Bitcoin will still go upward. the price going up and down in the market is normal.
In time, bitcoin value will surely surpass that level and set the new record of all-time high!  

Bitcoin is secured to the level where no one can hack the bitcoin or bitcoin network.
Bitcoin network is peer-to-peer which means it does not belong to any government or corporation.
Thus, that makes it imppossible for government or any corporation to block it or shut it down.

Most of the time bitcoin is popular and getting more headlines because of it value. People are now focusing more on bitcoin value growth.
Apart from the bitcoin value growth people should consider bitcoin transactions are very cheap and fast compare to banks, secure, and fully decentralized. 

The next target for bitcoin is $9,000 and hoping for the value of bitcoin to reach $10,000 by the end of this year 2017. Bitcoin made a tremendous gain this year because the value of bitcoin increased with over 800% in this year alone. Imagine, what will happen in the future? if the value of bitcoin can manage to grow by at least 500% every year, bitcoin will reach an unexpected level in small period of time.

People were asking themselves the same questions about bitcoin 5-7 years ago.
Now, look at the price of bitcoin... Imagine if those people were able to invest in bitcoin 5-7 years ago?
They would have become millionaires by now Instead, they keep asking themselves same very questions all these years and end up with nothing.

My plans for 2018 is simple - buy as many bitcoins as possible for the future.
For me, I learned my lessons about bitcoins this year 2017 - Bitcoin value increased with over 800% in 2017.
Now, imagine the value of bitcoin by the end of 2018? Bitcoin seems to be the best option fit for my investments 2018 all year long.

Bitcoin is different from other currencies such as fiat because it's purely digital currency, fast, secure, and decentralized. Bitcoin is also acceptable all over the world. Finally but not least, the value of bitcoin; bitcoin value is growing exponentially that is why people love it so much apart from other features.

Mark Karpeles Will End Up Taking $859 Million From Mt. Gox Bankruptcy

In 2014, Mt. Gox, once the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, filed for bankruptcy. At the time, Japanese creditors requested Mt. Gox to return the equivalent amount of their funds stored in bitcoin in Japanese yen. Since then, the price of bitcoin has risen by 70-fold, and former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles is expected to take the majority of the profit from the bankruptcy proceedings.

In July, Karpeles attended a court hearing and pleaded not guilty to charges on money laundering and embezzlement, for his involvement in the loss of approximately one million bitcoins, which were worth $400 million during the period wherein the Mt. Gox bankruptcy was filed.

Over the past three years, from 2014 to 2017, the price of bitcoin has increased exponentially, from around $400 to $7,000, by 17-fold. During the investigation into the Mt. Gox bankruptcy from 2014 to 2016, 200,000 bitcoins were recovered and with that, Karpeles was requested to proceed accrediting creditors of Mt. Gox with the recovered bitcoins.

However, after a strange turn of events, it turns out that creditors of Mt. Gox, or former bitcoin traders on the Mt. Gox exchange, are set to be credited with Japanese yen equivalent to the value of bitcoin in 2014.

Paul Wasensteiner, a Mt. Gox creditor, told CCN that creditors were not made aware that their claims were limited to a maximum value of $480 and that the bankruptcy would settle the proceedings based on the price of bitcoin three years ago. Creditors have expressed their concerns over the process of the Mt. Gox bankruptcy, and the possibility that Karpeles, who is directly responsible for the loss of $7 billion in funds, might take away $859 million from the $1.3 billion that has been recovered.

Consequently, subsequent to the completion of the payout of Mt. Gox bankruptcy proceedings to its creditors, Karpeles will be left with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoin as profit, for his direct involvement in the loss of nearly $7 billion worth of bitcoins within a two-year span.

“When it’s all sorted out, Karpelès would pretty much get [the] vast majority” of the extra value, Kolin Burges told the WSJ,  a creditor who held 311 bitcoins at Mt. Gox. “So that seems incredibly unfair.”

For creditors like Burges, their previous funds in bitcoin that were stored on Mt. Gox will be processed in Japanese yen, at the same value it had been in 2014. Hence, instead of receiving more than $2.1 million, Burges will receive less than $130,000 for his 311 bitcoins, at a price of $400.

“In the case these are sold, I do not believe it would realistically fetch any kind of value high enough to make this an actual issue,” said Karpeles, denying any wrongdoing in regards to the Mt. Gox case and the theft of user funds.

On paper, the company of Karpeles, called Tibanne, owns about 88% of Mt. Gox as per the WSJ. After the bankruptcy filings are settled, Mt. Gox will be left with a surplus of $977 million worth of bitcoins. Out of that, 88 percent will be granted to Karpeles and in the end, after losing more than $7 billion of user funds, Karpeles will take home $859 million for his role in the demise of Mt. Gox.



Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/mark-karpeles-will-end-taking-859-million-mt-gox-bankruptcy/

Karpeles Looks to Revive MtGox, Seeks $245 Million

Does anyone have $245 million to revive MtGox? Mark Karpeles, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of money laundering and embezzlement, claims reviving MtGox offers a way to allow creditors to get something from the bankruptcy. Otherwise, the complexity of the bankruptcy will make it hard for creditors to recover losses any time soon, Karpeles claimed in a recent blog.

Claims in the MtGox bankruptcy are based on bitcoin value held by MtGox customers at the time of bankruptcy. While most of the amounts claimed would cover funds spent on purchasing the bitcoins, most creditors claim the capital gains from the bitcoins should be paid to them, a factor Karpeles cited as complicating the claims recovery process.

In July, Karpeles pleaded not guilty to charges on money laundering and embezzlement, for his involvement in the loss of approximately one million bitcoins, which were worth $400 million during the period in which the MtGox bankruptcy was filed.


Why MtGox Is Unique

Capital gains usually do not allow covering all claims in bankruptcy cases, Karpeles noted in his blog, but MtGox is a unique case, as the estimated assets are significantly higher than accepted liabilities.

Numerous MtGox customers filed claims repeatedly after the exchange filed for civil rehabilitation on Feb. 28, 2014, claiming MtGox should be in liquidation bankruptcy as opposed to civil rehabilitation. The court placed the exchange in liquidation less than two months later. Creditors are now wishing for a return to civil rehabilitation.

In addition, CoinLab filed a large claim against MtGox after a U.S. lawsuit sought to repeatedly secure about $75 million from MtGox. The claim is likely to be brought to court and deliberated as long as appeals are possible, which Karpeles said could take another two to 10 years.

Creditors are seeking several things from the bankruptcy that make resolution impossible, Karpeles added.

For one, capital gains have not yet been realized. With bitcoin’s volatility, the 202,000 BTC MtGox held could be worth 10 times more, or that much less tomorrow. The way the liquidator sells the bitcoins could impact the market and drive down the price, fetching only a portion of the current market value.

The trustee, being aware of this fact, has not included bitcoin value in company assets, listing the value as a separate entry, in addition to Bitcoin Cash.

Post-Bankruptcy Capital Gains Not Recognized

Another issue is that bankruptcy law does not recognize post bankruptcy capital gains by the bankrupt as a liability, Karpeles noted. The claims are calculated from the liabilities at the beginning of the bankruptcy, and get converted to JPY. Claims are then static to allow the liquidator to do a distribution so creditors can have an accurate idea of how much of their claim can be paid.

The expected repayment rate as of the last creditors meeting was 2.66% (assets/claims), but that is subject to change depending on the realization of profits from bitcoins held, Karpeles noted, and depending on claims still being assessed.


Pro-Rata Distributions Not Possible

Distributing pro-rata bitcoins to creditors is complex, Karpeles claimed.

There is the CoinLab lawsuit asserting a $75 million claim against MtGox that will act against anything that undermines the claim. CoinLab will have the benefit of any doubt until the suit completes.

In addition, MtGox creditors would have to cooperate more than they have. They are currently working in different directions.

Karpeles said the most obvious goal would be to revive MtGox through Japanese civil rehabilitation, providing new management and ownership. The solution would be similar to the Bitfinex solution, where liabilities were covered by tokens issued to creditors that can be cashed out at any time based on current liabilities.

Such a solution allows those who failed to file a claim to get something, Karpeles said.

MtGox would only need a new management team of three directors, at least one being Japanese, and $245 million needed for expenses. Karpeles offered a breakdown of the expenses on his blog.

It would not be feasible to use part of the 202,000 held by MtGox as the plan would never get through all the obstacles needed for approval, Karpeles claimed.


Karpeles Asks For Ideas

He is seeking ideas on where the amount would be raised. One solution would be to offer the right to MtGox shares.

Another solution would be to launch an ICO to raise the money to revive MtGox. Karpeles sees this as more challenging, as there is no guarantee of raising that amount. While the ICO might not raise the full amount, it could be distributed to creditors, which would be better than nothing.

Karpeles asked if anyone with $245 million wants to purchase MtGox.


Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/karpeles-reviving-mtgox-will-get-creditors-something-seeks-245-million/

Billionaire Investor Novogratz: Ethereum En Route to New All-Time Highs


Mike Novogratz, the billionaire hedge fund investor and former executive at Fortress, believes Ether, the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum, is poised to achieve new all-time highs in the short-term.

“ETH looks poised for a move to new highs. Lots of good news on the horizon,” said Novogratz, emphasizing innovative developments conducted by leading startups including ConsenSys.

South Korea Takes Over as Largest Ethereum Market
Over the past few weeks, the daily trading volume of Ether has increased substantially, primarily led by the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange market. Subsequent to the South Korean government’s imposition of a nationwide ban on domestic initial coin offerings (ICO) in October, the price of Ether and the demand for Ethereum decreased in South Korea for a brief period.

Since then, the South Korean Ethereum exchange market has recovered, accounting for over 33 percent of the global Ethereum exchange market share, overtaking the US to solidify itself as the leading Ethereum market.

In a 24-hour span, the price of Ether surged by nearly 8 percent, from $325 to $358.



Contrary to the predictions of highly respected analysts within the cryptocurrency sector, the successful execution of the Byzantium hard fork did not lead to a price surge and the price of Ether struggled to move past the $300 mark.

But, the market has started to demonstrate optimism towards the network stability of Ethereum after the Byzantium hard fork, and significant progress being made with both on-chain and off-chain scaling solutions such as Plasma, sharding, and Casper. Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, revealed that several investors have inquired Buterin if the Ethereum Foundation intend to pursue ICOs for sharding and Casper.

“I just had another person ask me if Casper and sharding will be a new coin and if so will there be an ICO. This makes me cry,” said Buterin.

As CCN previously reported, Buterin has spoke out against open-source scaling projects conducting ICOs, especially those that are not in need of specific crypto-tokens to function.

It is optimistic that investors and the market are enthusiastic in regards to scaling solutions and projects within Ethereum, as shown in the recent price trend of Ether.


Will Entrance of Institutional investors Into Bitcoin Market Benefit Ether?

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong revealed earlier this week that $10 billion in institutional money is awaiting to be invested into the cryptocurrency space, after launching Coinbase Custody, a cryptocurrency custodian platform for institutional and retail investors.

“By some estimates there is $10B of institutional money waiting on the sidelines to invest in digital currency today,” said Armstrong.

Most institutional investors are planning to invest in bitcoin by the end of 2017, upon the launch of CME’s bitcoin futures exchange. Man Group for instance, the $95 billion hedge fund, announced its finalized plans to invest in bitcoin.

As tens of billions of dollars in institutional money shift from the traditional finance sector to bitcoin in the upcoming weeks, Ether, as the second largest cryptocurrency in the market, will benefit from the increase in interest of institutional investors towards the cryptocurrency market.


Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/billionaire-investor-novogratz-ethereum-en-route-new-time-highs/

Newsflash: Bitcoin Price Reaches $8,100, a New Record High

Bitcoin price has struck a new all-time high of $8,100 during Sunday’s trading, continuing its rally from the previous Sunday’s lows.

The world’s first cryptocurrency has hit a new record high of $8,100 (Bitfinex) as its resurgence from last week’s decline to $5,500, continues.

Sunday began with bitcoin trading at just under $7,800 and stuck under the ceiling for most of the day. At 17:15 (UTC), prices jumped above $7,900 in a 15-minute trading period. The swell turned to a spike which ended with bitcoin striking $8,100 at 18:15, a gain of over $300 in an hour.

At press time, bitcoin is trading to the dollar at $8,065.



Data from CoinMarketCap shows bitcoin now gaining 31.7% in a 7-day span. The previous Sunday’s decline was caused by a major sell-off by investors who shifted to offshoot cryptocurrency Bitcoin Cash, a trend that has since been reversed.

Overall, the total value of all mined bitcoins sees the market cap of bitcoin, the world’s most prominent cryptocurrency, reach above $134 billion.





Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/newsflash-bitcoin-price-reaches-8100-new-record-high/

Setbacks And Naysayers Begone! Bitcoin Breaks $8,000 On Investor Confidence

Bitcoin broke through the $8,000 price mark this morning, reaching an all-time high of $8,100, thumbing its nose at the growing chorus of doomsayers reacting to the financial industry’s rising interest in the cryptocurrency. The price in the afternoon had dipped below the $8,000 mark, but the past week’s trend has been positive.



Shortly after noon, bitcoin’s price stood at $8,067.09 according to coinmarketcap.com, having posted a $133.956 million market capitalization and a 4.24% gain in a 24-hour period.


Volatility Continues

The recent surge follows a near 29% plunge from the previous high of $7,562.47 on Nov. 5 to $5,650 on Nov. 12. This past week’s rally followed a $38 billion loss in market capitalization after the SegWit2x was canceled on Nov. 8. The recent volatility has been credited to the cancellation of SegWit2x, which caused some investors to move their holdings to altcoins, one sign being the near doubling in price of Bitcoin Cash.



After starting the past week below the $6,000 mark on Nov. 13 at $5,937.82, the price rose and approached the $8,000 mark on Nov. 16, at which point it ebbed and flowed until today, Nov. 19 when it finally topped the $8,000 mark.

Bitcoin’s market share of the total cryptocurrency market today was 56.07%, followed by Ethereum at 14.51%. Bitcoin’s dominance was actually higher on Nov. 4 when its price was $7,291.92 and it held 61.58% to Ethereum’s 14.04%. Bitcoin’s highest market share was back on Aug. 10 when its price was $3,26.50 – it held 93.4% of the total market.

Institutional Interest Rises

Bitcoin’s entry into the mainstream financial markets is believed to be driving its ongoing gains. CME Group’s announcement to launch bitcoin future contracts has attracted interest from the financial community, signaling an institutional capital influx.

As a result of the institutional interest, Coinbase announced plans to offer a cryptocurrency custodial service targeted at institutional investors with more than $10 million in crypto assets.

Wall Street investors have also bestowed favor on publicly traded companies that expand into bitcoin. Square, a payment processor, got a price bump after inviting some users to test its Square Cash app to buy and sell bitcoin.

In addition, the completion of the first off-chain “atomic swap” has also driven confidence in cryptocurrency. Lightning Labs traded testnet bitcoin for testnet Litecoin without leaving any trace on either currency’s blockchain.


SegWit2x Impact

While the cancellation of SegWit2x pulled bitcoin’s price downward, some see a silver lining.

Spencer Bogart, head of research at Blockchain Capital, told Bloomberg Quint that despite the fact that the fork was called off, there are those that will follow through with the intended fork. As a result, some capital is rotating out of other crypto-assets and into bitcoin to ensure they receive coins on both sides of the fork.


Naysayers Reflect Rising Interest

The continuing bitcoin surge is noteworthy in light of the fact that it comes despite warnings from several financial experts that bitcoin is a bubble destined to implode. The fact that more financial observers are paying attention to bitcoin reflects the financial community’s rising interest.

Katsunori Sago, the chief investment officer at Japan Post Bank, recently said bitcoin’s fair value should be around $100.

James Gorman, chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley, claimed that bitcoin doesn’t deserve the attention it is getting.

Earlier this month, Societe Generale deputy CEO Severin Cabannes said bitcoin is clearly in a bubble, while Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam stated bitcoin is “the very definition of a bubble.”

Legendary investor Warren Buffet said there’s a “real bubble in that sort of thing.” The most infamous quote of all is left to JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who said bitcoin is a fraud. Meanwhile, the price surge continues.


Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-breaks-8000-on-investor-confidence-despite-setbacks-and-naysayers/

Bit is finally changing the financial world as we know it for good by providing the very best way to send and receive money from one person to another. Bitcoin value is also growing super fast beyond imagination due to the wonderful features of bitcoin. bitcoin will soon go mainstream all over the world.

Still got nothing for both Twitter and Facebook. 

Bitcoin Hits Record Just Days After a 29% Plunge

   - Industry grappling with growing number of bitcoin variants
   - Having too many will confuse the general public: Quoine CEO

Bitcoin has picked up right where it left off, capping a resurgent week by climbing within a few dollars short of a record $8,000 just days after a plunge of as much as 29 percent from the previous high tested the confidence of advocates of the cryptocurrency.



Bitcoin has gained 17 percent this week, touching a high of $7,997.17 during Asia hours before moving lower in late trading. The rally through Friday came after bitcoin wiped out as much as $38 billion in market capitalization following the cancellation of a technology upgrade known as SegWit2x on Nov. 8.

While multiple reasons have been cited for the price volatility, one of the more viable is that some investors were switching to alternative coins. Bitcoin cash, an offshoot of bitcoin that includes many of the technical upgrades being debated by developers, had more than doubled in the same period.

“My sense is that today’s rally is driven by a resurgence in interest and viability for the SegWit2x hard fork,” Spencer Bogart, head of research at Blockchain Capital, said in an email. “Despite the fact that it was called off, there is still some group of people that will follow through with the intended fork. As a result, I believe some capital is rotating out of other crypto-assets and into bitcoin to make sure they receive coins on both sides of the fork.”

The main difference between bitcoin and bitcoin cash is the block size -- the fundamental units that make up the blockchain at the heart of the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin cash offers a larger block that holds more data, meaning faster and cheaper transactions according to supporters of the new rival.

Those supporters view the size increase as the update bitcoin needed to become a better means of exchange to compete with payment services such as Visa or Master Card. Bitcoin handles about seven transactions a second, compared with around 2,000 for Visa.

“I look at it as similar to software where there can be multiple versions,” said Mike Kayamori, chief executive of Quoine, in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “That said, having too many will confuse the general public so it’s not a good thing if there’s too many.”

Kayamori said he could see a time when legacy bitcoin is treated more as a pure currency while bitcoin cash, with its higher block size, could be more useful for commercial operations.

This year’s surge comes as the digital currency starts to gain mainstream acceptance as a financial instrument after CME Group Inc., the world’s biggest exchange, said it would start bitcoin futures next month. Swiss structured products houses Vontobel AG and Leonteq Securities AGwill said Thursday they’ll offer separate products that will allow investors to profit if the price of bitcoin tumbles.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-16/bitcoin-hits-record-as-monday-s-29-plunge-fades-to-memory

Bitcoin adds $41 billion to market cap in 6 days as it hits all-time high of $7,998

   - Bitcoin hit a new record high Friday and was within touching distance of the $8,000 handle
   - Coinbase said that there was still a possibility of a planned Segwit2x upgrade happening that would cause bitcoin to split
     and create a new cryptocurrency
   - The possibility of the Segwit2x upgrade appeared to be the catalyst for the rally



Bitcoin hit a new record high Friday, coming within touching distance of the $8,000 handle.

The cryptocurrency was trading at $7,998.40 in the early hours, U.K. time, according to industry website CoinDesk. Bitcoin did pare some of those gains, however, falling as low as $7,535.85; it was trading around $7,750 by mid-morning.

It's been a wild week for bitcoin, which sold off heavily last weekend, falling to around $5,500. Since Sunday, the cryptocurrency has risen from that low to Friday's high, marking a 45 percent increase.

In that time, bitcoin's market capitalization, or the total value of the digital coins in circulation, has risen from $92 billion to $133.5 billion, according to Coinmarketcap.com.

The price dip last weekend came after an upgrade to the bitcoin network, SegWit2x, which was planned for November 16, was called off. The aim was to increase the transaction speeds of SegWit2x, which has increasingly slowed down over the years. If the upgrade took place, it would have caused what is known as a "hard fork," causing a new bitcoin spin-off to be formed.

Two previous forks have already happened earlier this year, leading to the creation of bitcoin cash and bitcoin gold.

But support for the Segwit2x upgrade waned, causing developers to call off its planned implementation.

This appeared to be the initial catalyst for the sell-off.

But on Friday, Coinbase, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, said there is still a possibility of a fork.

David Farmer, director of communications at Coinbase, said on a blog post that a "small number of miners may attempt to go forward with a fork."

A miner is a key part of the bitcoin network. It is a person who runs a "node", or a high-powered computer that is able to solve the complex mathematical equitation required to verify bitcoin transactions.

If a large number of miners upgrade the software on their nodes, it could cause a fork. Farmer warned that this small number of miners still supporting the Segwit2x proposal could cause a fork.

If a fork happens, holders of bitcoin will receive the newly-created cryptocurrency called "bitcoin2x" for free, essentially giving them free money. That is why bitcoin rallied Friday.

Coinbase said that it will disable the function of sending and receiving bitcoin at 2 a.m. PT on Friday on its platform, and halt buying and selling an hour before the fork, which is forecast between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. PT.

All functionality will be re-enabled shortly after, Farmer said.

The Coinbase communications executive said that there are two scenarios that could occur. The first is that the new bitcoin2x network is unusable because there is not enough support, in which case Coinbase will not facilitate trading or withdrawals because "it will not be possible to move these assets." Farmer said that this is the most likely outcome.

The second scenario is that the bitcoin2x network is usable because miner support is strong.

Bitcoin has had a rocky year but the price has continued to rise and is up around 700 percent. But many critics have thrown cold water on the rise of the cryptocurrency, with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon calling it a "fraud". Regulators in some countries have also cracked down on bitcoin trading, with China banning bitcoin exchanges.


Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/17/bitcoin-price-hits-all-time-high-near-8000-chance-of-hard-fork-remains.html

Singapore, Bitcoin-Friendly Philippines Aim for Blockchain Cross-Border Payments

The central banks of the Philippines and Singapore have forged a FinTech agreement that could result in cross-border payments over a blockchain between their markets.

Announced yesterday at the sidelines of the Singapore FinTech Festival, the pact is a ‘FinTech Co-operation Agreement’ between the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and aims to establish ties to promote financial technologies in each other’s markets.

The agreement outlines a framework wherein the two central banks will collaborate to share emerging FinTech trends and developments and refer promising FinTech startups and companies to each other, carving an easier entry into the other’s market with regulatory backing.

“MAS and the BSP are like-minded in their focus on harnessing financial technology to reduce inefficiency and benefit individuals and businesses,” MAS managing director Ravi Menon stated. “This Cooperation Agreement between our two agencies provides a framework for promoting financial innovation not only in our countries but can also potentially contribute to broader efforts in ASEAN.”

Singapore is, in particular, home to a number of FinTech endeavors including an MAS-backed vision to develop and create a digital Singaporean dollar on a blockchain. Earlier this year, the MAS revealed details of Phase 1 its ‘Project Ubin’ initiative that concluded with digital tokens of its national currency issued on a private Ethereum blockchain.

Notably, the central banks will also undertake joint projects in the industry, which could include using blockchain technology to facilitate ‘faster cross-border payments and streamlining “know-your-client” (KYC) processes, the announcement revealed. Establishing blockchain payment rails between the two countries would mean a significant state endorsement to the financial technology that underpins cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

The Philippines has also proven a friendlier jurisdiction for FinTech activity. In February, Philippines’ BSP issued regulations for bitcoin exchanges – in effect legalizing bitcoin – and became one of the earliest countries in the world to do so. The move was heralded as a “pioneering regulation” by BSP deputy director Melchor Plabasan who spoke up the benefits of using bitcoin as a currency that is “fast, near real-time and convenient.”

In signing the agreement with Singapore, BSP governor Nestor A. Espenilla said:

     "The BSP looks forward to exciting times ahead as the CA unlocks diverse opportunities for new collaborations to prosper that maximize benefits of innovative technologies.  This would ultimately pave the way for a more progressive, modern and inclusive financial system".



Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/singapore-bitcoin-friendly-philippines-see-blockchain-gains-fintech-pact/

The World’s Biggest Wealth Manager Won’t Touch Bitcoin

   - Chief Investment Officer Haefele says risk of terror funding
   - Says bitcoin not reached critical mass to be seen as currency

UBS Group AG, the world’s largest wealth manager, isn’t prepared to make portfolio allocations to bitcoin because of a lack of government oversight, the bank’s chief investment officer said.

Bitcoin has also not reached the critical mass to be considered a viable currency to invest in, UBS’s Mark Haefele said in an interview. The total sum of all cryptocurrencies is “not even the size of some of the smaller currencies" that UBS would allocate to, he said.

Bitcoin has split investors over the viability of the volatile cryptocurrency and UBS is among its critics. Bitcoin capped a resurgent week by climbing within a few dollars of a record $8,000 on Friday. Still, events such as a bitcoin-funded terrorist attack are potential risks which are hard to evaluate, he said.

“All it would take would be one terrorist incident in the U.S. funded by bitcoin for the U.S. regulator to much more seriously step in and take action, he said. “That’s a risk, an unquantifiable risk, bitcoin has that another currency doesn’t."

While skeptics have called bitcoin’s rapid advance a bubble, it has become too big an asset for many financial firms to ignore. Bitcoin has gained 17 percent this week, touching a high of $7,997.17 during Asia hours before moving lower in late trading. The rally through Friday came after bitcoin wiped out as much as $38 billion in market capitalization following the cancellation of a technology upgrade known as SegWit2x on Nov. 8.

UBS Chairman Axel Weber this month said Bitcoin was a speculative investment and not a store of value, while Credit Suisse Group AG CEO Tidjane Thiam described the speculation around bitcoin as the “very definition of a bubble.” JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon has called bitcoin “a fraud” that will eventually blow up.
Putin’s View

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin last month flagged the risk of cryptocurrencies being used for money laundering, tax evasion and funding for terrorism. Still, he stopped short of backing a broad ban in the country.

Bitcoin isn’t government-sponsored and some may use it to avoid oversight, a situation that’s “unlikely to persist forever," Haefele said. The CIO sees the bank’s own research into bitcoin as an opportunity to engage with clients on questions such as the role of currencies and speculative assets in a portfolio.

Still, CME Group Inc., the world’s largest exchange owner, has said it plans to introduce bitcoin futures by the end of the year, citing pent-up demand from clients. That pushes bitcoin closer to the mainstream by making it easier to trade without the hassles of owning the currency directly.

“The thing that always strikes me about these, quote unquote, investments is not really when you would get into it but when you would get out of it,” Haefele said. “So how do you know when to get out of a bitcoin investment?"

— With assistance by Jan-Henrik Foerster


Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-17/ubs-shuns-bitcoin-allocations-due-to-threat-of-crypto-crackdown

Bitcoin Price Achieves New All-Time High at $8,040; Bigger Surge in December?

The bitcoin price has achieved a new all-time high at $8,040, within a week since it dipped below $5,600 on Sunday. Analysts expect the price of bitcoin to surge even further by the end of 2017, upon the entrance of institutional investors and retail traders through Coinbase, CBOE, Gemini, and CME.




Bitcoin Price Will Likely Surge Again in December

Earlier this week, CME Group announced that it will launch its bitcoin futures exchange approved by the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to address the increasing demand from institutional investors and retail traders for bitcoin.

Today, on November 17, Coinbase, the largest bitcoin brokerage and wallet platform in the world, introduced Coinbase Custody, another bitcoin trading platform for institutional and retail traders. On Coinbase Custody, large-scale investors can invest a minimum value of $10 million in bitcoin.

Brian Armstrong, the CEO at the $1.6 billion bitcoin startup Coinbase, stated:

“We already store billions of dollars worth of digital assets on behalf of our customers. We serve thousands of institutions via our GDAX product, the leading digital currency exchange in the U.S. We’ve raised $216M from venture capital firms and financial institutions like the NYSE/ICE, USAA, BBVA, Westpac, and MUFG. And we have approximately 200 employees working across our three offices in New York, London, and San Francisco with deep industry knowledge.”

Specifically, Armstrong noted that there exists approximately $10 billion in institutional money on the sidelines “waiting to be invested in digital currency.” If tens of billions of dollars flow into the bitcoin market throughout December and by mid-2018, the market valuation of bitcoin will surge substantially, likely to $200 billion in the short-term.

Many institutional investors and high profile traders have invested in bitcoin over the past 12 months through a handful of investment vehicles including DCG’s GBTC and XBT Provider’s bitcoin exchange-traded note (ETN). Upon the launch of CME and CBOE bitcoin futures exchanges, along with Coinbase Custody, institutional investors will be able to invest in bitcoin with ease, by the end of this year.

Increasing Liquidity of Bitcoin

Already, bitcoin is far more liquid than the most liquid stock on earth in Apple. Bitcoin has a daily trading volume of around $5.8 billion, while Apple’s trading volume remains below $4 billion. Bitcoin’s daily trading volume is close to $6 billion without institutional and retail investors in the space. By December, the daily trading volume of bitcoin will be drastically higher.

In addition to the entrance of investors in the traditional finance sector, the adoption rate of major financial platforms is rapidly increasing. Most recently, $15 billion payments app Square integrated bitcoin into its mobile platform.

    The market cap of Square, a major payments app, surges by $1 billion after #bitcoin integration announcement. From $15 billion to $16.1 billion.

    Will other major financial platforms follow soon? pic.twitter.com/gjXaIvKRaV

    — Joseph Young (@iamjosephyoung) November 16, 2017

Analysts expect more financial platforms to integrate bitcoin in the near future, as the market valuation of companies that have integrated bitcoin soared in a relatively short period. Square for instance, experienced a $1 billion increase in its market cap within a five day period, after integrating bitcoin.


Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-price-achieves-new-all-time-high-at-8040-expect-to-surge-in-december/

Zimbabwe Coup Could Spike Bitcoin Price Even Higher on Domestic Exchanges


Uncle Mugabe is under house and rest after the coup


Instability stemming from an apparent coup could send the bitcoin price even higher in Zimbabwe.

On Wednesday, Zimbabwe’s military initiated an apparent coup against President Robert Mugabe, the authoritarian leader who has ruled the country for nearly 40 years. Although the military denies it is attempting to overthrow the regime, the 93-year-old president has reportedly been taken into custody, throwing the country’s political future into turmoil.

During times of crisis, people often turn to hard assets such as gold to preserve their wealth. Recently, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have begun to eat into gold’s market share, and it would not be surprising if this coup leads more Zimbabweans into the country’s nascent bitcoin markets.

As CCN has reported, the bitcoin price already trades at an astronomical premium in Zimbabwe, primarily due to an extreme cash shortage and tight capital controls implemented to keep physical currency within the country. Although the country nominally uses the U.S. dollar as its official currency, the lack of physical dollars caused the government to print bond notes supposedly pegged to dollars at a one-to-one ratio.

However, it’s an open secret that the government has been inflating the “zollar” supply at a pace far above the official, dollar-denominated rate of 0.38%. Consequently, Reuters reports that residents have been pouring their money into any value-retaining asset they can find — including bitcoin.
 
    “There is inflation setting in in Zimbabwe and bitcoin is an interesting store of value,” Taurai Chinyamakobvu, a tech and blockchain expert in the country, told CCN in a recent interview.

While assets such as vehicles and real estate may serve as reliable stores of value, bitcoin affords Zimbabweans the ability to make cross-border purchases. Moreover, after living in a country whose currency was once so hyperinflated that the central bank printed 100 trillion dollar notes, residents appreciate bitcoin’s lack of central governance.

    “There is no owner or controlling body for bitcoin. Every transaction done online is visible to all traders in bitcoin,” Pardon Gatsi, a tech expert based in Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe, told CCN.

This increased interest in bitcoin — along with the inflation of the zollar — has caused the bitcoin price to surge as high as $13,900 on Harare-based bitcoin exchange Golix. At present, the exchange prices bitcoin at $13,350 — a full $6,100 above the global average.

If the apparent coup destabilizes the country, the bitcoin price could rise even higher in Zimbabwe. Conversely, if the new regime adopts a less-inflationary monetary policy, it would not be surprising to see the bitcoin price fall closer to the global average.


Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/zimbabwes-coup-could-send-the-bitcoin-price-even-higher-on-domestic-exchanges/