPEDN is a nod to the many of us who realize that, for bitcoin to be useful, we need to be able to spend it to buy things. And I mean everything. It really doesn't matter whether it is through second-layer solutions like lightning or forks like bitcoin cash; we need more ways to use cryptocurrencies in real-world transactions.

A focus here, rather than complaining about HODLers would be helpful. We need many more merchants to accept cryptocurrency before it becomes useful. Options to spend bitcoin remain severely limited in most areas and this will ultimately limit bitcoin's value

.
As for me, I will HODL until I can buy useful stuff and SPEDN.

HODL on
This year has seen intense regulatory pressure on cryptocurrencies and its time we stop pretending that HODL was stupid. It isn't and it wasn't. Anyone who doesn't like the HODL mentality needs to give HODLers something else they can do with their bitcoins.

Trading is no solution for intelligent people. What we need are new ways to use cryptocurrency.
We need BUIDLers and merchants who will let us be SPEDNers.

Author Steven Hopkins Apr 16, 2018 at 04:00 UTC

Steven Hopkins is chief operating officer and general counsel of Medici Ventures, an Overstock.com subsidiary focused on the advancement of blockchain technology.

Postedby David Ogden fellow HODLer

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

A Bullish Sign Returns For Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, EOS, And Other Cryptocurrencies

Major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and EOS have been on fire lately. Over the last seven days, Bitcoin is up 21.80%, Ethereum is up 39.36%, Ripple is up 40.89% and EOS 51.84%–see table 1.

Table 1

7d Price Change For Major Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency %7d

Bitcoin 21.80

Ethereum 39.36

Ripple 40.89

EOS 51.84

Source: Coinmarketcap.com 4/13/18 at 10:30 a.m.

The cryptocurrency rally extends across the entire chain. Only one cryptocurrency out of the top 100 dropped in the last seven days, while 99 advanced–see table 2.

Table 2

Number of Cryptocurrencies That Advanced/Declined In The Top 100 Ranks

Cryptocurrencies Advance/Decline Number

Advance 99

Decline 1

Source: Coinmarketcap.com 4/13/18 at 10:30 a.m.

And that’s the return of a bullish technical indicator that helped cryptocurrencies stage a big rally back at the end of last year.

Some cryptocurrency experts aren’t surprised by the renewed interest in cryptocurrencies. Matthew Spoke, CEO of AION and Founding Board Member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance is one of them. “The fundamentals have not changed,” says Spoke. “A large portion of the crypto market value is reflective of the real innovations happening around the world. Although investor confidence will sometimes falter, long term growth across the market will continue if you zoom out far enough. I’m very bullish for 2018.”

Larry Temlock, CFO and Co-Founder, Sun Exchange is another cryptocurrency bull. “In recent months, volatility masked the rising average intrinsic value of the top coins gained during the 4Q17 boom,” says Temlock. “All it took was a few events like Cambridge Analytica and an FBI raid to spur reversion to the (rising) mean. Advances like Lightning Network and other second layer tech will just keep those intrinsic value gains coming.”

Shidan Gouran sounds rather skeptical on the recent cryptocurrency rally, attributing it to the end of the taxing season.

"The recent upward swing in cryptocurrencies is an apparent symptom of tax season,” says Gouran. “It all follows a pretty logical pattern; people got their paychecks for the end of March, paid their bills, and realized they would need to have a certain amount of funds handy to pay their taxes – which many crypto traders will owe. If they'll come up short, they need to sell off some of their cryptocurrencies to pay their taxes. Hence, the big drop at the beginning of April, which was likely because of an excess of supply. Now that we're less than a week away from the April 17th deadline for US taxes, most people will know if they're getting a refund (or may even have gotten it already).“

And apparently, they rushed to invest that refund back into cryptocurrencies at “bargain” prices.

[Author. note: Investing in cryptocoins or tokens is highly speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should be prepared to lose their entire investment. Disclosure: I don't own any Bitcoin.]

That means that new money is flowing into the entire sector rather than to major currencies only.

Author Panos Mourdoukoutas

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
David ogden Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur

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

Gemini to Roll Out Bitcoin and Ether Block Trading

Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini said Monday that it will roll out block trading for bitcoin and ether starting later this week.

The feature – which will allow customers to make high-volume trades that won't appear in the exchange's order book until they've been filled – will go live at 9:30 a.m. ET on Thursday, Gemini explained in a blog post. There's a minimum threshold of 10 bitcoin or 100 ether for the block trades, meaning that smaller traders won't be able to use the feature.

Gemini has positioned the block trading addition as a way to create "an additional mechanism to source liquidity when trading in greater size."

Block trading allows large traders such as hedge funds to buy or sell large quantities without having large immediate effects on the price. The alternative is to place over-the-counter trades, which happen outside of exchanges, or to split trades up into smaller chunks in order to minimize the impact to supply and demand.

Market takers – who place the orders – specify whether the trade is a buy or sell; the minimum quantity; and a price limit. This information, called an indication of interest, is broadcast to all market makers simultaneously.

"In accordance with our commitment to an equitable, transparent, and rules-based marketplace, block orders will be electronically broadcast to participating market makers simultaneously, ensuring best execution and price discovery for those participating in the program," the exchange explained in its blog post.

Gemini, founded by investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, had indicated last month that the exchange may move to add additional cryptocurrencies for trading in the future. Potential selections include bitcoin cash and litecoin, as reported at the time.

Author David Floyd Updated Apr 10, 2018 at 02:14 UTC

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
David Ogden Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur

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

Bitcoin tide favoring bears and the coming April 17 brings really bad news

If you noticed lately, Bitcoin (BTC), the leading cryptocurrency, has been stuck below $7000.

As of Friday, it was in the $6,600 range, dangerously close to the $6,400 when the market ‘bears’ bet the crypto is on a downward path.

What’s worse is that the US tax season is upon us, and every Bitcoin holder living in America is taxed on their capital gains, and they will be unloading the crypto to be able to pay their taxes in cash to the US government, come April 17.

A major sell-off is coming which will impact crypto holders globally, but what is the state of Bitcoin today?

Not dead yet: Crypto coins have fallen but trying to get up

Stuck in purgatory

Coindesk reported that Bitcoin (BTC) fell below the $7,000 mark on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and neutralizing any bullish outlook.

“More worryingly for the bulls, a further decline towards $6,425 (recent low) would turn the tide in favor of the bears,” Coindesk said.

“Since late February, bitcoin and U.S. stocks have been moving more or less in tandem, indicating the cryptocurrency is still being perceived as a risk asset.”

But according to CNBC, Bitcoin is likely to fare worse than other assets in the coming months because it has no fundamental value, quoting London-based Capital Economics, Thursday.

The firm explained that the cryptocurrency has been quite closely correlated to the S&P 500 since the price started to fall from its record high $20,000 at the end of last year.

“But the correlation has been coincidental. For bitcoin, the recent fall in value has been due to concern over regulation, a ban on cryptocurrency advertising, ICO fraud, banks banning customers from buying it via credit cards, and others,” it said.

“Stocks meanwhile have been hit thanks to concerns over a U.S.-China trade war and potentially slowing growth.”

Capital Economics said that while stocks are likely to fall further this year, bitcoin will be worse off because it is essentially worthless “and simply not a credible long-run alternative to conventional currencies.”

That doesn’t say that bad news affecting stock markets, like an escalating rhetoric around potential trade war between the US and China, are not also affecting crypto prices.

ICO warnings

Governments and experts around the world have warned about Initial Coin Offering (ICO) fraud.

Some reports said 80% of ICOs are said to be scams.

The Financial Times (FT) said that there are nearly 1600 cryptocurrencies listed on Coinmarketcap, and that number grows every time a new startup sells a token.

According to tracking website Coinschedule, around 160 coins have so far been released this year via ICOs, raising more than $5bn.

“The money raised in the first three months of the year alone exceeds the total raised in the bumper year that was 2017, and that’s even if you strip out the money raised so far for the mega-ICO from Telegram, the encrypted messaging service,” said FT

FT warns that ICOs create swapping mechanisms between cryptos while existing cryptos can also be cloned, or “forked”.

“And it’s not as if all these digital tokens aren’t correlated to each other. When one goes up or down, they all tend to follow suit,” said FT.

Table 1

7d Price Change For Major Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency %7d

Bitcoin -13.41

Ethereum -15.90

Ripple -13.28

Litecoin -11.65

Source: Coinmarketcap.com 4/4/18 at 2:30 a.m.

Table 2

Number of Cryptocurrencies That Advanced/Declined In The Top 100 Ranks

Cryptocurrencies Advance/Decline Number

Advance 12

Decline 88

Source: Coinmarketcap.com 4/4/18 at 2:30 a.m.

Bad news from India

Forbes reported that the Reserve Bank of India RBI) has banned banks from allowing people to transfer money from their bank account into Bitcoin wallets.

“Meaning if there is a Bitcoin market in India, it is going to move underground,” Forbes said.

“India is not a huge market for crypto, so Bitcoin was down only 2% upon hearing the news and probably not due to the RBI’s announcement. China, South Korea, Singapore, Japan and the U.S. are the biggest markets for cryptocurrencies.”

Worse news from the US

According to the Coin Telegraph, Fundstrat’s and Wall Street expert Tom Lee has predicted a “massive outflow” of cryptocurrency to fiat money in the lead up to tax day in the US, quoting a CNBC report on April 5.

Lee notes that, since US households owe an estimated $25bn in capital gains taxes due to their crypto holdings, and crypto exchanges also will owe income taxes, both households and exchanges will be selling their crypto to pay the US government.

“We believe there is selling pressure by crypto exchanges who are subject to income tax in U.S. jurisdictions. Many exchanges have net income in 2017 [of more than] $1 bln and keep working capital in [Bitcoin]/[Ethereum], not USD — hence, to meet these tax liabilities, are selling BTC/ETH.”

According to Lee, “historical estimates are each $1 of USD outflow is $20-$25 impact on crypto market value.”

Author Hadi Khatib

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

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

Crypto Week in Review – Bitcoin, Ethereum, Verge, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash and Ripple Struggle

It has certainly been an up-and-down week for cryptocurrencies. Things started out relatively peaceful when allegations arose that the currency had somehow dominated its incoming “death cross,” and that the slump users had been witnessing over the past several days may be coming to end. This seemed to hold true when Bitcoin rose from $6,900 to $7,100 – a $200 jump from where it had long stood.

All Barricades Defied?

the currency rose to just under $7,500 following the announcement that Coincheck – one of Japan’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange platforms and the recent victim of a hack that saw over $500 million in NEM stolen last January – would likely be “rescued” by Tokyo-based exchange Monex Group.

The company issued a formal statement saying that it was in talks with Coincheck about a possible “takeover,” and that a deal could be reached by the end of the week. This sent the price of bitcoin surging, as hope and enthusiasm once again found themselves fluttering through the cryptocurrency arena.

This positivity was short-lived, however, as a near $600 drop in the price occurred the following day, and bitcoin fell to about $6,800. Now, the coin has settled for $100 less and is trading at approximately $6,800, suggesting that the currency is holding its ground, but has undoubtedly been affected by recent trends.

There appear to be several reasons for the latest drop, one being a hack that occurred on Verge’s blockchain.

Verge is a privacy-oriented cryptocurrency, and it’s alleged that hackers may have implemented several bugs in its system to walk off with anywhere between $15,000 and $1 million in company coins (sources differ greatly in how much the amount totals).

While the attack took place on an altcoin, the story raises several questions. Verge’s blockchain requires a proof-of-work validation mechanism, much like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which makes users wonder if these latter blockchains are also vulnerable to similar bugs and malware.

Larger news stemming from India likely took a larger toll on the coin’s position and current pricing. The country’s of India’s Reserve Bank has hinted that it plans to potentially ban Bitcoin trading on a whole while building its own digital currency. This has led to negative reactions among residents, who claim that a national virtual currency wouldn’t necessarily be threatened by Bitcoin and other forms of crypto.

The move could be especially damaging considering India accounts for roughly 10 percent of the world’s cryptocurrency trades. A full ban on Bitcoin by India may wind up affecting not only users but the country’s financial stability in the global blockchain market.

Not Much Help from “Experts”

In addition, several other leading cryptocurrencies have also experienced serious drops in their prices. Ethereum is down to about $380, while Bitcoin Cash is hovering at just over $630. Ripple is hovering around $0.50. Litecoin is trading at a new low of approximately $116.

Thus far, we have experienced mixed reactions from analysts, some of whom claim Bitcoin could encounter a solid bull run by the year’s end. Others feel that the coin’s final days are near, and the bubble surrounding Bitcoin has officially been popped.

Author Nick Marinoff April 6, 2018

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

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