Everyone was expecting that the crude prices may jump by 15% to 20% on the aftermath of the attack. But that never happened. The Brent crude price on NASDAQ was $60.22 per barrel before the attack and now it is trading at $64.60 per barrel. So there was no major impact on the oil prices, resulting from the attack. And since the rise was less than 8%, I don't think that it can have an impact elsewhere.

Investors needs to be cautious about BNB. It is already having a market capitalization of $3.2 billion, and is currently the eighth largest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap. It's future prospects will depend a lot on the acceptability of the Binance US platform. From what I have heard, the live trading hasn't started yet and as of now it is available in only 37 out of the 50 states. And they have included just 6 coins in the first phase. Just wait for a few months, and invest in BNB only if their US platform is able to attract good volumes.

You can find scammers in every sector and cryptocurrency is not an exception. The most infamous financial fraudsters (Bernie Madoff, Matt Jennings, Wendell Jacobson, Joseph Blimline.etc) had no connection with cryptocurrency. But then we need to introspect why the incidence of fraud is so prevalent with the cryptocurrency market. They are not only affecting the popularity and acceptance of the new coins, but they are having a negative impact on the established altcoins and even on Bitcoin.

Obviously of the early investors get 30% or 40% bonus, then what is the need for them to wait until the ICO is completed? They can just dump their tokens and pocket this 40%. And trust me, 40% returns in one month time is not bad. You don't get such chances very often in the cryptocurrency market. If I was one of the guys who got the 40% bonus, then I'll be dumping the tokens as soon as I can.

He is 40 years old, and if he want then he can fight for another 2 years. But in order to do that, he has to sacrifice his other career options (especially politics). I don't think that he is hungry for fame and money. He has earned a lot of money during his peak years and it may not be one if the important factors for him. I guess the defeat against Floyd in 2015 still haunts him and he is desperate for revenge.

The damage has been done already. Many of the altcoins have lost as much as 50% or 60% of their value against Bitcoin during the last four months and a slight recovery of 5% or 10% might not help them in the long term. A lot of the users are still holding on to these coins hoping for a future recovery. If there is no improvement in the situation for the next 3 to 6 months, then they will also sell their coins and this will crash the prices even further.

It may not be a bad idea to have different wicket keepers for both tests and ODI/T20s. Rishabh Pant is more suitable to the shorter formats of the game, when compared to test matches. For the tests, I don't want to go for Pant. My choice would be either Ishan Kishan or Sanju Samson. Don't want to talk about Dinesh Karthik or Wriddhiman Saha, as these guys get selection based on their closeness to the powerful members, rather than due to their talent.

Afghanistan has this habit of throwing away the advantage. While batting, they had built such a good partnership (between Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Hazratullah Zazai), but once these two got out, their batting collapsed completely. During the second innings also, they were in such a strong position, until Rashid Khan conceded 18 runs of the 18th over.

If the trading volume is zero, than can indicate that there is no interest for the coin in the market and reason for that may be the developers might have vanished in to the thin air leaving the investors high and dry. Once the developers are no longer interested in the project, the chances of any recovery looks very slim. Ultimately the coin will be delisted from the exchange and it will die a natural death.

I'd still be interested, in case it is a full 12-round match. On the other hand if both agree on an exhibition match, that is going to last no more than 15 minutes, then I guess I will be skipping it. They should not underestimate their fans. Mayweather don't want to do the hard work, and yet he wants all the money. Things don't work that way. In case he wants to fight Manny, then let him go for a full 12-round fight.

Honestly I do think that the vast majority of the altcoins are going to die in the next few years. As of now, we have more than 10,000 different altcoins (and a majority of them are dead or dormant). Given the user base, I don't think that there is enough room for this many coins to exist. At the most, 100 or 200 may survive in the long term future. Copycats and scam coins are going to die out without a trace.

The 7th wicket partnership between Shakib Al Hasan and Mosaddek Hossain rescued Bangladesh. Afghanistan was so close to victory, but as usual they let off the pressure at a crucial situation. The turning point was the 18th over, in which Rashid Khan conceded 18 runs. That changed the course if the match, as before the start of that over Bangladesh needed 27 runs from 3 overs.

LOL... it is funny that you expect the Bitcoin dominance to go back to 50% (from the current level of 68%) within the next three months or so. IMO, the recent spike in the altcoin market capitalization was due to the rumors of Binance opening a separate platform for the users from the United States. And that means that the current spike is going to be a temporary one. From what I have heard, the trading hasn't started yet and 13 of the states are being excluded (including New York).

All of a sudden, the match has become interesting. Bangladesh lost some quick wickets to the pace/spin combo of Naveen-ul-Haq/Rashid Khan and they are now struggling at 105/6 after 16 overs. They need 34 runs from 24 balls, with 4 wickets in hand. Rashid seems to be in splendid form, and he has got two overs remaining. Naveen-ul-Haq is left with one over. This is going to be tight!!!

The risk involved with Bitcoin is still within tolerable limits. But some of the users go one step further and invest their savings in ICOs. There can be no investment more riskier than this, given the fact that more than 95% of the ICOs end up as failures. For now, I am sticking with Bitcoins. None of the other cryptocurrencies seems to have a long-term future.

There are other factors as well, such as the high transaction fee and security issues. On top of that, Vitalik wants to rush through Ethereum 2.0, which will increase the security risk manifold. They need to scale down their future plans, or at least slow them down. This is necessary in order to take care of the existing issues in a proper manner.

Very poor performance by the Afghan batsmen. As usual, they wasted a good start. From 75/0 in 9 overs, they slumped to 138/7 in 20 overs. During the last 11 overs, they managed to score only 63 runs at a loss of 7 wickets. Almost the same thing happened during their previous match as well (against Zimbabwe). Bangladesh will win this match, if no miracles occur.

Please don't get me wrong, but my opinion is that these scam projects are needed in order to get the noobs away from the shitcoins. Many of the inexperienced users investing for the first time in cryptocurrency go for little known coins, hoping to get 10x or 100x returns in a few days. And many of them lose their entire investment. If they lose money in these scam projects, then they are likely to stay away from such shitty projects in the future.

Any comments on the 15-member squad announced by India for the 3-match series against South Africa?


KL Rahul was replaced by Shubman Gill, which I thought was a wise move. Rahul was given enough opportunities and he failed to make use of them. For the wicket keeper slot, it is going to be a choice between Rishabh Pant and Wriddhiman Saha. I would go for Pant, given Saha's age. And I guess Kuldeep Yadav will have to sit outside, if Ashwin and Jadeja are picked as the spinners.

Don't get too excited about the recent jump in the exchange rates of Ether. My guess is that the prices went down too much, too quickly and as a result they got adjusted on their own. But the basics look very weak, not only for Ethereum, but also for all the other altcoins. And the bad state of the ICO market and the scaling issues make matters worse for Ethereum. My prediction is that the exchange rates will resume their southwards journey very soon.