Financial institutions all over the world are interested in Bitcoin. UnionBank recently demonstrated its cryptocurrency miners at a business conference. That is an interesting development, considering how the world’s leading cryptocurrency is a legal tender in the country.  When the biggest bank in The Philippines gets into Bitcoin, an interesting tone is set.

Unionbank and Cryptocurrency
The Philippines have always been a key region for Bitcoin. It is home to a few remittance services which rely on cryptocurrency. Moreover, the government made it clear Bitcoin can be used for remittance purposes. It is a validation of the world’s leading cryptocurrency being used for real-world use cases. So far, the Philippines is one of the only countries to take this specific step in recent years.

Unionbank, the biggest bank in the country, recently showcased cryptocurrency miners during a business conference.While that may not seem important, it is another nod of approval toward cryptocurrency. While not a Bitcoin mining unit, it does show the institution is interested in cryptocurrencies.

How this venture will pan out exactly, remains a bit unclear. To this date, the bank has not confirmed it is involved in any cryptocurrency mining operation just yet. Even so, they are quite confident cryptocurrencies here to stay. More and more banks are getting on the cryptocurrency bandwagon these days. Ranging from trading desks to mining operations, things are certainly heading in an interesting direction.

Bitcoin and The Philippines
It is not the first time Unionbank shows an interest in cryptocurrency or its underpinning technology. Earlier this year, the institution announced a blockchain payment system. This venture is launched together with Visa. Although that feature does not involve cryptocurrencies, it shows its underpinning technology can effectively transform business models in the Philippines.

Additionally, the Philippines government introduced an “economic zone” for cryptocurrencies. In this zone, cryptocurrency companies are allowed to operate in a licensed environment. Surprisingly, this venture attracted a lot of attention from international firms. Especially companies from Japan, Malaysia, and Hong Kong are interested in this option. The economic zone accommodates all business models, including exchanges, mining, and initial coin offerings.

All of this is in stark contrast with a slight crackdown on Bitcoin users. The Philippine National Police has arrested Bitcoiners before. This was mainly due to allegations regarding running a Ponzi Scheme. Additionally, cloud mining is still somewhat frowned upon in this country. The Bitcoin situation in the Philippines is heading in an interesting direction right now. Unionbank’s recent “endorsement” is another surprising development in this regard.

ies consolidate the huge gains of 2017 and allow the fundamentals to catch up. The longer time spent in the range, the stronger will be the breakout.

Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak believes that the blockchain technology and Bitcoin will reach its full potential in about a decade. However, with many crypto enthusiasts trying to bring the technology to mainstream use, acceptance might come much earlier.

As this is a new asset class, there might be a danger of potential scams. According to a study by The Wall Street Journal, about 18.6 percent initial coin offerings (ICOs) were using “deceptive or even fraudulent tactics.” This is why investors should not allow greed to blur their judgment while doing the due diligence.

Let’s see if we find any low-risk buying opportunity today?

BTC/USD
Bitcoin has failed to attract buyers. It has continued to slide and is now at the critical support of $7,941.68. If this level breaks down, the digital currency will plunge to $7,000. The 50-day SMA is flat and the 20-day EMA is turning down, moving towards a bearish crossover. This is a negative development.

BTC

If the support at $7,941.68 holds, the bulls will attempt a pullback, which will face resistance at the moving averages.

We can confirm that the BTC/USD pair is range bound once the price breaks out of the 20-day EMA. As it is yet to bounce off the supports, we are avoiding any buy recommendations.

ETH/USD
Ethereum continues to outperform the other top cryptocurrencies. It is well above the 50-day SMA and just below the 20-day EMA. It is trying to hold the neckline of the bearish head and shoulders pattern. The pattern will complete on a breakdown and close (UTC) below the neckline, which has a lower target of $418.

ETH

As the 50-day SMA is still rising and the 20-day EMA is flat, we don’t expect the ETH/USD pair to sink to $418 in a hurry.

We anticipate a strong support at the 50-day SMA, which is close to the 50 percent retracement levels of the rally from $363 to $838.

The first bullish sign will be a breakout of $745 levels. Until then, every pullback attempt will be met with a strong selling pressure.

BCH/USD
Bitcoin Cash has completed the head and shoulders pattern, which gives it a lower target objective of $650. Currently, it is close to the 50-day SMA, which might act as a support and a pullback to the neckline of the bearish H&S pattern is probable. If the bulls fail to scale above the neckline, chances of a breakdown increase.

BCH

As the BCH/USD pair had risen vertically from $777.5304 on April 18 to $1,590.7825 on April 24, there are no supports in between $800-$1,130. Below the 50-day SMA, the cryptocurrency can plunge to $800 levels where some buying can be expected.

We suggest waiting for prices to stabilize before buying. Catching a falling knife can be dangerous.

XRP/USD
Ripple is trying to hold the May 12 lows of $0.632 but it seems weak as it is not finding buyers even at these levels. A break and fall to the critical support level of $0.56270 looks probable.

XRP

On the upside, the bulls will have to break out of the resistance zone between the 50-day SMA and $0.76 to exhibit strength.

We suggest waiting for the XRP/USD pair to show some strength before initiating any long positions.

XLM/USD
Stellar has broken below some key support levels and is currently at the neckline of the head and shoulders pattern. A break and close (UTC) below the neckline will complete the pattern which has a lower target of $0.2.  

XLM

Even if the neckline support holds, it will be a tough climb for the bulls because the XLM/USD pair will face resistance at the 50-day SMA and the 20-day EMA.

The first sign of strength will be on a break out above the May 13 highs of $0.38692920. The longer the price sustains below the moving averages, the weaker it will get. Hence, we are not suggesting any trade on it.

LTC/USD
Litecoin has been trading below the 50-day SMA for the past three days, which shows a lack of buying even at these low levels. The bulls are trying to defend the $127 levels. If this level breaks, a slide to the $115 levels is possible.

LTC

On the upside, any bounce to the 50-day SMA or the 20-day EMA will attract selling. We remain bearish on the LTC/USD pair until it shows consistent buying.

The trend will change only on a breakout and close above the $170 levels. However, if the digital currency falls to $115 levels and holds, we shall risk a buy.

ADA/BTC
Cardano has broken below the trendline and the 50-day SMA. It has minor support at the May 12 lows of 0.00002870. If this level breaks, the next support on the downside is at 0.000025.

ADA

On the upside, the bulls will face stiff resistance at the 50-day SMA and the 20-day EMA. Once these two levels are crossed, the final hurdle will be the horizontal resistance at 0.00003445.

We shall turn positive once the ADA/BTC pair sustains above this level. Until then, it remains in a no-trade zone.  

IOTA/USD
IOTA is trying to hold the horizontal support at $1.63, which is just below the 50-day SMA. If the support holds, a move back to $2.2117 is possible but the up move will face resistance at the 20-day EMA and at $2 levels.

IOTA

If the support breaks, the IOTA/USD pair can slide to $1.28 levels. The 50-day SMA is rising while the 20-day EMA is declining.

Chances of a range bound action are high. We need to wait for a buy setup to emerge before suggesting any long positions on it.

EOS/USD
EOS has been attempting to hold on to the 50-day SMA for the past two days. The 61.8 percent Fibonacci retracement level of the recent rally is also close to the current levels. An attempt to rebound off the supports on May 17 met with selling pressure close to the 20-day EMA.  

EOS

The EOS/USD pair might remain range bound between the 50-day SMA and the 20-day EMA for a few days before breaking out or breaking down from it.

The next support on the downside is at $10 levels, while the overhead resistance is at $14. We shall look for buying opportunities once the digital currency sustains above the descending channel.

16 Mayıs tarihinde Tianjin bölgesindeki 2nd World Intelligence Conference etkinliğinde konuşan Çinli E-ticaret devi Alibaba şirketinin kurucusu Jack Ma, blockchain teknolojisinin değil, Bitcoin’in bir balon olduğunu ifade etti.

Ma, yıllardır blockchain teknolojisini araştırmakta olduğunu ve ”büyük veri çağı” döneminde blockchain’in toplum için veri gizliliği ve güvenliği konusunda bütün düzeylerdeki – hükumetler, kurumlar ve bireyler – sorunları çözebilme potansiyeli olduğuna inandığını dile getirdi. Jack, en son yayınladığı dördüncü çeyrek mali bilanço tablosunda 39.9 milyar dolar kar elde ettiğini belirttiği ve ”trilyonlarca işlemlik”ticari hacmi olan Alibaba firması için güvenliğin en üst öneme sahip bir unsur olduğunu da vurguladı.

 
Ma, maalesef ki, ortaya çıkan blockchain endüstrisinin aldığı ilginin çoğunun, blockchain’i “devasa altın madeni” olarak gören spekülatörlerden geldiğini de sözlerine ekledi. Ma, Bitcoin konusunda kripto paranın gelmiş geçmiş en iyi dönemini yaşadığı 2017 Aralık ayında bile temkinliydi:

”Bitcoin hakkında hiçbir şey bilmiyorum. Birazcık kafam karıştı. Cidden işe yarasa bile küresel ticaret kuralları ve finansal sistemleri tamamen değişmek zorunda kalacak. Buna hazır olduğumuzu zannetmiyorum. Bu sebeple hala Alipay’e, ABD dolarına ve Avro’ya dikkat ediyorum. Blockchain üzerine çalışmalar yapan bir takımımız var ancak Bitcoin peşinden gitmek istediğim bir şey değil. Bitcoin umurumuzda değil.”

Bloomberg’in haberine göre, geçen sene Jack Ma, 41.8 milyar dolar net serveti ile  Asya bölgesindeki en zengin adam unvanını elde etmişti. Alibaba üyesi Ant Financial tarafından yürütülen ve çok yoğun bir popülariteye sahip mobil ödeme uygulaması Alipay, tahmini olarak 450 milyon kullanıcıya sahip.

2016 yazı gibi erken bir tarihte, Ant Financial, Çinli hayır kurumu endüstrisi ile olan işinin izlenebilirliğini ve güvenilirliğini arttırmak amacıyla blockchain teknolojisi kullanmaya başlamıştı. Bu duyurunun ertesi yılında firma, blockchain uzmanları işe almaya başlamıştı.

Bununla birlikte, Ma’nın pozisyonuna paralel olarak, Alibaba Group, bünyesinde bulunan Alibaba Cloud’un yeni piyasaya sürdüğü ”P2p Düğümleri” ağının bir kripto para madencilik platformu olduğu iddialarını yalanlaması gibi örneklerle bir bakıma kripto paralara olan hoşgörüsünü kaybetti ve bunlara cephe aldı diyebiliriz. Bundan hemen sonra Nisan ayında ise Alibaba alt kuruluşu olan Taobao kendi platformundan bütün ICO ile ilgili reklamları yasaklama kararı almıştı.

 Kaynak:  Coin Telegraph

bugün iftar yaparken denk geldim. diyanet yazıp 1379 a gönder 10 tl yardımda bulun. bunun reklamını yapmıyorum sonuçta devlet kurumu. ama 10 tl ile yurtdışında cami yaptırılacakmış. kim bilir belki kurtuluruz bu sayede ...

zaten akbankın yeşil ışık sinyali yaktığının farkındaydık;

"Akbank Direkt Bankacılık'tan Sorumlu Genel Müdür Yardımcısı Tolga Ulutaş, Akbank LAB’in çalışmalarına ilişkin düzenlediği basın toplantısında yaptığı konuşmada, Blockchain teknolojisi ve uluslararası para transfer sistemlerine değinerek, tüm dünyanın “yeni teknolojilere hızlı adaptasyon” dönemine girdiğine dikkati çekti.

Akbank’ın, uluslararası para transferinde son teknolojiyi kullanarak şeffaflık ve hızı artırıp, maliyetleri düşüren Ripple ile anlaşan ilk Türk bankası olduğunu vurgulayan Ulutaş,

“Türkiye’de bir ilk olarak Silikon Vadisi merkezli Ripple firmasının çözüm ortaklığıyla hayata geçirdiğimiz Blockchain teknolojisi ile para transferi başarılı inovasyon süreçlerimizin en önemli örneklerinden. 2018 yılı içinde Ripple teknolojisini önce kurumsal ardından da bireysel müşterilerimizin işlemlerinde kullanıma alacağız. Yeni dönemde iş birliği yapmak için çeşitli fırsatları araştırıyoruz ve hem Amerika’dan hem de dünyada öne çıkan diğer ülkelerden finansal teknoloji şirketleriyle iletişim halindeyiz.” diye konuştu.

Ulutaş, Blockchain teknolojisinin, varlıkları en yüksek güvenlikte ve aracılara ihtiyaç duymadan, açık bir ağ üzerinden herkesin erişimine sunduğunu anlatarak, Blockchain teknolojisi varlık transferinin bir aracıya ihtiyaç duymadan gerçekleşmesini mümkün kıldığını, kayıtların değiştirilemediği ve geri alınamadığı bir veri tabanı olduğunu söyledi."

Akbank şimdi ise operasyonel anlamda birkaç koin ile yola çıkabileceğiyle ilgili çalışmalara başlamış. bu koinlerin isimlerini tam öğrenemedik ama bu bilginin kaynağı ise sağlam bir operasyon kaynağından. şimdilik sadece mobil üzerinden ve internet bankacılığından yola çıkacaklarmış. bence inanılmaz bir adım

"Disclaimer: I am not an expert on cryptocurrency, but I can tell you this much; neither are most of the people at the Consensus conference at the Hilton Midtown this week.

There's another thing, the crypto gold rush is not entirely global. Not yet. Most of the serious money players and developers come from a handful of nations – the U.S., China, Russia, Japan, South Korea and Israel. European money is flowing into projects, with wealth managers putting money into crypto funds. Latin America hasn’t really discovered the blockchain, though Brazil has hopped on the bandwagon and will be the leader there.

It’s Blockchain Week in New York. Blame the traffic on the rain, and those guys with badges around their necks.

Startups are touting their next genius idea – a new real estate project, a new mining app, a new coin pegged to the euro. These are the people I met there. This is what they are dreaming about, how they hope to make it happen, and what they think about their rivals.

Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

“If Mockba goes to the party, I’m not going to the party,” one tech reporter tells me about a Russian founder I have never met. I ask him why he wouldn’t go to one of the myriad parties being thrown in Manhattan this week. He used choice words and dropped F-bombs. “I spent a half hour listening to this joker try to sell me on his project and how he was going to raise $200 million dollars.”


I get it. One Russian the other week told me he was hoping to raise a few hundred million in an initial coin offering, based on a fintech company he was only just building. Worth noting, Russian messaging app Telegram raised about a billion dollars recently from accredited investors. Telegram has been around for years and has an actual product, but makes no money.

We're at the Baccarat bar; an interview set up by a foreign PR rep for off-record sources and on-record sources who do not live here. It's Russian style, with baccrat crystal chandeliers, and a crystal candle holder on the table keeping the flame. The cocktail waitress tells me someone stole their candle holder from this very table just the other day. “We put it on her tab. She got mad and said she didn’t take it. Then we told her we had her on camera.” I look up…there are cameras everywhere.

 
KMR
Rapper Snoop Dogg performing at the XRP Community Night on Tuesday May 15. He asked the crowd if they wanted to smoke pot with him and the crowd erupted in cheers. That was a yes.

The three people I am sitting with are basically conspiring against the global financial system and working to build a cashless society. They are raising millions for startups issuing new currencies.  There’s the Sheikh. There’s the Russian. And there’s a Japanese woman. She finds out I write for Forbes. She wants to take selfies with me. We will call her Tokyo Rose.  She's a fixer. She puts hungry startups in front of gambling Japanese. She claims she raised over $40 million in a year by herself, and that it was easier than she imagined, and that prior to discovering this new beat, she was a struggling actress in Los Angeles.

The Sheikh is leaning over the table, almost in a whisper. He has gold cufflings. I say, "so it's like black bags full of money flown around in private jets. Only you put it on this thing called a blockchain."  Yes, the Sheikh says about his particular project, "though I would never say it's exactly like that."

On Monday, the first day of the Coindesk-organized forum, there is a guy in tie-dyed standing on the street corner complaining about losing money in some a blockchain platform called NEM. He claims to have lost the equivalent of around $1.4 million in their cryptocurrrency. That's got to suck.

Three lamborghini’s pull up to the curb outside the Hilton, almost as if they were rubbing it in his face. One has Montana plates. The other one has Florida plates. The Montana one revs his engine curbside, marking his territory. It could be rented out by one of those people someone like the Tokyo Rose raised $20 million for, for some dating app for escorts or some such thing.

Inside, the line snakes, hundreds of people deep. A Hilton employee dressed in black tells me he has never seen a single event so crowded at the hotel.

At the event, a media company under your name makes you a man-magnet. It's best just to be nice. Some come up to you like they know you. They are from all over the world. They do everything, though most of the the things they do you have never heard of or understand why someone or some industry would want it. But that is why you are not a millionaire, and they are, or will be, I guess.

I meet a crypto fund manager from LA. He is just dressesd in a T-shirt and jeans and a gold chain. We talk off the record. He's advising a new Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange. I tell him Foxbit is here. He's never heard of them. Don't worry, I tell him. Neither have I. But they have over a 35% of Brazil's cryptocurrency exchange market, which, I was told by them, grew fold in about 12 months. "That's why we are going there," the LA money man says.

Another guy bum rushes me before going down an escalator. Inkd -- a news aggregator. He's telling me all about it.

During lunch, Telegram gets bashed. They're bleeding like $100 million a year.  Pavel Durov, the founder, is a great marketer. If he and Vladimir Putin got along, he would be a great advocate for Russians in new tech. But he is not, so Russians are often doomed to feign non-Russian citizenship, or are stuck in Russia, because as we know from headlines day in and day out, every Russian is "close to Putin".

For money makers, it is clear that the safe trade is the arbitrage trade: buy one bitcoin on one exchange that costs 2 points less than another, sell it on the more expensive exchange. Boom. Whole businesses are being built on capitalizing on the inefficiences in the market. The Japanese and Koreans, of course, are the masters at this.

Tuesday night was Ripple night, officially known as the XRP Community Night. Snoop Dogg is back stage waiting to come on and there is a cloud of smoke hovering around; a thick Indonesia fog.

Another California fund manager is talking to me. He's been here before and knows the drill. "Snoop will come out and give his blunt to people standing in the front row," he says. Then the conspiracy, "there's a Ripple investor who had a lot of money. He went to Mexico on vacation and he died. They claim suicide. I don't believe it," he says, telling me someone should look into it.

There is a split at Consensus and within the blockckhain/crypto crowd as a whole. It is between the IBM corporate types and the hoodie developers who live their life on their laptops and smart phones.  It is between the practical money makers, and the anarcho-libertarians.

We have seen this kind of battle before and we know who wins.

XRP is advertising for a borderless society. It's plastered on a cement beam by the Snoop stage at Industria on Washington Street downtown. But it's not the George Soros open borders kind. It's the tech developer kind -- the Shiekh in Dubai, the Tokyo Rose on a plane, the Russians in Palo Alto with the Americans and the Indians. And, like moving a jpg from your webrowser to your desktop, able to move money -- be it $100 or $1 million -- from a crypto bank account in Malta to one in Singapore. That's their open border.

 
KMR
Will work for NEM.

The California fund manager was right. Snoop is smoking weed again. He gives it to the crowd. The foreigners (I only assume that) are making heavy metal signs with their hands. I don't get that one. Is that a hip hop thing now?

A New Jersey PR rep for new cryptocurrency startups reminds me to watch out for these characters. “You can’t always believe these guys,” he says, though I don’t know where he got the idea that I did, or would. More than half of the time I have no clue what they are even trying to tell me. Most of the time it is me telling them what I think their product is rather than them telling me what it is. It's the only way I can understand it.

See if you can figure this one out...

There is a company presenting at Conensus called Decenturion. They were raising money to buy land and were issuing passports. A gimmick. But there is pile of passports issued already and a crowd around the tall Ukrainian woman taking the pictures. Stupid me, I got one. I'll probably be spammed from now to eternity by a 20-something year old millionaire who will sell my Gmail account to Romanian hackers. “The crypto guys are crazy," the Jersey man says.  "Some are idiot-savants. Honestly, I think they’re on acid.”

Back on the street corner outside of the Hilton, the NEM guy who lost his shirt is either passed out, or taking a nap. He looks like a poor soul on the streets of New York; just another poor man who lost everything here. Instead of the state owing him something, he thinks some crypto start up owes him restitution. Maybe NEM does. But I cannot talk to him today. There he is, lying still on the sidewalk asleep. Someone give this guy a real coin, please. And an umbrella. It looks like a hard rain is going to fall."