Tag: bitcoin

Bitcoin Gold Hard Fork Draws Mixed Reactions

The Bitcoin Gold hard fork that caused a minor, temporary dip in bitcoin’s price a couple weeks ago has drawn both “boos” and “bravos” from the cryptocurrency community. Most observers voiced no problem with hard forks as a tool for competition and experimentation, but some see forks as compromising the perception of bitcoin’s limited supply, which they view as critical to its underlying value.

After debuting near $500 on Oct. 24, Bitcoin Gold (BTG), an altcoin that — like Bitcoin Cash — has a shared blockchain history with bitcoin, saw its price fall to $136 in two days — even amid buying pressure from margin traders who wanted to purchase it to pay back lenders. The price has stabilized since that time, standing at $140.63 on Nov. 5, according to coinmarketcap.com.

Many in the bitcoin community were quick to criticize Bitcoin Gold because of what they saw as its impractical idea to decentralize bitcoin mining, and also due to its plans to premine the cryptocurrency. Many investors, traders, developers and users do not welcome the concept of premining a cryptocurrency before its launch because it leads to a centralization of funds before the launch.

Nevertheless, several exchanges — including Bitfinex and HitBTC — have credited their users with BTG balances and added trading pairs, although they cannot enable deposits or withdrawals until after the mainnet is stable.

Forks Serve A Purpose

“There is no such thing as a “bad fork,” Bob Summerwill, chief blockchain developer at Sweetbridge, a blockchain alliance, said in a prepared statement. “You don’t have to cheer one team or the other. Experimentation and competition are good. Let the market decide, and participate where you see value.”

Summerwill said the ETH/ETC split indicated that minority chains are viable.

“The ETH/ETC split was very healthy for the community,” Summerwill said. “The Ethereum community moved on to mainstream adoption, and the Ethereum Classic community took control of its own destiny and took the code the way they wanted as well. I think that the chain splits will be healthy for the bitcoin community for the same reason.”

Splits happen periodically in all open-source communities, Summerwill said. Sometimes there are genuine differences of opinion, and network effects are not enough to keep everybody together, so a group secedes.

“This is how humans work,” he said. “It is a beautiful thing.”

Rob Viglione, co-founder of ZenCash, a privacy coin for borderless, decentralized communications and transactions, takes a similar view.

“Open-source ecosystems are designed to evolve, whether that’s through in-project improvements or forks in which the entire code base goes in an incompatible direction,” Viglione said. “Evolution is a messy process, so it doesn’t always turn out well, but sometimes that’s the only way to have big breakthroughs.

Viglione said it is not clear that swapping SHA-256 for Equihash mining is sufficiently value-added to warrant a new coin, especially since Zcash already did it last year, but it’s ultimately up to the stakeholders.

Can Forks Hurt Bitcoin?

Sol Lederer, blockchain director at Loomia, a technology company creating smart products secured through blockchain technology, holds a different view.

“These forks are very bad for bitcoin,” Lederer said. “Saturating the market with different versions of bitcoin is confusing to users, and discredits the claim that there are a limited number of bitcoins — since you can always fork it and double the supply.”

Lederer is troubled by the fact that the spinoffs spring from a minor debate on how to handle the block size limit.

“Instead of coming to agreement, the community, developers and code are fracturing into different groups,” he said. “We’re learning that while a blockchain gives you consensus on a distributed ledger, it does not give you consensus on the code base, that is what code to run. This does not bode well for bitcoin’s future, where it will face new and bigger challenges requiring further upgrades to the code base.”

Forks Will Continue

Expect more such forks in the future, says Taulant Ramabaja, chief technology officer at ULedger, a blockchain based solution for data assurance, storage and other services. He said the bitcoin ecosystem has a triangle of three veto powers: 1) the miners, 2) the exchanges and 3) the wallets (without key ownership).

“For any fork to become dominant in the future, a sufficiently large part of all three need to jump ship,” Ramabaja said. “This is highly unlikely, and therefore bitcoin favors the status quo.”

However, once Bitcoin Lightning based exchanges and wallets come online, this picture can change as the roles of exchanges and wallets will change, Ramabaja said.

Forks Have Shortcomings

Luis Cuende, co-founder and project lead at Aragon, a decentralized platform for building and managing organizations and companies, supports the goal of decentralizing bitcoin as much as possible, but he has issues with Bitcoin Gold since it doesn’t have replay protection, which makes it unsafe for bitcoin users.

Abhishek Pitti, founder and CEO of Nucleus, a provider of sensor technology that uniquely identifies users and senses pressure, motion and acceleration, believes the upcoming SegWit2x hard fork presents a serious risk to the bitcoin ecosystem due to its lack of backward compatibility or replay protection, with major developers and exchanges refusing to support it.

“On the flip side, I understand the argument presented in the form of ‘decentralization of bitcoin mining’ to people with GPUs, rather than the ASIC mining scene, which has become very centralized,” Pitti said. “Proponents of this idea believe that Bitcoin Gold can help bring mining back into the power of the common users.”

Author: Lester Coleman on 06/11/2017

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
David Ogden Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

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Bitcoin Price Achieves New All-Time High at $7,598 -Why is the Market So Optimistic

November 6, 2017

Bitcoin Price Achieves New All-Time High at $7,598 -Why is the Market So Optimistic

Once again, the bitcoin price has achieved a new all-time high at $7,598 on November 5, as the market continues to be optimistic about the mid-term performance of bitcoin.

Rapid Adoption in Major Regions

In Japan and South Korea, two regions in Asia that are known to have extremely conservative investors and traders, have seen an exponential increase in the demand for bitcoin from local traders. In an interview with Nathaniel Poppers of the New York Times in October, Korbit founder and CEO Tony Lyu emphasized that once people are invested in South Korea, they encourage others to join the “party.”

“Word just spreads really fast in Korea. Once people are invested, they want everyone else to join the party. There’s been this huge, almost a community movement around this,” said Lyu.

Over the past two weeks, Japan and South Korea have seen a massive portion of conventional investors in the traditional financial industry allocate their funds to bitcoin, given the increasing liquidity of bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market in general.

Specifically, in South Korea, the popularity of offline exchanges of Bithumb and Coinone, the country’s two largest cryptocurrency exchanges, started to grow, as investors without solid technical knowledge or expertise in dealing with bitcoin began to seek for direct person-to-person assistance in purchasing, trading, storing, and managing bitcoin.

As a 53-year-old bitcoin investor stated:

“Due to the emergence of physical cryptocurrency exchanges and offline customer service operations launched by CoinoneBlocks and Bithumb, many investors in South Korea are rushing to sell their stocks and equity in public companies to invest in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Since the beginning of 2017, the demand for bitcoin has increased significantly and investors have been able to build trust over the cryptocurrency exchange market through offline exchanges.”

Japan and the US

Japan has always remained as the driving factor of the bitcoin price, especially in its new all-time highs and strong rallies. Japan is one of the very few countries that has adopted bitcoin as a currency and a payment method, using bitcoin to transact at hotels, online e-commerce platforms, retailers, and restaurants.

Today, Japan’s largest retailer in Bic Camera, budget hotel chain Capsule, major airline Peach, and the country’s largest grid operator Remixpoint accept bitcoin as a currency for all of their operations, services, and products.

Investors in the US are also optimistic in regards to the launch of a bitcoin futures exchange by CME and CBOE, the two largest options exchange both domestically and internationally. CME’s bitcoin integration is expected to offer immense liquidity for institutional and retail investors, who have been looking to allocate their “money on the sidelines” into bitcoin for many months.

The overwhelming performance of major regions such as Japan and South Korea, along with the integration of bitcoin by leading financial institutions in the US have contributed to the recent price surge of bitcoin.

In the mid-term, by early 2018, analysts expect the price of bitcoin to surpass the $10,000 mark. But, some strategists including Wall Street analyst Tom Lee of Fundstrat have warned investors to be cautious, as bitcoin price has increased from $3,300 to $7,400 in the past month alone, and such abrupt surge in the price of bitcoin could lead to a correction.

Author: Joseph Young on 05/11/2017

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
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Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

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Bitcoin Prices Still Firmly Above $7000, Without China

November 5, 2017

Bitcoin Prices Still Firmly Above $7000, Without China

Bitcoin is unstoppable these days, passing one “technical” test after another, crossing the $5000-mark, the $6000-mark, and the $7000-mark in a matter of weeks. The “people’s currency” has gained 27.33% in seven days, as market volume increased.

What’s behind the digital currency’s breathtaking run?

Certainly, it isn’t the lifting of regulations which halted trade of digital currency in China, as some expected (back in September, China banned Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and shut Bitcoin exchanges, sending the digital currency’s price tumbling from $5000 to close to $3000).

Instead, there have been a number of positive developments that helped build investor confidence and hype in the “people’s” currency. One of them was the stepping up of government regulations in US and Japan to protect the cryptocurrency markets from possible manipulation, while limiting the supply of new coin offerings.

*As of Saturday, November 4, 2017, at 10.30 am

Another development was the change in Wall Street’s attitudes towards Bitcoin, with hedge funds cozying up to the digital currency; and CME introducing Bitcoin futures.

Then there was the renewed investor interest in technology in Wall Street, following a string of strong earnings reports from Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple, sending NASDAQ to new highs, and re-igniting hype for technology investments.

Source: Finance.yahoo.com 11/4/17

Meanwhile money, the fuel behind the multiple asset rallies, continues to be cheap, as interest rates continue to be cheap. This means that investors do not have to sell one asset to buy another, as was the case back in the old days of “normal” interest rates.

Apparently, Bitcoin can survive and thrive without China, provided there are developments that keep the confidence and hype for the digital currency alive, and and provided that money remains cheap.

Author Panos Mourdoukoutas

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
David Ogden Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

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Cryptocurrencies May Contribute to Financial Stability

November 4, 2017

Cryptocurrencies May Contribute to Financial Stability

Bitcoin is trending in Turkey, and the country’s central bank officials are starting to notice. This week President Murat Cetinkaya of the Central Bank of Turkey (CBRT) said the financial institution is monitoring bitcoin closely, and spoke optimistically about digital currencies.

Central Bank of Turkey President Says Cryptocurrencies Could Contribute to Financial Stability

Turkish Central Bank President: "Cryptocurrencies May Contribute to Financial Stability"According to local news outlets in Istanbul, the president of the Turkish central bank, the CBRT, said officials from the region are researching cryptocurrencies. Murat Cetinkaya explains that the CBRT has formed a research group consisting of digital asset market participants, Turkish government officials, and regulators. The country’s banking regulator has explained current financial law does not apply to bitcoin, but has cautioned Turkish citizens against using the currency. Now in a more positive light, president Cetinkaya says cryptocurrencies like bitcoin could “contribute to financial stability.”

President Erdogan and Turkey’s Failing Economic Policy Sparked Bitcoin Interest Last Year

The bitcoin economy in Turkey is growing according to many different sources. For instance, the country has a Turkish Lira-Bitcoin exchange, BTCTurk, and other infrastructure providers such as Payza, and Bitwala. Residents living near the Istanbul Ataturk Airport can also utilize the country’s bitcoin ATM as well. Additionally, according to Google Trends statistics, Turkey’s interest in bitcoin continues to rise every month.

Bitcoin demand in Turkey started gathering steam back in 2016 when the Turkish Lira had lost considerable purchasing power that year. At the time, president Erdogan tried to convince citizens to convert their foreign currencies back into the Lira.

Turkish Economist: “There Is Serious Bitcoin Research Happening in Turkey”

Now bitcoin is seeing a lot more traction, as just last month the Miavita Beytepe apartment complex in Ankara, Turkey announced it will be selling luxury apartments for bitcoin. In addition to a few cryptocurrency exchange options, over-the-counter activity on Turkey’s Localbitcoins platform has grown exponentially. Following the statements from president Cetinkaya revealing information on the CBRT’s cryptocurrency researchers, the economist, and director of IS Investment International Markets, Shant Manukyan, confirmed the bank’s current investigation, stating:

There is serious bitcoin research happening in Turkey.

Like the many other central banks worldwide, the CBRT is admitting that policymakers are heavily examining cryptocurrencies. Cetinkaya’s statements, revealing the bank’s crypto-research group and saying the technology may be able to provide financial stability, is a good sign for bitcoin proponents located in Turkey.

Author: Jamie Redman

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
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Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

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Bitcoin Just Surged Past $7,000. Here’s Why

November 3, 2017

Bitcoin Just Surged Past $7,000. Here's Why

Talk about a roller coaster.

As of late Thursday, the price of Bitcoin was about $7,000, having reached the threshold for the first time just hours earlier. The upswing continued a rally that started Wednesday, when the Chicago Merchantile Exchange announced plans to offer Bitcoin futures — a move that could add even more institutional investors to Bitcoin markets and theoretically push up prices.

While Bitcoin investors cheered the rally, dubbing the CME’s decision a step toward legitimizing the cryptocurrency, it was also a reminder that digital coins still have a ways to go before reaching widespread mainstream adoption.

After breaching $6,500 for the first time a day earlier, Bitcoin prices surged as high as $7,350 in trading Thursday likely thanks to traders in Asia noticing the CME’s announcement.

“This is Asia waking up and FOMO,” said Timothy Enneking, managing director at Crypto Asset Management, referring to the fear of missing out on a potentially lucrative rally.

But the euphoria didn’t last. Over the course of the following 20 minutes or so, bitcoin prices shed $550 to hit $6,800—a 7.5% swing. While the volatility of Bitcoin has lessened since its inception, the price swings have continued to worry regulators and institutional investors—deterring widespread use.

Bitcoin's Three-Day Ride

Earlier this year for example, the Securities and Exchange Commission denied a proposal that would allow for a Bitcoin exchange traded fund, or ETF. Some Bitcoin investors had hoped an ETF tied to the cryptocurrency would do what they now expect the CME’s decision to do: Bring in more institutional investors.

In the filing denying the proposal, the SEC noted that Bitcoin had “fundamental flaws” that made it a “dangerous asset class to force into an exchange traded structure.”

Those flaws included price volatility, low liquidity, shallow trading volumes, and oversized exposure to trading in countries with weak regulatory oversight.

Bitcoin on the Rise

The price of Bitcoin reached three milestones in the last 30 days.

Granted, Bitcoin investors are hoping that the CME’s decision, which is still pending regulatory review, will increase the number of players in the market, thereby solving some of those problems by lowering volatility and increasing liquidity.

But other issues, including building a regulatory frame for Bitcoin both in the U.S. and abroad will take time. On top of that, Bitcoin is still undergoing growing pains on the technological side. Bitcoin users are now preparing for a potential “2x hard fork” called “Segwit2x” coming later this month.

Since Bitcoin is decentralized, its users must agree to update to the same software and rules to keep the cryptocurrency running. If just some users decide not the abide by those changes, it creates a new cryptocurrency. So far, the 2x hard fork, which would in theory increase the speed of transactions by increasing the size of blocks to 2 megabytes from 1 megabyte, has been divisive. The lack of consensus has spurred worries that the Bitcoin community itself could fragment.

And despite news of the CME’s decision, Thomas Lee, who is bullish on the cryptocurrency, warned Thursday owners will have to clench their teeth as bitcoin prices may still have further to fall before rebounding.

“For those tactically minded, we would be buyers of bitcoin in the $5,500 range, but such a pullback does not need to happen,” Lee, a managing partner of Fundstrat Global Advisors wrote in a Thursday note. In the long-term, Lee expects Bitcoin prices to reach $25,000 by 2022.

Authors: Lucinda Shen and Grace Donnelly November 2, 2017

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
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Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

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Bitcoin soared above $6,900 despite strong regulatory warning from Securities and Exchange Commission

November 2, 2017

Bitcoin soared above $6,900 despite strong regulatory warning from Securities and Exchange Commission

The price of bitcoin, the red-hot digital coin up more than 550% this year, soared past $6,900 to $6,916 Wednesday evening, according to data by Markets Insider.
The rally comes ahead of a warning by the Securities and Exchange Commission on initial coin offerings, a cryptocurrency-based fundraising method.

Bitcoin blew past $6,900 Wednesday even after the Securities and Exchange Commission warned investors about celebrity endorsements for certain cryptocurrency-based fundraising efforts.

The red-hot digital currency traded at an all-time high of $6,916 per coin, according to Markets Insider data, on Wednesday. The rally followed a price spike triggered by the announcement of the potential launch of a bitcoin-linked financial product by exchange giant CME on Tuesday. The coin is up more than 550% this year.

The upward march continued Wednesday evening despite a warning by the SEC about initial coin offerings, a red-hot fundraising method.

ICOs, according to fintech analytics firm Autonomous NEXT, have raised more $2 billion this year. A number of celebrities from champion boxer Floyd Mayweather to Paris Hilton have supported ICO projects in recent months. But the SEC said Wednesday that such endorsements do not mean that such investments are sound. Here's the agency (emphasis theirs):

"Celebrities, from movie stars to professional athletes, can be found on TV, radio, and social media endorsing a wide variety of products and services — sometimes even including investment opportunities. But a celebrity endorsement does not mean that an investment is legitimate or that it is appropriate for all investors. It is never a good idea to make an investment decision just because someone famous says a product or service is a good investment."

The SEC added that some celebrity endorsers may not be educated on the investment opportunities they promote. Here's the SEC:

"Investors should note that celebrity endorsements may appear unbiased, but instead may be part of a paid promotion. Investment decisions should not be based solely on an endorsement by a promoter or other individual. Celebrities who endorse an investment often do not have sufficient expertise to ensure that the investment is appropriate and in compliance with federal securities laws."

A number of countries, including China, have deemed ICOs illegal because startups have used the method to raise quick money without disclosing substantive information to investors.

The SEC provided its first guidance on ICOs in July. The financial watchdog said ICOs can sometimes be considered securities — and as such are subject to strict laws and regulations.

Author: Frank Chaparro

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
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Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

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Vietnam Becomes the Latest to Ban Bitcoin, but in China, the Rules May Be Changing

October 31, 2017

Vietnam Becomes the Latest to Ban Bitcoin, but in China, the Rules May Be Changing

Vietnam became the latest nation state to launch an attack on cryptocurrency, as regulators sided with the alarmists without providing much of a rationale.

Vietnam Issues Ban

The ban, which applies to all cryptocurrencies not deemed legal tender, was issued via formal statement by the State Bank of Vietnam. The punishment for accepting or offering payments in bitcoin can run more than $8,000 USD.

Vietnam’s central bank says only traditional forms of payment are accepted within its borders. This includes cash, checks, credit cards and other electronic payments.

The state-run bank has issued the following statement, according to Mirror:

“Bitcoin virtual currency and other similar is not lawful means of payment in Vietnam; The issuance, supply, use of bitcoin and other similar virtual currency as a means of payment is prohibited in Vietnam.”

The announcement, whenever it was made, had very little impact on cryptocurrency trading. At press time, bitcoin (BTC/USD) was trading at $6,162 for a gain of $57.

The bulls blew the door wide open this weekend, sending bitcoin north of $6,300 for the first time ever.

Chinese Ban? Let’s Move to Hong Kong

Now that China’s Communist Party gathering has come and gone, sanity appears to be returning to public discourse. That is, according to a recent report from CNLedger, which our pals at CCN.com recently covered. The trusted news sources have revealed that OKEX is expected to launch its peer-to-peer OTC bitcoin trading platform shortly.

As it turns out, OKEX and several other leading blockchain companies like BTCC and Huobi-Pro are located in Hong Kong. Theoretically, their presence in the Special Administrative Region allows them to circumnavigate the mainland’s recent ban on everything crypto-related.

It should be noted that OKEX is offering a bitcoin-to-crypto trading platform. Regardless of what Beijing thinks, it might not be a good idea to launch this platform on the mainland. That’s because the Chinese government recently blocked a major port for MetaTrader4, which is the engine of the online forex community.

Regulators have apparently shut down port ‘443’, which is used for secure web browser communications. The port also happens to be the one MT4 brokers use to connect to their trading server.

The port probably inhibits the government’s ability to spy on traders, or at least monitor their data flows (like that’s different?). There’s reason to believe this ban could extend to other trading platforms that utilize a similar standard.

Last month, China broadened its online censorship by blocking WhatsApp, the popular messaging platform acquired by Facebook for way too much. The ban was another blow to the social networking giant, as it too is banned on the mainland.

Author: Sam Bourgi

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
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Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

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Bitcoin Price Going From $4,000 to $400,000 is Easy — Hedge Fund Manager Mark Yusko

October 30, 2017

Bitcoin Price Going From $4,000 to $400,000 is Easy - Hedge Fund Manager Mark Yusko

Bitcoin Price Going From $4,000 to $400,000 is Easy — Hedge Fund Manager Mark Yusko

Mark Yusko, the founder & CEO of Morgan Creek Capital Management, the $3.7 billion North Carolina-based investment firm, has stated that the bitcoin price is expected to reach $400,000 in the long-term.

Over the past 12 months, the price of bitcoin has increased from less than $900 to over $5,900. In a relatively short-term, the bitcoin price has demonstrated an exponential rate of growth, almost immediately recovering from China’s ban on cryptocurrency trading and increasing from $3,300 to $5,900 within two months.

According to Yusko, the highly regarded hedge fund manager, the challenge for bitcoin at its early stage was to surpass the $100 mark. Today, the price of bitcoin is closing on the $6,000 region, and Yusko emphasized that the long-term target of $400,000 should be “easy” to achieve.

“Only gamble was whether bItcoin would make if from $0 to $100, that was the real miracle. Going from $4,000 to $40,000 or $400,000 is easy,” said Yusko.

Confidence Behind the Statement of Yusko

High profile hedge fund managers such as Yusko, billionaire investor Mike Novogratz, and executives at Fidelity, a financial services company with over $2 trillion assets under management, have publicly expressed their certainty over bitcoin’s long-term performance.

Novogratz, who recently established a cryptocurrency focused hedge fund, revealed that an increasing number of institutional investors and large-scale retail traders are preparing to engage in bitcoin and cryptocurrency trades. He stated:

“I can hear the herd coming. I was just in San Francisco, met with a few big institutional investors and their still a ways away but they’re coming. Lots of funds are being raised and so I’m pretty confident to say that it [Bitcoin price] is going higher.”

Investors such as Novogratz and Yusko are confident in the mid and long-term performance of bitcoin because of the increasing interest and demand for bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market from the traditional financial industry.

Already, exchanges like LedgerX, an institutional trading and clearing platform approved by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to trade and clear swaps and options on digital currencies, has started to facilitate the settlement of options, futures, and derivatives trades around bitcoin. According to the LedgerX team, during its first week of operation, it has settled over $1 million worth of trades, which was an unexpected volume for the company.

“We ended up completing swaps and options trades worth over $1,000,000 USD. Crucially, these trades were cleared through LedgerX, which is the only institutional grade, US federally regulated exchange and clearing house for digital currencies. And we are literally just getting started,” said LedgerX.

Some of the largest financial institutions and exchanges in the US including CBOE, the largest options exchange in the country, are preparing to address the growing demand for bitcoin from institutional investors, which is a positive indicator for bitcoin’s long-term growth

Author Joseph Young

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
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Ethereum and Bitcoin Price Decline Again — Major Factors For Mid-Term Recovery

October 29, 2017

Ethereum and Bitcoin Price Decline Again - Major Factors For Mid-Term Recovery

Ethereum and Bitcoin Price Decline Again — Major Factors For Mid-Term Recovery

The price of Ethereum and bitcoin have declined in the past two days, with the bitcoin price struggling to rebound beyond the $5,700 mark and the price of Ether dipping below the $300 region again.

Although the price of bitcoin has increased since plunging to $5,300 prior to the Bitcoin Gold hard fork, over the past 24 hours, the price of bitcoin declined from $5,767 to $5,680.

Like bitcoin after the disappointing release of Bitcoin Gold, Ethereum was expected to sustain its upward momentum in the mid-term subsequent to the Byzantium hard fork. But, primarily affected by a series of minor corrections of the cryptocurrency market, the price of Ether has struggled to surpass the $300 mark in the past week.

Factors For Recovery: BItcoin

It has been evident over the past week by the trend of the bitcoin price that the Bitcoin Gold hard fork has had a direct impact on the short-term price trend of bitcoin. Experts including highly regarded bitcoin developer Jimmy Song noted that prior to the Bitcoin Gold hard fork, a relatively large portion of users migrated their funds from bitcoin wallets and exchanges to alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) to avoid the Bitcoin Gold hard fork.

The majority of investors and traders were seeking to avoid the Bitcoin Gold hard fork because it had lacked strong replay protection before the fork, which is necessary for bitcoin wallets and exchanges to credit users with Bitcoin Gold on a 1:1 ratio with bitcoin. But, even after the fork, the Bitcoin Gold development team has failed to deliver on their promise and have not implemented any sort of replay protection.

Consequently, wallets like Trezor and Blockchain have not been able to provide support for Bitcoin Gold deposits, withdrawals,and trading.

More to that, at this phase of development, it is difficult to justify whether Bitcoin Gold is an actual cryptocurrency, because it lacks hash power, wallets, miners, and a client.

Analysts such as Bitfinexed, a popular cryptocurrency blogger, stated:

As the bitcoin market recovers and restructures from the controversial Bitcoin Gold hard fork, it is likely that the price of bitcoin will be able to rebound in the upcoming days, at least until the SegWit2x hard fork scheduled for November 16. Several investors like Tuur Demeester emphasized that a similar trend as Bitcoin Gold is expected around mid-November, as bitcoin investors could potentially migrate to other altcoins to avoid the fork.

Ethereum Price Remains Below $300

Since early September, prior to the initial coin offering (ICO) and cryptocurrency trading ban by the Chinese government, the price of Ether has struggled to remain in the $300 region, despite significant optimism surrounding developer activity and solutions on Ethereum such as the Byzantium hard fork and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s scalability solution Plasma.

As demonstrated in the two price charts above, the price trend of Ether is often correlated with the short-term performance of bitcoin. Hence, during certain periods in which the price of bitcoin corrects itself, the price of Ether is likely to fall by a similar margin.

But, adoption of Ethereum is an important indicator for the mid and long-term price trend of Ether. Earlier this week, Blockchain, the second most popular bitcoin wallet behind Coinbase, announced the integration of Ethereum into its mobile wallet, the most widely utilized bitcoin mobile wallet in the market.

Author: Joseph Young on 28/10/2017

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
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There are now more than 120 hedge funds focused solely on bitcoin, digital currencies

October 28, 2017

There are now more than 120 hedge funds focused solely on bitcoin, digital currencies

Data shared exclusively with CNBC from financial research firm Autonomous Next shows the number of funds investing in digital assets like bitcoin has grown rapidly to 124.
Autonomous Next also estimates that the "crypto-funds" have about $2.3 billion in total assets under management.
While several leading Wall Street banking executives remain skeptical about bitcoin, more seasoned money managers are moving into digital assets management.

More than 90 funds focused on digital assets like bitcoin have launched this year, bringing the total number of such "crypto-funds" to 124, according to financial research firm Autonomous Next.

Data shared exclusively with CNBC Friday showed that the largest share of the funds, 37 percent, used venture capitalist-type strategies and had about $1.1 billion in assets under management. Funds focused on trading digital assets came second at 32 percent, with about $700 million in assets under management.

Funds specifically using machine learning, data science or statistical arbitrage on digital currencies came in third at 10 percent and $100 million in assets under management, the data showed.

Total assets under management by crypto-funds now stands at $2.3 billion, according to Autonomous Next's estimates.

Source: Autonomous Next

This year's surge in the price of bitcoin and another digital currency, ethereum, have drawn attention to the cryptocurrencies and the potential of their blockchain technology. Proponents say blockchain could transform the world as much as the internet did, and several major banks are researching or developing blockchain projects.

Digital currency enthusiasts also attribute much of the latest surge in bitcoin to record highs above $6,100 to increased interest from institutional investors. While several leading Wall Street banking executives remain skeptical about bitcoin, more seasoned money managers are moving into digital assets management.

Notably, former Fortress hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz is launching a $500 million digital assets fund through his new firm, Galaxy Investment Partners. The fund is expected to be the largest of its kind.

Besides investing in digital currencies like bitcoin and ethereum, enthusiasts are betting on a slew of new digital coins for projects built on the same blockchain technology. The tokens are launched through a process called an initial coin offering and have raised just over $3 billion, according to Autonomous Next.

That said, many of the digital coin projects are still in very early stages. China has banned initial coin offerings, while the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has warned investors about the risks of investing in them.

The overall number of crypto-funds and their assets under management is also still minuscule compared to the record $3.15 trillion held by the hedge fund industry in the third quarter, according to HFRI.

WATCH: What is an ICO?

Author: Evelyn Cheng

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
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