I wander if in the near future some tokens or coins can fusion together...like for example in the stock markets or acquisitions, when big holdings buy other companies or when there's a fusion of 2 companies into a bigger one...

Do you think it is going to happen also in the crypto ecosystem?

The U.S. Marshals Service confirmed Thursday that more than 3,600 bitcoin sold at auction in January have been successfully transferred to five winning bidders.

An unknown winner received 1,600 bitcoin (worth about $13.4 million at press time), the agency confirmed in an email today, with the remaining buyers receiving 500, 500, 200 and 813 bitcoins (worth $4 million, $4 million, $1.6 million and $6.7 million), respectively.

With the exception of Riot Blockchain, which claimed one of the two 500-bitcoin lots, the names of the winners were not disclosed. Riot voluntarily announced it had received 500 bitcoins shortly after the sale.

Notably, the agency ended up selling 100 bitcoins less than anticipated, a development it said was due to unforeseen technical issues. The agency is now maintaining custody of those assets.

Stepping back, the sale marks the first time since 2016 that the agency has auctioned off bitcoins. At the time, the agency sold 2,700 bitcoins for a profit of less than $2 million.

I don't understand why would anybody use bitcoin cash when there are better alternative like ethereum or litecoin for exemple. To me bitcoin cash is just another shitcoin and will never replace bitcoin, even if the price reach 3500 or 4000 dollars I am sure bitcoin is going to be around 30k or 40k at the same time.

basicly, when founder coin has sell all of his coins its mean there's something wrong with this coin. but, thats mean nothing in market. so far i think litecoin have a great system and development, but for future i dont think this coin will be exist.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-30/crypto-exchange-bitfinex-tether-said-to-get-subpoenaed-by-cftc

I just read this.
Ok, this is my understanding.

People accept that 1 Tether (USDT) is backed by 1 USD  (maybe it was at first)
So, BTC seller accepts 1 USDT instead of 1 USD.  (same thing, to him)

But, if USDT is fake, and there is no USD backing it, then USDT will become worthless in the event of a “bank run”

Allegation is that Tether was minting fake USDT's and using them to buy BTC.
Tether people have tricked BTC holders to trade their good BTC for fake USDT crypto.

This would cause BTC price to increase, but now what?
If the new BTC owners do not sell, there is no selling pressure.
Just no new additional buying pressure, if the Tether is exposed as not backed by USD.

Hong Kong's securities regulator appears to be stepping up efforts to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges involved with initial coin offerings (ICOs).

In a statement released Friday, Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) revealed it has sent warning letters to seven cryptocurrency exchanges advising that certain tokens being traded on their platforms may be defined as securities. Though the names of the exchanges were not disclosed, the SFC indicated they are either based in or connected to Hong Kong, and among the top 20 in volume globally.

According to the note, the move is part of a wider effort by the SFC to caution investors about the risks of trading cryptocurrencies, one that began more mildly with a warning on the possible risks of the ICO fundraising model on Sept. 5 of last year.

Notably, the SFC said that the inquiry may result in further action, but that so far the exchanges notified all responded to the inquiry.

"Most of these cryptocurrency exchanges either confirmed that they did not provide trading services for such cryptocurrencies or took immediate rectification measures, including removing relevant cryptocurrencies from their platforms," the release reads.

The SFC has also written to seven unnamed ICO organizers that are soliciting investors from Hong Kong and whose tokens are considered as securities by the agency.

David is a quant, and he is between jobs.

He previously worked at one of the world’s top hedge funds and is currently on gardening leave, waiting to take up a new role at another company.

He has got nothing to do. So he trades cryptocurrencies from his home in London.

“It’s something to fill my days,” he says, with the air of someone talking about how they have taken up cooking or long-distance running. “I need to keep my skills sharp.”

While many investing in cryptocurrencies are ordinary people with little to no investing experience, people like David are finance professionals investing because it’s a challenge, or because the philosophy rings true to them, or simply for their own entertainment.

On any given day, David, who asked that we not use his real name, trades about £20,000 of exposure across the top 150 cryptocurrencies. The volatility, the wild swings up and down each day, is part of what makes it a worthy intellectual challenge.

“In a day’s worth of cryptocurrency movement you have a week or a month of equity market movement and a decade of country debt,” he says.

The stunning rise of cryptocurrencies in 2017 took the world of finance by surprise. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn called it a bubble and said “I just don’t get it”, while JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon called bitcoin a “fraud”, a comment he later regretted.

But many in the sector joined in the frenzy with the rest of the public.

Men and women who spend their days making careful, considered bets on companies, markets and countries have, as much as anyone else, been captivated by the heady promises of a future built on bitcoin, or the more hard-nosed opportunity to make a quick buck in the middle of a bubble.

“It’s fun,” one hedge fund trader said, adding that she did not want “fomo”, the acronym for ‘fear of missing out’. One London-based banker was more blunt: it was gambling for people who could afford to lose a bit of money. “That’s it. Nothing else.”

Venture capitalists, typically on the more technologically curious fringe of the finance world, have bought into cryptocurrencies with gusto.

Alex Dunsdon, an equity partner at Saatchi Invest and a co-founder of Bakery, a corporate accelerator, says he understands cryptocurrencies in a way that he no longer does the stock market.

“I’ve been out of the stock market because it stopped making sense to me,” he says. Central bank support for the markets plus the trend of passive investing have turned it into a game with unclear rules.

“Over the past few years or so, everyone has just been buying indexes and they haven’t been doing price discovery. They’re just investing in a trend of something going up and up and up,” he says.

Even as bitcoin has declined 60 per cent since its peak in December, Dunsdon has remained bullish. He says he’s holding for the long-term as the cryptocurrency is the sort of “asymmetric mass unlimited upside” bet that venture capitalists love.

“If the market crashes and everyone loses total faith in crypto that’s when I want to go and play again,” he says.

Depending on your perspective, there has been such a crash. Across the cryptocurrency market there has been a prolonged sell-off since the heady heights of early January, when the “market cap” of the sector was almost $800bn, according to Coinmarketcap.

Now it is $300bn, though this is still far above where things were at the start of 2017.

Some managed to dodge the worse of the fall. Paul McNamara, a fund manager at GAM, bought ethereum in December, largely to appease a friend who sat him down and “went on and on about it”.

He says he doubled his money before eventually settling out 10 per cent up: “I traded it exceptionally badly.” Rob Kniaz, a partner at Hoxton Ventures, bought in as early at 2012 and used bitcoin when travelling. He sold right at the top last year, when bitcoin traded at $18,000.

Others are smarting from losses. One hedge fund partner said they had bought more cryptocurrencies as the sell-off hit their paper profits. “You don’t lose money until you sell,” they joked.

Irina Anichshuk, who works at an investment firm in London, said she had made losses of as much as 60 per cent on her investment in Litecoin. She has decided to hold on what she concedes is a “punt”, partly because “there’s no point of realising the loss”.

Hello,
i have current the same problem, my account temporarily disabled know. I don't know what i can do. I hope kraken answered me. Was somebody in the same situation like me and what was the results?

I initially though that when institutional investors enter the picture it would make a big impact on us which it really did, pushing the price to almost $20,000. But now, it seems they have changes how investors look at bitcoin right now. In the past, we have seen strong reversals after a big dump, but today its seems that investors are very reluctant and playing the waiting game. Right now the pump are not that strong and sustainable as everyone is expecting. There's still minor dumps along the way, derailing the momentum that the bulls are trying to set up. However, we need to adopt with this changes in the market, its better to see bitcoin price going up slowly and steady rather than the rush that we have seen before. At least investors are very cautious and rational, but at this price is still a perfect time to get into the ecosystem because its really cheap at the moment.

Thanks @LeGaulois !
 I am using card for payment. Kraken has so many bad reviews.
Bitstamp takes forever to verify.

So it seems Monday was the bottom of the bear market. We should gradually recover, with ups and downs, over the next few months. I'd guess by summer it'll start hitting ATHs again.

So how high will the next bull run (2018-2019) reach? $50k? $100k?

https://upvotesclub.com/the-ethereumization-of-wall-street-is-inevitable-expe-news/

I read this article, thought, I'll share. It sounhds good, but I don't think it will happen that easy, Wall Street perfectly understands the dangers it is facing in the face of cryptocurrency markets.So they will lobby for heavy regulations and even if that happens, it will be on their terms. As a matter of fact, I think that once the cryptos will be "properly regulated" you will have to get "qualified investor" status in order to trade them.
Why?
Because the government needs to protect you!

You know what? Most of the people who are saying "Hold" are the one who did not care of his money. They did not need their invested money so its okay for them to invest it and hold unlike for those poor people, they think that it is better to withdraw their coins in the real world than to waste by time. They need a money.

If you have never used such an ATM, under what circumstances would you consider using it?