Latest posts of: cybersofts

Bitcoin Price Likely to Hit $5,000 If SegWit2x Support Declines: Analyst

Tuur Demeester, a prominent bitcoin investor, analyst, and editor in chief at Adamant Research, believes the bitcoin price would surpass the $5,000 mark if support towards SegWit2x declines in the next few days.

China May Resume Cryptocurrency Trading But What About SegWit2x?

Since early September, the bitcoin price has struggled to recover beyond $4,500 due to uncertainty surrounding the Chinese cryptocurrency exchange market and SegWit2x. Analysts have started to demonstrate optimism towards the possibility of the Chinese government resuming cryptocurrency trading because of the latest report of Xinhua, a state-owned news publication in China.

As local Chinese cryptocurrency news source CnLedger revealed:

“Xinhua News, the official press agency of China: Virtual currencies have become the top choices of underground economies. We shall adopt “zero-tolerance policies” towards crimes hidden underneath and take measures such as record-keeping, licensing, AML processes, real-name, limiting large transactions.”

While it is becoming more evident that the Chinese government will resume cryptocurrency trading in the future, it is still too early to predict when the government would impose a national licensing program for cryptocurrency exchanges, as reported by Xinhua.

But, uncertainty around SegWit2x is continuing to hold back the momentum of bitcoin and its short-term rally. Several business have pulled out from the SegWit2x NYA agreement and the plan of the Digital Currency Group-led consortium of companies to carry out a hard fork in November. Demeester noted that if support towards SegWit2x declines in the next few days and weeks, the bitcoin price target of $5,000 would be realistic and likely.

“The charts need to confirm, but if the Bitcoin 2X hard fork turns out to be a nothingburger, it could provide tailwinds for a rally and $5,000,” explained Demeester.

Why SegWit2x is Different From Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum Classic Forks

Earlier this week, Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin and former executive at Coinbase, the $1.6 billion Bitcoin wallet and trading platform, noted that SegWit2x, the proposal to increase the bitcoin block size by 2MB, is fundamentally different to Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum Classic because as of current, it has majority support from miners.

Thus, it will be a rare instance in which the SegWit2x hard fork will be carried out as an “upgrade” to the bitcoin protocol but will lead to a separate blockchain network instead because both blockchain networks (bitcoin and SegWit2x) have the possibility to evolve as majority chains after the fork. It is likely that exchanges such as Coinbase will adopt the BTC and Bitcoin moniker for the original bitcoin blockchain but that could also change in the future if–even though it is not likely-SegWit2x evolves into the majority chain.

Lee explained:

“Because this 2x hardfork is so contentious, Coinbase cannot handle it the same way they handled the ETC and BCH hardfork. In other words, they can’t just choose one fork and ignore the other fork. Choosing to support only one fork (whichever that is) would cause a lot of confusion for users and open them up to lawsuits. So Coinbase is forced to support both forks at the time of the hardfork and need to let the market decide which is the real Bitcoin. Now the question is which fork will retain the ‘BTC’ and ‘Bitcoin’ moniker and which will be listed as something separate. Although Coinbase signed the NYA agreement, I do not believe that this agreement binds them in any way with respect to how to name the separate forks.”

The mid-term performance of the bitcoin price relies on the SegWit2x hard fork. Already, positive indicators of growth are being demonstrated primarily due to the rapid adoption of bitcoin by Japan and South Korea, and the possibility of the Chinese government resuming cryptocurrency trading in the upcoming months.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/prominent-analyst-if-segwit2x-support-declines-bitcoin-price-likely-to-hit-5000/

For those wondering whether bitcoin is in a bubble, the crypto-converts have a answer: It's not. The price, they say, can go much higher.

The answer is not all that surprising, or new. But recently bitcoiners have latched onto a metric they contend proves their sky-high predictions are not based solely on blind belief or an ideological bent against organized governments or fear of a massive financial collapse. The metric is called the network value-to-transaction ratio, or NVT. Some have dubbed it bitcoin's P/E. And, at least in the community, it's becoming something of an industry standard valuation metric. At least two websites are devoted to showing the daily value of bitcoin's NVT, which, as of Wednesday, was 119. That's above its historical average, which in bitcoin land is about eight years of data, of 87, but well below its peak of well above 400. Bitcoin by this analysis still has room to run.
Bitcoin's Climb

The question of whether bitcoin is in a bubble has come up before, but it has been getting louder and more frequent. The price is up 353 percent this year to a recent $4,330. The currency received a boost earlier this week from news that Goldman Sachs was considering launching a cryptocurrency trading desk, and a supportive quote for Goldman's CEO. It would be the first big bank to have dedicated bitcoin traders.

A number of Wall Street analysts have put out research reports on bitcoin, and a few have issued price targets. In mid-August, a Goldman analyst said the price of bitcoin was headed to $4,827. But nearly all of that research has been done by technical analysts, who watch charts. Technical analysis is generally based on price momentum. What is going up is assumed to continue to go up, until it doesn't. Then it is predicted to plunge, which leads to unsatisfying analysis like this: John Spallanzani at GFI Group Inc. predicts that the price of bitcoin could reach $6,000 by the end of the year, unless it doesn't cross $4,500, then it's likely to plunge to $3,000. Got that?

That's what makes the NVT ratio, or the crypto P/E, more satisfying. It's based on bitcoin use, not just its wild price swings. Unfortunately, separating bitcoin's real economics from hype is harder than it seems. NVT tries to mimic the stock market's price-to-earnings ratio, which is the most widely used method for valuing share prices. Of course, creating an actual P/E for bitcoin is impossible because, unlike a company, bitcoin, like any currency, doesn't produce earnings. It does have transactions, which is not quite earnings, but it's a measure of the demand or utility of bitcoins. The theory is that as the use of bitcoin goes up, so should its value. What's more, the faster that volume of transactions rises, the higher the NVT should be, similar to how tech and higher-growth companies get higher P/E's than say utilities or low-growth companies. On Wednesday, bitcoins had a network value, that is the total value of all bitcoins, of nearly $70.2 billion, and $591 million daily in transactions, for a NVT of nearly 119. That is lower than it was in 2014 and 2011, but that still doesn't signal that bitcoins are cheap now, just that the NVT is lower than it has been.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2017-10-06/bitcoin-value-metric-doesn-t-lie-but-it-can-obfuscate

Fundstrat launches five indexes to track bitcoin and other digital currencies

Vyacheslav Prokofyev | TASS | Getty Images

A prominent Wall Street strategist who predicted bitcoin could more than quadruple in value in five years has created five indexes to track digital currencies.

Fundstrat Global Advisors' Thomas Lee said in a report Friday that the FS Crypto FX indexes are for institutional investors "to better understand the evolution and behavior of crypto-currencies."

In July, Lee, former chief equity strategist at JPMorgan Chase, boldly predicted bitcoin could be worth more than $20,000 by 2022. On Friday, it hit a high for the day of $4,417.45. He was the first major Wall Street strategist to formally present his views on bitcoin, and remains the only one.

Percentage of total cryptocurrency market capitalization by digital currency

Source: CoinMarketCap

Fundstrat's indexes track a total of 630 digital currencies, divided into five groups by market capitalization and trading volume.

Investors can then analyze the relative performance of different digital currencies within the indexes, similar to how the advance-decline line of the number of S&P 500 stocks rising versus falling on a given day can indicate the health of the market.

The advance-decline line for digital currencies peaked in June, Fundstrat technical strategist Rob Sluymer, said. "It gives us a sense that something's happening in the cryptocurrency move, that you don't have the same speculative move as you had in the first quarter, second quarter," Sluymer told CNBC in a phone interview.

The five indexes Fundstrat has created are:

FS Crypto 10 — tracks the 10 largest and most liquid digital currencies including bitcoin, ethereum, ripple, litecoin, dash, IOTA and monero.
FS Crypto 40 — tracks the top 11 to 50 digital currencies by market value and liquidity including NEM, bitconnect and Lisk.
FS Crypto 250 — tracks the top 51 to 300 cryptocurrencies by market value and liquidity including BitcoinDark, Singular DTV and FirstCoin.
FS Crypto 300 — tracks the 300 largest digital currencies by market value and liquidity.
FS Crypto Aggregate — tracks the performance of 630 digital currencies.

Fundstrat said it uses a proprietary algorithm to determine the weighting of each coin in an index, which is reconstituted every quarter. The indexes are intended for research right now, rather than supporting any investment products, Sluymer told CNBC

Some digital currency enthusiasts have already created their own indexes. In July, tech entrepreneur Roger Bryan launched the Digital Currency Index, which tracks 30 significant digital currencies. William Mougayar, a venture capitalist who organized the Token Summit in New York this May, announced Thursday he is launching the William Mougayar High Growth Cryptoassets Index, tracking a basket of 15 digital currencies.

The development of the digital currency indexes also reflects the growth of the market to a size that may be increasingly attractive to institutional investors, Fundstrat's Lee said in the report. He pointed out daily trading volume in the 10 largest digital currencies is a "surprisingly high" $3.5 billion.

In his Friday analysis, Lee also noted that even a 2 percent allocation to digital currencies would have added about 2.29 percent to total return for a traditional portfolio with 60 percent allocation to stocks and 40 percent to bonds.

Digital currencies like bitcoin have soared to record highs this year amid increased interest, particularly from institutional investors.

Bitcoin is up more than four times in value for the year, according to CoinDesk. Ethereum traded mildly higher on Friday near $302, up more than 3,000 percent for the year.

To be sure, digital currencies tend to be highly volatile and the majority have tiny market capitalizations.

Only 11 cryptocurrencies have a market capitalization above $1 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. About 345 digital currencies have a market value between $1 million and $100 million. The largest digital currency by market cap, bitcoin, has a market value of $72 billion, slightly less than that of Adobe.

The Fundstrat report also included technical analysis of some of the largest digital currencies by market cap.

For bitcoin, Sluymer doesn't expect its price to break above $4,800 to $5,000 before the end of this year. Ethereum also appears to be struggling for further gains, but the price should not fall below $206 or $195, Sluymer said.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/06/fundstrat-launches-five-indexes-to-track-bitcoin-and-other-digital-currencies.html#

According to a report from Barron’s, the dramatic price increase cryptocurrencies had this year has helped graphics card makers like AMD and Nvidia grow. Ethereum, for example, has skyrocketed over 2,000% over the last year, and that led miners to purchase AMD and Nvidia graphics processing units to mine the cryptocurrency, leading to a surge in demand.

According to Nvidia’s second quarter revenue, the website reports, the company gained a $150 million boost thanks to the demand cryptocurrency miners created. This insatiable demand led many to believe that AMD and Nvidia should be concerned in case the market took a bearish turn. However, according to Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis, the companies should be safe for now.

Although Ethereum’s price dramatically increased this year, it’s clear it won’t keep on being economically viable to the cryptocurrency’s miners to keep on buying Nvidia and AMD GPUs, although in the past their units sold out. According to Blayne Curtis, Ethereum’s Byzantium upgrade should improve mining profitability by 20-30%, but once proof-of-stake is ready, things could be different. In a note to clients, he said:

“After the Byzantium upgrade on October 17th, mining profitability should improve by 20-30% from current levels as average block time will be cut in half, only partially offset by block reward being cut from 5 Ethers to 3 Ethers (Figure 4). More importantly, artificial difficulty bombs are delayed until (estimated) 4Q18 as Proof-of-Stake is not ready yet. This means difficulty increases much more slowly, improving the trajectory of expected profits (holding all else equal) and likely sustains GPU sales for mining.”

If the cryptocurrency does move to proof-of-stake, it’s clear that GPUs won’t give miners much of an edge on the network as payments are then verified in a different way. As such, demand would decrease. However, since the upgrade was pushed back to the end of 2018, the analyst raised his price targets for both Nvidia and AMD.

Essentially, he expects both companies to keep on riding the cryptocurrency wave that has been helping them, at least for another year. Curtis’ price target for AMD went from $9 to $10, while his price target for Nvidia went from $140 to $200.

The analyst favors Nvidia due to its dominance in AI, and due to the launch of a new Volta processor that should expand the company’s lead in the GPU market, keeping its performance above that of AMD’s for the foreseeable future. He stated:

“The Crypto tailwind is hard to quantify but likely 2x the $170-180 million AMD/Nvidia identified in June with some gaming card manufacturers seeing 50-70% of current demand from mining as gaming demand is actually declining this year.

As reported by CCN, market analysts have in the past pointed out that GPU mining is an important driver for the future of these two companies. Earlier this year, both Nvidia and AMD were set to release cheaper cryptocurrency mining GPUs.

In 2017 so far, AMD is up by 17.37%, while Nvidia is up by 77.55%. The surge led CNBC’s Jim Cramer to state that investors shouldn’t buy Nvidia and AMD shares because of cryptocurrencies as, according to the commentator, the market’s growth isn’t currently sustainable.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/barclays-analyst-sees-nvidia-amd-continue-to-ride-the-cryptocurrency-wave/

Two exchanges so far have committed to listing BTG in November: Hong Kong’s (Bitexchange), and a new CFD exchange, (Bitstar)
Share any new exchange that you know are planing to implement Bitcoin Gold on their platform. thanks

Quick Disclaimer:
1. I'm not here to support any shitcoin.
2. We're all gathered here because of bitcoin, so it's hard for me to see it fading way.

Bitcoin was designed not be fully anonymous since transactions were open permanently for the public to view.
Authorities and security agencies were able to trace the bitcoin owners based metadata and transaction pattern, history and so on.

Some developers understand this issue and they go ahead to create some new altcoins which they are fully anonymous by implementing new hashing algorithms on their very new altcoins such as Dash, Monero, Zcash and Zcoin.

So why the bitcoin "hard fork" instead of updating the original bitcoin core?
Forked coins like BitcoinCash & BitcoinGold are moving from ASICs to GPU mining for faster transactions, why not BTC?
Why not update bitcoin mining algorithm to Equihash (zk-snarks) like Zcash and the next upcoming Bitcoin Gold BTG?

Instead of updating the original bitcoin core to have more secure and fast transactions with lower xt fee, yet making hard forks!
I think hard forks will soon kill the original bitcoin.

What do you think, huh? Share with us what you think. thanks

Nobody is safe from US if Greece extradites Russia’s ‘Bitcoin mastermind’ – lawyer to RT

Alexander Vinnik (C) is escorted by police officers as he arrives at a courthouse in Thessaloniki on September 29, 2017 © Sakis Mitrolidis / AFP

No person on Earth will be safe from US persecution if Greece agrees to American demands to extradite Russian entrepreneur Aleksandr Vinnik over unsubstantiated accusations of Bitcoin fraud, Timofey Musatov, Vinnik’s lawyer, told RT.

Earlier Wednesday, a court in Thessaloniki, Greece, approved a request by American authorities to extradite Vinnik, whom the US suspects of money laundering via BTC-e and other Bitcoin trading platforms.

The decision by the court was quite predictable – to extradite Aleksandr Vinnik to the US. The judge came up with a ruling, already knowing that it was not subject to actual execution. Therefore, [the decision] may be a called a political one,” Musatov said.

Vinnik’s defense team filed an appeal right after the extradition ruling was announced by the judge, with “an innocent man being held in handcuffs” as the procedure of submitting papers to the court registry was carried out, he said.

The Thessaloniki court hearing on the extradition of Vinnik to the US is scheduled for October 11, Musatov said.

According to the attorney, there are a number of viable reasons preventing Greece from fulfilling the American demands.

“Firstly, no evidence has been brought [by the US] to back up the charges – everything that’s stated there is of a hypothetical nature. Secondly, this crime is technically impossible at all. Thirdly, it’s impossible to link Aleksandr Vinnik to the incriminated crimes,” he explained to RT.

Musatov described the US push to extradite his client as not just “a political measure, but a military operation.”

“In fact, they [the US] took our citizen hostage, which is a precedent case for Europe. Such cases never happened before,” he said.

“If the decision of the American side is eventually satisfied (and Vinnik is extradited) then any citizen in the world could be arrested at any second on false accusations, in which there are no facts, but only assumptions – that he could commit a crime,” the lawyer explained.

He also dismissed American claims against European bitcoin exchange BTC-e, which has been accused of “working without a license.”

“A non-American company, which isn’t operating on US territory, is being accused for violating American legislation, which is also wrong,” Musatov said, adding that “were talking about an official, legal business.”

By going after Vinnik and BTC-e, the US is “restricting the freedom of doing business, violating the rights and freedoms of citizens, which are reflected in all the documents, on which European and American society is based: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of private life, banking secrecy, freedom of entrepreneurship.”

Vinnik, who is also wanted in Russia on fraud charges, was arrested during his vacation in Greece in July at the request of the American authorities.

The US claims the Russian national had funneled at least $4 billion in Bitcoin through various trading platforms as part of a money laundering scheme.

Vinnik ruled out voluntary extradition to the US, maintaining that he was innocent of the crimes linked to him by the US.

The entrepreneur doesn’t object to being handed over to Russia, where he is suspected of stealing 600,000 rubles ($10,500) from an unidentified entity “using the means of deception and the internet.”

Source: https://www.rt.com/news/405702-us-extradition-greece-vinnik-bitcoin/

Japan’s Biggest Bank Plans to “Overcome” Bitcoin Volatility with ‘MUFG Coin’

The president of Japan’s largest bank and financial group (MUFG) has claimed that the bank’s own digital currency, MUFG Coin, will do one better than bitcoin.

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (MUFG), Japan’s largest bank, revealed plans toward developing its own digital currency in early 2016. Dubbed “MUFG Coin”, the digital currency – based on a blockchain – is set at a fixed conversion rate of one coin equal to one Japanese yen. MUFG retail customers will be able to withdraw money from their bank accounts through an app on a smartphone which will then be converted to the digital currency. As reported by CCN in mid-2016, MUFG is also launching two-way ATM machines in spring 2018 where users will be able to withdraw the digital currency onto their smartphones or change MUFG coins into yen.

With trails beginning as early as fall 2015, the endeavor could soon result in the world’s first ever digital currency issued by a major bank.

Speaking at the Fin/Sum Week 2017, a FinTech conference in Japan, MUFG president Nobuyuki Hirano acknowledged the growing awareness and adoption of digital currencies like bitcoin in the country, soon after its classification as a legal method of payment earlier this year. For Hirano, the bank’s own digital currency will look to alleviate “issues” surrounding bitcoin, referring to the cryptocurrency’s volatility.

In quotes reported by the Nikkei, Hirano said:

(The bank plans to) overcome issues of [existing] virtual currencies and create a highly useful currency.

The report also cites that MUFG is hoping to garner support for ‘MUFG Coin’ from other banks. However, competitor and fellow ‘megabank’ Mizuho has also been testing its own digital currency, developed in partnership with IBM Japan. As reported by CCN in late 2016, Mizuho put its digital currency – where a single digital token is also equivalent to a single yen – through a successful app-centric trail in the scenario of a group dinner party. Based on blockchain technology, the tentatively titled ‘J-Coin’ also sees support from other banks ahead of an intended launch prior to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Japan, for all the notions of being a technology-forward society, still sees cash settlements amount to 70% of all transactions of value. With digital payments accounting for a measly 19%, Japanese authorities have mandated a FinTech growth strategy to double the adoption rate of digital payments over the next decade in playing catch-up to China and Korea in cashless payments.

MUFG began issuing its digital currency to employees in May on an experimental basis in May 2017, ahead of a reported commercial rollout before the end of the year.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/japans-biggest-bank-plans-digital-currency-overcome-bitcoin-volatility/

An executive for the world's largest asset manager said this week that he doesn't see the case for a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Speaking with Bloomberg on October 3, Mark Wiedman, who serves as Global Head of iShares and Index Investments for BlackRock, was asked about his views on the prospects of a cryptocurrency-tied ETF. A number of firms have attempted to launch such a product, but to date the SEC has been largely dismissive of the concept, issuing notable rejections in the public and, in other cases, prompting some bitcoin ETF backers to withdraw their efforts.

Wiedman said in the interview that he doesn't see it happening, citing other ETF-related products that the firm would encourage clients to hold "in perpetuity." In the case of bitcoin, Wiedman said that he "would not encourage a client to hold bitcoin in perpetuity."

On the question of an ETF specifically, Wiedman went on to say:

"I don’t quite get the point of a bitcoin ETF in any case, because we’re talking about...trading products that are difficult to access. If bitcoin is ever successful – and again not my thing but – I wouldn’t recommend it. But if it were [successful], why would you need an ETF to access it?"

Wiedman isn't the only BlackRock executive to comment on cryptocurrencies this week.

That same day, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink was quoted as saying that he is a "big believer" in the potential of cryptocurrencies. That said, he took aim at the speculation in the market and suggested that cryptocurrencies are being buoyed by money laundering.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/blackrock-investments-exec-dont-see-point-bitcoin-etf/

At first, bitcoin was a way to make payments without banks. Now, with more than $100 billion stashed in digital currencies, banks are debating whether and how to get in on the action.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein tweeted Tuesday that his firm is examining the cryptocurrency. Other global investment banks are looking into facilitating trades of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, according to industry consultants. Bitcoin has surged more than 300 percent this year, drawing the attention of hedge funds and wealthy individuals.

“They’re clearly receiving interest from their clients, both from retail investors and on the institutional side,” said Axel Pierron, managing director of bank consultant Opimas. “It’s highly volatile, it’s highly illiquid when you need to trade large volumes, so they see the opportunity for a new asset class which would require the capability of a broker-dealer.”

But bitcoin presents Wall Street with a conundrum: How do banks that are required by law to prevent money-laundering handle a currency that’s not issued by a government and that keeps its users anonymous?

The debate has played out in the open recently, with JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon and BlackRock Inc. CEO Larry Fink saying that bitcoin was mostly used by criminals, while Morgan Stanley chief James Gorman took a more measured stance, saying it was “more than just a fad.” On Wednesday, UBS Group AG Chairman Axel Weber, a former president of Germany’s central bank, said he was skeptical about bitcoin’s future because “it’s not secured by underlying assets.”

There’s even tension within some banks. On the same day Dimon trashed bitcoin, calling it a “fraud,” his firm’s private bank hosted a panel stocked with cryptocurrency investors.

Bitcoin Was Cool, But Its Blockchain May Be Useful: QuickTake

Handling bitcoin would invite scrutiny from every major U.S. regulator, according to Joshua Satten, director of emerging technologies at Sapient Consulting.

“From the perspective of the U.S. Treasury, do you classify it as an asset class or a currency?” Satten said. “If banks are starting to manage and hold bitcoin for their clients, you would have the OCC and the FDIC looking at how they classify the assets on their balance sheet and how they state the assets for the portfolio of a client.”
China’s Crackdown

And banks need to avoid antagonizing governments that are increasingly concerned about this area. For instance, China is cracking down by shutting cryptocurrency exchanges.

Then there’s the risk that stems from its high volatility and lack of correlation to other major assets. “What are they going to do if bitcoin drops for a given client and they’ve given that client a ton of leverage on margin, and that client only has assets in bitcoin?” Satten said.

Derivative contracts could help. CBOE Holdings Inc., the owner of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, announced in August that it plans to introduce bitcoin futures this year or next. That could help traders hedge positions. Banks are also exploring creating derivatives and using bitcoin in international trade finance to avoid exchanging currencies, Pierron said.

What isn’t in doubt is the interest from some investors. Hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz plans to start a $500 million hedge fund to invest in cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings and related companies, which would be the largest of a growing group. There are 75 funds investing in the space, according to Autonomous Research.

Bitcoin already has a toehold in mainstream finance. In July, Falcon Private Bank said it was the first Swiss bank to offer bitcoin asset management to its clients. In the U.S., both Fidelity Investments and USAA let clients view their bitcoin balances if their accounts are linked to the Coinbase exchange.
Drugs, Ransoms

The qualities that have made bitcoin the payment form of choice for drug deals and ransom demands -- it runs on a decentralized web of computers around the world that sidesteps regulators and banks -- are also what makes it hard to control by governments. Further adoption of bitcoin may require central banks and regulators to come to a consensus on how the new digital currencies fit into the existing framework.

“Can it be sanitized for the reserve banks and regulators and compliance departments of banks around the world so that you can root out the gray money, the stuff that you hear about coming from darknet markets?” Jesse Chenard, CEO of blockchain startup MonetaGo, said Tuesday at a conference held by Columbia Business School. Banks need “to have some assurances of who they’re transacting with and the provenance of that coin.”

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-05/bitcoin-s-rise-happened-in-shadows-of-finance-now-banks-want-in

Bitcoin Price Drops to $4,160, Possible Indicators of Recovery in Short-Term

Earlier today, on October 5, the cryptocurrency market and the majority of leading cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin endured a major correction, declining by over 4 percent in value. Particularly, the bitcoin price underperformed relative to other cryptocurrencies, dropping from $4,450 to $4,250 within the past three days.

On October 4, the bitcoin price sustained stability at the $4,250 margin, with upward momentum created by the authorization of Japanese cryptocurrency and bitcoin trading platforms. But, uncertainty surrounding the November SegWit2x hard fork has prevented the price of bitcoin from entering the $4,300 region, leading the bitcoin price back to $4,160.

$4,450 to $4,160 in Three Days: Factors and Indicators of Recovery

The bitcoin price has struggle to recover beyond $4,600 since early September. After plunging to $3,090 subsequent to the imposition of a nationwide ban on cryptocurrency trading platforms by the Chinese government, the bitcoin price has remained in the $4,200 region.

But, it can also be said that investors and traders are less confident in the ability of bitcoin to achieve new highs in the short-term due to the uncertainty surrounding SegWit2x and China. While the global cryptocurrency exchange market has restructured in a relatively short period of time and rendered the Chinese exchange market irrelevant within a span of 30 days, China was still a highly potent market for bitcoin.

The closure of the services of Chinese exchanges coincided with the proposal of the SegWit2x hard fork proposal in November, which will inevitably lead to a split chain once again if it occurs. The fundamental difference between the SegWit2x hard fork and previous forks such as Bitcoin Cash is that SegWit2s actually has small chance of evolving into the majority chain due to the support from bitcoin businesses and miners.

In the past few weeks, the support from busnesses towards SegWit2x has declined significantly, primarily because of the rejection of the proposal from the community. Still, major mining pools and companies are opting to carry out the hard fork.

An important factor for the short-term performance of bitcoin to actively look out for is the high probability of the Chinese government resuming cryptocurrency trading in the upcoming weeks. Earlier this week, Xinhua, a state-owned news publication, revealed that the Chinese government intends to enable strict Anti-Money Laundering (AML) policies to prevent criminal activities around cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

For the Chinese government to establish necessary Know Your Customer (KYC) and AML systems, it must bring back trading volumes from over-the-counter (OTC) markets to regulated cryptocurrency exchanges which local authorities can oversee and control.

Positive Indicators of Price Surge

So far, short-term momentum indicators such as moving average convergence divergence (MACD) demonstrate that bitcoin will likely increase in value in the short-term. More to that, positive developments in terms of scalability, adoption, and regulatory frameworks in major regions such as the US, Japan, South Korea, and China will serve as driving factors for the short and mid-term price development of bitcoin.

If more users and businesses continue to reject the SegWit2x proposal and the market sees lower probability of the proposal being forked in the next two months, the bitcoin price could surge in the upcoming weeks.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-price-drops-to-4160-possible-indicators-of-recovery-in-short-term/

The bitcoin price snapped out of its two-day slump on Thursday, climbing past $4,315 amid surging demand from Korean traders.
Bitcoin Price Spikes to $4,315

Earlier this morning, the bitcoin price began to dip, falling as low as $4,164 at 9:00 UTC. Although it quickly recovered above the $4,200 threshold, it appeared that the markets were cooling off from last week’s rally. However, the bitcoin price continued to spike leading into the afternoon hours, bringing it above the $4,300 mark to a present global average of $4,315.
bitcoin price

The rally has largely been fueled by increasing demand on South Korean bitcoin exchange Bithumb, whose BTC/KRW pair is currently trading at $4,361–a full $46 above the global average and $52 above Bitfinex’s BTC/USD, which is bitcoin’s highest-volume trading pair. Kraken’s BTC/EUR is also trading well above the average and is currently priced at $4,329. Interestingly, however, the bitcoin price is trading well below the average on Japanese bitcoin exchange bitFlyer, where BTC/JPY is valued at just $4,302.
bitcoin price

It is not immediately clear what is fueling the increased demand from Korean traders, especially considering that BTC/KRW occasionally lags behind the global average price.

However, analysts predict the bitcoin price will continue to climb in Q4, and several factors confirm this bullish outlook. Most notably, bitcoin continues to gain traction within institutional circles, as was confirmed by Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s recent revelation that he is “still thinking” about bitcoin but has not yet formed a definitive opinion. Additionally, even outspoken bitcoin skeptics like Mark Cuban have begun begun investing in bitcoin-backed assets. Finally, official Chinese press agency Xinhua hinted that the country may soften its stance toward cryptocurrency exchanges in the mid-term future, potentially opening the door to the restoration of bitcoin trading in a highly-regulated order-book environment.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-price-punches-past-4315-in-korea-fueled-rally/

The government of Dubai has revealed details of its own blockchain-based cryptocurrency, called emCash.

In major news coming out of the UAE, the government of the city of Dubai will develop and implement emCash, an encrypted blockchain-powered digital currency that will enable citizens to pay for government and non-government services alike.

The digital currency will be developed with a partnership between Emcredit, a subsidiary of Dubai Economy and UK-based blockchain startup Object Tech. Dubai Economy is the government body responsible to plan and implement the economic agenda of the emirate of Dubai.

An announcement adds that the digital currency will be based on blockchain technology that will see UAE residents use the digital currency via an emPay wallet app on their smartphones. The blockchain deployed ‘allows for shared ledgers so that control over payments is not limited to any single member in the emPay ecosystem and transactions are recorded instantaneously,” explained Emcredit Ltd CEO Muna Al Qassab.

‘emPay allows UAE residents to make varied payments, from their daily coffee and children’s school fee to utility charges and money transfers, through the near field communication (NFC) option in their phones,’ Dubai Economy explained. ‘With emCash, emPay users will have the option of a secure digital currency, and merchants receive such payments in real time without going through intermediaries’

Ali Ibrahim, deputy director general of Dubai Economy further added:

A digital currency has varied advantages – faster processing, improved delivery time, less complexity and cost, to name a few. It will change the way people live and do business in Dubai, and mark a giant leap for the city in harnessing game-changing innovations to improve ease of business and quality of life.

Dubai Goes Big on Blockchain

The government of Dubai has already partnered UK-based Object Tech for the notable endeavor of developing digital passports for travelers visiting Dubai, using blockchain technology. The wider remit by the government sees a number of similar efforts taking shape for Dubai to become the world’s first blockchain city. Indeed, the government’s ‘Blockchain Strategy’ initiative will see, among other efforts, the transfer of all government documents onto a blockchain by the year 2020.

Earlier this year, the Smart Dubai Office – a government-backed initiative led by the Crown Prince of Dubai – partnered a FInTech firm toward the development of a citywide blockchain payments system. This particular effort will see all of the existing 38 partner government entities, financial institutions and other city departments connected over a blockchain payments platform.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/emcash-dubais-first-official-state-cryptocurrency/

THESSALONIKI — A Greek court ruled Wednesday to extradite Russian cybercrime suspect Alexander Vinnik to the United States, where he is wanted in connection with a $4 billion bitcoin fraud case.

The three-member panel of judges backed the U.S. extradition request for the 37-year-old, who was arrested while on vacation in northern Greece on July 25.

Vinnik has the right to appeal to the Supreme Court, and was expected to do so later Wednesday.

Russia is also seeking Vinnik’s extradition on separate fraud charges, but no date has yet been set for that hearing.

While fighting his extradition to the U.S., Vinnik’s lawyers said he would not contest the Russian request.

U.S. authorities accuse Vinnik of running digital currency exchange BTC-e and of involvement in laundering money from criminal proceeds, charges he denies.

Speaking during Wednesday’s hearing, Vinnik repeated that he had nothing to do with the digital platform he is accused of running to commit the bitcoin fraud. He said he was merely a technician and the platform was one of his clients.

“I have nothing to do with what I am accused of,” he told the judges.

Vinnik said electronic equipment confiscated during his arrest was not related to his job, and that the laptop seized by police contained only cartoons for his children.

Source: https://nypost.com/2017/10/04/greece-to-extradite-russian-suspect-in-bitcoin-cybercrime/

Bitcoin Gold — A friendly dividend fork, or Bitcoin’s disaster recovery plan?

On October 25th, the Bitcoin blockchain is set to hard fork and create a new cryptocurrency called Bitcoin Gold (BTG). Existing private keys holding a Bitcoin balance at that time will be credited with the same amount of Bitcoin Gold on November 1st, similar to how they received Bitcoin Cash at the beginning of August. A wallet for Bitcoin Gold will not be available at the same time, however, and it appears it may be weeks before holders will be able to use the new coins.

The driving force behind Bitcoin Gold is a team of developers, miners, and other contributors led by Jack Liao, the CEO of Hong Kong mining manufacturer LightningAsic. His financial partner in the endeavor is known simply as Wubi, a Chinese mining tycoon and owner of Chinese Bitcoin news portal Jinse.com. The project’s anonymous lead developer goes by the name H4x3rotab, and several other developers and contributors can be found inside the project’s GitHub project and slack channel.

Deemed a “friendly fork” by the development team, many differences in this copy of Bitcoin make it less like Bitcoin Cash and more like a complimentary accessory to Bitcoin. H4x3rotab explained to Brave New Coin that there are “vested interests who benefit from blocking upcoming upgrades of Bitcoin by making hard forks like C-cash, D-cash, or SegWit4x and SegWit8x.”

His team’s plan to combat this ongoing attack is to have Bitcoin Gold take a similar, supporting role to Bitcoin, much like Litecoin did for the segwit upgrade when it deployed segwit first. However, unlike Litecoin, which has shorter block times and uses a mining algorithm that is different but still allows for ASICs, Bitcoin Gold “is also a real blockchain to pilot Bitcoin upgrades,” H4x3rotab says.

“Bitcoin Gold is also a real blockchain to pilot Bitcoin upgrades."

— Bitcoin Gold lead developer h4x3rotab

The project’s originator and primary financial backer says the goal of Bitcoin Gold is to compete with Bcash, Ethereum, and GPU Coins, increase mining decentralization, and protect the Bitcoin ecosystem. “We will use Segwit and try to follow Core as closely as possible,” says Liao. “Because unlike Bcash, we know that the best engineers in the industry are working on Core, so that is obviously the best technical roadmap to take Bgold safely into the future.”

The biggest change in the code that helps it be complementary to Bitcoin, is that it uses a different mining algorithm that is resistant to ASIC chips, called Equihash. Zcash uses the same mining algorithm, and just like Ethereum, these coins both require the use of GPUs instead of Bitcoin’s current ASIC mining machines. ASICs are widely regarded among bitcoin's development team and their supporters as the primary source of many of Bitcoin’s current problems, leaving Bitcoin centralized in the hands of a small number of miners.

Another advantage for the project is that it uses the Equihash algorithm instead of Bitcoin’s SHA-256. Bitcoin Gold will therefore compete with Ethereum for mining hardware, despite being closer in design to Zcash. This is noteworthy because sometime in 2018, the Ethereum project plans to switch its Proof of Work mining algorithm over to a new one based on Proof of Stake. Ethereum is currently using a large percentage of the world’s total GPU mining equipment, so the Bitcoin Gold team has designed their coin to become the prime recipient of that mining hardware.

Bitcoin Gold has also altered its difficulty adjustment time. Every two weeks, Bitcoin adjusts a ‘handicap’ setting that makes it easier or harder for miners to solve a block and get their reward. Doing so ensures that as more mining power is added, blocks continue to get mined at an average rate of one per ten minutes. This long adjustment period had been working well enough until the Bitcoin Cash fork in August, but now with the hashpower available to Bitcoin fluctuating so often, two weeks was too long for the Bitcoin Gold team. Instead, their blockchain will measure and adjust its difficulty setting with every block found.

While the Bitcoin Gold project has been a work in progress since July, it has recently taken shape as more than just another free dividend to Bitcoin holders. This particular fork is similar enough to Bitcoin to also serve as a disaster recovery backup for Bitcoin’s blockchain if the Segwit2x split in November doesn’t go well — positioning Bitcoin Gold to take over for Bitcoin if necessary. It could possibly even have its code merged with Bitcoin, thus eliminating Bitcoin’s problems that are rooted in an ASIC mining monopoly.

“Yes we will provide BIP for Bitcoin"

— Jack Liao, LightningAsic CEO

Liao welcomed the thought of Bitcoin Gold becoming Bitcoin in such circumstances, but says such a decision is “up to community choice. No individual can decide it.” Asked if he would welcome Bitcoin Gold’s code being merged into the Bitcoin core directory, he told Brave New Coin “Yes. We will provide BIP for Bitcoin.”

Bitcoin Gold still has a few hurdles to clear before it launches, however. The mining software, mining pool, and block explorer have yet to be released and although the project doesn’t have a wallet yet, it still plans to allow miners to test-mine Bitcoin Gold on a testnet within two weeks. In addition, the project has not yet added strong replay protection code to its software. This important code change ensures Bitcoin Gold users don’t accidentally spend real Bitcoin and vice versa, otherwise known as a ‘replay attack’. However, Liao has assured several different people who questioned him that “Bgold will have replay protection; friendliness to Bitcoin is paramount.”

The single largest criticism directed at the project, however, is the developer’s decision to mine the new blockchain themselves for some time after the fork — thus keeping all the mining rewards. The community is concerned this will result in an unknown amount of Bitcoin Gold being mined. Talking to supporters on the project’s slack channel, H4x3rotab says the number of blocks they plan to mine is still under deliberation and “would be at most one percent of the total supply.”

Two exchanges so far have committed to listing BTG in November: Hong Kong’s Bitexchange, and a new CFD exchange, Bitstar.

Source: https://bravenewcoin.com/news/bitcoin-gold-a-friendly-dividend-fork-or-bitcoins-disaster-recovery-plan/

I’m “Still Thinking” About Bitcoin: Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein says he is “still thinking about Bitcoin” but has not yet reached a point where he is ready to endorse or reject it.

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Goldman Sachs was considering becoming the first blue-chip Wall Street investment bank to launch a dedicated bitcoin trading operation. This report sparked many discussions in the mainstream financial sector, and this morning Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein shared his thoughts about Bitcoin on Twitter.

Blankfein, who is notorious for rarely engaging on the social media platform, used his 18th tweet to share that he is “still thinking about Bitcoin,” adding that “folks…were skeptical when paper money displaced gold.”

"Still thinking about #Bitcoin. No conclusion – not endorsing/rejecting. Know that folks also were skeptical when paper money displaced gold."

— Lloyd Blankfein (@lloydblankfein) October 3, 2017

Blankfein’s tone toward cryptocurrency is markedly different than that of J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who lambasted bitcoin as a “fraud” that is “worth nothing.” He also threatened to fire any employee caught trading bitcoin. On Tuesday, senior J.P. Morgan senior executive John Normand struck a slightly-more-conciliatory tone, calling cryptocurrency a “retail novelty” analogous to “airline miles,” but the company’s public statements have made it clear that the firm is not impressed by this innovative technology.

Several leaders within the cryptocurrency industry responded to Blankfein’s tweet, offering to provide him with an off-the-record introduction to bitcoin. Chainstone Labs CEO Bruce Fenton, for instance, stated that “The new doesn’t need to destroy the old–we can work together for a better world for all of us.”

As CCN has reported, Goldman Sachs has responded to client interest in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies by adding services such as bitcoin price technical analysis, and a company spokeswoman told the Journal that they continue to actively explore ways to serve their clients within this space.

While it remains to be seen whether Goldman Sachs will ultimately launch a bitcoin trading operation, it is likely the firm will continue to increase its activity within the crypto finance ecosystem. As a Goldman analyst commented in a note distributed to portfolio managers earlier this year, “real dollars are at work” within the industry, making it “harder for institutional investors to ignore cryptocurrencies.”

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/goldman-sachs-ceo-lloyd-blankfein-still-thinking-about-bitcoin/

Max Keiser Criticizes Mark Cuban: He’s Failed to do His Homework on Bitcoin

Earlier this week, at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in Los Angeles, billionaire investor and the owner of NBA’s Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban confirmed with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang that he has purchased several bitcoins through the Swedish stock market Nordic Nasdaq.

Cuban also provided a counterargument to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s invalid and non-factual criticism towards bitcoin, stating that the concept of intrinsic value does not exist, and that the value of most assets and currencies are based on supply and demand. He stated:

“It is interesting because there are a lot of assets which their value is just based on supply and demand. Most stocks, there is no intrinsic value because you have no true ownership rights and no voting rights. You just have the ability to buy and sell those stocks. Bitcoin is the same thing. Its value is based on supply demand. I have bought some through an ETN based on a Swedish exchange.”

Investors are Starting to Demonstrate Optimism Toward Bitcoin

For the most part, Cuban is accurate in that the value of assets and stocks rely on the market and the demand from investors. Government-issued currencies or fiat money is one example of an asset that does not solely rely on the market, because its value can be manipulated by central entities and financial authorities. Either way, for both assets that solely rely on the market, and currencies that require central entities to adjust their value, the concept of intrinsic value is inapplicable.

In evaluating Cuban’s perception and understanding of the cryptocurrency market and the structure bitcoin, it is important to acknowledge that Cuban had consistently criticized bitcoin since 2014, describing it as a bubble. In June of this year, Cuban said:

“I think it’s in a bubble. I just don’t know when or how much it corrects. When everyone is bragging about how easy they are making dollars, it equates to a bubble. I’m not questioning value. I’m questioning valuation. Anyone anywhere can buy a stock. cryptocurrency is like gold. More religion than asset. Except of course gold makes nice jewelry. Cryptocurrency not so much.”

Since then, Cuban’s viewpoint of the cryptocurrency market has changed significantly, most likely due to the increasing demand from global investors and traders for bitcoin, which simply can no longer be ignored. Last month, Peter Schiff, the CEO and chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital, who has continued to criticize bitcoin for many years, revealed that the parent company of his gold company SchiffGold, has integrated bitcoin and started to offer brokerage services for its clients.

When the price of bitcoin surpassed $1,000, many experts and investors described the cryptocurrency as a scam, a fraud, and a bubble. When the price of bitcoin surpassed $2,000, the talks around bitcoin being a fraudulent currency declined and investors like Cuban and Schiff persistently described it as a major bubble, comparing it to the Tulip Mania. When the price of bitcoin surpassed $4,000 and a market cap of $73 billion, the perception toward cryptocurrencies and bitcoin has started to change. Skeptics such as Cuban and Schiff have begun to demonstrate interest towards bitcoin and its structure.

As prominent bitcoin investor and analyst Tuur Demeester wrote after Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein demonstrated optimism toward bitcoin:

Max Keiser: Cuban Hasn’t Done his Homework

Still, bitcoin and finance experts including Max Keiser remain unsatisfied with the lack of understanding of the structure and purpose of bitcoin by investors including Cuban. Earlier todya, Keiser wrote:

“Mark Cuban’s comments on bitcoin show he’s failed to do his homework.”

But, as Demeester noted, the bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets have started to appeal to high profile and large-scale investors in the traditional technology and finance sectors. As the adoption of bitcoin as a digital currency, store of value, and safe haven asset continues to grow at a rapid rate, in the next two years, banks, financial institutions, traders, and investors will have to adopt and embrace bitcoin.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/max-keiser-criticizes-mark-cuban-hes-failed-homework-bitcoin/

The US government may follow the roadmap of Japan in regulating trading activities around cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and Ethereum.

Last week, the Japanese government and its financial regulator the Financial Services Agency (FSA) officially authorized and licensed 11 cryptocurrency exchanges including BitFlyer, the country’s largest trading platform with over 800,000 users.

In a statement, Yuzo Kano, the CEO at BitFlyer, emphasized that the establishment of practical regulations for cryptocurrency exchanges and investors by the Japanese government would allow the country’s cryptocurrency market to position itself at the epicenter of global cryptocurrency trading, development, and innovation.

“Japan has been exploding with demand for both bitcoin trading as well as virtual currency services. The FSA’s approval for bitFlyer to operate as a Registered Virtual Currency Exchange, and the agency’s openness and forward thinking regulation could not come at a better time for the blockchain space,” said Kano.

Governments Can Either Do Nothing or Create a Fair Ecosystem For Exchanges

Earlier this year, at the Blockchain NZ conference held in Auckland, New Zealand, bitcoin and security expert Andreas Antonopoulos explained that governments can either leave the cryptocurrency exchange sector as is or create a more transparent, fair, and efficient environment for businesses.

“Governments can choose to either do nothing – which is okay; make things worse for cryptocurrency trading – like what Australia did by imposing sales taxes on all cryptocurrency transactions; or they can make things easier for companies by reining in the banks and encouraging companies by creating a level playing field,” said Antonopoulos.

By authorizing and licensing cryptocurrency exchanges, the Japanese government has officially recognized cryptocurrency exchanges as regulated financial service providers, allowing the companies to fully operate as legal financial companies within the country. Already, within less than a week, the optimistic approach from Japan’s FSA in regulating cryptocurrency markets has triggered an increase in demand toward bitcoin and as a result, the daily trading volume of Japan, the largest bitcoin exchange market in the world, has risen at a rapid rate. The growing demand toward bitcoin is also evident in the price trend of bitcoin, as the bitcoin price surpassed the $4,470 mark earlier today, on October 2.

The US Government May Follow Japan in Licensing Exchanges

At an event hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, acting Comptroller of the Currency Keith Noreika told reporters that he is open toward cryptocurrency exchanges applying for bank status. Noreika also noted that he is considering the imposition of a nationwide licensing program for cryptocurrency exchanges, eliminating regional licenses such as New York’s BitLicense and releasing a unified regulatory framework for cryptocurrency trading platforms and investors.

“I wouldn’t be adverse to those people coming in and talking to the [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] about how a charter could make sense for them. But that is a long process they’d have to go through, and just because you get in the door doesn’t mean you’re going to get out the door on the other side,” said Noreika.

It could take a longer period for the US government and its financial regulators to offer unified licensing programs for cryptocurrency exchanges and bitcoin businesses. But, it is an optimistic indicator of bitcoin growth that the US, the second largest bitcoin exchange market behind Japan, is carefully considering creating a more robust and well-regulated market for investors and general consumers.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/the-us-may-follow-japan-to-license-bitcoin-and-cryptocurrency-exchanges/

Japan is poised to become the leading bitcoin market after China fucked up!

First, China banned initial coin offerings (ICOs), a red-hot new method for blockchain-based startups to raise money in a token sale; then officials ordered Chinese bitcoin exchanges like OKcoin and Huobi, some of the biggest exchanges by volume in the world, to halt trading of fiat currency (yuan) for cryptocurrency (crypto to crypto trading is still permitted).

They were crippling blows to what was previously the leading global market for bitcoin activity. And last week, South Korea followed suit in banning ICOs.

In their place, look for Japan to become the leading bitcoin market.

In April, Japan officially recognized bitcoin as legal currency and will regulate it accordingly. That boosted the price globally and boosted bitcoin trading volume on Japanese exchanges. (In May, Australia followed suit.) Meanwhile, Japanese internet giant GMO Internet is investing $3 million to launch a bitcoin mining operation next year.

China crackdown boosts Japan

As bitcoin mining (the process of uploading “blocks” of transaction records to the bitcoin blockchain, a public ledger) became more and more prohibitively expensive, requiring large machinery to compute quickly, China became the leading country for mining. (And to be clear, there has not yet been any ban on bitcoin mining in China.) Chinese investors also ramped up bitcoin buying since last year, when the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) tightened capital controls. Bitcoin is thought to be a “safe haven” for when a nation’s currency is faltering and a hedge against general market uncertainty; with the yuan falling, bitcoin took off in China. Until now.

Japan is already pulling ahead in the aftermath of China’s crackdown.

Look at the below chart of trading activity by currency in the past 30 days: the biggest slice has been bitcoin trading in the Japanese yen (45%) vs. the U.S. dollar (30%). Note also how the biggest exchanges by activity have been Coincheck and bitFlyer, both in Japan. (It helps that the yen has dipped vs the dollar in the past week.)

Bitcoin price still cruising

To be sure, the China crackdown has hardly crushed the price of bitcoin overall. After an initial drop, it has rallied: The currency is down 5% in the past 30 days, but up 16% in the past week. And it’s still up more than 600% over the past 12 months.

The coin has been so resilient as a speculative investment that Goldman Sachs is now considering launching a bitcoin trading operation. On the other hand, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon insists that bitcoin is a “fraud… worse than tulip bulbs.”

Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/japan-poised-become-next-bitcoin-market-leader-174825798.html

South Korea on Friday announced a ban on initial coin offerings (ICOs). This follows China’s ICO ban earlier this month, which preceded a short dip in value for major cryptocurrency offerings like Bitcoin (BC) and Ethereum (ETH). This time, the market barely took notice.

BC traded at $4,353 Friday, while ETH was valued at $291. At the time of this writing, both are up with BC valued $4,397, and ETH reaching $298.

According to local reports, South Korea decided to ban ICOs due to fears that cryptocurrency represents a non-productive method of financial speculation. This is a common theme among governments as they approach market regulation. Cryptocurrency is easily conflated with fiat money, but it’s anonymous, which makes it very difficult to tax.

Further revelations from South Korean officials concerning the ban indicate the country is concerned for the financial and data security of citizens who might be victimized by predatory crytpocurrency offerings. The government’s position, it appears, is ICOs are more likely to be a scam than the incumbent system.

If this sounds familiar, that’s because this is the same rhetoric people like JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon use when they declare Bitcoin to be a fraud or the market to be a bubble on the precipice of bursting. Though, your mileage may vary, when it comes to taking Dimon seriously, after all BC is his competition in more than one way.

In other cryptocurrency news out of South Korea, police report that North Korean hackers engaged in an unsuccessful “spear-phishing” campaign against several exchanges. Spear-phishing is a twist on the old fashioned “I need your password for security purposes” grift.

At least 25 employees, from four different companies, reported spear-phishing attempts and local law enforcement have confirmed at least 10 separate attacks from North Korean origin.

Between hackers failing to beat cryptocurrency security and an ICO ban being a non-event for coin value, it’s time to stop getting spooked every time a country that does business with China reports it’s going to ban ICOs or exchanges.

Cryptocurrency is supposed to be government-proof, and while that’s entirely theoretical, current evidence still seems to support that promise.

Source: https://thenextweb.com/finance/2017/10/02/cryptocurrency-ban-in-south-korea-has-virtually-no-effect-on-bitcoin/