Total Cryptocurrency Market Cap Continues to Shrink, Bitcoin Price Heads Toward Sub-US$1900

It is a very rough weekend for cryptocurrency holders,

as is to be expected. With the value of Bitcoin going down even further, most other altcoins see similar losses. We also saw both Dash and NEM suffer from their market cap going below US$1bn. Moreover, the total cryptocurrency market cap continues to drop and is on target to go below US$60bn in the coming days.

The Cryptocurrency Downtrend Continues Unabated

Do not be mistaken in thinking we like to report on massive losses in the cryptocurrency world. At the same time, there is no reason to ignore the obvious facts staring us in the face right now either. Cryptocurrency is not in the best of places and the overall downtrend is not over just yet, by the look of things. Bitcoin has dipped below US$2,000, as we predicted in yesterday’s article. We wouldn’t have minded being wrong in that assumption, though. Looking at the current price, Bitcoin is holding its own around the US$1,900 level. That doesn’t automatically mean the price won’t go below that target, though. Rumors and speculation on Telegram hints at how BTC may even hit US$1,400, although that may be wishful thinking at best. There are plenty of people who wouldn’t mind buying some additional bitcoins while they remain cheap. Now is a good price to buy Bitcoin, assuming you expect the value to bounce back over time.

Other currencies are not doing much better either. If the Bitcoin price goes down, the rest of the ecosystem will automatically follow. It is one of those unwritten rules in the world of cryptocurrency. Ethereum lost another 24%, with Ripple putting up similar numbers. Litecoin “only” lost 4% — which is quite remarkable — whereas Ethereum Classic dropped 13.3%. It is quite interesting taking note of these different percentages, even though the overall trend is anything but positive.

As is to be expected, there is always one currency to buck this trend. On this Sunday, that coin is none other than IOTA. Given the recent beating IOTA has taken across the exchanges prior to this Bitcoin drop, the reverse trend is quite intriguing to take note of. Whether or not this momentum can be maintained for the long run, remains to be seen. Most currencies are noting losses of well over 12%, which is quite a bit higher than Bitcoin’s 7% loss. All things considered, Bitcoin is still in a better position than most other currencies, with the exception of Litecoin. The bigger question is why this extended downtrend is taking place right now. The upcoming SegWit2x and UASF activation certainly cause a lot of fear among novice users. Moreover, it appears some exchanges will halt Bitcoin deposits and withdrawals during that period. That is not uncommon by any means, as the risk of a chain split is very real. Halting trading at such a critical point in history is the best course of action and shouldn’t be any cause for concern whatsoever.

If the cryptocurrency market cap continues to shrink at the same rate, we will go below US$60bn very soon. Right now, the total cap is just below US$64bn, which is well below the US$110bn mark we reached a few weeks ago. A correction was bound to happen sooner or later, though. We have seen a lot of money pour into cryptocurrency as of late. Such a massive trend can’t be sustained indefinitely. The markets will bounce back eventually, though, and now is a good time to hold and not look at charts until early August.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about -Bitcoin.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

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Cryptocurrency fall continues ahead of Bitcoin’s ‘civil war’ conclusion on Aug 1- Ether below $200

July 16, 2017

Cryptocurrency fall continues ahead of Bitcoin's 'civil war' conclusion on Aug 1- Ether below $200

Bitcoin prices fell below USD 2,100 today and are inching towards breaking the USD 2,000 level, as bears continue their rampage on cryptostreet.

Cryptocurrencies continue to bleed as speculators remain jittery ahead of bitcoin’s scaling debate conclusion on August 1. The total market cap has dropped by USD 9 billion, a 11 percent fall, in the past 24 hours, according to coinmarketcap.com.

Bitcoin prices fell below USD 2,100 today and could soon break the USD 2,000 level, as bears continue their rampage on cryptostreet.

The price slipped to USD 2,057, at time of reporting, according to CryptoCompare.com, a drop of around 32 percent from its all time high of USD 3,000.

Ethereum, bitcoin’s closest rival in terms of market cap, again dropped sub-USD 200 to the levels of USD 186, as per CryptoCompare. After falling 50 percent from its all-time high in June, ether has now hit a 45-day low.

Other major cryptocurrencies like litecoin, ripple, zcash have witnessed a drop of 10-20 percent over the past 24 hours.

The crypto-asset space reached a peak market cap of USD 116 billion in June and since then has lost USD 42 billion, a 36 percent correction over the past one month, entering a bear market, going by conventional definition.

Since the start of 2017, cryptocurrency prices have had a phenomenal rally. Experts believe this was due to speculative buying as prices were being driven by the mania for initial coin offerings (ICOs).

What the ‘fork’

Just when everyone thought it was over, the bitcoin ‘civil war’ resurfaced in June when major mining firm Bitmain announced the launch of a user- activated hard fork (UASF).

In May, a majority of blockchain industry bigwigs reached a consensus regarding the bitcoin scaling solution and agreed to enable the Segregated Witness (SegWit).

The SegWit was supposed to be a soft fork, a temporary solution to make bitcoin's software protocol handle the growing transactions burden.

"The prospect of a bitcoin fork isn't enticing for bitcoiners as it highlights the inability for the project to move forward and the divisiveness in opinions on how to do so," Charles Hayter, co-founder and CEO of cryptocurrency data platform CryptoCompare, had earlier told Moneycontrol.

"The scaling debate has been around for two years now and the ramifications of the present state of play lead to a number of price-sensitive scenarios that are not positive."

n case of a hard fork, if the bitcoin blockchain splits, users are at risk of losing their bitcoin. Bitcoin experts have suggested to not make transactions during the uncertain time period around August 1.

If the Bitmain hard fork happens then there would be two legitimate Bitcoin ledgers on August 3rd. The soft forked version of Bitcoin and the newly forked Bitmain Bitcoin.

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

Author: Sidhartha Shukla

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Buckle Up: Bitcoin Price Heads For Below $2,000 As August 1 Nears

July 15, 2017

Buckle Up:
Bitcoin Price Heads For Below
$2,000 As August 1 Nears

Bitcoin has fallen almost 12 percent in 24 hours

as the reality of the Aug. 1 scaling deadline unsettles markets. Current trade prices according to Coinmarketcap, which averages readings from across major exchanges, shows Bitcoin at $2,076 — its lowest price for two months. The knock-on effects for altcoins in the top 10 were as palpable as ever, with Ethereum, Litecoin and others following Bitcoin downhill. Ethereum has fared particularly badly over the past week, with monthly losses to its market cap now nearly $18 bln. As always, internal reactions with cryptocurrency were mixed, some despairing while others are eyeing a keen

buying opportunity.

$5.5million of new $BTCUSD short positions have opened up within the last 12hrs on Bitfinex

While a general consensus points to the upcoming hard fork probability as the principal motivation for market uncertainty, mainstream media have been quick to sound the alarm about Bitcoin once again. “Rival factions of computer whizzes who play key roles in Bitcoin’s upkeep are poised to adopt two competing software updates at the end of the month,” Bloomberg reported Friday, announcing Bitcoin could be “nearing a total meltdown.” “That has raised the possibility that Bitcoin will split in two, an unprecedented event that would send shockwaves through the $41 bln market.”

Major Swiss Online Bank Unleashes Bitcoin In Week’s Second Swiss Breakthrough

A further major Swiss financial institution has begun accepting Bitcoin

this week as Swissquote follows Falcon Private Bank. In a press release issued today, Swissquote describes itself as the “first online bank in Europe to offer Bitcoin investing.” The decision opens up Bitcoin investment to the platform’s 302,000 customers with a combined capital of 17.8 bln francs ($17.6 bln). “Many investors are interested in cryptocurrencies, but are afraid to trade them, because the players in this market are mostly little-known and they often require the transfer of funds to a foreign account,” CEO Mark Buerki commented in the release. “As a Swiss bank, we offer our clients a simplified, transparent process, without foreign transfers, that is within reach of everybody.”

The news comes just days after Swiss private bank Falcon announced it had partnered with Bitcoin Suisse to allow its customers to “to hold, buy and sell Bitcoin directly through their e-banking platform or account manager.” Prior to that, it emerged that a Bitcoin certificate was on “most days” the most popular financial product available on Switzerland’s main stock exchange, SIX. Meanwhile, for its project Swissquote will use Bitstamp, the exchange currently headquartered in Luxembourg, to handle payments and provide pricing information on Bitcoin. “The Bitstamp-Swissquote partnership marks a milestone in the already promising development of Bitcoin, which is being implemented gradually into the traditional financial system,” the release adds. Switzerland is already considerably ahead of its neighbors Austria and Germany in the race to propagate emerging Blockchain and cryptocurrency technology.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about -Bitcoin.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Cryptocurrency Investors Must ‘Be Prepared to Lose Everything’

July 15, 2017

Cryptocurrency Investors Must 'Be Prepared to Lose Everything'

Potential investors in cryptocurrencies should focus on finding a great new concept rather than rushing to buy volatile Bitcoins, Dr. Campbell Harvey told Radio Sputnik.

The market in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has been subject to remarkable growth but also volatility in recent months.

On June 11, the price of Bitcoin peaked at $3,019, an increase of more than 300 percent since the beginning of the year. However, the price has dropped since then and the cryptocurrency was trading at $2,207 on Friday.

The value of the Ethereum cryptocurrency has also decreased by almost half in recent weeks from a high of $392 on June 13 to $211 on Friday, according to Coindesk.com.

According to BlackRock's global chief investment strategist, cryptocurrency volatility may be a sign of a bubble in the market.

"I look at the charts, and to me that looks pretty scary," Richard Turnill told a media briefing in New York on Tuesday.

Dr. Campbell Harvey, Professor of Finance at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, told Radio Sputnik that the sharp rises in the value of cryptocurrencies this year is a cause for caution.

"Any time you see something go up in value by a factor of 20 over a few months, you need to be very cautious," Harvey said.

"I think part of it is just the nature of the actual game, that this is a new technology, it is extremely volatile. For instance, if you look at Bitcoin it is six times the volatility of the S&P 500. It is very volatile and it's very difficult to figure out what the actual value is. If you are speculating in cryptocurrency, you need to be prepared to lose everything," Harvey said.

"In the 'dotcom bubble,' people were basically buying lottery tickets. They saw firms go from one cent a share to $100 a share, it was like a lottery and you didn't want to be left behind. You wanted to have some kind of investment and that drove up the prices very dramatically and I think it's the same thing today with the cryptocurrencies."

'Digital Gold': Cryptocurrencies Soar as Investors Swap Dollars for Bitcoins

Harvey recommended that potential investors do their research before taking the plunge and focus on finding an attractive concept.

"You really need a good story behind a new crypto that you're offering. There will be a lot of people coming in with bad ideas that will get funding. The best way to do it is to invest directly in some of the start-ups in this space rather than just going out and buying some coins."

"When the prices go up so dramatically, a smart investor will basically take some profit and indeed this is what I recommend to your listeners. If you've doubled your money, sell half. What that means is that you've recovered your initial investment and everything that's left is just pure profit and if you lose it, you lose it.

"Given there's uncertainty in the US right now, people are looking elsewhere. Gold is an alternative but gold is real pain because you have to vault it, basically protect the gold. But cryptocurrency is basically extra-national, you need a wallet and backup. You don't need a vault or security guards."

In the future, cryptocurrencies will develop in several different ways. These include collateralized cryptocurrencies and the expansion of the blockchain technology behind them.

"One of the things we'll see is collateralized cryptocurrencies. There's an initiative with the Chicago mercantile exchange and the royal mint group in which they'll put some gold in a vault and issue a crypto based upon that gold.

"As soon as you do that, then the crypto is linked to the price of gold and its volatility is linked to the price of gold. You can do this with anything — with equity, bonds, commodities in general, that you can issue cryptos based on a vault or a storage facility with the actual collateral. I think we are just beginning to see the collateralized versions."

"In a broader context, most of the action in terms of blockchain is not with cryptocurrencies, it's with businesses using blockchain technology to solve things like supply chain problems and other property transfer problems where you don't even need a cryptocurrency. So, as I see it from a business point of view, most of the action won't come from the initial coin offerings, but the application usually of Ethereum-based blockchain technology in business."

"It's not as sexy as looking at the price of Ethereum or Bitcoin doubling or tripling or going up by a factor of 20. In the media, people focus on the cryptocurrencies but in the practice of business the action is blockchain applications to solve business problems, not as much the currency aspect."

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Are Boys With Midas Touch About To Make Move On ICO Market?

July 14, 2017

Are Boys With Midas Touch About To Make Move On ICO Market?

The recent maneuvering by the billionaires into the world of Initial Coin Offerings

Our London correspondent Nick Ayton aka The Sage of Shoreditch explores the recent maneuvering by the billionaires into the world of Initial Coin Offerings, AI and Blockchain. ICOs have enjoyed their best run ever, albeit it’s a new phenomenon in recent time. The last six months have seen the ICO market leave traditional funding mechanisms in their wake. Will ICOs become the preferred mechanism for entrepreneurs of all shapes and wallet sizes?

It seems so.

"The Midas touch boys are moving in as they know a good thing when they see it. And they don’t like to miss out."

It can come as no surprise to me to see billionaire moves by Mike Novogratz who placed 10 percent of his wealth into crypto and Mark Cuban who has announced his own ICO of Unikrn, a sports betting business. And there will be more to follow.

ICOs coming of age

Some are calling ICOs into question, demanding regulations and government intervention, others see it at a big scam. But ICOs are attracting a lot of interest from very successful entrepreneurs who are turning their back on banks as a source of capital that becomes very expensive, with its high fees and

lots of strings attached.

"The involvement of the Billionaire Boys is the sign that ICOs are not only becoming mainstream but also a legitimate alternative capital market for already successful entrepreneurs."

Is this the extra endorsement needed where Bill Gates who has already said if he would start a new business today it would be in AI on the Blockchain?

Are records about to be broken, again

With Bancor, Status, Block One and others that have easily passed the $100 mln mark, are we likely to see soon the first billion dollar ICO? Enter stage left, Gurbaksh Chahal who certainly has the Midas touch when it comes to backing the latest technology and is already disrupting global advertising with his AI marketing engine Gravity4. He wants to launch the largest ICO ever breaking the $500 mln plus mark, and who would be against him?

Can he make Gravity4 a leader in Artificial Intelligence Big Data Cloud, the largest ICO in ever surpassing $500 mln or even $1 bln as they take what is known as High-Frequency Marketing to the next level? Who would bet against this maverick entrepreneur of Indian-American descent who founded his first company aged 16 and sold it for $40 mln? Further going on to sell four businesses for $300 mln: BlueLithium (behavioral targeting) to Yahoo, RadiumOne (programmatic advertising) and ShareGraph and innovative tech business.

Gurbaksh explains:

“We intend to take what we have done in AI marketing and connect it to the Blockchain. We have already created the world’s first Artificial Intelligence Big Data Cloud called Mona Lisa and we are already way ahead of SalesForce, Oracle and Adobe.”

Gravity4 already has a footprint in most of the major Fortune 1,000 brands globally and many consider their offering to be way ahead of anyone else. The business is on track to deliver $200 mln revenues in 2018 and so this is no mere startup.

High-frequency machine learning

Gravity4 is the world’s first high-frequency machine learning marketing operating system built to enhance advertising across SaaS Industries. It collates customer experiences so marketers can target customers more effectively through the entire customer journey, regardless of delivery channel. The proprietary AI technology ‘Mona Lisa’ builds a ‘consumer persona’ aggregating the data from all channels and touch points, using semantic graphs to form connection clusters and correlation variables in a single click of the mouse, optimizing and automating the effort in what is a $200 bln global advertising market.

The worlds of AI and Blockchain sit well together and deliver a powerful combination indeed. With Gravity4 we are not seeing a startup trying to raise capital to build a Blockchain. Gravity4 is already a very successful global business and wants to raise further capital to extend its R&D to dominate the high-frequency machine learning marketing industry. Who would be against them?

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about -Bitcoin.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Ethereum’s share of the cryptocurrency market has exploded

July 14, 2017

Ethereum's share of the cryptocurrency market has exploded

Ethereum is gobbling up share in the cryptocurrency market.

A new report by Autonomous NEXT, a financial technology analytics service, shows that Ethereum's percentage of the total cryptocurrency market has sharply risen since the beginning of the year.

In January it stood at approximately 5%. As of June 22, its marketcap as a percentage of the entire market rose to 30%.

Ethereum's impressive rise has led to a dramatic fall in bitcoin's marketcap as a percentage of the market. It has declined from about 85% at the beginning of the year to just under 40% as of late June. Up until mid June, Ethereum was on track to surpass bitcoin as the world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap, according to Coindesk, but its share of the market has since pulled back.

Still, the shift from bitcoin to Ethereum reflects a change in what the cryptocurrency industry wants from blockchain tech, according to the report.

"Early phase of cryptocurrency market development focused on who will be the “digital gold” — and Bitcoin won through the largest developer and adoption ecosystem," the report said. "However, current battle is for other functionalities, such as global decentralized computing or smart contracts infrastructure."

Ethereum, unlike bitcoin, wasn't built to simply function as a "digital gold." According to Paul McNeal, a bitcoin evangelist, the Ethereum blockchain was built as a platform on which two parties could enter into a so-called smart contract without a third party. As a result, it can be used as a currency and it can "represent virtual shares, assets, proof of membership, and more."

The multifaceted functionality of Ethereum has many folks in financial services bullish on its future. Mike McGovern, the new head of Investor Services Fintech Offerings at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co, is one such person.

"Ethereum is not only cheaper than bitcoin, it is also more robust and has more applications outside of simply financial transactions," he said in a recent interview with Business Insider.

A survey recently cited by Nathaniel Popper in The New York Times indicates that a lot of businesses are singing a similar tune. Almost 94% of surveyed firms said they feel positive about the state of ether tokens. Only 49% of firms surveyed had a positive feeling about bitcoin.

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

Author: Frank Chaparro

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Silicon Valley is hot on a new cryptocurrency that could become worth 100 times its current value

July 13, 2017

Silicon Valley is hot on a new cryptocurrency that could become worth 100 times its current value

Ether, the unit of cryptocurrency used on the Ethereum blockchain,

has given investors a wild ride lately. Its value more than doubled in May, peaked in June at more than $400 an ether, and then lost more than half that value by early this week. That may sound like a bubble bursting. But some investors are still optimistic and are prepared to ride it out. Aaron Batalion, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, said he expected to see more 50% price jumps in ether, with big returns down the road.

"Over the next five to 10 years, I believe it will be worth 10 or 100 times its current value," Batalion said. Jason Calacanis, an early investor in startups including Robinhood and Uber, recently tweeted: "I think I need to own some #Etherium — what % of net worth would you allocate to crypto as a 46 year old with stable income?" Matt Galligan, a serial entrepreneur and investor in ether, said he was also looking to the five-year mark, when he expects the platform to have matured to the point when it has a lot of uses. "The space is still really early," Galligan said. "There's going to be a lot of froth and volatility."

What are Ethereum and ether?

Ethereum is a platform for sharing information that cannot be manipulated or changed. It's a blockchain similar to the one underlying the bitcoin cryptocurrency that records information chronologically and publicly. In the future, Ethereum may be used to securely transfer money to your bank or to send documents to your insurance company. Today, these processes require multiple steps for verification and authentication, but Ethereum makes verification a one-step process because the information is incorruptible in the first place. Ether is the unit of currency in Ethereum. It's a token that can be exchanged for services on the platform. The currency is the "fuel for the Ethereum virtual machine," said Andreas Weiler, the head of markets at Smith and Crown, a crypto-financial research group.

Ether, Ethereum, and bitcoin are not the same things

While often compared to bitcoin, ether is not actually a competing currency. Bitcoin is explicitly a digital form of money and payment system, whereas ether is a means of buying services within Ethereum. Ethereum is still in beta and not widely used, but some investors believe it may someday be a foundational layer of the internet. Ether is still a financial risk, however, because Ethereum hasn't yet taken off — and there's no guarantee that it will. "When you invest in ether, you are not actually doing anything — you are holding ammo, which will allow you to execute code when there is code worth being executed on the platform," Weiler said.

In the meantime, though, you have to be prepared for a lot of volatility.

The price of ether shot up this spring, rising from less than $20 a digital coin in March to an all-time high of $420 in midday trading in the middle of June, according to Global Digital Asset Exchange, the primary Ether-trading platform. In May alone, it rose to nearly $230 an ether from less than $90. In recent weeks, though, investors have been selling off the digital currency. It sank to as low as $175.56 earlier this week, according to GDAX, before rebounding. In recent trading on Wednesday, it was at $208.87.

Part of that instability comes from people not knowing what they're investing in, Weiler said. "It really did smell like dumb money coming in and not knowing what Ethereum is about or what role ether plays in the economy in the first place," he said. But the currency's price may stabilize as Ethereum scales and becomes more commonplace. It is this possibility that is keeping some investors in the game. "As with any new technology innovation, the early attempts are fraught with challenges, but this technology will not go back into a box and disappear," Batalion said. "We will see meaningful companies built using this technology and fund-raising approach, even if the normal end user doesn't realize it's part of the foundation of a product [or] service they use."

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about -Bitcoin.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Cryptocurrencies Took A Hit, But Some Experts Say Now Is the Best Time to Buy

July 13, 2017

Cryptocurrencies Took A Hit, But Some Experts Say Now Is the Best Time to Buy

Cryptocurrencies took a hit Tuesday, with bitcoin and ethereum dropping significantly. However, many experts are advising investors to hold, and some are even advising people to buy now.

BLACK CRYPTO TUESDAY

Tuesday, July 11, was a rough day in the cryptocurrency world, with very few of the Top 100 Coin Market Cap list cryptocurrencies in green. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was still leading the market after plummeting by 8.8 percent on Tuesday; by Wednesday morning it climbed back a little, hovering above $2,300. Ethereum Classic fell by 18.4 percent, opening Wednesday just above $200. All of the other major cryptocurrencies did worse except for Litecoin, which dropped a relatively modest 11.4 percent.

However, it’s important to see this problem in context and remember where we were before this period of explosive growth that began just half a year ago. On January 1, 2017, bitcoin closed at $997.69; on January 3, ethereum closed at $8.35.

So while this is the first time since May that the price of ether has dropped below $200, for example, the values are still significantly higher than they were just months ago, and they have retained most of their 4,500 percent growth from this year.

HANGING IN

Some analysts predicted that July would be a critical month, given the ongoing Bitcoin network scaling issue. However, although this is certainly a time of turbulence in cryptocurrencies, many experts are advising investors to stand fast — and some are even saying that now is the best time to buy.

“This is the time for all those who thought they have missed the boat to get on board.” — Samuel Dwomfour

Initial coin offering (ICO) consultant Murray Barnetson told Coin Telegraph that holding remains the best choice even though things might still get worse, should people start to panic. ICO expert Priyabrata Dash agreed that the scaling issue underlies the overall drop in major cryptocurrencies, but told Coin Telegraph that August may well be positive.

Bitcoin Powpow’s Edward Cunningham also spoke to Coin Telegraph: “We have all known that July was going to be a bumpy month due to the BTC possible split drama which only adds to the ICO’s dumping for liquidity — let’s hope beginning August the trend changes and heads North. In the meantime, hold as best you can.”

Ghana Blockchain Institute president Samuel Dwomfour is among the experts who think now is a good time to buy. “I’m not perturbed at all. This is the time for all those who thought they have missed the boat to get on board,” he told Coin Telegraph.

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

Author: Karla Lant

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

No systemic risk from Cryptocurrency Speculation

July 12, 2017

No systemic risk from Cryptocurrency Speculation

possible to view price movements in blockchain-based cryptocurrencies

as influenced by the ultra-easy monetary policies put in place by central banks after the 2007-2009 global financial crisis. But sharp price gains in cryptocurrencies may be a sign of excess and have led some investors to call the market a bubble. "I look at the charts, and to me that looks pretty scary," Turnill said at a media briefing in New York. Turnill and his colleagues have been advising clients to stay invested in global stocks even as some other strategists warn that prices are overextended after a run-up over the better part of the last decade.

Bitcoin, the primary cryptocurrency, hit a record just shy of $3,000 last month but has fallen some 20 percent since then, trading at $2,366 on Tuesday. Over the last year, bitcoin is still up 264 percent. Competing cryptocurrencies, such as ethereum and litecoin, posted quadruple-digit percentage gains ahead of losses in recent days. The virtual currency relies on "mining" computers that validate blocks of transactions by competing to solve mathematical puzzles every 10 minutes. The first to solve the puzzle and clear the transaction is rewarded with new bitcoins.

Some investors have warmed to the technology, wooed by its explosive performance and the potential that the currency compete with gold and government-issued money as a store of value. Some also see other potential uses for blockchain, the technology that documents and verifies bitcoin transactions. But Turnill suggested the broader financial risks associated with blockchain-based currencies appear limited. "There's no evidence that if that price went to zero tomorrow that there'd be any broader financial implication over time, but to me it is example of where you're getting some big price movements in the market."

Apple sets up China data center to meet new cyber-security rules

BEIJING (Reuters) — Apple Inc on Wednesday said it is setting up its first data center in China, in partnership with a local internet services company, to comply with tougher cyber-security laws introduced last month. The U.S. technology company said it will build the center in the southern province of Guizhou with data management firm Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry Co Ltd (GCBD).

An Apple spokesman in Shanghai told Reuters the center is part of a planned $1 billion investment into the province. "The addition of this data center will allow us to improve the speed and reliability of our products and services while also complying with newly passed regulations," Apple said in a statement to Reuters. "These regulations require cloud services be operated by Chinese companies so we're partnering with GCBD to offer iCloud," it said, referring to its online data storage service. Apple is the first foreign firm to announce amendments to its data storage for China following the implementation of a new cyber-security law on June 1 that requires foreign firms to store data within the country.

Overseas business groups said the law's strict data surveillance and storage requirements are overly vague, burdening the firms with excessive compliance risks and threatening proprietary data.The Apple logo is pictured on an iPhone in an illustration photo taken in Bordeaux, France, February 1, 2017.Regis Duvignau Authorities say the law is not designed to put foreign firms at a disadvantage and was drafted in reaction to the threat of cyber attacks and terrorism. Apple also said it had strong data privacy and security protections in place. "No backdoors will be created into any of our systems," it said.

In April, China also announced a law requiring businesses transferring over 1,000 gigabytes of data outside China to undergo yearly security reviews, with potential blocks on exporting economic, technological and scientific data. Earlier this week, Apple said it planned to open a new data center in Denmark. An earlier center in the country, announced in 2015, will come online this year, it said. The new laws come as Chinese cloud firms are expanding rapidly in foreign markets. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has 17 data centers across China, the United States, Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Other foreign firms that oversee cloud businesses, including Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp, already have data centers in China.

Chuck Reynolds

Marketing Dept
Contributor
Please click either Link to Learn more about -Bitcoin.

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Crypto Calamity: Ethereum, Bitcoin Prices Sink as Market Plunges Below $80 Billion

July 12, 2017

Crypto Calamity: Ethereum, Bitcoin Prices Sink as Market Plunges Below $80 Billion

Litecoin fared better than most cryptocurrencies during today’s market plunge, only losing 3.8 percentage points where most cryptos suffered bigger hits, according to coinmarketcap.com. Among the cryptos with more than a billion in market capitalization, only bitcoin outperformed Litecoin in the most recent 24-hour period, losing only 2.82 points.

Litecoin, the fourth largest crypto with $2.377 billion in market capitalization, traded at $45.77 today. Second place Ethereum, by contrast, lost 10.2 points and continues its downward trend. Ripple, the number three cryptocurrency, lost 14.3 points.

Only 10th ranked BitConnect, with $387.854 in market capitalization, fared better than bitcoin and Litecoin in the 24-hour period, only dropping 0.57 points.

Market Suffers A Big Fallout

On Monday, the total cryptocurrency market cap fell below $90 billion for the first time in July. This market cap evaporation continued on Tuesday, as the total value of all cryptocurrencies plunged as low as $77 billion, a number not seen since late May. At present, the market cap is $84 billion.

Litecoin as been surging since March, when it began climbing from $4.04 to $53.60 July 4. Litecoin crossed the $1 billion mark in market capitalization for the first time ever earlier this month.

Longer term, Litecoin has rode bitcoin and Ethereum’s post-March surge, jumping from $3.85 on March 13 to $53.60 on July 4, at which point it well outdistanced its prior record of $33.72 on Dec. 1, 2013.

The price had fallen as low as $1.33 in January of 2015 before climbing to $7.76 in July of that year before tumbling steadily until June 26, 2016, when it reached $4.00.

Litecoin’s Long-Term Surge

Litecoin received a boost last month when BitGo, the leading multi-signature technology-based service provider that works with some of the largest bitcoin exchanges and trading platforms, began to support Litecoin and provide security services for the Litecoin platforms.

The BitGo boost came on the heels of Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin, announcing his plans to resign from his role as Coinbase director of engineering to solely focus on the development and innovation of Litecoin. Lee noted that the decision of the BitGo development team to implement Litecoin and provide multi-signature security services for Litecoin-based platforms and service providers is a major step for the Litecoin community and industry.

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

Author: Lester Coleman

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member