Traditional Money on the Decline Amid Rising Interest in Digital Currencies

Paying with traditional banknotes is on the decline as interest in contactless payments and digital currencies rises.

That’s according to the co-founder of the Sohn Conference Foundation. Speaking with CNBC on the sidelines of the Sohn Conference in London, Evan Sohn said that a world without fiat money is quickly approaching, adding:

    "How far are we from a restaurant that says we only take online payment? If you eat here, you have to download this application and we only take electronic payment, no cash here, no check.

Even though most payments are still conducted with cash, Sohn thinks that we’re not far away from facing a reality that doesn’t include traditional banknotes.

These feelings similarly mimic those of venture capital investor Tim Draper, who believes that digital currencies, such as bitcoin, will replace fiat currency in five years time. At a conference in Portugal, last month, Draper explained:

    "In five years, if you try to use fiat currency they will laugh at you. Bitcoin and other cryptocurriences will be so relevant … there will be no reason to have the fiat currencies.

According to Draper, the fiat system will eventually disappear as more people turn to bitcoin and ethereum. He also believes that at some point all the digital currencies – currently numbering 1,025 – will interrelate making it simple to use them across borders compared to traditional money.

With the digital currency market increasing in value more interest will naturally turn to investing in them. At present, bitcoin’s is trading around $10,700, recovering from an earlier dip in price that saw it drop to $9,200 earlier this week, amid volatile trading. Whereas, ethereum is hovering around $461, according to CoinMarketCap.

Yet, even though bitcoin is rising in value, its acceptance at retail stores or even restaurants remains limited. Not only that, but with bitcoin’s value continuing its upward trajectory people are more than likely going to hold on to their coins rather than spend them.

One country that has embraced bitcoin payments is Japan. In May, it was reported that around 300,000 retailers and companies in the country may accept the digital currency in 2017. Earlier in the year, Japan imposed legislative changes accepting bitcoin as a legal form of payment, further highlighting bitcoin’s growing popularity in the country.

Sohn adds, though, that while he believes fiat currency will be replaced, he’s not sure if that will be by bitcoin, ethereum, Mastercard or something else, adding:

    "[But] the next step is moving away paper-based currencies.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/traditional-money-on-the-decline-amid-increasing-interest-in-digital-currencies/

Bring Instant Payments to Beat Bitcoin, ECB Director Tells Banks

A European Central Bank director has called on banks to embrace instant payments to suppress the disruptive threat posed by cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

Speaking at an event in Rome, European Central bank director Yves Mersh dismissed digital currencies and called on retail, commercial banks to embrace instant payments to counter the rise of cryptocurrencies.

In quotes reported by Reuters, Mersh said:

    "Banks need to implement instant payments as soon as possible and provide an alternative narrative to the ongoing public debate on the alleged innovation brought by virtual currency schemes.

Mersh’s remarks echo those of another central banker in Jens Wiedmann, president of Germany’s Bundesbank, who called for banks to make existing payment systems more efficient and faster with instant payments. “I’m pretty confident that this will reduce most citizens’ interest in digital currencies,” Wiedmann said earlier in June.

Mersh also revealed initiatives by the European Central Bank (ECB) to “experiment with cash on different digital technologies” while claiming not to see any scope for “adventurous applications” of new innovative financial technologies, at least, by the central bank.

“We shall also experiment with cash on different digital technologies,” Mersh reportedly stated. “Other adventurous applications of a more disruptive nature are simply not robust enough.”

The ECB director joins a number of other colleagues in the same institution to offer their take on decentralized cryptocurrencies, in recent months. ECB executive board member Benoît Cœuré revealed that the ECB and other central banks “aren’t ignoring” cryptocurrencies.  ECB vice president Vitor Constancio weighed in to add that “so-called private cryptocurrencies can never prevail” over fiat currencies.

The most telling statement, however, came from the ECB’s president in late September. “t’s not within our powers to prohibit or to do something of the nature…or to regulate bitcoin,” ECB chief Mario Draghi admitted recently, confirming that the ECB had no authority, nor the power, to prohibit decentralized cryptocurrencies.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bring-instant-payments-beat-bitcoin-ecb-director-tells-banks/

Bitcoin tend to provide freedom and more privacy to the people which banks are not anywhere close, and finally but not least, bitcoin value growth; it is growing in an exponentially, bitcoin is now more profitable than anything investment out there so far. Bitcoin gained over 1,000% increase in value in this year 2017 alone... Imagine, how bitcoin value will grow by 2018, that is why people are joining bitcoin community everyday from every corner of the Earth.   

That's a rocket science, dude!

Why not use "Xapo" the online bitcoin wallet?
Xapo wallet provide to support for all the recent bitcoin hard forks from bitcoin cash (BCH) to bitcoin gold (BTG)

Bitcoin was invented to be digital currency that is very fast, secure, decentralized, and acceptable worldwide.
It was designed to be acceptable worldwide like gold, but much better because bitcoin has a limited supply which 21 million bitcoins.
Due the fact that demand of bitcoin is higher than the supply, that is why the value of bitcoin keeps getting higher and higher everyday.

Everybody was surprised about the bitcoin price boom in the recent weeks.
In fact, very few people saw that coming and likewise the ones to make more profit from it.
Bitcoin is on another level right now and no one knows where it could stop, perhaps not any time soon!

Coinbase Ordered to Hand Over 14,000 User Accounts to the IRS

If you happen to be one of the 14,000 Coinbase users who’ve received over $20,000 through its accounts, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will soon have access to those identifying records.

After more than a year, when the case was initially filed, which attempted to prevent the IRS from gaining access to the transaction records of Coinbase users, a California federal court has ordered that the digital currency exchange turn over the accounts of some of its users.

As CCN has extensively reported on, the IRS maintained the ongoing battle with Coinbase in a bid to force it to hand over customer financial records to the tax-collecting agency. Back in 2016, it was reported that the exchange was being targeted by the IRS, with a federal judge approving a summons requiring Coinbase to disclose transaction records of bitcoiners between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2015.

Initially, the IRS requested the records of virtually all U.S. customers between those time frames, which Coinbase estimates includes over 500,000 customers.

However, in a partial victory for the digital currency exchange, the IRS significantly reduced this figure to 14,355 customers. In a blog post discussing the court’s verdict, David Farmer, director of communications at Coinbase, said:

    "Thanks to Coinbase’s efforts, more than 480,000 customers’ records were preserved from disclosure. This is a 97% reduction in the number of customers impacted by this summons.

According to the court order, for each of the more than 14,000 accounts, Coinbase is to provide the IRS with the user’s name, birth date, address, and taxpayer ID. Additionally, the tax agency requests the records of all account activity and any associated account statements.

Farmer added:

    "Although we are disappointed not to be able to entirely defeat the summons, we are proud to fight for our customers and in the result we were able to achieve as a small company against a large government agency.

According to the verdict, the order was justified based on the discrepancy that there are more Coinbase users trading bitcoin than reporting gains on their tax returns. In March, it was reported by the IRS that fewer than 1,000 U.S. citizens report their bitcoin earnings each year. At the time, an investigation by the agency found that in 2013, 807 people reported a transaction on Form 8949; in 2014 that figure was 893; and in 2015, that fell to 802.

While the partial victory is not the full victory that Coinbase were hoping for, it brings an end to a lengthy battle that has preserved the majority of the exchange’s user base.

Farmer stated:

    "In the future we hope to work with the IRS to establish a reasonable tax reporting method that makes sense for virtual currency service providers and consumers alike.


Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/coinbase-ordered-hand-14000-user-accounts-irs/

Bank of France Governor: Invest in Bitcoin ‘At Your Own Risk’

The governor of the Bank of France has become the latest to voice a warning about investing in bitcoin, stating that those who do do so at their ‘own risk.’

Speaking at a conference in Beijing on Friday, 58-year-old Francois Villeroy de Galhau, said that bitcoin was neither a currency nor a cryptocurrency, reports Fortune.

He said:

    "It is a speculative asset. Its value and extreme volatility have no economic basis, and they are nobody’s responsibility. The Bank of France reminds those investing in bitcoin that they do so entirely at their own risk.

His comments come at a time when the digital currency’s value dropped from a record high of over $11,000 to around $9,200 at the end of November, amid a major selloff and volatile trading. Despite this, though, the cryptocurrency managed to claw its way back up to $10,760, reportedly due to the announcement that the CME Group is to launch its bitcoin futures on the 18th December.

Speaking on Friday, Terry Duffy, CME Chairman and CEO, said:

    "We are pleased to bring Bitcoin futures to market after working closely with the CFTC and market participants to design a regulated offering that will provide investors with transparency, price discovery, and risk transfer capabilities.

However, regardless of the digital currency’s rising value, which is further cementing it in the mainstream, it appears that Goldman Sachs’ CEO Lloyd Blankfein has changed his turn on the digital currency. Following bitcoin’s march to $10,000 he proclaimed that it is a ‘vehicle to penetrate fraud.’ Speaking earlier this week, he stated:

    "Something that moves up and down 20 percent in a day doesn’t feel like a currency, doesn’t feel like a store of value. If it works out — and it gets more established, and it trades more like a store of value, and it doesn’t move up and down 20 percent, and there is liquidity to it — we’ll get to it.

In the past Blankfein has maintained a neutral position on bitcoin, previously saying that while he wasn’t okay with it, he was ‘open‘ to the idea of it. Now, though, in a shifting of gears Blankfein is of the opinion that the digital currency won’t work out and that it’s not for him.

His feelings mimic those that have proceeded him such as Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase CEO, who called bitcoin ‘a fraud’ in September. This was later followed up with the statement that it was ‘worth nothing.’

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bank-france-governor-invest-bitcoin-risk/

JPMorgan Strategist: Bitcoin Futures Could ‘Elevate Cryptocurrencies Into an Emerging Asset Class’

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon might consider bitcoin to be a “fraud” that “will not end well,” but one of his top strategists anticipates that the launch of bitcoin futures could turn cryptocurrencies into “an emerging asset class.”

As reported by CNBC, Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, a global markets strategist at JPMorgan, said Friday that the addition of bitcoin futures contracts to regulated trading platforms will lend credibility to cryptocurrency, making it more appealing to both institutional and retail investors.

    “The prospective launch of bitcoin futures contracts by established exchanges in particular has the potential to add legitimacy and thus increase the appeal of the cryptocurrency market to both retail and institutional investors,” Panigirtzoglou said in a report.

This prediction is no longer just a mere hypothetical. Following months of anticipation, Chicago derivatives exchange CME revealed Friday that it had received CFTC approval to begin trading bitcoin futures on December 18. In a separate announcement, fellow Chicago trading platform CBOE stated that it had filed a product certification for a bitcoin futures product with the CFTC. Nasdaq Inc. and Cantor are also reportedly planning to launch bitcoin derivatives.

Although the futures will be cash-settled — meaning that no actual bitcoins will change hands during any part of the transaction — several mainstream financial analysts believe that the presence of bitcoin-derived products on regulated exchanges will ultimately reduce the volatility of the underlying markets and help the nascent asset class to mature into a regular financial instrument.

Panigirtzoglou agrees, stating that — even though bitcoin is trading at a near-record level following a yearlong uptrend — “cryptocurrencies have the potential to grow further from here.”

    “In all, the prospective introduction of bitcoin futures has the potential to elevate cryptocurrencies to an emerging asset class,” Panigirtzoglou said. “The value of this new asset class is a function of the breadth of its acceptance as a store of wealth and as a means of payment and simply judging by other stores of wealth such as gold, cryptocurrencies have the potential to grow further from here.”

That JPMorgan would publish a report so openly favorable to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is unexpected, given the hostile stance that its chief executive has taken on bitcoin in recent months. In addition to calling it a fraud, Dimon lobbed insults at “stupid” bitcoin investors and threatened to fire any employee caught trading cryptocurrency.

Nevertheless, the firm has been quietly considering offering its clients access to bitcoin futures following their launch on CME, particularly given bitcoin’s recent explosion into the mainstream financial discussion. Dimon, however, has yet to make a public comment on the matter.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/jpmorgan-strategist-bitcoin-futures-could-elevate-cryptocurrencies-into-an-emerging-asset-class/

Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Says Bitcoin Should be ‘Outlawed’




Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning economist, has made the claim that bitcoin ‘ought to be outlawed,’ at a time when the digital currency is experiencing record highs.

In a Bloomberg Television interview, the 74-year-old American economist and professor at Colombia University, said:

    "It seems to me it ought to be outlawed. It doesn’t serve any socially useful function.

His comments come at a time when bitcoin is continuing to surpass expectations from all sides. Just yesterday, it was reported that the digital currency has passed the historic $10,000 milestone and today it went even higher to reach over $11,000 for the first time, pushing its market total to $185 billion.

Yet, despite these record achievements, Stiglitz is of the opinion that the only reason the digital currency is doing so well is down to the fact that it has the ‘potential for circumvention, lack of oversight.’

He added that:

    "It’s a bubble that’s going to give a lot of people a lot of exciting times as it rides up and then goes down.

Stiglitz has, in the past, expressed his views about the digital currency, stating in 2016 that the U.S. government had ‘shut down‘ bitcoin. At the time, he said:

    "The main use of bitcoin has been to circumvent tax authorities and regulation. I think the U.S. government did the right of thing of shutting or trying to shut it down and I think effectively…it has done that.

Interestingly, since then his outlook toward the crypto market has somewhat shifted, if only slightly. In January, while speaking at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, he said that the U.S. should phase out fiat currency and move toward the use of digital currencies.

The topic of discussion at the time focused on the issue of corruption, tax evasion and tax avoidance. According to Stiglitz, the phasing out of money and introducing digital currency has ‘benefits that outweigh the cost,’ in the long term.

Harvard professor and economist Kenneth Rogoff has also said that cash provided the ideal avenue for tax evasion, and that the time was now to reduce fiat money.

No doubt Stiglitz’s most recent comments will raise a few eyebrows, and is unlikely to go down well bitcoin enthusiasts; however, given the upward trajectory that the digital currency is currently on, it’s not likely that it will have much impact on where the market is heading.


Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BcGFXl3AkCC/?taken-by=bloombergbusiness
Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/nobel-prize-winning-economist-bitcoin-should-be-outlawed/

Well, that is a welcome development of the bitcoin community and all the bitcoiners as well. Bitcoin is finally going mainstream after all, i mean the actual mainstream for real When McDonalds implements bitcoin as a payment option, man we are going shopping. The value of bitcoin will keep getting higher and higher everyday because of such great news.  

I think when it comes investing, people are looking for the way to make more profit, right?
Bitcoin turns out to be the most profitable compare to gold because in this year alone bitcoin gained nearly 1,000% in value.
And the risk level is also reducing because lots of hedge funds, and financial institutions are now joining the bitcoin economy... Gold just outclassed!

How to ride the bitcoin rally in India

Here’s a primer on Bitcoins. Read this and a lot more, prior to investing in cryptocurrencies. One should not invest large sums of money in Bitcoins as it is a very volatile asset class. Cryptocurrencies are not issued or backed by banks or governments. Absence of a regulator makes legal recourse almost non-existent in cryptocurrency investments.

What is a Bitcoin?
It’s not a coin, but a code or a virtual token that can be freely transferred from one user to another through a secured network. Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency.

Where do you buy in India?
There are about 11 trading platforms in India to buy Bitcoins. Those include Unocoin, Zebpay, Coinsecure, Coinmama, LocalBitcoins, Bitcoin ATMs.

Is it too expensive to buy?
Globally, the cryptocurrency surged past $11,000 to hit a record high on Wednesday. In rupee terms, it recently touched Rs 8.6 lakh per unit.

So, are Bitcoins a rich man’s asset class?
You can buy even a fraction of a unit with a minimum of Rs 1,000. Consider Bitcoin as a rupee coin now; it can be fragmented into smaller bits (like paisa in a rupee). So you can buy even 0.2 or 0.3 ‘bit’ of a Bitcoin as well. Bitcoins can be fragmented far more times than fiat currencies.

Where can Bitcoins be used in India?
As of now, there aren’t many avenues to use Bitcoins in India. But ecommerce players such as Flipkart, Amazon and MakeMyTrip run voucher programmes for people using Bitcoin exchanges, but they do not accept payment in Bitcoins. Many a time, exchanges convert Bitcoin into normal currency.

How many Bitcoins are traded in India currently?
Bitcoin trading volumes could be in the range of Rs 200–250 crore every month.

What other cryptocurrencies are in play apart from Bitcoins?
Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash and Ripple are quite popular among cryptocurrency users. The prices of many of these digital currencies have gone up in tandem with Bitcoins.

How many people are using cryptocurrencies globally?
More than three million people are estimated to be actively using cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin. (Source: Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance).

How ‘powerful’ is Bitcoin in terms of purchasing power?
In 2013, a US-based cryptocurrency enthusiast bought a Tesla Model S paying just under 92 Bitcoins. The real currency value of Model S was over $100,000 at the time.

Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/how-to-ride-the-bitcoin-rally-in-india/articleshow/61873468.cms

Bitcoin Is an Emerging Systemic Risk

Preston Byrne is an independent consultant and founder of Tomram LLC and the former chief operating officer of Monax Industries, an enterprise blockchain software vendor.

Recent news stories make it pretty clear that the new people in bitcoin have no idea what they’ve gotten themselves into.

Bitcoin is the Gom Jabbar of high finance. Cypherpunks who have populated the space to date hold the line because they do not care about money, and therefore do not fear.

These new people are different. The only reason they are here is the money.

They reek of fear.

When we consider that money from fresh, naive amateurs is flowing into the sector at a rate of millions of people per month, we should also understand that these amateurs are more susceptible to the animal spirits than their stoic, abrasive, less-socially-adept, battle-hardened forebears.

They will be prone to cut and run.

As such, a shock to the system, such as an exchange being taken down in a necessary and overdue enforcement action, could lead to a loss in confidence in the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem as a whole and a stampede for the exits the likes of which bitcoin has not seen to date.

In a recent post on my own blog, I pointed out that bitcoin, by setting itself up as a sort of decentralized bank, was also creating an unreasonable expectation to its new "depositors" that they will always be able to redeem their assets at par, given a wild mismatch between its $200 billion "market cap" and new investor money – which is clearly well shy of that number.

This expectation is dangerous as it means, in the event of a liquidity crunch, people will behave not as people necessarily behave when there’s a sharp sell-off in a stock, but more along the lines of when their bank’s solvency is being called into question. Remember bank runs?

As bitcoin qua decentralized bank is running a fractional reserve with a chronic shortage of dollars, a shock therefore has the potential to not just drive the price of bitcoin down a little bit, but also lead to a major liquidity crunch and abject panic.
Credit comes to crypto

In my post, I wrote:

    "In the current environment, there are a number of ways such a shock could arise. To begin with, I seriously question the intermediaries’ and traders’ ability to top up their USD holdings quickly enough to catch up with their depositors’ and counterparties’ paper gains in bitcoin. There is also the possibility that, in the event of a correction or an enforcement action, a risk-averse bank to a major service provider withdraws either credit or banking services to that provider, compromising that service provider’s ability to convert BTC into dollars, provide margin lending, or even to hold fiat deposits at all."

I had a hunch people were lending into the sector. I just didn't know the degree of alacrity with which this lending was taking place.

Fortunately, I was reading CoinDesk this afternoon and the reporting from the Consensus:Invest conference delivered:

    "Dan Matuszewski, the head of trading at Circle Internet Financial, said during a morning panel that there is a ‘real strong need’ for the ability to borrow in this market.

    It would not only facilitate short positions but also provide working capital for trading desks to make markets, he said.

    During his talk, [Max] Boonen of B2C2 acknowledged the irony of the situation given that bitcoin was born as a reaction to the 2008 credit crisis.

    ‘Bitcoin enthusiasts really, really do not like credit,’ he said. But, he added, ‘for better or for worse, credit is an important part of a functioning and liquid financial market…’

    …Even before the institutional money started flowing in, he noted, 'by necessity, credit did creep back into bitcoin and crypto markets in general,' with the major exchanges offering leverage to the early retail investors."

So someone's lending directly into the market, we just don't know who, nor how much, nor where the liquidity for these lines of credit is ultimately coming from.

Leverage sneaks into the ecosystem in other ways, too; for example, Coinbase accepts credit cards, which is basically margin trading for grandmas, without collateral and with 20%+ rates of annual interest.

Given that rather a lot of people seem to be interested in buying bitcoin in this way, and that platform is racking up a few hundred thousand new users a week, there’s undoubtedly systemic risk building up there.

Then there’s Bitfinex and Tether, which I do not intend to discuss save to share this passage from The New York Times:

    "One persistent online critic, going by the screen name Bitfinex’ed, has written several very detailed essays on Medium arguing that Bitfinex appears to be creating Tether coins out of thin air and then using them to buy Bitcoin and push the price up."

Long story short, these neophyte masters of the universe, too young (or too busy working as a dev in California) to know what a financial crisis feels like, and too dilettantish to find out, are successfully (a) getting buyers to leverage to buy coins, in some cases probably up to the hilt, or (b) convincing institutions to lend into this titanic, one-way, unhedged, $300 billion insanity trade, and trying to convince more of them to do so in greater amounts.
This could become serious

There are two not necessarily mutually exclusive ways people are responding to the Great Bubble of 2017: anticipatory schadenfreude on the one hand, abject horror on the other.

So far the response from mainstream finance has been the former, with The Wall Street Journal’s treatment of the subject being more or less a long-form joke.

But while there is something ineffably twee about a retiree trying to show how they’re hip and "down with the kids" thanks to their position in "big coin," the fact that they are doing so raises very serious questions about bubble-driven risk (and attendant negative externalities to society) which merits closer attention. As of right now, the notional value of the cryptocurrency sector is roughly a third the size of Long-Term Capital Management at its peak.

Cryptocurrency is, admittedly, much smaller than the subprime bubble that popped a decade ago, which was roughly two orders of magnitude larger than bitcoin today. But bitcoin has shown, on several occasions, a persistent ability to defy detractors like me to grow an order of magnitude in less than 12 months; if it does so again, it will be three times larger than LTCM. LTCM on its own very nearly ruined the world in 1998.

If we aren’t careful, this is the kind of market where a financial institution can get in serious trouble extremely quickly (imagine the damage a character like Nick Leeson or Kweku Adoboli could have done trading Bitcoin contracts – which are coming soon to both the CME and, reportedly, Nasdaq).

We know that cryptocurrency marketing is writing checks the technology can’t cash; most of these systems are unusable as backbones for global finance. It is a matter of time before the punter on the street becomes as disillusioned as I, an irascible blockchain software entrepreneur, have become. It’s just that none of the newcomers know what they’re doing, and most of the old-timers who have figured this out are keeping their mouths shut out of self-interest.

Put another way, this is a disaster waiting to happen. Fortunately for us, 2008 is not ancient history, and the fact that Bitcoin is a classic, manic bubble is so transparently obvious that it should be impossible for thinking people to deal with it otherwise. There are no excuses for not doing right by the societies and taxpayers who had to bail out the financial services industry last time around.
Just say no

So, banks, shadow banks, and anyone else of systemic importance, I implore you: for the good of everyone, by which I mean for the good of the human species, keep this garbage, and anything connected to it, the hell off of your balance sheets.

For once, please have the good sense to not load up on frothy bubble-driven financial assets, which you have done hitherto with such predictable regularity that the European Central Bank can model it and write a 52-page paper on the subject which is actually fun to read.

That way, when regulators finally bring this party to the bitter end it so richly deserves, the rest of the ship won’t go down with it.


Source: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-emerging-systemic-risk/

A Rollercoaster: Bitcoin Price Dips Below $9,100, Recovers to $10,300

Yesterday, on November 30, the bitcoin price dipped below $9,100, dropping to $9,000 at one point, as a massive sell-off occurred on Bitfinex, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume.

Within hours, the price of bitcoin recovered back to $10,200, surging by more than $1,200.




Major Corrections Expected

Throughout 2017, the bitcoin price continuously achieved new all-time highs without major corrections apart from the November 12 Bitcoin-Bitcoin Cash crash. As such, many analysts stated that a major correction is due, given that the bitcoin price has sustained upward momentum across various rallies without large sell-offs
 
BitGo engineer Jameson Lopp stated that a 50 percent correction or decline in the price of bitcoin would only set it two months back, emphasizing the exponential growth rate of bitcoin throughout 2017.

Hence, it is expected that minor and major price corrections will occur along the way, especially in the short-term.

However, on November 29, CCN reported that $6.8 trillion stock exchange Nasdaq, the second largest stock market in the world behind the New York Stock Exchange, has revealed its plans to enable bitcoin futures trading within the first half of 2018.

“According to sources familiar with the Nasdaq’s plans for a bitcoin futures exchange launch, Nasdaq’s bitcoin futures and contracts will be listed on Nasdaq Futures. Through that, investors in the traditional finance sector and stock brokerages will be able to engage in bitcoin trading,” according to the report.

Optimism Around Bitcoin Futures, Will Bitcoin Initiate Another Rally by End of 2017

Given the entrance of Nasdaq and other large-scale financial institutions such as Cantor into the bitcoin market, the global bitcoin market will demonstrate significant optimism around the mid-term growth trend of bitcoin.

Earlier this month, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated that $10 billion in institutional money is expected to flow into the bitcoin market by the end of 2017. That number could drastically increase with Nasdaq’s integration of bitcoin futures in the first half of 2018, as Nasdaq would allow the vast majority of investors in the traditional finance sector to engage in bitcoin trading and invest in the new asset class.

In an interview with Wall Street Journal, Shawn Matthews, chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., noted that bitcoin is a new asset class that is here to stay, sharing a similar sentiment as CME chairman Leo Melamed.

“The asset class is not going away. If you look at the next level, it will be the institutions coming in and being larger participants in the marketplace, especially as liquidity gets better,” said Matthews.

Billionaire investor Mike Novogratz and Bitfury vice chairman George Kikvadze explained that the majority of investors and exchanges in the traditional finance sector are considering a move into the bitcoin market.

“Every research department of every regulated exchange is saying, ‘Can we do this?. The majority of costs associated with that are marketing. If people want to trade this thing, why wouldn’t you?. This is a gift from the heavens,” John D’Agostino, a former Nymex executive, added.

In consideration of the bitcoin market’s optimism surrounding Nasdaq’s bitcoin futures launch and the entrance of billions of dollars in institutional money into the bitcoin market, the price of bitcoin will likely increase throughout December.


Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-price-dips-below-9100-recovers-to-10300-within-hours/

Bitcoin Price Fights for $10,000 as Volatility Triggers Record Trading Volume

The bitcoin price has been on a mid-week rollercoaster, and that volatility has rippled throughout the markets. Trading volume has surged to record levels and coins across the spectrum have taken steep dives from their all-time highs — although most weekly charts remain in positive territory.


Source: CoinMarketCap

At one point, combined daily volume reached $25 billion — a new all-time high — and 24-hour volume remained above the $20 billion mark throughout a day of manic trading.

Within the past 24 hours alone, the total cryptocurrency market cap has fluctuated between a high of $345.8 billion and a low of $289 billion. That’s a spread of nearly $57 billion — and it occurred within a seven-hour period. To provide some context, the crypto market cap did not even reach a total valuation of $57 billion until May 16.
 

Source: CoinMarketCap

At the time of writing, the crypto market cap was valued at $298.6 billion, representing a single-day decline of almost $35 billion.


Bitcoin Price Fights for $10,000

Led by insatiable demand by Asian traders, the bitcoin price crossed the historic $10,000 milestone for the first time on Monday. Since then, the bitcoin markets have been characterized by unprecedented volatility. This volatility was heightened by persistent outages on bitcoin exchanges located throughout the world. Within a five-hour period, the global average bitcoin price traded as high as $11,517 and as low as $9,601, and it has spent Thursday morning fighting to hold above the $10,000 mark.


Bitcoin Price Chart | Source: CoinMarketCap

At the time of writing, bitcoin was losing that battle. Bitcoin is currently trading at a global average of $9,974, which translates into a $166.7 billion market cap. This represents a 24-hour decline of 10 percent, but — importantly — a seven-day increase of 22 percent.


Ethereum Price Attains $500 Before Crash

As bitcoin goes, so go the markets: this principle has certainly been true this week. Numerous cryptocurrencies have ridden on bitcoin’s coattails to attain new all-time highs, and most of those coins have seen significant setbacks since the markets began to retrace.

One such cryptocurrency was ethereum. On Wednesday, the ethereum price broke through $500 for the first time, ultimately rising as high as $522 before the markets began to slide. At present, the ethereum price is trading at $434, providing the second largest cryptocurrency with a $41.7 billion market cap.
 

Ethereum Price Chart | Source: CoinMarketCap


Altcoins Post Double-Digit Declines

The altcoins markets tell a similar story. Nine of the 10 largest cryptocurrencies posted single-day declines in excess of 10 percent; however, nine of the top 10 coins have also made positive movement for the week.
 

Source: CoinMarketCap

In this latter case, the lone outlier is bitcoin cash. At $1,374, the bitcoin cash price is down nearly 14 percent for the day and 10 percent for the week.


Seven-Day Bitcoin Cash Price Chart | Source: CoinMarketCap

Ripple, perhaps bolstered by the announcement that TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington is launching a $100 million XRP-denominated crypto hedge fund, managed to eek out a small gain for the week despite yesterday’s dip.

Dash, meanwhile, was the lone top 10 cryptocurrency to resist the market’s downward pressure and post a 24-hour advance. The dash price is currently valued at $775, representing a 24-hour gain of five percent and a seven-day surge of 37 percent.

Bitcoin gold — fresh off the revelation that its official wallet repository was hacked last week — fell by 14 percent, while litecoin plunged 17 percent after reaching the historic $100 mark. IOTA, monero, and cardano posted similarly-disappointing single-day performances, although each continues to boast an impressive weekly chart.


Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-price-fights-for-10000-as-volatility-brings-record-trading-volume/

Billion-dollar Crypto Club Swells to 16 Big Hitters as Bitcoin Price Tests $10,000

The global average bitcoin price briefly broached the $10,000 mark on Tuesday, largely due to significant premiums on high-volume South Korean exchanges. Meanwhile, the number of cryptocurrencies in the billion-dollar club swelled to a new all-time high — and more are poised to achieve that status soon.


Source: CoinMarketCap

Altogether, it was another record-setting day for the industry, and the total cryptocurrency market cap rose to $310 billion, a new high-water mark that represents a nearly $300 billion increase since the beginning of the year.


Source: CoinMarketCap


Global Bitcoin Price Pierces $10,000

The global average bitcoin price briefly entered five-figure territory this morning, and CoinMarketCap reports that it rose as high as $10,106 before pulling back below this threshold. None of Bitcoin’s USD trading pairs have reached $10,000, although BTC/USD reached a new high of $9,941 on Bitfinex. However, demand has ratcheted up on Korean exchanges, and this demand has driven the bitcoin price as high as  $11,000 on Bithumb, enabling the global bitcoin price to temporarily edge past $10,000. At present, bitcoin is priced at a global average of $9,985, which translates into a $166.8 billion market cap.
 

Bitcoin Price Chart | Source: CoinMarketCap


Ethereum Price Posts Minor Decline

Ethereum has been challenging a psychologically-significant milestone of its own — the $500 threshold, to be exact. Thus far, it has not been able to punch through this barrier, despite rising as high as $493 Monday morning. On Tuesday, ethereum posted a two percent decline, bringing the second-largest cryptocurrency to a present value of $472 and market cap of $45.3 billion.
 

Ethereum Price Chart | Source: CoinMarketCap


Billion-Dollar Club Swells to 16

The altcoin markets made a net decline of a few hundred million dollars on Tuesday, but a significant number of mid-cap coins posted notable advances, as evidenced by the growing number of cryptocurrencies that have market caps that exceed $1 billion


Source: CoinMarketCap

It was a disappointing day for bitcoin forks, and both bitcoin cash and bitcoin gold declined by at least three percent. Ripple, meanwhile, rose by almost seven percent, carrying its market cap back across the $10 billion mark. The litecoin price rose by approximately one percent and is currently trading at $92, but the dash price fell by a similar margin to a present value of $621.
ethereum classic price


Ethereum Classic Price Chart | Source: CoinMarketCap

Despite this mediocre performance toward the top of the charts, several mid-cap cryptocurrencies posted remarkable gains. Ethereum classic led the way with a 43 percent surge, raising the ETC price to a new all-time high of $34. IOTA and monero each made a double-digit advance, raising their prices to $1.04 and $185, respectively.

The advance continued outside of the top 10, with 13th-ranked cardano and 16th-ranked stellar climbing by 25 percent and 20 percent, respectively, while the majority of other coins and tokens in this tier posted moderate gains, too.
 

Source: CoinMarketCap

Following today’s movement, stellar crossed the $1 billion market cap threshold, raising the total number of “crypto unicorns” to 16 — a new all-time high. OmiseGO, zcash, and lisk all currently have market caps of at least $925 million, meaning that the billion-dollar club appears poised to grow to 19 within the near future.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/billion-dollar-club-swells-to-16-big-hitters-as-bitcoin-price-tests-10000/

$10,000 Bitcoin Price is “Cheap, Highly Undervalued”, Says Gatecoin Executive

Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Gatecoin’s marketing chief has stated that bitcoin price, despite these boom times, is “undervalued.”

In a televised interview with Bloomberg today, Gatecoin’s marketing chief and head of business development for Asia Pacific Thomas Glucksmann was led onto the subject of bitcoin’s “fair value”, at a time when prices are nearing $10,000 – a remarkable 10x gain since the turn of the year. The bitcoin executive professed the market remains relatively “illogical” compared to traditional financial assets where price predictions are analyzed over usual valuation metrics.

Asked if it was “impossible” to determine bitcoin’s fair value, Glucksmann acknowledged and replied:

    "I would still argue that it is highly, highly undervalued. If you look at the long-term potential of the technology in the next 10, 20, 30 years, $10,000 is cheap in my opinion.

While bitcoin is now seen in the mainstream as a store of value among retail investors, it remains a peer-to-peer decentralized electronic cryptocurrency, a fact Glucksmann is keen to point out even if or when the cryptocurrency is valued at a million dollars. “Bitcoin is divisible up to 8 decimal places,” the Gatecoin executive told the interviewer, referring to the smallest fraction of a Bitcoin, also known as Satoshis (0.00000001 BTC – a hundredth of a millionth BTC).

He stated:

    "Even if one bitcoin is worth a $1,000,000, you could still have $1 USD worth of bitcoin which you could still transact peer-to-peer. It’s important to look at bitcoin in that way with that longer-term view".

At press time, data from CoinmarketCap reveals bitcoin price trading at $9,927 and topping $165 billion in the total market value of all 16.7 million mined bitcoins.



Gatecoin, which lays claim to being the world’s first exchange to list Ethereum’s ether tokens in mid-2015, suffered major operational disruption in recent months after Hong Kong banks abruptly froze its accounts, forcing the exchange to suspend HKD and USD deposits from customers at a time when the exchange had ‘tripled’ its customer base following bitcoin’s price gains.  The exchange found respite with new banking partners in Europe and is scheduled to resume bank transfers in December.

The exchange also added support for Litecoin this month, enabling users to buy and sell the alternative cryptocurrency with bitcoin, ether and the Euro. In his remarks today, Glucksmann underlined Litecoin as an “underrated cryptocurrency” that shares many similarities with bitcoin without suffering the same “scaling issues” that has often plagued its development and community.

Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/10000-bitcoin-price-cheap-highly-undervalued-says-gatecoin-executive/

World’s Largest Bitcoin Market Japan has “Loose” Regulations, Doesn’t Bode Well: Analyst

Koji Higashi, the co-founder of IndieSquare and Japanese cryptocurrency researcher, revealed Japan, the largest bitcoin market in the world in terms of daily trading volume, has friendly and loose regulations for bitcoin businesses and investors.

But, while the Japanese government has legalized bitcoin as a currency and a legitimate payment method, other minor alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) are receiving the same treatment as bitcoin. Higashi emphasized that the Japanese government’s consumer protection is questionable, given that general consumers could consider small-scale altcoins as alternatives to bitcoin.

“Overall, the regulation in Japan turned out to be much looser and has given more freedom to exchanges while the effectiveness of consumer protection is questionable. The industry is feeling more top-down, like the financial sector, now and technical development is not catching up with speculative demand at all,” wrote Higashi.

Essentially, Higashi believes that the freedom the Japanese government has provided to the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange market and trading platforms have led Japanese consumers to consider any cryptocurrency listed on regulated exchanges as legitimate alternatives to bitcoin.

“Here’s an example to give you an idea of how loose the definition of official cryptocurrencies are. Pepecash received the same categorization as Bitcoin as a ‘first class’ cryptocurrency, one that can be legally traded and sold on licensed exchanges,” Higashi added.

The implementation of relatively unknown and small-scale altcoins like Pepecash, which is not listed on CoinMarketCap’s top 100 cryptocurrencies list, could mislead investors to believe that Pepecash is a major cryptocurrency and a competitor to bitcoin, when it really is not.


Isn’t Freedom Good For the Market?

In the contrary, freedom provided by the Japanese government to local cryptocurrency exchanges could be beneficial for the Japanese bitcoin and cryptocurrency industries, as it allows the market and consumers to decide whether certain cryptocurrencies are legitimate.

Several markets like the US have imposed strict Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) policies along with other regulations to an extent in which many businesses were forced to shut down their services. For instance, the state of New York’s Bitlicense forced out ShapeShift, Bitfinex, and Kraken, three leading cryptocurrency exchanges, due to their inefficient and unfriendly regulatory frameworks.

Like initial coin offering (ICO) tokens, the global cryptocurrency market itself has to mature to a point wherein investors can make sound decisions to differentiate quick cash grabs to legitimate projects, altcoins, and crypto-tokens.

The imposition of strict regulations on a rapidly growing market such as bitcoin could slow down the exponential rate of the entire cryptocurrency market. In that sense, the Japanese government’s friendly and flexible regulations for cryptocurrency businesses and investors are favorable.

While it could be argued that the Japanese market lacks regulations for investor protection as Higashi emphasized, it is important to acknowledge that Japan is the largest bitcoin market in the world, precisely because of its practical regulations. Japan also remains as the only market to have imposed a national license for cryptocurrency exchanges, allowing the market to operate with stability.


Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/analyst-largest-bitcoin-market-japan-has-loose-regulations-not-entirely-positive/

Coinbase Becomes #1 Trending Apple App Amid Record-Setting Bitcoin Price Rally

In the latest sign that bitcoin is becoming a mainstream financial asset, the iOS app for bitcoin exchange Coinbase is now the top trending search in the App Store.

Last week, friends and families across the U.S. gathered together to celebrate Thanksgiving. As in previous years, the subject of bitcoin was likely broached around many tables. However, unlike in previous years, the subject was not necessarily introduced by the resident bitcoin investor, and — perhaps for the first time — the other people at the table truly listened when he or she explained what has fueled the bitcoin price’s dramatic year-to-date increase.

Bitcoin was trading at a record level when the holiday arrived, but it has left that mark in the dust in the intervening days. Since Thanksgiving, the bitcoin price has risen approximately $1,600, perhaps in part due to new investors entering the market following those dinner table conversations. The effect of this grassroots bitcoin evangelism is impossible to measure, but this theory is supported by the fact that Coinbase has become the top trending search in the iOS App Store.

This phenomenon was discovered by a Reddit user, who posted a screenshot on the popular social media platform. As the picture below demonstrates, searches for Coinbase outpaced those for both reading app Hooked and home automation platform Wemo. Coinbase even beat out Hallmark Movies Now, the favorite streaming app of cinephiles who prefer their that their holiday movies be seasoned with a heavy dollop of kitsch.


Source: -NeverSoft / Reddit

As CCN has reported, Coinbase has experienced incredible growth throughout the year. Widely considered to be the easiest way to onboard new users into the cryptocurrency ecosystem — at least while Square Cash’s bitcoin pilot program remains in beta — the company has been registering more than one million new users per month during the latter half of the year.

That said, the expansion has not come without growing pains. Customer complaints have surged, and the exchange website has gone offline on multiple occasions during periods of intense volatility. However, the company has made efforts to improve the customer experience, as evidenced by the addition of phone support and instant cryptocurrency purchases — features that have undoubtedly contributed to its swelling user base over the past quarter.


Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/coinbase-becomes-1-trending-apple-app-amid-record-setting-bitcoin-price-rally/