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Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-06-11] BTC Price: 9321.78, BTC RSI: 47.83 Gold Price: 1732.00, Gold RSI: 54.31 Oil Price: 36.34, Oil RSI: 57.82 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Hong Kong’s First Regulator-Approved Bitcoin Fund Targets $100M Raise: Hong Kong’s securities regulator has approved the jurisdiction’s first-ever bitcoin index fund designed for institutional investors. Arrano Capital, the blockchain investment arm of asset management firm Venture Smart Asia, has now met the licensing requirements from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) allowing it to begin dealing in cryptocurrency, according to areport by Bloombergon Sunday. Within the first 12 months, Arrano is hoping to surpass $100 million in total assets under management through a fund trackingbitcoinprices. The fund marks the first of its kind to have passed regulatory approval on the basis that it solely targets institutional investors. To market to the general public, the fund would have to become an “authorized fund”under Hong Kong rules. Arrano getting the green light potentially paves the way for similar funds to begin filing for licenses in the blockchain-friendly region. Related:Bitcoin Volatility at 3-Month Low as Market Awaits Big Price Move Avaneesh Acquilla, chief investment officer at Arrano Capital, said that while the firm had received approvals for a bitcoin fund, he expected opportunities for other products in the future. “It shows there are clear guidelines for managers of cryptocurrency funds in Hong Kong,” Acquilla told CoinDesk. “While the process is lengthy and detailed as you would expect, we have shown that it is possible to meet these standards.” See also:Hong Kong to Consider Additional FATF-Style Regulations for Crypto Exchanges “Our next steps are to launch this fund successfully and comply with all of the relevant regulations,” he said. Related:Crypto Long & Short: The Battle of the Yields Anindex fundis a type of mutual fund that was first championed by business magnate Jack Bogle. This type of fund offers a portfolio developed to match or track the components of a financial market index such as the S&P 500. That differs from an exchange-traded fund (ETF), which is an investment fund operating on a stock exchange that provides a stake in assets such as bonds and stocks. Arrano has a second product planned for launch later in 2020 that would be an actively managed fund dealing with a basket of digital assets, according to Bloomberg. • Bram Cohen: ‘Getting Rich Is a Terrible Metric of Success’ • Market Wrap: Crypto Mining Stock Hut 8 Jumps on Unusually High Trading Volume || Bitcoin to Rally after Halving?: However, if you ask the crypto market participants if this is the scenario they expected as halving approaches, the majority will say they expected more. Of course, with less than 5 days left before halving, a lot can happen around the crypto sphere, but on the fundamental level, everyone understands that if the recent growth of the bitcoin is the optimism maximum, then digital currencies are not doing well at the moment. However, it is unlikely that it will be that bad for the first cryptocurrency, even if the price starts to decline significantly after halving, and even if it does not recover for a long time. The last two times, halving ended with growth due to the unshakable faith of the crypto market participants in the Great Bitcoin Mission as a project that opposes the entire traditional financial system. When faith became too strong, institutional investors were allowed to enter the market. Crypto-enthusiasts were waiting for a new impetus from institutional money. But futures became the starting point of crypto winter, hitting the hopes of retail investors in the crypto. Why did the popularization of Bitcoin in the financial world lead to a drop in price? It was a sharp growth in the price of Bitcoin that led to the coin being perceived as a danger that needs to be contained. A growth above $10,000 and the scale of the crypto fever made Bitcoin “visible” to regulators. The basic essence of the Bitcoin is its survival mechanism: the increasing difficulty of mining, decreasing profitability, and limited emission. By the way, a similar combination could also help the entire global economy. Previously, this combination led to an increase in the price of an asset. However, now we can see that the growth of bitcoin is facing with quite serious difficulties. Why? The market composition has changed and the trading volume has grown significantly. What is the actual (not theoretical) price growth limit for Bitcoin? Not $100K and not even $50K or $25K. It is likely that the basic principles of survival will change with the new conditions: the growth of trading volumes limits price growth, shifting Bitcoin from the category of speculation around the price to the investment of the financial system of the future. Story continues Since the beginning of the year, trading volumes in the Bitcoin network have increased by 140% and are well above the 2017 levels. It is likely that Satoshi realized that an asset cannot develop with a non-stop price growth. True crypto-enthusiasts should not be afraid of a decline in the price of bitcoin. Rising mining difficulty, lower premiums, stabilized prices, higher trading volumes, and a loss of regulatory interest – this formula may well work to turn a bitcoin into a real superstructure over a financial system despite current or the future price slumps. by Alex Kuptsikevich, the FxPro senior financial analyst This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: GOLD Bullish Leg Closed Above W H3 Camarilla Pivot Silver Price Daily Forecast – Silver Mixed After U.S. Non Farm Payrolls Report Gold Daily News: Friday, May 8 U.S. Dollar Index (DX) Futures Technical Analysis – Major Downside Target is 99.245 – 98.130 Retracement Zone Crude Oil Price Update – Trade Through $22.94 Confirms Closing Price Reversal Top Right Now, the Bullish S&P 500 Ride Goes On No Matter What || Latest Bitcoin price and analysis (BTC to USD): Bitcoin experienced one of its most volatile weekends of price action in recent times as it suffered a gruelling sell-off from the $10,000 level of resistance. It is currently trading at around $8,700 less than nine hours before the highly-anticipated Bitcoin halving event. Rewards for miners will be slashed from 12.5BTC per block to 6.25BTC per block in an event that happens roughly every four years, or every 210,000 blocks. While this has historically been a bullish event for Bitcoin there is the potential of an initial move to the downside as miners attempt to liquidate profits before margins get reduced. From a technical perspective Bitcoin is desperately close to undergoing an exponential moving average golden cross on the daily chart, with the 50 EMA teetering on the brink of breaking above the 200 EMA. This would pave the way towards an extended rally to the upside, with the lower $9,000 range coming into play. However, a rejection from $8,830 or $9,150 during the time of the halving will come as a shock to bullish traders and investors, with it having the potential to drive price all the way down to a monthly low of $7,800. Typically bullish events like the Bitcoin halving are often tainted by the “buy the rumour, sell the news” style of trading, which will see traders profit on the euphoria leading up to the event while taking profits just before or during when it takes place. If Bitcoin can break back above $9,400 with conviction before today’s daily candle close it will almost certainly be primed for a re-test of the $10,000 level before the week is over. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . Bitcoin pricing Current live BTC pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Bitcoin price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: US Dollar – BTCtoUSD Story continues British Pound Sterling – BTCtoGBP Japanese Yen – BTCtoJPY Euro – BTCtoEUR Australian Dollar – BTCtoAUD Russian Rouble – BTCtoRUB About Bitcoin In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered. On 31st October 2008, a paper was published called “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. This was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. To date, no one knows who this person, or people, are. The paper outlined a method of using a P2P network for electronic transactions without “relying on trust”. On January 3 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence. Nakamoto mined block number “0” (or the “genesis block”), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins. More BTC news and information If you want to find out more information about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Here’s an article to get you started. As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. || The Crypto Community Needs to Stand Up and Fight Racism: Robert Greenfield is the CEO ofEmerging Impact, a benefit corporation that supports NGOs and government agencies to leverage blockchain technology in social protection. Previously he was head of Social Impact & Diversity Programming at ConsenSys. Here we are again. Another unarmed, defenseless black man killed by the police. Another wave of protests against police brutality and systemic racism. Another wave of actionless, apologetic cries, willfully ignorant excuses and political re-directs about the real problem. Since the 2012 murder of Trayvon Martin, we have been in a cycle of videoed black murder porn, criminal immunity and corporate cowardice. In America today,being black can get you killed fordriving, jogging, sleeping, yelling, parking, baby-sitting, sitting in a van, selling CDs, and even eating ice cream in your own house. See also: Preston Byrne –Bitcoin Doesn’t Take Sides: Why Apolitical Solutions Are the Internet’s Future This is not because black people are more “prone to criminality.”Rather, criminal activity is a complex socioeconomic phenomenon proven to beclosely related to poverty. The rate of violence is actuallyhigher among poor, urban whites. And “black-on-black crime” is not out of control. Mostvictimsof crime personally know their assailants, and while this is a truth across racial boundaries, no one ever talks about “white-on-white crime.” Related:The Crypto Community Needs to Stand Up and Fight Racism It is because black Americans are2.5x more likely than whites to be killedby police. It is because the U.S. has been built on institutionalized racism, usingslavery to build the global economyto institute oppressive policing policies via the“War on Drugs” and “War on Crime.”It is because major companies, government institutions, and influential people rarely speak up and actively support systemic change. These protests are combatting the unarmed murder of innocent black men, women, and children. We are asking to be able to live – not asking to vote Democrat or Republican. We are asking for equality, equity and justice. Responses to the #BlackLivesMatter protests have followed a familiar refrain. Some have taken the “diversity is already solved” position. Yet,in a “Post-Obama” era, black employees make up only 3% of Google, 6% of Apple and3.8%of Facebook’s respective workforces. The blockchain and crypto ecosystem inherited a lack of diversity from legacy tech, from hiring to funding founders of color, and highlighting black and brown voices in conferences and press. Even so, there has been a market-wide unwillingness to publish diversity reports and open investor networks. What about the distribution of cryptocurrency ownership? Though there have been few studies, we do know that the majorityBitcoinandEthereumnodes operate in regions like the U.S. and Europe. If we look at crypto exchanges, many are quick to equate international trading volumes as a mark for success in diversity, obscuring the way large holders could easily be responsible for an entire country’s cryptocurrency trading volume, given the nascent state of the market. The crypto community is conveniently selective about what aspects of society it wants to change. Even more disturbing reactions to the current #BlackLivesMatter movement have come from well-followed individuals in the space, like Nick Szabo, who hasreadily retweeted positionsin the victim-blaming camp for George Floyd’s fate. Worse, Szabo has retweeted threads claiming black intellectual inferiority, such as thisone. The crypto community is conveniently selective about what aspects of society it wants to change. Many libertarians were drawn to the ideas of disintermediating government and financial centers of power. In the face of the current president of the U.S. using tear gas against protesters and sending in unmarked security officers in riot gear, many of these same libertarians have been very quiet about thisprofound display of fascist overreach. The truth is most major blockchain companies and crypto personalities refuse to publicly stand in solidarity against police brutality and racism, fearing the retribution of white supremacist trolls more than valuing the lives of their black colleagues, friends and employees. The issue of “black lives matter” is treated as a subjective and politically divisive topic, rather than awell-documentedandwell-researchedfact of American history. It shouldn’t be controversial that efforts to improve diversity and inclusion in corporate executive teams can result inup to 30% more profitability. At this point, even executives at the highest levels ofCitigroupandJP Morgan Chase, organizations that Bitcoin and Ethereum maximalists incessantly demonize, have come out in solidarity. If they can risk that much business, I think crypto startups, many that do not serve white supremacist consumers, can take a risk too. As someone passionate about blockchain technology, it has been increasingly difficult to ignore the cultural hypocrisy in our ecosystem. Crypto community members of color have had a constant internal battle as to whether or not we should even address this issue – many of us choosing to leave blockchain altogether instead. I have personally wondered: Why isn’t the work of people of color highlighted at conferences and in the press? Why don’t we see more people like myself at these crypto startups? Why is there so much nepotism masquerading as meritocratic hires under the guise of ‘we only hire those that are qualified’? Why is it that there are so few women of color in the women in blockchain events and leadership talks? What would happen if I spoke out? Would there be retribution? Would I be labeled as the ‘angry black guy’ of crypto? Am I selling out by not bringing these issues to the forefront? Many of you can identify with these questions, each representing a small, frustrating moment pre-empting a larger, more important question, “why does nobody seem to care?” Since the 2012 lynching of Trayvon Martin, we have been in a cycle of videoed black murder porn, criminal immunity and corporate cowardice. We have heard nothing from the Ethereum Foundation, which continues to espouse the desire to support global adoption and operate under a subtractive mindset. How can you say ‘fight for change’ at Devcon but not take that same action yourselves? Why has the Hypeledger community via theLinux Foundation taken a stand, but you cannot? We have heard nothing from the Libra Association, whose mission it is to provide people everywhere access to affordable financial services. Are positively impacting people of color not a part of your goal for financial inclusion? We have heard nothing from the Web3 Foundation, whose mission it is to nurture cutting-edge applications for decentralized web software protocols. Are we to believe that all the applications needed to make real change in the world won’t need essential contributions from people of color? We have heard little from Coinbase (not just Brian Armstrong), whose mission it is to build an open financial system and increase the amount of economic freedom in the world. Are black and brown lives not a part of that world they seek to change? We have heard nothing from the Maker Foundation, a direct beneficiary of increased awareness of the world’s first cryptocurrency-backed cash assistance program (Project Unblocked Cash, co-led by Sandra Hart and myself leveraged DAI in communities in the Asia Pacific). In fact, we’ve heard and seen the opposite. I have seen crypto layoffs nearly eliminate the entire black employee community of multiple organizations. I have seen and heard of disastrous “all hands meetings” at many of the world’s largest crypto companies where executive teams fumble over the decision to simply tweet “Black Lives Matter” and ignore the voices of even their white employees pleading to make a change. I have heard that employees have had to fight company leadership just to put out a post on social media in support, even through the veil ofperformance activism. This is not to say that I don’t greatly admire each of these organizations; it is to say that I admire them so much I expect them to do better. If the crypto community wants to truly use this moment to change, it needs to recognize the problem first and pledge actionable ways to correct it. Thus, I have created a #CryptoForChange Pledge to motivate our community to stand in solidarity against police brutality and systemic racism. Leading blockchain organizations have already agreed to take a stand, includingAlthea,Gitcoin,cLabs (Celo),The Giving Block,Sempo,AmentumandStorj– many of them led by people of color. In fact, The Giving Block has gone one step further and waived all monthly subscription fees for civil rights related nonprofits as a part of the#CryptoForChange campaign. The pledge, which you can findhere, is a promise to the community that you will take substantive action against police brutality and systemic racism as a member of the crypto-community. Actions must be taken in the next 90 days for companies and 30 days for individuals. I know we all want the best for our communities, and we’d love for blockchain technology to serve as a mass-adopted tool to realize such change. To do so, we need to actually put in the work. • What Fintech Can Learn From Elon Musk and SpaceX • How a Fatal Weakness Forced Libra to Capitulate || Bitcoin Rises Back to $8.8K Even as US Stock Futures Drop: Bitcoin is up again Friday as losses are seen in U.S. stock futures. Following a rise of 23% over the last two days, though, the rally looks overstretched and the gains may be short-lived. At press time, the biggest cryptocurrency by market value is trading near $8,860, representing a 2.8 percent gain on the day, according to CoinDesk’sBitcoin Price Index. Prices have risen from lows near $8,600 seen earlier today. Related:Crypto Long & Short: Why Bitcoin’s Big Rally Is a Sign of Its Economic Resilience Meanwhile, the futures tied to the S&P 500, Wall Street’s equity index, are down over 2 percent. Renewed growth concerns seem to beweighing onthe futures market. Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, warned of a possible second-quarter loss late Thursday, and Apple declined to give a financial forecast for the first time in a decade. Read more:First Mover: Tezos Led Crypto Market With Twice Bitcoin’s Gains in April Further, fears of fresh U.S.-China trade wargripped marketsin Asia after President Trump threatened China with retaliatory tariffs over the coronavirus outbreak. Trump accused China of unleashing the virus into the world due to some awful mistake, andeven suggestedthe release could have been intentional. Related:Bitcoin Miners Usually Create 6 Blocks per Hour. They Just Banged Out 16 All this economical gloom may, though, bodes well for bitcoin, as some analysts consider bitcoin a safe haven like gold. That belief hasbeen reinforcedby the cryptocurrency’s stellar recovery rally from the March 13 low of $3,867. Bitcoin is alsowidely expectedto maintain its upward trajectory in the days leading up to the miningreward halving, due on May 12. Key on-chain metrics also suggest investor confidence in the ongoing rally. Bothsmallandlargeinvestors, popularly known as “whales,” seem to be accumulating coins ahead of the halving. Exchange balances declined to 2,357,741 BTC on Thursday to hit the lowest level since May 27, according to data provided by blockchain intelligence firmGlassnode. The metric, which suggests a holding mentality among investors, has dropped by over 10 percent since March 13. “Overall, on-chain fundamentals are recovering to pre-crash levels,”notedGlassnode in its weekly report. While the odds appear stacked in favor of stronger gains toward $10,000 in the short term, the technical charts are signaling overbought conditions and scope for price pullback. Bitcoin formed a bearish “pin bar” candle on Thursday, which comprises a long upper shadow and small red body with little or no lower shadow. The pattern is indicative of rejection, or bull failure, at higher prices. The pin bar is also considered an early sign of bearish trend reversal if it appears after a notable price rally, as is the case here. Alongside that, the 14-day relative strength index (RSI) is reporting overbought conditions with an above-70 reading. Read more:Bitcoin Whale Addresses Hit Highest Number Since August 2019 As a result, a drop to the 200-day average at $8,000 may be seen before a potential rally into five figures. “People must be careful of the price pullback. Bitcoin may revisit the $8,000-$8,500 for a while, before making another attempt at $10,000 in the run-up to the halving,” said Chris Thomas, head of digital assets at Swissquote Bank. Thursday’s high of $9,485 is the level to beat for the bulls. Chart analysts consider a failed pin bar as a powerful bullish signal. So, if prices find acceptance above $9,485 on Friday, a stronger rally to levels above $10,000 may be seen. Disclosure:The author holds no cryptocurrency at the time of writing. • Market Wrap: May Opens With Equities Lower While Bitcoin Steady at $8.7K • Interest in Gold-Backed Token Trading Grows Amid Supply Disruptions || Bullishness Building in Bitcoin Options Market, Data Suggests: Bitfinex-incubated DeversiFi claims its re-released decentralized exchange (DEX) is receiving interest from institutions, thanks to a privacy layer that can protect their trading strategies from rivals. A DeversiFi spokesperson told CoinDesk that the firm had already had a “significant pipeline of funds” interested in integrating with the exchange following the implementation of its new software implementation, DeversiFi 2.0, which went live on Wednesday. Although they wouldn’t divulge particular details, the spokesperson said: “We have interest from 70 funds and large traders and have 18 funds ready to trade on DeversiFi 2.0 at or around launch.” The smallest of these funds had around $1 million in assets under management (AUM), while some of the bigger clients had AUMs “well into the tens of millions.” A spokesperson said some institutional clients saw DeversiFI 2.0 “as a key bridge to crossing from the centralized to the decentralized trading space.” See also: Retail Investors Are Buying the Bitcoin Institutions Are Selling, Traders Say With a team based in London, DeversiFi started out as Ethfinex, an exchange incubated by Bitfinex back in 2017. It spun out and rebranded in August 2019. It is non-custodial, allowing users to maintain control of their funds. Related: Bitfinex Spin-Out Says Funds Are Lining Up for Its New Decentralized Exchange The 2.0 implementation is designed to provide users with scalability and privacy. Using the zk-STARK s privacy layer, it allows anyone to trade anonymously and also increases trade settlement capacity by up to 9,000 transactions per second. DeversiFI says one of the main issues traders have with conventional DEXs is most are completely public. Third parties can watch others trade from their computers. That’s a conundrum for professional traders who worry such openness endangers their proprietary trading strategies, as they can be copied or undercut by rivals. Story continues Although it describes itself as a DEX, one crucial difference with DeversiFi is that trades are executed off-chain, so that third-parties can’t monitor the trading behaviors of individual users. Once executed, these trades are batched together into groups and settled onchain, once every hour, so there’s “no way traders can be copied,” a spokesperson said. See also: Kyber Network Activity Surges as DEX Plans Switch to Staking Model in Q2 Ross Middleton, DeversiFi’s CFO, said DeversiFi 2.0 gave users the usability and convenience of a centralized exchange – speed, liquidity, and low fees – while removing risks, including account freezes, trade rollbacks, and hacks. ‘We see DeversiFi as being the first sufficiently fast and scalable non-custodial alternative to centralized exchanges,” said Lev Livnev, a formal verification researcher at DappHub and a partner at Symbolic Capital Partners, which is set to begin using DeversiFi 2.0 “Knowing that the matching engine can execute a large number of trades, even in peak times, is crucial for professional traders, which will allow DeversiFi to build deep liquidity and serve as a real alternative to the larger exchanges,” he added. Related Stories EU’s Europol: Bitcoin Privacy Wallet ‘Not Looking Good’ For Law Enforcement Bloomberg Analysts Predict $20K Bitcoin This Year || Latest Ethereum price and analysis (ETH to USD): As the financial world focuses on the capitulation of the price of oil cryptocurrency speculators are weighing up the potential of a possible Ethereum breakout. The world’s second largest cryptocurrency, which has a market cap of $19 billion, is currently trading at $170.78 after surging by more than 13% in the past week. It momentarily broke above the crucial daily 200 moving average on April 18 before falling back below two days later. It is now battling it out over over the 200MA ahead of this evening’s daily candle close, with a breakout being confirmed if it closes back above $181.25. However, it’s worth noting that a rejection from the 200MA could lead towards a transition into a bearish phase in the market, with targets emerging at $151.89 and $133.59. It’s been a typically volatile year for Ethereum and the entire cryptocurrency asset class. ETH is 33.57% up against its USD trading pair since the turn of the year despite being 41.96% down from its February high of $290. Forecasts for the remainder of the year remain uncertain due to the amount of factors affecting price action, particularly the impact of Coronavirus and the Bitcoin halving. Reports from the UK claim that the peak of coronavirus’ first wave is effectively over, which could cause a market recovery as people begin to go back to work. The Bitcoin halving is also thought to have a bullish impact on price action as it will cause a reduction in supply, a stark contrast to what is happening with oil where a lack of demand has driven supply to unsustainable levels. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . About Ethereum Ethereum was launched by Vitalik Buterin on July 30 2015. He was a researcher and programmer working on Bitcoin Magazine and he initially wrote a whitepaper in 2013 describing Ethereum. Buterin had proposed that Bitcoin needed a scripting language. He decided to develop a new platform with a more general scripting language when he couldn’t get buy-in to his proposal. Story continues More Ethereum news and information If you want to find out more information about Ethereum or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Please check the below article: https://coinrivet.com/ethereum-adopts-erc-1155-as-an-official-standard/ As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. You may be interested in our range of cryptocurrency guides along with the latest cryptocurrency news . Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. || US Stocks Lower on Trump’s Threat to Impose New Tariffs on China; Amazon Plunge Weighs on Tech Shares: The major U.S. stock indexes are expected to open lower on Friday as investors took a breather after the latest round of big tech earnings reports and after Wall Street posted its best month in decades. Grim U.S. economic data and President Donald Trump’s threat to impose new tariffs on China over the coronavirus crisis also weighed on prices. In the cash market on Thursday, the benchmarkS&P 500 Indexsettled at 2912.43, down 27.08 or -0.92%. The blue chipDow Jones Industrial Averagefinished at 24345.72, down 288.14 or -1.17% and the technology-basedNASDAQ Compositeclosed at 8889.25, down 25.16 or -0.28%. Shortly before the cash market opening on Friday, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures indicated an opening drop of more than 450 points. S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100 futures also pointed to opening declines for the two indexes. The major U.S. stock indexes posted their biggest monthly surge in 30 years in April, with the S&P 500 Index gaining 12.7% while the Dow advanced 11.1%. It was the third-biggest monthly gain for the S&P 500 since World War II. The NASDAQ Composite closed 15.5% higher for April, logging in its biggest one-month gain since June 2000. Late Thursday, Apple reported quarterly earnings that topped analyst expectations, but its revenue growth remained flat on a year-over-year basis. Also, the company did not offer guidance for the quarter ending in June amid uncertainty over the coronavirus outbreak. The tech giant’s stock traded more than 2% lower in after-hours trading. Amazon, another tech giant, saw its shares tumble 4.8% in after-hours trading after announcing plans to spend all its second-quarter profits on its coronavirus response. The e-commerce behemoth also posted a first-quarter profit that missed analyst expectations. In April, Apple posted a 15.3% gain, while Amazon jumped nearly 27%. Global equity markets are being pressured by comments from President Donald Trump. On Thursday, Trump threatened new tariffs on Beijing as his administration crafts retaliatory measures over the origin of the pandemic which has swept through the U.S. and crippled its economy, Reuters said. Trump triggered a wave of negative sentiment on Thursday when he said he was concerned about China’s role in the origin and spread of the novel coronavirus. Trump also suggested that the long-awaited phase one trade deal signed between the two nations in January was now of secondary importance. Meanwhile, two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a range of options against China were under discussion, but cautioned that efforts were in the early stages. Additionally, the Washington Post, citing two people with knowledge of internal discussions, reported on Thursday that some officials had discussed the idea of canceling some of the massive U.S. debt held by China as a way to strike at Beijing for perceived shortfalls in its candidness on the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump’s top economic adviser denied the report. “The full faith and credit of U.S. debt obligations is sacrosanct. Period. Full stop,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Reuters. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • GBP/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – British Pound Struggles Towards the End of the Week • U.S. Stocks Set To Open Lower As Trump Threatens New Tarrifs On China • Silver Price Daily Forecast – Silver Settles Below $15.00 • EUR/USD Price Forecast – Euro Running Into Resistance • US Open – Tariffs, Earnings, Oil, Gold, Bitcoin • GBP/USD Weekly Price Forecast – The British Pound Continues to Find Resistance Above || HyperBlock Provides Update on Bitcoin Halving Impact on Operations: Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 13, 2020) - HyperBlock Inc. (CSE: HYPR) ("HyperBlock" or the "Company") today provided an operational update to shareholders related to the risks associated with the recent Bitcoin algorithm halving — which occurred on May 11, 2020 — and has significantly reduced Bitcoin mining compensation rewards earned by the Company. The Company confirmed that the algorithm halving, which occurs approximately every four years to create scarcity by limiting the number of Bitcoin in circulation, has cut the Company's reward for mining each block by half. The Company cautions that this has resulted in making its operations uneconomical, based on current Bitcoin pricing, overall network hashrate, and the Company's ability to continue to access reliable, affordable power. Electricity Provider Intends to Terminate Contract The Company also announced that its electricity provider, Energy Keepers, Inc., has indicated that it intends to terminate its long-term power contract with the Company effective as of May 14, 2020. The Company is exploring power supply alternatives and cautions that an inability to secure power would require it to pause or cease mining operations. The Company and its Board continue to explore strategic and financing options and will continue to provide further updates. About HyperBlock Inc. HyperBlock is a crypto-asset enterprise operating a North American cryptocurrency datacenter and providing complementary product offerings, which include cryptocurrency mining, Mining-as-a-Service (MAAS), server hosting, and server hardware sales, depending on market conditions. HyperBlock operates sustainably, purchasing electricity for its flagship US datacenter from a hydro-electricity generator — and employs advanced recycling technology to minimize environmental impact. Learn more atwww.hyperblock.co. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information and Future-Orientated Financial Information Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements under applicable securities law. Any statements that are contained in this news release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "plan", "believe", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expect", "intend", "forecast" and similar expressions. The forward-looking information contained in this press release includes, but is not limited to, statements related to: the profitability and growth of the Company as a result of the recent deployment of Bitmain servers; the future status of the Company's current power contracts; the impacts of the Company's liquidity, debt maturities, and trade payables; and the potential revocation of the cease trade orders on the Company's securities. These forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and are based on assumptions and estimates of management, which management considers reasonable, based on information available on the date hereof. Such assumptions may be incorrect. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include: general economic, market and business conditions will be consistent with expectations, fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; risks relating to the Company's ability to execute its business strategy and the benefits realizable therefrom; the ability to retain personnel to execute the Company's business plans and strategies; the ability to retain auditors to perform an audit of the Company's financial statements; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on the ability of the Company to operate its business, including securities laws applicable to the Company; the speculative nature of cryptocurrency mining and blockchain operations including but not limited to cryptocurrency prices, block rewards, and mining difficulties; and those factors described under the heading "Risks Factors" in the Company's listing statement dated July 10, 2018 and the risks described in the Company's Management's Discussion & Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2018 dated December 12, 2019, each of which is available on the Company's issuer profile on SEDAR. There may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information, or the material factors or assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information, will prove to be accurate. The Company does not undertake any obligations to release publicly any revisions for updating any voluntary forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities law. All forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. For more information: Debra Quinninvestors@hyperblock.co1-800-613-4721 Ronald R. Spoehel, Bryan Reyhaniinvestors@hyperblock.co To view the source version of this press release, please visithttps://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/55803 || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -20/05/20: Bitcoin rose by 0.56% on Tuesday. Following on from a 0.48% gain on Monday, Bitcoin ended the day at $9,769.4. A bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning intraday low $9,457.8. Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $9,461.87 before rallying to a late morning intraday high $9,878.0. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $9,955.87, Bitcoin slid back to $9,550 levels and into the red. Finding support late in the day, however, Bitcoin broke back through to $9,700 levels to end the day in the green. The near-term bearish trend, formed at late June 2019’s swing hi $13,764.0, remained firmly intact, reaffirmed by the March swing lo $4,000. For the bulls, Bitcoin would need to break out from the 62% FIB of $10,034 to form a near-term bullish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Tuesday. Binance Coin, Cardano’s ADA, and Tezos rallied by 3.61%, 4.75%, and by 3.19% to lead the way. Bitcoin Cash ABC (+0.18%), Litecoin (+0.97%), and Tron’s TRX (+2.29%) also found support on the day. Bitcoin Cash SV (-1.59%), EOS (-0.28%), Ethereum (+0.07%), Monero’s XMR (-0.10%), Ripples XRP (-0.19%), and Stellar’s Lumen (0.64%) struggled, however. In the current week, the crypto total market cap rose to a Monday low $268.43bn before falling to a Tuesday low $257.06bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $264.80bn. Bitcoin’s dominance rose from a Monday low 67.61% to a Tuesday high 67.96% before easing back. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 67.89%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.01% to $9,768.6. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning low $9,753.5 before striking a high $9,791.3. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was also a mixed start to the day. Bitcoin Cash ABC (-0.62%), Cardano’s ADA (-0.30%), Ethereum (-0.09%), and Tron’s TRX (-1.22%) saw red early on. Story continues Bitcoin Cash SV led the rest of the majors, however, with a 1.28% gain. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to avoid sub-$9,700 levels to bring the first major resistance level at $9,945.67 into play. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from Tuesday’s high $9,878.0. Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level would likely limit any upside. In the event of an extended crypto rally, the 62% FIB of $10,034 and the second major resistance level at $10,121.93 would likely come into play. Failure to avoid sub-$9,700 levels could see Bitcoin fall deep into the red. A fall back through to sub-$9,700 levels would bring the first major support level at $9,525.47 into play. Barring an extended crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of the second major support level at $9,281.53. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Gold, Silver, Miners Teater On The Brink Of A Breakout European Equities: Futures See Red as COVID-19 News and a Murky Outlook Weigh Silver Price Forecast – Silver Markets Rally Again Litecoin, Stellar’s Lumen, and Tron’s TRX – Daily Analysis – 20/05/20 To Believe or Not to Believe in Virus Vaccine Hopes? US Stock Market Overview – Stocks Close Lower Led Down By Energy [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 9480.84, 9475.28, 9386.79, 9450.70, 9538.02, 9480.25, 9411.84, 9288.02, 9332.34, 9303.63
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-09-22] BTC Price: 3630.70, BTC RSI: 42.72 Gold Price: 1293.30, Gold RSI: 43.21 Oil Price: 50.66, Oil RSI: 63.04 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Gold Prices Shoot Higher on Higher Risk: The gold price shot higher yesterday, once again on the back of increased global risks due to North Korea. They have begun to make it a habit over the last couple of months or so to perform one kind of missile testing or the other and this is causing the global risks and tension to increase and makes the gold prices jump by around $20 each time and causes the stock markets to crash. No one even knows how strong and reliable these tests are but one can certainly say that they are doing enough to rile up the US and their neighbours in the Asian region including South Korea and Japan. With China supplying a lot of good to North Korea, it has also become an indirect battle between the US and China and this is making matters worse. This is why the fact that funds are flocking to safe havens like gold and silver is no surprise and we saw more of the same yesterday. The holiday in the US tended to take away a lot of liquidity from the markets but this did not stop the gold prices from shooting through 1330 and it managed to stay near the highs of its range for the whole of the day yesterday. Progress in the prices might be a little difficult from here on as the risks are bound to fade within a day or two and normalcy is likely to be restored during that time. When that happens, the stock markets begin to recover and the funds begin to flow from gold to the stock markets. So, it remains to be seen how long the gains in the gold prices are likely to hold in the short term. Oil prices traded within a tight range for the whole of yesterday, primarily due to the lack of liquidity in the markets as the US had a holiday yesterday. But the prices continued to cling on to their highs and close the day near the highs which should augur well for the bulls. We continue to be convinced about the bullishness in the oil prices and view every deep correction in the prices as an opportunity to add to the longs in the oil contracts. We believe that the oil prices would make steady progress towards $50 and beyond. Silver prices also followed the gold prices higher and continued to stick on to their highs on the back of rise in global risks and are now within striking distance of their first target of $18 but it is likely to be a challenge to break through this region for now. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • The Jury is Out on Bitcoin • Gold Prices Shoot Higher on Higher Risk • Nervous Investors Shed Risk and Bought Gold • Daily Economic Calendar, September 5, 2017 • Market Snapshot – Asian News Triggers Todays Moves • Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Other Cryptocurrencies Tumble after China Bans ICO’s || Bitcoin exchange BTCChina says to stop trading, sparking further slide: By Brenda Goh and Jemima Kelly BEIJING/SHANGHAI/LONDON (Reuters) - Chinese bitcoin exchange BTCChina said on Thursday that it would stop all trading from Sept. 30, setting off a further slide in the value of the cryptocurrency that left it over 30 percent away from the record highs it hit earlier in the month. China has boomed as a cryptocurrency trading location in recent years, as investors and speculators flocked to domestic exchanges that formerly allowed users to conduct trades for free, boosting demand. But that has prompted regulators in the country to crack down on the cryptocurrency sector, in a bid to stamp out potential financial risks as consumers pile into a highly risky and speculative market that has seen unprecedented growth this year. Just hours after BTCChina announced its closure, Chinese news outlet Yicai reported that the country plans to shut down all bitcoin exchanges by the end of September, citing financial sources in Shanghai. BTCChina said its decision was based on a Sept. 4 directive from Chinese authorities that expressed concern over investment risks involved in cryptocurrencies and ordered a ban on so-called initial coin offerings, or ICOs - the practice of creating and selling digital currencies or tokens to investors to finance start-up projects. That ban, as well as warnings by regulators in other countries, has driven fears of a wider crackdown and prompted a sell-off that has helped wipe almost $60 billion off the total value of cryptocurrencies since they hit record highs at the start of the month, according to industry website Coinmarketcap. "The Chinese ban is causing a panic in the market as mixed messages and lack of clarity has turned sentiment negative," said Charles Hayter, founder of data analysis site Cryptocompare. BTCChina, one of China's largest bitcoin trading platforms, which also runs an international exchange out of Hong Kong, will stop registration of new users from Thursday, it said on its official microblog. Story continues "We will stop all trades on the digital trading platform starting Sept. 30," it said. Its co-founder, Bobby Lee, told Reuters the move would not affect trading on the BTCC international exchange, however. The price of bitcoin tumbled particularly sharply on BTCChina after the news. By 1233 GMT, it was down 18 percent on the exchange, at 20,510 yuan. On U.S. exchange Bitstamp, it slid as much as 10 percent to a five-week low of $3,426.92, having hit a record high of nearly $5,000 on Sept. 2. PANIC SPREADS Panic also spread to other cryptocurrencies, with bitcoin's main rival ether - sometimes called ethereum - also down around 10 percent, according to Coinmarketcap. Reuters and other media had reported this week, citing sources, that China planned to further ban exchanges that allowed virtual currency trading but the regulator has yet to make an announcement. Spokeswomen for OkCoin and Huobi, BTCChina's main rivals in China, declined to say whether they would announce similar moves. Huobi said it had not received any clear directives from regulators to do so. Investors in China contributed up to 2.6 billion yuan (£297.43 million), or $397 million, worth of cryptocurrencies through initial coin offerings in January-June, state-run media have said, citing data from the National Committee of Experts on Internet Financial Security Technology. Addding to bitcoin's woes this week was a warning by Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan, that the cryptocurrency was a "fraud" and was set to "blow up" - comments that helped fuel a slide of as much as 11 percent in bitcoin on Wednesday. Bitcoin is on track for its worst month since January 2015. (Reporting by Brenda Goh, Beijing Monitoring Desk and Jemima Kelly; Editing byLarry King) || E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis – September 14, 2017 Forecast: September E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index futures are trading lower shortly after the release of the August U.S. consumer inflation report. The stronger-than-expected report is not likely to change the Fed’s mind about raising interest rates. They are likely to remain dovish. While the report is not likely to move the Fed’s benchmark interest rate, it should lead to a few asset allocation plays. Treasury yields are likely to rise, making the U.S. Dollar a more attractive investment. Investors may also make adjustments to their stock portfolios. Daily September E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index Technical Analysis The main trend is up according to the daily swing chart, however, momentum has been trending sideways-to-lower since the formation of the closing price reversal top at 6019.75 on September 1. The main range is 5777.25 to 6019.75. Its retracement zone at 5898.50 to 5869.75 is the primary downside target. Forecast The early weakness suggests investors are going to go after the nearest uptrending Gann angle at 5953.25. We could see a technical bounce on the first test of this angle. The angle at 5953.25 is also the trigger point for an acceleration to the downside with the next targets the 50% level at 5898.50, the Fibonacci level at 5869.75 and another uptrending angle at 5865.25. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis – September 14, 2017 Forecast Equities Turn Cautious on China and U.S. Data, BoE Hints at Rate Hike in ‘Coming Months’ Major US Indices Forecast, September 14, 2017, Technical Analysis Dow Jones 30 and NASDAQ 100 Price Forecast September 14, 2017, Technical Analysis Market Snapshot – Bitcoin Prices Plunge on Renewed Chinese Fears E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis – September 13, 2017 Forecast || Shaun G. Morgan Discusses the Impact of Sinocoin, the Newest Digital Currency: DUBAI, UAE / ACCESSWIRE / July 25, 2017 / China has begun to consider implementing its own form of digital currency to compete with or even replace the current reigning cryptocurrencies within its borders. Digitally exchanged monetary systems have had a tremendous impact on the People's Republic's commerce, despite some initial resistance. The government of the populous nation has been cautiously toying with the idea of their own state-sponsored cryptocurrency for quite some time, however, experts such as Shaun G. Morgan , Managing Director of the Emirates Consolidated Investments and frequent consultant for China-based business interests, say that this Chinese digital tender (under the working English title, "Sinocoin") may soon become a reality. http://shaungmorgannews.com Strictly digital currencies have come and gone since the 1990's, often with mixed to negative results. A major roadblock for sustainability of these alternative payment methods against physical tender has been combining the anonymity with transparency, which has led to several legal scandals, criminal investigations, and ultimately shutdowns of the exchange systems. This was rectified by newer services such as Bitcoin, which was launched in 2009 and hosted a public ledger to record all transactions. Keeping the purchases open allowed for less centralized oversight, while encryption kept personal information safe. The startling success of Bitcoin has caused it to grow exponentially in the years since and led to the creation of many similar products. Shaun G. Morgan has recommended vetted cryptocurrencies as a possible investment option due to the potentially positive returns. Alexandr Nellson, writing for the Medium, also posits that Bitcoin is very likely to continue growing based on previous trends, and investors would see a positive increase down the road from purchases made now. The benefits of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have also convinced other national governments to begin looking into forming their own digital alternatives. However, China has experienced some of the largest growth in digitally exchanged currencies in the world, with a highly active and robust crypto-economy. This has worried China's central bank in the past and some officials have claimed that services like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and others lead to the diminishment of the Chinese yuan. The People's Bank of China (PBoC) initially forbid cryptocurrency trading, and even after exchanges were finally allowed, they were scrutinized heavily. However, there are signs that the PBoC is changing its position. The Chief China Strategist of the Bank of Communications, Hao Hong, told the South China Morning Post that the government's attitude towards cryptocurrencies is "shifting." Bloomberg News has pointed out that Chinese citizens rely heavily on online transactions for their purchases, and that trend does not look likely to slow down. After a freeze of Bitcoin by China this past June, Business Insider reported that once withdrawals were resumed, the currency reached a peak value of approximately 2400 dollars a coin. All of the evidence indicates that digital currency will remain a driving force in the Chinese economy for some time and that launching Sinocoin might, in fact, become a necessity for the PBoC. Story continues Shaun G. Morgan is a Managing Director for Emirates Consolidated Investments, CEO of SG Morgan Investment Bank, a Chairman of Greater China Acquisition Corp., and a key shareholder in several other institutions. He has been involved in enterprises all across the globe, including Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and many others. Morgan has been an advisor and consultant for almost 20 years, with a focus on investment banking and cross-border credit lending. He also participates in philanthropic activities, including donating 500 tablets to the Fujairah Welfare Association. Shaun G. Morgan - Managing Director of Emirates Consolidated Investments: http://shaungmorgannews.com SG Morgan Investment Bank - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SG-Morgan-Investment-Bank-1791608931082759/ SG Morgan Financial Services LLC: http://sgmorgan.com Contact Information: ShaunGMorganNews.com http://shaungmorgannews.com contact@shaungmorgannews.com SOURCE: Shaun G. Morgan || Bitcoin tumbles on report China to shutter digital currency exchanges: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Angela Moon NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin fell sharply on Friday after a report from a Chinese news outlet said China was planning to shut down local crypto-currency exchanges, although analysts said this was just a temporary setback. Sources close to a cross regulators committee that oversees online finance activities told Chinese financial publication Caixin that authorities plan to shut key bitcoin exchanges in China. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the report. But two sources in direct contact with officials at three Chinese bitcoin exchanges - Beijing-based OKCoin, Shanghai-based BTC China, and Beijing-based Huobi - said the platforms told them that they have not heard anything from the Chinese government. The news follows China's move earlier this week to ban so-called "initial coin offerings," or the practice of creating and selling digital currencies or tokens to investors in order to finance start-up projects. Greg Dwyer, business development manager at crypto-currency trading platform BitMEX, said there was confusion over whether China would close bitcoin exchanges following the ICO ban. "If this turns out to be true, then this sell-off is substantiated, and we could see further downside over the weekend, as it could mean the large bitcoin/Chinese yuan exchanges will need to halt trading," he added. Bitcoin dropped to a low of $4,227 on the BitStamp platform and last traded at $4,309.80, down 6.6 percent. On Sept 2, it hit a record high of nearly $5,000. Sharp losses such as Friday's are par for the course for an asset like bitcoin, analysts said. Over the course of its eight-year history, bitcoin has on a daily basis risen as much as 18 percent and fallen as much as 13 percent. Still, bitcoin was still up nearly 346 percent this year. John Spallanzani, chief macro strategist at GFI Group, said Friday's losses could be short-lived. "Bitcoin is here to stay," he said. Jehan Chu, a partner at Jen Advisors, a Hong Kong-based early-stage blockchain venture capital firm, noted that should China shut down bitcoin exchanges, it will not be the end of the crypto-currency world in the country. Blockchain, a digital ledger of transactions underpinning bitcoin, has leapt to prominence as it enable users to track and record assets across all industries. "This is just China pressing the 'Pause button," said Chu. A big part of bitcoin's recent surge was the ICO craze, which exploded this year. Bitcoins and ether, another digital currency, are used to purchase tokens for ICOs. By mid-July, tech firms had raised about $1.1 billion in 89 coin sales this year, roughly 10 times more than in all of 2016, data from crypto-currency research firm Smith + Crown showed. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Angela Moon; Editing by Dan Grebler and Chizu Nomiyama) || Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz Are Secretly Backing This Cryptocurrency Hedge Fund: It’s a hedge fund savvy enough to have scooped up Bitcoin when it was free. One of its founders is the well-known CEO of AngelList,Naval Ravikant. It’s backed by a roster of Silicon Valley’s top venture capital firms, and boasts returns of more than 500%. And you’ve probably never heard of it. Meet MetaStable Capital, a stealthy startup hedge fund based in San Francisco that invests only in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Since its launch in September 2014, MetaStable has delivered such eye-popping performance that it apparently lets the numbers mostly speak for themselves; it shuns publicity and never announced its recent fundraising round. Still,Fortunehas learned many of the details. In the spring, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Union Square Ventures, Founders Fund and Bessemer Venture Partners all invested in MetaStable, according to several of the VCs and other people close to the fund. Notably, it’s only Sequoia’s second investment in a blockchain-related company in that venture capital firm’s 45-year history; the first was earlier this year, inPolychain Capital, in a $200 million round in which Andreessen, Union Square Ventures and Founders Fund also participated. In contrast to MetaStable, though, Polychain has been much more welcoming of press (its founder, Olaf Carlson-Wee, is on the cover ofForbes‘ latest issue). It also differs in its strategy: Whereas Polychain specializes in investing in other blockchain companies through what’s known as aninitial coin offering(or ICO)--an investment style that has been likened to venture capital--MetaStable invests directly in digital currencies that it believes could become a new form of money. Now, MetaStable owns about a dozen different cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (which one of the fund’s co-founders, Lucas Ryan, originally received for free in 2011), Ethereum, and Monero (of which the fund holds nearly 1%, or about $6 million worth, of all outstanding coins), according to a pitch deck seen byFortune. Josh Seims, MetaStable’s third co-founder, says the fund takes a value investing approach, “sort of what you imagine a Warren Buffett doing, but it's kind of oxymoronic to use these terms in the space because everything is so ephemeral.” An example in the pitch deck illustrates the fund’s skill in “Bitcoin crisis investing,” a Buffett-like concept of investing when others are fearful: When Bitfinex, a major cryptocurrency exchange, washacked last summer, the price of Bitcoin swiftly plunged more than 20% to under $550, and MetaStable took the opportunity to double its Bitcoin position within the next few hours. The price of Bitcoin has since more than quadrupled. Rather than try to time the market or buy into the newest blockchain trend, MetaStable looks closely at the real-world use cases of various digital currencies, and aims to make at least decade-long bets on the most “credible candidates,” Seims tellsFortune. “There’s a handful of, say between five and 10 of these major use cases that could be trillion-dollar blockchains,” he says. “It's all very long-term focused, and we think we're in super early days right now. It really comes down to which do we think is the strong enough technology, that we think can win.” (So far, MetaStable has also exhibited an edge in dodging some of the duds: It skippedThe Dao’s token offeringlast year, correctly predicting that it would be hacked; and also steered clear of the cryptocurrency Steem, which has largely turned out to be a flop.) Through mid-March, MetaStable’s flagship fund had returned 539% over its short lifetime, including 86% in the first two-and-a-half months of 2017 (a time period in which the Bitcoin price was up almost 28%). Since then, though, Bitcoin and Monero have each more than doubled; Ethereum, meanwhile, is worth more than five times what it was four months ago. (Year to date, the Ethereum price has risen more than 2,300%.) That means that MetaStable’s returns are actually much, much higher than the ones listed in its March presentation documents. A person close to the fund simply says it has “vastly outperformed Bitcoin;” that puts its 2017 returns at a minimum of 170% and likely far greater.Fortuneestimates that MetaStable’s returns since its inception now exceed 1,000%. One caveat is that the fund is likely relatively small by hedge fund standards, which makes it somewhat easier to post outsized return figures. Still, in the fledgling industry of cryptocurrency hedge funds, MetaStable appears to be one of the heavyweights. A recentForbesreport listed its assets at $45 million, but that was before the recentsurge in cryptocurrency pricesover the last few months. MetaStable’s portfolio more than doubled in value in May alone, according to a source close to the fund; on June 23, after aBitcoin and Ethereum price crash, the hedge fund reported total assets of $69 million in a regulatory filing. It’s not clear how much of those assets are venture capital dollars; typically, when VC firms invest in other funds (the startup accelerator Y Combinator, backed by Sequoia, is one prime example), they can choose to invest in the company itself (or “general partner”) or in the actual fund that company manages, or both. In the case of Polychain, for one, Union Square Venturessaid it backed the firm but also put some moneyinto the hedge fund. The abundance of capital is also enticing a slew of other cryptocurrency hedge funds to test the waters for themselves. According toHedge Fund Alert, there are at least 15 such funds already up and running, but as many as 25 more are in the works. Investors should expect similar restrictions and high fees as the ones that exist with traditional hedge funds: MetaStable requires a minimum investment of $1 million, and has a “2 and 20” structure for one of its funds, charging a management fee of 2% of assets, and a performance fee of 20% of the profits. A riskier fund has a 1.5% management fee and a 25% performance fee. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com • Microsoft Takes Another Step to Make Blockchain Friendly to Mere Mortals • 7 Cryptocurrency Predictions From the Experts • LedgerX Just Gave Us Another Way to Bet Against Bitcoin • A Bitcoin Visa Card? Not So Fast • Bitcoin Averts Split Into Two Currencies || The Feds are looking into some suspicious Equifax trades: (Suspicious options trading in Equifax following its massive data breach has drawn scrutiny from the Feds.Reuters / Brendan McDermid) Raise your hand if you've heard this before: There may have been some funny business around theEquifax hack. In the latest development, the House Financial Services Committee is now looking at some Equifax options trading that took place following the initial discovery of the breach, but before it was disclosed to the public,according to a report from CNBC's Liz Moyer. The activity in question occurred on August 21, when a block trade for 2,500 units of an Equifax put contract was made at 1:36 p.m. ET, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The puts represented a wager that the company's stock price would drop to $135 by September 15. Equifax closed at $139.89 the previous trading day, so in order for the trade to be profitable, the stock would've had to drop 3.5%. That happened on September 8, the first day of trading after the hack became public. The stock dropped 14%, closing at $123.23. Assuming the trader, or traders, who made the initial bet held on to their position and took profits at the stock's lowest possible level, their total gain would've amounted to more than $10 million. And if the options market is to be believed, traders think Equifax's stock has further to fall. As of last week, they were paying the highest premium since October 2014 to protect against a 10% decline in shares over the next six months, relative to wagers on a 10% gain. While it's come down from those highs, it's still far above its average over the period. According to theCNBC report, which cited a source familiar with the investigation, the lawyer for the committee has inquired about how out of the ordinary the size of the trade was, where the options switched hands, and what types of traders would've been active at the time. The investigation isn't the first foray into suspicious Equifax trading following the hack. On September 18,Bloomberg reportedthat the US Justice Department wasinvestigating whether top company officials violated insider-trading lawswhen they sold Equifax shares before the company disclosed the hack. The report said that Equifax's chief financial officer, John Gamble; president of US information solutions, Joseph Loughran; and president of workforce solutions, Rodolfo Ploder, were those under scrutiny. The threesenior executivesdumped almost $2 million worth of stockdays after the company learned of the breach, Securities and Exchange Commission filings show. An emailed statement from the credit-monitoring agency said the executives "had no knowledge" of the breach beforehand. As these latest developments show, authorities are still sifting through the wreckage of the hack for signs of wrongdoing. And if the past week has been any indication, there could be more to come. (Markets Insider) NOW WATCH:Bitcoin's bubble swells with a new record high More From Business Insider • Small investors have never been this bullish • The Justice Department has reportedly opened an insider-trading investigation at Equifax • An investing legend who's nailed the bull market at every turn says betting on the VIX is a 'quick way to lose money' || Cryptocurrencies are getting smoked: Capture.PNG (Bitcoin is trading down over 6% since Sunday.MI) NEW YORK - China has banned the hottest trend sweeping the cryptocurrency world and now the entire market for digital currencies is under pressure. On Monday morning in Beijing, a slew of Chinese regulatory agencies released a joint statement in which they affirmed that initial coin offerings (ICOs), a cryptocurrency-based fundraising method, are illegal in the country. The market for ICOs has grown exponentially this year with some firms using the fundraising method to raise millions of dollars in minutes without offering an actual product. As such, many Wall Streeters are calling the market a bubble. To raise cash through an ICO, a company issues a new digital currency that can either be spent within its ecosystem, a bit like Disneyland dollars, or used to power part of the business. Since the beginning of the year, $1.8 billion has been raised via ICOs, according to an email from financial technology analytics provider Autonomous NEXT. Sebastian Quinn-Watson of Blockchain Global, a bitcoin exchange operator, told Business Insider in an email Monday morning that the news out of China is an "absolute win" for the cryptocurrency community because it will weed out illegitimate ICOs. "The changes in regulation will take a lot of the bad actors out quickly," Quinn-Watson said. "Excellent result for every founder who has a good product, a sensible and well structure token sale process, and an international outlook." Still, the 15 largest cryptocurrencies by market cap are all down more than 6% since Sunday, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com . Litecoin , the fifth largest cryptocurrency, is down more than 15% at $64 per coin after surging above $80 on Friday . Likewise, bitcoin is lower by close to 7% at $4,340. Bitcoin surpassed the much-anticipated $5,000 benchmark for the first time on Saturday. Ethereum is down nearly 16% at $288 per token. In total, the marketcap for cryptocurrencies has shed over $30 billion since Friday. Story continues As reported by Business Insider's Oscar Williams-Grut , the wording of the statement by the People's Bank of China and the six other Chinese regulatory agencies also suggested that trading and usage of all cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, could now be illegal in China. The PBoC said that virtual currencies that are "not issued by the monetary authorities... do not have legal status equivalent to money, and can not and should not be circulated as a currency in the market use." NOW WATCH: GARY SHILLING: The Fed is wrong about wage inflation More From Business Insider Photos show the fatal moment a man ran into the inferno at Burning Man Bitcoin's bubble swells with a new record high THE BOTTOM LINE: Trump's dollar woes and the misguided Fed || Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Forecast – In Tight Consolidation Phase: The bitcoin prices are trading in one of the tightest ranges that we have been in this instrument over the last few months. This is one of the indications on how confused the traders and the investors are, at this point of time. It is indeed a time when the bitcoin industry is at the crossroads with the crackdown on the industry from one of its biggest supports which China has been over the last couple of years. After the ICO and the exchange ban, now there is talk that China might go ahead and ban the mining of bitcoins as well. Considering the fact that 65% of the hashpower for the mining comes from China, it will be a huge blow for the bitcoin industry, atleast in the medium term. Get Into Bitcoin Trading Today Also, this could also provide a blueprint for other countries to follow China in its footsteps and attack the bitcoin industry in a similar manner but all of this is speculation at this point of time. But what could this also do is that it could help the bitcoin industry to expand into other countries as the difficulty levels for mining drop and it becomes more viable to mine bitcoins in other countries and by new miners as well. The situation is as yet fluid and that is reflected in the prices of the bitcoin which has been trading within a tight $200 range over the last 24 hours. The Ethereum market has also been caught in a tight range since yesterday as it trades between $280 and $300. Though much of the efforts from the Chinese regulators have been against the bitcoin industry, it is likely to affect the crypto industry as a whole and that is why we are seeing the ETH prices also reeling under the effect. The ban on ICOs has a direct effect on the ETH prices and that is why we are seeing that the bulls are finding it difficult to push the prices through $300. Looking ahead to the rest of the day, with the lack of a breakout or a fall yesterday, we continue to look forward to a breakout in either direction through the tight range that the prices have been, in both the ETH and the BTC markets as well. The Best and Safest Way to Buy and Sell Bitcoins For those who are looking to take advantage of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies price fluctuations,Some brokersprovide traders with instant access to trade Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. The process is fast and easy with convenient and advanced trading platform (desktop and mobile), low spreads and instant execution.Click here for more details. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – September 20, 2017 Forecast • Daily Markets Brief – All Eyes on Fed • E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis – September 20, 2017 Forecast • Gold Daily Analysis – September 20, 2017 • Wednesday Support and Resistance Levels – September 20, 2017 • Commodities Daily Forecast – September 20, 2017 || China bitcoin exchanges awaiting clarification on closure report: BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Bitcoin exchanges said on Saturday they are still awaiting clarification from the authorities on a media report that they will be shut down. Bitcoin fell sharply on Friday after Chinese financial publication Caixin reported that China was planning to shut down local crypto-currency exchanges, although analysts said this was just a temporary setback. The news follows China's move earlier this week to ban so-called "initial coin offerings," or the practice of creating and selling digital currencies or tokens to investors in order to finance start-up projects. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the report. A spokeswoman for Beijing-based OK Coin said the platform has not received any notification from regulators. Spokespersons at Beijing-based Huobi and Shanghai-based BTCC said they were still waiting for further official clarification. (Reporting by Brenda Goh, Writing by Kevin Yao; Editing by Shri Navaratnam) [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes: $4050.73/$4059.64 #Bitstamp $4062.93/$4070.00 #Kraken ⇢$3.29/$19.27 $4041.97/$4082.94 #Coinbase ⇢$-17.67/$32.21 || #BTC Open Blockchains for Cashless Developed Economies https://goo.gl/Z85REC  http://ohiobitcoin.com/buybitcoin  #bitcoin || ZaifスマートATMやLocalBitcoinsなどと違い、双方が対等な関係でBitcoinなどの暗号通貨の売買ができるサイトです。 「手数料の安さと、匿名性のどちらも大事」という方におすすめです。 http://btctrade.web.fc2.com/  #ビットコイン || $3285.00 at 15:45 UTC [24h Range: $3178.72 - $3463.31 Volume: 13907 BTC] || That requires margin || $SING Sees Advantages in Bitcoin, Formation of http://SingleSeed.com  , and Joint Venture with First ... https://italkpennystocks.com/singlepost.php?id=97 … … || #ICYMI: US-North Korea nuclear standoff sees #bitcoin surge past $4,000 http://ibt.uk/A6rIK  #cryptocurrency || أقوى العملات الإلكترونية في عام 2017 أقوى العملات الإلكترونية في عام 2017 رغم مرورhttp://arab-btc.net/crypto-2017/?utm_source=ReviveOldPost&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ReviveOldPost … || शिक्षामित्रों से मिलने उनके मध्य जा पहुंची आप, और BTC+TET(बड़ी भर्ती मांगकर्ता) वालो की सुध तक न ली गई आज तक। मेडम बेरोजगार आस लगाए है। || @Bitcoin at $4260.00... Go back down so I can buy some more!
Trend: up || Prices: 3792.40, 3682.84, 3926.07, 3892.35, 4200.67, 4174.73, 4163.07, 4338.71, 4403.74, 4409.32
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2019-10-15] BTC Price: 8205.37, BTC RSI: 36.80 Gold Price: 1477.60, Gold RSI: 42.90 Oil Price: 52.81, Oil RSI: 41.69 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Jim Paulsen: “Fear Bubble” is Creating Market Opportunities: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. Market maven Jim Paulsen is brimming with confidence that a breakout will occur before year's end. August's market doldrums are setting up for an equally tepid September, but it will create market opportunities for savvy investors. “We almost have a fear bubble. That’s our primary thing that sits out there for me,” said Paulsen. “People are not loading into stocks even though we’re really close to market highs. They’re loading into bonds even though they have close to record low yields... The behavior just screams fear.” Trade wars will continue to play a hand in the latest market oscillations, but the recent pullbacks could present buy-the-dip opportunities for leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Just as President Donald Trump announced new tariffs and then scaled back on certain items on the list of Chinese products, the markets were sent on a volatility rollercoaster ride. The investors' wall of worry, however, could be perfect for a breakout. “If you pierce a fear bubble, do you have a big rally? And, I kind of think that’s one of the contributing factors to the upside,” said Paulsen. “If we find out it turns out better than feared, many, many portfolios are under-allocated to risk assets and will have to re-adjust themselves trying to get more risk which could drive risk assets a lot higher.” Traders can take advantage of these markets movements in the S&P 500. For those especially looking for juicing up their trades, there are leveraged exchange-traded fund (ETF) options available. Potential leveraged ETF plays in the Direxion Daily S&P500 Bull 3X ETF ( SPXL ) and the Direxion Daily S&P 500 Bear 3X ETF ( SPXS ) could have traders placing these ETFs on their watch lists. SPXL seeks daily investment results of 300% of the daily performance of the S&P 500 Index. The fund, under normal circumstances, invests at least 80% of its net assets in financial instruments, such as swap agreements, and securities of the index, ETFs that track the index and other financial instruments that provide daily leveraged exposure to the index or ETFs that track the index. Story continues SPXS seeks daily investment results, of 300% of the inverse (or opposite) of the daily performance of the S&P 500 Index. The fund, under normal circumstances, invests in swap agreements, futures contracts, short positions or other financial instruments that, in combination, provide inverse (opposite) or short leveraged exposure to the index equal to at least 80% of the fund’s net assets (plus borrowing for investment purposes). For more market trends, visit ETF Trends . POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM SPY ETF Quote VOO ETF Quote QQQ ETF Quote VTI ETF Quote JNUG ETF Quote Top 34 Gold ETFs Top 34 Oil ETFs Top 57 Financials ETFs VanEck And SolidX Take First Steps For Bitcoin-Related ETF Approvals Could Inverse ETFs Thrive In September? Social Media Stock SNAP Gets An Upgrade Gold, Precious Metals ETFs Surge on Geopolitical Uncertainty Q&A With Barry Ritholtz on New WealthStack Conference READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Thai crypto exchange Bitcoin Co. shutting down abruptly after 5 years of service: Bitcoin Co. Ltd. (BX.in.th), one of Thailand’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, today abruptly announced that it is shutting down later this month. The exchangesaidit wants to focus on “other business opportunities,” without giving any specific details. BX.in.th will disable all deposits after Sept. 6 and stop trading services after Sept. 30. Customers, therefore, have been asked to withdraw any funds held at the exchange into their own bank accounts or digital wallets before Nov. 1. Bitcoin Co. Ltd. further said that it will not be seeking to get a Digital Asset Exchange license from Thailand's securities regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for the next year.“We thank our loyal customers for using our BX.in.th services over the past 5 years [...] Please note that all fund[s] are completely safe and all customers will receive 100% of their funds returned to them,” the exchange concluded.BX.in.th's recent 24-hour volume was valued at over $10 million, the majority in bitcoin,accordingto data provider CoinMarketCap. || Factor Investing 101: An Actionable Guide for Every Investor: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. While active managers have utilized factor exposures for decades, factor investing has gained popularity more recently with financial advisors and investors following the proliferation of rules-based ETFs. On the upcoming webcast, Factor Investing 101: An Actionable Guide for Every Investor , Mustafa Sagun, Chief Investment Officer, Principal Global Equities; and Matthew Cohenm Senior ETF Specialist, Principal Global Investors, will share foundational concepts and innovative approaches to help you enhance factor allocation into your own investors’ portfolios. For example, Principal Global Investors has come out with a suite of multi-factor ETF strategies described as “index-aware and provide a balance of potential outperformance and limited tracking error to established market-cap weighted benchmarks.” The ETF provider's most popular strategy, Principal U.S. Mega-Cap Multi-Factor Index ETF ( USMC ) , is comprised of companies with the largest market capitalization taken from the Nasdaq U.S. 500 Large Cap Index and screened based on a quantitative model. USMC is a multi-factor fund, an increasingly popular strategy within the broader smart beta universe. The ETF can potentially provide investors a systematic tilt toward lower historical volatility as a way to provide more stability and better downside protection, along with a highly focused, yet risk-aware, exposure to mega-cap in an attempt to help investors generate better risk-adjusted returns over the long haul. Principal Global Investors also recently expanded its line with the addition of the Principal U.S. Large-Cap Multi-Factor Core Index ETF (PLC) , Principal U.S. Small-Mid Cap Multi-Factor Core Index ETF (PSM) , and Principal International Multi-Factor Core Index ETF (PDEV) . PLC is designed to provide broad U.S. large cap equity exposure while incorporating a multi-factor model and modified weighting process to potentially enhance the risk/return profile. The multi-factor model seeks to identify equity securities of companies in the Nasdaq US Large Cap Index that exhibit potential for high degrees of sustainable shareholder yield (value), pricing power (quality growth), and strong momentum. Story continues PSM is designed to provide broad U.S. small, mid-cap equity exposure while incorporating a multi-factor model and modified weighting process to potentially enhance the risk/return profile. Multi-factor model seeks to identify equity securities of companies in the Nasdaq US Small Cap Index and Nasdaq US Mid Cap Index that exhibit potential for high degrees of sustainable shareholder yield (value), pricing power (quality growth), and strong momentum. Finally, PDEV is designed to provide broad developed international equity exposure while incorporating a multi-factor model and modified weighting process to potentially enhance the risk/return profile. Multi-factor model seeks to identify equity securities of companies in the Nasdaq Developed Market Ex-US Ex-Korea Large Mid Cap Index that exhibit potential for high degrees of sustainable shareholder yield (value), pricing power (quality growth), and strong momentum. Financial advisors who want to learn more about factor investing can register for the Thursday, September 19 webcast here . POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM SPY ETF Quote VOO ETF Quote QQQ ETF Quote VTI ETF Quote JNUG ETF Quote Top 34 Gold ETFs Top 34 Oil ETFs Top 57 Financials ETFs Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Ruling Expected Before Mid-October In the Know: Where Markets Stand in the Late-Cycle U.S.-China Trade War Intensifies, But It May All Work Out in the End Vegan ETF Talk With ETF Trends’ Tom Lydon On CNBC ETF Trends CEO Tom Lydon Talks Spike in Crude Oil Prices on CNBC READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Digital Currency Execs: Bakkt's Imminent Launch Signals Institutional Participation In Crypto: Bakkt, a subsidiary of New York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange, has finally announced a launch date for its physically delivered Bitcoin Futures: Sept. 23. This could signal the beginning of institutional participation in crypto, according to industry players. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission gave the green light to launch the company. User acceptance testing has begun, Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler said in a statement posted on Medium. "With approval by the New York State Department of Financial Services to create Bakkt Trust Company, a qualified custodian, the Bakkt Warehouse will custody bitcoin for physically delivered futures," she said. "This offers customers unprecedented regulatory clarity and security alongside a regulated, globally accessible exchange in a market underserved by institutional-grade infrastructure." Why It's Important Guy Hirsch, managing director of eToro U.S., said Bakkt’s clearance to launch not only signals imminent institutional participation in crypto markets, but a new level of understanding and approval from regulators — specifically the New York Department of Financial Services. “As regulators continue to approve more projects, industry participants are gaining a clearer understanding of what is required in order to build out digital asset offerings for U.S. investors,” Hirsch said. Hirsch said he hopes to see the New York Department of Financial Services continue to foster a more “competitive environment” for businesses, and added that New York is the financial center of the world. The state is in a great position to maintain that title if regulators can build frameworks that are inclusive of emerging technologies like digital assets, he said. The Thirst To Be First Vaibhav Kadikar, founder and CEO of CloseCross, a decentralized prediction markets platform, said LedgerX’s Bitcoin Futures offering was not approved by the CFTC, contrary to earlier reports . “In the long run, it won’t matter who brings the product first to market. The difference will be in the execution and the customer experience, as well as other services clients can get out of the same platform,” Kadikar said. Story continues Bakkt's ties to ICE and New York state approval are increasing the anticipation around the offering, he said. “The highly anticipated offering from Bakkt bears more weight due to its ties with ICE, in addition to approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services to create the Bakkt Trust Company, a qualified custodian," Kadikar said. "Bakkt is better-positioned due to it being a trust that can provide a wider set of services and products, carrying with it custodian credibility to provide to institutions." By operating as a trust in the state of New York, Bakkt has a lot of flexibility compared to competitors to enter adjacent markets and perform the roles of exchange traded fund provider, asset manager and the like, he said. "Bitcoin Futures have been making the headlines since CME launched Bitcoin Futures at the height of the 2018 boom, but not necessarily for the right reasons. Around the world, influential financial authorities have been rigorously scrutinizing the implications of crypto derivatives." The launch of Bakkt could result in more assets flowing to Bitcoin, the CEO said. “Following the launch, price discovery through futures instead of spot markets could dramatically shape spot prices. Pending the launch, this has the ingredients for more capital influx into the Bitcoin market, bringing us one step closer to institutional adoption." Price Action Bitcoin was trading 2.13% higher at $10,326.86 at the time of publication Monday. Related Links: 'A Framework': UK Issues Cryptocurrency Guidance As Facebook Prepares To Launch Libra, Regulators Are Watching See more from Benzinga OSI Systems Reports Q4 Earnings Beat Addus HomeCare Will Acquire Hospice Partners For 0M Verisk To Acquire Genscape For 4M © 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 07/10/19: Bitcoin Cash ABC fell by 0.97% on Sunday. Following on from a 0.04% decline on Saturday, Bitcoin Cash ABC ended the week up by 0.98% to $219.93. A bearish morning saw Bitcoin Cash ABC slide from an early morning high $222.09 to a late morning low $218.00. Falling short of the major resistance levels, Bitcoin Cash ABC fell through the first major support level at $219.68. Finding support in the early afternoon, Bitcoin Cash ABC bounced back to an early afternoon intraday high $222.51. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $222.96, Bitcoin Cash ABC slid back to a late afternoon intraday low $216. Bitcoin Cash ABC fell through the first major support level at $219.68 and the second major support level at $217.71. Finding support late on, Bitcoin Cash ABC managed to break back through the major support levels to limit the downside on the day. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was down by 0.43% to $218.99. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC rise to an early morning high $219.99 before falling to a low $218.99. Bitcoin Cash ABC left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, Bitcoin Cash ABC would need to move back through to $219.50 levels to support a run at $220 levels. Bitcoin Cash ABC would need the support of the broader market, however, to take a run at the first major resistance level at $222.96. Barring a broad-based crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Sunday’s high $222.51 would likely cap any upside. Failure to move through to $219.50 levels could see Bitcoin Cash ABC slide deeper into the red. A fall through to $217 levels would bring the first major support level at $216.45 into play. Barring an extended sell-off through the day, however, Bitcoin Cash ABC should steer clear of sub-$216 support levels. Litecoin slid by 4.17% on Sunday. Reversing a 0.69% gain from Saturday, Litecoin ended the week up by 1.08% at $54.48. Bearish through the day, Litecoin tumbled from a start of a day intraday high $56.96 to a late afternoon intraday low $53.03. Litecoin fell through the day’s major support levels before finding support from the broader market late in the day. A partial recovery saw Litecoin break back through the third major support level at $53.12 to reduce the loss on the day. At the time of writing, Litecoin was down by 0.62% to $54.14. A bearish start to the day saw Litecoin fall from an early morning high $54.50 to a low $53.35 before finding support. In spite of the early sell-off, Litecoin steered clear of the major support levels early on. For the day ahead, a move through to $54.80 levels would support a run at the first major resistance level at $56.62. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Litecoin to break out from $55 levels. Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, Litecoin would likely come up short of $57 levels for a 2ndconsecutive day. Failure to move through to $54.80 levels could see Litecoin spend a 2ndconsecutive day in the red. A fall back through the morning low $53.25 would bring the first major support level at $52.69 into play. Ripple’s XRP rose by 0.78% on Sunday. Following on from a 0.36% gain on Saturday, Ripple’s XRP ended the week up by 6.28% to $0.25633. A choppy morning saw Ripple’s XRP fall to an early morning intraday low $0.25161 before finding support. Steering clear of the first major support level at $0.2473, Ripple’s XRP struck a mid-morning high $0.25636. Falling short of the major resistance levels, Ripple’s XRP fell back to $0.2510 levels before rallying to a late afternoon intraday high 0.25726. The late recovery saw Ripple’s XRP come within range of the first major resistance level at $0.2595 before easing back. Ripple’s XRP fell back to $0.2520 levels and into the red before a final-hour recovery. At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was down by 0.17% to $0.25590. A mixed start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP fall from an early morning high $0.25684 to a low $0.25424 before finding support. Ripple’s XRP left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, holding onto $0.255 levels would support a run at the first major resistance level at $0.2585. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ripple’s XRP to break out from Sunday’s high $0.25726. Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, Ripple’s XRP would likely fall short of $0.26 levels for a 6th consecutive day. Failure to hold onto $0.255 levels could see Ripple’s XRP slide back deep into the red. A fall through the morning low $0.25424 would bring the first major support level at $0.2529 into play. In the event of an extended sell-off, Ripple’s XRP could test the second major support level at $0.2494 before any recovery. Please let us know what you think in the comments below Thanks, Bob Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 07/10/19 • NZD/USD Forex Technical Analysis – Taking Out .6349 Changes Main Trend to Up • AUD/USD, NZD/USD, USD/CNY – Asian Session Daily Forecast • Natural Gas Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Light Shoulder-Season Demand Expected • ERY Rallies Over 35% After Our Call to “Start Looking For The Next Move”. • Ethereum and Stellar’s Lumen Daily Tech Analysis – 07/10/19 || The price of Binance Coin has halved since all-time high: Binance Coin (BNB) rallied in the first half of this year, rising $6 to highs of $39 in June. But since then, its price has been slashed in half. Currently, Binance Coin sits at just $20.54 after losing more than 4.5% in the last 24-hours. What's behind the downfall? Well, the initial rise occured while the whole market was booming, in part pushed up by the swell of exposure surrounding Facebook's plans for its Libra cryptocurrency , which were unveiled in May. But Binance Coin surged more than the rest, outperforming Bitcoin by 300%, partly due to its regular coin burns , designed to boost its price, alongside its IEO offerings, which attracted a lot of attention to the project. It's possible that since the market has calmed, and IEOs have largely been consigned to the dustheap , this has slowed momentum, turning bullish traders into bears. On top of this, while Binance is expanding to the US, it won't be adding Binance Coin by default to the platform, nor will it initially be used for trading fees (its main purpose on the main non-US Binance exchange). This may have come as a surprise to traders since Binance, so far, has natively supported Binance Coin on all of its exchanges around the world. Currently, Binance US has said it will support five cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP, and stablecoin Tether. While BNB isn't initially on the list, the exchange is considering adding it, according to a Binance spokesperson. However, Binance has continued to expand its services, and will be launching its futures trading platform on Friday. Profits from the platform will also go towards Binance's quarterly burn of Binance Coin. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted that, based on community feedback, from now on, "Binance will include all future businesses and products (including Binance Futures) into the scope of each quarterly BNB burn." || The high cost of Bitcoin’s bull run: American blockchain entrepreneur Rhett Creightonestimatedthat over $4 billion is being spent on Bitcoin mining each year. How did Creighton work this out? He estimated that Bitcoin mining uses 55 terawatt-hours (TWh) of energy per year and costs 7.5 cents per hour. He multiplied those two numbers together, and out popped the tweet-worthy figure of $4.125 billion. If Creighton’s right, that amounts to a hefty sum, indicative of an even larger environmental cost. Bitcoin’s incredibly inefficient; all that computing power spent solving those complex puzzles is lost, and the money goes directly into the hands of energy companies. It’s a non-refundable investment, given that the world predominantly relies on fossil fuels, and the harsh price to pay for Bitcoin’s latest bull run. It turns out that Creighton’s calculation was wrong—but not by much. Working out the financial and environmental cost of bitcoin mining is far more complex than a calculation that fits into a single tweet. According to theBitcoin Energy Consumption Index, the pet project of Alex de Vries, blockchain specialist at PwC, annualized global mining costs $3.66 billion, with a revenue of $7 billion. A neat and tidy profit to bitcoin miners riding high on Bitcoin’s soaring price—but a hefty cost to the environment. But the numbers Creighton plugged in? Not entirely consistent with de Vries' findings. First, he overestimated the price. De Vries put the price per kilowatt at 5 cents, and he even saidthat’sgenerous. “In a lot of places like around in China, you can get cheaper energy...I think the regular price for coal-based electricity in China goes to 4 cents per kilowatt hour,” he toldDecrypt. Creighton also underestimated the terawatt hour: energy consumption is far higher. In fact, the aggregate estimated energy consumption of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash has returned to its highest point since November 2018, 73.121 TWh, according to de Vries’ estimates. Energy consumption dipped along with the price of Bitcoin back in November last year, but has been steadily rising alongside this year’s bull market, which saw a resurgence in bitcoin interest, and thus mining. To put things into perspective, de Vries’ site, Digiconomist, said that a year’s Bitcoin mining produces the (pick one): carbon footprint of Denmark, or the power consumption of Austria, or the electronic waste of Luxembourg. The Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, an initiativereleasedby Cambridge University in July, suggests that things could be much worse. It estimates that around 65 TWh is used annually, but puts an upper bound at up to 135TWh. De Vries saidthat the environmental impact isn’t just limited to the amount of power produced. Bitcoin mining machines are often purpose-built for the task, so when farmers replace them or they break, the old models go straight to landfill. De Vries estimated that only 15% are recycled. A 2017studyby Garrick Hileman and Michel Rauchs put around 47 percent of mining facilities in China, a nation heavily reliant on coal-based power. How about Ethereum, the protocol that, despite attempts to transition to a pure Proof-of-Stake blockchain, is yet to shed its slimy Proof-of-Work skin? Not much better according to de Vries’latest estimates: annualized global mining revenues amounted to over $1.1 billion, and the electricity used to mine those revenues--which garnered a profit of just $425 million--uses the same amount of electricity as Luxembourg. One solution is so-called “green coins,” whichDecryptalreadydebunkedas about as environmentally friendly as landfill. Initiatives that hope to mine bitcoins using sustainable energy are “going to be very hard, if not impossible, simply because of the type of energy that these miners need,” de Vries said. Miners need constant energy to be effective, and the energy provided by, say, solar panels, aren’t consistent enough to genuinely replace fossil-fuels. So, though it’s possible to supplement renewable energy supplies with non-renewable sources, it’s difficult, de Vries said, and that“translates to a not so green network.” De Vries said that Proof-of-Stake could be a way forward if crypto continues to scale. “From an environmental perspective, it’s definitely a game-changer,” said de Vries. “You don’t need the specialised equipment so you cancel both the energy use and the electronic waste that emerges from it,” he said. But for now, Proof-of-Stake blockchains, like Hedera Hashgraph and Algorand are still battling for both dominance and relevance. || Natural Gas Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Speculators Likely Eyeing Supply Reduction in Saudi Arabia: Natural gas futures finished higher last week, garnering support from the remnants of a powerful short-squeeze rally and an underwhelming U.S. government storage report. Traders may now have to face a potential wave of speculative buying due to the shutdown of the world’s largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia after a series of drone strikes rocked the complex. Last week,November natural gasfinished at $2.653, up $0.102 or +4.00%. Keep in mind that we’re only speculating at this time about a higher opening in natural gas early Sunday because Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman said the attacks also led to a halt in gas production that will reduce the supply of ethane and natural gas liquids by 50%. We’re looking for a higher opening because any news of a supply disruption usually brings in the speculative buyers even if they don’t know what the impact will be. I can live with a spike to the upside, but I don’t think it’s going to turn into a long-term event because there is ample supply in the United States. We’ll know more after we crunch the numbers. The EIA reported Thursday that domestic supplies of natural gas rose by 78 billion cubic feet for the week-ended September 6. Traders were looking for the EIA storage report for the week-ending September 6 to show another above-average build. Bloomberg analysts estimated a median build of 81 Bcf with a range of 75 Bcf to 91 Bcf. Reuters analysts forecast an 82 Bcf injection, with a range of 76 Bcf to 94 Bcf. Intercontinental Exchange EIA Financial Weekly Index futures settled Tuesday at 83 Bcf. Natural Gas Intelligence’s model predicted an 86 Bcf injection. Energy Aspects issued a preliminary estimate of 86 Bcf for this week’s report. Total stocks now stand at 3.019 trillion cubic feet, up 393 billion cubic feet from a year ago, but 77 billion below the five-year average, the government said. According to NatGasWeather for September 13 to September 19, “Unseasonably strong high pressure will dominate the southern and eastern/east-central US with highs of 80s and 90s for strong late season demand into the weekend. However, a tropical system will track across Florida and portions of the South and Southeast this weekend and next week, easing highs into the 70s and 80s. The Northwest, Rockies, and North Plains will be comfortable to mild with highs of upper 50s to 70s for light demand. The important corridor from Chicago to NYC will be mostly comfortable with highs of 70s to mid-80s. Overall, demand will be high across the southern US and up the East Coast and moderate-low across the rest of the US. Last week’s price action and especially Friday’s suggests there are still speculators holding short positions and the speculative longs are still looking to chase them out. Furthermore, it’s my guess that they aren’t likely to keep rolling over in October and November especially after last year’s huge spike to the upside in early November. I’ve always been told that a short-squeeze won’t end until the weakest short is forced out of the market. Now the shorts have to deal with the problems in Saudi Arabia that may or may not have an impact on U.S. prices. However, when you put together words and phrases like “halt production” and “reduce supply” in a sentence, speculators are likely to buy first and ask questions later. On a side note, it’s peak hurricane season in the U.S. so continue to monitor any developments in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. Our work suggests that hurricanes in the Atlantic that target the East Coast of the U.S. tend to have a bearish effect on demand, while hurricanes in the Gulf tend to be more bullish because of the threat they pose to production facilities. The weekly November natural gas chart shows an upside bias on a sustained move over $2.691, and a downside bias developing on a sustained move under $2.585. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • The Crypto Daily – The Movers and Shakers – 15/09/19 • The Week Ahead – Brexit, the BoE and the FED are in Focus • S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – Stock markets reached towards highs again • US Stock Market Overview – Stock Close Mixed Despite Robust Retail Sales Report • Silver Weekly Price Forecast – Silver markets fall again for the week • Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 15/09/19 || "Bitcoin will never hit 50k" says crypto skeptic Peter Schiff: For a man who wants nothing to do withBitcoin, economist and Euro Pacific Capital CEO Peter Schiff never misses an opportunity to share his opinions about the cryptocurrency. His latest prediction? “Bitcoin will never hit $50k,” Schiffproclaimed todayon Twitter. Schiff is well-known in the world of finance for a catalog of profitable investments, shilling gold—and, yes,correctly predictingthe 2008 U.S.housing bubbleand ensuingfinancial crisis. More recently, though, Schiff has taken to duking it out with crypto-celebs like Morgan Creek Digital cofounder and eternal Bitcoin bull Anthony Pompliano. Today’s Twitter squabble, in fact, began with a reference to his nemesis Pomp: “Just watched [Squawk Box host] Joe Kernen's love fest with Anthony Pompliano as he touted Bitcoin,” Schiff wrote. “Prior to the 2008 financial crisis, when I was still invited on CNBC, Joe was critical of my advice to buy gold. Joe was wrong to be bearish on gold then, and he's wrong to be bullish on Bitcoin now!” Without saying a word, Kernen fired backwith a link—a CNBC story in which Schiff wrongly predicted gold would hit $5,000 by 2014. Gold, in fact, hasnever even come closeto reaching that price in 100 years. Fundstrat cofounder Tom Lee, who likewise enjoysmaking wild predictionsof his own, then got into the mix, mocking Schiff’s gold outlook, which is what really got the economist’s dander up. Lee, unsurprisingly, doubled down, challenging Schiff to put his gold where his mouth is: "I would take $50k BTC first over $5k gold" Leesaid. Schiff has in the past been unwilling to engage in such wagers, but that hasn’t stopped Bitcoin loyalists from trying to convertthe gold diehard into a Bitcoin believer. Pompliano has even gone so far as todonateBitcoin to Schiff,prompting other hodlersto do the same in an effort to, er—who knows? In Schiff’s defense, however, Bitcoin hasshown difficulty breaking throughthe $12,000 mark as of late. Despite developments in the industry and bullish outlooks, there’sstill plenty out therefor doom-and-gloomers like Schiff to use to sow doubt. || Venezuela’s largest retail chain expands Bitcoin payment options with PundiX: Cryptocurrency payments startup PundiX is expanding its presence in Latin America in a big way. Following a recent announcement of “strategic partnerships” in Panama to bring the company’s XPOS point-of-sale platform into South America, PundiX Venezuela lead Gabriel Falcone today revealed that the company isn’t stopping there. Falcone told Spanish-language industry publication DiarioBitcoin that PundiX has closed a deal with Traki—Venezuela’s largest department store chain—to place its point-of-sale platforms in each of Traki’s 49 locations by the end of the year. For starters, PundiX’s crypto payments systems will be integrated in four Traki stores throughout Venezuela, expanding to every store in the nation’s capital of Caracas within two weeks. And that means Venezuelans will now be able to buy goods at Traki stores using Bitcoin , Ethereum , and other cryptocurrencies (including PundiX’s own NPXS token) in seconds, with a crypto wallet provided by PundiX—or even offline with one PundiX’s physical cards. Bitcoin, Ethereum adoption on the rise in Colombia, says new report The Asia-based PundiX has enjoyed success with its XPOS platform across its native continent. Last year, it began its Latin American expansion by setting up offices in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Now, it appears the company has identified Venezuela as its next prime destination. "The economic conditions in Venezuela are an opportunity for easier adoption," Falcone told DiarioBitcoin. “The arrival of a point-of-sale [systems] makes it more viable and comfortable to use [cryptocurrencies] without the need to use the bolivars that are devalued day by day.” According to Falcone, Venezuelans have more than 30,000 active PundiX Wallets, and the company expects to establish similar deals with hundreds of stores in Venezuela by the end of 2019. PundiX’s interest in the Latin American market is already well established. Last week, the company announced a partnership with Panama-based crypto wallet provider ChainZilla. The plan is for PundiX to act as a crypto payment platform, and Chainzilla as a liquidity provider, throughout retail stores in Panama. "This partnership enables merchants in Panama to immediately accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency payments and then withdraw to their local currency, stable currencies, and a wide range of popular alternative payment methods in Panama," the Chainzilla team said in a blog post . As interest and awareness of cryptocurrency grows in South America, PundiX’s initial efforts in the region appear to be paying off. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] 09/17 02:20 現在のビットコインの価格 BTC/JPY ask: 1,097,161 / bid: 1,096,542 ・sp: 619 ・ps: +0.011% || Market Update: The price of #Bitcoin is currently $9922.58 #Crypto $BTC #BTC View the coin here here: https://t.co/ycSnnrGeFC || Block Number: 598,511 Time: 10/8/2019, 9:48:37 PM UTC Miner: AntPool Transactions: 3,338 Block Value: 7,488.237 BTC Size: 1,245,493 bytes Total Supply: 17,981,387.5 (85.62565% BTC issued) Price: $8204.85 || El precio promedio de bitcoin en las casas de cambio es $10319.84 (USD). || coincheck取引所での価格は 868709円/BTCです。短期間では統計的に上がっているように見えます。詳しくは https://t.co/YJ0LPqEup8 || Block Number: 598,316 Time: 10/7/2019, 4:11:12 PM UTC Miner: F2Pool Transactions: 2,897 Block Value: 7,339.371 BTC Size: 1,354,892 bytes Total Supply: 17,978,950 (85.61405% BTC issued) Price: $8210.34 || The Worlds First 100k Qubit Quantum Computer https://t.co/bbztxI724K | #Startups #BitCoin #Ethereum #campaign #cryptocurrency #tucson #asia #bitcoinrussia #initialcoinofferings #bitcoinaustralia #tokenmarket #venturecapital #AVCJjapan #oxycoin #kansascity #brazil #technews #avcj https://t.co/5qPr4VPkQ3 || Save your BTC/ETH/USDT in Coinchase to enjoy 16% APR + 0.4% increase per week, and up to 57.6% APR. #Coinchase #CoinchaseSavings https://t.co/cGakZ8kFIX || Consult Aditya, The Top Technologist in the world today. https://t.co/T5SlxRDERA | #philadelphia #tezos #icotracker #detroit #bitcoin #omaha #malaysia #oklahomacity #melbourne #milwaukee #argentina #tokyo #investment #TokenSales #funds #sanantonio #oakland #Russia #privateequity https://t.co/MdHy1NasKn || #ripple #sends #100 #million #xrp to #stellar #founder #& #'xrp #army' is #furious #bitcoin #blockchain #cryptocurrencymarket #cryptocurrencymarket #coinbase #bittrex #SecretContracts #SmartCash #fintech #ltc #enigma #retweet https://t.co/0j8hXgUSSx
Trend: up || Prices: 8047.53, 8103.91, 7973.21, 7988.56, 8222.08, 8243.72, 8078.20, 7514.67, 7493.49, 8660.70
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-11-15] BTC Price: 63557.87, BTC RSI: 53.86 Gold Price: 1866.10, Gold RSI: 69.06 Oil Price: 80.88, Oil RSI: 49.98 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] ProShares Bitcoin Futures ETF to Start NYSE Trading on Tuesday: ProShares will launch a bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) that will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange tomorrow, the company confirmed in anSEC filingon Monday. CoinDesk firstreported on Fridaythat the ETF was scheduled to launch this week. • The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved bitcoin futures ETFs on Friday. • ProShares filed for its Bitcoin Strategy ETF this past summer. The fund is linked to bitcoin futures that are traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. • With the SEC mulling dozens of bitcoin ETFs, Chairman Gary Gensler hasmade it clearthat funds linked to the futures market rather than the underlying asset were more likely to win regulatory approval. • “This is an exciting step but not the last,” Douglas Yones, head of exchange-traded products at the NYSE,toldthe New York Times’ DealBook, • News of long-awaited approval for a bitcoin-related ETF sent the world’s largest crypto by market value to levels not seen since April. Bitcoinclimbedabove $60,000 for the first time in nearly six months on Friday. • There will be hopes that the debut of a bitcoin ETF on the NYSE will open the floodgates to a stream of similar products winning regulatory approval and accelerating the flow of investments into crypto. Read more:Grayscale Reiterates Plans to Convert Bitcoin Trust to Spot ETF UPDATE (OCT. 18, 11:51 UTC):Adds bitcoin futures to headline, quote in sixth bullet point, background starting in third. UPDATE (OCT. 18, 12:57 UTC):Adds information about SEC filing in lead paragraph. || Powerful Crypto Rigs released by ASICWay: SUNNYVALE, Nov. 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The rapidly evolving global market for cryptocurrency is currently abuzz with the recent introduction of three extraordinarily designed mining rigs, AW1, AW 2 and AW Pro from ASICWay ( www.ASICWAY.com ). Instead of focusing only on highly proficient and technology savvy mining stalwarts, these three products were created to allow the casual enthusiasts as well as small-time miners to make their fortune out of crypto mining by generating a return of investment within just one month.Within less than a month in the market, the miners have been used by many common users without any technical background to earn healthy returns on their investment. This has been made possible by the extraordinary hash power offered by the products. Also, with low energy-consumptions, ASICWay miners are now amongst the most energy-efficient mining hardware in the market.AW 1 Miner: Bitcoin 380 TH/s, Litecoin 40 GH/s, Ethereum 2,5 GH/s, and Monero 3 MH/s, and 650 W power consumption.AW 2 Miner: Bitcoin 610 TH/s, Litecoin 64 GH/s, Ethereum 4 GH/s, and Monero 5 MH/s, and 850 W power consumption.AW Pro Miner : Bitcoin 1950 TH/s, Litecoin 200 GH/s, Ethereum 13 GH/s, and Monero 16 MH/s, and 2200 W power consumption.Projected earning potential for AsicWay AW PRO⦁ Bitcoin: $678.35/day, $4748.42/week, $20.35k/month, $247.60k/year⦁ Litecoin: $805.91/day, $5641.35/week, $24.18k/month, $294.16k/year⦁ Ethereum: $899.75/day, $6298.24/week, $26.99k/month, $328.41k/year⦁ Monero: $1099.59/day, $7697.11/week, $32.99k/month, $401.35k/yearProjected earning potential for AsicWay AW 2⦁ Bitcoin: $208.15/day, $1457.08/week, $6244.63/month, $75.98k/year⦁ Litecoin: $257.01/day, $1799.05/week, $7710.21/month, $93.81k/year⦁ Ethereum: $267/day, $1869/week, $8000/month, $97.50k/year⦁ Monero: $321/day, $2253/week, $9658/month, $117k/yearProjected earning potential for AsicWay AW 1⦁ Bitcoin: $129.32/day, $905.26/week, $3879.69/month, $47.20k/year⦁ Litecoin: $160.30/day, $1122.10/week, $4809/month, $58.51k/year⦁ Ethereum: $170.18/day, $1191.27/week, $5105.44/month, $62.12k/year⦁ Monero: $207.94/day, $1455.56/week, $6238.10/month, $75.90k/yearOver the years, cryptocurrency mining has seen serious improvements. However, owing to the highly technical nature of this domain, it had limited to no scope for people that are technologically challenged. ASICWAY has already changed that perception by creating three rigs that are pre-configured and just needs to be plugged-in for an uncomplicated crypto mining experience.The miners from ASICWay are suitable for use at home because they generate low amounts of heat as well as noise. Moreover, unlike hundreds of products in the market, the miners do not need a huge space.To find out more about ASICWay Miners , please visithttps://asicway.comAbout AsicWay: AsicWay is an innovative technology company created and managed by an experienced team of engineers and enlightened minds inspired by the idea of bringing the best technology to the crypto mining market. The company operates with the vision of bringing unprecedented crypto mining opportunities for all types of investors. CONTACT: Aydan Brown CEO aydan@asicway.com || Silver Price Daily Forecast – Silver Tries To Settle Above The $24 Level: Silver Is Moving Higher As Gold/Silver Ratio Tests The Support At 74 Silver continues its attempts to settle above $24.00 while the U.S. dollar is losing some ground against a broad basket of currencies. The U.S. Dollar Index is testing the support level at 93.75. In case this test is successful, the U.S. Dollar Index will move towards the recent lows at 93.50 which will be bullish for silver and gold price today. Weaker dollar is bullish for precious metals as it makes them cheaper for buyers who have other currencies. Meanwhile, gold settled above the resistance at $1775 and is moving towards the next resistance at $1800. If gold manages to get to the test of this level, silver will get more support. Gold/silver ratio continues its attempts to settle below the support level at 74. A move below this level will provide gold/silver ratio with a chance to develop additional downside momentum which will be bullish for silver. Technical Analysis Silver has once again managed to get above the resistance at $23.90 and is trying to settle above $24. RSI remains in the moderate territory despite the strength of the recent upside move, so there is plenty of room to gain additional upside momentum in case the right catalysts emerge. If silver manages to settle above $24, it will move towards the next resistance level which is located at $24.30. A successful test of the resistance at $24.30 will open the way to the test of the resistance at $24.50. If silver gets above $24.50, it will move towards the next resistance level at $24.80. On the support side, silver needs to get back below $23.90 to have a chance to develop downside momentum in the near term. The next support level for silver is located near 50 EMA at $23.50. If silver declines below this level, it will head towards the next support level at $23.20. The 20 EMA is located in the nearby, so silver may get material support in the $23.10 – $23.20 area. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar . Story continues This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: GBP/USD Price Forecast – British Pound Stalls After Push Higher Why Novavax Stock Is Down By 10% Today Anthem Shares Hit Record High After A Blowout Quarter Crypto Hits the Mainstream as Bitcoin ETF Beats Expectations EUR/USD Price Forecast – Euro Continues Grinding Action USD/CAD Daily Forecast – Test Of Support At 1.2320 || Bitcoin Holds Above $66K, but Elevated Funding Rates Call for Caution: Bitcoin remains on the offensive, thanks to ProShares futures-focused Bitcoin Strategy ETF’s strong debut on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this week. The cryptocurrency bounced to $66,400, having found bids near $64,000 during the Asian hours. • Analysts foreseea rally toward $86,000 in the coming weeks. However, it may not be a smooth ride, as the derivatives market is beginning to show signs of overheating – often a recipe for price pullbacks. • Bitcoin’s average funding rate or the cost of holding long positions in the perpetual futures listed on major exchanges, including Binance, has risen to 0.06% – the highest in at least six months, according to data provided by Bybit. Exchanges calculate funding rates every eight hours. • On retail-focused exchange Bybit, the funding rate surged as high as 0.14% early today. • “Participants need to pay close attention to the exchange funding rates represented by Bybit, where retail investors are more concentrated, and excessive rates may trigger another short-term price downturn,” Babel Finance mentioned in the weekly research note published Monday. • While funding rates seen at press time are significantly higher than those seen before the early September sell-off and the mid-May price crash, they are not yet as high as the ones seen during the first quarter bull frenzy. • Although a positive funding rate represents an upbeat market mood, a very high reading indicates that the leverage is heavily skewed on the bullish side and often paves the way for price pullbacks. • Stack Funds COO and co-founder Matthew Dibb said elevated funding rates might inject volatility into the market. “Our expectation is that capital will rotate into ethereum and major altcoins while bitcoin cools off slightly,” Dibb added. || El Salvador's president says the country has mined its first bitcoin using volcano energy: • El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said the country had mined its first bitcoin with volcano energy on Friday. • Bukele said earlier this week the volcano energy project was underway. • Bitcoin mining is hugely energy intensive, and consumes more power in a year than the Philippines. • Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell. El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said in a tweetFridaythat the Central American country had mined its first bitcoin using clean energy from volcanos. Bukele tweeted that 0.00483976 bitcoin, worth around $230 right now, had been mined. Bitcoin rose by around 10% on the day to stand at ​​$47,485 by 07:00 a.m. ET. Many in the tweets comments marked this a momentous occasion. Using renewable volcano power to mine bitcoin means the process to extract coins from blocks of data in the network is less carbon-intensive. Bitcoin mining usually consumes more power in a year than the Philippines, according to Cambridge's bitcoin electricity consumptionindex. "We're still testing and installing, but this is officially the first#Bitcoinmining from the#volcanode," the president said. Bukele said El Salvador had also taken steps towards getting its bitcoin volcano project underway in an announcement onTwitterearlier in the week. The president firstsaidin June he would ask the country's state-owned geothermal electric company, LaGeo SA de CV, to construct a 100% clean bitcoin-mining plan using energy from volcanos. El Salvador made bitcoinlegaltender in September. Therolloutbegan September 7, after the countrypurchased400 bitcoin. Read the original article onBusiness Insider || AUD/USD Price Forecast – Australian Dollar Pulls Back in Consolidation: TheAustralian dollarinitially tried to rally during the trading session on Friday but gave back gains right around the 0.7550 level as we continue to build up the necessary momentum to try to break out. We have been very bullish, and we have also just kicked off a major “W pattern”, which could send this market much higher. A break above the 0.76 level then allows the market to go looking towards the 0.78 handle. This is a market that I think continues to see a lot of noise, but I like the idea of buying pullbacks and getting involved as long as we can stay above the 200 day EMA. Australian short duration bonds are seeing massive spikes in yield, so it is possible that this will continue to push the Australian dollar higher, not to mention the fact that the US dollar itself is rather weak. Beyond that, the market is likely to continue seeing commodities rally, and as long as that is the case, Australia should continue to be a major beneficiary of that scenario. With that being the case, market is likely to continue to see a lot of opportunity, and also will be paying close attention to the 50 day EMA getting ready to reach above the 200 day EMA. That is the so-called “golden cross” that a lot of longer-term traders pay attention to as well, so that being said I think we have plenty of catalysts underneath for value hunters come back into the picture. It is not until we break down below the 0.74 level that I would be short. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out oureconomic calendar. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Silver Price Forecast – Silver Markets Pull Back to 50 Day EMA • EUR/USD Weekly Price Forecast – Euro Gives Up Gains • MicroStrategy’s Market Cap Balloons Amid Bitcoin Bet • GBP/USD Weekly Price Forecast – The British Pound Continues Consolidating • GBP/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – British Pound Consolidates Further • Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Continue to Find Buyers on Dips || Bitcoin Climbs Above $60K After Report That SEC Won’t Block Futures ETF: Bitcoin jumped above $60,000 for the first time in almost six months following areportthat a bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) will clear the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As of press time the largest cryptocurrency was changing hands around $59,900, after touching $60,300 earlier Friday. The SEC is reviewing around 40 bitcoin ETF filings with multiple decision deadlines on futures-linked products hitting next week. According to Bloomberg, the regulator is expected to approve at least some of them, clearing the way for trading to begin. The SEC does not need to take any formal action to approve the filings. Under federal law, applications can become effective if the SEC allows a mandated deadline to pass by without requesting changes or directing the aspiring issuer to pull the filing. Bloomberg named applications by ProShares and Invesco as two proposals that may be allowed to launch under this law next week. || Flagship Crypto Spikes High, Bitcoin ETF On Spotlight: With the possibility of the first Bitcoin futures ETFs being launched as early as next week, bullish sentiment is soaring. This marks a major milestone after nearly a decade of fielding crypto ETF applications. A bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on futures looks increasingly likely to be approved by the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission this month, pushing the market more than 30% higher this month. In comparison to the dollar, Bitcoin appreciated rapidly. Almost immediately, it recovered and broke near 60k. During the day, it reached an intraday high above $59.8k, which was the highest price since mid-May. The regulator isn’t likely to delay the products’ introduction to trading next week, the people said, declining to be identified while discussing the decision. These proposals, which are based on futures contracts, provide “significant investor protections” that are different from Bitcoin ETF applications the SEC has previously rejected. Bitcoin’s volatility can be reduced with institutional capital, since increasing volume levels out price disparities. Increasing Bitcoin’s vertical adoption at an institutional level requires the use of regulated instruments approved by financial regulators. Digital assets are becoming a significant part of investor portfolios as Bitcoin’s status as a hedge against inflation continues to grow. ETFs ensure more institutional capital is flowing into Bitcoin; most data shows that bull runs occur because of retail mania, as seen at the end of 2020 and in early 2021. In addition to providing exposure to Bitcoin, the new ETF expands investors’ horizons, setting the stage for a bullish price scenario. A rapid tightening would be detrimental to bitcoin and other liquidity-reliant assets. From November or December onwards, the markets predict $15 billion per month will be cut. After March 2020, the central bank has purchased Treasury notes worth more than $80 billion and mortgage-backed securities worth more than $40 billion each month. Story continues Even so, some market participants remain bullish, with analysts urging us to continue “HODLing” until the first ETF is approved at least. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: NetFlix Could Scale to Fresh Record High on Upbeat Q3 Earnings USD/CAD Exchange Rate Prediction – The Dollar Drops on Unexpected PPI Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Rise but Settle Off Highs Flagship Crypto Spikes High, Bitcoin ETF On Spotlight Shiba Inu – Daily Tech Analysis – October 15th, 2021 Silver Price Prediction – Prices Break Out and Poised to Test September Highs || Bitcoin surges to a 5-month high above $57,000, outperforming wider crypto sector: Bitcoin. Getty Images Bitcoin surged to a five-month high above $57,000 Monday to outperform the broader crypto sector. The altcoin market is down overall, with ripple, cardano, polkadot, and dogecoin trading lower. Elsewhere, the dogecoin spinoff shiba inu rallied 19% Monday, gaining 265% over the past seven days. Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell . Bitcoin surged to a five-month high on Monday, climbing back above $57,000 to outperform the broader cryptocurrency sector. The digital currency claimed an intraday high of $57,776 before paring gains to trade up 3.48% at $57,331 as of 12:50 p.m. ET Monday. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization hit a record high of $65,000 in April. Tim Frost, the CEO of the digital-wealth-management platform Yield App, couldn't point to one particular reason behind the rally. Catalysts could include the Securities and Exchange Commission's recent approval of an exchange-traded fund made up of stocks with bitcoin exposure , growing institutional adoption of the digital asset, and the daily settlement hitting $31 billion worth of transactions for the first time last week, he said. But bitcoin could be headed for another short-term dip. "Analysts are predicting a potential cool off, with bitcoin potentially falling to the $40,000 support level before continuing on the upwards trajectory to test the previous all-time high," Frost said in a note. A technical analysis by Adam James, a senior analyst at the cryptocurrency exchange OKEx, showed bitcoin's four-hour ribbon of exponential moving averages was providing support. But he said the deeply negative Grayscale Bitcoin Trust premium for Grayscale's banner product may hinder the sustainability of this rally. Meanwhile, the wider altcoin market is down, with ripple , cardano , polkadot , and dogecoin trading lower. But ether and stellar are both exhibiting modest gains. Also bucking the general downturn is shiba inu, which was trading 19% higher on Monday to $0.00003212. In the past seven days, the dogecoin spinoff has climbed a dizzying 265%. Story continues The token was founded last year, with its anonymous creator dubbing it a "meme token," and explicitly mimicked dogecoin. "Shiba inu is a ridiculous meme coin of a ridiculous meme coin that most investors and indeed average people balk at," Frost told Insider. "The price seems to be on the rise now following a huge dump on Thursday, when a lot of whales decided to offload onto the market." Read the original article on Business Insider || Bitcoin Rides ETF Euphoria to Record High: By Yasin Ebrahim Investing.com - Bitcoin hit a record-high on Wednesday, riding a wave of optimism following the launch of the first bitcoin futures-based exchange-traded fund that many bet will open the doors to new crypto investors. BTC/USD rose 5.3% to $66,174, topping its previous record high of $64,778 seen on Apr. 1. The first Bitcoin-linked exchange-traded fund in the U.S., the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (NYSE:BITO), rose more nearly 4% in its first day of trading on Tuesday. The ETF, trading under the ticker "BITO," is widely viewed as a major victory for bitcoin as the listing not only legitimizes the popular crypto as an asset class, but also makes it more accessible to investors. A bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund doesn’t directly own or hold bitcoin, but rather bitcoin futures. The Securities and Exchange Commission said its decision to green light the BTC futures-based ETF was based on the fact that bitcoin futures, a regulated product, would allow it to have oversight and protect investors. "Here is a product that's been overseen for four years, by a US federal regulator and CFTC, and that's being wrapped inside of something which is in within our jurisdiction," SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. Investors hope, however, that the futures-based ETF will be the first milestone on the road toward an ETF linked to the spot, or underlying bitcoin. Grayscale Investments confirmed Monday its plan to convert its Bitcoin trust into a bitcoin ETF. “The NYSE Arca will file a document called the 19b-4 to convert GBTC into an ETF,” Grayscale said in a statement. Related Articles Bitcoin Rides ETF Euphoria to Record High Shabangrs Launches Photography-inspired NFTs With a Percentage of Sales Going to Charity CryptoDragons – A Next-Gen NFT Project is About to Take the Ethereum Blockchain by Storm! [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 60161.25, 60368.01, 56942.14, 58119.58, 59697.20, 58730.48, 56289.29, 57569.07, 56280.43, 57274.68
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2016-01-07] BTC Price: 458.05, BTC RSI: 63.58 Gold Price: 1107.70, Gold RSI: 61.73 Oil Price: 33.27, Oil RSI: 32.84 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] SEC Targets Connecticut Bitcoin Companies: The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday charged two Connecticut-based Bitcoin mining companies and their founder with running a Ponzi scheme that defrauds investors. Homero Joshua Garza allegedly committed the fraud through two companies, one called GAW Miners and the other ZenMiner, by purporting to offer shares of a digital Bitcoin mining operation, according to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Connecticut. The complaint describes “mining” for Bitcoin or other virtual currencies as applying computer power “to try to solve complex equations that verify a group of transactions in that virtual currency.” The first computer or collection of computers to solve an equation is awarded new units of that virtual currency. Garza allegedly lied to investors about his companies’ ability to mine for Bitcoin. In a statement, the SEC said GAW Miners and ZenMiner in fact didn’t own enough computing power for the mining they promised to conduct, “so most investors paid for a share of computing power that never existed.” In classic Ponzi scheme form, returns paid to some investors came from proceeds generated from sales to other investors, according to the SEC. “As alleged in our complaint, Garza and his companies cloaked their scheme in technological sophistication and jargon, but the fraud was simple at its core: they sold what they did not own, misrepresented what they were selling, and robbed one investor to pay another,” said Paul G. Levenson, director of the SEC’s Boston Regional Office. The SEC’s complaint charges that from August 2014 to December 2014, Garza and his companies sold $20 million worth of purported shares in a digital mining contract they called a Hashlet. Investors were misled to believe they would share in returns earned by the Bitcoin mining activities when in reality Garza’s companies “directed little or no computing power toward any mining activity,” according to the SEC. Garza and his companies allegedly sold far more computing power than they actually owned and paid out daily returns collected from other investors rather than from currency derived from “mining” for currencies. Most Hashlet investors never recovered the full amount of their investments, and few made a profit, the SEC said. Related Articles • Wall Street Flat as Investors Await Yellen Speech • Oil Falls on Rising U.S. Stockpiles • The 10 Biggest Strikes in American History || How Blockchain Can Reform The Real Estate Industry: Bitcoin has gotten a bad reputation this year after several high profile hacking attacks and scams saw investors lose huge sums of money. The cryptocurrency has also been painted as a tool for criminals after dark web sites like Silk Road revealed illegal transactions using the currency. While the currency itself is unlikely to catch on as a mainstream form of payment in the coming year, many believe that blockchain, the ledger like technology that bitcoin runs on, could explode in 2016. Blockchain Applications Across The Board The potential for blockchain is wide reaching. The technology could benefit everyone from finance firms to the music industry by making transactions easier to follow and more difficult to forge. Several blockchain firms have emerged in order to help companies explore the possibility of using the technology within their industry. Blockchain For Real Estate One space that many believe could get a blockchain makeover in the coming year is real estate. Blockchain would make title transfers safer, faster and more efficient by automating the process and ensuring that legal battles over fraudulent titles were a thing of the past. At the moment, it is relatively easy for a criminal to create false title documents and transfer ownership of a property to themselves. The of fighting such crimes each year is around $1 billion, a sum that could be saved with a blockchain-run system. Better Price Comparison Using blockchain would also make comparing similar properties for house hunters. At the moment owners can keep lease prices private, making it difficult to find comparable sales figures. However, if all of that data was stored on blockchain, it would be easily searchable and available to both buyers and sellers. See more from Benzinga Not All Of Clinton's Policies Are Bad For Pharmaceuticals What's In Store For Apple In 2016 Google Is Developing A Messaging Service To Compete With Rivals © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Your first trade for Monday: The "Fast Money" traders delivered their final trades of the day. Tim Seymour was a seller of the iShares MSCI Japan ETF(NYSE Arca: EWJ). David Seaburg was a seller of Twitter(TWTR). Brian Kelly was a buyer of gold(CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: @GC.1). Guy Adami was a buyer of silver(CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: @SI.1). Trader disclosure: On December 11. 2015, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders:Tim Seymour is long AAPL, BAC, CLF, DIS, F, FCX, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JCP, JPM, KO, LGF, RL, T, TWTR, VRX. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, SBUX, YHOO. David Seaburg: No conflict. Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, Hong Kong Dollar, TLT, US Dollar; he is short Yuan, Candaian Dollar, GSG, EEM, EWC, EWH, SPY. Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC • Top News and Analysis • Latest News Video • Personal Finance || Ledger Fights For Bitcoin's Staying Power At CES 2016: The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is a chance for electronics and technology firms to debut their latest offerings and future prospects. Everything from self-driving cars to mind-blowing virtual reality sets have made their debut at CES, and each year the show tends to set the tone for what kind of tech will be big in the coming year. This year, bitcoin startup Ledger is keeping the cryptocurrency in the spotlight by hosting the only bitcoin startup booth at the event. Physical Bitcoin Storage Ledger created a hardware wallet product in 2015 that provides customers with a safe and secure way to store and use their bitcoins. Ledger takes some of the worry out of using bitcoin by giving users a physical way to store bitcoins – a lightweight smart card. They can then use a USB to make secure payments, and the company offers a simple backup system that provides users with a microchip and pin code encrypted system in case they lose their card. Related Link: Can The Bitcoin Foundation Last? This year, Ledger is planning to exhibit new offerings at CES including a new technology that will strengthen the security of online authentication by reducing the reliance on passwords. Bitcoin's Year Ledger's presence at CES suggests that although bitcoin had a rough year in 2015, the cryptocurrency isn't dead yet. Concerns about privacy and security have increased skepticism about cryptocurrencies, making it difficult for bitcoin firms to push mainstream approval. However, many believe that as security improves and more and more vendors open up to the possibility of bitcoin transactions, the public will get on board. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga Virtual Reality In 2016 Is Tesla A Good Investment For 2016? 3 CEOs Who Made Headlines In 2015 © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || A Nobel Prize winner just ripped into bitcoin, saying it 'is likely to go to zero': Eugene Fama. Bitcoin has beenripping higher recently, and some market participants saythe digital currency is finally making a rebound with investorsafter a sustained fall. The advice from one Nobel Prize winner:not so fast. Professor Eugene Fama, who won the 2013 Nobel Prize for economics, thinks the value of bitcoin "is likely to go to zero," at some point,according to an interview posted on CoinTelegraph. Bitcoin prices are hovering around the $400 mark right now, after making a big runup in late October and early November. "People won’t use it because basically it’s very difficult to know how much you need to settle. It is quite variable, they won’t want to hold it as just a way of settling payments, they will try to get rid of it quickly, as they do; and that’s not good for the survival of that kind of a unit of account," he said in his interview. "As if it doesn’t have a stable value it’s probably not going to survive as a unit of account. What that means is that its value is likely to go to zero at some point." Fama goes on to say bitcoin does not represent a "store of value," as gold does for investors. "I guess that for a drug dealer that has a lot more value," he said. There's a SoundCloud embed below; head toCoinTelegraph to read a full version of what Fama had to say. NOW WATCH:JAMES ALTUCHER: The American Dream is a lie More From Business Insider • The Money Of The Future Will Look More Like Bitcoin Than The Paper We Carry Around Today • I'm Changing My Mind About Bitcoin • The Rise Of Bitcoin: Is It A Solution Or Menace? || MarilynJean Interactive (MJMI.QB) Welcomes Top Bitcoin Remittance and ATM Expert to Board of Advisors: HENDERSON, NV / ACCESSWIRE / November 9, 2015 / MarilynJean Interactive ( MJMI ) today announced it has retained Christopher Concepcion to serve on its board of advisors. Mr. Concepcion has an MBA from Stanford University, over 30 years of international corporate expertise at the executive level, wide ranging business relationships in the Philippines and extensive experience in Bitcoin remittance and ATM operations. Mr. Concepcion was born and raised in the Philippines where he earned his undergraduate degree in business at The University of The Philippines in Manila. He then completed an MBA at Stanford University in California. While in the Philippines, Mr. Concepcion held executive positions in companies involved in supply chain management, real estate financing, insurance and communications. He has worked with Filipino remittances for the last 12 years. Mr. Concepcion was also a member of the Capital Markets Development Council that provided public / private business policy advice to the Philippine government. Mr. Concepcion and his family relocated to Canada in 2014. In late 2014, Mr. Concepcion formed Bitcoiniacs Holdings Inc., to acquire the world's first Bitcoin ATM operator. Mr. Concepcion then pivoted the business toward remittances, with a focus on using Bitcoins to allow foreign workers to quickly and inexpensively remit funds to the Philippines. Peter Janosi, MJMI's president said: "We couldn't be more excited to have Mr. Concepcion join our growing team. His expertise and the business direction of his firm match perfectly with 's plans in the remittance space. Mr. Concepcion's firm owns the world's first Bitcoin ATM and the first standalone Bitcoin remittance storefront, both in Vancouver Canada. With his Bitcoin expertise and top level Philippine contacts, we firmly believe Mr. Concepcion will provide invaluable advice and important introductions as we target the multi-billion dollar Philippine remittance market. We look forward to updating our shareholders as we grow this relationship." Story continues About MJMI MJMI is in the business of providing safe and accessible services for the users of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies. Crypto-currencies are a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure transactions and control the creation of new units. Bitcoin became the first decentralized crypto-currency in 2009. Crypto-currency is produced at a rate which is defined when the system is created and publicly known. By contrast, in centralized banking and economic systems, such as the Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency by printing units or demanding additions to digital banking ledgers. However, neither companies nor governments can produce units of crypto-currency and as such the value of crypto-currencies are completely based on supply and demand, free from any governmental control. Many people believe crypto-currencies, and in particular bitcoin, hold the promise of being the most significant advancement in global finance in modern history. The advent of bitcoin creates a secure, easily accessible and transferable transnational currency that is completely liberated from political influence. MJMI is currently exploring partnerships in several verticals within the crypto-currency space, including the multi-billion dollar remittance market. Management believes that several industries, including both international remittances and online gambling are on the verge of being revolutionized by the use of Bitcoin to effect transactions. MarilynJean Media Interactive is among the first publicly traded companies focused on bitcoin and the crypto-currency space. The company's trading symbol is MJMI.QB. Website: www.marilynjean.com Press Contact: bonnie@marilynjean.com SOURCE: MarilynJean Media Interactive || Bitcoin Seeks To Right Music-Industry Wrongs: The music industry has been plagued by problems ever since the advent of the Internet and digital file sharing. Free file sharing, illegal downloads and streaming services that offer unlimited listening for a low monthly fee have all contributed to a growing resentment among artists who say that the value their work isn't being recognized adequately. However, the bitcoin community is looking to all of that by using blockchain, the ledger-like technology that the cryptocurrency runs on, to create more transparent contracts. Royalty Distribution As many artists have their royalty fees negotiated by their labels, undesirable contracts with streaming services are often outside of their control. That means that their music can be played on services like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL )'s Apple Music or Spotify for a minor fee that the artist often find insufficient. In order to combat this, Ujo Music is working to create a system in which artists contracts are secured via blockchain. That way, transparency between the artist, the label and the streaming service is ensured and artists have more control over how and where their music is sold. Related Link: Is Adele Giving Pandora's Stock A Boost? Maybe, But A Major Copyright Overhang May Have Just Been Removed Peer-To-Peer Sharing A service called Peertracks is looking to use an alt-coin in order to deliver value to artists that choose to share their music on the service. The company uses "artist tokens" which increase in value as a particular track gains popularity. Music that doesn't reach many people would generate tokens with less value. In such a system artists are paid for the consumption of their music and rewarded for songs that are particularly catchy. Bitcoin Payments Bittunes is another startup aiming to the music industry, only this service is hoping to keep things simple and use bitcoin as a form of payment. The company allows users to play new tracks for $0.50, half of which goes to the artist while the other half is redistributed to a group of buyers. That way, the company's managing director Simon Edhouse has said, the transaction remains between an artist and their fans. Songs that make it to the service's Top 100 increase in price to $1.00, leaving the artist with 40 percent of the sale, the buyers sharing an additional 40 percent between themselves while Bittunes collects the remaining 20 percent. Story continues A World Outside Of Cryptocurrency Blockchain's entrance into the music space underscores the growing enthusiasm surrounding the technology. While bitcoin itself has raised questions about safety and reliability, the technology behind the cryptocurrency is often dubbed one of the most important technological advances of the decade. For that reason, many startups are focusing on how to implement blockchain into new industries rather than on ways to help spread the word about bitcoin. Many believe that bitcoin may never make it as a widely accepted form of currency, but on the other hand blockchain has the potential to revolutionize several different industries. See more from Benzinga 6 Ways Blockchain Could Change The World 8 Ways To Add Solar To Your Portfolio Obamacare Is Still Under Pressure; Here's Why © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Goldman to Launch its own Cryptocurrency; Files Patent: Wall Street firms’ increasing focus on digital currency technology has been reiterated yet again with the latest development fromThe Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.GS. The New York- based brokerage giant has filed a patent application with the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) – Cryptographic Currency For Securities Settlement – for a new cryptocurrency called SETLcoin.According to the patent application that was published recently, executives Paul Walker and Phil J. Venables have been named as inventors of the system.As a digital medium of exchange, a cryptographic currency allows distributed, fast, secure, confirmed transactions for goods and services. While Bitcoin was one of the first cryptographic currencies that caught attention in 2009, several other cryptographic currencies are currently available including Novacoin, Namecoin, Feathercoin, and Dogecoin.The patent application revealed that Goldman’s technology offers a virtual multi-asset wallet representing traditional securities and cash account for an individual, investor, or trader. The wallet has technology to generate, control, and store SETLcoins, for the purpose of exchanging assets such as stocks, bonds and cash or cash equivalents through peer-to-peer network.Usually a trader trades securities by meeting at an exchange with cash for security and then the related settlement between parties occurs after much delay, sometimes after several days since the transaction.  Further, the trader bears all the associated credit risk within that period.However, Goldman’s technology facilitates settlement at a much faster pace and minimizes risk. The application filing mentioned “settlements are nearly instantaneous because cryptographic currency transactions are independently and extemporaneously generated, verified, and executed within the network, without the risks associated with traditional clearing houses that can delay settlements for several days.”Cryptocurrency BuzzGoldman’s latest venture further adds to its initiatives related to cryptocurrencies. Notably, in April Goldman Sachs along with China-based IDG Capital Partners led a $50 million strategic investment in Bitcoin startup – Circle Internet Financial Ltd.Further, a group of top investment banks including Goldman, JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM, Credit Suisse Group AG and Barclays PLC BCS is working with New York-based financial tech firm R3 to develop a framework for using blockchain technology in the global finance markets. Blockchain, the “digital ledger” or the underlying technology behind Bitcoin, has  gained attraction for its significant potential to revamp the extensive and complex network of bank payments as well as settlements.Notably, in September, Bank of America Corporation BAC filed a patent with the USPTO for a system of wire transfers by using cryptocurrency.Bottom LineAs banks are embracing technology, they are continuously looking out for ways and working with FinTech to restructure many daily operations, update back-office functions and making huge investments for auto execution of transactions. Further, in this competitive environment, the financial institutions are striving hard to attract and retain clients by offering better digital experience as traditional methods are gradually taking a backseat.Goldman currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportJPMORGAN CHASE (JPM): Free Stock Analysis ReportBARCLAY PLC-ADR (BCS): Free Stock Analysis ReportGOLDMAN SACHS (GS): Free Stock Analysis ReportBANK OF AMER CP (BAC): Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || Hired-gun hacking played key role in JPMorgan, Fidelity breaches: By Jim Finkle and Joseph Menn NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When U.S. prosecutors this week charged two Israelis and an American fugitive with raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in one of the largest and most complex cases of cyber fraud ever exposed, they also provided an unusual look into the burgeoning industry of criminal hackers for hire. The trio, who are accused of orchestrating massive computer breaches at JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and other financial firms, as well as a series of other major offences, did little if any hacking themselves, the federal indictments and a previous civil case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicate. Rather, they constructed a criminal conglomerate with activities ranging from pump-and-dump stock fraud to Internet casino break-ins and unlicensed Bitcoin trading. And just like many legitimate corporations, they outsourced much of their technology needs. "They clearly had to recruit co-conspirators and have that type of hacker-for-hire," said Austin Berglas, former assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's New York cyber division, who worked the JPMorgan case before he left the agency in May. "This is the first case where it's that clear of a connection." Berglas, who now heads cyber investigations for private firm K2 Intelligence, said additional major cases of freelance hacking will come to light, especially as more people become familiar with online tools such as Tor that seek to conceal a user’s identity and location. RENTED TIME This week's indictments accused a hacker referred to as "co-conspirator 1" of installing malicious software on the servers of multiple victims at the direction of Gery Shalon, the alleged mastermind of the scheme now under arrest in Israel. A second indictment charges a man referred to as John Doe, believed to be in Russia, for an attack on online trading firm E*Trade (ETFC.O). Officials have not said if the co-conspirator and John Doe were the same person, or even if the FBI knows their true identities. Story continues Law enforcement and computer security officials say that outsourced cyber-crime services - including rented time on networks of previously compromised personal computers and custom break-ins - are most readily found on underground Russian-language computer forums, where skilled attackers advertise their services. The forums are tight-knit communities where newbies must be vouched for by multiple known members and pay membership fees that cost thousands of dollars, said Daniel Cohen, who oversees an undercover team at EMC Corp's (EMC.N) RSA Security that monitors the forums. “You can find anything you want for an operation. Hackers, servers, software, code writing. They are all available," said Cohen. Individuals hide their identities even from each other, making infiltration and arrests rare. In this case, the ringleaders are accused of hiring hackers to steal contact information and other data that they then used to help convince ordinary investors to buy little-regulated stocks. Prosecutors have not disclosed how the hackers were compensated. Fees vary greatly in the cyber underground, depending on the complexity of the assignment and supply of talent available to do a particular job. Elite hackers who pull off the most technically challenging attacks might get a percentage of profits, while others might earn an hourly rate or get paid a few thousand dollars for winning access to a target’s network, researchers said.PUMP-AND-DUMP All three of those accused this week - Shalon, Joshua Samuel Aaron, who is at large, and Ziv Orenstein, who is also in jail in Israel – began promoting penny stocks before the hacks took place, according to U.S. government claims. They used websites including Pennystockdiscoveries.com and Stockcastle.com to send emails as part of a scheme in which they invested in penny stocks, spread false information to boost their prices, and then sold them to make windfall profits, according to an SEC suit filed in July. Orenstein’s lawyer declined to comment, and Shalon’s lawyer did not return messages seeking comment. In one case in early 2012, the SEC claims that they used the website Stockcastle.com to promote shares in Mustang Alliances Inc, reaping $2.2 million, the largest pump-and-dump cited in the regulator's lawsuit. In March of that year, the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission issued an alert warning that two entities tied to Stockcastle were falsely claiming to be registered in the territory. That same year, the enterprise began a massive hacking spree to get contact information for investors who might be good targets, according to prosecutors. By the end of 2013 they had ordered up six hacks that provided data on tens of millions of customers, prosecutors said. They hit the mother lode in 2014 when they attacked three other firms, and stole data on 83 million customers from JP Morgan alone, prosecutors said. In addition to JP Morgan and E*Trade, the firms attacked included the mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments, Scottrade, TD Ameritrade Holding Corp (AMTD.N) and News Corp's (NWSA.O) Dow Jones unit, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, according to court documents and people familiar with the cases. "To do a 'pump-and-dump' operation, you no longer need 30 people behind phones in a strip mall," said Shane Shook, a security consultant specializing in investigating financial breaches. All you need is to find a hacker on a “Dark Web” forum to provide addresses from customers of financial services firms like Fidelity or JPMorgan, then hire a spam service to push out promotional emails, he said. Shalon bragged about the stock manipulation scheme, telling the hacker known as co-conspirator 1 in a web chat message that it was "a small step towards a large empire," according to the indictment. His plan, Shalon told the hacker, was to distribute "mailers" on stocks to those customers. The hacker asked if buying stocks was popular in America, the indictment said, prompting Shalon to reply: "It's like drinking freaking vodka in Russia." Shalon ultimately made good on his promise to build an empire, according to the indictments. Profits from the pump-and-dump fed into a sprawling conglomerate including offshore Internet casinos and payment-processing services for other criminal operators, such as counterfeit pharmaceutical makers. Shalon also allegedly directed hackers to attack rival casinos, stealing customer data and temporarily bringing down their websites with denial-of-service attacks, which are easily commissioned online.BUTTERFLY AND HIDDEN LYNX While this week's indictments opened the first major criminal case involving outsourced hacking, there have been other substantial break-ins that researchers believe were contract jobs. Researchers at Symantec in July attributed a series of precision breaches at Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter in 2012 and 2013 to a sophisticated gang called Butterfly, which also attacked law firms and pharmaceutical companies. Computer security firm Symantec concluded that the group likely works for hire, either for a client looking for financial gain in the stock market or for competitors. How Butterfly gets hired remains unclear. Tech criminologist Marc Goodman, author of the book “Future Crimes”, says another group, dubbed Hidden Lynx by Symantec, may consist of contractors moonlighting from jobs with the Chinese military. http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/enterprise/media/security_response/whitepapers/hidden_lynx.pdf "It's crime as a service," "Goodman said. "They take all the pain out of it." (Reporting by Joseph Menn in San Francisco and Jim Finkle and Nate Raymond in New York; Additional reporting from Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Martin Howell.) || Banks expected to adopt new technologies rather than be overrun: NEW YORK (Reuters) - New technology firms are battering all kinds of companies, but banks will remain as financial intermediaries, due to the regulations and duties governments have put on them, says a proponent of the technology behind the bitcoin cryptocurrency. "Regulation keeps them in place. Regulation requires them to perform certain functions," said Mark Smith, chief executive of Symbiont.io, a startup that has emerged from Bitcoin 2.0 and MathMoney f(x) Inc to build a securities trading platform using blockchain technology like that behind bitcoin. Smith predicted that big banks, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co, would adopt new technologies to cut costs for back offices that process loans and match buyers and sellers of securities. "A massive amount of infrastructure just goes away," said Smith, who was speaking on Thursday in a panel discussion held by Thomson Reuters on innovation and disruption in financial services. New competitors are coming into banking from Silicon Valley, JPMorgan's chief executive, Jamie Dimon, warned bank shareholders this year. But he also said JPMorgan had much to learn from them and might enter partnerships with some. JPMorgan worked with Apple Inc on last year's launch of the Apple Pay application for making credit and debit card payments with smartphones. Last month the bank said it would also operate a rival digital wallet called Chase Pay. Later, Smith said his firm expected to sell tools to big banks for securities trading by customers. "We are a disrupter and an enabler as well," he added. Another panel member, Sam Shrauger, senior vice president of digital solutions at card and payments company Visa Inc, said that while cash and paper check transactions give way to electronic messages, "that's not going to change the overarching way that we move money." (Reporting by David Henry in New York; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] $452.47 at 03:45 UTC [24h Range: $448.00 - $458.33 Volume: 2980 BTC] via #btcusdpic.twitter.com/eD9iZ8Nssc || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 17 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $201.05 #bitcoin #btc || $325.92 at 08:00 UTC [24h Range: $324.00 - $328.94 Volume: 3451 BTC] via #btcusdpic.twitter.com/u64KcPMpNJ || Average Bitcoin market price is: USD 340.00, EUR 315.71 || BTCTurk 1268.2 TL BTCe 419.265 $ CampBx $ BitStamp 420.00 $ Cavirtex 585 $ CEXIO 427.64 $ Bitcoin.de 387.87 € #Bitcoin #btc || $321.00 at 09:30 UTC [24h Range: $317.00 - $326.09 Volume: 6579 BTC] || LIVE: Profit = $430.97 (5.13 %). BUY B20.42 @ $420.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $433.40 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || LIVE: Profit = $778.51 (9.26 %). BUY B20.42 @ $420.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $450.47 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || $377.13 at 08:00 UTC [24h Range: $355.66 - $381.71 Volume: 13095 BTC] || #Bitcoin last trade @bitstamp $414.00 @bitfinex $414.86 @coinbase $414.39 Set #crypto #price #alerts at http://AlertCo.in 
Trend: down || Prices: 453.23, 447.61, 447.99, 448.43, 435.69, 432.37, 430.31, 364.33, 387.54, 382.30
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2019-02-27] BTC Price: 3851.05, BTC RSI: 54.19 Gold Price: 1317.70, Gold RSI: 54.15 Oil Price: 56.94, Oil RSI: 62.17 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitfury Launches Set of Tools to Drive Lightning Network Adoption: Blockchain technology firm Bitfury Group has released a series of new tools for merchants and developers in a bid to drive wider adoption of the Lightning Network ( LN ). The launch was announced in a blog post from Bitfury’s LN engineering team, “Lightning Peach,” Jan. 23. Bitfury’s new LN-related offerings span an open source LN-enabled Bitcoin ( BTC ) wallet, a hardware LN payments terminal and e-commerce software for merchants, a host of developer tools, and a public LN node to facilitate users’ creation of LN payment channels. The Lightning Network is a second-layer solution to Bitcoin’s scalability limitations , which works by opening payment channels between users to keep the majority of transactions off-chain, turning to the underlying Blockchain only to record the net results. Valery Vavilov, CEO of Bitfury, has said the products’ release aims to enable everyday use of Bitcoin and encourage worldwide adoption of blockchain technology. In a summary of the new wallet’s functionality, dubbed “Peach,” Bitfury has clarified that the wallet will be able to handle both regular on-chain BTC transactions and LN payments. The wallet will reportedly also be able to create a channel using a user’s Lightning address ID and their counterpart’s host IP, create invoices and support recurring subscription payments between Peach users. “Peach Commerce,” as Bitfury names its merchant LN plugin, will reportedly enable individual retailers and payment processors to add support for LN payments into their existing infrastructure for e-commerce services — the latter via a web-based Peach API. The product will support BTC micropayments and allow for LN invoice management. Bitfury further claims its plugin can confirm payments “in seconds,” with scalability of up to thousands of transactions per second. Lastly, Bitfury is also launching a point-of-sale hardware terminal to allow for fast and secure LN payments, as well as a “Peach public node” — the latter aiming to make payment channel creation easier by allowing users to connect their individual nodes or wallets to the public node. Story continues As reported last month, the capacity of the Lightning Network has recently surpassed $2 million, despite the year-long bear market. As of Dec. 23, LN-supporting node channels were able to facilitate 496.8 BTC — worth about $2 million at the time. Bitfury, for its part, is continuing to branch out into various industries — recently announcing the launch of a dedicated venture to open source the music industry using blockchain. Also this month, Bitfury partnered to bring LN payment support to Poland’s BTCBIT crypto exchange. Cointelegraph recently published an analysis of the cryptocurrencies with the highest transaction speed capacities, noting that scalability remains an issue for blockchain-based assets. Related Articles: Crypto Payments Service BitPay Reports It Saw Over $1 Billion in Transactions in 2018 Controversial Content Creators Shift to Crypto After Censorship London Stock Exchange Trading Tech to Power New Hong Kong Crypto Exchange Blockchain.com Seeks Undisclosed Stablecoin Partnership by End of 2019: Report || Crypto Up Despite Calls for Regulations: Investing.com - Major cryptocurrencies edged up in Asia on Thursday morning despite calls for regulation from the EU and Russia – an area in which the two have found some common ground. On Thursday morning, Bitcoin traded 0.46% higher to $3,815.8 by 10:04 PM ET (03:04 GMT). Ethereum was up 0.77% to $135.81, XRP added 0.39% to $0.3115 and Litecoin gained 2.09% to $45.497 over the past 24 hours. With the digital tokens picking up momentum this week, the crypto market cap rebounded to the $130 billion level after a tumble on Monday. There have been calls for tightening and enforcing regulations on the crypto industry, but this time they were from the top people in the EU and Russia. On Wednesday, the chairman of the European Securities and Markets Authority Steven Maijoor said he supports tightening regulation on digital assets and initial coin offerings (ICOs). “Where crypto assets do not qualify as financial instruments, we are concerned that the absence of applicable financial rules leaves consumers exposed to substantial risks,” Maijoor said at the FinTech Conference 2019 in Brussels. “This makes it plain to see that we cannot legally qualify crypto assets via a ‘one size fits all’ approach,” he added. Maijoor also calls for expanding Europe’s Anti-Money Laundering requirements to exchanges between cryptocurrencies, rather than just between digital coin and fiat currency. Apart from this, he proposed extending new regulations to ICOs. Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin directly ordered the Russian government to enforce crypto regulations by July 1 this year. Kremlin.ru, the official website of the President of Russia, released a document that sets out the details. It requires the adoption of federal legislation in order to develop the digital economy, including regulation on civil-law digital settlements and a regulatory framework for digital financial assets. According to Russian media outlet Rambler, the Russian State Duma plans to review and adopt new crypto regulations in March. Story continues Related Articles Crypto Slide; Russia Includes Crypto in Offshore Plan Bitcoin Falls; Report Finds QuadrigaCX Stored Ethereum on Other Exchanges XRP Dips Below 0.29977 Level, Down 5% || Bitcoin And Ethereum Daily Price Forecast – Winter Has Come For Bitcoin And Legacy Cryptos: Crypto market today saw sharp downside action as all major cryptocurrencies lost nearly 1.5% to 2% value resulting in a total market worth going down by $2billion.  Bitcoin and all other major legacy crypto coins today saw sharp downside move as they declined below a major support level that prevented downside action so far this year. Winter is coming to crypto market and no one can really predict how long it will last this time as even news that would normally give the market a solid boost failed to create any sort of lasting or short term impact on price action. Two such major news that failed to generate momentum are: • Wyoming legalizing virtual money as a payment option. • Solicitation notice issues by U.S. SEC which was viewed by many analysts as a signal for possible approval of CBOE’s Bitcoin ETF request. Market views the current scenario in which crypto assets failed to react positively to news that was highly anticipated by traders as an alarming issue. However, the real grim fact is that winter has already begun for the crypto market. And this is clearly visible in Bitcoin, the progenitor of cryptocurrencies which is currently experiencing its longest ever bearish price momentum since its debut 10-years ago. Bitcoin is currently on its 60thweek of bearish price action having begun its decline on the third week of December 2017. Bitcoin is now trading well near 2018 lows and a breach below said level will likely open doors for further declines which could go as low as $1200 to $1000 before achieving any sense of stability. Aside from Bitcoin, Ethereum is also suffering sharp declines. Ethereum was one of the oldest widely adapted cryptocurrencies and is among the first to gain popularity following Bitcoin. As such, the recent string of events namely – security vulnerabilities which have been discovered back to back just ahead of Constantinople network upgrade is raising lots of red flags and questions in market adding bearish pressure to market which has already suffered serious loss. Both BTC & ETH are trading at critical price levels today. As of writing this article, BTCUSD pair is trading at $3389.6 down by 1.5% having fallen below $3400 handle, while ETHUSD pair fell below $105 handle and is trading at $104.25 down by 2.10% having tested an intra-day low of $101.25 earlier in the day. Given clear lack of fundamental support for crypto bulls in the current market, it is merely a matter of days before key psychological price levels are breached and price moves towards new all-time lows following the crypto bubble. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • AUD/USD Price Forecast – Australian dollar falls • Crude Oil Price Forecast – crude oil markets find support on Wednesday • USDCAD Daily Price Forecast – US Dollar Aims For Stability Mid-1.32 Handle • Crude Oil Price Update – Trading on Weak Side of Short-Term Pivot at $53.54 • USD/JPY Price Forecast – US dollar drifts lower • AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast – Tone of Market to be Determined by NZ Employment Data || Bitcoin Bull John Mcafee Is Running for President While Running from the Law: ByCCN.com: John McAfee announced Tuesday afternoon in a video tweet that he and his wife have been indicted by a grand jury in Tennessee on federal, felony charges related to what McAfee acknowledges in the video are eight years of delinquent U.S. federal income taxes to the IRS. https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/1087772979730239490 McAfee said: For two years I've been speaking at conferences around the world and writing, and making videos about the fact that cryptocurrency will at some point come head to head with governments. || Bitcoin Bull Max Keiser Blasts Billionaire Skeptic Warren Buffet as an ‘Unmitigated Fraud’: Bitcoin enthusiastMax Keisertook a gander at a recentletterWarren Buffett sent to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders and he wasn’t pleased at all. He saw the actions Buffett revealed in the letter as prime reasons people should buy Bitcoin instead of investing in the stock market. Read the full story onCCN.com. || Indonesia’s First Billion-Dollar Unicorn Acquires Philippine Bitcoin Wallet: ByCCN.com:On Jan. 18, after an unsuccessful attempt to enter the Philippines market earlier this month due to foreign ownership concerns, Go-Jek, a major Indonesian ride-sharing platform has announceda partnership betweenwithCoins.ph, a local crypto wallet and payments platform. The Filipino firm is currently in the process of rolling out beta access to users in the waiting list forCoins Pro, its in-development cryptocurrency exchange. Go-Jek has made a “substantial investment” in the FinTech firm, with which it has acquired the majority stake in the business of Coins.ph. According tounofficial sources, the transaction cost the company $72 million — its largest to date. Since its launch in 2011, Go-Jek has grabbed the attention of over 5 million Indonesians and is processing over 6 million transactions on a monthly basis. Coins.ph was launched in 2014 and has attracted$10 millionfrom investors through two venture and two Series A funding rounds. The Indonesian tech giant, backed by the likes ofTencent and Google, has been attempting to penetrate the Southeast Asian ride-sharing market but experienced a backlash in the Philippines. Earlier this month, the Philippines Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) denied the application of Go-Jek’s subsidiary, Velox Technology Philippines, for aManilaride-hailing service permit. Martin Delgra, chairman of the regulator, said in aninterview for Reutersthat the company’s unit: “did not meet the citizenship requirement and the application was not verified in accordance with our rules.” According to the regulator, Go-Jek’s subsidiary isfully-owned by the company. On the other hand,Singapore-based Grab, a direct competitor to the firm and a major player in the Southeast Asian ride-hailing market complies with the local limitations on foreign ownership. Velox’ application for a permit to operate a ride-sharing service in Manila was filed in August — slightly before a regulatory change which limited foreign ownership of ride-hailing services to 40%. Go-Jek’s app is a one-stop platform through which users can order food and various services as well as conduct online payments. Investors have putover $3.3 billionin the company, and this drawback is highly unlikely to last for long, especially with giants likeGooglebehind its back. Rene Santiago, president of Bellwether Advisory and a transportation expert in Manila, commented: “Homegrown firms are not making a dent on early-player Grab, because the cars they can enroll now have to go thru the LTFRB’s filtering hurdles.” Moreover, the Philippines Department of Transportation has put a limit of the number of registered ride-sharing vehicles to 65,000, more than 37,000 of which are already taken by eight firms. Less than two weeks after the news about Go-Jek’s application rejection, on Friday, the companyannounced the acquisitionof a Philippines-based cryptocurrency wallet and payments services app Coins.ph with a bold statement: “To support Coins.ph in its rapid growth to meet the financial needs of all Filipinos.” On theFilipino-based platform, users can use buy Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum and use crypto to da various online payments such as payments of bills. The company has started to roll out beta access to its in-development cryptocurrency exchange Coins Pro. According to Ron Hose, CEO, and co-founder of Coins.ph, the crypto wallet was about to initiate new funding round when the opportunity to partner with the Indonesian giant’s payments unit Go-Pay presented itself. He added: “We are very proud to showcase the success of Philippine startups. In just a few years, our team has been able to build a scalable service extending financial services to millions of Filipinos.” Go-Payhas grown significantlysince its launch in 2016 and accounts for over half of the transactions on the Go-Jek platform. After the deal has closed, the crypto wallet company will continue to operate as usual while leveraging Go-Pay’s years of experience and resources. Nadiem Makarim, founder and CEO of Go-Jek also remarked: “We are humbled to take part in the country’s digital payments transformation, through technology and empowerment of fintech small-medium businesses. […] Today’s announcement marks the start of our long-term commitment to the Philippines and a continuation of our mission to use technology to improve everyday lives and create a positive social impact.” Whether or not Go-Jek and Coins.ph will deliver on their bold statements only time can tell. Above all, the Indonesian tech giant has not given up on the Philippines market. The postIndonesia’s First Billion-Dollar Unicorn Acquires Philippine Bitcoin Walletappeared first onCCN. || The End of the Wild West of Crypto Law (in the U.S., at Least): Remember a few years ago, when it seemed like every other week brought a new initial coin offering? Remember when those ICOs mostly just stopped happening? There's a reason for that. The crypto space has changed in more ways than bitcoin's recent nosedive. In this week's episode ofIndustry Focus, host Nick Sciple interviews Courtney Rogers Perrin and Joshua Lewis, two crypto and blockchain attorneys from Frost Brown Todd, about crypto regulations -- where we are today, what it means for businesses, and what could change in the next few years. Find out how international laws and regulations do and don't factor into crypto exchanges, whyWalmart's recent blockchain move is such a huge positive signal for the industry, which U.S. states and cities are vying to be America's blockchain hub, and more. A full transcript follows the video. More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • 3 Stocks That Are Absurdly Cheap Right Now • 5 Warren Buffett Principles to Remember in a Volatile Stock Market • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • The Must-Read Trump Quote on Social Security • 10 Reasons Why I'm Selling All of My Apple Stock This video was recorded on Feb. 7, 2019. Nick Sciple:Welcome toIndustry Focus, the podcast that dives into a different sector of the stock market every day. Today is February 7th, and we're talking cryptocurrency. I'm your host, Nick Sciple. Cryptocurrency and blockchain experienced a huge surge in interest throughout 2017 as prices skyrocketed, with bitcoin reaching nearly $20,000 in value in December. However, in 2018, prices declined precipitously. Bitcoin now sits more than 80% below its highs. While price movements received most of the attention in 2018, the business environment for crypto assets has continued to evolve, particularly with regard to regulation. Two weeks ago, I spoke with Courtney Rogers Perrin and Joshua Lewis, two attorneys practicing in the area of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and financial technology, to better understand the state of crypto regulation today and how it might evolve in the future. I hope you'll enjoy our conversation. __ All right, today I'm joined by Courtney Rogers Perrin and Joshua Lewis via Skype. Courtney and Joshua are attorneys from the firm of Frost Brown Todd in Nashville, Tennessee. They practice in the areas of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and financial technology. They're joining us here today to talk a little bit about what's going on with cryptocurrency regulation. Courtney and Joshua, thanks for coming onIndustry Focus! Joshua Lewis:Thanks for having us! It's good to catch up with you again! Sciple:For our listeners, Josh and I went to law school together. Josh and Courtney both just published an article back in December inBitcoin Magazinetalking about what's been going on with crypto regulation. When I found out that Josh was doing stuff related to crypto, that's stuff a lot of our listeners are interested in, I thought I had to have you all on to talk about it. The first thing I want to ask you guys before we get too deep into what's going on from a regulatory perspective is just, how did you all get involved in this space in the first place? What's led you all to this crypto practice? What services are you offering to your clients in this space? Courtney Rogers Perrin:I'm a little bit of a legal nomad. I started out working for the court system, then I moved up to New York City, where I worked in corporate restructuring and also worked on a trading desk. That was a lot of fun. Got to see lots of cold winters up there. Then I moved back to Nashville, where I became more of a finance attorney, and then switched over to payments. All of that has converged into, now I'm a blockchain attorney, as well. It's been great to have this myriad background to draw on when advising clients. It's really the perfect place for me to work because I get to learn every day because it's such a nascent industry that's developing. You get to think outside the box and also evaluate what's in the box already and see how it fits in. Lewis:I graduated law school last fall, but I started working with Frost Brown Todd on blockchain matters in the summer of 2017. When I first got familiar with the technology, I was absolutely floored. I knew it was what I wanted to do. I knew that it was going to, if not be world changing, at least industry changing. I think it's on the path to being that so far. I'm looking forward to being a part of that movement over the next couple of decades of practice. Sciple:It's definitely been an interesting and evolving space. We saw cryptocurrencies have a run-up in price back in 2017. This year, they've had a little bit of a come-down to earth. What's been the reaction from your clients to the volatility in the market? How has the business flow been impacted by that, if at all? Rogers Perrin:The business flow has definitely been impacted by Crypto Winter. We have a lot of clients who have substantial holdings and assets in cryptocurrency, so they end up needing to find investors or to put projects on hold while the valuation is low. We're an innovative firm in the sense that our law firm will allow clients to pay in bitcoin. We do convert it immediately, but still, that makes it challenging for clients who have bitcoin that has suffered rough evaluation in the past year. Also, you've seen a lot more development in the space, which has changed how things are moving forward. About a year ago -- actually, it was more like two years ago -- everybody wanted to do an initial coin offering. You saw the peak of it in November, December of 2017. Then, throughout 2018, you saw the regulators come in and start wanting to make sure everything was subject to existing law and figure out how things fit in to the existing framework. That had a chilling effect, as well. Sciple:Let's talk a little bit about what the law is saying about cryptocurrency. One of the biggest questions that folks have had is, what even is a cryptocurrency? It straddles several different asset classes. You have the SEC coming out saying that most of these are securities. You have some folks saying, "Hey, at the end of the day, this is code, and code is a form of speech, therefore it should fall into that category." How have we seen things develop in the past year? Do we have any clearer picture in 2019 about what a cryptocurrency really is, at least under the law? Rogers Perrin:I think we have a lot clearer picture of what the regulators think it is. Various individuals at the SEC have come out and said almost every initial coin offering they've seen is a security, with the exception of bitcoin and Ethereum, which weren't launched as ICOs. So, you have that. Then, you have to CFTC taking a position that bitcoin options are governed by them, and that they can evaluate that. You have the IRS treating it more as a capital asset. You see different regulation across the board. Of course, you have FinCEN, which treats it as currency. You have a different regulatory application from each different organization, and then you have certain individuals like Congressman Darren Soto, who is looking at trying to create a clearer framework where you don't have myriad organizations regulating it in different ways. Lewis:Yeah, there has been some litigation lately in the First Amendment, free speech space, regarding crypto, but that's mostly involving the SEC's strategy of imposing blanket gag orders on entrepreneurial crypto start-ups as part of their settlements with them. So the SEC will come in after these start-ups do an ICO to try and raise money, they'll say, "Your ICO wasn't in compliance with securities regulations, and if you want us to leave you alone, we're going to force you to not speak about your business, not speak about the offering that you did," and things like that. That's been the extent of the First Amendment movement so far. I think that ultimately, cryptocurrency and the code underlying it is a product. It's a set of words and numbers, yeah, but in the same way that a drug is a set of chemicals. If the government can regulate products, they're going to have a strong argument that they can regulate cryptocurrency and the blockchain and the apps that run on them. Rogers Perrin:I haven't seen much the government doesn't think it can regulate in some way, form, or fashion. [laughs] Sciple:Yeah, when you talk about regulators, they exist to regulate. You're going to see that. One of the phrases that I've seen a little bit around this area is the substance over form argument. You can say this is code, but at the end of the day, we're trying to use it for security transactions. That's how things have shaken out. When you're advising your clients, we've talked about, we've got several different regulatory agencies asserting their little territory when it comes to crypto. What's been the challenge when it comes to advising your clients on how to navigate the regulatory framework as it's evolved? Rogers Perrin:It's murky. That's the challenge. A client would love to come to you and say, "Hey, I have this question," and then get a response back. "Well, here's your answer. If you do this, you're totally fine. You're in compliance with the law. That's all you have to do." But that's not something that we can say right now. We can say, "Here's the guidance that's been issued thus far. Based on this guidance, we can advise you that we think the regulators would look at it this way. If you'd like, we can send an informal request or a more formal request for guidance from the regulatory agencies." Some clients want you to do that, others don't. You can get a little bit more information. But ultimately, it's developing. Recently, the CFTC put out a request for information on what Ethereum is and how it should be treated. You see the regulator grappling with this, too, of how they're going to regulate the industry, what exactly are the roles going to be, and what buckets do they fit in? Are there existing buckets? FinCEN has said, virtual currencies have been regulated since 2011. Well, that's pretty early. That guidance came out, that virtual currencies and ICOs have been regulated by FinCEN since 2011, that guidance came out in 2018. So, it's a hard area to give advice in. The best thing you can do is just tell your clients what the existing lay of the land is, and then provide an educated assessment of what the regulators might do going forward. Lewis:A lot of it is best practices. You look at the product and the offering that you're trying to do and what you're trying to sell and say, "Look, there may not be an official statute or regulatory opinion saying that this constitutes a security, but based on what we know of securities, based off the factors that make a thing of security, we think it's probably going to be a security eventually. So, the best practice for you now, today, before the regulation comes down, is to conduct your sale or your transaction in such a way that you comply with the regulations in advance, so that when the SEC comes down later and is enforcing these, they'll have no bone to pick with you." Sciple:Right. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, that type of mentality when it comes to thinking about how to comply with these regulations. You mentioned FinCEN and what they've been starting to do. Your article that you wrote back in December, you talked about additional fence and guidance coming down to clarify that cryptocurrencies are subject to the Bank Secrecy Act and all the know your customer and anti-money-laundering rules that come along with that. When you're advising your clients about how to comply with these sorts of regulations, what's entailed in complying with these anti-money-laundering rules? What extra burdens is this placing on folks trying to do an ICO or do business in the crypto space? Rogers Perrin:FinCEN has come out and said that all ICOs are money services businesses, and if they accept currency in exchange for their token or their coin, they're money transmitters. Well, that creates an enormous compliance burden for most clients. To be registered as a money services business, well, that part isn't particularly expensive. You then have to be registered as a money transmitter throughout each state in the United States. That comes at a pretty enormous cost. A conservative estimate between all the fees, in addition to the legal cost, is something around $1 million for compliance. That's a pretty steep task for an ICO that's just launching, which I think has had a real chilling effect on ICOs being launched this year. That letter came out in February 2018, and you haven't seen that many ICOs throughout the United States since then. For plain-vanilla KYC/AML, if you make the assumption that anybody dealing with a token has to have a KYC/AML program, then you go forward and just do a normal BSA plan. A normal Bank Secrecy Act plan regards looking at everything and assessing your risk. You do what's called a risk assessment. In that risk assessment, you try to assess what level of threat is presented by your enterprise. Can you move buckets of money over to Syria and buy weapons with your program? If you can, then you're going to need a much stricter program to evaluate who's buying things and who's doing things on your platform. If your platform is such that the only people that can access it are people sitting at home knitting, and it's for knitting programs of some sort, then you probably don't need a very robust KYC/AML program because the risk is really low. So with each of those, you have to really look at the individual company and create a bespoke plan based on the risk inherent in the program. Sciple:Following up on that, when you talk about the risk that we can't track these transactions, one of the big factors behind crypto and this whole industry is the ability to be anonymous. It's difficult to track the transactions that users of these coins are engaging in. What kind of challenge does the anonymity that crypto is designed to provide place for someone that's really trying to comply with the regulation and do what they need to do to know who their customer is and prevent money laundering? Lewis:That's a great question. That's another emerging area of law, too. I can think of one really good example that shows how the scene has changed, even since I got involved just a year and a half ago. In June of 2017 when I first started to play around in the crypto space, I could log intocoinbase.comwith a username and password and gamble as much of my law student salary as I could afford. Ripple or Ethereum or, at that time, just bitcoin. Now, if you want to log into that same website and spend any money at all in crypto, you're going to have to go through KYC/AML procedures that Coinbase is now subject to because of the BSA. You're going to have to scan a copy of your ID, you're going to have to verify your identity, you're going to have to provide two-factor authentication. These are all things that investors have to do as a result of these regulations coming down. On a peer-to-peer basis, the KYC/AML regulations don't have much effect. If you and I, Nick, want to enter into a transaction for a ticket or something like that, KYC/AML is not going to impact us. I can still buy an Alabama football ticket from you for 10 bitcoin. Well, I guess it would be like 0.0001 bitcoin. But, if you, in turn, wanted to start a business that involved crypto, if you wanted to start a StubHub-style business where you exchanged tickets for cryptocurrency, all of a sudden, you're going to be subject to these KYC/AML restrictions. And if I want to buy ticket from you, I'm going to be forced to submit my ID, make sure that my identity is verified. It places an enormous burden on the user end of things to verify their own identity, which in turn decreases customer flow to places like Coinbase or your hypothetical StubHub-style business. Rogers Perrin:I can attest that Coinbase really does do verification checks because I failed their KYC/AML process. [laughs] Sciple:[laughs] Wow, you need to watch out! Rogers Perrin:I was setting up an account, I got the account set up, got funds in it, and then I failed it because I relatively recently got married. So, for a short period of time, there was a disconnect between my Social Security number and my driver's license. Coinbase didn't find that acceptable. [laughs] Sciple:So it sounds like what you're saying is that on that exchange level, Coinbase or the other operator, where I'm going, I'm taking my U.S. dollars, and I'm buying a crypto asset, that's the position where the regulators can really do some work when it comes to regulating the exchanges. But once you get down to that crypto exchange level, peer to peer, it's where you run into some issues. Would that be a correct characterization? Lewis:Yeah, I think that's exactly right. Rogers Perrin:It's kind of like Venmo. If I want to send you money by Venmo or Zelle or any of these other entities out there that allow peer-to-peer payments, I don't need to be a money services business or a money transmitter regulated by FinCEN in order to send you, Nick, some money on Venmo. But Venmo has to be registered. Sciple:We spent some time talking about what's going on in the U.S. when it comes to regulation. Let's talk a little bit about, these crypto assets, you can exchange them over the internet, so borders really aren't as significant as they might be for a more traditional banking operation. When you talk about exchanges that might be based overseas, Binance is an example of one of those, are there limits to what U.S. regulators can do to enforce their rules on these exchanges? How are we navigating the cross-border issues when it comes to crypto? Rogers Perrin:I think where there's a will, there's a way. There have been a few cases of particular egregious dark-web behavior where people have moved mountains of money through shadowy cryptocurrency markets. I'm forgetting the guy's name right now, but he's presently sitting in a Greek jail awaiting extradition to either France, Russia, or the United States for violations of KYC/BSA-type rules throughout the United States and Europe. That's something to keep in mind: The United States isn't the only nation that has KYC/AML/BSA rules. Other nations have their own rules, but similar in content in the sense that they require information on the transactions and on the individuals behind the transactions, with all of them being united to the goal of trying to thwart criminal enterprise. Also -- and this was something that I hadn't realized until I got more into this space -- because you have certain nations like China who has pretty strong regulations against cryptocurrency, you can geofence off certain areas. Even though it's a decentralized worldwide system, sometimes it's possible from the very beginning to fence off different things. Sciple:When you think about what you need to do from a compliance perspective on the U.S. side, how much cooperation do you need from abroad, or with that, the ability to wall off different parts of the internet, can you do everything you need to do from a compliance perspective here in the U.S.? Or do you need to engage local counsel or representatives in the countries that you're trying to do business in in addition to what you all are doing in Nashville or elsewhere? Rogers Perrin:It really depends on the individual business and who they're targeting. If we have a client that comes to us and says, "Hey, we're planning on doing substantial movement of funds in the U.K.," one of the first things we're going to say to them is, "You need to get U.K. counsel or someone well versed in U.K. law to help you with that to make sure that you're in compliance." If it's somebody who's gearing everything to the United States, then if you have a few interactions with other nations, yes, they're subject to those rules there, but you have to always balance this from a risk-reward standpoint. Do they want to do a fulsome compliance program with, say, Spain -- I'll just grab a random country -- based on one transaction that happened there? No. But should they have a system where they can't do that transaction with Spain, so they don't have to worry about that? Absolutely. So, it's up to the client to figure out where they need to focus their efforts and their energies, even though, of course, our official advice is to be in compliance in all jurisdictions in which you do business. One of the things that we have encountered consistently are clients saying, "Hey, I'm a little concerned about the United States regulations. Can I just domicile my business in the EU or Singapore or the Philippines or wherever and not worry about the United States rules?" Well, it doesn't work like that. If you want to stay away from the United States regulations, then you need to not take money from United States citizens, you need to not do transactions with U.S. citizens or within the United States. FinCEN has taken a very, very broad view, and so has the SEC on some level. If your counterparty is a U.S. citizen, they're going to say that you're subject to their rules. Lewis:You're right to a degree. That works in situations where it's like the EU or China or one of FinCEN's 37 member countries. But I was at a meetup for blockchain businesses international a few months ago, and we heard a pitch from a developer who was working on a lot of business in Sub-Saharan Africa, where there's no institutional financial regulation scheme like we have in the more developed world, or in Europe or the United States. A lot of their business development involved actually flying over to these countries and meeting individually with government members to try and convince them on a one-on-one basis, because there's no regulatory scheme, like, "Hey, this is what the rules should be, this is what it shouldn't be. This is why our business should be allowed to operate. This is why this other business shouldn't be allowed to operate." The Wild, Wild West has fled from places like the EU and the U.S., but there's still a lot of gray area out there in places where more established financial schemes aren't in place. Sciple:Sure. When we talk about what's going on internationally, you mentioned the Financial Action Task Force, it's 37 member countries around the world, expected to bring out some additional guidance in June about how all those member countries are going to work together to enforce know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering rules. What are we seeing from that body? Is that promising from a compliance perspective in making things a little bit easier to navigate for business owners and folks trying to practice and do business in the crypto space? Rogers Perrin:I think it'd be really helpful to get guidance from them on how all the member states will work together. That guidance is just that guidance, it's not binding to the nations that are a party to it. So it'll be interesting to see what level of adoption it gets. Also, one of the things I was chatting with some people about recently is, we're all looking forward to getting some guidance on accounting standards from an international level as well. That varies tremendously throughout the world, too. It'll be interesting to see what those different bodies come up with for guidance. Sciple:When you mention accounting standards, are you talking about taxation? What's the thread to pull there? Rogers Perrin:Yeah, it's how they're taxed from an income level, but also how they're booked and how those assets are treated in different jurisdictions. For obvious reasons, it would be good if they're treated similarly across -- well, I shouldn't say it would be good because there's a chance to make profit when they're not just treated the same. But from an efficiency standard, it would be nice if they were all treated the same throughout the world. Right now, that's not the case. You have different nations coming to different decisions about whether a cryptocurrency is a currency or whether it's an asset that you hold or if it's stock. What is it, exactly? That guidance would be helpful. Lewis:We should note that it's good for us as attorneys when the rules are clearer because it allows us to do what Courtney described earlier and come back and say, "Here's a rule A, B, and C. You should take steps X, Y, and Z to comply." But I'd say most of the actual participants in the industry would prefer less regulation, certainly at least at the user level, and who believe that things like FATF's move are overreaches or constitute too much regulation. They believe that, as you talked about earlier, Nick, the decentralization and lack of regulation inherent in the cryptocurrency space is what gives it its potential. The crypto space itself is bemoaning these FATF and SEC actions pretty much across the board. Rogers Perrin:But in the same sense, as the industry becomes more mature, it allows for more investors to get involved. Right now, you see certain industries like, say, traditional banks, they don't necessarily want to have bank accounts that are associated with cryptocurrency because they're waiting to get better guidance on it. Once you have better guidance on it, then suddenly your more traditional banks can go ahead and do bank accounts and do banking for different companies in the cryptocurrency or blockchain arenas. That's helpful. It's really frustrating to have a client that wants to pay its people in U.S. dollars, and they can't get a bank to help them. Sciple:Yeah, and we've seen some banks invest pretty significantly in blockchain. Just to call out one,JPMorganhas several significant patents in that area. As we talk about the differences in crypto regulation among countries and how it's starting to evolve, and maybe to bring things more in line from country to country, are you seeing any countries out there that provide a model for maybe something that we should adopt in the U.S.? Whether it's from a customer-centric point of view or whether it's good for business, is there any country you think is doing it the right way when it comes to crypto regulation right now? Lewis:It's interesting you use the words "the scheme that's good for business." Like Courtney said, from one perspective, if you've got a large start-up that's pretty established and you want to operate out of Cupertino, you want to work in a jurisdiction like the United States, where regulations are getting promulgated. But at the same time, if you're a smaller start-up, you have a more out-there idea, you want to work in a place where it's easier to raise money. A lot of the ICOs that were being done two years ago, as Courtney mentioned, were raising enormous amounts of money, north of $100 million for ideas that otherwise probably wouldn't have been able to raise that amount of money if the investments have been subject to traditional regulations. You've got scale. On one hand, you've got China, which bans cryptocurrency and blockchain pretty much entirely. On the other hand, you've got countries like Singapore, where the country's central bank is actually specifically helping crypto start-ups open bank accounts. I guess the answer to the question is, there isn't any one jurisdiction that's necessarily doing it right with a capital R. There are a range, a palette of countries that the U.S. is going to have a choice to choose from as it models its regulations going forward. Rogers Perrin:Yeah, I don't know what "right" is in this case. One thing that I find really interesting is what Estonia has been doing. They're becoming a smart country. They've moved voting onto the blockchain, they're working on doing national registry cards by blockchain. That's much broader than just cryptocurrency, obviously. I find it really fascinating to watch, and I look forward to seeing how it develops there. I would love to be able to avoid DMV lines for the rest of my life, and they've come up with a system that allows you to avoid that. Lewis:The U.S. is watching, too, the palette that I mentioned earlier. Courtney mentioned the voting. West Virginia did a pilot blockchain-based voting app for service members abroad in this past election cycle to see how it worked. That's something that they'd seen work overseas and decided to bring stateside. I talked about Singapore's central bank specifically helping crypto businesses. In Wyoming, the legislature recently passed a bill purporting to specifically create...it's not exactly a bank, but it's a bank-like entity that would allow businesses, like Courtney was talking about, to deposit crypto, withdraw U.S. dollars, keep money in an actual account as opposed to having it in the digital world. So people at home are watching what's happening overseas. Rogers Perrin:Going back to your original question, we saw New York State come out with strong regulations right at the very beginning. I can only imagine that the regulators were hoping that would spur development within their state. It didn't quite have that effect. Instead, people have looked at the BitLicense regime and just said, "You know what? That's really complicated, how about I not be in New York?" That's just what we've seen, boots on the ground, is people saying, "I'm going to choose New Jersey or any other state in the United States. If I need to be physically near New York City, I'll take New Jersey." That's something we've seen people do, is to shy away from that. So now you have a bit of an arms race with different states trying to regulate in a way that they think would be most effective and most helpful to generate business within their state. Sciple:Sure. To follow up on that, just curious, is there any state that's really positioning themselves to be the crypto hub? Delaware is where everybody goes to incorporate their business; is there going to be a Delaware of crypto in the U.S.? How are things looking from states when it comes to racing to make things the most business friendly for these ICO and crypto businesses? Lewis:It's a Delaware 2.0 arms race. In fact, a lot of states that have had state legislature initiatives and discussions have specifically said, "We want to be the Delaware of cryptocurrency," because it's a whole new industry with a market cap of north of $100 billion at times that's just materialized out of thin air. Those businesses presumably will eventually sift down to one location. As far as specific states that are in the running, New York was in the beginning, just by virtue of being the financial center the United States. But, as Courtney mentioned, the BitLicense scheme, there was a mass exodus of businesses from New York after the licensing scheme got past. I think Chicago is a leading contender. Illinois has established a working group specifically to work with blockchain businesses and start-ups. Illinois has established some pretty lax laws. Wyoming, I mentioned a second ago, has specifically come out and said that it supports blockchain businesses and has done things like relaxing its AML/KYC requirements at the state level for blockchain businesses, and, again, creating that bank. A lot of it right now is conjecture. How much a state legislation or state regulatory scheme impacts the day-to-day business of a blockchain business that's going to be presumably working across the country and also internationally, where things like the BSA and international regulations apply, is to be seen. But at the very least, the states are saying right now, "I want to be the one to grab the most headlines." And I think that places like Illinois and possibly California or Wyoming are in the front running. Rogers Perrin:You definitely see it coming out from all the different states, but you see different states approaching it in different ways. In Tennessee, there's been legislation passed that smart contracts are contracts. In Delaware, you see that they've passed legislation saying you can do all of your corporate record-keeping on smart contracts. You see different states implementing little pieces of the puzzle. I think it's yet to be seen which piece is the most attractive and will garner the most voting boots with the feet to that state. Sciple:Sure. I want to transition, we've talked a lot about the crypto regulatory environment and where things have progressed and the question marks that are present in the industry right now. I want to talk about, when you advise your clients, and a client comes to you and says, "I want to do an ICO to fund my business," or whatever application they would like to do, given the uncertainty in the regulatory environment and the way things are evolving from a legal point of view, what are the advantages of an ICO that make it attractive given the question marks from a regulatory perspective? Rogers Perrin:A lot of it is from the marketing standpoint. Coming out and saying "Hey, we've got this ICO" still sounds interesting and attractive. What you can accomplish with an ICO is something that you can accomplish through a number of other resources, from either crowdfunding or seed funding or series A financing. There are a lot of different ways that you can accomplish the same thing. To do an ICO and not be listed as a security, you have to fall into an exemption, and one of those exemptions is selling only to accredited investors. So from that standpoint, you're acting an awful lot like a normal series A offering. It just really depends on why the client wants to do it, if it's more of a marketing ploy, or if there's some sort of utility behind it. If there is actual utility behind it, then you might be looking at more of a utility token. That's different. Think of it as the Chuck E. Cheese token that you put into the game at the...what do you call that place? Lewis:Arcade. Rogers Perrin:Arcade, thank you! Clearly, I spent a lot of time in arcades as a child. [laughs] Lewis:Would you say, Courtney, that it's easier to do an ICO right now than a full IPO or a full securities offering, or that there's any regulatory advantage at all? Rogers Perrin:It's easier from the standpoint of, you can go do it. Right now, with an IPO, due to the government shutdown, you can't do an IPO right now. You're not able to move forward at the SEC. You could do an ICO because you don't need the SEC to take actions for that. You still have to follow your paperwork and do all of that, I'm not saying you're exempt at all. I'm just saying that you're not waiting for a stamp of approval to proceed any further. You file your paperwork and you can go forward. From that standpoint, it's easier. From the standpoint of who has a clearer trajectory, an IPO has a clear and established history. An ICO doesn't. Your chance of enforcement, I would say, is less, of the SEC or any other regulatory body coming back after you and saying, "Hey, you didn't do that right." That's much less with an IPO because you have an established, clear-cut path to follow. Sciple:For our listeners that might not be familiar with the accredited investor process, what are the limitations placed by only being able to offer your security or your asset to an accredited investor? How is that different from the universe of potential investors offered by an IPO? Lewis:The requirements for becoming an accredited investor involves things like having $200,000 in annual income for the last two years or so for a single person, or $300,000 for joint income; or, if you have a net worth that exceeds $1 million, individually or jointly with your spouse. That obviously creates a pretty high bar, especially in an industry like the crypto space, where there's not an awful lot of institutional money floating around. There's more now, certainly, than there used to be as blockchain has gained publicity and traction. But the average guy in the crypto space is younger and probably doesn't have a net worth of a million dollars and probably isn't turning quarter of a million dollars a year for the last two years. Rogers Perrin:Unless he's been mining bitcoin for five years. Lewis:Unless he's been mining bitcoin for the last five years. That's actually another advantage of the ICO. A lot of people sitting on a bunch of crypto are much more willing to invest that crypto in a crypto-based business, so when you run an ICO, these people who have mined bitcoin and have a higher net worth in digital assets rather than fiat currency are more willing to invest. So it's a way to get investors that have liquid crypto sitting around as opposed to liquid U.S. dollars. Sciple:When you're doing this ICO and you're complying, the universe of people that you're going to offer to are limited by the regulation as well as, as you mentioned, probably because of all the uncertainty when it comes to regulation, institutions are trying to stay away at this point in time. It's something to think about when we're doing the future of ICOs and what potential they might have for financing businesses. I wanted to ask you guys, when you look at what you've seen in your practice, and the reading and research you all do as part of practicing in this space, what do you think of as the potential for crypto when you look out five years from now? Five years from now, am I going to walk intoStarbucksand be buying my coffee with a bitcoin? Are we going to be seeing IPOs being done through this crypto coin offering process? What do you think the future is of crypto as part of a broader society that we'll be using on a day-to-day basis? Rogers Perrin:Adoption for new technology is pretty slow, generally. When you last went to purchase coffee at Starbucks, how did you pay for it? Sciple:I used my credit card. Rogers Perrin:That's how I always do it, too. I either do that or I pay with cash. Almost all of us could pay for it with our iPhone right now, and most of us don't. You see pretty slow adoption to new payment mechanisms throughout the United States. I would say in five years, you're probably not going into Starbucks and using your bitcoin to do it. Now, could you do it by then? Probably. But I don't think you will. It's more a matter of, it might be available. I still think cryptocurrency has a lot of utility, particularly in countries like Venezuela, where you have a sovereign getting behind that specific cryptocurrency. It'll be interesting to see how it develops as an international currency that can be used everywhere. I do think it'll continue to grow. I don't see cryptocurrencies in any way, shape, form, or fashion dying. I think it'll grow. But I think the real thing that will skyrocket is blockchain. Lewis:I agree with Courtney. A lot of people don't understand blockchain. The initial bar to entry is maybe higher than usingApplePay on your phone to pay for a coffee. But at the same time, I have no idea how to code, and I've got three computers sitting in front of me in this very room. I think that over the next five years, cryptocurrency itself may not be part of our everyday lives, and we may not even know that blockchain itself has become a part of our lives, but I do think that in increasingly insidious and pervasive ways, the blockchains that cryptocurrencies are based on are going to become a part of our daily lives, even if it's things like, for example, the companies that we buy our coffee from using blockchain to track where their products come from. Walmart just a couple of weeks ago came out and asked all of its leafy green lettuce suppliers to track their shipments from farm to retail on a blockchain. That's huge. That's arguably the first major industry use case where a company has said, "We think that the cheapest, best way to do this is on a blockchain." If more businesses keep doing that, then over the next five years, we'll definitely see adoption in ways that touch our lives, even if we're not aware of them. Sciple:Yeah, Josh, the applications in logistics are really remarkable. I saw that same Walmart story that you were talking about. They were able to track their products from the store all the way back to the tree that it came off of in South America in a matter of minutes, vs. previously, it might have taken a week or more to track all your resources. When you look at something like, you mentioned leafy greens, like the romaine issue we had in the past year, it'd be really nice to just punch a couple of keys on a keyboard and then pull all the bad stuff off the shelf and leave all the good stuff on so I can keep eating my Caesar salad. We can only dream. One other thing I wanted to ask you about before we go away is, as we look out into 2019, what are you going to be paying attention to this year when it comes to the evolving crypto blockchain regulatory space? What do you think are the things folks should be really watching over the next year? Rogers Perrin:I'm going to be paying a lot of attention to what the regulators are saying and doing, as far as the speeches they're giving, the actual guidance they're issuing, and then enforcement actions they're taking. I'm going to be paying attention to that so my clients don't have to. They shouldn't be bothered with paying attention to that. There's too much going on in that space on a regulatory point of view for anybody to be involved in that besides an attorney, in my opinion. I mean, people can certainly look at it for their own fun, but from a concerted effort, I think it's better just to hire somebody with that expertise, and then they can focus on the actual technology and developing that and moving forward with use cases. Lewis:I'll leave the regulation to Courtney for now and say that what I'm most excited about and also most concerned about and simultaneously most interested about is the use cases I was talking about a second ago. There's been enormous investment in R&D, and conferences where we've had case studies and hackathons over the last two or three years. But really, for the amount of money that's been invested, there haven't been a huge number of actual real-world use or test cases that have said, "Blockchain is the best way to do it." I think that 2019 and 2020 are going to be the years where we see, is this going to always be a pie-in-the-sky idea for people who are dreamers about the future? Or, is this going to be something that your business and my business can use? Is this going to be something that I can take from my crypto client or my blockchain client to my auto manufacturing client and say, "Hey, let me hook the two of you up. I think my blockchain client over here has a really great idea that's going to make your auto manufacturing business work a lot better." When you get to that level of adoption, that's when blockchains can actually take off. That's when the crypto currencies are going to start really accumulating value. I think that's when the work for us, and also the opportunities for the public sector, are going to start to really develop. Sciple:And all that cash flowing into those arenas is going to depend on having some predictability when it comes to the regulatory environment. All that comes together to tell the story of what we talked about today. I want to thank you all for taking time to come on the show! This is an area of the law that's continuing to evolve. As we said earlier on the show, we're going to see new guidance come out later this year that maybe will give us a better picture of what's going on. If folks want to stay in touch with you and see what your thoughts are on how things are developing, is there anything you all want to promote or shout out from the firm? Rogers Perrin:Sure! We have a law firm website calledblockchainandbanking.comwhere we post recent developments in the blockchain and banking regulatory space. We both individually have LinkedIn pages. I'm Courtney Rogers Perrin at LinkedIn. Lewis:You can search me, Joshua Lewis Frost Brown Todd to pull up my firm bio. Sciple:Awesome! Thanks so much for taking the time to come on the show! As things develop, maybe we'll have you all on here in six months or so to revisit how things have played out. __ The information contained in this podcast is for educational use only and does not constitute legal advice. For legal advice on your personal cryptocurrency and blockchain-related holdings, please contact your attorney. As always, people on the program may own companies discussed on the show, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against the stocks discussed, so don't buy or sell anything based solely on what you hear. Thanks to Austin Morgan and Dan Boyd for their work behind the glass. For Courtney Rogers Perrin and Joshua Lewis, I'm Nick Sciple. Thanks for listening and Fool on! Nick Scipleowns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple and Starbucks. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Bitcoin’s Lightning Network: What comes next?: As discussed last week , Bitcoin’s Lightning network is an off-chain payments channel between peers. Users commit a certain amount of BTC to open a channel with a certain node. From that point onwards and until the channel is closed, Bitcoin can be traded back and forth between users without the hassle of paying high fees or waiting for long confirmation times. Both the Casa Lightning Node, a startup that created a small hardware device so that users can easily setup a LN node (much like you set up your internet via a modem), and the Open Node team, who received a hefty investment from the community’s favourite Bitcoin advocate Tim Draper, are promoting better use-cases and implementations for this decentralised P2P payment channels technology, built alongside the Bitcoin layer. Beyond Initial Integration Many clever people like Andreas Antonopolous, Jimmy Song and Ivan Livqvist who seriously believe this technology will solve lots of the current issues Bitcoin is facing, especially around scalability and the ability for people to micro-transact using Bitcoin. As the Lightning Network grows, additional integration options will become available that could provide exchanges and users with security and ease-of-use benefits beyond the two basic integration strategies described last week : exchange-to-exchange and exchange-to-user integration. Lightning-driven apps With Lightning, it can become possible to allow exchange users to make trades from within dedicated local apps, making deposits and withdrawals transparent to users. These apps can run on desktops, smartphones, or on more secure hardware devices such as the Ledger Blue. With exchange functionality integrated with a Lightning wallet, funds can be moved into an exchange’s control for the minimum time required for a trade to execute. Immediately after an order is filled or expires, the funds would be returned to the control of the user’s wallet/exchange app via Lightning. This could potentially create a simpler experience for users as well as reducing risk for exchanges in case of security breaches, as the amount of funds stored in hot wallets could be much lower. Story continues Money management With the two integration strategies previously discussed, it’s assumed that users will be opening channels directly with exchanges. This will be economical for larger-scale traders who move money in and out of exchanges often. However, as the Lightning network develops, it will be possible for users to have open channels into the public Lightning network and for those users to be able to route deposits and withdrawals via intermediary nodes. It will likely take some time before there is enough connectivity within the Lightning Network for this to work, but when this becomes possible, it will allow a user’s channels to be used for a variety of different kinds of payments as well as multiple exchanges. With channel set-up costs spread across multiple applications and counter-parties, Lightning transactions will become cheaper and more convenient. There are many ways to improve scalability and off-chains are a great way to accomplish that. Why should increasing the block-size be a better solution, if it will put more stress onto small transaction due to increasing fees? Lightning Network’s core issues There are two major perceived issues with general off-chain P2P micro-payments solutions: How to make sure channels don’t get too centralised within one or two nodes? How to improve routing through channels? LN’s centralisation problem The most discussed bottleneck is the problem of centralisation. I don’t think the LN will suffer massive centralisation issues, at least not more than Bitcoin mining, which people tend to say is centralised because there are around three pools with more than 50% of the hashing power. No, the LN will most likely be quite decentralised in terms of routing as more nodes join the network. Of course, there will be corporate nodes running which will most likely be used as hubs – users prefer to connect to nodes with many channels open, as they route payments onto different people with greater ease. This means there will always be a certain degree of centralisation, although because nodes cannot choose which transactions to route, nor they can reject channels from being opened, I see the LN as an open and permission-less way of using a Bitcoin side-chain, without the hassle of forking the network, in order to gain more transactions per second. We can’t forget each hard-fork represents a decrease in the overall Bitcoin security, as the more miners who switch to the new PoW, won’t be contributing to the Bitcoin network hashing power (blockchain weight). LN’s routing problem Another issue with the LN can be associated with routing. It has been stated that routing is one of the unsolved issues of networks, as the way onion routing (used by the browser TOR), works is by adding layers between nodes, allowing each node to only know the previous sender and the forwarding node. The idea is that if you want to send Bitcoin to a peer to whom you do not have an open channel with, you are depending on other nodes to create “safe” passage. The problem of onion routing is simple: if the channel breaks, the transaction fails because the node which holds the transaction does not know the transaction originator. Apart from that, this issue means some delays in information reaching out its destination, as I don’t think there’s a chance for any type of real attack – because the LN is not the main BTC network. Put your mind at ease My advice? Play around with the Lightning network and judge for yourself. There are apps already running on the LN, like Poketoshi to help you try it out. For now, try to follow developers like Jimmy Song, Jackson Palmer or Ivan on Tech, who will teach you more about the LN’s technicalities and other protocol implementations and their issues. Don’t forget: the more you learn, the better decisions you’ll make! A Bitcoin developer school is launching in Switzerland By Nawaz Sulemanji – February 27, 2019 The post Bitcoin’s Lightning Network: What comes next? appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Bitcoin Price Will Tank Below $3,000, Says Trader Who Predicts Mass Sell-Off: The bitcoin price will crater below $3,000 amid a mass sell-off. That’s what futures trader Anthony Grisanti predicts about the ongoing Crypto Winter. “I’m looking for a move down to $3,000, which would represent a real weakness in this market,” Grisanti toldCNBC. “It could be the driver that gets people to bail out of this and push it even lower.” Grisanti is a CNBC analyst who previously traded energy futures at Bear Stearns. Like other crypto bears, Grisanti believes it’s only a matter of time before bitcoin collapses. He attributed the recentprice volatilityto investors selling off their bitcoin holdings as they head for the exits. “Every time this market does run, people are liquidating their positions,” Grisanti says. Whether or not they’re liquidating outright or the futures, they are liquidating. So I’m looking to sell this. At $3,800 is where I want to sell it. There’s some resistance around $4,000, $4,100. Grisanti’s fellow CNBC commentator, Scott Nations, also bashed bitcoin, saying it has no value and that he’d short it if he could. “There’s no value there,” says Nations, a former member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. “I absolutely want to be short [on bitcoin].” Nations also dissed millennial crypto enthusiasts, saying they’re too clueless to understand the bubble they’re witnessing now. “If you are in your 20s, you have never seen an asset bubble,” Nations says. “You were a teenager during the housing bubble. You were not even a teenager during the dotcom bubble.” Well, baby, this is a bubble! And right now, it’s coming unglued. Both Anthony Grisanti and Scott Nations say they believe that interest in bitcoin futures is waning because of the current market slump. As CCN reported, Nasdaq — the world’s second-largest stock exchange — plans tolaunch bitcoin futuresin the first quarter of 2019 through a partnership with investment firm VanEck. Similarly, Nasdaq’s rival ICE (Intercontinental Exchange) — the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange — also plans to roll out a physically-settled bitcoin futures product in the first quarter of 2019. But the CNBC bitcoin bears are skeptical that there’s a market for BTC futures, and that believers are merely deluding themselves. “I think the interest is out of the market,” Grisanti says. “Yeah sure, like Trump supporters, there are a few that believe this thing is going higher, [even] as they have their losses every day.” Grisanti says this is not the right time for bitcoin. “Maybe another currency comes to the forefront,” he speculated. Grisanti says the bitcoin price is fluctuating between lows of $3,300 to $3,500 and highs of $4,000 to $4,100. And he doesn’t see any hope of a breakout. For the record, Trump supporters include billionairePeter Thiel. Thiel — the openly gay co-founder of PayPal — has touted bitcoin as “digital gold.” Thiel’s net worth tops $2.5 billion. Another Trump supporter is this guy:Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House Chief of Staff. Mulvaney has been a bitcoin advocate since 2014. Mulvaney is currently director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). His job as OMB boss is to prepare the US President’s budget proposals to Congress. It is a very influential position at the right hand of the most powerful executive in the world. And the guy who holds that jobis a bitcoin fan. Featured Image from Shutterstock The postBitcoin Price Will Tank Below $3,000, Says Trader Who Predicts Mass Sell-Offappeared first onCCN. || EU agency says Iran likely to step up cyber espionage: BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Iran is likely to expand its cyber espionage activities as its relations with Western powers worsen, the European Union digital security agency said on Monday. Iranian hackers are behind several cyberattacks and online disinformation campaigns in recent years as the country tries to strengthen its clout in the Middle East and beyond, a Reuters Special Report published in November found. This month the European Union imposed its first sanctions on Iran since world powers agreed a 2015 nuclear deal with Teheran, in a reaction to Iran's ballistic missile tests and assassination plots on European soil. "Newly imposed sanctions on Iran are likely to push the country to intensify state-sponsored cyber threat activities in pursuit of its geopolitical and strategic objectives at a regional level," the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) said in a report. A senior Iranian official rejected the report, saying "these are all part of a psychological war launched by the United States and its allies against Iran". ENISA lists state-sponsored hackers as among the highest threats to the bloc's digital security. It said that China, Russia and Iran are "the three most capable and active cyber actors tied to economic espionage" Iran, Russia and China have repeatedly denied U.S. allegations that their governments conduct cyber attacks. A malicious computer worm known as Stuxnet that was used to attack a uranium enrichment facility at Iran’s Natanz underground nuclear site a decade ago is widely believed to have been developed by the United States and Israel. When Washington imposed sanctions on several Iranians in March 2018 for hacking on behalf of the Iranian government, Iran's foreign ministry denounced the move as "provocative, illegitimate, and without any justifiable reason". In November the United States indicted two Iranians for launching a major cyber attack using ransomware known as "SamSam" and sanctioned two others for helping exchange the ransom payments from Bitcoin digital currency into rials. Cyber activities are expected to increase in coming months, particularly if Iran fails to keep the EU committed to a 2015 landmark nuclear deal, ENISA said. (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio, Additional Reporting by Parisa Hafezi, Editing by William Maclean) [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] 【TakeOff #Exchange Trade Manager #1】 TradeManager (AI) analyzes the following data by AI, sets the optimum rate, and automatically executes sell/buy/trade. #Crypto #bitcoin #Blockchain #ether #ethereum #cryptocurrency #DEX || Bitcoin、Litecoin、Monero、DASHなどを完全匿名で現金で個人間で簡単に対面売買することができるサイト、btc-trade-p2pの運営をしております。 #暗号通貨　#ビットコイン　#bitcoin　#BTC http://btctrade.web.fc2.com  || #BTC Buy at #Kraken and sell at #EXMO. Ratio: 3.91% Buy at #KuCoin and sell at #EXMO. Ratio: 3.99% Buy at #Bitexen and sell at #EXMO. Ratio: 2.70% Buy at #HitBTC and sell at #EXMO. Ratio: 4.17% #bitcoin #arbitrage #arbitraj #arbingtool http://arbing.info  || リップル勢の考え。SWIFTバカじゃね？ http://bit.ly/2RRuvvH  $BTC $ETH $BCC $BCH $XRP $ADA || Alistair Milne: Bitcoin Is Only Public Blockchain Certain to Last for Next 100 Years http://bit.ly/2HoBpE4  || Prices update in $USD (1 hour): $BTC - 3622.1 $ (+0.23 %) $ETH - 123.04 $ (+0.92 %) $XRP - 0.33 $ (+0.25 %) $BCH - 128.0 $ (+0.31 %) $BSV - 77.2 $ (0.0 %) $LTC - 31.7 $ (+0.92 %) #BTC #ETH #XRP #BCH #BSV #LTC #Trading #Crypto #Bitcoin || Bitmex Long XBTUSD - Long now, Long x2 if dumps #bitcoin #crypto #bitmex #signal #long #DYOR #BYOR January 16, 2019 at 09:30PM 10% on fees: http://bit.ly/2CkYwtx  join for even more updates and news: <<https://discord.gg/prK3dCQ >> || A $XMR is worth 0.01231359 BTC || Blockchain was originally developed to facilitate the digital currency Bitcoin, but these are two separate technologies. Bitcoin is an encrypted currency, blockchain is a platform for peer-to-peer payments, supply chain tracking & a lots more. Read More - https://bit.ly/2LQQXxP pic.twitter.com/HH7aG0k07g || 1.13% 3580.63$ 3540.27$ 3540.95$
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Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2022-10-12] BTC Price: 19157.45, BTC RSI: 44.24 Gold Price: 1670.30, Gold RSI: 44.82 Oil Price: 87.27, Oil RSI: 51.26 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] 7 Under-$20 Stocks to Buy to Tap Into a Hidden Bull Market: While going after discounted equities merely for the psychologically satisfying numerical profile often leads to unpleasant results, on occasion, certain inexpensive ideas such as under $20 stocks to buy can be a great deal over time. To be sure, prospective participants must exercise caution. This is no arena for risk-averse traders. Still, patience and a contrarian attitude can possibly yield significant profitability. Generally speaking, you get what you pay for. Arguably, then, under most circumstances, focusing on under-$20 stocks to buy will lead to corresponding results. Still, at times, you can fundamentally receive more value for the implied benefit associated with a low price tag. In other words, astute investors can tap into a hidden bull market. To better the odds of finding a diamond in the rough, I’ve enlisted the help ofGurufocus.com. Finding fundamentally relevant market ideas tied to undervalued businesses, these under-$20 stocks to buy could move significantly higher in the years ahead. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips If you’re willing to roll the dice, let’s get started with these discounted opportunities. [{"VALE": "PBR", "Vale": "Petrobas", "$14.52": "$14.29"}, {"VALE": "INFY", "Vale": "Infosys", "$14.52": "$17.55"}, {"VALE": "ABEV", "Vale": "Ambev", "$14.52": "$3.06"}, {"VALE": "VWAGY", "Vale": "Volkswagen", "$14.52": "$17.11"}, {"VALE": "DANOY", "Vale": "Danone", "$14.52": "$9.41"}, {"VALE": "SWGAY", "Vale": "Swatch Group", "$14.52": "$11.40"}] Source: rafapress / Shutterstock.com One of the more credible ideas among under-$20 stocks to buy,Vale(NYSE:VALE) represents a metals and mining firm. Based in resource-rich Brazil, Vale garners fame for being the world’s largest producer of iron ore and nickel. Fundamentally, nickel will likely be the metal of the future, given its implications inelectric vehicle (EV) batteries. As of the close of the Oct. 5 session, VALE traded hands at $14.80. Up until recently, shares traded below parity for the year. Now, at the time of writing, the stock is up about 4%, likely reflecting massive changes in the global energy market. With Russiacutting off natural gas to Europein retaliation for western nations’ support of Ukraine, many global leaders find themselvesscrambling for viable alternatives. Almost certainly, EVs will play a significant role — hence the implied future demand for nickel. Gurufocus.comlabels VALEmodestly undervalued. The underlying firm features a balanced profile, with solid strengths in the balance sheet combined with excellent growth and profitability metrics. If you’re looking for under-$20 stocks to buy with a relevant narrative, this is it. Source: rafastockbr / Shutterstock.com Earlier in the week, energy prices increased amid concerns that OPEC+ nations wouldcut oil production. PerReuters, the cartel and its non-member allies did just that, agreeing toslash output by two million barrels per day. Fundamentally and cynically, this framework should benefitPetrobras(NYSE:PBR). On the day of the OPEC announcement, PBR stock closed up more than 3%. Nevertheless, PBR remains one of the riskier ideas among major international hydrocarbon specialists. Based in Brazil, Petrobrasincurred multiple challengesover the past several years. As well, with anintense electiongoing on in the country, the future of Petrobras is somewhat murky. But if you’re willing to accept certain political risks, PBR could be interesting. According toGurufocus.com, Petrobras’ business ismodestly undervalued. While the company enjoys decent strengths in the balance sheet, the highlights center on the income statement. It commands a three-year revenue growth rate of 13%, ranked higher than 79% of PBR’s peers. As well, the hydrocarbon firm’s net margin stands at 28.4%, well above the industry median’s 4%. Source: AjayTvm / Shutterstock.com WhileInfosys(NYSE:INFY) might not be a household name at the moment, it’s well worth keeping on your radar. An Indian multinational information technology firm, Infosys specializes in business consulting. In addition, it provides outsourcing and IT-related services. As a bonus, it currently trades at a bit below $18, numerically qualifying it for under-$20 stocks to buy. Against a broader narrative, Infosys’ ties to India’s economy makes it incredibly enticing. According to analysts, the country standspoised to become the world’s third-biggest economy by 2030. From 2022 to the end of the forecasted period, India might enjoy average real GDP growth of 6%. Therefore, INFY stock can ride its home market’s coattails. Presently,Gurufocus.comlabels INFY asmodestly undervalued. The underlying company commands robust strengths across the financial spectrum. For instance, the business features a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, lower than the industry median of 0.19. On the bottom line, Infosys’ return on equity measures 31%, beating out more than 93% of its peers. Source: Anton Garin / Shutterstock.com Another Brazilian company,Ambev(NYSE:ABEV) represents abrewing company. It offers beer under several brand names such as Skol, Brahma and Labatt Blue. Interestingly, ABEV shares have performed well this year, especially considering the poor performance of the major equity indices. Ambev’s market value increased nearly 13% since the start of the year. This possibly suggests that Wall Street is attuned to the aforementioned cynical catalyst. Either way, ABEV trades hands at only a few cents above three bucks. Therefore, it’s one of the cheapest among under-$20 stocks to buy. Even though Ambev qualifies as a penny stock under certain definitions, it enjoysrobust financial strengths. For instance, it features a strong balance sheet, particularly a cash-to-debt ratio of 4.22. In comparison, the industry median is 0.67. Also, Ambev’s net margin stands at 17.6%, ranking higher than nearly 86% of its peers. Source: Helmut Seisenberger / Shutterstock.com One of the biggest and most recognized automakers in the world,Volkswagen(OTCMKTS:VWAGY) presents an interesting case for under-$20 stocks to buy. With the introduction of the 2023 Volkswagen ID.4, the German stalwart moves into the EV space. Not only that,CarandDriver.comreports that itsstarting price pings under $39,000. So long as it can maintain this price point, Volkswagen provides excellent competition. As well, the company owns several other luxury brands, appealing to both wealthy and middle-income consumers. Still, Wall Street doesn’t seem to care so much, instead focusing on macroeconomic anxieties. Therefore, VWAGY finds itself down nearly 44% YTD. That’s too bad, but simultaneously, it offers an enticing entry point for contrarian speculators. Gurufocus.comidentifies Volkswagen asmodestly undervaluedper its proprietary valuation metrics. However, against traditional indicators, VWAGY arguably represents a killer deal. For instance, its forward price-earnings (P/E) ratio sits at just over five times. In comparison, the auto industry median is 8.5 times. Source: ricochet64 / Shutterstock.com A French multinational food-products corporation,Danone(OTCMKTS:DANOY) benefits to some degree frominelastic demand. Essentially, demand for the company’s products should remain relatively the same irrespective of price adjustments. Of course, price changes consumer behaviors. However, at the baseline, humans need a minimum calorie intake. Therefore, Danone may be more reliable during these strange times. However, Wall Street doesn’t quite view it that way. Since the start of this year, DANOY has slipped 24%, disappointing stakeholders. However, in the trailing five days, the security has gained about 1%. Therefore, the market may see greater fundamental value in the company. Either way, at just under double digits, DANOY intrigues as one of the under-$20 stocks to buy. PerGurufocus.com, Danone’s business issignificantly undervalued. Primarily, it has decent stability in the balance sheet and solid strengths in terms of profitability. For example, its 15% operating margin ranks better than almost 85% of the competition. Its one major weakness centers on its lackluster growth. However, as consumption shifts from discretionary items to the necessities, this problem area could improve. Source: pio3 / Shutterstock.com Right off the bat, I’m going to say thatSwatch Group(OTCMKTS:SWGAY) represents the riskiest idea on this list of under-$20 stocks to buy. Yes, you can buy SWGAY, but it’d be best if you’re a speculator. For those that are more risk-averse, something like Vale would probably make more sense. As you probably know, several indicators demonstrate that theconsumer economy(at least for discretionary items) is fading. Given that Swatch Group specializes in several luxury brands — Omega, Blancpain and Harry Winston immediately come to mind — SWGAY seems unusually risky. Indeed, shares have fallen 26% YTD. Gurufocus.comlabels Swatch Groupmodestly undervalued. Perhaps not surprisingly, its growth rate could use some work. However, it’s a profitable business. Additionally, Swatch features excellent strengths in the balance sheet. On the date of publication, Josh Enomotodid not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines. A former senior business analyst for Sony Electronics, Josh Enomoto has helped broker major contracts with Fortune Global 500 companies. Over the past several years, he has delivered unique, critical insights for the investment markets, as well as various other industries including legal, construction management, and healthcare. • Buy This $5 Stock BEFORE This Apple Project Goes Live • The Best $1 Investment You Can Make Today • Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” • It doesn’t matter if you have $500 or $5 million. Do this now. The post7 Under-$20 Stocks to Buy to Tap Into a Hidden Bull Marketappeared first onInvestorPlace. || Got Crypto? The IRS Really Wants to Know: Cryptocurrency with a question mark on it Getty Images The 2022 crypto price crash understandably has some investors concerned. But for those of you who haven’t run for the hills, it’s worth knowing that cryptocurrency currently has the attention of not only the Biden administration, and Congress, but the IRS as well. In terms of crypto news and taxes, the IRS recently proposed changes to cryptocurrency tax reporting question on the Form 1040. The agency will also receive $80 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act, some of which will be directed to digital asset enforcement—including cryptocurrency tax compliance. Additionally, you may have heard that the IRS continues to successfully obtain court orders to require cryptocurrency brokers and exchanges to provide information to the IRS. That information concerns investors who failed to report and pay taxes on cryptocurrency transactions. And while this IRS enforcement focus isn’t new, recent crypto announcements and developments from Congress, the Biden administration, and the IRS, mean that it’s important to stay up-to-date on crypto tax reporting and compliance. So, here’s some information to get you started. How Crypto is Taxed A common question about cryptocurrency concerns how crypto is taxed . The answer is that cryptocurrency is considered property, so it’s taxed by the IRS in the same way that other capital assets are taxed. As a result, when you sell or trade crypto, you can have asset losses and potential taxable gains depending on the fair market value of the virtual currency, and your basis in the crypto. SEE MORE 9 Ways to Cut Crypto Taxes Down to the Bone Given that, it’s important to remember that payments made using virtual currency are subject to IRS information reporting. For federal tax purposes that initially means that all taxpayers are supposed to provide a yes or no response to a virtual currency question on the top of the Form 1040 . For 2021, the check-the-box question asked: “At any time during 2021, did you receive, sell, exchange, or otherwise dispose of any financial interest in any virtual currency?" Story continues You could answer “no” if you “merely owned” crypto, i.e., the cryptocurrency was in your own wallet or account or was transferred between your own wallets or accounts. You could also answer no to the virtual currency question if you purchased your crypto with real currency. You were supposed to respond “yes” to the virtual currency question if you received cryptocurrency as a payment for goods or services. A yes answer would also be required if you received or transferred crypto for free (but didn’t receive it as a gift). Other reasons to answer yes included receiving new crypto due to mining and staking or because of a hard fork, or if you exchanged virtual currency for property, goods, or services, or for another virtual currency. Proposed Cryptocurrency Tax Reporting Changes Recently however, the IRS proposed a change to the virtual currency question. On the 2022 draft Form 1040, the proposed question reads: "At any time during 2022, did you: (a) receive (as a reward, award, or compensation); or (b) sell, exchange, gift, or otherwise dispose of a digital asset (or a financial interest in a digital asset)?" SEE MORE Should I Invest in Bitcoin or Other Cryptocurrency? That could be a signal that the IRS is interested in whether you’ve received or sent crypto as a gift. Or it could indicate a focus on other digital assets like NFTs. For 2021, when the IRS didn’t ask about cryptocurrency received as a gift, the gift tax allowance was $15,000. So, a gift of cryptocurrency under that amount wasn't subject to tax. For 2022, the gift tax allowance is $16,000, so a crypto gift under that amount similarly wouldn’t be taxable. But keep in mind that if you were to sell or transfer the cryptocurrency that you received, it could later be subject to capital gains tax . Final instructions for the 2022 Form 1040 should be coming soon from the IRS. Is Cryptocurrency Reported to the IRS? The IRS stresses the long-standing requirement that taxpayers maintain records that establish the positions they take on their tax returns. That means that with cryptocurrency, you should keep accurate and detailed records. Records should show any sales, exchanges or disposition of your cryptocurrency or other digital assets and show the fair market value of the assets. And as was mentioned earlier, the IRS has repeatedly taken legal action through court orders (i.e., so-called John Doe summonses), to require cryptocurrency brokers to provide information about customers engaged in cryptocurrency transactions. One recent summons involves customers of SFOX , a cryptocurrency prime broker. SEE MORE Crypto Has Been Through the Wringer in 2022: What Now? These summonses are due in part to the IRS’s focus on closing the tax gap (i.e., the difference between what taxpayers owe and what they actually pay). The agency has said that significant problems with tax compliance relate to cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. On the legislative front, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, enacted earlier this year, requires cryptocurrency brokers to report more information on client’s trading activity. The requirement, which was opposed by some lawmakers and some in the crypto industry, it set to begin in 2023. However, a bipartisan group of Senators have recently proposed legislation to further clarify the definition of broker in the Infrastructure Law. If passed, that proposed legislation would essentially exempt digital asset mining and wallet providers, and software developers, from the information reporting requirements intended for cryptocurrency brokers. The Inflation Reduction Act and Crypto The newly proposed virtual currency question and stepped-up focus on digital assets, comes as the IRS is set to receive $80 billion under the Inflation Reduction Act —massive climate, energy, tax, and healthcare legislation that was signed by President Biden on August 16. About $46 billion of the IRS funding from the new law is designated for enforcement. And while enforcement will include a range of activities , the Inflation Reduction Act mentions that IRS funds could be used for digital asset enforcement—including cryptocurrency tax compliance. SEE MORE The Inflation Reduction Act and Taxes: What You Should Know Biden’s Cryptocurrency Framework: Also, in recent crypto news, President Biden, on September 16, released a comprehensive Digital Asset Framework . The framework follows Biden’s March 9 Executive Order calling for a whole-of-government approach to address risks associated with digital assets, including cryptocurrency. Biden’s digital asset regulation framework points to the instability of crypto—and the 2022 multi-trillion-dollar crypto crash—as reasons for increased scrutiny and enforcement of digital assets. All these developments mean that significant resources and attention continue to be paid to cryptocurrency tax enforcement. Consequently, as a crypto investor, you’ll need to remain diligent and be accurate with your tax reporting and compliance. Also, stay tuned to digital asset enforcement and related crypto news from Congress and the Biden administration. SEE MORE Capital Gains Tax 101: Basic Rules Investors and Others Need to Know You may also like What Are the Income Tax Brackets for 2022 vs. 2021? Your Guide to Roth Conversions I’ve Inherited a Lot of Money. Now What? || 7 Long-Term Sleeper Stocks to Buy Before Wall Street Wakes Up: Generally speaking, the equities sector represents the collective valuation of all publicly available information about exchange-listed companies, making the notion of long-term sleeper stocks to buy a rather risky concept. Nevertheless, individual investors can’t be all places at all times. Occasionally, a few compelling ideas slip through the cracks, presenting upside opportunities for intrepid investors. Before we get started, readers should realize that the below long-term sleeper stocks to buy align with the higher-risk, higher-reward spectrum of market ideas. Fundamentally, they require a belief in a thesis that may not have materialized, but very well could over time. Therefore, the reward potential is quite high for these long-term bets. On the other hand, no guarantees exist that the presented theses will pan out as advertised. Therefore, investors should approach these long-term sleeper stocks to buy with a healthy dose of cautious optimism. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips KSCP Knightscope $2.53 SUNL Sunlight Financial $2.56 OPI Office Properties Income $14.09 VALE Vale $12.54 SBSW Sibanye Stillwater $8.37 AMP Ameriprise Financial $250.97 AQN Algonquin Power & Utilities $11.69 Knightscope (KSCP) An image of a robot hand pointing toward a data graph Source: Have a nice day Photo/Shutterstock A security camera and robotics firm, Knightscope (NASDAQ: KSCP ) specializes in autonomous security robots or ASRs. Effectively functioning as patrol mechanisms, these robots can help keep the peace while relaying problematic incidents to law enforcement agencies. Better yet, ASRs can perform these tasks without the involvement of human intermediaries. According to the company’s website, Knightscope’s security robots have already logged over one million hours of service with paying clients. Typically, these partners include parking complexes, shopping malls, hospitals and corporate complexes. Fundamentally, the beauty of the Knightscope business model is the reduction of human-to-human safety interactions, which can create ugly tensions. Rather, these non-human ASRs can potentially deescalate dangerous situations. If the initial interactions fail to bring about desired outcomes, then law enforcement can step in. Story continues Nevertheless, Wall Street doesn’t appear to recognize the long-term potential for Knightscope, making KSCP one of the long-term sleeper stocks to buy. Sunlight Financial (SUNL) A laptop, pencil, pair of eyeglasses, and many coins rest on a wooden table. Source: Shutterstock On the surface, Sunlight Financial (NYSE: SUNL ) presents a framework that should be relevant and desirable because of contemporary ideologies. Partnering with contractors nationwide, Sunlight Financial helps them offer homeowners “ innovative, affordable loans for modern home upgrades.” Specifically, Sunlight empowers people to acquire residential solar systems. Still, given the pressures of the moment, Wall Street takes a dim view of SUNL stock. Indeed, shares slipped more than 44% on a year-to-date basis through the Sept. 26 session. And while revenue increased on a year-over-year basis in the company’s second quarter of 2022, Sunlight’s net income for the company’s most recent earnings report came out to $4.1 million. This figure slipped 21% against the year-ago period. Nevertheless, because of factors such as climate change and historically high rates of inflation , many homeowners will likely transition to solar energy solutions. Over time, that’s going to help Sunlight, making SUNL one of the long-term sleeper stocks to buy I’m watching closely. Office Properties Income (OPI) Group of colleagues discuss something in an office conference room. Source: GaudiLab / Shutterstock While some market ideas for long-term sleeper stocks to buy seems obvious, others – such as Office Properties Income (NASDAQ: OPI ) – present an understandable reason why they fail to attract the Street. Office Properties is a real estate investment trust (or REIT) that focuses on “ owning, operating and leasing buildings primarily leased to single tenants and those with high credit quality characteristics like government entities.” Of course, the massive work-from-home pivot stemming from the coronavirus pandemic essentially squashed office culture. Accordingly, OPI stock has lost nearly 44% year-to-date. Moreover, the nearer-term negative momentum presents many anxieties. On Sept. 26, OPI dropped 8% in a single day. Over the trailing month, shares fell 20%. These performance statistics indicate that the Street believes work from home is here to stay. But it might not be. Not only are upper management teams statistically winning the war in getting their employees back into the office, they also enjoy ultimate leverage. After all, they sign the checks, meaning the employees don’t hire themselves. With that, the normal work culture may return, which could bode well for OPI stock. Vale (VALE) construction workers point at mining equipment in the near distance Source: Shutterstock Due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the critical resources sector became hostage to dangerous military ambitions. One cynical benefit is that companies providing said resources typically perform well in such times. After all, turmoil in supply chains raise commodity prices, which improve profitability for miners who can export their goods efficiently. Accordingly, Vale (NYSE: VALE ) represents one of the long-term sleeper stocks I’m watching closely. Since the start of this year, VALE has dropped 9% at the time of writing. That said, I think the tides may be about to turn for this Brazilian metals and mining firm. That’s mainly because Vale represents the world’s largest producer of iron ore and nickel. The latter metal offers substantial relevance as it’s a key ingredient of lithium-ion batteries that are especially important for the production of vehicles. EVs present a potential solution for the present energy crisis. Over time, the electrification of mobility can help countries wean off hydrocarbons. Granted, this dynamic will take some time to play out. However, the motif here is long-term sleeper stocks to buy. Interestingly enough, Gurufocus.com labels Vale as modestly undervalued . Currently, the company features a forward price-earnings ratio of 4.1-times, well below the industry median of 8.8-times. Sibanye Stillwater (SBSW) a construction worker looks on as an excavator gets to work in a mine Source: Shutterstock Because of the seesaw effect of this year’s economic turbulence, resource firms like Sibanye Stillwater (NYSE: SBSW ) suffered incredible volatility. Since the beginning of January, SBSW shares fell almost 35%. Over the trailing month, they’re down over 14%. Clearly, the Street doesn’t think much of Sibanye. Nevertheless, it’s arguably one of the long-term sleeper stocks to buy. Prior to the Covid-19 crisis, Sibanye garnered much attention for its gold production. Moving forward, though, the company might attract investors for its platinum group metals, specifically palladium. Currently, Russia represents the leading palladium exporter . However, South Africa – Sibanye’s home market – is a palladium powerhouse in its own right. Therefore, South Africa’s generally friendly posture to the west may be critical for SBSW. For now, most equity investors ignore SBSW. However, it’s important to realize that per TipRanks , Sibanye commands a consensus strong buy rating . Out of five covering analysts, four rate it a buy while one gives it a sell rating. Ameriprise Financial (AMP) Source: Shutterstock A finance-related enterprise, Ameriprise Financial (NYSE: AMP ) provides financial planning products and services, including wealth management, asset management, insurance, annuities, and estate planning. Under the current paradigm, fears of an economic slowdown – even a recession – has many folks on edge. Thus, it’s understandable why the Street tends to ignore AMP stock. Shares of this company are down nearly 17% year-to-date. On the other hand, Ameriprise could very well be one of the long-term sleeper stocks to buy. The bullish thesis comes down to an expected monetary framework pivot. Under an inflationary cycle, the subsequent erosion of dollar purchasing power means that investors have two options with their money: spend it or invest it. Otherwise, keeping dollars dormant is likely to produce wealth erosion over time. In a deflationary cycle, purchasing power rises – as has happened recently. Therefore, an incentive exists to do nothing but stay in cash. That’s an extraordinarily difficult circumstance to navigate, meaning that Ameriprise’s expertise should attract retail investors, who are likely to stumble trading on their own in a deflationary environment. Algonquin Power & Utilities (AQN) multiple powerline towers are shown against a sunset and a distant city skyline Source: zhao jiankang / Shutterstock.com If you consider some of the stronger players during this post-pandemic new normal, you’ll notice that utility firms tend to perform well. Essentially, this sector enjoys a permanent baseline demand profile. Yes, economic circumstances will always impact consumption behaviors and patterns. However, in a modern economy, households won’t be able to survive long without critical services. (The lights and heat generally need to stay on, regardless of the economy). Thus, this environment is one that favors a company like Algonquin Power & Utilities (NYSE: AQN ). This Canadian renewable energy and regulated utility conglomerate provides natural gas, water and electricity generation, transmission and distribution utility services. That said, AQN stock is down 17% year-to-date, as the company’s underlying performance has lagged. While broader economic pressures present a challenging environment for Algonquin, it’s one of the long-term sleeper stocks to buy, in my view. Admittedly, the company’s net loss of $33 million in Q2 2022 – down conspicuously from net income of $103 million in the year-ago quarter – presents a major distraction. That said, over the long-term, folks can’t ignore their utility bills. Thus, I think Algonquin’s forward-looking prospects remain bright. On Penny Stocks and Low-Volume Stocks: With only the rarest exceptions, InvestorPlace does not publish commentary about companies that have a market cap of less than $100 million or trade less than 100,000 shares each day. That’s because these “penny stocks” are frequently the playground for scam artists and market manipulators. If we ever do publish commentary on a low-volume stock that may be affected by our commentary, we demand that InvestorPlace.com ’s writers disclose this fact and warn readers of the risks. Read More: Penny Stocks — How to Profit Without Getting Scammed On the date of publication, Josh Enomoto did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines . A former senior business analyst for Sony Electronics, Josh Enomoto has helped broker major contracts with Fortune Global 500 companies. Over the past several years, he has delivered unique, critical insights for the investment markets, as well as various other industries including legal, construction management, and healthcare. More From InvestorPlace Buy This $5 Stock BEFORE This Apple Project Goes Live The Best $1 Investment You Can Make Today Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” It doesn’t matter if you have $500 or $5 million. Do this now. The post 7 Long-Term Sleeper Stocks to Buy Before Wall Street Wakes Up appeared first on InvestorPlace . || Dollar edges down but posts gains for week; yuan slips past key level: By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar index was down slightly on Friday but registered a gain for the week as investors expected the U.S. Federal Reserve to remain aggressive when it hikes interest rates next week, while China's yuan eased past the key threshold of 7 per dollar. The dollar mostly held a slight gain following U.S. data showing consumer sentiment improved moderately in September. The University of Michigan's preliminary September reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment came in at 59.5, up from 58.6 in the prior month. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a preliminary reading of 60.0 in September. The dollar, measured against a basket of currencies, declined 0.1% on the day to 109.68. It reached a two-decade high of 110.79 earlier this month. For the week, it was up 0.6%, and it is up about 15% for the year so far. "This belief that we're very close to a peak dollar, very close to peak yields,... is getting pushed back. We're seeing a lot of strong bullish dollar calls," said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda in New York. "That positioning will probably be strongly reflected post-FOMC next week." Investors expect a high chance of a 75-basis-point rate hike at next week's meeting and some chance of a 100-bps increase. In crypto markets, ether, the token used in the Ethereum network, hit its lowest level since late July, and was last down 2.8%. Bitcoin last fell 0.47% to $19,598.00. Earlier, the rising dollar pushed the offshore yuan past the critical threshold of 7 per dollar for the first time in more than two years overnight. The onshore unit similarly broke the key level soon after markets opened on Friday. Data showed China's economy was surprisingly resilient in August, with factory output and retail sales both growing more than expected. But a deepening property slump weighed on the outlook. Sterling fell against the dollar to a new 37-year low of $1.1351 and was last down 0.5% at $1.1416, while the euro was up 0.1% at $1.0008. Story continues British retail sales fell much more than expected in August, in another sign that the economy is sliding into a recession as the cost of living crunch squeezes households' disposable spending. While the Fed takes center stage next week, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) and the Bank of England are also expected to have monetary policy meetings. The dollar was 0.4% lower against the yen at 142.87, but was up 0.2% for the week in its fifth straight week of gains. Three sources familiar with the thinking of the BOJ said the central bank has no intention of raising rates or tweaking its dovish policy guidance to prop up the yen. "With the risk of the Fed that possibly could go a full point on Wednesday and with the Japanese holiday on Monday ... you're probably going to see a little bit more patience in deciding when to make a move," Moya said. "Any intervention now could be crushed by a Fed decision." ======================================================== Currency bid prices at 3:38PM (1938 GMT) Description RIC Last U.S. Close Pct Change YTD Pct High Bid Low Bid Previous Change Session Dollar index 109.6800 109.7900 -0.08% 14.652% +110.2600 +109.4600 Euro/Dollar $1.0008 $0.9995 +0.14% -11.96% +$1.0036 +$0.9945 Dollar/Yen 142.8700 143.4900 -0.43% +24.11% +143.6850 +142.8300 Euro/Yen 142.99 143.48 -0.34% +9.72% +143.5300 +142.5200 Dollar/Swiss 0.9647 0.9619 +0.28% +5.74% +0.9660 +0.9603 Sterling/Dollar $1.1416 $1.1472 -0.50% -15.59% +$1.1479 +$1.1351 Dollar/Canadian 1.3279 1.3226 +0.43% +5.06% +1.3307 +1.3228 Aussie/Dollar $0.6714 $0.6701 +0.18% -7.65% +$0.6724 +$0.6670 Euro/Swiss 0.9653 0.9613 +0.42% -6.91% +0.9666 +0.9579 Euro/Sterling 0.8765 0.8720 +0.52% +4.35% +0.8784 +0.8715 NZ Dollar/Dollar $0.5989 $0.5965 +0.39% -12.51% +$0.5992 +$0.5940 Dollar/Norway 10.2015 10.1770 +0.49% +16.08% +10.2870 +10.1790 Euro/Norway 10.2136 10.1668 +0.46% +1.98% +10.2420 +10.1589 Dollar/Sweden 10.7594 10.7200 +0.34% +19.31% +10.8213 +10.7159 Euro/Sweden 10.7691 10.7325 +0.34% +5.23% +10.7940 +10.7230 (Additional reporting by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes in London, and Rae Wee in Singapore; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Deepa Babington and Jonathan Oatis) || Bitcoin: Breaking Up Money and State: For the first time in human history, a technology has been created that once and for all divorces money from the state. This separation of money and state is poised to transform the way we think about value and our expectations of government involvement in our financial lives, and may be the largest cultural-political shift since the separation of church and state. Bitcoin cannot be created at the whim of some centralized power, taking away the ability of governments to spend wantonly. It may sound utopian, but once humanity evolves to a Bitcoin standard the government-created boom-bust cycle, constant inflation and ability to fund wars will be things of the past. Will Szamosszegi is founder and CEO of Sazmining. Bitcoin is a digitally native currency that runs on a decentralized ledger called a blockchain. Unlike the Federal Reserve, which has never been audited, Bitcoin’s ledger is audited every 10 minutes by hordes of nodes across the globe. Without the ability to create money out of thin air, governments will instead have to tax its citizens directly. Raising taxes is typically a tough sell, even when the proceeds are expected to be used for domestic goods like public health or education. But citizens will be highly unlikely to accept tax increases for any war that is not purely defensive. For all we know, America’s Middle Eastern adventures of the last two decades may not have occurred had we already been on a Bitcoin standard. See also: Bitcoin Should Change ... Slowly - CoinDesk | Opinion A Bitcoin standard will drastically damp the boom-bust cycle. Central banks – if they still exist – will be constrained by Bitcoin such that they will be unable to lend out easy money. First of all, the only money they could create out of thin air would only be a second-layer money, not bitcoin itself. People will be skeptical at accepting any non-bitcoin currency, and so central banks’ clientele will be far more limited than it is now. Furthermore, even if some people do accept the central banks’ second-layer currency, those people will struggle to find others who would accept it as payment. Story continues In short, on a Bitcoin standard, creating money out of thin air and handing it out is not a workable business model. Finally, a Bitcoin standard is the (gradual) death of inflation. Bitcoin’s supply schedule is preprogrammed such that the supply will increase at a predictable and decreasing rate until there are 21 million bitcoin in circulation. At that point, no more bitcoin will ever be mined. Assuming that humanity continues to innovate, then prices of goods and services will fall over time. In other words, Bitcoin’s purchasing power will continuously rise in proportion to the amount of wealth that humanity creates. See also: The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin Maximalism | Opinion Thanks to Bitcoin, humanity now possesses a technology that governments cannot ban even if they try. This may have sounded bold in 2008 when Bitcoin was first invented but it is far too late to stop the decentralized network now. Remember how China tried to ban bitcoin mining in the country, then the largest supplier of network hash power? Instead it proved how resilient bitcoin is. Mining thrives around the world, including as a Chinese black market . Bitcoin also has powerful allies now. El Salvador and the Central African Republic have made bitcoin legal tender . North American politicians including Cynthia Lummis, Jared Polis and Pierre Poilievre are ardent bitcoin supporters. Bitcoin even played a significant role in the Canadian trucker protests of early 2022 , as well as in the ongoing crisis in Ukraine . More and more will likely become “orange-pilled,” as the saying goes, referring to bitcoin's orange symbol. While the State may not like losing its monopolistic control over money, it is quite difficult to convince people that inflation is good for them and that a deflationary asset is bad for them. Therefore, out of citizens' mere self-interest, bitcoin will gradually force the State to give up on its control over money. While the separation of Church and State has always been imperfectly implemented, the separation of money and State will be real, total, and permanent. || Coinsquare Announces Acquisition of CoinSmart to create one of the largest crypto trading platforms in Canada: TORONTO, ONTARIO, Sept. 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Coinsquare, Canada’s leading crypto asset trading platform, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement dated September 22, 2022 (the “Purchase Agreement”) with CoinSmart Financial Inc. (“CoinSmart”) to acquire all the issued and outstanding shares of its wholly-owned operating subsidiary Simply Digital Technologies Inc. (“Simply Digital”), which owns and operates the CoinSmart trading platform. With this acquisition and integration, Coinsquare becomes one of Canada’s largest crypto asset trading platforms with a diversified and compliant offering across various business lines including both retail and institutional trading, crypto payment processing, and digital asset custody. Following the completion of the transaction, CoinSmart will hold approximately ~12% ownership stake in Coinsquare on a pro-forma basis, and the company will enjoy material revenue and cost synergies via cross selling opportunities and cost rationalization. Coinsquare is in the final stages of approval to become Canada’s first crypto asset trading platform regulated as an Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada(“IIROC”)dealer and marketplace member. “This acquisition represents a monumental and exciting milestone for both companies and brings together two industry leading management teams.” Said Coinsquare, CEO Martin Piszel. “The cryptocurrency market is going through immense change with regulators defining a roadmap for platforms to operate in Canada. This has led to an ever-increasing cost structure and additional complexity in operating a viable crypto exchange.  We feel that scale and operational efficiency matter, and we are well positioned to play a leading role in defining the space in Canada.” Key Transaction Benefits include: • One of Canada’s Largest Crypto Asset Trading Platforms:combined company will have transacted over $10 billion in crypto transactions since January 2018 with a combined user base in excess of 1 million. • Complementary Platforms Leading to Synergies:Significant revenue and cost synergies via cross selling opportunities and cost rationalization. • Speed-to-market:leverage combined technologies to optimize tech stack and bring new features, functionality, and products to market faster. • New Business Lines to the Coinsquare Portfolio:such as SmartPay, an easy way to accept crypto payments by converting crypto to fiat with same day payouts. • Enhanced Education Portal: with CoinSmart’s Get Smart Hub, the community will have a robust destination for Crypto knowledge and learning tools – making learning easy and accessible for everyone. “Today is an exciting day for all of us at CoinSmart,” said CoinSmart CEO Justin Hartzman. “We are thrilled to be working alongside the Coinsquare team to build one of the largest regulated crypto asset trading platforms in Canada and I could not be more proud of what we have accomplished so far. With a diversified product suite, exceptional crypto talent, and one of the largest user bases in Canada, the combined company will be well-positioned to pursue its aggressive expansion plans. While the crypto market is in the building phase of its life cycle, this transaction will provide the torque needed to be in a favourable position entering the next bull run.” ### Contact Details: Wachsman PREmail:coinsquare@wachsman.comCoinsquareEmail:press@coinsquare.com ABOUT COINSQUARE: Founded in 2014, Coinsquare, a private company incorporated under the laws of Canada provides customers with a proprietary platform engineered to deliver a robust, secure, and intelligent interface for trading Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and other digital assets. Coinsquare has grown to become Canada’s oldest operating digital asset firm, trading on behalf of over half a million Canadians. Coinsquare has raised over $100M in capital and has successfully executed trades in excess of $8 billion to date. For more information, please visitwww.coinsquare.com. ABOUT COINSMART:CoinSmart is a leading Canadian-headquartered crypto asset trading platform dedicated to providing customers with an intuitive way for buying and selling digital assets, like Bitcoin and Ethereum. CoinSmart is one of the few crypto asset trading platforms in Canada to be registered as a marketplace with the Ontario Securities Commission. CoinSmart is also one of the first Canadian headquartered trading platforms to have an international presence, accepting customers across 40+ countries at a time when the digital asset industry continues to rapidly expand. CoinSmart further builds on its mission to make cryptocurrency accessible by providing educational resources tailored to every level of cryptocurrency knowledge and unparalleled 24/7 omni-channel customer support. Offering instant verification, industry leading cold wallet storage, advanced charting with order book functionality and over-the-counter premium services, CoinSmart ensures every client's needs are met with the highest level of quality and care. For more information, please visitwww.coinsmart.com CONTACT: Liz Ridout Coinsquare Ltd. 416-471-9858 press@coinsquare.com || Paxo Finance White Listing for Alpha Mainnet is Now Open: DUBAI, UAE / ACCESSWIRE / September 30, 2022 / Paxo Finance, a decentralized money market seeking to open up cryptocurrency investment, allowing users to access up to 5X of their capital, is whitelisting users ahead of their launch on the Polygon mainnet. The alpha version of the mainnet will be open to select few who register for whitelisting on the paxo website. Paxo Finance, Thursday, September 29, 2022, Press release picture The users that register for the whitelist and are selected will be the OGs of paxo and will be involved in building and improving paxo. Early users will have a say in new features development, adding new coins, governance, partnerships, security discussions etc. Currently the alpha mainnet version will only be available to a selected few. The users will only be able to invest upto $5000 usd worth at a given time. Alpha mainnet will have only a limited number of assets which lenders and borrowers can interact with. The assets available will be BTC, ETH and Matic. The critical milestone follows the official conclusion of the incentivized Testnet on Polygon, which saw over 19,000 users participate and over 500,000 transactions processed on the testnet. By whitelisting crypto addresses before deploying on Polygon, Paxo Finance is setting a solid base ensuring that only authorized users can access the protocol. This step is also a security step to deter malicious attacks and protect the first cohort of users trying the system on the mainnet. The Paxo Finance Incentivized Testnet on Polygon was free for all interested persons and parties. It opened its doors from May 27, 2022, to June 26, 2022, and ran for 30 days. There were 200,000 PAXO, the native token of the Paxo Finance protocol, for distribution to active participants. It was in addition to a Referral program that ran in parallel, where the platform distributed up to 3000 USDT in PAXO to winners. Participants were required to subscribe to any of our social media channels to register. Afterward, they would receive 50 test USDC. Typical of a testnet, the objective of the 30-day program was to draw as many people to the protocol, allowing them to thoroughly test every core component of the platform before submitting valuable feedback. Their feedback was used to refine the platform, allowing Paxo Finance to deliver precisely what its global pool of active users and investors are desirous of: changing the crypto investment landscape through a protocol where users can borrow with a 5X leverage and invest in top-tier crypto assets. 6,000 feedback were received from 19,600 active participants, mainly from Indonesia, East Europe, and the U.S, who experimented on all lending, borrowing, and trading components of the protocol. Story continues From the testnet, the platform allowed participants to get paid as they trial the dApp, learning how they can easily invest in crypto via an undercollateralized protocol guided by secure smart contracts. Additionally, by opting to launch on Polygon, all users, including liquidity providers whom Paxo Finance will now allow to earn passive income, would not have to pay huge on-chain transaction fees because of the network's high throughput. Polygon was tactically selected as the testing protocol. The same chain is now being used to anchor Paxo Finance as the protocol goes live on the mainnet. PAXO Finance is building a revolutionary product allowing users to invest MORE with LESS capital regardless of prevailing crypto market conditions. Learn more about PAXO Finance from our white paper here . For more information about PAXO Finance, visit us on: Website: https://paxo.finance/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/paxofinance Medium: https://medium.com/@paxofinance Telegram: https://t.me/paxofinance Discord : https://discord.gg/a9MQpH7SMr SOURCE: Paxo Finance View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/718284/Paxo-Finance-White-Listing-for-Alpha-Mainnet-is-Now-Open View comments || Is Web3 Really The Future of Everything Or Just A Huge Sham?: Is Web3 Really The Future of Everything Or Just A Huge Sham? Having covered Web3 for almost a year, I should have known that “crypto,” “DAO,” “DeFi,” “blockchain” and other terms associated with the future of the Internet sound, for most people, like a mosquito stuck in each ear. But I’m a slow learner. Slumped in our muggy kitchen, listless and drunk after a day of July Fourth debauchery, my girlfriend locked eyes with me as if struck by a brilliant idea. I expected her to begin crushing potato chips into our Annie’s Mac & Cheese, or suggest we use the leftover pasta-water for a couple’s foot soak––two possibilities I would have fully supported. Instead, she sprayed the equivalent of OFF! for people who know (way) too much about NFTs. “I am not your ‘Metaverse’ person, okay?” she declared. “I need you to know that.” She looked relieved, while I tried my darndest to avoid saying the wrong thing: I was actually talking about Web3, not the metaverse… I was unsuccessful. My girlfriend’s reaction is less about me (I hope) than about two years of buzzy headlines: “Buying Land In The Metaverse Isn’t Cheap”; “FBI Adds “Cryptoqueen” to Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List”; ”No One Is Buying Chris Brown’s NFT Collection.” So bear with me, because this is about Web3: that vague descriptor of early-stage experiments and theories stemming from a collective desire from techies to define the next computer paradigm (or not). But it’s also not about Web3. Before we delve in, I want to say one thing. In imagining this new paradigm and what it might do to and for our world, we’re taking part in a crucial task. Collectively, we’re unveiling what’s cracked and broken in society now––today. The more we look to the future, I believe, the more inequity we’ll reveal, as if staring deeper into a huge (theoretical) mirror. After chatting with a plethora of Web3 experts, I began to see a reflection of our current world––and all the things in need of fixing. Web3 isn’t definable as of yet (I suggest applying air quotes at every mention), but its preferred future, according to lots of tech bros, is based in decentralization, a peer-to-peer network that operates without a central authority figure. Story continues Rather than accessing the Internet through services run by companies like Google or Meta, you would actually own and govern sections of the Internet. Instead of logging into different platforms with different usernames, you would need only one username (or digital persona), with the ability to create anything, no permission needed. Think of a commune or co-op––a really, really big one. Pedestrians walk past a currency money exchange shop in Hong Kong with a sign offering: US Dollar ($), Japanese Yen (¥), British Pound (£), Euro (), Bitcoin (BTC, BCH), Korean Won (), and Cuba Peso (), September 19, 2022. (Credit: Sebastian Ng/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) To ensure that Web3 doesn’t follow the same path as Web2 (the current iteration of the Internet in which people’s time and content is converted into the wealth of businesses and massive corporations), crypto and blockchain technologies will supposedly return the control and ownership of data to individual users via a network of computers that publicly track all transactions. In other words, in Web3, social platforms, digital marketplaces and search engines will be owned by the collective, not the cult leaders–– power to the people! But alas: Crypto markets are currently collapsing, and the industry is already concentrated amongst a small group of players, whether it’s the top five Bitcoin owners or the Web3 developer interface called Alchemy that’s valued at over $10 billion. Many critics have also raised important questions about––go figure––regulation: Who will pay for global data centers? Who will ban offensive accounts? Who will help folks reset their password when they forget? “Running a global business on this scale requires an inescapable amount of centralization just by the brute fact of having to exist and interact with the rest of the civilization,” writes Stephen Diehl, one of Web3’s most ardent critics. So, while a purely decentralized web may be a pipedream, our desire for such a thing couldn’t be more real. Why ? Simple: We’ve experienced 20 years of predatory data harvesting and subsequent manipulation from big tech companies who have our names, our emails, our phone numbers, our locations––who know our devices and what we’re doing on them at all times. Free online perusing has come with a cost: Our data has been collected, sold and leaked. All without the courtesy of a well-deserved apology. (And no, none of Mark Zuckerberg’s apologies count.) Because of this, Diehl thinks decentralization is nothing but an ambiguous term fueling “the dangerous idea that technology can fix social problems.” “The intellectual siren song of crypto that seduces clever people whispers in your ear that no matter what problem you see in the world, a magical coin is going to disrupt human power relations and rearrange the world to your liking,” Diehl writes . “And it’s a siren song many people can’t resist.” (L-R) Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Chris Dixon and TechCrunch Editor-at-Large Josh Constine speak onstage during TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2019 at Moscone Convention Center on October 02, 2019. (Credit: Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch) Perhaps the loudest Web3 siren is Chris Dixon, general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which notoriously doubled its Web3 investor fund to $4.5 billion in May. Dixon doesn’t think decentralization is “a silver bullet” exactly, but a way for “participants to work together toward a common goal––the growth of the network and the appreciation of the token.” With the proliferation of tokens like Bitcoin, Dixon has said that tech giants may eventually be replaced by a multitude of smaller businesses. “We have the ability for creative people, businesses, and startups to reach audiences directly, and to truly have a relationship with those audiences that is not mediated by algorithms and advertising, which is where I think we are today,” said Dixon in an interview with The Verge . Amidst this ongoing debate, one Web3 (remember those air quotes) project that caught my attention is being developed by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. Because Solid is an open-standard––not a company––it’s ineligible for monopoly status. What it does is invites people to store their data in personal web servers called Pods, or decentralized data stores. With Solid, third-party apps (any app made by someone other than the manufacturer of a mobile device or its operating system, like a photo-editing app for Instagram posts) can still replicate the data users share with them, but those users are able to choose exactly what that data is. It doesn’t sound like a huge improvement, but without overarching regulation, it’s a logical step toward what advertising strategist Renny Gleeson thinks is both a realistic and utopian outcome of a better Internet: “the ability for normal humans to be able to have control over their data and share that data in ways that benefits them when they choose.” Diehl also finds the concept behind Solid to be, well, solid, but strongly believes that Web3 is “not the golden path that leads us to that world, it’s the same old crypto bullshit just packaged up in a sugar pill to make it easier to digest.” Then there is Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who is already thinking beyond Web3, tweeting last December that “The VCs [venture capitalists] and their LPs [limited partners, or undisclosed financial backers]” are the true owners of the space. “It will never escape their incentives,” he typed. “It’s ultimately a centralised entity with a different label.” Dorsey followed up with an announcement of web5 (serious air quotes—I mean, what happened to 4 for a start?), his new developer platform run on Bitcoin and decentralized finance. “This will likely be our most important contribution to the internet,” he tweeted in June. When I asked venture capitalist and author of The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything , Matthew Ball, what he thought of “”””web5”””” , he told me that we shouldn’t get stuck in the centralized-versus-decentralized binary: “It’s a continuum, and we tend to believe that the extremes on both sides are sub-optimal.” “I think what Jack is speaking to,” Ball added, “is really just more of an examination of where centralization has merit and where it doesn’t.” I was therefore left to wonder about merit, and whether I should trust Dorsey with my future, a guy who for 10 years ran a massive communications platform that avoided the same issues he’s choosing to tackle now (“a delightful user experience?” Where was that on Twitter?). Another issue with crypto’s decentralized model is that it’s a major target for scams. Certik just reported that Web3 projects have already lost $2 billion from hacks in 2022 alone, featuring the infamous scandal in which Ronin Network was taken for $625 million . Worse yet, there’s a comical lack of customer support. When your crypto wallet is “drained”––which one person told me was “inevitable”––there is nowhere to turn. No one to call. No idea whether or not the hacker still has access to your account. And good luck reporting your stolen Ethereum to the IRS! Maybe the scams and hacks are just growing pains of a young industry. Maybe they even shine a light on the same issues some folks have been facing for centuries. Cleve Mesidor, executive director of The Blockchain Foundation, told me that the riskiest market for people of color (some of whom are the highest adopters of crypto in the U.S.) isn’t crypto—it’s the status quo. “Traditional markets and traditional banking have failed us all equally,” she said, whether it’s the unbanked, Black business owners or Latino nonprofits. “I have an advanced degree; I make good money. But they still give me subprime loans. Money managers don’t target me.” Mesidor made a similar point about the environmental debate surrounding crypto mining. A single bitcoin transaction uses the same amount of power that the average American household consumes in a month! I exclaimed, frantic. Mesidor called bullshit––not on the facts, but the concept as a whole––stating that ​​communities of color, and women, already face the brunt of environmental impact. “If people (government officials, I presume) blaming proof-of-work bitcoin mining want to address the real problems, they would look at sustainable goals and industries with big lobbyists that they give passes to,” Mesidor said. “This is not about giving crypto mining a pass. It’s about why we’re not solving the problems we already have.” Mesidor made me think about the Supreme Court’s recent decision to strip the EPA’s authority to effectively curb carbon emissions in the U.S. Negligence aside, crypto is taking a massive hit right now. Bitcoin just reported its biggest monthly loss in 11 years, and major crypto companies (3AC, Celsius, Voyager Digital) are laying off hundreds and/or filing for bankruptcy. But Mesidor isn’t worried. She believes that crypto––“the future frontier”––will rebound to a $3 trillion market “rather quickly,” shedding unworthy projects along the way. “The problem is that the space is not sustainable,” she told me, referencing a misguided focus on opulence and wealth, with many projects simply seeking to get rich quick. “I’m not concerned if this industry is a bubble, if it’s going to break or if it’s going to become too big, because in the blind spot of the industry are the people at the grassroots who are building products and services to tackle inequity.” Public Policy Advisor for Blockchain Association Cleve Mesidor and Pivot and Host of the Prof G Show Scott Galloway attend Pivot MIA afterparty presented by Salesforce, February 15th, 2022 in Miami, Florida. (Credit: Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for Vox Media) Sustainability could be a crucial decider of Web3’s future. Which projects matter (or will matter) to people? Which projects provide a worthy and easily explainable utility for consumers? Two examples Mesidor mentioned were Oak Coin ($OAK)–– “a community currency for the people of Oakland, California” that empowers locals via a pool of shared assets––and Guap Coin ($GUAP), which has over 10,000 wallet holders and aims to empower the economic voice of the Black community. Even though the value of Guap Coin is at an all-time low (following the overall industry trend), it, like Solid Project and Oak Coin, presents a specific use case that makes sense for certain consumers and could potentially address issues of inequality. Mary Spio, a rocket scientist and founder of a blockchain music-based streaming platform called CEEK VR, also thinks more use cases are needed to boost the Web3 space. “There’s such a huge content gap,” she told me. “If we cannot fill that fast enough, I think we are going to face challenges as an industry.” While Spio’s platform produces realistic virtual concert experiences with the likes of Lady Gaga and Ziggy Marley (CEEK is partnered with Universal ; bye-bye “decentralization”), it also gives lesser-known creators––artists, musicians, gamers, etc.––the ability to upload their content, engage their fans directly and profit off of digital assets they’ve made using CEEK VR’s tools. This is the creator economy model that represents another bone in the back of Web3. After giving our data and content away to mega-platforms and organizations on Web2, people now want to benefit alongside emerging platforms, or upset institutions entirely. In terms of music, I’m reminded of the time Deadmau5 attempted to redefine what the Recording Industry Association of America calls “going platinum.” Deadmau5 released a single in the form of 1 million cheap, easy-to-buy NFTs. Giant buses imprinted with a QR-code linking consumers to the $3 dollar download entered arts events across the country and helped consumers set up crypto wallets. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Web Foundation, interviewed by Laurie Segall, CNN, on the Centre Stage during Web Summit 2018, the global technology conference hosted annually on November 5, 2018 in Lisbon, Lisboa. In 2018, more than 70,000 attendees from over 170 countries flew to Lisbon for Web Summit, including over 1,500 startups, 1,200 speakers and 2,600 international journalists. (Credit: Sam Barnes/Web Summit via Getty Images) As ridiculous (and off-putting) as this sounds, it does pose an interesting alternative thought-experiment to artists relying on record labels and streaming platforms that make money off their music. And because the purchases are recorded on the blockchain, Deadmau5 can see who his fans are, offering him the chance to connect or offer up exclusive content and promos to future gigs. “It is this neat mix of patronage, fandom and collecting that could not exist before,” Dixon told The Verge . Unlike most cryptocurrencies as of late, CEEK VR’s coin has actually been increasing in value. “There’s a real utility and circular economy tied to it,” Spio said. “There’s a demand. I think that’s something most coins don’t have.” Spio explained that when a cryptocurrency has no obvious utility, it is built on hype, and therefore falls prey to the ebb and flow of the market. “Ownership,” Spio told me, “is a hallmark of Web3.” And dare I say, the metaverse (which is different from Web3––sorry, y’all!). The metaverse––which Matthew Ball told me is still “mostly hype” due to the lack of technology able to support “a persistent virtual and 3D simulation”––provides a new space for major platforms to emerge ( Roblox, Fortnite, EPIC Games), brands to play around in (look up “Gucci Town” or “WimbleWorld”) and entertainment and education experiences to thrive. The metaverse, however, also invites privacy horrors, the likes of which we’re just beginning to understand. According to a recent study at Rutgers , hackers can use VR headsets to record “subtle, speech-associated facial dynamics to steal sensitive information communicated via voice-command.” Zuckerberg’s pioneering involvement in the space doesn’t exactly ease my mind either, as his rebranded baby, Meta, sells VR hardware equipped with eye-tracking technology. I’m worried that, in moving forward without proper education and regulation, our data will be up for grabs in different (even more invasive) ways than it is now. Which is why so many people believe that, to build a successful metaverse, we must also build a “decentralized” web. In other words, Web3 must walk so the metaverse can run. And getting back to trust: Can (or should) we actually trust our government to regulate all of this? (With a Supreme Court so set on stripping us of our privacy “IRL,” I say no, but let’s entertain the idea, shall we?) Tim Berners-Lee (Credit: Catrina Genovese/WireImage) When I asked Matthew Ball if he thought technology is advancing faster than we’re able to control it, he turned instead to political inaction: “I think the bigger problem is that the senior-most officials in government do not seem to have a particularly robust understanding of the last 15 years, least of all the next.” The Digital Services Act––a breakthrough piece of legislation passed in the European Union––addresses illegal and harmful content online, requiring tech companies to pay up to 6% of their global revenue (billions for the major platforms) if they don’t consistently monitor and remove it. But these regulations don’t yet exist in the U.S. Last December, a woman named Nina Jane Patel reported being “virtually raped” in Meta’s Horizon Worlds platform. After her avatar was touched and groped by a group of avatars with male voices, she told Refinery29 that trauma resulted from being “immersed.” “As my avatar, and I, entered this room and my avatar [was attacked], I was attacked.” In the end, there are no laws in place to pursue a complaint. Regardless of what new technology surfaces, there will always be people who strive to misuse and abuse it. So without proper regulation, more immersive experiences could make way for more disastrous abuse online. When I asked Mesidor what would threaten the widespread adoption of crypto, she said Washington, which “wants to use policies from the 1930s to regulate crypto today in the 21st century.” Instead of attempting to transform crypto with traditional finance solutions, Mesidor thinks Washington needs to do “the hard work” in constructing a new path forward—including conversations around a financial literacy bill and implementation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), which countries like Australia are already testing. If the metaverse does actually become an interconnected virtual world within the next decade, we will need some serious regulation that doesn’t inhibit and prevent the goals of a decentralized web, but aids them. One Web3 expert I spoke with coined the possibility of such enlightened regulation as a “Digital Bill of Rights” that helps require basic interoperability (in case major platforms don’t want to be compatible with the rest––lookin’ at you, Meta!). This way, users are granted equal access while moving between Web3 spaces, regardless of whether they want to share their data or not. I can’t help but go back to the “blind spot” of the industry––those folks Mesidor mentioned at the grassroots level who are too concerned with sustainability, accessibility and inclusion to care about hype. These are the very people society often overlooks. Still unsure of Web3’s impact or existence, I can at least acknowledge that people are in need of a new paradigm, something better than Web2 or Web1. So I’ll leave it at this: “Some of our best hope for the future is probably happening right now, though it may not look like it yet.” A friend told me this recently, and it made me smile. Even though our world’s reflection is looking pretty glum and, frankly, fucked up, I can see how, if tilted at the right angle, in the right light, Web3 appears to be born from hope. To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here . The post Is Web3 Really The Future of Everything Or Just A Huge Sham? appeared first on SPIN . || Why SBF asked Elon Musk to buy Twitter: Happy Friday, everyone. The tech world is buzzing about a series of texts between Elon Musk and his billionaire buddies that became public as part of an ongoing lawsuit over whether the Tesla founder must follow through on his earlier plan to buy Twitter . The texts include messages from Joe Rogan and Jack Dorsey, but also from Sam Bankman-Fried and one of his advisers, who told Musk the FTX founder could put up as much as $15 billion to be part of the Twitter deal. Alas, Musk only replied with cursory responses, including, “So long as I don’t have to have a laborious blockchain debate,” and is now doing all he can to not buy Twitter. But the episode does raise the interesting question of why SBF, a quant best known for his remarkable trading savvy, would want to be part owner of the giant media platform in the first place. In response to a DM from Fortune, a person familiar with SBF’s thinking sent a link to a Twitter thread from July in which the billionaire decried the fragmentation of social media—noting that you can’t communicate with your friends across different platforms like Facebook and Twitter—and that crypto could solve this. He added that using “Blockchain-Twitter” and “Facebook-Twitter” would mean “You can use any platform, and still talk to all your friends on every platform. Your messages, and network, are yours: You can move platforms and keep them.” When I interviewed SBF this summer , he expressed similar views, identifying social media as one of three killer apps for crypto in the near future (the other two were payments and settlement). I did not include these portions in my story, but we also discussed how the influential venture capitalist Chris Dixon has shared a similar thesis and made a major investment in a social media blockchain called DeSo. But in the course of our conversation, SBF also added, “I don’t think running a social and on-chain social media network is like a great fit for FTX as a business,” but that the company would be eager to help such a venture as a technology partner. Story continues It’s not hard to see how owning a piece of Twitter would help SBF accomplish this vision, especially as the company’s cofounder and former CEO, Jack Dorsey, has already added crypto features to the platform, including NFT profile pictures and Bitcoin payments. If SBF bought a large stake in Twitter, he would no doubt turbocharge such efforts—and in the process make the already out-there community known as Crypto Twitter (or CT) even wilder still. Any such plans would seem to be on ice for now, however, as Twitter and Musk slug it out in court in a bitter back-and-forth. But once the dust settles, it will be interesting to see if SBF renews his efforts or finds another way to plow billions into social media—a field in which he is clearly interested. Jeff John Roberts jeff.roberts@fortune.com @jeffjohnroberts This story was originally featured on Fortune.com || 7 Growth Stocks to Buy to Tap Into a Hidden Bull Market: Even though the stock market has performed miserably lately, and throughout most of 2022, macroeconomic data shows there is reason to be hopeful equities can rebound meaningfully sooner rather than later. Moreover, unlike in April, May and June, a significant number of non-defensive stocks across numerous sectors are holding their own and even advancing on some big down days. As a result, it’s much easier for short- and medium-term investors to find promising growth stocks to buy than it was in the second quarter. Underlying my confidence in the market is the fact that U.S. consumer confidence just hit its highest level since April . The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index rose to 108 this month from 103.6 in August, beating expectations despite recession fears. Furthermore, despite the drag of rapidly rising interest rates, sales of new houses unexpectedly surged nearly 29% in August compared with July. If you’re looking for hidden bull market opportunities, here are seven growth stocks to buy. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips CEIX Consol Energy $67.23 BTU Peabody Energy $24.87 LLY Eli Lilly $334.16 LVS Las Vegas Sands $39.69 MLCO Melco Resorts & Entertainment $6.56 RIVN Rivian $35.08 LRN Stride $42.49 Consol Energy (CEIX) An image of heaps of coal Source: Shutterstock In general, developed nations have been moving away from using coal as an electricity source. The fossil fuel is much worse for the environment than almost any alternative. Yet, with natural gas prices soaring as Europe desperately looks to replace Russian energy, some countries are turning to coal . According to the International Energy Agency, global coal consumption is expected to increase by 0.7% this year. That would put 2022 in a tie with 2013 for the annual record. And with increased demand expected, IEA forecasts 2023 will set a new record for coal consumption. This, along with the sharp increase in coal prices, bodes very well for coal producers like Consol Energy (NYSE: CEIX ). Shares have tripled in price so far this year. Story continues In the first half of the year, the company’s coal revenue jumped 105% to just over $1 billion . During the same period, net cash from operations doubled to $346.6 million. While CEIX stock is up just over 200% year to date, shares sit 15% below their record high of $79.17, made in late August. But trading this week suggests the stock may be heating up once again. Peabody Energy (BTU) Peabody Energy (BTU) coal mining company logo seen displayed on smart phone Source: IgorGolovniov / Shutterstock.com Consol Energy isn’t the only coal producer on today’s list of growth stocks to buy. I also like rival Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU ). In Q2, Peabody’s revenue surged 83% year over year to $1.3 billion . Meanwhile, operating income soared to $449.3 million from a loss of $4.2 million in Q2 2021. The company’s EBITDA, excluding certain items, came in at $577.8 million, its “highest in more than a decade,” CEO James Grech said on the company’s earnings call . Grech predicts the coal producer’s performance will improve even more in the second half of the year: “We continue to expect a strong second half with higher projected volumes compared to the first half of the year in all our segments and markets.” It’s worth noting that Peabody’s trailing price-earnings ratio is a minuscule 3.3. And its net cash position is slightly positive, as it had $1.12 billion of cash and $1.07 billion in debt as of the end of Q2. BTU stock is up nearly 150% year to date, although shares remain 25% below their 52-week high, made in April. But the sharp rally in shares over the past few days could be just the beginning as we head into the cold winter months. Eli Lilly (LLY) Eli Lilly and Company World Headquarters. Lilly makes Medicines and Pharmaceuticals XI Source: Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock.com As I noted in a recent column , Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY ) may have “one of the most lucrative drugs of all time on its hands” in the form of Mounjaro, which is currently being studied as a potential obesity treatment. The drug, which is currently approved to treat Type 2 diabetes, could see peak annual sales of $25 billion , according to UBS analysts. This would make it one of the most lucrative drugs in history. UBS believes the drug could be approved as an obesity treatment by mid-2023 based on strong clinical trial results. The analysts also note the potential of Eli Lilly’s donanemab, which they called its “highest potential late-stage Alzheimer’s asset.” However, given the potential blockbuster the company has on its hands with Mounjaro, the analysts referred to donanemab as simply “icing on the cake.” Yet, LLY stock shot up 7.5% today and made a new all-time high on news of positive trial results from Biogen’s (NASDAQ: BIIB ) Alzheimer’s drug. Eli Lilly’s drug targets the same protein, prompting the rally in shares. So far this year, LLY stock is up 22% year to date, but it likely has much further to run. Las Vegas Sands (LVS) a red sign with the Las Vegas Sands logo Source: Andy Borysowski / Shutterstock.com In conjunction with a couple of other companies that own casinos in the Chinese region of Macau, Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS ) has rallied this week. That’s because, on Monday, Macau’s government said it would reintroduce its e-visa program for travelers from mainland China and allow group tours. According to officials, all pandemic-related travel restrictions are set to be lifted in November. Following the news, Jefferies analyst David Katz upped his rating on LVS stock to “buy” from “hold” and hiked his price target to $50 from $40. Katz argued that while some uncertainty remains, a recovery is underway and called for “a notable, immediate rerating” of LVS stock. Shares are up 15% this week alone and 5.5% so far this year in the face of a bear market. Assuming the market doesn’t plunge further and Macau doesn’t signal any change in its plan to allow visitors to return to the region, LVS stock is likely to climb significantly in the coming weeks. Melco Resorts & Entertainment (MLCO) a room of slot machines in a casino to represent gambling stocks Source: Shutterstock Investors looking for a name that’s likely to get an even bigger boost from Macau’s resurgence should consider Melco Resorts & Entertainment (NASDAQ: MLCO ). According to a report from Singapore-based Lucror Analytics , Melco has the strongest cash position of any of its peers. Even if Melco brought in $0 in revenue from its Macau operations, its $1.65 billion in cash and $1.1 billion in undrawn revolving credit facility would sustain the company until April 2024, the analysts said. Citigroup analyst George Choi this week upped his price target on MLCO stock to $11.50 from $11 and maintained his “buy” rating on shares. Calling the easing travel restrictions “a positive surprise,” Choi said Macau has a “clear roadmap to recovery” and investors may start to warm to stocks such as MLCO. That certainly seems to be the case so far, with MLCO stock jumping 24% this week. While shares are down around 35% for the year, Choi’s $11.50 price target implies upside of 75% from current levels. Rivian (RIVN) The back of a silver Rivian pick-up truck. Source: Miro Vrlik Photography / Shutterstock.com Unlike most of the other names on today’s list of growth stocks to buy, Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN ) is in the red for the year. However, the electric truck maker has been fairly resilient since the company announced an alliance with Mercedes-Benz (OTC: MBGAF ) earlier this month. I’ve been upbeat on the deal, writing in a Sept. 20 column that the agreement “looks to be a game-changer” as it “increases Rivian’s respectability” and provides it “with an important foothold in the large European auto market.” Multiple Wall Street analysts have also weighed in positively on the transaction. For example, Wedbush’s Dan Ives said the deal will enable Rivian to “penetrate Europe while ramping production of the [electric delivery van] platform to meet its long-term growth and profitability target.” Ives gives RIVN stock an “outperform” rating with a price target of $45. That is more than 28% above the current share price. Stride (LRN) children boarding a school bus, representing Education Stocks to Buy Source: Shutterstock Last up on today’s list of growth stocks to buy is Stride (NYSE: LRN ), a provider of education services for children in kindergarten through 12th grade such as online curriculums and software systems. The stock has been bucking the broader bear market this year. Last month, Morgan Stanley raised its rating on LRN stock to “overweight,” saying, “we see an attractive risk-reward and believe the market is under-appreciating the growth story.” The analysts note that the company’s Career Learning business, which seeks to enhance the career prospects of middle and high school students, is only in 24 states so far. That  leaves a lot of room for growth. Shares have been on a tear over the past month and are up 27.5% so far this year. Yet, they are changing hands at an affordable forward price-earnings ratio of just 15.8 and price-sales ratio of 2.2. Given the combination of affordability and growth potential, along with the endorsement by Morgan Stanley, LRN stock is likely to keep rallying for some time. On the date of publication, Larry Ramer owned shares of RIVN stock. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines . Larry Ramer has conducted research and written articles on U.S. stocks for 15 years. He has been employed by The Fly and Israel’s largest business newspaper, Globes. Larry began writing columns for InvestorPlace in 2015. Among his highly successful, contrarian picks have been GE, solar stocks, and Snap. You can reach him on StockTwits at @larryramer. More From InvestorPlace Buy This $5 Stock BEFORE This Apple Project Goes Live The Best $1 Investment You Can Make Today Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” It doesn’t matter if you have $500 or $5 million. Do this now. The post 7 Growth Stocks to Buy to Tap Into a Hidden Bull Market appeared first on InvestorPlace . [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: no change || Prices: 19382.90, 19185.66, 19067.63, 19268.09, 19550.76, 19334.42, 19139.54, 19053.74, 19172.47, 19208.19
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] BTC Aims At Further Growth: On D1, the picture has not changed much since last week. Thepairis trading at the upper border of the descending channel between 100.0% and 61.8% Fibo. The quotations keep declining inside the channel with a possible aim at 61.8% Fibo. The MACD histogram remains below zero, which also signals a further decline. The signal lines of the indicator have formed a Black Cross, which is yet another signal of going down. On H4, the perspectives are quite different from those on D1. The pair keeps trading under 38.2% Fibo; the quotations remain under the horizontal resistance level. A decline currently looks more probable than growth; the aim is at 0.0% Fibo. The Stochastic is pushed towards the overbought area by a weak impulse, which means buyers are losing power. If a Black Cross forms in the overbought area, this will be yet another signal of further decline. There has been much news about theBTCrate these days, however, it has little influence on the behavior of the leading cryptocurrency. Nonetheless, there is one thing that may attract investors 0 if the story ever continues. The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China has encountered an increasedrisk of bubonic plague epidemics. The region has implemented the third level of epidemiological threat, which means hunt has been band, and the population must report any cases of suspected plague or fever. Why should this be of interest to BTC investors? The thing is that many mining farms and production of mining equipment are situated right in China. The percentage of Chinese miners in the overall number of miners in the world remains high. So, if someone starts buying or selling the BTC massively here, the crypto market will definitely notice it. The risk of a new virus from China potentially means the closing of mining farms. The good news is that such enterprises work rather autonomous, so there has to be a really serious reason for closing them, and there are no such reasons yet. By Dmitriy Gurkovskiy, Chief Analyst atRoboForex Disclaimer Any predictions contained herein are based on the author’s particular opinion. This analysis shall not be treated as trading advice. RoboForex shall not be held liable for the results of the trades arising from relying upon trading recommendations and reviews contained herein. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • GBP/JPY Price Forecast – British Pound Breaks Towards Major Level • AUD/USD Price Forecast – Australian Dollar Continues to Be Choppy • USD/CAD Daily Forecast – U.S. Dollar Tries To Rebound • Gold Price Forecast – Gold Markets Reach Highs Again • Silver Price Forecast – Silver Markets Continue to Press Highs • EUR/USD Price Forecast – Euro Choppy Back and Forth || Twitter Hack Takes Down Joe Biden, Elon Musk Accounts in Widespread Bitcoin Scam Attack: UPDATE: This is an ongoing situation. More has come to light.Click here for full coverage of the Twitter hack. Read more:Everything We Know About the Bitcoin Scam Rocking Twitter’s Most Prominent Accounts Read more:Obama, Biden, Netanyahu, Musk: Here’s a List of Every Hacked Twitter Account Related:ConsenSys Accused of Stealing Payment Startup’s Code for Rival Service Read more:Twitter Breach Reactions: Security Professionals Offer an Early Assessment Read more:Chainalysis Says Bitcoin Scammed From Twitter Users Is ‘On the Move’ Read more:Twitter Says ‘Coordinated Social Engineering’ Attack Caused Bitcoin Scam Read more:Twitter Hack Used Bitcoin to Cash In: Here’s Why Related:After the Twitter Hack, We Need a User-Owned Internet More Than Ever Hackers pumping a crypto giveaway scam appear to have compromised the Twitter accounts of leading exchanges, individuals and at least one news organization. • The unknown attackers tweeted identical messages promising that they were “giving back 5000 BTC ($45,889,950) to the community” on Wednesday afternoon from the accounts of Gemini, Binance, KuCoin, Coinbase, Litecoin’s Charlie Lee, Tron’s Justin Sun, Bitfinex, Ripple, Cash App, Elon Musk, Uber, Apple, Kanye West, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffett, Barack Obama and CoinDesk. • The messages prompted readers to claim their rewards at an included link associated with “Crypto For Health.” • Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s CEO, attempted to warn Twitter users that the Tweet was a scam within five minutes of the hack. But the attackers appear to have hidden his response and hacked him too. • Kucoin was also targeted in the hack. CoinDesk’s account was as well. • Attempts to reach the hacked entities were not immediately successful. • At least some of the compromised accounts have multi-factor authentication enabled, including CoinDesk’s. • The address linked to the scam appears to have received more than 11.3 BTC, or roughly $103,960. • Shares of Twitter fell as much as 3% in after-hours trading. • Twitter Hack Takes Down Joe Biden, Elon Musk Accounts in Widespread Bitcoin Scam Attack • Twitter Hack Takes Down Joe Biden, Elon Musk Accounts in Widespread Bitcoin Scam Attack || Blockchain Bites: JPMorgan on Bitcoin, South Korea on CBDCs and the Porn Industry on Crypto: With bitcoin and ether both down on the day, CoinDesk’s Markets Daily is back! For early access before our regular noon Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica or RSS . This episode is sponsored by Bitstamp and Ciphertrace . Today’s stories: Bitcoin Price Drop May Be a Bear Trap, Options Market Suggests JPMorgan Analysts: Bitcoin Is Likely to Survive (as a Speculative Asset) Cryptocurrency Markets May Be Decentralized, but They’re Still Accountable Related: Bitcoin News Roundup for June 15, 2020 How an Art Collective Is Using Blockchain to Protest Police Brutality For early access before our regular noon Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica or RSS . Related Stories How the Porn Industry Changed During Coronavirus, With Performers Wary of Bitcoin Bitcoin Is More Than an Inflation Hedge || Consumer Watchdog Moves to Block Canadian Bitcoin Miner From US Power Grid: Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen is trying to stop Canadian firm DMG Blockchain from plugging its bitcoin mining rigs into the American power grid. In a letter published Thursday, the nonprofit implored the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to scrutinize, if not outright reject, DMG Blockchain’s bid to export U.S. electricity to Canada and moved to intervene. The group’s Energy Program Director Tyson Slocum and Climate Program Director David Arkush co-wrote the letter . DMG Blockchain has been aggressively expanding its cryptocurrency mining capacity in recent months. On May 27, the data center operator tripled its fleet of ASIC miners by adding 1,000 M30s. Two days later, it applied for permission to export U.S. electricity, writing that its 15 megawatt mining operation will grow to 60 megawatts in the next year. Related: Bitmain Co-Founder Offers Share Buyback at $4B Valuation to End Power Struggle “The DMG application is unique in that it represents a maiden effort by an energy-hungry cryptocurrency-mining industry to import electricity from the United States to Canada to meet its significant power demands,” Slocum and Arkush said. Read more: US Watchdog Groups Call for Congress to Put a Freeze on Facebook’s Libr a Slocum and Arkush said power utilities in Washington state have banned crypto miners for putting too much load on the grid. Washington butts up against DMG’s home territory of British Columbia, and both locations are attractive to crypto miners because of ample hydropower. They also suggested DMG’s application may skirt federal laws prohibiting electricity exports that undermine or impair the U.S. power supply. For this, they cited crypto mining’s “staggering” energy waste, its upward impact on energy prices, the possibility that it could interfere with local attempts to introduce renewable power sources and climate change. Related: Bitcoin Miner Maker Ebang Estimates $2.5M Loss for Q1 in IPO Prospectus Update Story continues “U.S. cryptocurrency miners are struggling to meet their own power demands,” they said. They warned DOE an approval could trigger a “rush” in foreign cryptocurrency miners looking to export U.S. electricity. But Canadian crypto miners are already buying U.S. electricity though third-party power brokers, according to DMG Blockchain COO Sheldon Bennett. He said his 33-acre blended data center – it runs bitcoin rigs alongside traditional servers – will do the same if DMG’s export application is not ultimately approved. Bennett said Public Citizen’s letter demonizes cryptocurrency mining without paying much attention to the far-heavier electrical load of other transaction-focused firms, like PayPal. Additionally, he argued that the watchdog was ignoring the fact that the Pacific Northwest’s dams produce more electricity than locals can conceivably use. That glut’s only grown larger during COVID-19. “We are like little droplets in the ocean compared to the amount of electricity that’s out there,” he said. UPDATE (20:30 6/25/2020) : This article has been updated to include comment from DMG Blockchain. Related Stories Consumer Watchdog Moves to Block Canadian Bitcoin Miner From US Power Grid Consumer Watchdog Moves to Block Canadian Bitcoin Miner From US Power Grid || Shopify To Begin Offering Affirm-Powered Installment Plans To Customers Later This Year: Financial technology services company Affirm will power installment plans on Shopify Inc’s (NYSE: SHOP ) e-commerce platform, it announced Wednesday. What Happened Affirm’s "buy now, pay later" financing plan would be available for eligible Shopify merchants later in 2020, it noted. Customers would be able to split the total purchase amount into four equal, bi-weekly, interest-free payments. Affirm claims it will not charge any additional, hidden or late, fees. The San Francisco-based company’s Chief Executive Officer Max Levchin said the partnership with Shopify would allow the company to further its mission of “honest and transparent financial products.” “The age of credit cards is rapidly coming to, I wouldn't call it an end, but a viable alternative in the buy-now-pay-later tools that are built around transparency, clarity, and simplicity, it's no longer a niche,” Levchin further told CNBC. Why It Matters The testing of the installment service will commence in the coming months, Affirm disclosed. The fintech firm contended that its merchants that offer customers a similar pay-over-time option have seen a rise in average order value and overall sales. A KeyBanc Capital Markets Analyst has increased the price target for Shopify from $1,000 to $1,125 due to the digital momentum the online retailer is experiencing as brick and mortar stores remain shut due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Shopify’s rival BigCommerce also filed for an IPO last week. Price Action Shopify shares traded nearly 0.3% higher at $960 in the pre-market session Thursday. See more from Benzinga Twitter Says Private Messages Of 36 People, Including Some Verified Accounts, Were Accessed In Bitcoin Hack Tesla Sues Rival EV Maker Rivian For Poaching Employees, Stealing Intellectual Property Spotify, Universal Music To Collaborate On Former's Long-Touted Marketing Tools As Part Of New Licensing Deal © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || BitMEX Owner Leads $3.4M Round for South African Crypto Exchange: BitMEX owner 100x Group has participated in a Series A funding round for a South African crypto exchange, saying it offers an entry point into the fast-growing market. • Therecently-renamedparent company of derivatives exchange BitMEX confirmed Monday that it had led the $3.4 million Series A for the Johannesburg-based exchange VALR. • VALR has offered trading pairs for the rand against bitcoin, ether and XRP since June 2019. • The investment will fund expansion into other countries as well as new products and services. • Other commits came from Michael Jordaan, the former CEO of First National Bank, one of the largest banks in South Africa, as well as U.S. exchange Bittrex. Both also participated in VALR’s $1.5 millionseed roundin 2018. • In a statement, 100x CEO Arthur Hayes said the VALR investment gave the firm key exposure to South Africa – a market, he said, with high potential. • In areportthis year, Arcane Research estimated that 13% of South African internet users had owned cryptocurrencies, nearly double the 7% global average. • Binance launched its own local fiat gateway in April 2020 in order to capitalize on the country’s high crypto adoption rates. See also:This Bitcoin Documentary From Africa Is Streaming on Amazon Prime • BitMEX Owner Leads $3.4M Round for South African Crypto Exchange • BitMEX Owner Leads $3.4M Round for South African Crypto Exchange • BitMEX Owner Leads $3.4M Round for South African Crypto Exchange • BitMEX Owner Leads $3.4M Round for South African Crypto Exchange || The Truth About Bitcoin and Hezbollah in Lebanon: Cryptocurrency does not appear to be a significant trend in terror financing in the Middle East, but a new round of U.S. sanctions aimed at Syria may tip the scales in favor of experimentation. On Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said U.S. sanctions against his Syrian ally President Bashar al-Assad are an attempt to “starve” both Syria and Lebanon. Local black market activity related to global assets like dollars is surging , with Lebanese banks failing to meet that demand. “The Americans are pressuring the Bank of Lebanon to prevent it from putting enough dollars into the market,” Nasrallah said . To date, evidence suggests terror groups like Hamas are using only small amounts of bitcoin , at volumes far smaller than what the civilian population in the region is using. In fact, the analytics firm Chainalysis estimates most campaigns by terror groups like ISIS have raised “less than $10,000” worth of cryptocurrency, less than a single Palestinian trader typically sells in a week . Read more: Bitcoin in Emerging Markets: The Middle East That said, among the most prominent terrorist organizations in 2020, Hezbollah in southern Lebanon is arguably the most likely to benefit from using crypto. (Hezbollah is classified as a terror group by the U.S. and 17 other nations. A number of EU countries do not classify Hezbollah as a terror group.) Randa Slim, the Lebanese-American director of diplomacy programs at the Middle East Institute think tank in Washington D.C., said she believes Hezbollah is interested in bitcoin. Related: The Truth About Bitcoin and Hezbollah in Lebanon “No other party in Lebanon has the kind of access to financial resources nor the military infrastructure to be able to maintain its role. We’re going to see Hezbollah’s dominance over the political life of the country, and increasingly over the economic life of the country,” Slim said, referring to Lebanon’s current economic crisis . Story continues Hezbollah’s power may be growing, but bitcoin doesn’t appear to be playing a significant role in that so far. Slim said she hasn’t seen any “focus in Hezbollah-affiliated media and publications on cryptocurrency” and “the money from Iran mostly comes in cash.” Likewise, an anonymous Lebanese bitcoiner said he hasn’t seen or heard anything related to both bitcoin and Hezbollah. Iranian government officials have repeatedly made public statements in 2020 that they are interested in using bitcoin, without saying how they plan to deploy that capital. Considering their own economic crisis at home and raging stock market , there isn’t any evidence yet to suggest Tehran’s crypto strategy includes terror financing. Read more: Iranian President Calls for National Crypto Mining Strategy “Nasrallah frequently mentions that his group tries to avoid [cypherpunk] technology,” the anonymous Lebanese bitcoiner said, “because there’s an enormous asymmetry between them and Israel when it comes to such technology.” Either way, Iranian funding is only a fraction of Hezbollah’s finances. Middle Eastern bitcoin experts, even those with ample reason to fear extremists, are generally less concerned with the risk of terror financing than their North American counterparts. Limited concerns Beyond the fact Hezbollah leadership knows its longtime enemy Israel has more crypto resources, the Lebanese bitcoiner said if terrorists can get missiles they can certainly acquire bitcoin and operate their own systems. In short, the possibility exists regardless of sanctions, which have primarily limited civilian access to global assets. As one Iraqi bitcoin trader, who also commented on the condition of anonymity, said with regards to the extremist threat in his homeland on the opposite side of Syria , the possibility of terror financing “is not a convincing reason for us to be afraid of [bitcoin].” Read more: How Bitcoin Fits Into Lebanon’s Banking Crisis The Iraqi said the only way to deprive extremist groups of financial support is to address “the deteriorating economic situation” that “directly affects people’s living situation.” The Lebanese bitcoiner agreed. “Hezbollah is able to maintain the majority of its influence by being able to provide for the most disadvantaged individuals in the country,” the Lebanese bitcoiner said. In reference to how Hezbollah distributed American dollars to its supporters late last year, earlier in the Lebanese economic crisis , the bitcoiner said: “If people had a way to manage their finances in a truly decentralized fashion, what effect would that have on Hezbollah’s ability to buy loyalty with dollars?” To that end, the Iraqi trader is optimistic about bitcoin’s potential in the Middle East, especially places with weak nation-state structures like Lebanon and Syria’s Rojava region. Lest we forget, American sanctions aren’t the only compliance issues in the region. Lebanese Christians and various Muslim sects , for example , may also face discriminatory obstacles and be attracted to bitcoin for this reason. “I am confident that we are at the beginning of the road and that in the near future there will be a significant improvement,” the Iraqi trader said in reference to currency dynamics and “free trade” across the region. It’s estimated hundreds of civilians across the Middle East use bitcoin to sustain themselves, although it’s not clear how many in total. “A lot of people that are salaried employees are now using cryptocurrency,” the anonymous Lebanese bitcoiner said. “In that sense, I am grateful for cryptocurrency and think it can be very useful in those contexts.” Financial crime As of June 2020, there is more evidence to suggest fraud than terror financing in the Middle East. According to the Washington Institute, a pro-Israel think tank, Hezbollah typically uses money laundering schemes, banking fraud and credit card scams to fund its operations . Such financial crimes are on the rise during the recession, more broadly speaking, even in the United States . Any such operations would not be unique to cryptocurrency nor Lebanon. The most obvious illicit use case beyond run-of-the-mill scams would be Iran sending bitcoin to Hezbollah. By the most extreme estimates, such as the one published in 2019 by Israel Hayom , Hezbollah reportedly has a $1 billion military budget, out of which roughly $100 million worth of fiat is estimated to come from the Iranian government. Read more: Despite Bitcoin Price Dips, Crypto Is a Safe Haven in the Middle East Local sources in Tehran said they haven’t heard of specific crypto exchanges working directly with governments for political transactions. The scale of terror financing, in particular between Iran and Hezbollah, would theoretically create a noticeable data surge in Beirut’s and Tehran’s comparably small bitcoin markets. If Hezbollah is using bitcoin, it has done so without attracting local or international attention. For broader context, the state of Lebanon , where Hezbollah represents a political party as well as an independent militia, is estimated to have an annual budget of $2.78 billion . Chainalysis estimates crypto terror financing across the region hovers around $1 million (for Hamas and ISIS, there’s not yet a comparable estimate for Hezbollah). As such, the blockchain sleuthing firm called this very “ limited adoption .” Such cryptocurrency campaigns appear to be ineffective at best. Based on public data about bitcoin usage in the Middle East, there’s no evidence suggesting significant trading volumes are devoted to financing Hezbollah. In short, neo-Nazis may be more likely to use bitcoin than Islamic extremists. Cash flow Meanwhile, the Lebanese banking system is on the verge of collapse. Hezbollah reportedly threatened to storm Lebanese banks in 2019, when the group had trouble accessing funds. Tensions between the terror group and Lebanese central bankers continue to simmer. That sentiment is commonplace. Unaffiliated protests lit a central bank building on fire last week in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city. Broadly speaking, bitcoin usage has become more widespread in Lebanon during this economic crisis. Considering most Hezbollah supporters are Lebanese, the Middle East Institute’s Slim said the group’s supporters are probably not an exception to local fintech trends. People on the ground do not believe regulations deserve credit for the lack of terror financing. The bitcoin traders from Iraq and Lebanon said it is simply a matter of civilians finding bitcoin more useful than extremists these days. It remains to be seen whether cryptocurrencies offer a unique value to Hezbollah. Plus, Lebanon’s overall electricity infrastructure may not be mature enough for a competitive bitcoin mining industry, not to mention the digital-literacy divide that limits local liquidity. The group faces mounting economic pressure because it also operates hospitals, schools and agricultural programs with dire needs during the coronavirus crisis. Slim said sanctions have not reduced the overall financial support for groups like Hezbollah, merely diversified the ways these budgets are managed and deployed. Despite, or perhaps because of, the perfect storm of economic uncertainty, it appears Lebanon’s growing bitcoin market is driven organically, among civilians, not by institutions or extremist campaigns. “It’s not something, in my opinion, the Lebanese government has the technical resources to focus on and monitor,” she said of bitcoin. “Whatever money Iran has devoted over the years to its regional projection of power, through proxies and alliances like Hezbollah … that pie, I don’t think it has expanded. There are now more demands for the money.” Related Stories Bitcoin Still Undervalued After Q2 Rally, Price Metric Shows Market Wrap: Bitcoin Flat at $9.4K but Investors Are Holding On || IRS Sued by Ex-Coinbase User Over Seizure of Financial Records: A former Coinbase user who last August received the now-infamous Internal Revenue Service (IRS) crypto letter is suing to block the tax agency from unlawfully seizing private financial records. Bitcoin researcher Jim Harper accused the IRS, its commissioner and up to 10 unnamed agents of violating his privacy and due process rights under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution in a 26-page civil action filed in New Hampshire District Court on Wednesday. Last summer, Harper and more than 10,000 other taxpayers learned in a “soft letter” that the IRS had “information” on their cryptocurrency accounts. IRS agents wrote they had reason to believe he had not paid taxes on the crypto. (Harper claims he’s paid his crypto taxes in full since 2013.) The IRS never said where it got its “information,” but Harper believes his details may have been among the trove of 13,000 account records that IRS agents seized from Coinbase in early 2018 following a court order and controversial legal fight. “If they acquired it via the Coinbase summons – and we don’t know that for sure – it was a defective process that denied me the opportunity to contest the seizure of my data,” Harper told CoinDesk in an email. “I’ll be seeking destruction of the records in the IRS’s control. A win would allow all recipients of the letter to seek the same.” Caleb Kruckenberg, a New Civil Liberties Alliance lawyer who is representing Harper pro bono , told CoinDesk Harper’s case is an opportunity to put some checks on the power of the administrative state. Read the full filing below: Related Stories IRS Sued by Ex-Coinbase User Over Seizure of Financial Records IRS Sued by Ex-Coinbase User Over Seizure of Financial Records IRS Sued by Ex-Coinbase User Over Seizure of Financial Records IRS Sued by Ex-Coinbase User Over Seizure of Financial Records || ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / June 29, 2020 /Alt 5 Sigma Inc. an emerging leader in blockchain powered financial platforms, provides its daily digital instruments market summary for Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ether (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD). Real-Time Market Data is available atwww.alt5pro.comand Real-Time Market Data feed is also available atwww.alt5sigma.com Market Summary [{"Digital Asset": "Bitcoin", "Pair": "BTC/USD", "Price": "$9,088.68", "24hr Chg": "0.253711%", "7d Chg": "-3.7461%", "24/hr Volume": "$15,778 M", "MarketCap": "$167,395 M"}, {"Digital Asset": "Ethereum", "Pair": "ETH/USD", "Price": "$223.43", "24hr Chg": "-0.32662%", "7d Chg": "-5.7852%", "24/hr Volume": "$6,246 M", "MarketCap": "$24,923 M"}, {"Digital Asset": "XRP", "Pair": "XRP/USD", "Price": "$0.18", "24hr Chg": "-0.709683%", "7d Chg": "-5.15174%", "24/hr Volume": "$1,124 M", "MarketCap": "$7,868 M"}, {"Digital Asset": "Bitcoin Cash", "Pair": "BCH/USD", "Price": "$220.49", "24hr Chg": "0.513737%", "7d Chg": "-6.72619%", "24/hr Volume": "$1,036 M", "MarketCap": "$4,068 M"}, {"Digital Asset": "Bitcoin SV", "Pair": "BSV/USD", "Price": "$158.31", "24hr Chg": "1.39451%", "7d Chg": "-9.29005%", "24/hr Volume": "$1,032 M", "MarketCap": "$2,920 M"}, {"Digital Asset": "Litecoin", "Pair": "LTC/USD", "Price": "$41.49", "24hr Chg": "0.466256%", "7d Chg": "-5.02988%", "24/hr Volume": "$1,370 M", "MarketCap": "$2,693 M"}, {"Digital Asset": "EOS", "Pair": "EOS/USD", "Price": "$2.34", "24hr Chg": "-0.674112%", "7d Chg": "-7.86565%", "24/hr Volume": "$1,099 M", "MarketCap": "$2,188 M"}, {"Digital Asset": "Stellar", "Pair": "XLM/USD", "Price": "$0.06", "24hr Chg": "-0.356624%", "7d Chg": "-10.3327%", "24/hr Volume": "$270 M", "MarketCap": "$1,291 M"}, {"Digital Asset": "Monero", "Pair": "XMR/USD", "Price": "$63.25", "24hr Chg": "1.04074%", "7d Chg": "-2.67386%", "24/hr Volume": "$58 M", "MarketCap": "$1,114 M"}, {"Digital Asset": "Dash", "Pair": "DASH/USD", "Price": "$67.26", "24hr Chg": "-0.649013%", "7d Chg": "-6.09747%", "24/hr Volume": "$193 M", "MarketCap": "$644 M"}] About Alt 5 Sigma Inc. Alt 5 is a fintech company specializing in the development and deployment of digital assets trading and exchange platforms. Alt 5 was founded by financial industry specialists out of the necessity to provide the digital asset economy with security, accessibility, transparency and compliance. Alt 5 provides its clients the ability to buy, sell and hold digital assets in a safe and secure environment deployed with the best practices of the financial industry. Alt 5's products and services are available to Banks, Broker Dealers, Funds, Family Offices, Professional Traders, Retail Traders, Digital Asset Exchanges, Digital Asset Brokers, Blockchain Developers, and Financial Information Providers. Alt 5's digital asset custodian services are secured by GardaWorld. GardaWorld is the world's largest privately-owned business solutions and security services company, offering cash management services. For more information, visitwww.alt5sigma.com. Contact: Andre BeauchesneTel. 1-800-204-6203info@alt5sigma.com For more information on ALT 5 Pay, visitwww.alt5pay.comFor more information on ALT 5 Pro, visitwww.alt5pro.com SOURCE:ALT 5 Sigma Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/595588/ALT-5-Sigma-Digital-Instrument-Market-Summary-for-BTC-ETH-LTC-BCH || Blockchain Bites: Trump on Bitcoin, Powell on Digital Dollars and the Truth About Terrorist Financing: The Washington Examiner published an excerpt of John Bolton’s new book detailing a dramatic scene in which President Trump told Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to go after bitcoin before tackling trade with China. This news follows a report from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) showing how the agency failed to properly oversee crypto investigations, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s statement that a “digital dollar” should be investigated. Here’s the story: You’re readingBlockchain Bites, the daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news, and why they’re significant. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’snewsletters here. Related:First Mover: Compound's COMP Token More Than Doubles in Price Amid DeFi Mania Who Watches the Watchdogs?The DEAfailed to adequately police its undercover agents’ handling of cryptocurrency, according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (IG). “The DEA’s management of virtual currency-related activities was insufficient due to inadequate headquarters management, lack of policies, inadequate internal control procedures, insufficient supervisory oversight and lack of training,” the IG wrote. Elsewhere, President Donald Trumpordered Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to focus on a clampdown on bitcoinover negotiating a trade with China, according to an excerpt from former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s new book. Officials Weigh InFederal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, speaking before the House Financial Services Committee, said the idea of adigital dollar should be taken seriously, adding later, “this is something that the central banks have to design… The private sector is not involved in creating the money supply, that’s something the central bank does.” Elsewhere, Chris Giancarlo, former chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, saidXRP is more like an alternative currency than a security. He argued Ripple Labs hadn’t violated any U.S. securities regulations and should have the same legal status as bitcoin or ether. Halfway across the world, Russia’s Ministry of Justicecriticized a new draft bill prohibiting crypto operations in the country,a week after the Ministry of Economic Development also opposed it. The bill is believed to be the brainchild of the country’s central bank, which has a prohibitive approach to crypto. Missing FundsA district judge has denied two requests for subpoenas filed by iFinex, in its bidto track $850 million in user funds seized by authoritiesafter bank accounts held by its payment processor, Crypto Capital, were frozen. It appears the subpoenas were filed in the wrong district. Elsewhere, Wirecard AG, a German payment processor and an issuer of Crypto.com and TenX debit cards, is unable to locate 1.9 billion euros (over $2 billion) worth of cash balances on its trust accounts, after an EY audit. The firm said a third party may have added “spurious” balances “in order to deceive the auditor,”The Blockreports. Finally, a new report shows thatcryptocurrency is not a significant trend in terror financingin the Middle East. However, a new round of U.S. sanctions aimed at Syria may tip the scales in favor of experimentation. Platform GrowthPolkadot has announced aproof-of-concept token redeemable for bitcoin (BTC).Designed by Interlay, the system will lock BTC on the Bitcoin blockchain and mint a PolkaBTC token on Polkadot, in effort to boost the interoperability of the network. Elsewhere, the South Korean soccer association K League announced a licensing agreement with theblockchain enabled fantasy soccer platform Sorareto enable fans to collect and trade digital tokens representing league players and use them to play fantasy soccer games run by the firm. Related:First Mover: As US Stocks Defy Economic Gravity, Bitcoiners Shudder at March Memory Quarterly SlumpChinese bitcoin miner manufacturerEbang estimates it incurred a net loss of $2.5 millionon a revenue of $6.4 million for Q1 2020. In an SEC filing ahead of the company’s proposed public listing, Ebang said revenue grew 6.1% annually, while incurring $5.9 million in cost of revenues, in addition to other operational expenses. Ebang is applying to list on the Nasdaq exchange and anticipates its IPO launch price will be between $4.5 and $6.5 for each of the 19.3 million Class A ordinary shares offered, for a market value of around $800 million. GrantsCrypto exchanges OKCoin and BitMEX recently partnered to providea $150,000 grant to Bitcoin Core contributorAmiti Uttarwar, an alumna of Coinbase and Xapo, to build out privacy features. Elsewhere, the Ethereum Foundation followed up on its 2019 gift to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) this week witha second cryptocurrency donation.UNICEF said the fund is accepting applications from startups in emerging markets to receive investments via this second donation of roughly 1,125 ether (~$262,000). So far, UNICEF has invested crypto in nine startups in Mexico, India, Turkey, Bangladesh and Cambodia. Finally, Binance has joined an Indiantech industry associationto help set best practices in the Indian crypto market. The Internet and Mobile Association of India helped overturn the nation’s crypto banking ban earlier this year. Movers & ShakersAlistair Milne orchestrated an intentional brute force attack on a wallet holding 1 BTC. Dropping hints on social media to each word in a 12-word seed phrase, an attacker was able to guess the remaining clues, inside the period, after the eighth hint dropped. (Decrypt) Elsewhere, JPMorgan nabs former Gemini executive to work on wholesale payments innovation. (The Block) Crypto.com, a Hong Kong-based exchange, has announced its entrance into the Bitcoin derivatives market. (Decrypt) Is Bitcoin Undervalued?Bitcoin is trading near $9,450,up nearly 47% this quarter and 145% from the low of $3,867observed on March 13. Despite the rise, bitcoin’s Mayer multiple – the ratio of the cryptocurrency’s price to its 200-day moving average – currently stands at 1.15, according to MayerMultiple.info. A below-2.4 ratio indicates the cryptocurrency is undervalued. Crypto’s ConvergenceAjit Tripathi, CoinDesk columnist and an executive director at Binance, said theworlds of crypto, fiat and finance are converging.“A new way of thinking about money, banking and economics has inspired banks and regulators to take a fresh look at whether or how the monetary system is working for society at large. As the pace of digital assets and fiat systems coming together accelerates, I hope a world will emerge where customers have greater financial freedom, wider choice and increased access to capital, payment systems and investments than they have today,” he said. What Satoshi UnderstoodNathaniel Whittemore is joined byThe Crypto Dogfor a conversation about pseudo-anonymity, global digital nomadism and the trader’s mindset. • Blockchain Bites: Trump on Bitcoin, Powell on Digital Dollars and the Truth About Terrorist Financing • Blockchain Bites: Trump on Bitcoin, Powell on Digital Dollars and the Truth About Terrorist Financing [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 9905.17, 10990.87, 10912.82, 11100.47, 11111.21, 11323.47, 11759.59, 11053.61, 11246.35, 11205.89
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2018-10-23] BTC Price: 6475.74, BTC RSI: 47.62 Gold Price: 1233.40, Gold RSI: 63.47 Oil Price: 66.43, Oil RSI: 32.11 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin tanks as cryptocurrencies join in global market bloodbath: Markets Insider • Cryptocurrencies across the board are nursing big losses on Thursday as the global market sell-off hitting traditional assets spreads. • All major crypto assets are down on Thursday, with the likes of ethereum and bitcoin cash losing more than 10% of their value. • Bitcoin plunged more than 7% overnight, but has now recovered a little, and is trading down roughly 5%. • You can follow all the latest cryptocurrency prices at Markets Insider. Cryptocurrencies across the board are nursing big losses on Thursday asthe global market sell-off hitting traditional assetsspreads. Bitcoin, the benchmark cryptocurrency, dropped suddenly and sharply in Asian trading overnight, losing as much as 7%, before rebounding a little. It is now holding at a loss of around 5% on the day, trading at $6,266 per coin. While bitcoin has led the way lower on Thursday, other major cryptocurrencies including Ether, Ripple, and bitcoin cash have witnessed even larger falls. Here's the scoreboard: • Ether -11.2% at $200.28 • Ripple's XRP -11.5% at $0.4097 • Bitcoin cash -12.6% at $450.80 • Litecoin-10.8% at $51.79 Previously, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies tended to rally during periods of poor performance for traditional assets like stocks, reflecting their status as something of a haven. However, in recent months that has flipped, with cryptocurrencies tending to follow traditional stock markets in their moves. NOW WATCH:Why horseshoe crab blood is so expensive See Also: • MICHAEL JORDAN: How the richest NBA player ever spends his $1.65 billion • 12 signs your boss is impressed with you, even if it doesn't seem like it • These haunting photos of the retail apocalypse reveal a new normal in America as Sears reportedly prepares for bankruptcy SEE ALSO:Global markets are getting pounded as fear grips investors || Bitcoin ATM CEO: Cryptocurrency Needs Regulation to Survive: bitcoin regulation In an exclusive interview with CCN, the CEO of the world’s largest Bitcoin ATM network took a hard stance against those who believe in a world where Bitcoin and its peers can survive unregulated. Sheffield Clark, whose company — Coinsource — recently installed 17 new Bitcoin ATMs in Florida, stated that cryptocurrency is not a viable or realistic payment solution at this time, citing it as a major obstacle to be overcome for all in the space. “With the time and cost that it takes to use Bitcoin to pay for everyday items as currently constructed, is not realistic for most people to use it in this way. It doesn’t make sense for them to. It is not easier or more cost efficient than traditional financial instruments at this time.” Clark pointed out that BTC’s best use case at the moment is that of a speculative investment or means of trading and investing in other virtual currencies, something he says is evident from the use of the Coinsource Bitcoin ATM network, which is often used to exchange cash for bitcoin, which is in turn invested in altcoins for speculative purposes. The CEO pointed out that the “primary Bitcoin ATM customer” comes from the one-third of the world’s population which are unbanked, leaving them with no choice other than cash or bitcoin. While the speculation is good for traders, Clark states that the volatile and speculative nature of the space makes life difficult for those turning to cryptocurrency out of necessity. “You can get Bitcoin more into the mainstream media, put more kiosks on the streets, make it more easily accessible for all, and further educate the masses on its adoption, but until it is practical for someone to be able to buy a gallon a milk with it or put their life savings into it without having the risk of losing 20% of it in a week – adoption a high level by the general population will continue to be very slow if not stagnant.” Story continues cryptocurrencies Like many of our recent interviewees, such as Coinbase UK CEO Zeeshan Feroz , Clark feels that more regulation is the solution to many of the problems in today’s crypto space. He lamented the lack of regulation and the lack of continuity between individual states and the federal government, comparing this to marijuana regulation in the U.S., which varies greatly from state to state. “The only consistency that I see between the states and the federal government regarding Bitcoin is the total lack of enforcement when it comes to the few regulations that are in place.” This lack of regulation is a major problem in Clark’s eyes, and he doesn’t have much time for those who feel otherwise. “Those with the idealistic belief that one of the most noble ideals about Bitcoin is that it was created as an “unregulated” currency are fools to believe that it actually survive, much less thrive in that environment. The truth is that Bitcoin and the companies behind it are regulated by the banks in which they depend upon in which to grow their business. Without any firm regulation from the government, these banks can put whatever restrictions they want onto those companies, resulting in those companies having to comply with much stricter standards than those that would be regulated directly by the government itself – and it’s to the banks’ advantage because at some level Bitcoin is a competitor to their traditional financial instruments whether they want to admit it or not.” Clark stated that the other option for businesses is to simply operate without a bank account, leading to higher overhead costs and higher fees for consumers. Coinsource markets itself as having the lowest fees of any competitors, and Clark expressed disbelief over the fact that there are people buying bitcoin at markups as high as 25%, something which he feels will be curbed with a more defined regulatory framework. Images from Shutterstock The post Bitcoin ATM CEO: Cryptocurrency Needs Regulation to Survive appeared first on CCN . || ‘More Ridiculous than Bitcoin’: Pot Stocks Go Parabolic as Crypto Markets Cool: Elon Musk Smoking Pot The cryptocurrency markets are nine months into a bear market, but the animal spirits that drove the bitcoin price to nearly $20,000 haven’t disappeared. Rather, it seems that they have found a new outlet — pot stocks. Pot Goes Boom as Crypto Goes Bust Long a favorite of retail traders on commission-free stock trading app Robinhood , publicly-listed cannabis stocks have gone bananas in recent weeks, driven in part by the impending legalization of recreational marijuana in Canada on Oct. 17. Publicly-listed pot stocks have been soaring across the board , but one cannabis producer — Tilray — has found itself flying higher than the rest. Tilray bitcoin At one point during premarket trading on Wednesday, Tilray shares went north of $235, representing a cryptocurrency-like 1,282 percent increase since the firm went public at $17 in July. At this level, Tilray had a market cap greater than $22 billion, representing a $91 million valuation for each of its 243 employees. Equally as astonishing, the company’s market cap is 714 times as large as its most recent revenue figures, which showed that the company posted $28 million in sales. For reference, Amazon’s price-to-sales ratio is currently about 4.6. At this level, Tilray is also nominally more valuable than a large percentage of companies in the S&P 500 index, per Pension Partners, including social media giant Twitter. Tilray is now worth more than Twitter. Twitter Daily Active Users: 360 million Tilray Daily Active Users: ? $TLRY $TWTR pic.twitter.com/cB4dkunLIr — Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) September 19, 2018 ‘More Ridiculous Than Bitcoin’ One theory for Tilray’s parabolic rise is that it managed to execute a short squeeze on short-selling firms including Citron Research, which has been pounding the table on the firm since Aug. 24, when the stock rose 70 percent in a week. Story continues Writing in a report published last week, Citron compared meteoric cannabis stock valuations to the cryptocurrency market boom-and-bust, arguing that this phenomenon is “even more ridiculous than bitcoin.” “These stock prices are equivalent to bitcoin mania – although it is even more ridiculous than bitcoin. Whereas people liked Bitcoin because it was a blue sky, unregulated, difficult to mine, and had no real competition in crypto currency. Cannabis is highly regulated, can be farmed worldwide for cheap, and has many different players involved. Cannabis has more similarities to tomatoes than bitcoin (not saying we would be long either tomatoes or bitcoin).” Squeeze or no squeeze, though, Citron continues to hold the line on Tilray, stating in a tweet this morning that the stock’s move is “beyond comprehension.” As of the time of writing, Tilray shares were trading at $207, down $29 from their intraday (and all-time) high of $236. Featured Image from Joe Rogan Experience/ YouTube The post ‘More Ridiculous than Bitcoin’: Pot Stocks Go Parabolic as Crypto Markets Cool appeared first on CCN . || Ford Hit, Agriculture Payouts, German Vulnerability: CEO Daily for September 27, 2018: Good morning. President Donald Trump may think trade is bad, but he doesn’t seem to be convincing many Americans. A new report from my friends at the Pew Research Center says American attitudes toward trade have become more favorable in the last four years. The share of Americans who say growing trade ties between the U.S. and the world are “bad for the U.S.” has declined to 21% this year from 28% in 2014. And those who believe trade leads to job losses is down to 34% this year from 50% in 2014. But Americans are still more anti-trade than most of the rest of the world. Take a look at the share of people from the following countries who think “trade is good”: Sweden. 93% Canada. 89% Germany. 89% France. 83% Mexico. 79% U.S. 74% Japan. 72% Italy. 64% In the U.S., anti-trade views tend to rise with age, decline with education, and remain stronger among Democrats than Republicans. You can read the full report here . More news below. And be sure to read Jeff John Roberts’s report on how Bitcoin-boom startup Coinbase plans to take on Wall Street. Top News Ford Hit Ford CEO James Hackett said yesterday that the Trump administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs have cost his firm around $1 billion in profits. “If it goes on any longer, it will do more damage,” he added. Honda has also taken a hit to the tune of “hundreds of millions dollars” and is now considering higher vehicle prices in the U.S. as a result, said that company’s EVP for North America, Rick Schostek. Reuters Agriculture Payouts The Department of Agriculture has started making payments to farmers to offset the effects of President Trump’s tariffs, but many farmers say it isn’t enough money. The farmers are hit by retaliatory tariffs or straight order cancellations from countries such as China, that have been affected by U.S. tariffs on their imports. “This payment isn’t going to save anybody’s life,” said Iowa pork producer Mike Paustian. “It’ll soften the blow a little bit.” Wall Street Journal Story continues German Vulnerability Germany and the EU could plunge into recession if their trade disputes with the U.S. escalate, five leading German economic institutes have warned. “Any escalation of the trade conflict, leading to considerable tariff increases by the U.S. on a broad front, is likely to trigger a severe recession in Germany and Europe,” they wrote. Handelsblatt Interest Rates The president is again unhappy with the Federal Reserve for raising interest rates. The Fed raised rates for the third time this year. “Unfortunately, they just raised interest rates a little bit because we are doing so well. I’m not happy about that,” said Trump. Except he is happy for savers, who will benefit from the hike. “The people that did it right…got hurt the most [by post-2008 low rates,] so in one sense I like it, but basically I’m a low-interest-rate person,” he said. Fox Business Around the Water Cooler Papa John’s Papa John’s is reportedly looking for a buyer, after one heck of a tough year. The news sent the pizza chain’s stock up 9%. Founder John Schnatter, who was booted after making racially-charged remarks during a media training session and is now trying to regain control of the firm, still owns around 30% of the company’s stock. Fortune . Amazon Store Amazon has opened a physical store in New York that only stocks items that have received at least four-star review averages on the ecommerce platform—well, almost only, as it also stocks new and “trending” products, and bestsellers. Only Amazon Prime members will get to buy items at the Amazon.com price, otherwise they’ll need to pay list price. The Verge Air France The new CEO of Air France-KLM has warned unions that the French government will not bail out the troubled airline. The appointment of Benjamin Smith, a Canadian, was not popular with the unions that brought down his predecessor, Jean-Marc Janaillac, over a long-running pay dispute. Smith: “Whether you are Anglo Saxon or not Anglo Saxon…there is a reality…and a lot of other areas that the government needs to spend its money on…It’s not as if this airline is being attacked in a disproportionate or unjust way, it just has a competitive model that doesn’t work.” Financial Times Argentina Bailout The IMF has boosted its bailout of Argentina by an extra $19 billion, taking it to a total of $57.4 billion by the end of 2021. The Argentine peso has halved in value against the dollar this year, and was sent tumbling further by the shock resignation this week of central bank governor Luis Caputo. CNBC This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer . Find previous editions here , and sign up for other Fortune newsletters here . || Parsing Visa's Big Quarterly Dividend Hike: The ubiquitous financial services playerVisa(NYSE: V)isn't exactly an income stock -- its dividend yield has fairly consistently been below 1% for years. But it does pay out regularly to shareholders, and it's prefacing its next quarterly readout with a dividend boost from $0.21 to $0.25 per share. Which raises two interesting questions forMarketFooleryhost Chris Hill and senior analyst Jason Moser. On the one hand, why is this highly profitable company not offering an even bigger hike? And on the other, in this rapidly evolving era of the war on cash, could Visa be doing better things with its excess cash? In this segment fromMarketFoolery, they discuss Visa's cash cow structure, its stock repurchases, and the M&A possibilities it thus far seems to be ignoring. A full transcript follows the video. More From The Motley Fool • 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices • 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 • 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This This video was recorded on Oct. 18, 2018. Chris Hill:Visa reports their latest quarter next week, but in the news today because Visa is hiking their quarterly dividend nearly 20%. That sounds great until you look at the actual number. It's going from $0.21 a share to $0.25 a share. Look, it's a boost. I'm sure the Visa shareholders are happy about that. Does this tell you anything about what we should expect next week? Visa is a monster business. It's a $330 billion company. They've got the cash to hike their dividend. But in a weird way, this move raises more questions than answers for me. I look at this and I think, wait a minute. Why aren't you hiking it more? What else could you be doing with that money? What, if anything, does this tell you? Jason Moser:You hit the nail on the head there, it actually makes you start asking a few more questions and digging in a little bit deeper. And once you dig in a little bit deeper, you come away from that thinking, what the hell? Why aren't these guys paying me a bigger dividend or something? There's some pretty interesting numbers behind here. I'm always happy to see the dividends of the shares that I own go up, and I'm a Visa shareholder. I'm never going to turn that down. And I'm not just going to pick on Visa, becauseMasterCardis essentially the same here, they're kind of in the same boat. I don't think they're doing enough on the dividend side, and the numbers really do bear that out, particularly when you consider the models. They generate these net margins regularly of 40% or higher. They just generate buckets of cash. They have strong balance sheets, very reliable, competitive positions there. When you look at the numbers alone, from 2013 through 2017 Visa spent $26.7 billion on share repurchases. Then, that share count has come down. That's good, that helps juice that earnings per share number, because it brings down that share count. These companies are always going to be really valued on that EPS multiple. $26.7 billion in share repurchases. Over that same stretch, they spent just under $6 billion on dividends. Considerably more of their capital is going to repurchases as opposed to dividends. I don't know that you would ever argue one of these businesses to be cheap. These are leaders in their space. Much like companies likeHome DepotorMcCormick, you rarely see them on sale. Then, you start asking yourself, really, what would you rather have? Would you rather have them bringing that share count down or give you the cash in the pocket? I mean, give me both, right? But perhaps you could juice the dividend a little bit more. Those yields are still only 0.5%. The flip side of that is, as a shareholder, I think we get to look forward to many dividend raises to come in the future. I plan on holding the shares indefinitely. But as you said, it creates a lot of questions and you come away scratching your head. Hill:Also, when we've seen the innovation with companies likePayPal(NASDAQ: PYPL)andSquare(NYSE: SQ), one of my questions when I was looking over their financials this morning was, why aren't they taking a run at one of those companies? Maybe not PayPal. And I'm not saying necessarily, why aren't they going out, sitting down with Jack Dorsey, and saying, "OK, Jack. We're 11X the size of Square. We'd like to bring you in house. How do we make this happen?" I'm not saying that. But when I see nothing but share buybacks and dividend hikes, meager as they are, I ding companies a little bit. Maybe that's unfair, but I look at that and go "Those are your two best ideas when it comes to capital allocation?" Moser:I think that's probably is pretty fair. Matt Frankel and I talked about this onIndustry Focusbefore, we look at companies like Visa and MasterCard, compare them to PayPal and Square. The neat thing about businesses like PayPal and Square -- remember, PayPal has Venmo, Xoom. It has a number of brands under that umbrella. These are businesses that were very much built based on mobile technology and technology of today. Visa and MasterCard have been around for a long time, essentially just operate that toll booth. I think that those two bigger businesses have suffered a little bit from this move toward technology. So, they've had to figure out ways to partner up with companies like PayPal and Square and find a new position in that value chain. So, you can fund your PayPal account with your Visa card that's linked to your checking account, or whatever it may be. Visa and MasterCard still get to play in that sandbox, but they do maintain, perhaps, a little bit of a diminished role from before. PayPal is such a big company now. It's around a $100 billion market cap, I think technically still bigger thanAmerican Expresseven today. Square, I think, is headed down that same path. For Visa and/ or MasterCard to talk about an acquisition is going to cost an arm and a leg. Plus, I don't think those businesses are interested. And, you probably have some antitrust questions, as well. I think they're going to continue to figure out ways to partner up with businesses like those to maintain a position in that value chain so they get something, because something is ultimately better than nothing. Chris Hillowns shares of PayPal Holdings.Jason Moserowns shares of MA, MKC, PayPal Holdings, Square, and Visa. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends MA, PayPal Holdings, and Square. The Motley Fool owns shares of Visa and has the following options: short February 2019 $185 calls on HD, long January 2020 $110 calls on HD, short January 2019 $82 calls on PayPal Holdings, and short January 2019 $80 calls on Square. The Motley Fool recommends HD and MKC. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Bitcoin – Bulls in Desperate Search of a Weekend Rally: Bitcoin fell by 0.65% on Saturday, following on from Friday’s 0.9% decline, to end the day at $6,592.3. With Bitcoin in the red in 4 of the 5-days this week, Bitcoin’s down 1.75% for the current week, Monday through Saturday, Thursday’s 3.69% not enough to raise the prospects of another weekly gain. A particularly bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin slide through the first major support level at $6,506.6 to an early morning intraday low $6,454.2 before steadying, with Bitcoin then joining the majors in a late morning rally. Recovering to $6,600 levels by late morning, upward momentum through the afternoon saw Bitcoin hit a late in the day intraday high $6,635.1 before easing back to sub-$6,600 levels, the day’s high coming up short of $6,700 levels and the first major resistance level at $6,791.1. The moves through the day saw Bitcoin, not only come up short of $6,700 levels that has become a key resistance level for Bitcoin, but also the 23.6% FIB Retracement Level of $6,757 that has caused numerous sell-offs on previous attempts at a breakout from its recent $6,300 – $6,800 ranges. Gains elsewhere in the cryptomarket on Saturday led to Bitcoin’s dominance ease back further to 51.2%, while the crypto market cap recovered to $222bn levels in spite of Bitcoin’s 2ndconsecutive day in the red. Elsewhere, finding green through the first part of the weekend included Stellar’s Lumen and NEM’s XEM, alongside Ripple’s XRP that looked to take another run at the number 2 spot by market cap, with Ripple’s XRP now just over $1bn behind Ethereum. Get Into Cryptocurrency Trading Today At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down 0.59% to $6,558.5, with a relatively choppy start to the day seeing Bitcoin recover from a start of a day dip to sub-$6,600 levels to a morning high $6,610.4 before hitting reverse and a morning low $6,556.8. The moves through the early morning left the major support and resistance levels untested, with Bitcoin struggling alongside the majors, Monero’s XRM and Ripple’s XRP just a small number of cryptos managing to hold on to positive territory at the time of writing. For the day ahead, a move through $6,560 would bring $6,600 levels back into play, with any improvement in sentiment across the broader market likely to see Bitcoin test the day’s first major resistance level at $6,666.87 before any pullback, $6,700 levels and the 23.6% FIB Retracement Level of $6,757 unlikely to be touched through the day. Failure to move through $6,560 to $6,600 levels could see Bitcoin struggle for direction through the second half of the day, with sub-$6,500 levels and the day’s first major support level at $6,485.97 very much in play through the day. It’s been another bearish start to the day and for Bitcoin to make its move, the news wires will need to remain friendly through the day, Bitcoin unlikely to find itself bucking a broader market trend through the day. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Price of Gold Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Fundamentals Bearish, but Strong Silver Could Lead to Counter-Trend Rally • USD/JPY Fundamental Daily Forecast – Investors Chasing Higher-Yielding U.S. Dollar • USD/JPY Forex Technical Analysis – Sustained Move Over 113.745 Targets 114.728 • AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast – Widening Interest Rate Differential Sending Investors into US Dollar • Oil Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Anticipated Shortfall Expected to Continue to Drive Prices Higher • Natural Gas Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Suppressed Demand Likely to Keep Lid on Prices || Bitcoin Price Indicator Turns Bullish for First Time in 8 Months: The list of indicators signaling a long-term bullish reversal in bitcoin (BTC) continues to grow with each passing week. The latest to join the list is the MACD histogram, which has moved above zero – turned bullish – for the first time since January. The MACD, which oscillates above and below the zero line, is one of the most popular technical indicators used to determine a trend's reversal and momentum. A bearish-to-bullish trend change is confirmed when the histogram moves above the zero line. On the other hand, a bearish reversal is confirmed when it dips below zero. RAM It All: Rising Costs Are Turning EOS Into a Crypto Coder's Nightmare The bullish turn of the MACD adds credence to BTC's strong defense of the psychological support of $6,000 in the last 10 weeks. Further, it validates bearish exhaustion indicated by BTC's long-tailed monthly candle and the record low net shorts in the BTC futures market. At press time, BTC is trading at $7,320 on Bitfinex, representing a 0.8 percent appreciation on a 24-hour basis. Crypto Wallet Abra Opens Door to More European Users As seen in the chart above, the histogram has moved above the zero line for the first time since January. More importantly, the bullish turn in the MACD is accompanied by a falling channel breakout (bullish pattern). So, it seems safe to say that the outlook as per the weekly chart is bullish. As a result, BTC could explore the upside towards the July highs above $8,500 in the next few weeks. While the long-term picture is looking rosy, the cryptocurrency could drop to $7,000 (psychological support) in the next day or two, if the wedge pattern seen in the chart below ends with a downside break. The rising trendline has been breached, so BTC could dip below the wedge support of $7,230 in the next few hours. On the other hand, a high volume bullish breakout would signal a continuation of the rally from the August low of $5,859. • A combination of the falling channel breakout and the bullish weekly MACD indicates scope for a rally to the July highs above $8,500. • For the next 24 hours, the investors need to keep an eye on the pennant pattern seen in the 4-hour chart. A bullish breakout could yield a rally to $7,500, while a downside break would shift risk in favor of a drop to $7,000. Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing. Bitcoin image via Shutterstock; Charts byÂTrading View • World Bank Bond Blockchain Offers Key Insights • Bitcoin Price Faces Minor Drop After One-Month Highs || Is Bitcoin Charting a 2015-Style Price Bottom?: Bitcoin's price action this year may be dismal, but it might not be without precedent. Having hit a record high near $20,000 in December, the world's largest cryptocurrency began 2018 backed a wave of optimism. Since then, however, it hasn't translated this into gains for investors. Rather, the price appears to be following a pattern last seen ahead of a bullish reversal from September 2015. OKCoin's Star Xu Questioned as Police Investigate Bitcoin Futures Allegations Why is that important for traders now? When the bull market ended last time around, we saw a violent drop in price whereby bulls were unable to produce any significant highs over the course of the year. Comparing 2018 to 2015, there are other subtle similarities to draw on for analysts. In both 2015 and 2018, the price experienced peaks up 36 percent from their respective troughs in July, a development only to be followed through by a poor August performance. SEC Hits Crypto Asset Fund and 'ICO Superstore' With Penalties The difference, however, is that while 2015's trend was finally broken by a higher high on July 6, bitcoin's current bearish trend has not been breached in 2018. As such, breaking that trend at $8,500 (the previous significant high) could be key should history repeat. September, then, could be the make or break for the comparison, as the current uptrend that began August 24, has been slow and steady resulting in a more convincing move as it edges closer to the previous monthly high. Over on the daily chart, we can see BTC has produced a series of lower highs in the first seven months of 2018. Bears who have been in full control since the start of the year have defied each attempt to move higher, slapping bulls down with added sell pressure. However, the subtle differences between each drop have lessened in intensity. More importantly, despite the lower highs, the bears have repeatedly failed to secure a weekly close below the February low of $6,000. Further, BTC's rally from the August low of $5,859 has created a first higher low of the year. So, it seems safe to say that the stage is set for BTC to print the first higher price high of the year by moving above the July high of $8,500. View • The bearish conditions that have gripped the greater markets appear to be weakening with a slow and steady rise in bitcoin's current trend. • Previous years (2015-16) saw a run-up during the September period, rising between 4.5-34 percent signaling a possibility for this year. • A convincing close above the previous monthly high at $8,500 would break the bear trend, producing bitcoin's first major bullish move since the year began. The author holds USDT at time of writing Slide image viaShutterstock; Chart viaTradingView • Bitcoin Price Awaits Next Move as Trading Range Narrows • Bitcoin Retains Bear Bias Despite Recovery From 25-Day Low || 10 Bitcoin Basics Every Crypto Investor Should Know: Investors are fickle, often turning to whatever fad investment offers the most immediate chance to get rich quick.Bitcoin drew in hordes of investors in 2017as its price soared above the $10,000 mark, but its big declines so far in 2018 have caused the cryptocurrency to lose much of its momentum. Nevertheless, one thing that investors can't deny is that bitcoin has made its mark on the world, both with its huge gains in price and the increase in interest both from investors and advocates of blockchain technology more broadly. As many investors turn to the painful memories of the financial crisis 10 years ago, there's another anniversary coming up. In October 2008, thepseudonymous Satoshi Nakamotopublished a white paper discussing the concept of bitcoin. Even a decade later, the paper has a lot to explain about how bitcoin works, and it's required reading for anyone who wants to invest in cryptocurrencies. In honor of bitcoin's 10th anniversary, here are 10 key quotes from the Nakamoto paper. Image source: Getty Images. Commerce on the internet has come to rely almost exclusively on financial institutions serving as trusted third parties. ... What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust. Cryptocurrency advocates love the fact that bitcoin doesn't rely on a centralized authority like a bank, especially given the potential for violations of trust. For instance, credit card companies let buyers reverse their transactions under certain circumstances, making it impossible for a seller to be assured of permanent payment. Bitcoin took third parties out of the equation, making payments reliable and irrevocable. The system is secure as long as honest nodes collectively control more CPU power than any cooperating group of attacker nodes. To work, bitcoin has to be hard enough to crack that those seeking to put together a fraudulent chain of transactions can't outpace the true blockchain. That requires computing power, and it identifies what could eventually be a threat to the cryptocurrency: that enough people trying to topple bitcoin's dominance could come in to threaten its integrity. We need a way for the payee to know that the previous owners did not sign any earlier transactions. ... The solution we propose begins with a timestamp server. The biggest threat to bitcoin's use as a payment system is potential double-spending. With a physical currency, double-spending is impossible, because you have to turn over the currency to the seller. Bitcoin's fundamental trustworthiness stems from the idea that everyone knowseveryprevious transaction, letting them have confidence in what's come before. Once the CPU effort has been expended to make it satisfy the proof-of-work, the block cannot be changed without redoing the work. As later blocks are chained after it, the work to change the block would include redoing all the blocks after it. One reason why bitcoin has been so resilient is that it has gotten stronger over time, and proof-of-work is an essential component of that strength. As the blockchain has gotten longer, the effort necessary to attack it successfully has decreased. With proof-of-work difficulty increasing over time, bitcoin further enhances its defenses. Nodes always consider the longest chain to be the correct one and will keep working on extending it. One issue with bitcoin as it has grown in popularity is that not all nodes of the bitcoin network will always have the latest version of the blockchain. Over time, though, subsequent transactions will spread out distribution of the longer blockchain more widely, allowing the full network to catch up. By convention, the first transaction in a block is a special transaction that starts a new coin owned by the creator of the block. This adds an incentive for nodes to support the network, and provides a way to initially distribute coins into circulation. Bitcoin mining has always been an attractive part of the cryptocurrency movement, and with the rise in bitcoin's price, huge amounts of computing power now go into efforts to unlock new blocks and grab up the small amount of bitcoin that results from success. As the paper notes, mining also gives those with immense computing power an incentive not to seek to subvert the blockchain itself, as they can just claim new bitcoin instead. Once the latest transaction in a coin is buried under enough blocks, the spent transactions before it can be discarded to save disk space. Bitcoin processing has gotten slower as its popularity has grown, but bitcoin's founders anticipated the need to prune the growing blockchain. The methodology involves compressing older blocks using shorter hashes that are adequate once enough past transactions have accumulated. However, the theoretical pruning of the blockchain has proven to be more problematic than the white paper anticipated, due in part to the fact that one can't guarantee that any block identified to be pruned doesn't have information that's vital to the rest of the blockchain. Although it would be possible to handle coins individually, it would be unwieldy to make a separate transaction for every cent in a transfer. To allow value to be split and combined, transactions contain multiple inputs and outputs. Currencies come in units like 1-euro coins or $20 bills, and bitcoin theoretically could have been set up that way as well, with discrete units. Yet it's more efficient to allow variable-sized transactions. That essentially lets users pay with a "4-bitcoin bill" instead of forcing the blockchain to include four transactions involving a single bitcoin each, as would be necessary for a $4 cash transaction using four $1 bills. The public can see that someone is sending an amount to someone else, but without information linking the transaction to anyone. This is similar to the level of information released by stock exchanges, where the time and size of individual trades, the "tape," is made public, but without telling who the parties were. Privacy is a valuable advantage of cryptocurrency transactions over most payments. Bitcoin has turned out not to be as private as some users would like, and that's prompted the creation of even more privacy-focused rivals. Nevertheless, the white paper notes other measures that users of bitcoin can take, including using slightly different key information in each transaction. Nodes are not going to accept an invalid transaction as payment, and honest nodes will never accept a block containing them. An attacker can only try to change one of his own transactions to take back money he recently spent. Lastly, the white paper looks at the chances of an attacker generating an alternate blockchain. To do so, the attacker has to work fast enough so that its false version gains acceptance. Otherwise, if the attacker falls behind other nodes, the chances of reversing a past transaction eventually approach zero. The big drop in bitcoin prices has made some investors wary to conclude that bitcoin can survive in the long run. Yet given how well the fundamental principles in the white paper have worked out, bitcoin has established itself as a key technology -- and that will survive as its legacy no matter what happens to bitcoin prices in the long run. More From The Motley Fool • 16 Cryptocurrency Facts You Should Know • Experts Warned – The Crypto ‘Bloodbath’ Is Here • How to Buy Bitcoin Dan Caplingerhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Weak User Counts Signal ‘Panic Sell’ For Most Cryptocurrency Tokens: Researcher: Cryptocurrency warning fire alarm Last week, cryptocurrency researcher Kevin Rooke questioned the ability of Ethereum and EOS to support decentralized applications (dApps), given the dearth of users on those blockchains. Now he’s wondering if most cryptocurrencies are getting enough use. He recently observed in a tweet that only 27 cyrptocurrency tokens had 400 or more active users in a 24-hour period, commenting, “You’d think if ever a time to ‘buy the tip’ or ‘panic the sell,’ it would be today.” Forget about dApps with no users, let's talk about tokens with no users. Only 27 cryptocurrencies had over 400 active addresses today. Yes. 400 users. You'd think if there was ever a time to 'buy the dip' or 'panic sell' it would be today. 🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/l1INETwawj — Kevin Rooke (@kerooke) September 6, 2018 Rooke’s tweet generated a barrage of comments, some believing he raised a valid point, but many questioning the importance of his observation and some questioning the data he based it on. Rooke compiled an index of cryptocurrencies with 400 or more active addresses in a 24-hour period on Sept. 5, as listed on the OnChainFX cryptocurrency research website. His index focuses on a metric that reflects the extent to which cryptos are used for transactions, a feature that was one of bitcoin’s primary purposes. And in comparing Rooke’s index to the currencies’ 24-hour volumes, there was a fair amount of correspondence. Bitcoin and Ethereum led both lists, for example, but there were some discrepancies. User Counts Versus Transaction Volume Number three on Rooke’s index was Dogecoin , with 135,222 active addresses in the 24-hour period. Dogecoin’s 24-hour volume, however, was just under $37 million, below that of 16 other cryptos: XRP, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, Tether, Cardano, IOTA, Dash, TRON, NEO, Ethereum Classic, Zcash, Ontology, Qtum and Bytom. Story continues The disparity isn’t based on an “apples to apples” comparison, as Rooke’s index shows the number of users making transactions as opposed to transaction volume. But at the same time, the fact that XRP did not appear on Rooke’s index when it accounted for more than $227 million in 24-hour volume raised questions. According to OnChainFX, XRP showed “no data” for 24-hour active addresses. Data Incomplete When one tweeter pointed out that OnChainFX shows no active XRP users, Rooke said XRP has other data missing as well, and postulated that some of the data cannot be gathered on the XRP ledger. BitShares, which did close to $9 million in 24-hour volume, also registered “no data” for active addresses on OnChainFX and does not appear on Rooke’s index. The same was true for Steem, which did close to $8 million in 24-hour volume. Binance Coin did not make Rooke’s index either, as it only posted 271 active users according to OnChainFX, but it accounted for $19.247 million in 24-hour volume. NEM also failed to make the index, as OnChainFX didn’t list it at all, while the crytpocurrency registered $12.563 million in 24-hour volume. Conversely, PIVX, ranking number 17 on Rooke’s index with 2,971 active users, only did $238,709 in 24-hour volume, and Vertcoin, number 18 on the index with 2,336 active users, did $241,649 in 24-hour volume. Also read: Ethereum and EOS only have 8 dApps combined with 300+ active users Observers Raise Questions bitcoin Observers raised additional questions about the index on Twitter. One pointed out that KMD had more than 1,000 active addresses for the day. KMD, which could not be found in the OnChainFX database, has a market cap of $127.847 million and more than $1 million in 24-hour volume. Another claimed the list does not contain NX or TUBE and that both have more than 400 active wallets, demonstrating the incompleteness of Rooke’s index. (Neither were found on CoinMarketCap) Another questioned the relevance of Rooke’s index since OnChainFX only indexes 107 out of thousands of cryptocurrencies, many of which have active user bases, to which Rooke responded that the ones on the index include the big cryptos, and claimed many coins don’t even approach the 400 number. One observer suggested that a time frame longer than 24 hours might better reflect user activity. Another compared the plethora of cryptocurrencies to all the pre-Google internet search engines. Images from Shutterstock The post Weak User Counts Signal ‘Panic Sell’ For Most Cryptocurrency Tokens: Researcher appeared first on CCN . [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Stolen coins balances are recalculated to BTC accordingly to their prices at CryptoHub on September 21 14:00 UTC-3 After that recalculation and accordingly to remaining BTC CryptoHub is able to pay 72% of BTC balance to every user. || 1 DOGE Price: 0.00000070 BTC #doge #dogecoin 2018-10-20 00:33 pic.twitter.com/g8gRlFSYpi || 2018/09/04 11:00 BTC 807642.5円 ETH 32203.5円 ETC 1556.1円 BCH 70382円 XRP 37.3円 XEM 12.8円 LSK 488.6円 MONA 153.9円 #仮想通貨 #ビットコイン #Bitcoin #bitFlyer #Coincheck || PRICE OF 1 BITCOIN: Buy: US$ 6.883,46 Sell: US$ 5.982,82 Create your wallet: https://stratum.hk  #stratum #stratumcoinbr #bitcoin 20.09.18 12:00 || 10-01 17:00(GMT) #SPINDLE price $SPD (BTC) Yobit :0.00000021 HitBTC :0.00000021 LiveCoin:0.00000019 $SPD (JPY) Yobit :0.15 HitBTC :0.15 LiveCoin:0.14 || USD: 112.250 EUR: 130.970 GBP: 147.598 AUD: 81.527 NZD: 74.175 CNY: 16.376 CHF: 115.853 BTC: 709,689 ETH: 23,500 Thu Sep 20 00:00 JST || USD: 112.190 EUR: 129.700 GBP: 147.597 AUD: 79.857 NZD: 72.991 CNY: 16.197 CHF: 113.163 BTC: 701,189 ETH: 22,290 Mon Oct 15 01:00 JST || 2018-09-27 03:00:02 UTC BTC: $6498.79 BCH: $533.2 ETH: $218.07 ZEC: $135.32 LTC: $58.53 ETC: $11.08 XRP: $0.5334 || USD: 111.090 EUR: 129.040 GBP: 143.006 AUD: 80.107 NZD: 73.342 CNY: 16.276 CHF: 114.597 BTC: 804,560 ETH: 32,000 Tue Sep 04 08:00 JST || ツイート数の多かった仮想通貨 1位 $BTC 542 Tweets 2位 $TRX 199 Tweets 3位 $XRP 86 Tweets 4位 $ETH 76 Tweets 5位 $DASH 59 Tweets 2018-08-28 11:00 ～ 2018-08-28 11:59 COINTREND いまTwitterで話題の仮想通貨を探せ！ https://cointrend.jp/ 
Trend: down || Prices: 6495.84, 6476.29, 6474.75, 6480.38, 6486.39, 6332.63, 6334.27, 6317.61, 6377.78, 6388.44
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-10-24] BTC Price: 5526.64, BTC RSI: 58.39 Gold Price: 1275.00, Gold RSI: 42.16 Oil Price: 52.47, Oil RSI: 61.43 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] China hits booming cryptocurrency market with coin fundraising ban: By John Ruwitch and Jemima Kelly SHANGHAI/LONDON (Reuters) - China on Monday banned and deemed illegal the practice of raising funds through launches of token-based digital currencies. The move was targeted at so-called initial coin offerings (ICO) in a market that has exploded since the start of the year. ICOs have become a bonanza for digital currency entrepreneurs, globally and in China, and have provided the fuel for a rapid ascent in the value of cryptocurrencies this year that has driven fears of a bubble that could burst. [L5N1KV4DN] Individuals and organizations that have completed ICO fundraisings should make arrangements to return funds, said a joint statement from the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the securities and banking regulators and other government departments that was posted on the central bank's website. In total, $2.32 billion has been raised through ICOs, with $2.16 billion of that being raised since the start of 2017, according to cryptocurrency analysis website Cryptocompare. Bitcoin rival Ethereum, which token-issuers usually ask to be paid in and which has therefore seen unprecedented growth this year, fell sharply on the news, last trading down almost 20 percent on the day at $283, according to trade publication Coindesk. Bitcoin was also down 8 percent, while the total value of all cryptocurrencies was down around 10 percent, according to industry website Coinmarketcap.com. "The large price falls can be attributed to panic amongst traders and profit-taking," said Cryptocompare founder Charles Hayter. The rapid ascent of ICOs prompted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to warn in July that some ICOs should be regulated like other securities. Singapore and Canada followed with similar warnings. Zennon Kapron, director of the Shanghai-based financial technology consultancy Kapronasia, said he suspected regulators were putting the brakes on ICOs in order to better understand the phenomenon, but could ease off in the future. "Regulators globally are struggling to understand what ICOs are, what the risks are, and how to ring-fence and regulate them," he said. "China, in many ways, is no different than the U.S. or Singapore in saying, ok, we need to push back on these for now until we figure out how to deal with them...I think it will be slightly a temporary measure." "THE MUSIC HAS STOPPED" By creating and issuing digital tokens, entrepreneurs can raise large sums quickly -- sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars in minutes -- with little or no regulatory oversight. But unlike traditional fundraising, token holders are generally not given any share in the particular project, nor any security. For the buyer, therefore, the main reason for buying these highly risky tokens is often simply a bet that their value will rise. Once the tokens have been issued they can be traded against other cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, the first successful digital-only currency. The popularity of coin offerings has surged in China this year. In July, the state news agency Xinhua cited data from a government organization that monitors online financial activity to report that there had been 65 ICOs so far during the year raising a combined 2.62 billion yuan ($394.6 million) from 105,000 individuals in the country. Oliver Bussman, previously chief innovation officer at UBS and now president of the Switzerland-based "Crypto Valley Association" that promotes blockchain-based technology, said Chinese authorities had to be especially vigilant about protecting consumers because of the lack of financial advice in the country, compared with Europe or North America. Reaction to the ban was swift online. "The music has stopped," said one member of a chat group on the social networking platform WeChat that was set up last week for an upcoming ICO for a fundraising platform called SelfSell. "Hurry up and sell your bitcoin," said another. The organizer of the ICO project, who recently went on a six-city roadshow, said the project had been suspended. But Bussman said that once there was some regulatory clarity, and once it had been worked out how to classify different types of ICO, the token-based fundraising would continue. "The initial coin offering is a new business model leveraging blockchain technology and it will remain," he said. "This is not the end of the ICO – absolutely not." (Reporting by Jemima Kelly in London, John Ruwitch in Shanghai, Elias Glenn and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Richard Borsuk and Sam Holmes/Jeremy Gaunt) || Cryptos - Bitcoin Prices Jump Back Above $4K in Impressive Turnaround: Investing.com - Bitcoin, the world's biggest digital currency by market cap, surged back above the $4,000-level on Monday in an impressive bounce back from last week's heavy losses. Bitcoin was last up about $400, or around 11%, at $4,068.60 by 9:45AM ET (1345GMT). The digital currency lost more than $1,000 in value last week and dropped below $3,000 per coin for the first time in over a month, with the sell-off driven in large part by fears of China cracking down on the market as well as a warning from JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon that bitcoin was a "fraud". Despite the recent fall, the digital currency is still enjoying a remarkable year, with prices up almost 350% since the start of the year, beating just about every other asset class. Ethereum, Bitcoin's closest rival in terms of market cap, gained 15.6%, or $40.10, to $297.25. Other prominent cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin, Ripple and Bitcoin Cash also traded higher. The total value of all publicly traded cryptocurrencies was approximately $139 billion. Related Articles Cryptos - Bitcoin Prices Jump Back Above $4K in Impressive Turnaround Gundlach on Bitcoin: 'I'm going to let this mania go on without me' Chinese bitcoin conference flees to Hong Kong || JPMorgan's Dimon says bitcoin 'is a fraud': By David Henry and Anna Irrera NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin "is a fraud" and will blow up, Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), said on Tuesday. Speaking at a bank investor conference in New York, Dimon said, "The currency isn't going to work. You can't have a business where people can invent a currency out of thin air and think that people who are buying it are really smart." Dimon said that if any JPMorgan traders were trading the crypto-currency, "I would fire them in a second, for two reasons: It is against our rules and they are stupid, and both are dangerous." Dimon's comments come as the bitcoin, a virtual currency not backed by any government, has more than quadrupled in value since December to more than $4,100. Bitcoin is a digital currency that enables individuals to transfer value to each other and pay for goods and services bypassing banks and the mainstream financial system. While banks have largely steered clear of bitcoin since it emerged following the financial crisis, the virtual currency has a range of people who support it, including technology enthusiasts, liberterians skeptical of government monetary policy and speculators attracted by its price swings. "Like it or not, people want exposure to bitcoin," Edward Tilly, chairman and CEO of exchange group CBOE Holdings Inc. (CBOE.O), said at the same conference. CBOE has applied with U.S. regulators to launch a bitcoin futures contract and a bitcoin exchange traded fund on its venues. Any good trade is started with a difference of opinion, Tilly added. "So Jamie can be on the short side and the issuers and those trading in physical can be on the long side, and it sounds like we have a great trade.” Dimon may also be on the other side of another bitcoin trade closer to home. At another conference about two hours later, Dimon said that one of his daughters had bought some bitcoin. "It went up and she thinks she's a genius now," Dimon said at the CNBC Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha Conference. Story continues "WORSE THAN TULIP BULBS" Banks and other financial institutions have been concerned over bitcoin's early association with online crime and money laundering. The supply of bitcoin is meant to be limited to 21 million, but there are clones of the virtual currency in circulation which have made the market for it more volatile. "It is worse than tulips bulbs," Dimon said, referring to a famous market bubble from the 1600s. JPMorgan and many of its competitors, however, have invested millions of dollars in blockchain, the technology that tracks bitcoin transactions. Blockchain is a shared ledger of transactions maintained by a network of computers on the internet. Dimon said such uses will roll out over coming years as it is adapted to different business lines. Financial institutions are hoping blockchain can be adapted to simplify and lower the costs of processes such as securities settlement, loan trading and international money transfers. Dimon predicted big losses for bitcoin buyers. "Don't ask me to short it. It could be at $20,000 before this happens, but it will eventually blow up." he said. "Honestly, I am just shocked that anyone can't see it for what it is." Bitcoin’s price fell as much as 4 percent following Dimon's comments and was last trading at $4,164. Rumors that the Chinese government is planning to ban trading of virtual currencies on domestic exchanges has weighed on bitcoin recently. "It feels like we are in the midst of a negative news cycle, but even considering all this, we are still trading above $4,000." said John Spallanzani, chief macro strategist at GFI Group. (Reporting by David Henry and Anna Irrera in New York Additional reporting by John McCrank, Angela Moon and Lawrence Delevingne; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Jonathan Oatis) || $5,800: Bitcoin Price Hits New Record High: The value of a bitcoin reached a new all-time high of $5,856.10 at around 02:45 UTC this morning. The new price record comes just hours after setting new highs with a strong move beyond $5,000 yesterday, according to CoinDesk'sBitcoin Price Index. At 16:30 UTC Thursday, bitcoin was at $5,363. Bitcoin started the session today at $5,439, before rising sharply to the new high within 3 hours. Today's low was $5,396. The price of the cryptocurrency has since dropped to $5,704 at press time – a rise of around 13 percent over the last 24 hours. For the week, bitcoin is up over 30 percent. Elsewhere in the cryptocurrency markets, ether and litecoin are also seeing positive price moves, according toCoinMarketCapdata. Ether is up over 5 percent over the last 24 hours, while litecoin is up almost 14 percent. The combined market cap for all cryptocurrencies is once again climbing towards the Sept. 1 high of $172.5 billion, peaking this morning at $171.94 billion. Bitcoin's market cap is today $95.5 billion, over 55 percent of the total market. Taking an overview, it would seem that the market fears caused byChina's ICO banin early Sept., and the voluntary closures of domestic cryptocurrency exchanges that followed, have now almost completely been shrugged off by the market. Rock climber imagevia Shutterstock • Bitcoin's Price Keeps Rising, But Is $6,000 in Reach? • No Token Response: UNICEF Is Open to Doing Its Own ICO • It's Unanimous: Swift Blockchain Success Sets Stage for Sibos • Rally Restored? Bitcoin Is Up 75 Percent from 30-Day Lows || Russia may soon issue its own official blockchain-based currency, the CryptoRuble: Russia will issue its own official cryptocurrency, the CryptoRuble, capping months of speculation about the country's approach to the technology. While in a way it indicates an embrace of the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum, the CryptoRuble is unlikely to share the truly decentralized nature of other coins. The news, first reported by CoinTelegraph , cites local news reports, which in turn cite Nikolay Nikiforov, the Russian government's minister of communications. I've contacted the Russian government for confirmation and details, and will update this story if I hear back. Reports this summer suggested the country was looking into creating its own cryptocurrency, though the administration has also taken a hard line on other coins, calling them illegitimate replacements for the official currency. Details are scarce, but according to the reports, the CryptoRuble cannot be mined, but will be issued and tracked by the government like ordinary currency. That does away with one of the primary draws of cryptocurrencies, of course: some would say that the entire point of something like Bitcoin is to free commerce from the fetters of government-run fiat currencies. The CryptoRuble does appear to be blockchain-based, however, which gives it at least a veneer of decentralization and could help prevent things like online fraud. Rubles and CryptoRubles (I'm hoping they drop the camel caps) will be able to be freely exchanged, though how exactly is unknown — an official exchange seems likely, but unofficial markets are inevitable. The idea is to stimulate the online economy in a way that doesn't rely on foreign money markets or third party transaction brokers, and allows the government to closely regulate and track it. Nikiforov also reportedly said that if Russia didn't do it, European authorities might beat them to the punch. Waiting for the other shoe to drop? Upon exchange, CryptoRubles will reportedly require some kind of proof of origin, such as (presumably) a documented retail transaction or service rendered. Obviously this is to deter money laundering and currency manipulation; however, because the government doesn't want to put a full stop to those popular activities, undocumented CryptoRubles will simply be exchanged with a 13 percent tax. This tax will also be applied to any appreciation in value, although it's unclear how or if the coin will be tied to the fiat currency. One might take this as the government tacitly encouraging and profiting from speculation and money laundering — but at the same time, it's a realistic way to keep the marketplace from devolving into a total melee. Crypto enthusiasts are unlikely to relish the idea of the Russian regime skimming off the top of a marketplace, but for now that seems to be the price to participate in what could be a major online economy. View comments || Should You Sell Everything and Buy Bitcoin Right Now?: Should investors sell everything — and, no, not just stocks and bonds — buteverythingand buy bitcoin? The obvious answer is a resounding “no,” but it makes you wonder what the potential is for cryptocurrencies and bitcoin prices. Source: Shutterstock • 10 More Retirement Stocks to Buy and Hold for the Rest of Your Life For the record, selling everything and buying bitcoin isprecisely what one family did. Didi Taihuttu, his wife and three children are all in it together. They’ve stuck with the so-called “strategy” for a few months and, so far, don’t regret it. They sold their cars, motorcycle and, yes, even their house and put it all in bitcoin. Some family members have called the Taihuttus crazy — and I agree with them! Essentially, Mr. Taihuttu believes we’re still in the early stages of a currency revolution. “Money has to evolve, and it’s evolving now to cryptocurrency,” he says. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips While I wouldn’t recommend following directly in his footsteps, is Taihuttu right about currency evolution? Click to Enlarge Bitcoin is roughly six times as volatile as the S&P 500 — you can use theSPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(NYSEARCA:SPY) for a close measure. That’s assuming the index’saveragevolatility, not the historically low volatility we’ve seen so far this year. Heck, the markets haven’t had a 5% correction inmore than a year, or even a 3% correctionin almost 8 months. For a refresh on bitcoin prices, remember that they began the year at about $1,000. Now, though, the cryptocurrency is trading above $5,300. No big deal, just a casual 475% gain so far this year. Too bad Taihuttu didn’t sell everything last year! While those gains are astronomical — and that’s not considering the near-47,000% return it’s had over the last five years — it masks the volatility bitcoin has been marred by as well. It fell more than 20% in two weeks in January and more than 25% in two weeks in March. On Sept. 1, bitcoin prices were near $4,950. Sept. 14? Bitcoin prices were at $3,250, a fall of 34%. The bitcoin price chart has been bonkers, but to its credit and the credit of the bulls, it’s been sharply higher all year. Also to bitcoin’s credit, it’s not themost volatilename around. For example, the ethereum price chart completely lost its bottom, as the cryptocurrency plunged from $300 to a dime in a flash crash earlier this year. If I knew that I wouldn’t be here. Because it can only be mined in limited quantities, there’s actual supply/demand metrics and a sort of “scarcity” with bitcoin. In that sense, it’s like gold. However, unlike gold, it doesn’t have thousands of years of historical significance — nor is it tangible. I don’t know that bitcoin will change the world, but I also don’t think it’s the fraudJPMorgan Chase & Co(NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon has called it. Fundstrat’s Tom Lee — who has been a total stud on the stock market over the last few years — said bitcoin prices could race to $20,000 by 2020. Nowthat’sa bold call. Right now, it just seems to be a situation of “who’s willing to pay more?” I don’t like being in those situations. But maybe I will prove to be the broke loser without any bitcoin in my virtual pockets. The wayVisa Inc(NYSE:V) andMastercard Inc(NYSE:MA) are pushing the world from cash and check to debit and credit, maybe 20, 30 or 50 years from now, bitcoinwillbe the currency of choice. Maybe itwillreplace the U.S. dollar as the staple of commerce. I know someone like my dad would never embrace bitcoin, nor would plenty of others. But younger generations will be more open, I’m sure. If you find yourself heading to Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL, NASDAQ:GOOG) and Googling “how to buy bitcoin,” you should probably do some more research before finding a broker. Chinese regulations have smacked the cryptocurrency around quite a bit. Further regulations could cause similar short-term pains, especially as the U.S. and other countries start to embrace bitcoin. The good news, though? It’s becoming regulated. Regulated markets are safer for their participants and while it can be painful in the short term, it may be the ticket to long-term gains. • 7 Crumbling Financial Stocks to Sell Now So, I can’t say that in 25 years we’ll be orderingMcDonald’s Corporation(NYSE:MCD) viaApple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhones and only paying with Bitcoin. But I don’t think it’s going away any time soon, either. I’m not sure how long Taihuttu plans to live the bitcoin-only lifestyle, but I wish him luck. So far, he’s up on his move. Bret Kenwell is the manager and author ofFuture Blue Chipsand is on Twitter@BretKenwell. As of this writing, Bret Kenwell held a long position in V and MA. • Why the Future of Apple Inc. Does Not Depend on the iPhone • Speculative Fervor Favors Snap Inc Stock Now... but Not Tomorrow • Big Data Is the Future, but Cloudera Is Definitely Not The postShould You Sell Everything and Buy Bitcoin Right Now?appeared first onInvestorPlace. || Bitcoin rockets above $5,000 to all-time high: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin smashed through the $5,000 barrier for the first time on Thursday, jumping as much as 8 percent on the day as investors shrugged off the latest warnings on the risks of buying into the booming cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin, the biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, has chalked up a more than fivefold increase in price this year. Typically for bitcoin, which at less than nine years old is still highly volatile and illiquid compared with traditional currencies and assets, the precise reason for its recent tear was unclear. Upcoming splits in its software, reports that Goldman Sachs is considering offering bitcoin trading, rumors that China could ease restrictions, and even a political crisis in Spain's Catalonia region were all cited by market-watchers as reasons for the rally. But the main factor could simply be demand from investors wanting 'in' on a market that has provided gains exceeding those of any other currency in every year bar one since 2010. "People are just wanting to be part of it," said Ryan Nettles, head of FX trading and market strategy at Swiss bank Swissquote, which launched bitcoin trading two months ago. Nettles said interest had been much higher than anticipated and has come from banks, hedge funds and brokers. "The interest really stems from the media hype," he added. On Wednesday Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of the "serious risks" surrounding the nascent market, while Russia's central bank said it would ban cryptocurrency trading websites. But that was not enough to put investors off, with bitcoin rallying around 10 percent since then. Data released last week from SEMrush, a search engine data analytics firm, found the price had a 91 percent correlation with Google searches on bitcoin, suggesting that all news -- whether negative or positive -- drives up demand, even if bad news can have a temporary negative effect. Bitcoin almost reached $5,000 at the start of September, but fell back sharply after the head of JP Morgan blasted the cryptocurrency as a "fraud" and as China forced exchanges to close down, sparking fears of a broader crackdown. But after dipping below $3,000 in mid-September, bitcoin has leapt in value by more than 75 percent in four weeks. "Bitcoin was designed to operate outside of the influence of governments and central banks, and is doing exactly that," said Iqbal Gandham, Managing Director at retail trading app eToro, which has seen huge increases in cryptocurrency trading volumes. CRYPTO-RIVALS ALSO RALLY By 1245 GMT, bitcoin was trading up 8 percent on the day around $5,200 on Luxembourg-based exchange Bitstamp. Though there have been many warnings about a bitcoin "bubble", including from European Central Bank Deputy Governor Vitor Constancio, some say it has much further to climb. But determining its value is difficult. "For most currencies there are several accepted methodologies for estimating relative value, normally based on macroeconomic fundamentals," said EFG Asset Management's Global Head of Research, Daniel Murray. "For bitcoin no such fundamentals exist." Other cryptocurrencies -- whose prices tend to be highly correlated to bitcoin -- also rallied. Their total value -- or market capitalization -- climbed above $160 billion for the first time since early September, according to industry website Coinmarketcap.com. Two upcoming "forks" in the bitcoin software code, which will create rival clones of the cryptocurrency, were seen by some as a reason for the rise in price, which saw a boost after the "Bitcoin Cash" clone was created at the start of August. "Investors are seeing the lessons of history in the up-and-coming forks and hoping for an extra dividend," said Charles Hayter, co-founder of data analysis website Cryptocompare, adding that rumors on online forums that China could reopen exchanges could also be affecting the price. (This story corrects to show head of JP Morgan called bitcoin fraud, not Goldman Sachs) (Additional reporting by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Catherine Evans) || Gold / Silver / Copper futures - weekly outlook: September 4 - 8: Gold hits 10-month high after weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs report Investing.com - Gold prices rose to the highest level in ten months on Friday after the latest U.S. employment report came in weaker-than-expected, underlining doubts over prospects for a third Federal Reserve rate hike this year. The U.S. economy added 156,000 jobs in August from the prior month, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4%, the Labor Department said. Economists had expected 180,000 new jobs and an unemployment rate of 4.3%. Gold futures for December delivery ended up 0.57% at $1,329.79 on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, its highest close since September 2016. For the week, gold prices jumped 2.46%, the largest weekly gain since February amid heightened geopolitical tensions and growing doubts over the possibility of another U.S. interest rate increase this year. Gold is highly sensitive to rising rates, which lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as bullion, while boosting the dollar. The dollar initially weakened after the jobs report, which also supported metals prices. A weaker dollar makes gold futures, which are denominated in the U.S. currency, cheaper for foreign buyers. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.25% to 92.82 late Friday after initially falling to a low of 92.05. For the week, the index was up 0.1% after ending the month of August lower, its sixth consecutive monthly decline, notching up its longest losing streak in a decade. The index is down 9.7% so far this year. Elsewhere in metals trading, silver futures were up 1.37% to $17.71 a troy ounce late Friday, its highest close since June 7 and platinum was up 1.28% to a six-month high of $1,011.25. Among base metals, copper for December delivery closed up 0.73% to $3.121 a pound. Prices are hovering at nearly three-year highs after recent rally spurred by growing confidence in the global economy. In the week ahead , market watchers will be awaiting the outcome of Thursday’s European Central Bank meeting for fresh clues on when the central bank will shift away from its ultra-easy policy. Story continues In the U.S., a report on service sector growth will be the highlight of the holiday-shortened week. Ahead of the coming week, Investing.com has compiled a list of these and other significant events likely to affect the markets. Monday, September 4 The UK is to release data on construction activity. Financial markets in the U.S. and Canada are to be closed for the Labor Day holiday. Tuesday, September 5 The Reserve Bank of Australia is to announce its benchmark interest rate and publish a rate statement which outlines economic conditions and the factors affecting the monetary policy decision. Switzerland is to publish inflation figures. The UK is to release data on service sector activity. The U.S. is to release a report on factory orders. Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard is to speak at an event in New York, while Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari is to speak at an event in Minnesota. Wednesday, September 6 Australia is to release data on second quarter economic growth. Canada is to release reports on the trade balance and labor productivity. Later in the day, the Bank of Canada is to announce its benchmark interest rate and publish a rate statement. The U.S. is to publish figures on the trade balance and the Institute for Supply Management is to publish its manufacturing index. Thursday, September 7 Australia is to release data on retail sales and the trade balance. The UK is to publish industry data on house price inflation. The ECB is to announce its latest monetary policy decision and President Mario Drahi is to hold a press conference. The U.S. is to report on initial jobless claims. Friday, September 8 China is to release data on the trade balance. The UK is to report on manufacturing production and the trade balance. Canada is to round up the week with its monthly employment report. Related Articles Forex - Weekly outlook: September 4 - 8 Bitcoin rally gathers steam, nears $5,000 CFTC: S&P 500 Net Longs at 1-Year High; Gold Net Longs at 11-Month High || Market Snapshot – Asian News Triggers Todays Moves: North Korean Threat Leads Gold Higher It was once again a bullish day for the gold prices and it seems to be so for many days of late as the prices continue to move higher as the global risks arise. This time, it was the threat of the testing of the hydrogen bomb by North Korea which led to escalation of tension in the region. For a change, South Korea also joined the group by conducting a missile test of its own and this led to a lot of uncertainty in the region. This pushed the gold prices higher and led the stock markets lower during the course of the day. This has become almost a periodic happening over the last month or so as we have seen North Korea conduct such tests almost every 2 weeks and we have been seeing gold prices shoot up whenever that happens. China Bans ICOs The other important news came from China as the regulatory authorities in China banned all ICOs. The Chinese region had been a source of many ICOs and we had also seen a lot of Chinese investors investing in many ICOs around the world and with this ban, it is bound to affect the cryptocurrency in a big way. This could also pave the way for a cleanup of the system and a move into a new regime of controlled, regulated and planned ICOs but that is still quite some way off for now. This news led to the crash in the prices of Bitcoin and ethereum and this is likely to continue in the short term as the market begins to digest this news. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: The Jury is Out on Bitcoin Market Snapshot – Asian News Triggers Todays Moves Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Other Cryptocurrencies Tumble after China Bans ICO’s 4 Reasons Why Cloud Token Cryptocurrency Will Succeed Save Haven Assets Rally Following Hydrogen Bomb Detonation by North Korea Global Traders Turn Cautious as North Korea Tension Builds. Stocks Fall, Gold and Yen Jump || China hits booming cryptocurrency market with coin fundraising ban: By John Ruwitch and Jemima Kelly SHANGHAI/LONDON (Reuters) - China on Monday banned and deemed illegal the practice of raising funds through launches of token-based digital currencies. The move was targeted at so-called initial coin offerings (ICO) in a market that has exploded since the start of the year. ICOs have become a bonanza for digital currency entrepreneurs, globally and in China, and have provided the fuel for a rapid ascent in the value of cryptocurrencies this year that has driven fears of a bubble that could burst. [L5N1KV4DN] Individuals and organizations that have completed ICO fundraisings should make arrangements to return funds, said a joint statement from the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the securities and banking regulators and other government departments that was posted on the central bank's website. In total, $2.32 billion has been raised through ICOs, with $2.16 billion of that being raised since the start of 2017, according to cryptocurrency analysis website Cryptocompare. Bitcoin rival Ethereum, which token-issuers usually ask to be paid in and which has therefore seen unprecedented growth this year, fell sharply on the news, last trading down almost 20 percent on the day at $283, according to trade publication Coindesk. Bitcoin was also down 8 percent, while the total value of all cryptocurrencies was down around 10 percent, according to industry website Coinmarketcap.com. "The large price falls can be attributed to panic amongst traders and profit-taking," said Cryptocompare founder Charles Hayter. The rapid ascent of ICOs prompted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to warn in July that some ICOs should be regulated like other securities. Singapore and Canada followed with similar warnings. Zennon Kapron, director of the Shanghai-based financial technology consultancy Kapronasia, said he suspected regulators were putting the brakes on ICOs in order to better understand the phenomenon, but could ease off in the future. "Regulators globally are struggling to understand what ICOs are, what the risks are, and how to ring-fence and regulate them," he said. "China, in many ways, is no different than the U.S. or Singapore in saying, ok, we need to push back on these for now until we figure out how to deal with them...I think it will be slightly a temporary measure." "THE MUSIC HAS STOPPED" By creating and issuing digital tokens, entrepreneurs can raise large sums quickly -- sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars in minutes -- with little or no regulatory oversight. But unlike traditional fundraising, token holders are generally not given any share in the particular project, nor any security. For the buyer, therefore, the main reason for buying these highly risky tokens is often simply a bet that their value will rise. Once the tokens have been issued they can be traded against other cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, the first successful digital-only currency. The popularity of coin offerings has surged in China this year. In July, the state news agency Xinhua cited data from a government organization that monitors online financial activity to report that there had been 65 ICOs so far during the year raising a combined 2.62 billion yuan ($394.6 million) from 105,000 individuals in the country. Oliver Bussman, previously chief innovation officer at UBS and now president of the Switzerland-based "Crypto Valley Association" that promotes blockchain-based technology, said Chinese authorities had to be especially vigilant about protecting consumers because of the lack of financial advice in the country, compared with Europe or North America. Reaction to the ban was swift online. "The music has stopped," said one member of a chat group on the social networking platform WeChat that was set up last week for an upcoming ICO for a fundraising platform called SelfSell. "Hurry up and sell your bitcoin," said another. The organizer of the ICO project, who recently went on a six-city roadshow, said the project had been suspended. But Bussman said that once there was some regulatory clarity, and once it had been worked out how to classify different types of ICO, the token-based fundraising would continue. "The initial coin offering is a new business model leveraging blockchain technology and it will remain," he said. "This is not the end of the ICO – absolutely not." (Reporting by Jemima Kelly in London, John Ruwitch in Shanghai, Elias Glenn and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Richard Borsuk and Sam Holmes/Jeremy Gaunt) [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Vanuatu becomes the first country to accept bitcoin for citizenship http://coinacademy.co/vanuatu-becomes-the-first-country-to-accept-bitcoin-for-citizenship/ … || #bitcoin non si ferma più? Analisi tecnica || $4449.99 at 09:00 UTC [24h Range: $4312.82 - $4470.19 Volume: 6449 BTC] || 04 Ekim 2017 Saat 09:00:02, 1 BTC Kaç TL, 15.485,70 TL. #BTCTL #BTCKacTL #bitcoin #bitcoindeğerihttp://www.doviz724.com/1-bitcoin-kac-tl.html … || #bitcoin non si ferma più? Analisi tecnica || We operate the 5th largest bitcoin mining pool in the world. Earn Bitcoins daily !! http://bit.ly/2jEQtBw  #bitcoin #BitcoinCash #bitclubpic.twitter.com/gG3gLLjQ6m || Gana $45,00 Usd Por Afiliar, Quieres ganarte dólares con Bitcoin sin tanto esfuerzo? Es solo de ···· https://goo.gl/Cdo6SQ  > #España || Can somebody PLEASE tell $BTC to get it’s god damn act together!!! Sorry for the language @bbands u should follow me...kind of a big dealpic.twitter.com/YMKybLuv6v || Bitcoin rose above $ 4600 30-Aug-2017 00:37 https://plus.google.com/u/0/114269725219153289823/posts/cE5mjwQo3iv …pic.twitter.com/2DNgxXSsy2 || and still, it needed 8 years to built its network effect. As I said: It's not impossible, but don't underestimate it
Trend: up || Prices: 5750.80, 5904.83, 5780.90, 5753.09, 6153.85, 6130.53, 6468.40, 6767.31, 7078.50, 7207.76
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2019-02-22] BTC Price: 4005.53, BTC RSI: 70.87 Gold Price: 1329.20, Gold RSI: 62.47 Oil Price: 57.26, Oil RSI: 66.98 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Binance CEO CZ: Crypto Growth Needs Entrepreneurs and Projects, Not ETFs: The CEO ofleadingcryptocurrency exchangeBinance,Changpeng Zhao, said that he doesn’t think Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) “are core to our industry's growth,” during alive streamvia Periscope, Feb. 6. Zhao — also known in the community as CZ — declared that the cryptocurrency industry will grow with or without the launch of a Bitcoin (BTC) ETF, suggesting: “I think for our industry to grow we need more entrepreneurs to build real projects.” As Cointelegraphreportedlast week, the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s, along with investment firm VanEck and financial services company SolidX, has re-applied with theUnited StatesSecurities and Exchange Commission for a rule change to list a Bitcoin ETF, afterwithdrawingtheir request the week before. The much-anticipated launch of a Bitcoin ETF in the U.S. has beencitedas a possible cause for a rally in crypto market prices. When asked to comment on the recent controversy surrounding cryptocurrency exchangeQuadrigaCX, Zhao said that, while he does not want to comment on other exchanges, “there's something fishy going on." Recently,news brokethat following the sudden death of its founder Gerry Cotten, Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX is reportedly missing CA$190 million dollars ($145 million) in digital assets. As Cointelegraph recentlyreported, though the exchange has taken to court to avoid the collapse, some community members suggest that QuadrigaCX’s cold wallets never existed. Binance’s CEO also said that while “there’s nothing going on right now” for the exchange, the firm is interested in adding Ripple (XRP) as a partner by using its xRapid system. As Cointelegraphexplainedwhen the system became commercially available in October 2018, xRapid is a real-time settlement platform designed to speed up internationalpaymentssourcing liquidity from XRP. In a tweet Feb. 2, CZstatedthat he believes online retail giantAmazoncannot avoid issuing its ownaltcoineventually. Binance is currently theworld’s largestcryptocurrency exchange by adjusted daily trade volume, according to CoinMarketCap. • Binance Wants to Add Ripple’s xRapid as a Partner in Future, CZ Reveals • Amazon ‘Will Have to’ Create Its Own Crypto in Future, Binance CEO Says • Top Exchange Binance Adds Support for Credit Card Purchases of Major Cryptos • Bitcoin Hovers Under $3,600 as Top Cryptos Remain Mostly Stable || GMO Had a Plan to Take Down Bitmain; Now It’s Bidding Bitcoin Mining Goodbye: More than a year after launching an in-house mining business, Japanese internet conglomerateGMO Internethas announced that it will no longer, develop, manufacture, or sell cryptocurrency mining equipment. In astatement, the Japanese tech firm disclosed that the decision was prompted bychallenging business conditionswhich resulted in an “extraordinary” consolidated quarterly loss totaling 35.5 billion JPY (approximately US$320 million). According to GMO Internet, the firm’s mining business has been made untenable by the fall in cryptocurrency prices which consequently led to a drop in demand for the mining rigs. In an increasingly competitive environment, the Japanese tech firm was forced to cut the selling prices of the mining machines, a move that resulted in reduced profitability. However, the reduced prices did not spur more sales, and GMO Internet’s mining share failed to rise as expected as a result of an increase in the global hash rate: After taking into consideration changes in the current business environment, the Company expects that it is difficult to recover the cryptocurrency-mining-business-related assets through selling mining machines, so the Company has decided to stop the development, manufacture, and sales of mining machines, thereby recording an extraordinary loss. GMO Internet initially announced its foray into the cryptocurrency mining business last year in September, as CCNreported. The firm’s CEO later boasted that it wouldsupplantBitmain, the world’s largest cryptocurrency mining firm. While GMO Internet will cease developing and manufacturing cryptocurrency mining rigs, it will continue with the in-house mining business. With electricity compromising a majority of the operating expenses, the Japanese internet conglomerate will move the mining operation to a locality with cheaper power supply. GMO Internet’s in-house mining business also recorded an impairment loss of 11.5 billion Japanese yen (approximately US$104 million). Another manufacturer of mining rigs who has been negatively impacted by the downturn in cryptocurrency prices is the Jihan Wu-led Bitmain. As CCN reported earlier this week, the bitcoin mining giant intends tolay off nearly 50% of its employees. Preliminary reports indicated that the employees who will be laid off had been served with a one-week notice. Earlier this month, Bitmain also reportedlyshut down a development centerit had established in Israel known as Bitmaintech. Estimated to be 23, none of the employees at the center including the head, Gadi Glikberg, were spared from the layoffs. As noted by CCN, the decision by Bitmain to cut costs by scaling back could have been prompted by the losses it suffered after the “hash wars” it engaged in as part of the Bitcoin ABC camp against the Bitcoin Cash Satoshi Vision (SV) Camp led byCraig Wrightand Calvin Ayre. Featured Image from Shutterstock The postGMO Had a Plan to Take Down Bitmain; Now It’s Bidding Bitcoin Mining Goodbyeappeared first onCCN. || Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 25/12/18: Bitcoin Cash ABC fell by 8.14% on Monday, following a 0.02% gain on Sunday, to end the day at $179.89, the loss for the day bucking the trend from the broader market. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC rally to a late morning intraday high $212.23, breaking through the first major resistance level at $207.67, before hitting reverse. Reversing through the afternoon, Bitcoin Cash ABC tumbled through the first major support level at $185.36 and 23.6% FIB of $184 to an intraday low $175.48 before finding support, Bitcoin Cash ABC coming within range of the second major support level at $174.73 late in the day. The trend bucking move will likely have been as a result of some profit taking off the back of last week’s 148% gain. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was down 9.69% to 162.46, with Monday’s afternoon sell-off continuing into the early hours. Bitcoin Cash ABC slid from a start of a day high $181.1 to a morning low $156, falling through the first major support level at $166.17 on the way. For the day ahead, a move back through the 38.2% FIB of $164 and the first major support level at $166.17 would support a run at $190 levels to bring the first major support level at $202.92 into play, though sentiment across the broader market would need to materially shift to support an afternoon rebound. Failure to move back through the 38.2% FIB could see Bitcoin Cash ABC struggle through the day, with a pullback through the morning low $156 bringing the second major support level at $152.45 and $140 levels into play before any recovery. Litecoin fell by 0.09% on Monday, following on from a 4.65% rally on Sunday, to end the day at $33.05. Tracking the broader market, a bullish start to the day saw Litecoin rally to an early afternoon intraday high $36.78 before hitting reverse, Litecoin breaking through the first major resistance level at $34.13 and second major resistance level at $35.19 on the way. A late afternoon reversal saw Litecoin fall to an intraday low $32.6 before steadying, Litecoin managing to steer clear of the first major support level at $31.72 on the day. At the time of writing, Litecoin was down 6.32% to $30.96, with a start of a day sell-off seeing Litecoin fall from $33 levels to a morning low $30.4, Litecoin falling through the first major support level at $31.51 to come within range of the second major support level at $29.96. For the day ahead, a move back through to $31 levels and the first major support level at $31.51 would support a run at the morning high $33.05 to bring $34 levels into play in the event of a rebound, the day’s first major resistance level at $35.69 unlikely to be tested on the day. Failure to move back through to $31.5 levels by the early afternoon could see Litecoin take a bigger hit later in the day, with a pullback through the morning low $30.4 bringing sub-$30 levels and the second major support level at $29.96 into play before any recovery. Ripple’s XRP rallied by 10.99% on Monday, following on from a 1.94% gain on Sunday, to end the day at $0.4137. A particularly bullish start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP rally to a late morning intraday high $0.46669, breaking through the major resistance levels and 23.6% FIB of $0.4164, before easing to $0.40 levels late in the day. Ripple’s XRP managed to move back through the 23.6% FIB late in the day and hold above the second major resistance level at $0.4083. At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was down 5.8% to $0.38970, with Ripple’s XRP falling through the 23.6% FIB of $0.4164 to a morning low $0.38090 before steadying, the day’s major support and resistance levels left untested early on. For the day ahead, a move back through to $0.40 levels would support a run at the 23.6% FIB of $0.4164 to bring $0.42 levels into play before any pullback, sentiment across the broader market needing to materially improve to support a break out from the 23.6% FIB, the day’s first major resistance level at $0.4600 unlikely to be in play on the day. Failure to move back through to $0.40 levels could see Ripple’s XRP take a bigger hit later in the day, a fall through the morning low $0.38090 bringing the first major support level at $0.3734 into play before any recovery, $0.36 levels likely to be as bad as it will get in the event of a continued slide. Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency Instantly Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Bitcoin – The Bears Surface for the Holidays • USD/JPY Price Forecast – US dollar continues to drift lower • Gold Price Forecast – Gold markets rally during holiday • S&P 500 Price Forecast – stock markets continue to break down • Natural Gas Price Forecast – natural gas markets continue to plunge • Silver Price Forecast – Silver markets continue to grind sideways || Gundlach: Last year's market selloff was just a 'taste of things to come': Late last year, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) tumbled 20% from its Oct. 3 intraday high to its Dec. 24 intraday. And despite the market’s sharp 17% rally from those lows, Bond king Jeffrey Gundlach says we’re in a bear market and that we could see new lows. "A bear market has nothing to do with this 20% arbitrary thing," Gundlach, the CEO of $121 billion DoubleLine Capital, told Yahoo Finance in an exclusive interview. "It has to do with something crazy happening first, and then the crazy thing gives it up. And yet more traditional things continue to march on. But one by one they give it up." “Bitcoin going from zero to 20,000 in a straight line,” Gundlach said. “It was crazy.” “You knew it was crazy, because other things started to happen that we're truly insane,” he added. “There was a thing called Crypto Kitties. It wasn't a crypto currency. It was a collectible, but it had the word ‘crypto’ in it. They were each unique, but there were cartoon drawings of cats. There was actually a moment where one sold for over $100,000. Of course, they're worth zero today.” “That is a sign.” Soon after, the global stock market peaked and turned, Gundlach noted. That was followed by stock market sectors peaking and turning like dominos. The last of those dominos included Amazon (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL). “Then, on October 3rd, it was over,” he said pointing to the S&P’s peak. The market has since been saved by the Fed's pivot to be “patient” on monetary policy and the subsequent rally in the bond market, all of which has kept interest rates low. For now. "If the long end of rates starts to rise, as I expect, and if we break through 3.50% on the 30-year, I think it's over,” Gundlach added. “Because the competition from the bond market, particularly against a climate of limiting one of the engines of stock price appreciation,which is buybacks, is thought to be potentially in jeopardy." Gundlach believes that investors who bought during December's dip will likely end up selling at a lower point. "They bought in, they thought it was a buy-the-dip. They feel emboldened buy it. They've gotten an economic and psychic reward so far. Once that buy goes underwater, it will accelerate the selling, because those people will turn into sellers.I think that'll happen in the corporate bond market too." Gundlach has warned of the risks in the corporate bond market, but eventually, there will be an opportunity to put capital to work. "[When] thenext recessioncomes, there's going to be an outrageous opportunity in corporate credit," he said. "I think you want to own none right now. None. Instead, you just say, 'I might lose a few percent, versus playing in that game.' When it goes down, what we saw what happened from October 3rd until Christmas Eve, I mean, there was a pretty big drop.” “I think that that's just a taste of things to come," he said. [Full transcript of Jeffrey Gundlach’s extended conversation with Yahoo Finance] Sam Ro contributed to this article. — Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her onTwitter. • Gundlach: The U.S. economy seems to be on a ‘suicide mission’ • Gundlach: Debt-financed stock buybacks have turned the market into a ‘CDO residual’ • Jeffrey Gundlach discusses ‘the biggest risk’ he sees in the market • Gundlach: We don’t see a recession on the horizon. But there’s bad news... || First to Worst: Bitcoin Ridiculed as Most Disastrous Investment of 2018: FinExpertiza, a network of Russian auditing and consulting firms, has lambasted Bitcoin as the least profitable investment instrument in 2018. Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta requested a report on the investment ranking of 14 instruments from FinExpertiza. While precious metalpalladiumturned out to be the most profitable investment,Bitcoinlosses were noted to be 71.15% at the time the report was compiled. Bitcoin’s price surged in the past which led people to believe that it was becoming “digital gold.” One of these advocates includedAlex Gurevich, former JPMorgan executive and Mathematics professor, who said that time was workingforBitcoin despite the recent drop in price. He said, “Every day it doesn’t disappear, it gets one step closer to a permanent status of digital gold.” However, FinExpertiza’s research put Bitcoin belowsilver,platinum, andgold, which only lost 15.37%, 15.16%, and 5.91% this year. Currently, the internet is saturated with articles claiming that Bitcoin isas good as dead. The comparisons made between its price in December 2017 and this month are plastered everywhere to warn people from investing in the cryptocurrency. However, Bitcoin hasn’t performed as badly as various researches including FinExpertiza have concluded. According toBloomberg, when BTC’s price in 2017 and 2018 is compared with its price in 2011 and 2013, this downturn appears to be consistent with the flagship cryptocurrency’s normal market cycles. When looking at the price plunges in the recent months, many would re-consider buying the cryptocurrency. But it must be remembered that BTC declined by87% in November 2013and it took almost four years for it to gain its momentum. In the same month in 2017, its lowest price was recorded as $5,555.55. Later, the price went on to break records and reach a maximum of about $20,000. 99Bitcoinshas recorded that BTC has beenpronounced dead91 times in 2018. This figure is still not close to the 125 times Bitcoin was termed an utter loss in 2017. Jeff Sprecher, chairman of New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has said that despite living in a “swamp” and dropping in price, Bitcoin has still survived. “Often times in finance, it’s not about being the best — it turns out to be about being the broadest and the most commonly accepted and for whatever reason bitcoin has become that,” said Sprecher. Featured Image from Shutterstock. Price Charts fromTradingView. The postFirst to Worst: Bitcoin Ridiculed as Most Disastrous Investment of 2018appeared first onCCN. || Crypto Exchange ErisX Appoints Three New Execs From Barclays, YouTube, CBOE: Crypto exchange ErisX has appointed three veterans from Barclays, Youtube and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) to fill executive roles at the company. The development was announced in a press releasepublishedFeb. 7. Asreported, ErisX is a reboot of traditional futures market Eris Exchange, and is expected to begin support for spot trading in major cryptos. The exchange will support spot trading in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC), as well asfutures contractsstarting in the second half of 2019, pendingUnited Statesregulators’ approval. The new appointments will see Robert Thrash serving as chief operating officer (COO), Arnold Connell as head of infrastructure and John Denza as ErisX’s business development executive. Thrash — a derivatives executive whose experience spans prime brokerage, execution services, and trading — has reportedly spent 12 years at majorUnited Kingdom-basedBarclaysInvestment Bank, most recently as managing director and global head of futures execution services and clearing platform management. As COO, Thrash will report to ErisX CEO Thomas Chippas. Connell joins ErisX from YouTube, where he reportedly worked as a creator of YouTubeTV. He is also a veteran of Google, where he worked 9 years in various roles. He will serve as head of infrastructure under Tony Acuña-Rohter, ErisX head of technology. Denza, meanwhile, has experience in the fintech and exchange sector, recently working as head of U.S. Sales at Pico Quantitative Trading. Prior to that, he spent 10 years at BATS Global Markets/CBOE, rising to the role of director of U.S. Sales Equities and Derivatives. At ErisX, he will report to the company’s chief commercial office, Kelly Brown. ErisX — which aims to establish a compliant exchange and clearing house for digital assets — has accordingly drawn talent from both traditional finance and crypto. Last month, the firmannouncedthe appointment ofConsenSys’ Joseph Lubin to its board of directors. In December, veteran exchange founder Matt TrudeaujoinedErisX as chief strategy officer. That same month, ErisXraised$27.5 million from Fidelity Investments andNasdaqVentures following a priorinvestmentfrom retail brokerage firm TD Ameritrade and others this October. Fidelity, which administersover $7.2 trillionin client assets, notablyannouncedits own bid to enter the crypto space with the launch of a new firm, Fidelity Digital Asset Services, in October. • Hodler’s Digest, Jan. 21–27: Top Stories, Price Movements, Quotes and FUD of the Week • ‘Swiss Leaks’ HSBC Whistleblower Plans to Launch ‘Clean, Ethical’ Crypto Token • Abra Wallet Introduces Bitcoin Investment Option for Stocks and ETFs • United States Crypto Platform Huobi.com Launches Fiat-Crypto Trading || Dow Futures Flat, Bitcoin Price Heavy on Super Bowl Monday: The US stock market is open for business, but the Dow doesn’t look poised to make much of a ruckus on Super Bowl Monday. The bitcoin price, meanwhile, continues to lurch toward an important technical test that could signal whether the cryptocurrency market is finally ready to flip bullish. As of 8:26 am ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 3 points, implying an opening bell decline of 24.89 points. The Dow’s sister indices, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, were also eyeing minor pullbacks at the open. Futures tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average (blue), S&P 500 (red), and Nasdaq (orange) signaled minor opening bell declines. The Dow had closed last week at 24,063 following yet anotherstronglatter-week rally. This particular advance was bolstered by Labor Department figures indicating that the private sector had added 304,000 jobs last month, which was the largest jump in 11 months and came despite the uncertainty surrounding the longest-ever US government shutdown. Read the full story onCCN.com. || Bitcoin Cash Price Analysis: Network Stabilizes; BCH/USD Breaks Bear Flag Pattern: • Bitcoin Cash investors received an early Christmas gift with the fueled and incredible recovery. • Bitcoin Cash could close 2018 trading below $200. Bitcoin Cashhas proved to the investors that it has the ability to reverse a downtrend significantly. This comes after the digital asset corrected from the lows formed around $73.36 to highs around $229.65 in less than one week. The upside retracement is likely due to the stability the network is nurturing following the hard fork on November 15. The upgrade saw Bitcoin Cash chain split into two separate chains. Bitcoin ABC assumed the symbol BCH while the other chain, Bitcoin SV in the leadership of the former Bitcoin Cash developer, Craig Wright. The hash war and the trade wars between the chains has cooled down as both networks focus on development. In the meantime, Bitcoin Cash is trading at $165 following a correction from the monthly high. Bitcoin Cash investors received an early Christmas gift with the fueled and incredible recovery. However, as the players in the mark took time to spend Christmas away from the digital assets, Bitcoin Cash slashed the gains accrued first breaking below the rising trendline and later forming a bearish flag pattern. Consequently, the bears grip continued the price broke beneath the above mention pattern, see chart. At the moment, the 50 Simple Moving Average is limiting gains at169.67. Similarly, further correction to the upside will face high seller concentration at $180 (the 100 SMA). BCH/USD needs to correct above the 100 SMA for a breakout above $200. On the other hand, the technical indicators on the chart show reduced buyer activity, which means that Bitcoin Cash could close 2018 trading below $200. On matters concerning support zones, the first one is at $160, the second at $150 (this week’s low) and a stronger support highlighted by the 38.2% Fib retracement level as observed on the chart. BCH/USD 60’chart See more from Benzinga • BTC Lightning Network Capacity Triples In a Month: Bitcoin Price Stuck In a Tight Range • Bitcoin Transactions Hit Record High In Venezuela: Petro Goes Up 150% © 2018 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Cboe shelving plan for bitcoin-tracking product: filing: NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Wednesday that Cboe Global Markets Inc is pulling its proposal to list an exchange-traded product tracking the price of bitcoin, delivering another blow to cryptocurrency enthusiasts. A Cboe-run exchange dropped plans that have been in front of the commission since June last year to list the VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust, the market regulator said in a filing. (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; editing by Diane Craft) || These Bitcoin Analysts Explain Why the Crypto Market isn’t Out of the Woods: bitcoin price Listen, noob. A $200 price retracing is far from the end of a bear market for Bitcoin. Comparing historical charts, there are times in recent memory where we’d call that “stability.” In a recent newsletter by eToro ’s Mati Greenspan, the veteran analyst points out that China was on holiday recently. Coming back to the crypto markets, they seem to be in a “buying mood.” Bitcoin Bulls Break More China bitcoin price The Bitcoin price isn’t out of the woods – yet. Greenspan feels that a much bigger upward push is needed if you’re going to start calling the end of a bear market . Bitcoin bulls are simply bigger beasts. “[I]n order to say definitively that the bear market is over, we would need a strong break above the key psychological barrier of $5,000. In any case, even though the technical indicators remain bearish, the fundamentals continue to grow stronger. Volume across crypto exchanges over the last 24 hours have reached a fresh high of $25 billion on Friday and have sustained well above the baseline of $15 billion since.” Read the full story on CCN.com . [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] 1 BTC = 12786.59952000 BRL em 31/01/2019 ás 18:00:02. #bitcoin #bitcoinbr #bitcoinexchangebr || https://www.zerocarbonproject.com/  #ZeroCarbonProject #Crypto #Blockchain #ENERGIS #bitcoin #cryptocurrency #btc Attention! Project with an implacable reputation that is worthy of your attention!Dear friends, stay tuned! || Been accumulating $BTC || Dec 25, 2018 17:01:00 UTC | 3,785.10$ | 3,322.50€ | 2,972.00£ | #Bitcoin #btc pic.twitter.com/OHGIXSKjiC || Torrent Paradise Creates Decentralized ‘Pirate Bay’ With IPFS http://bit.ly/2MklVji  #bitcoin || rBitcoins : BitFury announces tools to drive Bitcoin Lightning adoption http://zpr.io/gHWF3  || #Airdrop #airdropalert #freecoins #cryptocurrency #paywithcrypto #Crypto #BTC #coinsmarkets #Coinmarketcap #summit #blockchain #economy #istanbul #summit2019 #İstanbulSummit || Bitcoin Vip Mining - an investment project dealing with mining and trading. Payment Proof : https://t.me/BtcVipPayments  Bitcoin Vip Mining : https://t.me/BtcVipMiningBot?start=678494205 … #btcusd #btc #bitcoin #binance #bitfinex #telegram #mining #btcevipminings #bittrex || Ripple vs Bitcoin: BTC’s Price Outperforms XRP Over Past 7 Days - Blokt http://dlvr.it/Qx3vJL pic.twitter.com/XAOchbn3lf || $SAFE 3 Sixty Secure Corp: A NewPublic Play on Cannabis Security #CFN #Media https://goo.gl/GkbBUc  #ad #wsj #nytimes #reuters #forbes #nasdaq #IHub_StockPosts #newyork #business #cnn #bet #foxnews #bitcoin #blockchain #music #crypto #cannabis #weed #marijuana #CBDpic.twitter.com/SXhoVAsXAb
Trend: down || Prices: 4142.53, 3810.43, 3882.70, 3854.36, 3851.05, 3854.79, 3859.58, 3864.42, 3847.18, 3761.56
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2016-12-20] BTC Price: 800.88, BTC RSI: 72.41 Gold Price: 1131.50, Gold RSI: 28.58 Oil Price: 52.23, Oil RSI: 60.03 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] First Bitcoin Capital Solves Medical Cannabis Dispensary Cash Dilemma Via INNOVATIVE Merchant Credit Card Services: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2016 /FIRST BITCOIN CAPITAL CORP. (BITCF), a leading bitcoin and cryptocurrency developer, specializing in both blockchain and online merchant payment solutions for medical marijuana dispensaries and other high-risk merchant accounts and services, today announced the signing of a merchant account processing agent agreement with a credit card processor for the states of California and Oregon. Under the agreement, BITCF will provide a full suite of financial services for the medical marijuana industry: merchant processing and POS solutions through its alliance network, a fully compliant, user friendly solution to accept Credit and Debit Cards through traditional Merchant Card Processing networks. We intend to add more states as additional legal opinions are provided by our credit card processor provider’s counsel. First Bitcoin is also developing a system that will enable dispensaries to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a form of legal payment. Stater of California has already enacted legislation that makes Bitcoin and similar digital currencies legal tender. BITCF has developed specific programs to meet the unique needs of the medical cannabis industry. Offering merchant services at competitive rates for businesses operating legally under state law of California and Oregon, the company can now provide financial services not typically available from conventional banks. While legalization of marijuana in many forms – and in many states – garnered over $5 billion dollars in 2016, the sums are expected to grow for 2017. More innovative and unique products are being created, and the stigma that once surrounded cannabis is slowly fading. These changes are helping the medical cannabis industry to prosper now that federal policies allow dispensaries to sell, grow, or possess cannabis while compliant with state laws. BITCF will only provide these services where federal policies allow our business model to proceed for dispensaries that are fully compliant with state and country laws, rules and regulations. Should your dispensary be interested in these services please contact us by email:info@bitcoincapitalcorp.com According to our merchant processor: Our processor introduces the first completely sanctioned credit card solution for the Marijuana Industry. Unlike most merchant accounts that are currently being used by many dispensaries, our processor Acquirers approve, accept and fully acknowledge their engagement with State licensed legal Marihuana Dispensaries. Our processor is an "IaaS". Infrastructure as a Service ("IaaS") and provider of an innovative array of synergistic services that include, advertising, affiliate marketing, consortium of vendors in various markets including the high risk sector and payment processing into a seamless comprehensive solution. Their mission is to utilize IaaS to provide protection and enhanced privacy for online consumers as well as all participating contractual Partners within their Network. Our processor employs a proprietary method of transacting on behalf of their Partners. Our processor also manages the customer database with its Partners and offers consumer protection services for their registered Users. They also operate through clearance and settlement systems that admit only BSA-regulated financial institutions. Our processor is also fully PCI compliant. About the company: First Bitcoin Capital is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange-www.CoinQX.comWe see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new type of digital assets. "Being first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies." At this time Company owns and operates the following digital assets. www.BITCoinCapitalcorp.comcompany website. www.CoinQX.comCompany operated Cryptocurrency Exchange, registered with FINCEN. www.iCoiNEWS.comreal time cryptocurrency and bitcoin news site www.BITminer.cccompany provides mining pool management services. www.2016coin.orgonline daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL and $GARY coins Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release .Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file atwww.OTCMarkets.com. SOURCE:First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || Garfield Sinclair Appointed Head of Caribbean for C&W: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Dec 16, 2016) - Garfield (Garry) Sinclair was today announced as President, Caribbean for Cable & Wireless Communications ("C&W" or "The Company"). The position has responsibility for operations in 15 territories across the region, including C&W's Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados markets. John Reid, CEO of C&W, who was recently confirmed as top executive of the region-leading full service operator, said: "Our business is entering a new phase of its development and evolution, and I am excited about the expertise, experience and passion for customers that Garry brings to what is a critical role." As head of the Caribbean, Sinclair will be responsible for the strategic execution, financial performance and reputation of the Caribbean business, developing the Company's growth opportunities, in particular triple-play, mobile data and fixed-mobile convergence, as well as capturing the growing demand for business-to-business services. Sinclair, a Jamaica national, is uniquely qualified to lead the Caribbean business given his twenty years' experience in developing growth opportunities and transformation in organizations across the region. In his role as President and COO of investment bank Dehring Bunting & Golding, Garry grew a start-up business to be key player in the Caribbean financial services industry. More recently, for the past seven years as CEO of Cable & Wireless Jamaica he has successfully led the operation's transformation, growing the mobile subscriber base from two hundred thousand to almost one million customers, as well as leading the Company's 800+ employees through the integration of the Columbus and C&W businesses to become the country's leading converged telecoms operator. In addition, his range of Board appointments including financial institutions, youth empowerment and the Jamaica Football Federation demonstrates Sinclair's leadership experience and passion for Caribbean development, qualities key to C&W's development and growth across the Caribbean. Story continues "I am honored to lead our Caribbean business into the next chapter of its development. I look forward to working with our 3,300 employees across the region as we look to seize the opportunity to develop our products and services, continue the transformation of our operations, and lead the region in innovation and quality of customer experience," said Sinclair. Sinclair's appointment will take effect on January 1, 2017; in addition he will continue to oversee C&W's Jamaica business directly until the appointment of new leadership for that operation later in the New Year. About C&W Communications C&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more at www.cwc.com , or follow C&W on LinkedIn , Facebook or Twitter . About Liberty Global Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. Liberty Global invests in the infrastructure that empowers its customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Liberty Global's scale and commitment to innovation enables it to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect its 29 million customers who subscribe to 60 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. Liberty Global also serves over 10 million mobile subscribers and offers WiFi service across seven million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group ( NASDAQ : LBTYA ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYB ) and ( NASDAQ : LBTYK ) for its European operations, and the LiLAC Group ( NASDAQ : LILA ) and ( NASDAQ : LILAK ) ( OTC PINK : LILAB ), which consists of its operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visit www.libertyglobal.com . Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3092379 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3092382 || American Express is increasing its late fees: (BI Intelligence) This story was delivered to BI Intelligence "Payments Briefing" subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, pleaseclick here. American Express will be the first major credit card issuer to raise its late payment fees under the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s updated allowable limit, according to theWall Street Journal. At the start of 2017, Amex will begin charging a fee of up to $38 to customers with more than one late payment in a six month period. That's $1 more than what was previously charged by the card issuer, but could give the firm a solid revenue boost. Late fees could prove to be very lucrative in the current card market. • As credit card usage increases, it's likely the number of delinquent accounts will also grow. Credit card accounts and usage are close to pre-recession numbers once again,accordingto Forbes. That's leading to a big rise in usage — US credit card debt is on track to hit $1 trillion this year, according to theWall Street Journal. That could help explain the rise in delinquent accounts — since 2013, the percentage of accounts at least 90 days delinquent six months after origination has increased, according to Forbes. • Late fees could be a vital revenue source. Nearly one in five active credit-card accounts incur a late fee, according to CFPB data used by the Wall Street Journal. This is significant, considering credit card companies were able to collect roughly $10.8 billion in fees during 2015 from these late payments. And for Amex, that revenue could be critical as the issuer grapples with the loss of Costco.Based on 2015 numbers, if Amex is able to capture just 1% of the late fee market, that's roughly $100 million in revenue — a figure that could grow as the market expands following the updated allowable limit. Although this revenue could boost any card network, it could be particularly beneficial to Amex in light of the firm's sale of its Costco cobrand portfolio to Citigroup earlier this year. Costco had 11.6 million cardholders and accounted for 8% of the firm's $1 trillion global billed business in 2015. As the firm realizes the impact of the Costco sale, it is looking for additional sources of revenue. Finding a way to capitalize on growing card spend and delinquencies could be one such way among a variety of strategies. The CFPB's new guidelines could have a significant effect on the payments ecosystem, which has grown in the last several years to include merchants, issuers, acquirers, processors, and more. BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compileda detailed report on the payments ecosystemthat drills into the industry to explain how a broad range of transactions are processed, including prepaid and store cards, as well as revealing which types of companies are in the best and worst position to capitalize on the latest industry trends. Here are some key takeaways from the report: • 2016 will be a watershed year for the payments industry. Payments companies are improving security, expanding their mobile offerings, and building commerce capabilities that will give consumers a more compelling reason to make purchases using digital devices. • Payments is an extremely complex industry. To understand the next big digital opportunity lies, it's critical to understand how the traditional credit- and debit-processing chain works and what roles acquirers, processors, issuing banks, card networks, independent sales organizations, gateways, and software and hardware providers play. • Alternative technologies could disrupt the processing ecosystem. Devices ranging from refrigerators to smartwatches now feature payment capabilities, which will spur changes in consumer payment behaviors. Likewise, blockchain technology, the protocol that underlies Bitcoin, could one day change how consumer card payments are verified. In full, the report: • Uncovers the key themes and trends affecting the payments industry in 2016 and beyond. • Gives a detailed description of the stakeholders involved in a payment transaction, along with hardware and software providers. • Offers diagrams and infographics explaining how card transactions are processed and which players are involved in each step. • Provides charts on our latest forecasts, key company growth, survey results, and more. • Analyzes the alternative technologies, including blockchain, which could further disrupt the ecosystem. To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options: 1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >>START A MEMBERSHIP 2. Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >>BUY THE REPORT The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the payments ecosystem. More From Business Insider • THE PAYMENTS INDUSTRY EXPLAINED: The Trends Creating New Winners And Losers In The Card-Processing Ecosystem • THE DIGITAL REMITTANCE REPORT: The new platforms disrupting a $600 billion industry • Credit cards are going the way of fax machines || First Bitcoin Capital Acquires Large Stake in One of the Oldest Mineable Cryptocoins Ranked High on Coin Market Cap; Also, Company’s Digital Shares Are Now Listed on Two International Cryptocurrency Exchanges: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 30, 2016 / First Bitcoin Capital Corp. ( BITCF ) is pleased to announce that it has sold its Venezuela mining concessions for a large stake in the cryptocurrency of one of the oldest mineable coins that ranks high on Coin Market Cap. See: http://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/kilocoin/ . Kilocoin which is similar to Litecoin primarily trades on a popular cryptocurrency exchange at https://c-cex.com/?p=klc-btc A list of its nodes can be found via https://c-cex.com/?id=ws&shownodes=klc Kilocoin mining can be tracked at https://www.blockexperts.com/klc# From its web site via http://kilocoin.com/ their wallet can be downloaded. At its current rate of mining (159 coins per block) it should take centuries to reach the maximum of 25,000,000,000 mineable coins with a little over 10,000,000,000 coins mine thus far, giving BITCF nearly 10% participation. The Company anticipates that the KLC exchange will boost BITCF's balance sheet with tremendous upside potential and may become a source of future dividends. Differences from Bitcoin and Litecoin and Kilocoin Bitcoin Litecoin Kilocoin Coin limit 21 Million 84 Million 25 Billion Algorithm SHA-256 Scrypt Scrypt Mean block time 10 minutes 2.5 minutes 5 minutes Difficulty Target 2016 Block 2016 Blocks 288 Blocks Initial Reward 50 BTC 50 LTC 159 KLC Current block reward 25 BTC 50 LTC 159 LTC Block explorer blockchain.info block-explorer.com https://www.blockexperts.com/klc# Created by Satoshi Nakamoto Charles Lee Kilocoin, Inc (DAC) Creation date January 3, 2009 October 7, 2011 Feb 27th, 2014 Coins Mined (as of 8 April 2015) 14,029,116.67 37,984,800 10,013,105,152 Furthermore, in conjunction with BITCF's expanding ownership of its common shares onto its own blockchain (BIT) and trading on foreign international cryptocurrency exchanges, the company is proud to announce that its digital shares are now trading on an additional, popular cryptocurrency exchange, LIVECOIN www.livecoin.net . Story continues About the company: First Bitcoin Capital is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange- www.CoinQX.com . We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. "Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges) we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies." At this time the Company owns and operates the following digital assets. www.BITCoinCapitalcorp.com company website. www.CoinQX.com Cryptocurrency Exchange, registered with FINCEN. www.iCoiNEWS.com real time cryptocurrency and bitcoin news site. www.BITminer.cc providing mining pool management services. www.2016coin.org online daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL and $GARY $BURN coins. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file at www.OTCMarkets.com . SOURCE: First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || Bitcoin Activity in India Has Doubled Since the Banknote Ban: 1000 Rupee Note Early in November, India abolished the 500 and 1000 rupee banknotes in an effort to fight corruption and so-called " black money ". Since then, interest in Bitcoin appears to be increasing in the Asian country based on a variety of different metrics. Although there was already a vibrant Bitcoin community in India, the recent move to clamp down on illegal income and tax evasion seems to have sparked new interest in the peer-to-peer digital cash system. Who Uses Bitcoin in India? So who uses Bitcoin in India? According to Sunny Ray , who is the president and co-founder of Indian bitcoin exchange Unocoin , there are two main categories of Bitcoin users in the country. In an interview with Bitcoin Uncensored co-host Chris DeRose just before the large denomination banknote ban was put into place, Ray claimed that 40 to 50 percent of their users are savers who view bitcoin as a digital gold. "India is the largest gold market in the world," said Ray. "If you couple that with—I think it's something like 20 or 25 percent of the world's programming and IT population also live in India—digital gold is obviously something that I think people have the capacity to get." Ray also noted that roughly 20 percent of Unocoin's users are freelancers who use Bitcoin as a cheaper alternative to PayPal. Ray noted that Bitcoin currently offers what are essentially negative fees for freelancers based in India because of the relatively higher price bitcoins sell for in the country. During the Bitcoin Uncensored interview, Ray stressed that his estimates should be taken with a grain of salt, as the very nature of Bitcoin makes it difficult to get real user data. Trading Volume Has More Than Doubled Since the Ban So what's happened since India got rid of the 500 and 1000 rupee banknotes? For starters, Ray told CoinJournal that Unocoin has seen a doubling in traffic and trading volume over the past 30 days. An increase in trading volume can also be seen on LocalBitcoins , where the daily volume has increased from around 1.25 million rupees (around $18,500) per day before the cash ban to around 2.5 million rupees per day in early December. There was also an all-time high of more than 5.5 million rupees (just over $81,000) worth of bitcoin traded on November 26th. Story continues It's important to remember that LocalBitcoins trading volume is a rather rough metric because many traders continue exchanging bitcoins off of the site after finding someone they trust. Bitcoin currently trades at a high premium in India due to capital controls in India, which make it difficult for Bitcoin companies, such as Unocoin, to settle against foreign exchanges; however, Unocoin is currently working on a method to bring more bitcoin liquidity into the Indian market. In a blog post on their website, BitGo has noted the value of India-based transactions co-signed by them has increased by 240 percent since September. Larger Effects May Be Seen Over the Long Term While there's been a nice uptick in Bitcoin activity in India over the past month or so, Ray believes the larger effects of India's removal of the 500 and 1000 rupee banknotes from circulation will be seen over the long term. "Right now, people are being very careful with their spending," said Ray. "We think it will be long term because with all of the restrictions, the push towards digital money, and the amount of new money that's entering the banking system, some of that will find a home in bitcoin." || Award Winning Flow Lend Issues Over US$1M in Mobile Credit in Less than Six Months: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Dec 20, 2016) - Flow has been keeping its prepaid mobile customers connected with its cashless mobile top-up app, Flow Lend , which advanced more than US$1Million in less than six months in mobile credit -- and, in partnership with JUVO , won the Mondato Innovation Award for Digital Finance and Commerce (DFC) earlier this month. James McElvanna, VP Products, Cable and Wireless , operator of Flow said, "We are proud to have partnered with JUVO to develop an app that addresses the needs of our customers, which in this case is anytime, anywhere access. Since many of our prepaid customers don't use credit cards, and usually rely on in-store cash top ups, Flow Lend gives them the assurance that they can always stay connected, even when they are out of cash and can't make it to a top-up station. We're happy to provide this convenient option to our customers, and we're honoured to be recognized for our efforts and investment in technology that has transformed our customers' experience." Steve Polsky, Founder and CEO of JUVO said, "C&W is a true partner and we are thrilled to be working with their team to offer Flow customers real time access to credit to help them stay connected. Receiving the Mondato Innovation Award, along with the high volume of credit advances issued via Flow Lend, reaffirms the real need for this solution -- and we're excited to provide the Identity Scoring technology that powers it." All prepaid mobile customers who top up regularly are eligible for credit advance from Flow Lend. The app tracks the frequency of top ups and other usage patterns to determine which customers have met the requirements for an advance. Once approved, customers can use Flow Lend to request instant, interest-free credit when they're running low. The loan amount must be repaid within 30 days via any regular Flow top up method. By consistently paying back on time, they can gradually borrow more and never have to worry about running out of credit. Story continues "We are addressing a real need for many of our customers who may have little or no credit and may be caught in a situation where they desperately need to be in contact," said McElvanna, highlighting the app's benefits. "For example, the mother who needs to call the doctor's office to make an appointment for her sick child no longer has to wait until she has the cash to go buy credit; the teenager who's nearing a low balance late at night doesn't have to leave the comfort and security of his/her home to visit a top up centre. Regardless of the circumstance, Flow Lend is available to our customers, anytime, anywhere." Flow Lend is available in all Flow's mobile markets across the region for both Android and iOS smartphones. EDITORS NOTE: About Mondato Innovation Award for Digital Finance and Commerce (DFC) The Mondato Awards were created to recognize excellence and innovation in Digital Finance and Commerce (MFC) and Digital Finance Plus (DF+) . The winners represent some of the most innovative DFC and DF+ solutions from emerging startups, as well as established companies paving new paths in the industry. C&W Communications in partnership with Juvo received the 2016 award. Juvo was founded with an overarching vision: to establish financial identities for the billions of people worldwide who are creditworthy, yet financially excluded. In partnership with mobile network operators, Juvo's proprietary Identity Scoring technology uses data science, machine learning and game mechanics to create an identity-based relationship with anonymous prepaid users, opening up access to otherwise unattainable mobile financial services. Juvo is a privately held company backed by global business leaders and luminaries in the world of tech, mobile and finance. Its executive team comprises accomplished industry leaders across the data science, consumer internet, financial services and mobile telecom fields. Headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Miami, London, Buenos Aires, Manila, Jakarta and Hanoi, Juvo has a reach of over 100 million subscribers across four continents and is deployed in 23 countries. For more information, follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn , or find us at www.juvo.com All trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners. About C&W Communications CWC is a full-service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, CWC provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. CWC also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more at www.cwc.com , or follow C&W on LinkedIn , Facebook or Twitter . About Liberty Global Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enable us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 59 million television, broadband, internet, and telephony services. We also serve 11 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group ( NASDAQ : LBTYA ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYB ) and ( NASDAQ : LBTYK ) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group ( NASDAQ : LILA ) and ( NASDAQ : LILAK ) ( OTC PINK : LILAB ), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visit www.libertyglobal.com . Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3093327 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3093322 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3093330 || Award Winning Flow Lend Issues Over US$1M in Mobile Credit in Less than Six Months: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Dec 20, 2016) -Flowhas been keeping its prepaid mobile customers connected with its cashless mobile top-up app,Flow Lend, which advanced more than US$1Million in less than six months in mobile credit -- and, in partnership withJUVO, won theMondato Innovation Award for Digital Finance and Commerce (DFC)earlier this month. James McElvanna, VP Products,Cable and Wireless, operator of Flow said, "We are proud to have partnered with JUVO to develop an app that addresses the needs of our customers, which in this case is anytime, anywhere access. Since many of our prepaid customers don't use credit cards, and usually rely on in-store cash top ups, Flow Lend gives them the assurance that they can always stay connected, even when they are out of cash and can't make it to a top-up station. We're happy to provide this convenient option to our customers, and we're honoured to be recognized for our efforts and investment in technology that has transformed our customers' experience." Steve Polsky, Founder and CEO of JUVO said, "C&W is a true partner and we are thrilled to be working with their team to offer Flow customers real time access to credit to help them stay connected. Receiving the Mondato Innovation Award, along with the high volume of credit advances issued via Flow Lend, reaffirms the real need for this solution -- and we're excited to provide the Identity Scoring technology that powers it." All prepaid mobile customers who top up regularly are eligible for credit advance from Flow Lend. The app tracks the frequency of top ups and other usage patterns to determine which customers have met the requirements for an advance. Once approved, customers can use Flow Lend to request instant, interest-free credit when they're running low. The loan amount must be repaid within 30 days via any regular Flow top up method. By consistently paying back on time, they can gradually borrow more and never have to worry about running out of credit. "We are addressing a real need for many of our customers who may have little or no credit and may be caught in a situation where they desperately need to be in contact," said McElvanna, highlighting the app's benefits. "For example, the mother who needs to call the doctor's office to make an appointment for her sick child no longer has to wait until she has the cash to go buy credit; the teenager who's nearing a low balance late at night doesn't have to leave the comfort and security of his/her home to visit a top up centre. Regardless of the circumstance, Flow Lend is available to our customers, anytime, anywhere." Flow Lend isavailable in all Flow's mobile markets across the regionfor bothAndroidandiOSsmartphones. EDITORS NOTE:About Mondato Innovation Award for Digital Finance and Commerce (DFC)The Mondato Awardswere created to recognize excellence and innovation in Digital Finance and Commerce (MFC) andDigital Finance Plus (DF+). The winners represent some of the most innovative DFC and DF+ solutions from emerging startups, as well as established companies paving new paths in the industry. C&W Communications in partnership with Juvo received the 2016 award. Juvo was founded with an overarching vision: to establish financial identities for the billions of people worldwide who are creditworthy, yet financially excluded. In partnership with mobile network operators, Juvo's proprietary Identity Scoring technology uses data science, machine learning and game mechanics to create an identity-based relationship with anonymous prepaid users, opening up access to otherwise unattainable mobile financial services. Juvo is a privately held company backed by global business leaders and luminaries in the world of tech, mobile and finance. Its executive team comprises accomplished industry leaders across the data science, consumer internet, financial services and mobile telecom fields. Headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Miami, London, Buenos Aires, Manila, Jakarta and Hanoi, Juvo has a reach of over 100 million subscribers across four continents and is deployed in 23 countries. For more information, follow us onTwitterorLinkedIn, or find us atwww.juvo.com All trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners. About C&W CommunicationsCWC is a full-service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, CWC provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. CWC also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more atwww.cwc.com, or follow C&W onLinkedIn,FacebookorTwitter. About Liberty GlobalLiberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enable us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 59 million television, broadband, internet, and telephony services. We also serve 11 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group (NASDAQ:LBTYA) (NASDAQ:LBTYB) and (NASDAQ:LBTYK) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group (NASDAQ:LILA) and (NASDAQ:LILAK) (OTC PINK:LILAB), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visitwww.libertyglobal.com. Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3093327Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3093322Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3093330 || C&W Business Launches Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) on Demand at Cisco Live!: CANCUN, MEXICO--(Marketwired - Nov 7, 2016) -Cisco Live! --C&W Business, part ofC&W Communications(C&W), one of the largest full service communications and entertainment providers in the Caribbean and Latin America region, now owned byLiberty Global(LiLAC Group), is excited to announce the launch ofHosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) on Demand,a managed Unified Collaboration Service, atCisco Live!. Cisco Live is one of the main IT conferences in the Latin America region and is expected to draw more than 5,500 customers, experts and partners from different business segments and levels. Cisco Live! will be held from November 7-10 in Cancun, Mexico and C&W Business will be present atbooth #506showcasing live demos of its next-generation platform, HCS on Demand. The launch of HCS on Demand, powered by Cisco, is a managed unified collaboration platform that will enable customers in 24 countries across the Caribbean and Latin America to leverage a full suite of IP-enabled collaboration tools. HCS on Demand will be hosted by C&W Business at their data centers and be delivered to customers over the Company's world-class, SIP-enabled fiber IP (terrestrial and submarine) and fault-tolerant network. This network encompasses over 42,000 kilometers (26,000 miles) of fiber across the Caribbean and Latin America and is the only MEF CE 2.0 certified network across the region, allowing C&W Business to deliver highly secure and reliable data, voice and video services efficiently to its customers. "C&W Business HCS on Demand helps accelerate customers' day-to-day business processes, helping achieve better and faster business outcomes across the region. Customers won't have to worry about burdening their IT staff with the effort to deploy and operate their own PBX or UCC platform. Customers will only pay for what they need, with no upfront costs, making unified communications more affordable and the costs more predictable in a fixed monthly service charge per user," said Daniel Peiretti, SVP Product Development and Management, C&W Business. "Our HCS on Demand solution is secure, offers strong SLA's, and is supported by a business-class infrastructure with a certified team that uses a simplified deployment model. We will have customers up and running in no time, from anywhere, anytime and from any device," added Peiretti. As a Cisco Master Managed Service Provider, C&W Business utilizes its highly secure and connected fabric of datacenters to deliver the most comprehensive, integrated solutions for clients. This crucial element enables clients to have a single point of contact, avoiding the challenge of managing multiple vendors. In addition, business applications and unified communication applications are hosted in the same datacenter significantly reducing latency and enhancing data security. C&W Business HCS on Demand will offer customers: • Voice and video communications, mobility, messaging, presence, web and video conferencing, and contact center. • Access to cloud-based resources in a fast and easy way so customers can get up and running faster than with traditional models. • Predictable per-user monthly costs without having to incur upfront capital expenditure investments. • Ability to easily ramp up or down to address seasonal needs. • Deployment of different license types to individuals across work groups or departments as required. • Elimination of the costs and problems of equipment maintenance and software upgrades. • Customers most likely to benefit from this solution are those with a need for enhanced remote worker integration, mobility, cost reduction, reduced travel cost, simplified user experience, accelerated decision making, improved customer service and better work-life balance for its employees. In addition, existing Cisco collaboration customers can migrate their "on premises" solution into this cloud and maintain their investment in licensing. Cisco Live! is the premier IT conference in Latin America -- which gathers customers, experts and partners from different industries, segments, and countries. Cisco Live! is held annually in four cities worldwide: Las Vegas, Berlin, Melbourne and Cancun. Learn more at#CiscoLiveLA Visit C&W Business at Cisco Live!C&W Business will be an exhibitor atbooth #506duringCisco Live!,at the Moon Palace Golf & Spa Resort Cancun, Mexico. To learn about our technology-driven solutions that offer unique Cisco collaboration technologies using hosted and managed models. Meet our technology experts and join us for demo presentations on our solutions onNovember 9 from 10:30 am - 12:30 pmand onNovember 10 from 12:30 - 2:00 pmin the Cisco Powered booth. NOTES TO EDITORSC&W Business To Offer Cisco Collaboration As A Service Over Its MPLS Networks About C&W CommunicationsC&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more atwww.cwc.com, or follow C&W onLinkedIn,FacebookorTwitter. About Liberty GlobalLiberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enables us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 60 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve 10 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group (NASDAQ:LBTYA) (NASDAQ:LBTYB) (NASDAQ:LBTYK) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group (NASDAQ:LILA) and (NASDAQ:LILAK) (OTC PINK:LILAB), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. || Bitcoin predicted to rise 165% to $2,000 in 2017 driven by Trump’s ‘spending binge’ and dollar rally: The price of Bitcoin(Exchange: BTC=-USS)could hit more than $2,000 in 2017 driven by expectations that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump may introduce economic stimulus policies, which could send inflation soaring and propel the dollar to record highs, a report from Saxo Bank claims. Bitcoin is currently trading around $754.51, according to CoinDesk data. A handle of over $2,000 would represent 165 percent appreciation. During his election campaign Trump has talked about an increase in fiscal spending. Saxo Bank's note said that this could increase the roughly $20 trillion of U.S. national debt and triple the current budget deficit from approximately $600 billion to $1.2-1.8 trillion, or some 6-10 percent of the country's current $18.6 trillion economy. As a result, the economy will grow and inflation will "sky rocket", forcing the U.S. Federal Reserve to hike interest rates at a faster pace and causing the U.S. dollar "to hit the moon". When inflation rises the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates to bring it under control. This causes the dollar to appreciate because it would be seen as an attractive currency for foreign investors. "This creates a domino effect in emerging markets and China in particular, leading people globally to look for alternative forms of currencies and payment systems not tied to central banks that have exhausted monetary policies or crony governments that are in full financial repression mode nor transaction systems that are long overdue for a revolution," Steen Jakobsen, chief economist at Saxo Bank, wrote in a note. Bitcoin as the largest cryptocurrency would benefit from this "chaos", he added, as emerging market countries look to move away from "being tied" to the monetary policy of the U.S. and banking system. "If the banking system as well as sovereigns such as Russia and China move to accept Bitcoin as a partial alternative to the USD and the traditional banking and payment system, then we could see Bitcoin easily triple over the next year going from the current $700 level to +$2,100 as the blockchain's decentralized system, an inability to dilute the finite supply of bitcoins as well as low to no transaction costs gains more traction and acceptance globally," Jakobsen said. Blockchain is the underlying technology of bitcoin which records every transaction using the digital currency so that it can't be tampered with. There is also a finite supply of 21 million bitcoins. This in theory would cause price appreciation of the asset over a long period of time. Jakobsen's comments were in his annual "Outrageous Predictions" note and the economist says that his views are not the official outlook for Saxo Bank. Instead they are an attempt to "get you to think out of the box" with the aim of "provoking conversation". But Bitcoin advocates say that the slower appreciation of the dollar against the yuan in comparison to bitcoin against the dollar shows that the $2,000 handle is not unrealistic. The dollar has risen 3.3 percent against the yuan(Exchange: CNY=)in the last three months while bitcoin has gone up 20.7 percent in the same time period. Bobby Lee, chief executive at bitcoin exchange BTC China, compared the current situation of cryptocurrencies to the advent of digital cameras. He said that it is a "new asset class" with long-term potential. "It's the advent of digital currency and with bitcoin there is bound to be more in circulation value in the coming years," Lee told CNBC by phone. The amount of bitcoin in circulation is valued at around $12.1 billion. More From CNBC • 9 iconic mobile phones people want to see make a comeback • Kim Dotcom extradition ruling: Prosecutors acted in ‘illegal’ way, lawyer says • Mark Cuban: Basic income ‘the worst possible response’ to job losses from robots || KRUGMAN: The 'America we knew and loved is gone': american flag rocks iran (Reuters) Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize winning economist and liberal New York Times columnist, said Monday that he has lost faith in the future of the United States. In a series of tweets following President-elect Donald Trump's expected triumph in the Electoral College vote , Krugman seemed to be despondent with the state of the US. "So it's official, and it's vile: the loser of the popular vote installed by Russian intervention, a rogue FBI, and epic media malfunction," Krugman tweeted. "We should never accept this as OK. It may be the new normal, but that's a new normal in which the America we knew and loved is gone." The economist has for weeks expressed his concern about a Trump administration, calling into question the president-elect's choices for Cabinet positions, Trump's business conflicts of interests, and the influence of the FBI and Russian hackers on the election. Krugman also followed up with a series of tweets Tuesday morning attacking Trump's nominees for various economic posts such as the Office of Management and Budget, Treasury secretary, and the chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. "Are people noticing that the Trump economic team is shaping up as a gathering of gold bugs?" tweeted Krugman. Krugman said Rep. Mick Mulvaney , Trump's nominee for budget chief at the OMB, is a "conspiracy theorist." The economist pointed to a speech from Mulvaney in which he praised bitcoin as "not manipulable by any government" and attacked the Federal Reserve. Related: For more news videos visit Yahoo View , available now on iOS and Android . Krugman also attacked Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury pick, for his connections to hedge fund manager John Paulson, who has incorrectly predicted massive inflation in recent years. The highest praise was given to Larry Kudlow, who is expected to be named the head of the Council of Economic Advisers. "In this crew, Kudlow — who thinks it's always the 1970s, but doesn't seem to see hyperinflation under his bed — is the most reasonable," Krugman said. Story continues View Krugman's tweets below: So it's official, and it's vile: the loser of the popular vote installed by Russian intervention, a rogue FBI, and epic media malfunction. — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 20, 2016 We should never accept this as OK. It may be the new normal, but that's a new normal in which the America we knew and loved is gone — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 20, 2016 Are people noticing that the Trump economic team is shaping up as a gathering of gold bugs? 1/ — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 20, 2016 Treasury goes to a guy with little public profile, but hangs out with John Paulson (who is also close to Trump) https://t.co/GSiJOfuiOq 2/ — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 20, 2016 And Paulson has been predicting inflation -- sometimes double-digit -- from Fed policy for years 3/ https://t.co/cIocJFsh7P — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 20, 2016 Budget director appears to be John Bircher and conspiracy theorist (but aren't they all? But note economic views 4/ https://t.co/d8M15ztSXm — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 20, 2016 Birchers want return to gold and silver, Mulvaney seems to agree 5/ pic.twitter.com/hTyHc3JbB6 — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 20, 2016 In this crew, Kudlow -- who thinks it's always the 1970s, but doesn't seem to see hyperinflation under his bed -- is the most reasonable 6/ — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 20, 2016 Whoops -- forgot Mulvaney's Bitcoin derp: "He praised bitcoin as a currency that is "not manipulatable by any government."" 7/ — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 20, 2016 NOW WATCH: Donald Trump's 'strange' morning habit tells you everything you need to know about him More From Business Insider Trump calls Paul Krugman 'demented' for suggesting he has an 'incentive' to benefit from a 9/11-style attack 'I'm asking you a simple question': Fox News host confronts RNC chair over Trump's denial of Russia hacks POLL: A majority of Republicans think Trump won the popular vote [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] BlockChannel:The latest Bitcoin Price Index is 787.84 USD http://www.coindesk.com/price/ pic.twitter.com/NV9cVi4Y0u || What You Need To Know About Bitcoin - http://www.veenaija.com/need-know-bitcoin/ … || $728.00 at 21:15 UTC [24h Range: $715.90 - $729.99 Volume: 4670 BTC] || Try fatguyslim.gary at https://LocalBitcoins.com/ad/325323?ch=w7m … only £620.00 per BTC. (BPI +4.6%) #buy #bitcoin #banktrans || MMMBTC || あと、Skypeログイン出来ないし(((pcは || 1 KOBO = 0.00000143 BTC = 0.0010 USD = 0.3040 NGN = 0.0142 ZAR = 0.1017 KES #Kobocoin 2016-11-16 06:00 pic.twitter.com/UcRYddD3ru || Bitcoin Money Insurance 500% daily for 30 days, saving money for christmas . http://ow.ly/idZA307dM49  || 1 KOBO = 0.00000000 BTC = 0.0000 USD = 0.0000 NGN = 0.0000 ZAR = 0.0000 KES #Kobocoin 2016-11-02 22:00 pic.twitter.com/d1SuRUErUS || MMMBTC
Trend: up || Prices: 834.28, 864.54, 921.98, 898.82, 896.18, 907.61, 933.20, 975.92, 973.50, 961.24
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-09-21] BTC Price: 3631.04, BTC RSI: 42.73 Gold Price: 1290.60, Gold RSI: 41.60 Oil Price: 50.55, Oil RSI: 62.50 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] 10 things you need to know before the opening bell: (A man on a lifeguard tower at the beach in advance of Hurricane Irma's expected arrival in Hollywood, Florida.Reuters/Carlo Allegri) Here is what you need to know. Hurricane Irma hammers Florida.Irma made landfall in the Florida Keys as a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday morning; it was downgraded to Category 1 on Monday as it continued to make its way across Florida. Parliament is set to vote on Theresa May's EU Withdrawal Bill.Members of Parliament will vote Monday evening in London on the bill, which will allow all existing European Union laws to be transferred over to British law, after which the government will be free to rewrite or repeal them at will. London remains the world's top financial center.London beat out New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore, Reuters says, citing the Z/Yen global financial centers index, which ranks 92 financial centers based on factors such as infrastructure and access to high-quality employees. The chances of another rate hike this year are looking bleak.There's just a 28.7% probability that the Federal Reserve raises rates again in 2017, according to Bloomberg's World Interest Rate Probability data. Traders are trimming their US dollar shorts.Last week, traders cut their US dollar short positions by $1.4 billion to $6.5 billion, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released late Friday. Bitcoin is reeling following reports China is shutting down cryptocurrency exchanges.Bitcoin has slumped by more than $500 a coin since a Friday report from Caixin said China would be banning cryptocurrency exchanges. On Monday, Bloomberg suggested that while trading would be banned on domestic exchanges, it would be allowed over the counter. Amazon is looking for a second headquarters — here are all the cities being considered.The e-commerce giant is looking to invest $5 billion on construction of a second headquarters, which it hopes will be home to 50,000 employees. Apple's redesigned iPhone will be called the "iPhone X."The more expensive, premium model iPhone that is expected to be announced Tuesday will be called the "iPhone X," according to code discovered by developer Steve Troughton-Smith. Snap is at its highest level since July.Snap has gained about 36% from its August low, and Friday's close of $15.34 a share was its best since July 13. Stock markets around the world are higher.Japan's Nikkei (+1.41%) led overnight, and Germany's DAX (+1.12%) paces the gains in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open higher by 0.67% near 2,478. NOW WATCH:GARY SHILLING: No one is making impulse buys online More From Business Insider • Here are all the areas in Hurricane Irma's path and when the storm could arrive • Hurricane Irma is hammering Florida — here's the latest • Hurricane Jose, a major Category 4 storm, is moving through the Caribbean with 130-mph winds || Bitcoin Cash soars more than 100% to record high above $900: Investing.com - Bitcoin Cash prices rose sharply on Sunday, jumping to a record high above the $900-level, amid optimism that faster transactions times will speed up the spread of the cryptocurrency. According to market participants, over half of Bitcoin Cash’s transaction volume was made on trading exchanges in South Korea, such as Bithumb and Coinone. Bitcoin Cash was last at $774.00 by 9:35AM ET (1335GMT), up about 106.4%, or $398.96. It touched $935.50 earlier, the highest the Bitcoin offshoot has ever traded in its less than three weeks of history and an increase of almost 400% from its low of $210 on its first day of trading. The surge means that the total market cap of Bitcoin Cash has now reached around $13 billion, making it the third-largest digital currency after Bitcoin and Ethereum. The rapid price rise has made it more profitable for miners to mine Bitcoin Cash as opposed to the original Bitcoin. Prices of the original Bitcoin slumped around 6%, or $250, to $4,087.70, continuing its retreat from last week's all-time peak of $4,489.10. It fell to a low of $3,951.30, amid growing investor concerns that the digital currency could face a second split in November. Bitcoin’s blockchain split into two earlier this month, after members of the bitcoin community rejected the first part of the SegWit2x upgrade, creating a competing currency called ‘Bitcoin Cash’. The most important difference between the two coins is that Bitcoin Cash allows for faster transaction times by using custom block sizing. Bitcoin Cash has a block size with an 8-megabyte transaction limit. Bitcoin transactions on the other hand are limited to 1-megabyte every 10 minutes. Elsewhere in cryptocurrency trading, Ethereum was down almost 3.5% to $292.53. It has the second-largest market capitalization among cryptocurrencies at nearly $28 billion. To stay on top of the latest moves in the crypto-space, be sure to check out:https://www.investing.com/crypto/ Related Articles Forex - Dollar index holds onto gains in subdued trade Forex - USD/CAD erases gains, hits 3-week lows Bitcoin falls below $4,000 to hit 7-day low || Bitcoin Payment Firm BitPesa Gets Big Boost From Famous Investor: The grandfather of venture capital just made his first bet on bitcoin. Alan Patricof , the founder and managing director of Greycroft, announced on Wednesday a $2 million investment into BitPesa, a startup that uses blockchain to speed up business payments across Africa and Asia. While the size of the investment is modest, the involvement of Patricof, one of the country’s first venture capitalists, is significant. While his firm has invested in various fintech companies--most notably Venmo, Acorns, and Braintree--Patricof and Greycroft have so far shied away from the crypto-currency space. In an interview with Fortune , Patricof said his decision to back BitPesa is based on his confidence in the company’s young founder and CEO, Elizabeth Rossiello. Rossiello stands out in the digital currency world not only because she’s a woman, but because of her educational background. She studied at Columbia University’s School for International and Public Affairs, which is known as a hothouse of UN-types and lefty activists--but also snuck away to take corporate finance classes at the business school. After a stint at , Rossiello worked in Africa where she discovered how people relied on SIM cards and national phone carriers to do their banking. This experience helped her see the potential for different payment platforms--including bitcoin wallets, which let people conduct transactions without intermediary actors that siphoned off high fees. This led Rossiello to launch BitPesa as a cheap and efficient way to make business payments in places like Kenya, Nairobi, and Uganda. Increasingly, BitPesa is helping companies with more global transactions; she cited the example of an East African firm using BitPesa to purchase a fleet of cars from a Japanese exporter. Get Data Sheet , Fortune's technology newsletter. BitPesa, which also provides remittance services, deploys APIs to work a network of banks and mobile payments. This means that some customers may not even be aware that BitPesa is relying on the bitcoin network to conduct and record the transaction. Story continues In its latest funding round, BitPesa raised a total of $3 million from Greycroft and Plug and Play. This brings total investment in the company to over $10 million, following a $2.5 million Series A in January (which included a few very small contribution from Greycroft), and earlier investments from angels and seed investors. As for bitcoin’s volatility and relatively slow transaction speed (it takes ten minutes or more for a payment to register on the blockchain), Rossiello countered that bitcoin is infinitely superior to wire transfers, which can take days and provide unreliable records. She also noted that many African currencies are actually more volatile than bitcoin. BitPesa, however, doesn’t hold onto bitcoin to store or trade, but instead relies on third parties like bitcoin-giant Circle to provide the liquidity it needs. Patricof said he likes this attribute about the company, saying it means BitPesa is not a speculative enterprise and isn’t exposed to the price swings that regularly jolt crypto-currency markets. Patricof added that, unlike many New York venture capitalists, he does not hold any bitcoin for himself. That’s not the case, though, with Rossiello. “Of course I do,” she said. “I use it because I want to do what the experience is like for my partners. It’s as if I built a highway--I would drive a truck on it to make sure it went smoothly.” See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com Uber's New CEO Is a Bitcoin Fan Exclusive: An Inside Look at Kim Dotcom's Bitcoin-Based Payments Platform SEC Warns Scammers Are Using ICOs to Pump and Dump Canada Pours Cold Water on 'Initial Coin Offerings' Kim Dotcom Wants YouTube Stars to Test His Bitcoin Payment System || Bitcoin's nearly five-fold climb in 2017 looks very similar to tech bubble surge: When charted, bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=-USS)'s rapid gains resemble how stocks surged into the tech bubble before collapsing. David Ader, chief macro strategist at Informa Financial Intelligence, matched a graph of the Nasdaq Telecommunications Index (NASDAQ: .IXUT) at its peak in 2000 to bitcoin's five-year run to all-time highs. "This is the price chart for an overly frothy market, in my opinion. I just don't see anything quite as comparable to this in bubblelicious terms," said Ader, a former top-rated bond market strategist. Bitcoin climbed more than 3.7 percent Thursday to a record of $4,802.74, up nearly five times in price this year and about 67 percent higher for August, according to CoinDesk. Source: Informa Financial Intelligence "I think it's going to come to a sorry ending," Ader said. "I don't know anybody who's actually used a bitcoin for any purpose legal or otherwise. This looks like an overly frothy market and frothy markets lose their froth." Ader said he used the Nasdaq telecom index since many of those stocks led the Nasdaq composite's overall gains during the tech bubble. The Nasdaq telecom index shot up more than 700 percent from 1995 to 2000, before collapsing 90 percent in the next two years. The index remains about 75 percent below its record high. Bitcoin's meteoric surge this year comes as many on Wall Street are becoming more interested in the digital currency and the blockchain technology behind it. New digital asset investment funds are rolling out and the Chicago Board Options Exchange is planning to launch bitcoin futures. Many investors also bought bitcoin this month after it survived a relatively uneventful split on Aug. 1 into bitcoin and bitcoin cash, an alternative version supported by only a few developers. Bitcoin cash is up about 180 percent from its Aug. 1 low, to Thursday's price of $588, according to CoinMarketCap. However, bitcoin could split again this fall because there's another upgrade proposal, and others have warned that the speculative forces behind bitcoin could quickly turn against it. Here are a few of the alarm bells sounded this summer: The Elliott Wave Newsletter predicted bitcoin's surge from 6 cents in 2010, but in July said bitcoin's surge has surpassed the tulip mania of roughly 400 years ago and is now showing signs of nearing a sharp downturn. Later in July, widely followed Bank of America Merrill Lynch commodity and derivatives strategist Francisco Blanch concluded in a sweeping report that bitcoin still faces many challenges to becoming a globally accepted currency. Then about a week later, a New York University finance professor, Aswath Damodaran, said in a blog post that bitcoin may just be a "dangerous pricing game." By percent change, analysis from Bespoke Investment Group shows how bitcoin's surge has already well surpassed that of any major stock market bubble. Story continues Source: Bespoke Investment Group That said, some well-respected names on Wall Street have also issued positive reports on the digital currency. In early July, Thomas Lee became the first major Wall Street strategist to issue a report on bitcoin. A former JPMorgan strategist who co-founded Fundstrat, Lee said bitcoin could reach $20,000 to $55,000 by 2022 . On Aug. 18, he established a mid-2018 target of $6,000 for bitcoin. According to a mid-July Forbes report, investing legend Bill Miller put 1 percent of his net worth into bitcoin in 2014 , and the digital currency is one of the top holdings in Miller's $120 million hedge fund. Stock analyst Ronnie Moas of Standpoint Research published a report in late July predicting bitcoin would rise nearly 80 percent to $5,000 in 2018. He then raised that target in mid-August to $7,500. Lee and Moas both reason that bitcoin can climb to those levels if even a fraction of the trillions of dollars in gold or other traditional investments move into the digital currency. Bitcoin has a market value of about $78 billion, and digital currencies overall are worth $170 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. That makes the value of all digital currencies less than 5 percent of the more than $4 trillion inflation-adjusted value of stocks during the tech and telecom boom, said Chris Burniske, author of the upcoming book, "Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond." "If people think this is the 'big bubble,' then they don't have an appreciation for how big the idea of cryptoassets really is," he said. Many digital currency enthusiasts agree there is speculation in the digital currency. But they note that, just like the dot-com bubble, companies that were able to utilize the underlying technology then became global giants. WATCH: As bitcoin surges, so do complaints More From CNBC Friday's jobs miss could actually send stocks higher US stocks rise after jobs report; Dow climbs above 22,000 Gasoline prices skyrocket || China hits booming cryptocurrency market with coin fundraising ban: By John Ruwitch and Jemima Kelly SHANGHAI/LONDON (Reuters) - China on Monday banned and deemed illegal the practice of raising funds through launches of token-based digital currencies. The move was targeted at so-called initial coin offerings (ICO) in a market that has exploded since the start of the year. ICOs have become a bonanza for digital currency entrepreneurs, globally and in China, and have provided the fuel for a rapid ascent in the value of cryptocurrencies this year that has driven fears of a bubble that could burst. [L5N1KV4DN] Individuals and organizations that have completed ICO fundraisings should make arrangements to return funds, said a joint statement from the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the securities and banking regulators and other government departments that was posted on the central bank's website. In total, $2.32 billion has been raised through ICOs, with $2.16 billion of that being raised since the start of 2017, according to cryptocurrency analysis website Cryptocompare. Bitcoin rival Ethereum, which token-issuers usually ask to be paid in and which has therefore seen unprecedented growth this year, fell sharply on the news, last trading down almost 20 percent on the day at $283, according to trade publication Coindesk. Bitcoin was also down 8 percent, while the total value of all cryptocurrencies was down around 10 percent, according to industry website Coinmarketcap.com. "The large price falls can be attributed to panic amongst traders and profit-taking," said Cryptocompare founder Charles Hayter. The rapid ascent of ICOs prompted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to warn in July that some ICOs should be regulated like other securities. Singapore and Canada followed with similar warnings. Zennon Kapron, director of the Shanghai-based financial technology consultancy Kapronasia, said he suspected regulators were putting the brakes on ICOs in order to better understand the phenomenon, but could ease off in the future. "Regulators globally are struggling to understand what ICOs are, what the risks are, and how to ring-fence and regulate them," he said. "China, in many ways, is no different than the U.S. or Singapore in saying, ok, we need to push back on these for now until we figure out how to deal with them...I think it will be slightly a temporary measure." "THE MUSIC HAS STOPPED" By creating and issuing digital tokens, entrepreneurs can raise large sums quickly -- sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars in minutes -- with little or no regulatory oversight. But unlike traditional fundraising, token holders are generally not given any share in the particular project, nor any security. For the buyer, therefore, the main reason for buying these highly risky tokens is often simply a bet that their value will rise. Once the tokens have been issued they can be traded against other cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, the first successful digital-only currency. The popularity of coin offerings has surged in China this year. In July, the state news agency Xinhua cited data from a government organization that monitors online financial activity to report that there had been 65 ICOs so far during the year raising a combined 2.62 billion yuan ($394.6 million) from 105,000 individuals in the country. Oliver Bussman, previously chief innovation officer at UBS and now president of the Switzerland-based "Crypto Valley Association" that promotes blockchain-based technology, said Chinese authorities had to be especially vigilant about protecting consumers because of the lack of financial advice in the country, compared with Europe or North America. Reaction to the ban was swift online. "The music has stopped," said one member of a chat group on the social networking platform WeChat that was set up last week for an upcoming ICO for a fundraising platform called SelfSell. "Hurry up and sell your bitcoin," said another. The organizer of the ICO project, who recently went on a six-city roadshow, said the project had been suspended. But Bussman said that once there was some regulatory clarity, and once it had been worked out how to classify different types of ICO, the token-based fundraising would continue. "The initial coin offering is a new business model leveraging blockchain technology and it will remain," he said. "This is not the end of the ICO – absolutely not." (Reporting by Jemima Kelly in London, John Ruwitch in Shanghai, Elias Glenn and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Richard Borsuk and Sam Holmes/Jeremy Gaunt) || Bitcoin regains momentum after regulatory crackdown in China: Investing.com – Bitcoin traded higher on Tuesday but remained well below its recent peak as market participants continued to assess the fallout from China’s decision to ban individuals and organizations from raising funds through initial coin offerings (ICOs). On the U.S.-based Bitfinex exchange, bitcoin rose to $4,386, up $185.6 or 4.42%, but lagged its recent peak of $4,911.80. At current prices Bitcoin boasts a market cap of $72.42 billion. The People’s Bank of China said on its website Monday that it had completed investigations into ICOs, and will strictly punish offerings in the future while penalizing legal violations in ones already completed. Individuals and organizations that have completed ICO fundraisings should make arrangements to return funds, said a joint statement from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the securities and banking regulators and other government departments that was posted on the central bank’s website. An initial coin offering (ICO) is a used as a means of fundraising via the use of cryptocurrency in which a company attracts investors by releasing its own digital currency which can appreciate in value if the business is successful. The Chinese government’s latest measures to curb the activity of initial coin offerings are seen as a threat to the strong demand that currently supports cryptocurrency growth. Ethereum, in particular, is widely believed to one of the main cryptocurrencies at risk of suffering from a dip in demand, as ICO issuers often request payment in ether – a currency transacted through the Ethereum network. Ethereum, gained 7.43% to $317.69 while Bitcoin Cash rose $36.10, or 6.96%, to $555.08. To stay on top of the latest moves in the crypto-space, be sure to check out:https://www.investing.com/crypto/ Related Articles Bitcoin regains momentum after regulatory crackdown in China Dollar edges lower as U.S.-North Korea tensions weigh Dollar falls on concern about North Korea, Fed rate outlook || GUNDLACH ON BITCOIN: 'I'm going to let this mania go on without me': Screen Shot 2017 09 13 at 11.09.04 AM (Markets Insider) Just about everyone has questions about bitcoin these days, including Jeffrey Gundlach's 86-year-old mom. Gundlach, DoubleLine Capital's founder, said she texted with a link to a story urging readers to buy bitcoin. She wanted to know whether she should get in the game. But the cryptocurrency is not something that Gundlach himself is ready to participate in. "I’m going to let this mania go on without me," Gundlach said during a webcast with clients on Tuesday. He did devote the first slide in his section on Fed policy to a bitcoin price chart . "I philosophically don't believe it's unhackable," he said, adding that he's received pushback from "smart 20-somethings." Bitcoin was near $4,500 per dollar when Gundlach got the text from his mom. It crossed the $5,000 mark briefly, but has since rolled back, to about $3,765 on Wednesday. "So, I'm sure she's not interested in buying it now that it's falling," Gundlach said. He added that he didn't have a price target on bitcoin. Although bitcoin could run into regulatory hurdles in key markets like China, where domestic exchanges reportedly risk being closed , some investors are betting that it will only get more popular. Tom Lee, the co-founder of Fundstrat, forecasts that bitcoin could hit $6,000 by mid-2018. Not everyone agrees, including Mohamed El-Erian, Allianz's chief economic adviser. He told CNBC on Wednesday that he didn't think governments would allow the massive adoption that traders have priced in. Bitcoin should be worth "at least half" of its current price, he said. Gundlach spoke a few hours after Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan's CEO, said he would fire any trader who was transacting bitcoin. Bitcoin is "worse than tulip bulbs ," Dimon said, referring to the infamous speculative market for tulips in 17th-century Europe. "It's interesting that somebody that high-profile is out there with such an interesting statement," Gundlach said about Dimon. NOW WATCH: GARY SHILLING: Stocks are expensive, and a 'shock' could send them plunging More From Business Insider BANK OF AMERICA: Bitcoin is the 'most crowded' trade Bitcoin is sinking on a report China is going to shut down exchanges Bitcoin cash soars above $700 || CREDIT SUISSE: GrubHub’s recent acquisition may take time to pay off: GrubHub CEO Matt Maloney (C) applauds after ringing the opening bell before the company's IPO on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York April 4, 2014. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson (GrubHub CEO Matt Maloney applauds after ringing the opening bell before the company's IPO on the floor of the New York Stock ExchangeThomson Reuters) Fresh on the heels of the company’s $287.5 million Eat24 acquisition , Credit Suisse analyst Paul Bieber has downgraded GrubHub, citing “uncertainty on acquisition accretion.” “We are lowering our rating as we believe shares reflect an optimistic scenario for accretion from recent acquisitions,” he wrote in a note published Monday morning. In short, Credit Suisse believes any growth from the Eat24 buyout will be slow, and could take a full year to materialize. Specifically, Credit Suisse points to four reasons GrubHub's growth from the Eat24 acquisition is likely to take a while: Eat24 integration costs. "We expect the integration of Eat24 to take 6-12 months upon closing the deal and anticipate technology expense synergies to be realized once the integration is complete (ie. late 2018 or 2019)," the bank wrote, noting that integrating Seamless and GrubHub onto a common platform in 2015 and 2016 ran into unexpected delays. Delivery mix shift. Online ordering still only accounts for a small percentage of what Americans spend at restaurants each year. The company's wide range for EBITDA guidance has Credit Suisse analysts looking at the pace of growth with caution. Potential investment in marketing to drive growth. "Investing in marketing to drive active diner growth in 2nd and 3rd tier cities is a big priority for Grubhub," writes the bank. "And it's possible that Grubhub will elect to invest acquisition accretion in marketing to drive faster gross food sales (GFS) growth in 2018." Management conservatism. The bank expects management to act conservatively in its annual guidance, which could have a chilling effect on the stock price. The bank’s new price target for GrubHub is $53 — just a few cents shy of Wall Street consensus, according to Bloomberg, and 6.2% below Monday’s closing price. Story continues Shares of GrubHub are up 52% so far this year. The company declined to immediately comment for this story. GrubHub stock price (Markets Insider) NOW WATCH: Bitcoin's bubble swells with a new record high More From Business Insider Irma is finally leaving Florida and now hammering Georgia — here's the latest Here are all the areas still in Hurricane Irma's path and when the storm could arrive A former US Navy SEAL tweeted his solution to the North Korean crisis — and it just might work || S&P 500 Forecast for the Week of September 4, 2017, Technical Analysis: The S&P 500 initially fell during the week but bounced from the uptrend line that has been so supportive. Because of this, I believe that the S&P 500 is hell-bent on getting to the 2500 level. With this, I believe in buying dips, and I believe that once we break above the 2500 level, we are clear to go much higher. This is a market that certainly seems to be favoring dips, as the markets have been so strong. If we were to break down below the uptrend line, and more importantly the 2400 level, the market could then break down significantly. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • U.S. Dollar Index Should Be Big Winner if Draghi is Dovish • Bitcoin Skyrocketing to $5,000, Volume Increasing, Weekly Technical Analysis • U.S. Dollar Index Whip-sawed but Still Finishes Week Higher • Steady Economic Growth, Low Inflation Boosts U.S. Stocks • Market Snapshot – NFP Disappoints as Euro Corrects • Nonfarm Payrolls and Wage Growth to Drive the Dollar || The One Big Reason Bitcoin Is a Terrible Investment: Bitcoin has recently come under fire from JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who critiqued the cryptocurrency as “worse than tulip bulbs.” He further emphasized his disdain stating that “it won’t end well. Someone is going to get killed.” Dimon’s remarks sent its value down 6% on Wednesday. Source: Shutterstock Now, you might be wondering what’s the root cause of the hesitation with this and other cryptocurrencies. Although it has been around since 2009, a little over a year ago, most investors had never even heard of Bitcoin … a 100% digital alternative to government-issued money. What a difference a year makes. Not only is Bitcoin a household word (even if not utilized by every household), there’s even an exchange-traded fund linked to the value of the so-called cryptocurrency itself, appropriately called theBitcoin Investment Trust(OTCMKTS:GBTC). InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips In many regards the establishment of a cryptocurrency ETF lends credibility to the very premise of Bitcoin (as if the digital currency’s 600% appreciation in value wasn’t a compelling enough reason by itself). But before you plow any of your cash into Bitcoin, Ethereum or any of the other newly minted digital currencies though, there’s something you may want to mull. The short version of a long story: Bitcoin, like most cryptocurrencies, is digital currencies that can be used to electronically buy and sell goods and services. The attraction to it is that it’s fast, free and anonymous … if anonymity is a factor. It’s also not regulated, by design. Unlike money — dollars, yen, deutsche marks or whatever — the amount of actual Bitcoins out there that will ever be in existence iscapped at 21 million. The limit is imposed by the underlying formula that determines whether a particular Bitcoin is valid. To-date, alittle over 16 millionof those Bitcoins have been “mined” by the computer-based process that has to look for the digital strings of data that qualify as a legitimate Bitcoin; they can’t be digitally faked. In that regard the very notion seems brilliant. Potentially unlimited demand but a finite supply means the value of Bitcoin may have no cap. Indeed, it’s alreadybeing used to transact businessfor key players, includingMicrosoft Corporation(NASDAQ:MSFT) andOverstock.com, Inc.(NASDAQ:OSTK), so usability isn’t an issue either. Nevertheless, there’s one fatal flaw with Bitcoin and its peers. For some observers it’s arguably the way it’s “supposed to be,” and the way it was before 1971 when the value of the U.S. dollar was backed by (and represented) physical gold. In the same sense there’s only a limited amount of gold on the planet, there’s a limited number of Bitcoins that will ever exist — its value is real, set by market-based rates, rather than arbitrary and ultimately manipulated by a government body seeking to tweak its economy. • 4 Biotech Stocks for the Long-Term Here’s the problem … while the number of Bitcoins that will ever be in circulation is capped, there’s absolutely nothing to prevent the creation of another cryptocurrency to bleed off at least some of that price-inflating demand for Bitcoin. The aforementioned Ethereum is one of those alternatives, though hardly the only one. Ripple, Litecoin, Dash, Monero, Bytecoin, Golem and Tether are just some of the several dozen cryptocurrencies that have come into existence not just after Bitcoin, but because of Bitcoin — their creators are looking to cash in. They can come into existence because the only barrier to entry is afew hours’ worth of codingthat most semi-skilled computer programmers could put together, and for any reason. And as evidence that the idea of cryptocurrency has already jumped the shark, Russia’s Burger King’s have sponsored and supported theWhoppercoinfor no clear reason other than just because it can. In other words, while the supply of Bitcoin may be limited, the potential supply of viable alternatives to Bitcoin is literally infinite. Future demand for cryptocurrency can be met in full, essentially turning it into a commodity that’s nowhere near worth the $4,000 one Bitcoin is superficially worth right now. The counterargument is that a nation’s currency is also theoretically unlimited — any government can also print as much money as it wants, sending the effective value of that currency lower. • How Baidu Inc (ADR) Stock Is Catching up to Its Chinese Counterparts The argument holds water, to be fair, but only in a theoretical sense. That is to say, while most governments have the authority to print an unlimited amount of their currency, all of them practice restraint in doing so because such an act would have dire consequences for their economy. There’s no consequence at all for creating a new cryptocurrency, whether or not it fails. Indeed, there’s no actual adverse consequence for the creator and users of Bitcoin should its value implode. It’s that lack of consequence coupled with no barrier to entry that makes these digital currencies so dangerous. The value of Bitcoin will only hold up as long as all of its users are willing to keep it propped up by themselves. It’s not getting any sort of fundamental support, or even monitoring the way a government-issued currency is. Point being, own Bitcoin, Ethereum or any of the others at your own risk. Although was undeniable a great trade recently, it’s effectively akin to the tale of the emperor who found out the hard way he wasn’t wearing any clothes. Once its fans and followers figure out they’re just trading with air, values could turn real ugly, real fast. As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You canfollow him on Twitter. • These Are the Only 5 Funds You’ll Ever Need • 7 F-Rated Stocks to Sell Before They Get Even Uglier • 7 Stocks to Buy That Smart Money Is Gobbling Up The postThe One Big Reason Bitcoin Is a Terrible Investmentappeared first onInvestorPlace. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] XEM-BTCが －5％に下落中。 現在の価格 「0.00005959(-3.00) xem-btc」 「18.7000(+0.05) xem-jpy」 ⇒http://kasoutuka-navi.com/nem/  #XEM #NEM #ネム #仮想通貨なび || Now guess what it's time for bitcoin Traders to go to Sleep Bitcoin Cash can go to he'll for all we care.. Lol http://fb.me/7PFYvE7gF  || 2017-08-03 0:00~1:00のBitcoin市場は反落でした。 変化率は0.0629% 2:00までは反騰? 直近の市場の平均Bitcoinの価格は300146.0円 #ビットコイン #bitcoin #AI || CMC指数:1.69974 CC指数:1617 BTC 517046.34 -1.12% ETH 40281.44 -0.74% BCH 65614.74 -1.9% XRP 26.00 -0.09% LTC 8996.16 -0.72% || bitstamp: $4053.72 btce: $2546.78 kraken: $4081.14 Average: $3560.55 || One Bitcoin now worth $3385.97@bitstamp. High $3490.00. Low $3300.00. Market Cap $55.850 Billion #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/cOfUTvkpla || Bitcoin just passed $4,000 - TechCrunch http://nzzl.us/8eeJyfp  via @nuzzel || Bitcoin Swings For The Fences - Forbes http://ift.tt/2fDGJWG  || BTC Price: 3402.00$, BTC Today High : 3438.93$, BTC All Time High : 4742.42$ ETH Price: 237.24$ #bitcoin #BTC $BTC #ETH $ETHpic.twitter.com/EKb231Ihrv || LoMoCoin-LMC|Strength Index 7.4%|BTC:0.00001521|Cap 13070326.0|1h -0.74%|24h -6.24%|7d 42.52%
Trend: up || Prices: 3630.70, 3792.40, 3682.84, 3926.07, 3892.35, 4200.67, 4174.73, 4163.07, 4338.71, 4403.74
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] First Bitcoin Capital Corp. Signs Evaluation Agreements with Emercoin International Development Group, To Develop and Market Solutions to Provide Distributed Blockchain Services For Business and Personal Use: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January, 28, 2016 /First BITCoin Capital Corp. (BITCF) announced today that it has signed an evaluation agreement with Emercoin International Development Group, a leader in solutions to provide distributed blockchain services for business and personal use. First BITCoin has signed certain evaluation agreements to promote Emercoin technology for wide spectrum of blockchain based technologies: 1. EMC/SSH- Secure shell management system needed by every site admin. 2. EMC/DNS- Uncensored domain name system, peering with OpenNIC. 3. EMC/LNX-- Decentralized pay-per-click advertising network. 4. EMC/SSL- System for password less authentication on the world wide web. 5. Info/Card- Storage for electronic business cards for use with EMCSSL. 6. EMC/TTS- Trusted storage for digital timestamps on the blockchain. 7. MAGNET - Distributed torrent tracker for internet file sharing. 8. EMC/DPO- Digital proof of ownership solution for physical or digital goods and services. First BITCoin is also evaluating investing in Emercoin to support Emercoin's market expansion and acceptance worldwide. Oleg Khovayko, Emercoin Lead Developer, said, "Key difference in Emercoin from other cryptocurrencies is that we are using blockchain not just for transfer credit values. We consider Emercoin as a technological platform for distributed, censorship–proof and scalable services. So we developed a suite of services running on top of the Emercoin blockchain that will be very useful for a lot of companies and even private persons." In addition, our goal is provide stable, robust and easy to integrate services. Hence, our solutions are compatible with industry standards, proven their efficient and security. "We are excited to have the opportunity to evaluate and possibly invest in EMERCOIN , especially due to their recent partnership with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) to deliver their blockchain services to the Azure cloud's Blockchain-as-a-Service marketplace, also known as BaaS Platform," the Company spokesperson said. "We are always looking for disrupting, new and promising technologies, and are ready to invest in those companies to help them to market their technology worldwide." About EMERCOIN Group EmerCoin (EMC) is a decentralized, open-source cryptocurrency created in late 2013 and based on technologies from Bitcoin, Namecoin and Peercoin. It utilizes both Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake mining. Emercoin, a leading digital currency and blockchain platform has just partnered with Microsoft to become a member of the Azure marketplace. With demand growing for innovative, scalable blockchain services that are ready to implement, Emercoin is a natural fit for the Azure cloud platform. They have developed a robust suite of ready-to-use features that offer real world solutions for business and consumer use. Emercoin will be delivering their suite of blockchain services into the Azure cloud later this year. This will give Azure cloud users the ability to install and make use of Emercoin's many services such as digital proof of ownership and identity, passwordless authentication on the internet, network security, the first distributed advertising network and many E-commerce solutions like the Emercoin secure micropayment service. For more information please visitwww.Emercoin.com. About First BITCoin Capital Corp. First Bitcoin Capital Corp. is a development-stage Canadian-based mining company currently holding concessions of Gold in Venezuela and is developing technology for the crypto-currency industry. It is the first vertically-integrated consolidation company of the Bitcoin and crypto-currency marketplace. The Company is developing the following digital assets www.CoinQX.com- online cryptocurrency Exchange. www.BITessentials.com- online shopping mall (in Beta testing) allowing multiple vendors to place their products ans sell for cryptocurrency. Company has partnered with GoCoin , A global leader in Blockchain payments and innovation, GoCoin was the first international platform for enabling merchants to Blockchain currency payments including Bitcoin and popular altcoins Litecoin, Dogecoin and Tether at checkout. www.iCOINews.com - Real time crypto currency news aggregator platform. www.BITminer.cc- Mining and equipment sales for cryptocurrency miners. The Company currently develops other innovative projects. SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This press release includes various "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which represent the Company's expectations or beliefs concerning future events. Statements containing expressions such as "believes," "plans," "anticipates," "intends," or "expects," or similar expressions or statements regarding intent, belief of current expectations used in the Company's press releases and in Disclosure Statements and Reports filed with the Over the Counter Markets through the OTC Disclosure and News Service are intended to identify forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes its expectations are based upon reasonable assumptions within the bounds of its knowledge of its business and operations, there can be no assurances that actual results will not differ materially from expected results. The Company cautions that these and similar statements included in this report are further qualified by important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date thereof. Contacts: info@bitcoincapitalcorp.combitcoincapitalcorp.com SOURCE:First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || Bitcoin's biggest investor bought its leading news outlet: There is one trade publication in the digital currency industry that every mainstream news outlet knows well, and cites regularly in stories about bitcoin:CoinDesk. It is a source of news about bitcoin investments, price spikes or crashes, and executive hires, and it is a regular destination for journalists who write about bitcoin (as well as for bitcoin enthusiasts who don't get paid to write about the currency). Last week, CoinDesk reported some newsabout itself. The website has been bought by Digital Currency Group, the investment firm of Barry Silbert, who in 2004 founded SecondMarket, which allows for the trading of private-company stock. He sold the platform to Nasdaq (NDAQ) last year. This is DCG's first full acquisition; it did not disclose the sale price, but sources tell Yahoo Finance it was around $750,000. DCG has invested in 60 different digital currency companies, and the companies in its portfolio have raised 70% of the venture capital in the industry. You might think that creates an obvious conflict of interest here. Silbert owning CoinDesk is like Red Sox co-owner John Henry buying the Boston Globe (which actually happened), or Peyton Manning buying the Denver Post, or Donald Trump buying Politico. But Ryan Selkis, the DCG executive who will oversee business at CoinDesk for the time being, insists that won't be a problem. Nonetheless, he says the possibility did concern him at first. The subject of changing ownership at a bitcoin news site may seem like granular inside-baseball, but it is significant when viewed in the context of ongoing fears about who owns the media. From NewsCorp to Bloomberg to recent changes at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, it is a topic on the minds of both journalists and their readers. Is bitcoin's primary news site selling to bitcoin's biggest investment firm another piece of bad news for the industry? Selkis, DCG's director of growth, spoke to Yahoo Finance about that question and about DCG's plans for the site. What follows is an edited transcript. Yahoo Finance:Before we get into CoinDesk, what was your take on the fallout from Mike Hearn's post last week? [Hearn, a bitcoin developer,declaredthat bitcoin had "failed" and that he was leaving the industry; it resulted in a media firestorm.] Ryan Selkis:I won’t comment on the theatrics of it. I will say that Mike Hearn was one of the really solid developers, he’s contributed a good chunk of his life and energy into making bitcoin what it is today, so, style aside, there’s not a whole lot people can say to critique his overall contribution to the industry. But this [ongoing debateover the size of blocks, or bundles of transactions, recorded on bitcoin's public ledger] is more of a governance issue than it is a bitcoin issue, in terms of how this will get resolved. I think it will get resolved. But the governance of the overall project needs to be better. What was DCG's approach to buying CoinDesk, what were the considerations? The first priority we had when we considered this acquistion, my main hesitation, was whether we’d be able to preserve CoinDesk’s editorial independence. And it’s why I’m working with the team full-time now on operating activities. We are going to create both informational and physical barriers between the editorial team and Digital Currency Group. From a policy standpoint, I’ve recused myself from all investing activity at DCG. I was its director of investments; I have completely transitioned away from that and now I’m director of growth. How does handling growth for DCG pertain to CoinDesk? In this particular instance it means making sure we have a smooth transition post-acquisition. We’re combining two teams. We’ve kept all the CoinDesk employees and our plan is to continue to employ everyone that came over, hopefully for a long time. But we also have a professional events team we’ve been working with that were already in the midst of planning a large conference in May, and now we’re merging those two teams to plan one event, Consensus 2016. So now everyone, with the exception of myself, is a CoinDesk employee. And functionally, I’m full time with the CoinDesk team. So how are you separating CoinDesk from DCG? We are physically relocating offices to a different part of Manhattan. So the CoinDesk folks are not going to be sitting right next to our Genesis [a broker dealer that is another DCG subsidiary] trading team or our investment team, which has proprietary information on how 60 or so bitcoin companies that we are invested in are performing. What if CoinDesk is now afraid to write bad news about companies DCG is invested in? Or it could go the other way: Will CoinDesk start getting all the scoops on DCG companies? On the latter point, I’m not concerned because even before this, CoinDesk had established itself as a clear industry leader in terms of a trade journal. So they were already getting most of the scoops. When you talk about embargoed news releases, they are going to continue to be on the same lists as the other folks that DCG reaches out to. So that doesn’t really change. To be honest, CoinDesk was typically part of a broad group of outlets that would be contacted whenever there was news about a DCG company, because we never want to restrict press attention to just one outlet for any of its business interests. So that is the much easier question to answer. With respect to editorial conflicts, look, that’s what I’m here for, is to make sure there’s a buffer between both entities. So on the one hand, I’m not influencing CoinDesk editorial, but on the other hand, I’m leading the team on a day-to-day basis, and I’m able to interface with DCG but I’m no longer privy to any inside-baseball related to the portfolio companies. That seems like a contradiction: You won't influence CoinDesk editorial, but you'll lead CoinDesk day to day? So will you be full time at CoinDesk, or at DCG? I’m DCG's director of growth, but I'm focused full time on CoinDesk and this acquisition, and the 10 or so employees we’ve absorbed, and the large-scale conference we’re producing in May. That makes CoinDesk our top priortity in terms of growth initiatives. Is the conference the main reason DCG bought CoinDesk? Why else? We think there’s a lot of organic growth potential for CoinDesk. They’ve had display advertising and various sponsors, but last year they hosted Consensus 2015, it was profitable, it was well-attended, folks were raving about the content of the event. And in mid-2015 they also began publishing paid research reports. As we continue new investments in CoinDesk, paid research and live events are going to be meaningful drivers of growth for the business. We have the resources to invest not only in fantastic new editorial talent, as in full-time reporters, but also strengthen the ranks of freelance contributors. One area we will invest in is looking beyond just bitcoin the currency and the very insular community there, and branching much further out into blockchain applications that enterprise is taking a look at. Now, that doesn’t mean we are on this "blockchain, not bitcoin" bandwagon, because I don’t want to give that impression at all and it’s a very shrill conversation that happens on Twitter and Reddit when you bring it up. But I do think there will be private ledger solutions that work for enterprise where bitcoin isn’t necessarily a good alternative. Yes, big financial institutions and banks, from Nasdaq to JPMorgan, have been on the "blockchain, not bitcoin" trend lately. Do you think that's all talk? I think the interest is definitely real. The bigger question is, over what time frame does this play out? I don’t think that anyone should expect fully functioning products in the next year, two years, handful of years. It will take many years to build some of these core products that are used currently for clearing and settlement. But I think it’s not just a buzzword, I think "blockchain for banks" truly is more relevant in many cases than using the bitcoin blockchain. If you’re a large institution and you’re looking to create an open ledger where you can move securities around safely and transparently to other regulated institutions, you don’t need a native currency like bitcoin or a consensus mechanism that uses anonymous miners. You already know the parties. You could have five banks that are the only signatories to that particular blockchain. So that would be interesting. -- Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology.Read more: Bitcoin industry consolidates: Why Kraken bought Coinsetter Here's a sign that PayPal is embracing Bitcoin Fantex, the 'athlete stock exchange,' signs first golfer || You say advertising, I say block that malware: The real reason online advertising is doomed and adblockers thrive? Its malware epidemic is unacknowledged, and out of control. The Forbes 30 Under 30 list came out this week and it featured a prominent security researcher. Other researchers were pleased to see one of their own getting positive attention, and visited the site in droves to view the list. On arrival, like a growing number of websites, Forbes asked readers to turn off ad blockers in order to view the article. After doing so, visitors were immediately served with pop-under malware, primed to infect their computers, and likely silently steal passwords, personal data and banking information. Or, as is popular worldwide with these malware "exploit kits," lock up their hard drives in exchange for Bitcoin ransom. One researcher commented on Twitter that the situation was "ironic" -- and while it's certainly another variant of hackenfreude , ironic isn't exactly the word I'd use to describe what happened. The @Forbes website held content until I disabled Ad Blocker. I did so and was immediately given pop-under malware. pic.twitter.com/eDVRAA9ZSu — Brian Baskin (@bbaskin) January 4, 2016 That's because this situation spotlights what happened in 2015 to billions -- yep, billions -- of people who were victims of virus-infected ads which were spread via ad networks like germs from a sneeze across the world's most popular websites. Less than a month ago, a bogus banner ad was found serving malvertising to visitors of video site DailyMotion. After discovering it, security company Malwarebytes contacted the online ad platform the bad ad was coming through, Atomx. The company blamed a "rogue" advertiser on the WWPromoter network. It was estimated the adware broadcast through DailyMotion put 128 million people at risk. To be specific, it was from the notorious malware family called "Angler Exploit Kit." Remember this name, because I'm pretty sure we're going to be getting to know it a whole lot better in 2016. Story continues Last August, Angler struck MSN.com with -- you guessed it -- another drive-by malvertising campaign. It was the same campaign that had infected Yahoo visitors back in July (an estimated 6.9 billion visits per month, it's considered the biggest malvertising attack so far). October saw Angler targeting Daily Mail visitors through poisoned ads as well (monthly ad impressions 64.4 million ). Only last month, Angler's malicious ads hit visitors to Reader's Digest (210K readers; ad impressions 1.7M ). That attack sat unattended after being in the press, and was fixed only after a week of public outcry. It's crazy to consider what a perfect marriage this is, between the advertisers and the criminals pushing the exploit kits. They have a lot in common. pop-up ads coming out of laptop screen with a spring Both try to trick us into giving them something we don't want to. We've recently learned that both entities surveil and track us beyond what we're OK with. And both are hard to get rid of. You know, like those gross toenail and skin condition ad-banners found at the bottom of every cheapo blog you've ever seen, forever burned into the "can't unsee" section of your brain. It actually makes business sense to think about malware attacks like an advertiser. You want to deliver your infection to, and scrape those dollars from, every little reader out there. You need a targeted delivery system, with the widest distribution, and as many clueless middlemen as possible. It's easy to want to blame Reader's Digest, or Yahoo, or Forbes, or Daily Mail, or any of these sites for screwing viewers by serving them malicious ads and not telling them, or not helping them with the cleanup afterward. And it's a hell of a lot easier when they've compelled us to turn off our ad blockers to simply see what brought us to their site. But the problem is coming through them, from the ad networks themselves. The same ones, it should be mentioned, who control the Faustian bargains made by bartering and selling our information. What should the websites do? The ad networks clearly don't have a handle on this at all, giving us one more reason to use ad blockers. They're practically the most popular malware delivery systems on Earth, and they're making the websites they do business with into the same poisonous monster. I don't even want to think about what it all means for the security practices of the ad companies handling our tracking data or the sites we visit hosting these pathogens. So, to my friend on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list -- a malware researcher, which I'll concede is actually ironic -- I'm sorry I won't be seeing your time in that particular spotlight. What we need is a word for the fact that ad blockers have become our first line of defense against a malware epidemic. Especially during a time when the sites we visit are begging, pleading, demanding and practically tricking us into turning off Ad Block Plus. [Image credit: Getty Images] || Is Oil Driving The Stock Market? And Should Traders Care?: Recent headlines imply that the slump in the oil market caused the January drop in global stocks. They also point to oil rallies as the reason for stock rallies. But is the relationship causation or just correlation? Should we say one happened “and” or “because” the other one did? Early in the Wednesday US trading session, crude oil futures dropped by nearly a dollar a barrel and the S&P 500 quickly moved in lockstep, dropping over 40 points in the same hour. The larger downward trend of Monday and Tuesday in oil was also mirrored in the stock market. Crude oil’s drop was a full 11%, the largest percentage drop since March 2009. However, the drop in stocks over those two days was not nearly as dramatic. On Wednesday, the markets diverged in the morning. Crude had a brief selloff when the weekly EIA Petroleum Status Report came out, but then it bounced and an hour later WTI crude oil futures (Nadex: Crude Oil) had pushed above $31 a barrel and come within 20 cents of $32. Stocks only came along for half of that ride. The S&P 500 (Nadex: US500) dropped 40 points, but only regained half of that loss. While oil was rising to two-day highs, stocks hovered near Tuesday’s lows. Clearly the exuberance among crude oil traders had not inspired similar optimism among stock index futures traders or investors as a whole. Later in the day stocks did rally, but at the day’s close, crude oil was up over 8% and equity indexes were unchanged. Clearly stock traders were not taking their cues from the bullishness of oil traders. In fact, it’s hard to say what crude oil traders were using to guide their decisions on Wednesday. Why were oil traders so bullish following a fairly downbeat EIA report? You’d have to do some mental gymnastics to come up with a direct reason. The record supply glut set a new record, with global oil inventories rising to over half a billion barrels and driving up gasoline inventories as well. Foreign output remains high, with Iran now adding more of its stockpiles and production to the world market. And with large inventories and weak demand, refineries are cutting back production. Story continues The weak demand comes despite the low prices. Demand for gasoline is off 0.9% year on year, despite gas prices being down 25% from this time in 2015. Demand for heating oil and distillates is down a full 16%, thanks to a warm winter and weak industrial demand. That perception of industrial weakness got further proof with Monday’s weak ISM Manufacturing Index report, the fourth weak report in a row and the worst streak of manufacturing numbers since 2009. And despite that substantial negative report, the bulls had the day in crude oil. And even though stocks ended flat, some analysts will say that crude oil’s rally had a delayed effect on stocks and caused the afternoon rally. When crude oil’s price action doesn’t even seem to have a logical connection to the latest supply and demand report, is it reasonable to think that stock traders are tying their decisions to such an emotional and unpredictable market? Stock traders aren’t showing much consistency in their reactions to the news, themselves. The recent earnings reports were overall positive among S&P 500 companies, indicating that US businesses continue to be profitable. Yet some are pointing to earnings per share as a problem sign. A report from Goldman Sachs even said that profit margins are too high and if they don’t go down and revert to the mean, they believe it raises questions about “the efficacy of capitalism” itself. It is a time when short-term traders who simply watch price movement tend to have an advantage. On Nadex, binary option and spread traders can trade the ups and downs without speculating on the whys and wherefores. Sometimes that is best left to the analysts. For traders, explaining the move isn’t nearly as important as trading it. This information has been prepared by Nadex, a trading name of North American Derivatives Exchange, Inc., prepared by independent third parties contracted by Nadex or reproduced form third party news agencies. In addition to the disclaimer below, the material on this page does not contain an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instrument. Nadex accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of these comments and for any consequences that result. No representation or warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. Consequently any person acting on it does so entirely at their own risk. Any research provided does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation and needs of any specific person who may receive it. It has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such is considered to be a marketing communication. See more from Benzinga New Ways To Trade China, Crude Oil And The Fed Bitcoin Is Thriving As Stock Markets Dive The Simple Reason This Market Drop Makes Sense © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Lead developer quits bitcoin saying it "has failed": By Jemima Kelly LONDON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Bitcoin slid by 10 percent on Friday after one of its lead developers, Mike Hearn, said in a blogpost that he was ending his involvement with the cryptocurrency and selling all of his remaining holdings because it had "failed". Hearn, one of five senior developers who has spent more than five years working on the web-based currency, said he would no longer be taking part in development. "Despite knowing that bitcoin could fail all along, the now inescapable conclusion that it has failed still saddens me greatly," Hearn said in his post on blog-publishing platform Medium. Along with Gavin Andresen, who was chosen by bitcoin's elusive creator Satoshi Nakamoto as his successor when he stepped aside in 2011, Hearn has been locked for months in a battle with the other lead developers over whether the "blocks" in which bitcoin transactions are processed should be enlarged. Each block currently has a capacity of one megabyte, which Hearn says is "an entirely artificial capacity cap", and allows a maximum of just three payments to be processed per second. In August, Hearn and Andresen released a rival version of the current software, called Bitcoin XT, which would increase the block size to 8 megabytes, allowing up to 24 transactions to be processed every second. While that is still a fraction of the 20,000 or so that Visa can process, it would increase every year, so that bitcoin could continue to grow. But the new software has not been adopted by the "mining" computers that secure the network, the majority of which are in China, according to Hearn. Hearn says the bitcoin network is about to run out of capacity as the volume of transactions increases. And when that happens, the network will become unreliable, with payments unable to be processed and vulnerable to fraud. "If an IT system runs out of capacity like that then all kinds of things go wrong - all hell breaks loose," he said in an interview with Reuters in late December. Hearn reckons the bitcoin community has "failed" in its governance of the crytocurrency's code. "What was meant to be a new, decentralised form of money that lacked 'systemically important institutions' and 'too big to fail' has become something even worse: a system completely controlled by just a handful of people," he wrote. SUDDEN DEPARTURE Just months ago, in August, Hearn told Reuters that whether or not Bitcoin XT was adopted, the crypocurrency would live on. "If we thought it might be the end of bitcoin, we wouldn't do it," he said then. Bitcoin was trading at around $390 on the itBit exchange by 2000 GMT, down from $430 before Hearn's blog post was published. In his December interview, Hearn said that when people realised that the bitcoin network was at breaking point, the price would fall. "The current price of bitcoin is supported almost entirely by people speculating on its future, in the assumption that this could be the money of tomorrow," he said. "So if the network starts to collapse, then a lot of people are going to look at it and say: well maybe we've miscalculated (its) future value." Hearn is now working for the R3CEV consortium of banks working on using the blockchain technology that underpins bitcoin in financial markets. Stephan Tual, the former chief operating officer of blockchain firm Ethereum, who now works at blockchain-based app developer Slock.it, also reckons bitcoin's future looks shaky. "Bitcoin is outdated technology - almost prehistoric by crypto standards," he said. "It's because of petty quarrels such as these that it hasn't been able to evolve in five years." Others were more upbeat. "I'm not ready to declare that Bitcoin has failed," wrote U.S. venture capitalist Fred Wilson. "Sometimes it takes a crisis to get everyone in a room... So if we are going to have a crisis, let's get on with it. No better time than the present." (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Ruth Pitchford) || First Bitcoin Capital Corp. Signs Evaluation Agreements with Emercoin International Development Group, To Develop and Market Solutions to Provide Distributed Blockchain Services For Business and Personal Use: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January, 28, 2016 /First BITCoin Capital Corp. (BITCF) announced today that it has signed an evaluation agreement with Emercoin International Development Group, a leader in solutions to provide distributed blockchain services for business and personal use. First BITCoin has signed certain evaluation agreements to promote Emercoin technology for wide spectrum of blockchain based technologies: 1. EMC/SSH- Secure shell management system needed by every site admin. 2. EMC/DNS- Uncensored domain name system, peering with OpenNIC. 3. EMC/LNX-- Decentralized pay-per-click advertising network. 4. EMC/SSL- System for password less authentication on the world wide web. 5. Info/Card- Storage for electronic business cards for use with EMCSSL. 6. EMC/TTS- Trusted storage for digital timestamps on the blockchain. 7. MAGNET - Distributed torrent tracker for internet file sharing. 8. EMC/DPO- Digital proof of ownership solution for physical or digital goods and services. First BITCoin is also evaluating investing in Emercoin to support Emercoin's market expansion and acceptance worldwide. Oleg Khovayko, Emercoin Lead Developer, said, "Key difference in Emercoin from other cryptocurrencies is that we are using blockchain not just for transfer credit values. We consider Emercoin as a technological platform for distributed, censorship–proof and scalable services. So we developed a suite of services running on top of the Emercoin blockchain that will be very useful for a lot of companies and even private persons." In addition, our goal is provide stable, robust and easy to integrate services. Hence, our solutions are compatible with industry standards, proven their efficient and security. "We are excited to have the opportunity to evaluate and possibly invest in EMERCOIN , especially due to their recent partnership with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) to deliver their blockchain services to the Azure cloud's Blockchain-as-a-Service marketplace, also known as BaaS Platform," the Company spokesperson said. "We are always looking for disrupting, new and promising technologies, and are ready to invest in those companies to help them to market their technology worldwide." About EMERCOIN Group EmerCoin (EMC) is a decentralized, open-source cryptocurrency created in late 2013 and based on technologies from Bitcoin, Namecoin and Peercoin. It utilizes both Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake mining. Emercoin, a leading digital currency and blockchain platform has just partnered with Microsoft to become a member of the Azure marketplace. With demand growing for innovative, scalable blockchain services that are ready to implement, Emercoin is a natural fit for the Azure cloud platform. They have developed a robust suite of ready-to-use features that offer real world solutions for business and consumer use. Emercoin will be delivering their suite of blockchain services into the Azure cloud later this year. This will give Azure cloud users the ability to install and make use of Emercoin's many services such as digital proof of ownership and identity, passwordless authentication on the internet, network security, the first distributed advertising network and many E-commerce solutions like the Emercoin secure micropayment service. For more information please visitwww.Emercoin.com. About First BITCoin Capital Corp. First Bitcoin Capital Corp. is a development-stage Canadian-based mining company currently holding concessions of Gold in Venezuela and is developing technology for the crypto-currency industry. It is the first vertically-integrated consolidation company of the Bitcoin and crypto-currency marketplace. The Company is developing the following digital assets www.CoinQX.com- online cryptocurrency Exchange. www.BITessentials.com- online shopping mall (in Beta testing) allowing multiple vendors to place their products ans sell for cryptocurrency. Company has partnered with GoCoin , A global leader in Blockchain payments and innovation, GoCoin was the first international platform for enabling merchants to Blockchain currency payments including Bitcoin and popular altcoins Litecoin, Dogecoin and Tether at checkout. www.iCOINews.com - Real time crypto currency news aggregator platform. www.BITminer.cc- Mining and equipment sales for cryptocurrency miners. The Company currently develops other innovative projects. SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This press release includes various "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which represent the Company's expectations or beliefs concerning future events. Statements containing expressions such as "believes," "plans," "anticipates," "intends," or "expects," or similar expressions or statements regarding intent, belief of current expectations used in the Company's press releases and in Disclosure Statements and Reports filed with the Over the Counter Markets through the OTC Disclosure and News Service are intended to identify forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes its expectations are based upon reasonable assumptions within the bounds of its knowledge of its business and operations, there can be no assurances that actual results will not differ materially from expected results. The Company cautions that these and similar statements included in this report are further qualified by important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date thereof. Contacts: info@bitcoincapitalcorp.combitcoincapitalcorp.com SOURCE:First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || REUTERS AMERICA NEWS PLAN FOR TUESDAY FEB 2: REUTERS AMERICA MIDDAY NEWS PLAN FOR TUESDAY FEB 2 LATEST AND PLANNED U.S. NEWS COVERAGE (ALL TIMES ET) Top stories as of 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday. To find stories, search by Slug or Headline Keyword in your CMS or Advanced Search in Media Express. For story queries, please contact us.general-news@thomsonreuters.com For photo queries use USCanada-Pictures-Editors@thomsonreuters.com TOP STORIES Cruz calls Iowa win a victory for 'conservative grass roots' DES MOINES - Relishing his victory in the first Republican nominating contest of the U.S. presidential election, Senator Ted Cruz called his defeat of Donald Trump in the Iowa caucuses a tribute to "conservative grass roots." (USA-ELECTION/ (WRAPUP 5, PIX, TV, GRAPHIC), moved at 10:33 a.m., by Ginger Gibson, 636 words). See also: USA-ELECTION/TRUMP (PIX, TV), moved at 7 a.m., by Steve Holland, 765 words and USA-ELECTION/RUBIO (PIX), moved at 7 a.m., by James Oliphant, 586 words) Virtual tie raises doubts: Can Hillary Clinton close the deal? DES MOINES, Iowa - Hillary Clinton's struggle in Iowa to fend off underdog Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, reignited questions about her ability to close the deal with Democratic voters and turned up the pressure on her high-profile White House campaign. USA-ELECTION/DEMOCRATS (PIX, TV), moved at 7 a.m., by John Whitesides, 718 words. FBI joins Flint, Michigan water contamination probe WASHINGTON - The FBI is joining a U.S. criminal investigation into Flint, Michigan's water contamination crisis, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit said on Tuesday. (MICHIGAN-WATER/ (UPDATE 2), moved, 599 words) Punxsutawney Phil predicts early spring PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. - Punxsutawney Phil, the Pennsylvania groundhog renowned for his ability to forecast the onset of spring, did not see his shadow after emerging from his burrow on Tuesday morning, predicting an early spring. (USA-GROUNDHOG/ (UPDATE 1, PIX, TV), moved at 7:54 a.m., 497 words) Story continues Africa, Asia vulnerable to spread of Zika virus -WHO GENEVA - The Zika virus linked to a microcephaly outbreak in Latin America could spread to Africa and Asia, with the world's highest birth rates, the World Health Organization warns as it launches a global response unit against the new emergency. (HEALTH-ZIKA/ (UPDATE 1, TV, PICTURE), moved, by Stephanie Nebehay, 305 words). See also: HEALTH-ZIKA/OLYMPICS, moved, 100 words and HEALTH-ZIKA/AUSTRALIA, moved, by Jane Wardell, 380 words Nine migrants, including two babies drowned off Turkish coast- coastguard ISTANBUL - Nine people, including two babies, are found drowned off the coast of western Turkey after a boat carrying people to Greece partly capsizes, the coast guard says. (EUROPE-MIGRANTS/TURKEY (UPDATE 1), moved, 181 words) PM resigns as Haiti scrambles for interim government before deadline PORT-AU-PRINCE - Haiti's prime minister has resigned, government sources said, in an attempt to clear the way for a temporary government to replace outgoing President Michel Martelly after a botched election and violent street protests last month. (HAITI-ELECTION/ (UPDATE 2, TV, PIX), moving shortly, 391 words) Bill Cosby fighting sex assault charge in Pennsylvania court NORRISTOWN, Pa. - Bill Cosby appeared at a suburban Philadelphia courthouse on Tuesday to fight sexual assault charges, which his lawyers say violate a decade-old agreement with a former district attorney not to prosecute the disgraced comedian. (PEOPLE-COSBY/ (UPDATE 3, PIX, TV), moved, 485 words) CAMPAIGN Bernie Sanders shows strong momentum on social media NEW YORK - It may be too close to call between Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in the Iowa caucuses on Monday but the senator from Vermont was the clear winner on social media. (USA-ELECTION/SOCIALMEDIA (UPDATE 3, PIX), moved, 370 words) Cruz's Iowa victory could be big blow to Big Corn NEW YORK - Ted Cruz's victory on Monday in corn-rich Iowa could represent a major blow to the nation's controversial biofuels program, reflecting its waning influence over politicians even in the U.S. farming heartland. (USA-ELECTION/ETHANOL (UPDATE 1, PIX), moved, 670 words) WASHINGTON Pentagon's 2017 budget reshapes spending amid changing security environment WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Tuesday the Pentagon would seek a $582.7 billion defense budget next year and reshape its spending priorities to reflect a new strategic environment marked by Russian assertiveness and the rise of Islamic State. (USA-DEFENSE/BUDGET (UPDATE 1, PIX, TV), moving shortly, 404 words) U.S. military leaders: women should have to register for draft WASHINGTON - U.S. armed forces leaders said on Tuesday that women should be required to register for the military draft, along with men, as the military moves toward integrating them fully into combat positions. (USA-MILITARY/WOMEN (UPDATE 1, PIX), moved, 390 words) IS pushed back in Iraq, Syria, but a threat in Libya -Kerry ROME - An international coalition is pushing back Islamic State militants in their Syrian and Iraqi strongholds but the group is threatening Libya and could seize the nation's oil wealth, U.S Secretary of State John Kerry says. (MIDEAST-CRISIS/COALITION (UPDATE 1, PICTURE, TV), moved, by Arshad Mohammed, 590 words). See also: MIDEAST-CRISIS/IRAQ-IS (INSIGHT, PICTURE), moved, by Samia Nakhoul, 1,515 words New European, U.S. data transfer pact imminent - sources BRUSSELS - European and U.S. negotiators are on the brink of clinching a new transatlantic data transfer pact which should prevent EU regulators from restricting data transfers by firms, two people familiar with the talks say. (EU-DATAPROTECTION/USA (EXCLUSIVE, UPDATE 2), moved, by Julia Fioretti, 525 words) China defends law enforcers as U.S. calls for clarity on booksellers BEIJING/WASHINGTON - China's Foreign Ministry says its law enforcement officials will never do anything illegal, especially not overseas, after the United States calls on China to clarify the status of five missing Hong Kong booksellers. (HONGKONG-BOOKSELLERS/USA (UPDATE 1, TV), moved at 5 a.m., 430 words) OTHER U.S. NEWS Leader of Oregon occupation to appear in court PORTLAND, Ore. - Ammon Bundy, who led a group of armed protesters in the occupation of a wildlife refuge in remote Oregon, will appear in federal court in Portland where his attorneys will argue that he should be released on bail ahead of his trial. (OREGON-MILITIA/COURT, expect by 3 p.m. 400 words) White Michigan ex-cop to be sentenced in beating of black motorist DETROIT - A white former suburban Detroit police officer is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday for the beating last year of a black motorist during a traffic stop caught on video. (MICHIGAN-POLICE/SENTENCE, moved at 9:28 a.m., 221 words, will be led) Controversial Detroit school manager to step down this month DETROIT - Detroit Public Schools' emergency manager Darnell Earley is stepping down later this month, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said on Tuesday. (DETROIT-EDUCATION/ (UPDATE 1), moving shortly, about 400 words) Ferguson, Mo., to hear from public on proposed justice reforms FERGUSON - Residents of Ferguson, Missouri, which has a proposed agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to reform its police department after the 2014 shooting by a white officer of a black teenager, will voice their opinions on the deal at a meeting on Tuesday night. (MISSOURI-FERGUSON/, moved at 1019 am ET, 270 words) Georgia to execute its oldest death row inmate for 1979 murder ATLANTA - A 72-year-old man convicted of murdering a convenience store manager in a 1979 robbery in Atlanta's suburbs is set to be executed on Tuesday in Georgia. (USA-EXECUTION/GEORGIA (PIX), moved at 7 a.m., 281 words) Three teenagers arrested in fatal shooting at Seattle homeless camp -- Three teenagers were arrested on Monday in connection with a shooting at a Seattle homeless encampment where two people were killed and three wounded, police said. (SEATTLE-SHOOTING/, moved, 181 words) Teacher arrested in Southern California jail escape freed LOS ANGELES - A teacher arrested in connection with the escape of three inmates from a Southern California jail was freed from custody on Monday after prosecutors said they did not have enough evidence to charge her with a crime. (CALIFORNIA-ESCAPE/ (UPDATE 1), moved at 11:45 p.m., 383 words) SUPER BOWL Super models, super heroes add up to Super strange Media Day SAN JOSE - Media Day was transformed into Opening Night for Super Bowl 50 but the switch to prime time did nothing to change the zany tone as super models and super heroes mingled with giants of sports journalism. (NFL-SUPERBOWL/MEDIA (PIX), moved at 2:15 a.m., 397 words) Newton shows serious side at media night SAN JOSE - Cam Newton became known for his on field celebrations during the Carolina Panthers march to Super Bowl 50, but the quarterback says preparation is what brings him real joy. (NFL-SUPERBOWL/NEWTON (PIX), moved at 2:20 a.m., 368 words) Broncos' Manning says no decision yet on retirement SAN JOSE - Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning said on Monday he has not yet decided whether he will retire following Super Bowl 50 and that he is strictly focused on winning his second NFL championship. (NFL-SUPERBOWL/MANNING (PIX), moved, 360 words) MIDDLE EAST Syrian army threatens to encircle Aleppo as talks falter BEIRUT/AMMAN/GENEVA - A Syrian military offensive backed by heavy Russian air strikes threatened to cut critical rebel supply lines into the northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday while the warring sides said peace talks had not started despite a U.N. statement they had. (MIDEAST-CRISIS/SYRIA (WRAPUP 3, TV, PICTURE), moved, by Tom Perry, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and John Irish, 1,059 words) Iraqis running out of food and medicine in besieged Falluja BAGHDAD - Tens of thousands of trapped Iraqi civilians are running out of food and medicine in the western city of Falluja, an Islamic State stronghold under siege by security forces. (MIDEAST-CRISIS/IRAQ-FALLUJA (UPDATE 2), expect by 1530 GMT/10,30 AM ET, by Stephen Kalin, 900 words) Jordan needs international help over refugee crisis-King Abdullah LONDON - King Abdullah says Jordan needs long-term aid from the international community to cope with a huge influx of Syrian refugees, warning that unless it received support the "dam is going to burst". (MIDEAST-CRISIS/JORDAN, moved, 320 words) WORLD Proposal unveiled to keep Britain in EU, sceptics unmoved LONDON/BRUSSELS - European Council President Donald Tusk presents proposals for keeping Britain in the European Union to a mixed response, underlining the challenges Prime Minister David Cameron faces to win over his people and other EU leaders. (BRITAIN-EU/ (UPDATE 4, PICTURE), expect by 1530 GMT/10.30 AM ET, by Elizabeth Piper and Jan Strupczewski, 900 words) Socialists ready to lead talks to form government in Spain MADRID - The leader of Spain's Socialists offers to lead talks between parties to form a government in a bid to break political deadlock and avoid a new national election in the next few months. (SPAIN-POLITICS/ (UPDATE 2, PICTURE, TV), expect by 1900 GMT/2 PM ET, by Julien Toyer and Blanca Rodriguez, 500 words) Cuba open for business, ministers tell French executives PARIS - Cuba seeks to drum up foreign investment as ministers on a state visit to Paris promise French business leaders that the Communist-run country is open for business. (CUBA-FRANCE/, moved, 280 words) China's nuclear envoy in North Korea amid sanctions push SEOUL - China's envoy for the North Korean nuclear issue arrives in the capital, Pyongyang, the North's KCNA news agency reports, amid a push by the United States and South Korea for tougher sanctions on the North after its fourth nuclear test. (NORTHKOREA-NUCLEAR/CHINA, moved, 370 words) EU to step up checks on Bitcoin, prepaid cards to fight terrorism BRUSSELS - The European Commission will propose by the end of June stricter rules on prepaid cards and virtual currencies in a bid to reduce anonymous payments and curb the financing of terrorism, documents released show. (EU-TERRORISM/FINANCING (PICTURE), moved, by Francesco Guarascio, 464 words) North Norea notifies IMO of planned satellite launch SEOUL - North Korea has notified the International Maritime Organization of plans to launch a satellite between Feb. 8 and Feb. 25, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported late on Tuesday. (NORTHKOREA-SATELLITE/ (UPDATE 1), moving shortly, 150 words) Australia PM weighs early poll to break political deadlock SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull raises the possibility of dissolving both houses of Parliament and calling an early election to break a political deadlock that has stymied the government, say government officials aware of the matter. (AUSTRALIA-POLITICS/ELECTION, moved, 430 words) India's Supreme Court will review law criminalising gay sex NEW DELHI - India's top court says it will review a decision over whether to uphold a colonial-era law that criminalises gay sex in a victory for homosexual rights campaigners at a time when the nation is navigating a path between tradition and modernity. (INDIA-COURT/ (UPDATE 2, PICTURE, TV), moved, by Aditya Kalra and Andrew MacAskill, 410 words) HEALTH AND SCIENCE Long shifts for young surgeons don't threaten patient safety -- Controversial rules that limit the hours young surgeons can work while in training aren't needed to protect patient safety, a nationwide experiment finds. (HEALTH-SURGERY/RESIDENT-HOURS, moved, 753 words) ENTERTAINMENT AND LIFESTYLE Britain's James Corden to host 2016 Tony Awards NEW YORK - British actor James Corden will host the Tony Awards for theater for the first time at a ceremony in New York in June, organizers announced on Tuesday. (AWARDS-TONYS, moved, 186 words) Baggy but futuristic looks kick off NY men's fashion week NEW YORK - Following a successful debut in July, New York hosts its second menswear fashion week, with dozens of established fashion names as well as new designers showcasing their autumn/winter offerings - from slick suits to more casual wear. (FASHION-NEWYORK/MEN (TV), expect by noon, 238 words) CONSUMER TECH Spin-off or sale? Yahoo turnaround plan in focus as earnings awaited SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc's plans to turn around its struggling core business are set to dominate its earnings report after the bell on Tuesday, with investors keen to see if CEO Marissa Mayer will push ahead with a proposed spin-off or entertain calls for a complete sale. (YAHOO-RESULTS/PREVIEW, moved at 7 a.m., 355 words) Lower costs nudge Nintendo's profit higher TOKYO - Japan's Nintendo reported a 5.3 percent increase in third-quarter operating profit, in line with analysts forecasts, as lower costs helped offset a decline in overall sales. (NINTENDO-RESULTS/, moved at 2:30 a.m., 134 words) BUSINESS TRENDS Fearing lean times, U.S. companies tighten purse strings NEW YORK - The capital spending slump that originated in the hard-hit energy sector appears to be spreading more widely across other U.S. industries. (USA-RESULTS/CAPEX (ANALYSIS), moved, 600 words) A new global oil deal could draw lessons from 1998 LONDON - After a year of secret diplomacy and hushed-up private talks around the world, OPEC's mighty Saudi Arabia and rival Venezuela were persuaded to cut a deal by non-OPEC Mexico which overcame mutual acrimony and led to a much-needed rise in oil prices. (OPEC-RUSSIA/DEAL (ANALYSIS, PIX), moved, 1,345 words) See also: GLOBAL-OIL/ (UPDATE 6), moved, 365 words BUSINESS AND MARKETS ChemChina close to striking deal for Syngenta -sources China's state-owned ChemChina is nearing a deal to buy Swiss seeds and pesticides group Syngenta for $42.2 billion, two people familiar with the matter say, two people familiar with the matter say. (SYNGENTA AG-M&A/CHEMCHINA (UPDATE 3), moved, Arno Schuetze and Pamela Barbaglia, 350 words) Exxon's profit tumbles 58 percent, slashes capex by one-quarter Exxon Mobil Corp reports its smallest quarterly profit in more than a decade and says it will cut 2015 spending by one-quarter and suspend share repurchases as it copes with a prolonged downturn in crude prices. (EXXON MOBIL-RESULTS/ (UPDATE 2), moved, by Anna Driver, 340 words) GM January U.S. sales up slightly, Ford's down DETROIT - U.S. auto sales appeared to fare better than expected in January, early returns show, as the industry benefited from low gasoline prices, easy credit and moderate economic growth. (USA-AUTOS/ (UPDATE 2), moved, Bernie Woodall, 410 words) Dow Chemical CEO Liveris to step down by mid-2017 Dow Chemical Co Chief Executive Andrew Liveris said he will retire from the company by mid-2017, months after activist investor Daniel Loeb called upon him to step down from the company, which is merging with rival DuPont. (DOW-RESULTS/ (UPDATE 4), moving shortly, by Amrutha Gayathri and Swetha Gopinath, 400 words) Stocks snap winning streak as oil pressure returns LONDON - World stocks end three days of gains as lackluster global economic data lead to another slump in oil prices. (GLOBAL-MARKETS/ (WRAPUP 5), updated throughout the day, 600 words). See also: USA-STOCKS/ (UPDATE 3), updated throughout the day, 460 words) Oil slides more than 5 percent as hopes for output cut fade LONDON - Brent oil falls more than 5 percent, while U.S. crude slides below $30 per barrel, on worries about future demand and rising supply, while hopes for a deal between OPEC and Russia on output cuts fade. (GLOBAL-OIL/ (UPDATE 9), updated throughout the day, 460 words) Low metals prices sink zinc producer Horsehead Holding Corp WILMINGTON, Del. - U.S. zinc miner Horsehead Holding Corp files for bankruptcy protection, becoming the latest victim of a commodity price crash that has claimed scores of U.S. energy exploration companies, miners and metals producers. (HORSEHEAD HLDG-BANKRUPTCY/, moved, by Tom Hals, 320 words) Argentina says reaches provisional debt deal with Italian creditors BUENOS AIRES - Argentina has reached a preliminary deal with a group of Italian creditors who hold 30 percent of unpaid sovereign debt stemming from Argentina's record $100 billion default in 2002, Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay says. (ARGENTINA-DEBT/ (UPDATE 1), moving shortly, 300 words) Brazil industrial output plunges 8 percent in 2015 BRASILIA - Industrial output in Brazil fell for a seventh straight month in December, capping the worst year for manufacturers in more than a decade as they struggle with inflation, high interest rates and political uncertainty. (BRAZIL ECONOMY/INDUSTRY (UPDATE 1), moved, by Silvio Cascione, 300 words) German jobless rate falls to lowest on record BERLIN - German unemployment fell more sharply than expected in January and the jobless rate dropped to a record low, suggesting private consumption will help offset a slowdown in emerging markets to keep growth in Europe's largest economy steady. (GERMANY-ECONOMY/UNEMPLOYMENT (UPDATE 1), moved, 290 words) Alphabet overtakes Apple in market value - for now Alphabet Inc might win the market cap battle against Apple Inc, but will it win the war? Maybe not. (APPLE-ALPHABET/RESEARCH (UPDATE 1), moved, by Sayantani Ghosh and Supantha Mukherjee, 510 words) Pfizer 2016 forecasts disappoint; shares fall U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc forecasts 2016 revenue and earnings below analysts' estimates, largely because of the strong dollar. (PFIZER-RESULTS/ (UPDATE 3), moved, 350 words) UPS fourth-quarter profit surges, gives robust outlook CHICAGO - United Parcel Service Inc reports a significantly higher quarterly net profit on a solid holiday season performance and gives a solid earnings outlook for 2016 despite warning of uncertain economic conditions. (UPS-RESULTS/ (UPDATE 1), moved, 330 words) ***************** For story queries, please contact us.general- news@thomsonreuters.com For photo queries use USCanada-Pictures-Editors@thomsonreuters.com) ***************** || Cable & Wireless Communications and Huawei Have Successfully Tested the First Trial of the Fastest Copper Based Broadband Service With G.fast Across Latin America: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Jan 6, 2016) -Cable & Wireless CommunicationsPlc's (CWC) business unit in Panama,Cable & Wireless PanamaSA (CWP) andHuawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today announced the first successful trial of the fastest copper based broadband service across Latin America using leading G.fast technology. As a market leader in mobile and broadband services in Panama, CWP is also the largest telecom service provider in the country with a market leading brand, superior network coverage and excellent customer service. CWP partnered with Huawei to deploy CWC's first trial of the G.fast technology on its existing copper infrastructure. "We are excited to be partnering with Cable & Wireless Communications and together pioneering the first trial of the fastest copper fixed line broadband service with G.fast across Latin America," said Mr. Stephen Ma, CEO of Huawei for the Caribbean. "G.fast is the right way to extend the existing fixed line infrastructure to the gigabit access era by accelerating a future oriented ultra-broadband solution with unparalleled user experiences," he added. The G.fast technology trial ran for two months in Panama deploying Huawei's latest multi-service access node equipment. CWP's trial successfully achieved high speeds averaging 500 Mbps to download and 150 Mbps to upload, over its existing copper fixed lines. "We are thrilled to announce that Cable & Wireless Panama was the first market across Latin America to have successfully completed testing of the G.fast technology, which can deliver high speeds, to its customers through the fastest copper based fixed line broadband technology across the region reaching speeds of 500 Mbps," said Carlo Alloni, EVP Technology and Group CTIO, Cable & Wireless Communications. "Our strategic partnership with Huawei has strengthened our commitment to consider solutions that deliver high-speeds," added Alloni. G.fast technology is based on the Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) method with an improved algorithm that cancels the noise in the lines, reducing the effects of crosstalk and allowing transmission of higher rates of bits with a better quality, increasing the speeds of the information transmitted. Huawei's G.fast solution can complement the other technologies selected for its HFC (Hybrid fiber-coaxial) and Fibre delivery platforms. CWP's G.fast technology is providing a fivefold increase in speeds compared to any existing internet copper residential service in Panama and empowering the fastest copper fixed line broadband service across Latin America. About HuaweiHuawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider. Driven by customer-centric innovation and open partnerships, Huawei has established an end-to-end ICT solutions portfolio that gives customers competitive advantages in telecom and enterprise networks, devices and cloud computing. Its innovative ICT solutions, products and services are used in more than 170 countries and regions, serving over one-third of the world's population. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company fully owned by its employees. About G.fastG.fast is a digital subscriber line (DSL) standard for local loops, with performance targets between 150 Mbps and 1 Gbps, depending on loop length. Since the launch of the world's first G.FAST prototype by Huawei in December 2011, G.FAST technology has become highly anticipated by the ICT industry and has maintained strong development momentum. About C&W CommunicationsCable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full service communications and entertainment provider, operating in the Caribbean and Latin America. With annual sales of over $2.4bn, it operates both mobile and fixed networks, supported by submarine and terrestrial optical fibre backhaul capacity. Through the acquisition of Columbus International Inc. on 31 March 2015, CWC now delivers superior high-speed mobile data, broadband and video services. It has leading market positions in Mobile, Fixed Line, Broadband and Video consumer offers. Through its business division, CWC provides data centre hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customised IT service solutions, utilising cloud technology to serve business and government customers. The company also operates a state-of-the-art subsea fibre optic cable network that spans more than 42,000 km -- the most extensive in the region -- as well as 38,000 km of terrestrial fibre providing wholesale and carrier backhaul capacity. CWC has more than 7,200 employees serving over 6.3 million customers (Mobile 4.1m; Fixed Line 1.1m; Video 465k and Broadband 680k) as well as over 125k corporate clients across 42 countries. The Company's leading brands include; LIME and Flow in the Caribbean; BTC in The Bahamas; Mas Movil in Panama; C&W Business and C&W Networks. CWC is the market leader in most products offered and territories served. It is a major contributor to local communities through its corporate social responsibility programmes. Cable & Wireless Communications' shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CWC. The company is headquartered in London with its operational hub located in Miami, within close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America. For more information visit:www.cwc.com. About CWPCable & Wireless Panama (CWP) is the market leader in mobile, broadband and fixed line services in Panama. The Company's mobile business operates under the brand name +Movil and the other businesses under + internet and +TV Digital in Panama. CWP is also a leading regional player in enterprise and managed services as well as being a leader in carrier services in partnership with our Caribbean business. || JPMorgan launches blockchain trial project -FT: Jan 31 (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase is partnering with start-up Digital Asset Holdings to launch a trial project using blockchain technology that could reduce the cost and complexity of trading, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. The agreement comes as another sign that blockchain, which is best known as the basis of the digital currency Bitcoin, has wide-ranging applications for some of Wall Street's biggest banks. One potential use for the technology is addressing liquidity mismatches in some of JPMorgan's loan funds, the Financial Times said. "To sell a loan is a very cumbersome, time-consuming process; settlement can take weeks," Daniel Pinto, head of JPMorgan's investment bank, told the Financial Times. It "makes all the sense in the world" to explore blockchain's potential to improve that process. Digital Asset Holdings is run by Blythe Masters, JPMorgan's former head of commodities. (Reporting by Carl O'Donnell; Editing by Peter Cooney) || BTCS Announces Letter to Shareholders From CEO: ARLINGTON, VA--(Marketwired - Feb 23, 2016) - BTCS Inc. ( OTCQB : BTCS ) ("BTCS" or the "Company"), a blockchain technology focused company which secures the blockchain through its transaction verification services business, released a Letter to Shareholders updating current activities and outlining its corporate strategy for 2016, as follows: Dear Shareholders, Over the past few months, several major investment banks have published research foretelling the significant potential for blockchain technologies to revolutionize industries on a massive scale. Recognizing this potential, much of our work in 2015 focused on building a strong operational foundation to capitalize on the rapidly-evolving blockchain opportunity. Despite many successes in this effort, our stock continued to decline throughout 2015 and is now trading near its 52-week low. As a significant shareholder myself, I too am feeling the pain of our low stock price, and I firmly believe it is not representative of our accomplishments or potential. BTCS originally began operations focused exclusively on the Bitcoin ecosystem, and while our revenues today are generated from securing the blockchain through our transaction verification services segment, we plan to evaluate broader opportunities in blockchain consumer solutions. As noted in recently published research from Goldman Sachs, the real opportunity lies in the underlying technology of Bitcoin, the blockchain. Referred to as the golden egg by analysts at Goldman Sachs, the blockchain can not only live outside of Bitcoin, it has the potential to streamline a multitude of businesses. We believe the work we completed in 2015 has established us as an early mover in this burgeoning market opportunity, positioning us for strong shareholder value improvement in the quarters and years ahead as the use of blockchain technologies begins to revolutionize standard business practices. Our current transaction verification operation touches every blockchain transaction. Even after doubling our server processing power in January of 2016, we're currently using just 33% of the expanded power capacity we added in July 2015. The foundation to rapidly scale our operations is in place, and our pending merger with Spondoolies-Tech Ltd. ("Spondoolies") is poised to provide us a technology advantage that we believe will positively impact revenues over the long-term. Story continues We've also strengthened our financial footing, most recently with the completion of a $1.45 million capital raise in December 2015, 1,225% year-over-year revenue growth for the fiscal year ended 2015, and a 25% decrease in cash flow used from operating activities. Our management team remains dedicated to creating value and protecting our shareholders and continues to demonstrate its commitment to the future of BTCS through positive steps at improving our capital structure. From management's voluntarily return of 12.75 million shares of stock valued at $1.15 million in late 2014, which absorbed nearly all of the dilution from our January 2015 funding, to the recent voluntary escrowing of founder shares representing 15% of the outstanding shares of the company, we are literally "putting our money where our mouth is" and plan to continue to work tirelessly to make our company a success. Looking ahead, there are several key milestones we anticipate achieving in 2016. We believe our transaction verification services business will lead to rapid revenue growth this year, and our pending merger with Spondoolies should further strengthen our financial performance and product offerings. If we complete these and other initiatives, ultimately we believe we will be in a position to up list to a major exchange this year, greatly improving our visibility in the capital markets and setting the stage for further acceleration of growth as blockchain technology spreads across the global economy. Blockchain technology is still in its infancy, and just as the Internet has become a ubiquitous driver of global commerce in a relatively short period of time, we believe the impending boom in blockchain adoption is nearly upon us. On behalf of our management team, I want to personally thank you for your continued support. Sincerely, Charles Allen CEO and Chairman About BTCS: BTCS secures the blockchain through its rapidly growing transaction verification services business and plans to build a broader ecosystem to capitalize on opportunities in this fast growing industry. The blockchain is a decentralized public ledger and has the ability to fundamentally impact all industries on a global basis that rely on or utilize record keeping and require trust. BTCS continues to evaluate and build additional blockchain technology consumer solutions. BTCS also actively partners and integrates with strategic digital currency and blockchain technology companies who provide products or services that are complementary to its business strategy. For more information visit: www.btcs.com Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements in this press release, including those related to an anticipated merger, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "predict," "forecast," "project," "plan," "intend" or similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. While the Company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation those set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, not limited to Risk Factors relating to its digital currency business contained therein. Thus, actual results could be materially different. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] My monster has 482 hp left! I've earned a total of 104,880 satoshi http://www.monstercoingame.com/?id=5594426  #monstercoingame #Bitcoin || Liquid Bitcoin || Liquid Bitcoin || #MarsCoin #MARS #MRS $ 0.000530 (-1.85 %) 0.00000139 BTC (0.00 %) || Liquid Bitcoin || Liquid Bitcoin || BTC *Bitcoin (0.1) Deposited Directly To Your Wallet *FAST DELIVERY http://ift.tt/1TIkNUV  #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/QpnhzjAIdL || #GOLD http://tinyurl.com/jr6r2yj  (@ezscott48) (@ezscott49) #BTC #MLM #Bitcoin #Network #Homebiz #Downline #TeamBuilding #CurrencyCollapse || #Dotcoin #DOT $ 0.000051 (-0.01 %) 0.00000012 BTC (-0.04 %) || Liquid Bitcoin
Trend: up || Prices: 407.71, 414.32, 413.97, 414.86, 417.13, 421.69, 411.62, 414.07, 416.44, 416.83
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Hacking group claims to offer cyber-weapons in online auction: By Joseph Menn Aug 15 (Reuters) - Hackers going by the name Shadow Brokers said on Monday they will auction stolen surveillance tools they say were used by a cyber group linked to the U.S. National Security Agency. To arouse interest in the auction, the hackers released samples of programs they said could break into popular firewall software made by companies including Cisco Systems Inc, Juniper Networks Inc and Fortinet Inc. The companies did not respond to request for comment, nor did the NSA. Writing in imperfect English, the Shadow Brokers promised in postings on a Tumblr blog that the auctioned material would contain "cyber weapons" developed by the Equation Group, a hacking group that cyber security experts widely believe to be an arm of the NSA. [http://reut.rs/2aVA7LD] The Shadow Brokers said the programs they will auction will be "better than Stuxnet," a malicious computer worm widely attributed to the United States and Israel that sabotaged Iran's nuclear program. Reuters could not contact the Shadow Brokers or verify their assertions. Some experts who looked at the samples posted on Tumblr said they included programs that had previously been described and therefore were unlikely to cause major damage. "The data [released so far] appears to be relatively old; some of the programs have already been known for years," said researcher Claudio Guarnieri, and are unlikely "to cause any significant operational damage." Still, they appeared to be genuine tools that might work if flaws have not been addressed. After examining the code released Monday, Matt Suiche, founder of UAE-based security startup Comae Technologies, concluded they looked like "could be used." Other security experts warned the posting could prove to be a hoax. The group said interested parties had to send funds in advance of winning the auction via Bitcoin currency and would not get their money back if they lost. The auction will end at an unspecified time, Shadow Brokers said, encouraging bidders to "keep bidding until we announce winner." (Editing by Cynthia Osterman) || Nadex And Exchange Traded Binary Options Growth Brings Both Mainstream: The fever-pitch popularity of Exchange-Traded Binary Options (ETBOs) has maintained growth in record levels at Nadex-The North American Derivatives Exchange. Comparing second quarter 2016 to second quarter 2015, overall trading volume and total number of trades grew by almost 40 percent. This is a direct reflection of day trader’s awareness of, and enthusiasm, for ETBOs and spreads, taking them mainstream. Throughout this record growth cycle, Nadex increased the number of markets to trade and added different contract times, including 20-minute indices and 5-minute forex binary options. The number of daily contracts offered doubled from 5000 in 2013 to over 10,000 in 2016. Nadex spread trading volume accounted for approximately nine percent of the second quarter year over year growth and continues to grow in popularity as well. In response to the record growth, Nadex has added yet another new market maker. The result is deeper FX binary options markets with enhanced liquidity and more markets expected in the near future. "In addition to a clear increase in awareness of our products and services among our target market, we've seen a surge in searches for "binary options" and "Nadex" over the last year," said Dan Cook, Nadex's Director of Business Development. The growth should not be a surprise. There has long been a need and demand for new methods of trading that have capped or guaranteed limited risk. Nadex provides an alternative to the usual trading of FX and futures through a brokerage. Trading on Nadex means traders get that limited risk with binary option and spread trading on a regulated exchange. The second quarter saw the following markets most heavily traded: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, AUD/USD, and GBP/USD forex pairs, the U.S. 500 based on the underlying E-Mini S&P 500 futures market, along with other U.S. and international indices. The greatest increase in commodity markets was in crude oil and gold futures. More Powerful Full Featured Mobile Apps Traders have the convenience of trading on Nadex away from their computers and on their mobile devices. Nadex saw the advantages of this flexibility for traders and made major upgrades to the apps for iPhone and Android. Nadex mobile apps allow traders to send orders directly to the exchange, manage them, receive live exchange data, fund an account, chart, browse contracts from various markets, as well as do analysis, all from their mobile devices. "Our growth comes from multiple factors," said Tim McDermott, CEO of Nadex. "More markets and more contracts within each day mean more opportunities. Powerful and full-featured mobile apps mean a new way to access those opportunities wherever you are. And increased awareness of Exchange-Traded Binary Options means that more people are coming to us to take advantage of those opportunities." Being the first CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) regulated online exchange, Nadex is also the largest in the U.S., providing binary options and spreads for traders looking for security and limited risk while trading. Traders can trade short-term price movements in markets, Bitcoin and economic news events with Nadex’s limited risk binary options and spreads with hourly, daily, and weekly contracts. Free trading education on how to trade Nadex binary options and spreads is available atApex Investing. See more from Benzinga • Monthly Release Of Retail Sales and CPI Offers Iron Condor Trading • Early Morning News Moving The Market? Trade The Night Before • News Provides Volatility For Trading Opportunity © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || High Prices and Expensive Gifts Offered by PowerBTC to Bitcoin Sellers: NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Aug 8, 2016) - With the rise in popularity of Bitcoin commerce, many online firms are finding creative new ways to take advantage of this valuable virtual resource. However, none are more market-savvy than PowerBTC, an up-and-coming financial world star that is taking e-commerce by storm. PowerBTC LLC ( http://www.PowerBTC.com ), an already well known cryptocurrency trader on the virtual market, has its on-going offer of higher-than-the-market-price premiums on Bitcoin purchase. Their offer is time-limited but comes along with a bunch of benefits for 10+ or larger transactions. While their standard approach of Bitcoin sellers remains a bonus of 10% more than the market's official rate, the company has added few more additional premiums and gifts for volume business. While having listed all of them below, customers can be assisted and given additional information at any time. POWERBTC CURRENT PROMOTIONAL OFFERS: 10+ BTC (24-karat gold coin); 20+ BTC (24-karat gold coin +3 %); 30+ BTC (24-karat gold coin +5 %); 50+ BTC (24-karat gold coin +8 %) 24-karat gold coin worth of 450 USD based on the gold market price. Tom Clark, the CEO of PowerBTC, commented: "We are happy that with this promotional offer we will be able to help the Bitcoin community. By riding on this next wave of digital technology, we hope to become a major leader of the Bitcoin community, and offer exceptional deals for all Bitcoin purchases. It's about staying in-step with the times, and we know that Bitcoin is a wise investment and are confident that it can take us to the top." A visit to http://www.PowerBTC.com reveals a cleanly-designed website that is easy to use, making Bitcoin transactions quick and easy. Users only need to enter their email address, and bank or PayPal information and they will be ready to take advantage of this new promotional offer. While the offer may appear to be a bit chaotic for the regular seller, the mechanism behind it is based not only on the company's appetite for Bitcoin purchase, but also on the outcome of the Bitcoin PowerBTC is reinvesting, together with a sophisticated calculus and certain principles common within any financial services business. Rates are updated constantly, following current market trends, for the most accurate information. Combined with knowledgeable staff and a regularly updated news page, this gives PowerBTC the edge over competitors in the field by offering a depth of market knowledge that is unrivaled. PowerBTC is currently purchasing Bitcoins so any interested sellers should visit their website as soon as possible for the best deals. For more information, visit, http://www.PowerBTC.com . || What to Expect from Overstock.com (OSTK) in Q2 Earnings?: Overstock.com Inc. OSTK is slated to report second-quarter 2016 results on Aug 4. It is an online retailer that sells brand-name merchandise at deep discounts. Its offerings include bed-and-bath goods, kitchenware, watches, jewelry, electronics, sporting goods and designer accessories. Let’s see how things are shaping up for this announcement. OVERSTOCK.COM Price and EPS Surprise OVERSTOCK.COM Price and EPS Surprise | OVERSTOCK.COM Quote Factors to Consider Overstock’s business has been hit by changes in Google search algorithms and rising competition in the e-commerce sector. In response, the company has intensified efforts on expanding its product reach, building its customer base and strengthening its international foothold. The company has partnered with Tmall in China, 11Street in Korea, Mercado LibreIguama in Latin America, Trade Me in New Zealand and Australia and Rakuten in the UK. Management has indicated more partnerships in the near future. It has launched a trusted partner marketplace as a part of its global expansion efforts. Management has also confirmed Overstock’s continued focus on improvement of customer experience and customer attraction and retention efforts. For this, the company is trying to bring in absolute customization and personalization of its marketing message and develop customer friendly mobile platforms and applications. Overstock has been a Bitcoin supporter for more than two years and has successfully leveraged the blockchain technology. The company is trying to establish relationships with major financial and capital market institutions to achieve the expected level of synergy between blockchain and cryptocurrency. The company has high hopes from its Club O loyalty program that includes Club O Gold and Club O Silver. The company is innovating with this program for years adding value to it continuously. Overstock has been engaged in legal battles with several brokerage firms over issues of stock price manipulation, most recently with Merrill Lynch. Merrill Lynch eventually settled by paying $20 million to Overstock.com and its co-plaintiffs. We expect its customer friendly initiatives, product and geographical expansion efforts and continuous efforts to reduce illegal stock manipulation and reform capital markets to act as major positives for Overstock in the to-be-reported quarter. Stocks That Warrant a Look Here are some companies that can be considered as our model shows that they have the right combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a favorable Zacks Rank to post an earnings beat this quarter: Story continues Avista Corp. AVA with an Earnings ESP of +2.33% and Zacks Rank #2. Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA with an Earnings ESP of +28.95% and Zacks Rank #3. Paycom Software, Inc. PAYC with an Earnings ESP of +7.69% and a Zacks Rank #3. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days . Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report AVISTA CORP (AVA): Free Stock Analysis Report PAYCOM SOFTWARE (PAYC): Free Stock Analysis Report ALIBABA GROUP (BABA): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research View comments || The NSA cyber-weapon auction is a total smokescreen — here's what's really going on: NSA spying surveillance (Josh Mayeux, a network defender, works at the US Air Force Space Command Network Operations A group calling itself the "Shadow Brokers" claimed earlier this week that it hacked into the US National Security Agency and stole an apparent treasure trove of exploits and hacking tools that it is now trying to auction off . But experts say that this is all a smokescreen for a not-so-subtle message from Moscow to Washington: Don't mess with us. "It's a smokescreen, there's nothing real about this," John Schindler, a former NSA analyst and counterintelligence officer, told Business Insider. "This is Moscow's way of upping the ante in the spy war, and sending a message no one can miss [which is] 'we have you penetrated, we've got you by the balls, don't push us.'" He added: "The Russians are making a power play because they think they can right now." The previously-unknown Shadow Brokers created a number of social-media accounts earlier this month on Reddit, Github, Twitter, and Imgur, before announcing on August 13 its "cyber weapon auction," which promised bidders a "full state sponsor tool set" from a hacking unit believed to be within the NSA known only as "The Equation Group." It released a 234-megabyte archive on various file-sharing sites with one-half being free to view and use — which numerous experts say is legitimate — while the other half was encrypted. The winner of the auction, the group said, would get the decryption key. But an auction for hacking tools and exploits is not something that ever happens, experts say . Instead, exploits are bought and sold on the black market for hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions of dollars, in private. There's something else going on here, and it seems like it has nothing to do with a hacking group looking for cash. nsa (Reuters) Auction files 'better than Stuxnet' In the announcement of its auction, Shadow Brokers seemed to ensure that no one would seriously consider bidding on the other half of its treasure trove, which it claims has within it software that is better than "Stuxnet" — the US-Israeli malware that destroyed Iranian nuclear centrifuges. Story continues Its FAQ tells bidders that they are going to lose their Bitcoin, no matter what they do. If you win the auction, you'll get the files, but if you lose the auction, you don't get the files — and you don't get your Bitcoin back. "Sorry lose bidding war lose bitcoin and files," the group wrote. That's probably why the so-called auction hasn't moved anywhere close to the group's goal of 1 million Bitcoin, or roughly $575 million. The high bid is currently 1.629 Bitcoin, a surprisingly low figure for a software package that, if it were "better than Stuxnet," would contain a number of unknown software exploits called "zero days," each of which can be sold for $100,000 or more on the black market. "This auction is one of the more bizarre things that I've ever seen in this space. People who buy and sell exploits would not just dump money into an auction," a source who used to work for the NSA's elite hacker unit, Tailored Access Operations, told Business Insider on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive matters. "It kind of makes no sense." "The low Bitcoin offers are pretty amusing though," Dr. Peter Singer, a strategist at the think tank New America and coauthor of " Ghost Fleet ," told Business Insider in an email. Further, the website WikiLeaks apparently has the full archive and says that it will release its own "pristine copy in due course." WikiLeaks did not respond to an email from Business Insider asking when that release would be. This just "shows the fraud of the whole Bitcoin angle," Schindler said. A view through a construction fence shows the Kremlin towers and St. Basil's Cathedral on a hot summer day in central Moscow, Russia, July 1, 2016. REUTERS/Maxim Zmeyev/File Photo (The Kremlin towers and St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.Thomson Reuters) 'Conventional wisdom indicates Russian responsibility' Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden offered his opinion on the underlying message behind the "auction" in a series of tweets on Tuesday, notably pointing the finger at Russia as being behind it. After cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said that it uncovered two different state-sponsored Russian hacking groups inside the servers of the Democratic National Committee in June , Snowden wrote that "if Russia hacked the DNC, they should be condemned for it," and then chided the US for not releasing evidence that he believed the NSA had that would prove it. That "smoking gun" evidence never came, though a number of US political and intelligence officials have said that the DNC hack was at the Kremlin's direction. "Circumstantial evidence and conventional wisdom indicates Russian responsibility," wrote Snowden of this latest breach, adding, "This leak looks like somebody sending a message that an escalation in the attribution game could get messy fast." How messy? According to Snowden, the fully-leaked toolkit — from 2013 — could offer insight into previous hacks carried out by the NSA, or it could be reverse-engineered to help adversaries detect them in the future. Even Schindler, the former NSA analyst who's an outspoken critic of Snowden, agrees with Snowden's finding on the overt message, though he doesn't think that leaked tools will have any significant effect on future NSA operations. "This stuff has all been changed," Schindler said. "Three years is a long time in cyber ops, because that's not the point. The point is to show NSA that we've got you by the balls." NOW WATCH: FORMER NSA DIRECTOR: America is ‘really good’ at stealing data from other countries More From Business Insider Experts think Russia has leaked NSA cyberweapons online Here's why the supposed NSA 'hack' is unlike anything we've ever seen before EDWARD SNOWDEN: Russia might have leaked alleged NSA cyberweapons as a 'warning' || Bitfinex says expects "socialized loss" for $72 million bitcoin hack: By Clare Baldwin HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong-based crypto-currency exchange Bitfinex, from which hackers stole about US$72 million (54.8 million pounds) worth of bitcoin this week, said on Friday that it expected to "socialize" the losses among bitcoin balances. In dollar terms, the theft of the 119,756 bitcoin revealed on Tuesday was the second-biggest security breach ever of a digital currency exchange. The theft accounted for about 0.75 percent of all bitcoins in circulation. "We are still working out the details," Bitfinex said on its website, "however, we are leaning towards a socialized loss scenario among bitcoin balances and active loans to BTCUSD positions." The exchange, which is known for its liquidity in the U.S. dollar/bitcoin currency pair, did not explain what that would entail. It has said previously it would settle accounts at an exchange rate of $604.06, the midpoint of the bid and ask on Aug. 2, 2016 at 18:00:00 UTC. The price of bitcoin plunged more than 23 percent on Tuesday when news of the hack became public, trading as low as $465.28 on the BitStamp platform BTC=BTSP. It was trading at $569.84 on Friday. (Reporting by Clare Baldwin; Editing by Will Waterman) || High Prices and Expensive Gifts Offered by PowerBTC to Bitcoin Sellers: NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Aug 8, 2016) - With the rise in popularity of Bitcoin commerce, many online firms are finding creative new ways to take advantage of this valuable virtual resource. However, none are more market-savvy than PowerBTC, an up-and-coming financial world star that is taking e-commerce by storm. PowerBTC LLC (http://www.PowerBTC.com), an already well known cryptocurrency trader on the virtual market, has its on-going offer of higher-than-the-market-price premiums on Bitcoin purchase. Their offer is time-limited but comes along with a bunch of benefits for 10+ or larger transactions. While their standard approach of Bitcoin sellers remains a bonus of 10% more than the market's official rate, the company has added few more additional premiums and gifts for volume business. While having listed all of them below, customers can be assisted and given additional information at any time. POWERBTC CURRENT PROMOTIONAL OFFERS: 10+ BTC (24-karat gold coin);20+ BTC (24-karat gold coin +3 %);30+ BTC (24-karat gold coin +5 %);50+ BTC (24-karat gold coin +8 %) 24-karat gold coin worth of 450 USD based on the gold market price. Tom Clark, the CEO of PowerBTC, commented: "We are happy that with this promotional offer we will be able to help the Bitcoin community. By riding on this next wave of digital technology, we hope to become a major leader of the Bitcoin community, and offer exceptional deals for all Bitcoin purchases. It's about staying in-step with the times, and we know that Bitcoin is a wise investment and are confident that it can take us to the top." A visit tohttp://www.PowerBTC.comreveals a cleanly-designed website that is easy to use, making Bitcoin transactions quick and easy. Users only need to enter their email address, and bank or PayPal information and they will be ready to take advantage of this new promotional offer. While the offer may appear to be a bit chaotic for the regular seller, the mechanism behind it is based not only on the company's appetite for Bitcoin purchase, but also on the outcome of the Bitcoin PowerBTC is reinvesting, together with a sophisticated calculus and certain principles common within any financial services business. Rates are updated constantly, following current market trends, for the most accurate information. Combined with knowledgeable staff and a regularly updated news page, this gives PowerBTC the edge over competitors in the field by offering a depth of market knowledge that is unrivaled. PowerBTC is currently purchasing Bitcoins so any interested sellers should visit their website as soon as possible for the best deals. For more information, visit,http://www.PowerBTC.com. || Exchanges Propose New Unified Trading Rules: The country’s three major exchanges announced today they have agreed to work together for new common trading procedures when reopening after a trading halt. Bats Global Markets, owner of ETF.com, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq said they will be filing a new set of exchange rules with the SEC that propose to unify how all three resume trading when a halt occurs with ETFs and stocks. This comes nearly a year after more than 1,000 ETFs and stocks were halted on Aug. 24, 2015, causing dozens of ETFs to be traded well below fair value . Currently the exchanges do not have the same procedures to resume trading after such a halt, which fueled the market swings and price dislocation on that day. Beyond the unified reopening procedures, the exchanges also propose to eliminate the time periods where securities could trade without the limit up/limit down (circuit breaker) bands in place, reduce the number of trading pauses, and remove the “Clearly Erroneous Execution” rules when the limit up/limit down bands are in place. Getting Ahead Of Regulators “Last year’s flash crash wasn’t necessarily ‘ caused’ by chaos between the exchanges, but it certainly was exacerbated by it,” said Dave Nadig, director of exchange-traded funds at FactSet and ETF trading expert. “It’s to the exchanges’ credit that in many ways they’re getting ahead of the regulators and trying to coordinate their disparate rule sets to minimize the chances of the same thing happening again. The work they’re doing about initial opening, limit up/limit down triggering and reopening is exactly what needs to happen.” Nadig added that while the details are just coming out, the proactive nature of the exchanges in making these proposals is admirable. “The devil can sometimes be in the details, so we’ll see the final suggestions in a few weeks, but overall, I’m enormously impressed at the way these competitors have pulled together to improve the system,” he added. Industry Call To Action In March In March, leaders of the ETF industry joined a group in writing a letter to the SEC ( Why This ‘Open Letter’ To SEC Matters ) petitioning for overhauls to the market microstructure to prevent further flash crashes in ETFs and stocks. Story continues At the heart of the matter on Aug. 24, 2015 were the inconsistencies between how different exchanges handled big swings in securities (the limit up/limit down circuit breakers) and how securities were reopened after those breakers were hit. The problem spoke to the fragmentation of exchanges and the difference in how each exchange resumed trading, resulting in price discovery problems. Today’s announcement aims to address those problems. Drew Voros can be reached at dvoros@etf.com . Recommended Stories Behind The Wait For The Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF The ETF As A Political Weapon Aug. 24, 2015 Flash Crash Part Of Wall St. History What The New Real Estate Sector Means For ETFs ETF Asset Growth In 2016 Par For The Course Permalink | © Copyright 2016 ETF.com. All rights reserved || With millions of helpers (and $100M), SETI 'still hasn't found ET'— here's why: What would Enrico Fermi do? For those unfamiliar with the name, Fermi was a famous scientist who postulated that if intelligent life on other planets actually existed, we would have found them by now — or they certainly would have found us. It's an idea that resonates, especially with vast sums of public and private money being thrown at space travel , accompanied by rapid advances in modern technology. Approximately a year ago, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner gave a $100 million gift to over a ten year span to the University of California to aid in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Since then, the SETI Institute has been occupied with its prime directive—understanding the universe and trying to contact aliens. Milner, a venture capitalist who was among the early investors in tech giants like Twitter and Facebook, is convinced that — given the billions of Earth-like planets and even more galaxies that exist — it's all but inconceivable that the human race is alone. SETI is flush with new riches and interest in outer space has reached a crescendo unseen since at least the 'Space Race' of the last century. Yet for years, skeptics have argued that attempting to explore the outer reaches of space was a waste of time. So it begs the question: Exactly why does discovering intelligent life outside of Earth remain so elusive, and why can't they (as in the aliens) be coaxed out of hiding? "We haven't found E.T.," Dan Werthimer, SETI's chief scientist and an astronomer at University of California at Berkeley, joked to a panel discussion at "Star Trek: Mission New York" on Saturday. E.T., of course, is a reference to the classic 1982 Steven Spielberg movie where an alien falls to earth, bringing a combination of delight and trouble to a group of kids. As Werthimer explained in more sophisticated fashion to the legions of Trekkies assembled to commemorate "Star Trek's" 50th anniversary, maybe E.T. doesn't want to phone home — or maybe he can't. Story continues Even with the morale and logistical boost $100 million can bring, it's quite possible E.T. may not exist. "Maybe they're [aliens] waiting for us to stop killing each other," Werthimer said in response to a question about why extraterrestrial life hadn't yet reached out to the human race. He posited that they themselves could be lower than earthlings on the evolutionary and technological scale, or perhaps we're beneath them. "There [are] a lot of different scenarios but the other possibility is that we really are alone and that's why we don't see them zooming around the galaxy," the scientist said. According to SETI, on any given day there are at millions of volunteers around the world working on various projects to prove there's life outside of earth. On Saturday, Werthimer joked that at least a million of them "bounded by optimism leave their [computers] on" in the hopes of intercepting a message from another world. "We've only had 100 years, but we'd be kind of lucky to find [alien life] now because we don't know what frequency to look at, we don't know if they're broadcasting radio and we can't cover the whole spectrum. But I'm optimistic because the technology is changing so fast." According to Werthimer, some SETI volunteers, perhaps impatient waiting all these years for E.T.'s arrival, are moonlighting by mining for Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that's can be 'mined' using special software and solving complex math problems. Although numerous SETI volunteers take on side projects, digital currency mining is not a side gig Werthimer would recommend. Bitcoin is attractive "because you can make money that way. Although you can't make much [because] I think your power bill is more expensive," he said. "I dont think it's a good idea." All of which brings us full circle to the estimable Fermi. With all the technology surrounding human civilization and billions being invested in space exploration , what exactly is preventing E.T.'s eagerly anticipated arrival? One answer may be that aliens haven't yet caught up to humans technologically. "We don't know how to find them if they are more primitive than we are," Werthimer said. "What's the chance we can find a civilization that's just invented radio? It's kind of small in the 4 billion years of life on this planet." The scientist added that same optimism keeps him reasonably hopeful that extraterrestrial life would eventually be found, as Earthlings were "just getting in the game" of trying to locate life on other planets—but no one should hold their breath. "I think it's not going to be in my lifetime [that we find aliens], I think its going to be my students or my students students...it will take a couple of generations," Werthimer added. "It's hard to predict but my guess is that it's going to be a generation or two" before the discovery is made, he said. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Bitcoin worth $72 million stolen from Bitfinex exchange in Hong Kong: By Clare Baldwin HONG KONG (Reuters) - Nearly 120,000 units of digital currency bitcoin worth about US$72 million was stolen from the exchange platform Bitfinex in Hong Kong, rattling the global bitcoin community in the second-biggest security breach ever of such an exchange. Bitfinex is the world's largest dollar-based exchange for bitcoin, and is known in the digital currency community for having deep liquidity in the U.S. dollar/bitcoin currency pair. Zane Tackett, Director of Community & Product Development for Bitfinex, told Reuters on Wednesday that 119,756 bitcoin had been stolen from users' accounts and that the exchange had not yet decided how to address customer losses. "The bitcoin was stolen from users' segregated wallets," he said. The company said it had reported the theft to law enforcement and was cooperating with top blockchain analytic companies to track the stolen coins. Last year, Bitfinex announced a tie-up with Palo Alto-based BitGo, which uses multiple-signature security to store user deposits online, allowing for faster withdrawals. "Our investigation has found no evidence of a breach to any BitGo servers," BitGo said in a Tweet. "With users' funds secured using multi-signature technology in partnership with BitGo, a lot more is at stake for the backbone of the bitcoin industry, with its stalwarts and prided tech under fire," said Charles Hayter, chief executive and founder of digital currency website CryptoCompare. The security breach comes two months after Bitfinex was ordered to pay a $75,000 fine by the U.S. Commodity and Futures Trading Commission in part for offering illegal off-exchange financed commodity transactions in bitcoin and other digital currencies. BITCOIN SLUMP Tuesday's breach triggered a slump in bitcoin prices and was reminiscent of events that led to the 2014 collapse of Tokyo-based exchange Mt Gox, which said it had lost about $500 million worth of customers' Bitcoins in a hacking attack. Bitcoin plunged just over 23 percent on Tuesday after the news broke. On Wednesday it was up 1 percent at $545.20 on the BitStamp platform. Tackett added that the breach did not "expose any weaknesses in the security of a blockchain", the technology that generates and processes bitcoin, a web-based "cryptocurrency" that can move across the globe anonymously without the need for a central authority. A bitcoin expert said the scandal highlighted the risks of companies using cryptography for their ledgers. "The more you rely on its benefits, the greater the potential for damage when keys are stolen. We still have some way to go to create highly secure but convenient systems," said Singapore-based Antony Lewis. The volume of bitcoin stolen amounts to about 0.75 percent of all bitcoin in circulation. It is not yet clear whether the theft was an inside job or whether hackers were able to gain access to the system externally. On an online forum, Bitfinex's Tackett said he was "nearly 100 percent certain" it was no one in the company. Bitfinex suspended trading on Tuesday after it discovered the breach. It said on its website that it was investigating and cooperating with the authorities. The security breach is the latest scandal to hit Hong Kong's bitcoin market after MyCoin became embroiled in a scam last year that media estimated could have duped investors of up to $387 million. The bitcoin trading company closed after the scandal. The president of the Hong Kong Bitcoin Association said the only way to protect information is to disperse it in so many small pieces that the reward for hacking is too small. "For an attacker, the cost-benefit strategy is quite easy: How much is in the pot and how likely is it that I'm getting the pot?" said Leonhard Weese. (Additional reporting by Hera Poon in HONG KONG, Jeremy Wagstaff in SINGAPORE and Jemima Kelly in LONDON; Editing by Will Waterman) View comments [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Buy Bitcoin With PayPal! Also with CC, paysafecard, Skrill, OKPAY https://www.virwox.com?r=4db29virwox.com/?r=4db29  #btc #bitcoin 00 pic.twitter.com/fgo8SAX82F || 1 KOBO = 0.00000260 BTC = 0.0016 USD = 0.5112 NGN = 0.0223 ZAR = 0.1621 KES #Kobocoin 2016-08-02 09:00 pic.twitter.com/wSL0Xn8YLF || Big Banks Band Together to Launch 'Settlement Coin': http://ift.tt/2bghmSO  #bitcoin #btc || #574 BatCoin BTC:฿0.00 USD:$0.00000008 Market Cap:$ 509.146849398 Supply:6,481,010,000 BAT http://dlvr.it/Lx5vBJ  || 1 KOBO = 0.00000244 BTC = 0.0015 USD = 0.4560 NGN = 0.0216 ZAR = 0.1519 KES #Kobocoin 2016-09-10 19:00 pic.twitter.com/tb79VamCg4 || LIVE: Profit = $41.24 (16.80 %). BUY B0.49 @ $520.10 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $585.00 (#BitKonan) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || 1 #bitcoin = $10850.00 MXN | $576.31 USD #BitAPeso 1 USD = 18.83MXN http://www.bitapeso.com  || 1 KOBO = 0.00000800 BTC = 0.0051 USD = 1.6282 NGN = 0.0710 ZAR = 0.5165 KES #Kobocoin 2016-07-31 14:00 pic.twitter.com/BfI3rH2YYO || #bitcoin #miner Bitcoin Miner 1THs 1000GH BlackArrow Prospero X3 $250.00 http://ift.tt/2bf00uY pic.twitter.com/L7aP4wMcIs || $606.12 at 07:00 UTC [24h Range: $602.04 - $609.74 Volume: 4410 BTC]
Trend: no change || Prices: 609.87, 609.23, 608.31, 597.15, 596.30, 602.84, 602.62, 600.83, 608.04, 606.17
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-12-19] BTC Price: 17776.70, BTC RSI: 65.84 Gold Price: 1260.70, Gold RSI: 47.01 Oil Price: 57.46, Oil RSI: 55.08 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] 3 Dow Jones Stocks to Avoid Despite Record-Breaking Numbers: It’s the most hated bull market in modern history, yet here we are. With theDow Jones Industrial Averagefirmly eclipsing 23,000 points, the next talking point is when we will see Dow 24,000. Thanks to the law of large numbers, “Dow 24k” is only a little more than 2% away. But even with all the fanfare, the index has a few stocks to avoid. Bear in mind this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If all 30 companies were enjoying robust performances in 2017, a collapsing bubble wouldn’t be far away. Indeed, for a bull market to survive, traders on the opposite side of the fence must be willing to transact. Otherwise, we’d end up with too many buyers, and not enough sellers. Some analysts believe the Dow Jones overall is exhibiting technical signs of amarket top. Having been burnt on more than one occasion for doubting the Dow, I’m hesitant on potentially repeating my mistake. Still, I do have doubts on individual names, which I reveal below. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips My Dow Jones stocks to avoid list isn’t merely about poor technical performances. Rather, I’m looking at the big picture, taking into consideration whether investors will risk their capital on the company in question. • 7 Blue-Chip Stocks to Sell in November Without further adieu, here are three stocks from the Dow Jones of which I’d steer clear. Source: Shutterstock Among Dow Jones stocks to avoid,General Electric Company(NYSE:GE) is simply the worst. With a year-to-date loss exceeding 36%, no otherDow 30company comes close to GE stock and its laggardness. In fact, to date, no other organization within the illustrious index has dipped into the negative double-digit territory.Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) andInternational Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) are second and third worst, at -14.9% and -9% YTD, respectively. I used to believe that GE stock could pull it together based on its vast array of businesses and resources. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: I was wrong. Fortunately, I changed my view prior to the horrendous slide that General Electric shares endured. On July 6, I no longer perceived the company as trustworthy. It’s had plenty of time to regroup and revamp, butnothing substantive resulted. Since then, GE stock lost 20% of market value. On Sept. 13, I simply gave up, stating that General Electric isspiraling out of control. After a brief rally, shares again collapsed, losing 13% since my article published. At this point, we can argue the fundamentals to death. The bottom line is that long-term shareholders are in panic mode. Don’t attempt to catch GE stock because you just might get skewered. Source: Shutterstock Because “big oil” is steeped in the history of the Dow Jones, I hesitate to placeExxon Mobil Corporation(NYSE:XOM) on the stocks to avoid list. Nevertheless, XOM stockisone of the dogs of the Dow, currently down a little more than 7% YTD. While I don’t hate Exxon Mobil and the oil recovery story, the argument is long in the tooth. Supporters of XOM stock will counter that the industry haslearned to be profitableat currently deflated oil prices. I don’t deny that claim. However, Exxon Mobil and every oil company has paid a big price for that profitability; namely, corporate restructuring, asset divestments and layoffs. When it comes time to getting back to its previous growth trajectory, big oil faces big challenges. Slowly but surely, the world is weaning off its fossil-fuel dependency. Look at the companies and investments of the future. People nowadays are much more excited about digital commodities, such as Bitcoin, or “next-gen” commodities like lithium. I’m not saying there’s no place for crude oil, but the popularity of companies likeTesla Inc(NASDAQ:TSLA) affirm a coming paradigm shift. Also, let’s be practical — the dividend yield on XOM stock is 3.6% against an industry median of 5.4%. For many investors, it’s not worth the passive income if shares are going to go sideways or worse. That’s probably one of the reasons whyBloombergreported that “only one of the company’s 20 largest investors added to their Exxon holdings during the third quarter.” • 5 Blue-Chip Stocks to Buy for November It’s time to take a reality check and put XOM into the stocks to avoid list. Source: Shutterstock I’ve saved my most controversial Dow Jones stocks to avoid idea for last:Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Ordinarily, this would be a ludicrous call. Despite much criticism of shares being overly stretched, AAPL stock continues to impress. This year, the consumer-electronics firm is up nearly 50%, good enough for third place in the Dow 30. Yet no matter how we perceive its recent success, AAPL stock isoverextended. The question now is whether this rally can justify itself. Based oniPhone 8 sales, AAPL appears to be a prime candidate for a stocks to avoid list. Bullish proponents counter that customers are waiting for the upcoming iPhone X because the 8’s improvement is too marginal. If that’s the case, why bother with the 8 at all? What few people want to talk about is that Apple is running out of ideas. As I argued earlier this year, AAPL and its rivals must contend with “peak smartphone.” The market is saturated with new devices. As previously mentioned, improvements are marginal. In turn, the financial rewards for competing in the sector are increasingly marginal. Who knows when peak smartphone will negatively impact AAPL stock, but the day will come eventually. Finally, Apple just seems like a binary risk at this juncture. If iPhone X sales stink, surely, Apple stock will correct sharply. If not, shares will rise. But the gamble seems especially hazardous considering the “been there, done that” nature of smart devices. Josh Enomoto is long Bitcoin. The post3 Dow Jones Stocks to Avoid Despite Record-Breaking Numbersappeared first onInvestorPlace. || Ethereum Price Analysis November 29, 2017, Technical Analysis: Ethereum, much like Bitcoin, has been going sideways for a couple of sessions now. This makes a lot of sense because I think the whole world is collectively watching the Bitcoin market and waiting to see if and when it breaks the $10,000 level. In fact, although there are a lot of things going on in Ethereum currently, I think the $10,000 level in Bitcoin is probably the motivating factor for most cryptocurrency traders around the world. The question is whether the market can break above that $10,000 level, and that should add bullish pressure on the other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum. The $450 level underneath seems to be offering a lot of support, and I think that if we can stay above there, the market should continue to find buyers and try to reach towards the $500 level. The $500 level above will be psychologically resistive, but I think that once the Bitcoin markets can clear the $10,000 level, it’s likely that the $500 level won’t be as intimidating. Get Into Ethereum Trading Today Suggested Articles • How to Buy Bitcoin Cash? • Top Five Cryptocurrencies Experts Talk about Bitcoin, Blockchain and ICO’s • How Blockchain will change our Life, Economy and the World If we were to break down below the $450 level, then I think the market probably drops down to the $425 level underneath, which was previous resistance. Ultimately, I watch the Stochastic Oscillator as a potential trading signal also, and a crossover in the oversold condition could be a nice opportunity to take advantage of what has been a nice range-bound market, and hopefully pick up quite a bit of bullish momentum with the ensuing Bitcoin move. If we break down below the $425 level, then the market finds, even more, support at the $400 level. I think we are looking at a “buy on the dips” scenario, and therefore it should be approached as such. I would also suggest that building your position slowly might be the best way to go, at least until we can get a daily close above the $500 level, which would be a massively bullish signal. Based upon recent consolidation, I would anticipate that the $550 level would be targeted due to the measured move. They move above the $400 level would be catastrophic, as it would be a loss of 20%, and would be a move that you would probably have to step away from. This is a very quiet situation in the meantime, but I think that eventually, we should see a continuation of the recent rally. Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency Instantly Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • USDCNH with a negative sentiment • USD/JPY Fundamental Daily Forecast – It’s Going to Take a Major Event to Rattle Dollar/Yen Bulls • Ethereum Price Analysis November 29, 2017, Technical Analysis • Potential Agreements in Washington and U.K, Global Stocks Rise • AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast – Yellen Testimony Could Set the Tone Today • Natural Gas Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Speculative Rally Could Strengthen on Sustained Move Over $3.161 || Trump hasn't deterred Chinese students from enrolling, University of California says: President Donald Trump has signaled his intention to tighten immigration policies, but that has not stopped Chinese students from enrolling in the University of California, an executive from the university said Friday. In 2016, nearly 20,000 students from China enrolled in the university, almost 10 times more than 2000, said Christine Gulbranson, senior vice president at the University of California's Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The world's second-largest economy also contributes the largest number of international students to the university, she added."I don't think it's slowing down, I don't think it's had an impact at least on the academic side," she told CNBC on the sidelines of the Fortune Global Forum in Guangzhou, China. Tougher Immigration measures featured hugely in Trump's election campaign, during which he made the well-known promise of building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Since taking office, the president has attempted to impose a ban on travelers from several Muslim nations and ended a program that allowed young people, who arrived in the U.S. illegally as children, to work in the country. But that has not stopped Chinese students from applying to the University of California, which is also exploring opportunities, such as setting up a local campus in China, to bridge the U.S. and Chinese markets, Gulbranson said. President Donald Trump has signaled his intention to tighten immigration policies, but that has not stopped Chinese students from enrolling in the University of California, an executive from the university said Friday. In 2016, nearly 20,000 students from China enrolled in the university, almost 10 times more than 2000, said Christine Gulbranson, senior vice president at the University of California's Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The world's second-largest economy also contributes the largest number of international students to the university, she added. "I don't think it's slowing down, I don't think it's had an impact at least on the academic side," she told CNBC on the sidelines of the Fortune Global Forum in Guangzhou, China. Tougher Immigration measures featured hugely in Trump's election campaign, during which he made the well-known promise of building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Since taking office, the president has attempted to impose a ban on travelers from several Muslim nations and ended a program that allowed young people, who arrived in the U.S. illegally as children, to work in the country. But that has not stopped Chinese students from applying to the University of California, which is also exploring opportunities, such as setting up a local campus in China, to bridge the U.S. and Chinese markets, Gulbranson said.More From CNBC • China has one big advantage in the race to build the car of the future • China lashes out as Australia says 'foreign powers' interfering with politics • Bitcoin plummeted just hours after setting yet another record || CSX CEO Hunter Harrison Dies at 73, Company Confirms: CEO Hunter Harrison has died, the company announced on Saturday . He was 73. Harrison’s death comes just a day after the transportation company announced that he had been placed on medical leave due to an unspecified illness, causing shares in the nation’s third-largest railway carrier to plummet. Harrison died in Wellington, Fla., from “unexpectedly severe complications from a recent illness,” according to CSX’s announcement. The railroad veteran was placed at the helm of CSX less than a year ago, and was set to be paid $300 million for his work . Harrison had promised to turn around CSX , and by August had succeeded in increasing the company’s valuation to $46 billion, a 36% increase since he took the reigns in March. Without the transportation titan at the controls, the fate of CSX is unclear. Jim Foote, formerly the company’s chief operating officer, has been named acting CEO, according to the company announcement. “With the passing of Hunter Harrison, CSX has suffered a major loss,” Chairman of the CSX Board of Directors Edward Kelly III said in a statement. “Notwithstanding that loss, the Board is confident that Jim Foote, as acting Chief Executive Officer, and the rest of the CSX team will capitalize on the changes that Hunter has made. The Board will continue to consider in a deliberative way how best to maximize CSX's performance over the long term.” See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com Billionaire Sebastian Pinera Recaptures Chile's Presidency With a Resounding Win A Suspected North Korean 'Agent' Has Been Arrested in Australia Bitcoin Is Now Trading on the World's Largest Futures Exchange Demand For Rental Homes is Finally Easing Across U.S., Study Says Firefox Users Cry Foul Over 'Mr. Robot' Ad Installed As Research Program || Bitcoin could implode and it wouldn't be a big deal: Bitcoin’s (BTC) recent surge has raised fears that the cryptocurrency could be approaching bubble territory. But if it were to burst, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal for the broader financial markets, according to analysis from Capital Economics. “Unlike the bubbles in the tech sector in the late-1990s and in US residential property a few years later, a bursting of the bitcoin bubble should not have systemic, macroeconomic implications,” analyst Andrew Kenningham said. “The total value of bitcoin is (still) too small, and it has few links with the wider economy.” In the last week, the price of the cryptocurrency has jumped more than 40%. Year-to-date, it’s up more than 1,900%. It was last priced above $15,078 on Friday afternoon. Bitcoin’s current market cap is about $252.6 billion,according to Yahoo Finance’s cryptocurrency tracker. “There are several channels through which a bursting of an asset price bubble can have macroeconomic consequences, but none is a major risk in the case of bitcoin. First, there may be a hit to household spending as people who have invested suffer losses. But bitcoin’s market [capitalization] is too small for this to be a worry,” according to the report. What’s more, a complete bitcoin crash would be the equivalent of just a 0.6% fall in U.S. stocks, the report said. Furthermore, most of the investors in the cryptocurrency got in early, which would make those losses much smaller. Another reason cited is that bitcoin is not woven into the banking system. “While a bursting bubble can affect the economy via the banking sector, this is not much of a risk either, precisely because bitcoin is held and traded outside the banking sector. Also, there is no evidence that investment in bitcoin is being financed by the equivalent of sub-prime mortgages.” Plus, there’s almost no correlation between bitcoin and risk assets like stock prices. So at the very least, it would be unclear if there would be any second-order effects in the rest of the markets. Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance.Follow her onTwitter. • CUBAN: Bitcoin is more a collectible than a currency • CUBAN: If we let China or Russia win the AI race we’re ‘SOL’ • An elite pre-school accepts bitcoin for tuition || Futures Industry Association Blasts New Bitcoin Derivatives: Days after CME Group and the CBOE announced their bitcoin futures contracts launch dates, U.S. clearinghouses are expressing concerns over how these products were developed. In anopen letterto the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Futures Industry Association (FIA) chief executive Walt Lukken said members of the organization are worried about their exposure to bitcoin's price swings as a result of these contracts. The group boasts more than 15,000 members and counts some of Wall Street's biggest institutions among its ranks. "The recent volatility in these markets has underscored the importance of setting these levels and processes appropriately and conservatively," Lukken wrote. Members of the FIA guarantee customers' trades and contribute to guarantee funds set up to cover instances where a company is unable to pay out its contracts. In the letter, Lukken said FIA members are concerned that they will have to pay for any outstanding contracts caused byprice changesin bitcoin, rather than the groups which are actually selling the futures products. He wrote: "A public discussion should have been had on whether a separate guarantee fund for this product was appropriate or whether exchanges put additional capital in front of the clearing member guarantee fund." Lukken continued to note that, whileCME and CBOEtechnically followed legal procedures detailing self-certified contracts, they should have taken a more extended approach due to bitcoin futures not being a standard product. A public discussion would have allowed FIA members to conduct tests of their own in anticipation of insuring these contracts, he argued. "We remain apprehensive with the lack of transparency and regulation of the underlying reference products on which these futures contracts are based," he wrote, also asking whether the companies offering the products can protect their customers from "manipulation, fraud, and operational risk." Disclosure:CME Group is an investor in Digital Currency Group, CoinDesk's parent company. CBOEimage via Shutterstock • Hong Kong Regulator Issues Warning on Bitcoin Futures • 'According to Plan': CBOE Bullish on First Day of Bitcoin Futures Trading • Understanding Futures: A Primer for Bitcoiners • CBOE CEO Blasts 'Uncalled For' Bitcoin Futures Critiques || Global stocks close higher as U.S. tax vote nears, dollar struggles: By Laila Kearney NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street and other major world stock markets hit fresh highs on Monday as U.S. Republican lawmakers moved closer to passing tax-cut legislation, while the dollar slid on skepticism about the bill's impact on economic growth. Congress was expected to vote as early as Tuesday on the bill, which would become the biggest U.S. tax code overhaul in more than three decades if approved. President Donald Trump is aiming to sign the plan into law at the end of the week. The plan would lower the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, which analysts say would likely increase profits, buybacks and dividend payouts. Wall Street's leading stock indexes closed at all-time highs ahead of a potential vote. The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 140.46 points, or 0.57 percent, to end at 24,792.2, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 14.35 points, or 0.54 percent, to 2,690.16 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 58.18 points, or 0.84 percent, to 6,994.76, after rising above 7,000 points for the first time. The benchmark MSCI World index <.MIWD00000PUS>, which tracks stocks around the globe, gained 0.91 percent to a new high. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index <.FTEU3> rose 1.18 percent. A potential flurry of mergers and acquisitions, seen as another byproduct of the tax plan, also pushed stocks higher, analysts said. Meanwhile, the dollar index <.DXY> fell 0.24 percent after inching up following the tax plan's latest advancement late last week. U.S. currency traders began to doubt how impactful the pro-growth bill could be and grew skeptical about whether it would create enough growth to accelerate interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve. The market currently sees two more rate increases in the coming year while the U.S. central bank itself anticipates three. "Even a passage of the bill by the year's end could have a limited impact on the dollar as investors are increasingly skeptical of the sustained positive impact the rushed bill will have on the economy," said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth FX in Washington. The euro <EUR=>, benefiting from the dollar's slump, was up 0.25 percent to $1.1781. The greenback's weakening propelled gold higher as the dollar-denominated bullion became cheaper for buyers using other currencies. Spot gold <XAU=> added 0.5 percent to $1,261.50 an ounce. U.S. gold futures <GCcv1> gained 0.57 percent to $1,264.70. The margin between U.S. shorter-dated and longer-dated Treasury yields widened on Monday from its slimmest in a decade as traders booked profits on curve-flattening positions tied to the view the Fed would raise rates further. Story continues Oil prices <LCOc1> rose amid an ongoing North Sea pipeline outage and as a strike by Nigerian oil workers threatened the country's crude exports. Despite the respite for oil prices, growth in U.S. crude output continued to dampen the market and limit gains. U.S. crude oil futures <CLc1> settled at $57.16 a barrel, down 14 cents or 0.24 percent. Brent crude futures <LCOc1> settled at $63.41, up 18 cents or 0.28 percent. Bitcoin <BTC=BTSP> was down 1.3 percent to $18,712.80 on the Bitstamp exchange after rising to a record of $19,666 over the weekend, ahead of CME Group Inc's <CME.O> launch of bitcoin futures on Sunday. (Additional reporting by Alasdair Pal in London; Editing by Daniel Bases and James Dalgleish) View comments || Crude Oil Price Analysis for November 7, 2017: Crude has ramped up to fresh 2.5 year highs of 57.31. Reports that Nigeria is willing to extend the production caps currently in place, and that conflict in Libya may see 250k barrels per day of production shut in have been the latest catalysts. In addition, uncertainty over Saudi Arabia’s apparent power struggle has supported. There has been talk that the Kingdom will not let oil prices slip back ahead of the key sale of part of Saudi Aramco next year. Technicals Crude oil prices surged higher on Monday, zipping up to fresh 2.5 years highs and poised to test target resistance near the May 2015 highs at 62.38. Support is now seen near the 10-day moving average at 54.16. Momentum is positive as the MACD (moving average convergence divergence) index recently generated a crossover buy signal. This occurs as the MACD index (the 12-day exponential moving average minus the 26-day exponential moving average) crosses above the MACD signal line (the 9-day exponential moving average of the MACD line). The RSI (relative strength index) which is a momentum oscillator that measures overbought and oversold levels, moved higher with price action, reflecting accelerating positive momentum. The current reading of the RSI is 80, well above the overbought trigger level of 70, which could foreshadow a correction. Crack Down in Saudi Arabia Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Saturday night roundup of dozens of prominent royals and officials all under the auspices of the king he may succeed within months is actually a natural, if jarring, progression. This could continue to buoy crude oil prices if it continues. The prince’s consolidation of power has been evident since June at least, when former Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef was taken out of the line of succession and replaced as interior minister. While the arrest of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal generated many headlines, chiefly because he is so well known in the West, his detention wasn’t the most momentous. Story continues That dubious honor belongs to Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, a son of the last king and, until this weekend, head of the country’s National Guard. In Prince Mohammed’s push to consolidate power and deter opponents, taking control of the ruling family’s praetorian guard is a no-brainer. Manufacturing is Buoying Crude German manufacturing orders unexpectedly jumped 1.0% month over month in September. Expectations had been for a correction from the strong August number, which was revised up to 4.1% month over month from 3.6% year over year reported initially. The annual rate jumped to 9.5% year over year. The extremely strong data points to a good backlog of orders going into the last quarter of the year and ties in with reports from PMI surveys suggesting capacity constraints, which are adding to a fast pace of job creation and rising price pressures. Against that background the ECB’s very cautious reduction of stimulus and the ongoing reluctance to commit to a firm end date for QE is looking questionable, but with political risks and Brexit still hanging over Europe, central banks clearly are taking a very careful stance. A Strong Dollar Could Weigh on Crude SF Fed’s Williams argued for price-level targeting and wants a serious debate over a new framework for Fed rate setting. He said it would be optimal to have a decision on the best rate-setting framework before the next recession. Sounds like he’s agitating for some big changes with the upcoming leadership shift. Adopting such a rule today would likely leave rates lower for longer, according to reports. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Treasury Yields Fall after Speech by New York Fed President William Dudley Donald Trump Called for Unfair Trade with Japan, Gold Edges Higher but Remains Vulnerable The Complete Guide: Exchanges that Support Bitcoin Gold EUR/USD Daily Technical Analysis for November 7, 2017 Daily Economic Calendar, November 7, 2017 Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Firming Despite Weaker U.S. Dollar || Fork talk lifts bitcoin to all-time high near $8,000: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin hit an all-time high just below $8,000 on Friday, on talk that a software upgrade whose suspension sent the cryptocurrency into a tailspin at the end of last week was, after all, going ahead within hours. Talk that the upgrade - which could split or "fork" bitcoin into two versions - would go ahead was driven by a statement on the website of Coinbase, the world’s largest bitcoin company with operations in 32 countries. "The Bitcoin Segwit2x fork is expected to occur in the next six hours," it said in a statement published at 1004 GMT. If a bitcoin clone were created, any holders would also in theory instantly become owners of the new spin-off. Bitcoin, generally highly volatile, has been on a particularly wild ride, sliding at the end of last week to as low as $5,555 after plans for Segwit2x were suspended, before bouncing more than 40 percent since Sunday. It reached as high as $7,997 in early Asian trading on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange (BTC=BTSP), before easing back a touch to trade broadly flat by 1115 GMT at $7,863. Market-watchers said speculation about the fork was driving bitcoin higher. If it went ahead as expected, holders of the cryptocurrency would be able to sell the spin-off at a profit if the market were to assign it any value. But in a post on the Medium blogging platform, the company's communications director David Farmer said Coinbase did not expect the fork to successfully split bitcoin in two, as it lacked the necessary support from the network to do so. "Whenever people hear 'fork' nowadays the price jumps, as people hope to get the free dividend," said Charles Hayter, founder of cryptocurrency data analysis site Cryptocompare. "There is also a resulting spike in demand for people entering bitcoin" from other cryptocurrencies. Farmer said the company was actively monitoring the situation and that all funds stored in Coinbase wallets remained safe. All bitcoin buying and selling would be suspended on Coinbase in the hour prior to the fork, which is expected between 1400 and 1600 GMT. Bitcoin is on track for its best week since July. For the year, it is up more than 700 percent. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; editing by John Stonestreet) || BARCLAYS: Snap's redesign could be a turning point (SNAP): AP Images • The tech sector, in general, is recouping some of its recent losses. • Snap is launching its biggest redesign ever, which could be a catalyst for higher revenues and a shift in the narrative around the company. • Watch Snap's stock price move in real time here. Snaptraded higher last week after Barclays upgraded the company from neutral to overweight with a price target of $18.00. It also saw a boost as the tech sector in general won back some of its recent losses. "We’ve been on the sidelines since the IPO, but feel now is a good time to start accumulating shares," Ross Sandler, an analyst at Barclays wrote in a note to clients. Sandler had five main points for why he thinks Snap is set for a comeback: 1. The possibility that the company could start hitting revenue estimates while accelerating growth. 2. A changing narrative that sees Snap coexisting with its rivals. 3. High short interest compared to its peers while the founders own 50%. 4. Tencent's investment in the company. 5. Buzzy new ad products that will add to the story in the near term. "We think the worst is behind SNAP and the company is likely to get back on track in 2018," Sandler wrote. The upgrade comes asthe company's biggest redesign of its app starts to land on users' phones. Snap announced last week that it would be updating its app to better differentiate between personal content from friends and content from brands and celebrities. Sandler said that Twitter and Facebook both benefitted from pivoting to an algorithm for their feeds, and Snap could see the same boost. Snap is quick to point out that its feed will contain only content its human curators approve, which contrasts with Facebook, Twitter and Google who are allunder fire for controversial contentsurfacing on their platforms. Snap boasts impressive user engagement numbers compared to its rivals, and the new design could help increase it even further, Sandler said. Low-end Android users sometimes experience tech issues with the app, so its new architecture could improve the experience of those users. Revenue could increase with more engagement and new ad products, like promoted posts in the brands feed. The timing is perfect to invest in Snap, Sandler says. The short interest is currently high, and the narrative around the company is strongly negative. But, the redesign could spark a turnaround of the company's narrative. Tencent bought shares in the $14 to $15 range, effectively setting a floor for the stock, according to Sandler. Sandler says that investing now would not be for the faint of heart, as going up against the Google and Facebook digital ad monopoly is a tough game to play. His $18 price target is 24% higher than the company's current price of $14.50. Snap shares are 14.7% below their initial public offering price of $17. Markets Insider NOW WATCH:We talked to the bond chief at the $6 trillion fund giant BlackRock about the most important issue for markets right now See Also: • Bitcoin just hit an all-time high — here's how you buy and sell it • How your tax bracket could change in 2018 under Trump's tax plan, in two charts • China did something it's never done before to warn the US about fighting North Korea SEE ALSO:The risks and potential upsides of Snapchat's big redesign [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Price Alert: Riecoin 22.09% 1h change $RIC - Current Price: 0.00002006 BTC | More #RIC Info https://crypto.press/coins/RIC-Riecoin … #CryptoPress || lmao small bitcoin you cop, you wan retire eh? || Check out our latest blog post! World Leaders Are Embracing Bitcoin http://bit.ly/2AnbLLZ  || bitcoin priceってゆうか、 || I COULDA DROPPED 5 BILLS ON 1 BITCOIN N HAD 14 STACKS RIGHT NOW. || こんばんは。 bitcoin priceという || awesome Why is bitcoin’s price so high? http://bit.ly/2AIxB9F  || #Tecnología #Tic Hackean a NiceHash y roban cerca de 64 millones de dólares en criptomonedas - Justo cuando los indicadores disparaban el precio del bitcoin, el mercado de criptomonedas NiceHash fue vulnerado. Actualmente la situación es materia de in... http://ow.ly/p4h550fBMZp  || Thanks for the mention! ER1KN3LSON: RT bitcoinfirehose: The Sleeping Giant Awakens http://ift.tt/2ApAijo  #reddit #bitcoin || BTC Real Time Price: $5797.05 #GDAX; $5775.01 #bitstamp; $5769.41 #gemini; $5775.00 #kraken; $5756.01 #hitbtc; $5851.15 #cex;
Trend: down || Prices: 16624.60, 15802.90, 13831.80, 14699.20, 13925.80, 14026.60, 16099.80, 15838.50, 14606.50, 14656.20
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-06-02] BTC Price: 2488.55, BTC RSI: 69.65 Gold Price: 1276.80, Gold RSI: 62.66 Oil Price: 47.66, Oil RSI: 41.60 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Why leaked NSA hacking tools are not like stolen Tomahawk missiles: The guided-missile destroyer USS Barry launches a Tomahawk cruise missile on March 29, 2011. (image: U.S. Navy) Last week a malicious computer worm dubbed WannaCry 2.0 began attacking older, unpatched versions of Microsoft operating systems, infecting hundreds of thousands of systems with ransomware that held user data hostage in exchange for Bitcoin payments. The cyberattack used code from a powerful National Security Agency tool called EternalBlue, which a mysterious group of hackers known as The Shadow Brokers leaked earlier this year. Tech companies have been quick to blame the NSA for finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in commercial products like Windows, to say nothing of losing them. On Sunday, Brad Smith , Microsoft’s (MSFT) president and chief legal officer, argued that an “equivalent scenario with conventional weapons would be the U.S. military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen.” The next day, Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, speaking via video chat to the K(NO)W Identity Conference in Washington D.C. from an undisclosed location in Russia, repeated Smith’s argument. “An equivalent scenario to what we’re seeing happening today would be conventional weapons, produced and held by the U.S. military, being stolen, such as Tomahawk missiles,” Snowden said while describing Smith’s letter to a crowd less than a mile from the White House. Edward Snowden speaking via video chat from Russia at the K(NO)W Identity Conference in Washington, D.C. on May 15. (image: One World Identity) U.S. officials acknowledge that the NSA deserves scrutiny about protecting tools it develops to collect foreign intelligence. “They’ve absolutely got to do a better job protecting [the hacking tools],” General Keith Alexander, head of the NSA from 2005 to 2014, told The Washington Post. “You can’t argue against that.” However, the Tomahawk analogy may be a stretch. Dave Aitel, a former NSA research scientist and CEO of the cybersecurity company Immunity , explained why hacking tools are not like bombs. “The very first thing is you can steal a Tomahawk missile from me, but you cannot steal it from me without me knowing you’ve stolen it,” Aitel said. “And of course, you can steal an exploit or other intellectual property from me and I may never find out. Another is that two people can have [the same exploit] at the same time.” Story continues Aitel, who specializes in the offensive side of cybersecurity, added that “deep down, the biggest difference is that you have to learn a lot about exploits to protect yourself, and I don’t really have to learn a lot about Tomahawk missiles to protect myself from Tomahawk missiles.” This is the screen you’ll see if your computer is infected with the WannaCry 2.0 ransomware. Nevertheless, the analogy has been relatively well received. Travis Jarae, CEO and Founder of One World Identity, which hosted the conference in Washington, and paid a speakers bureau to digitally host Snowden, said that the Tomahawk analogy is “not wrong” given the contemporary threat environment. “Warfare is digital,” explained Jarae, who was previously Global Head of Identity Verification at Google. “We spy on people digitally … I thought it was a little aggressive to compare it to a missile, but [government hacking] is very damaging.“ Aitel noted that it makes sense why Smith and others in the tech business would make that argument. “[Brad Smith’s] job is to create favorable economic conditions for Microsoft at a strategic level, and if he pressure governments to stop using exploits, then that helps him from a PR perspective,” Aitel said. “It doesn’t help the users because people are still going to have exploits. That’s always going to be true.” Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith speaks at a Microsoft tech gathering in Dublin, Ireland October 3, 2016. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne Snowden also echoed Smith’s criticisms of the U.S. government’s decision to develop secret software exploits, telling the audience at the K(NO)W Identity Conference that secret government exploits are a problem, and the NSA should have voluntarily revealed the EternalBlue exploit long ago. But other former NSA officials have pushed back against that idea, telling the Washington Post that EternalBlue netted an “unreal” foreign intelligence haul that was like “fishing with dynamite.” “Edward Snowden knows full well the value of the signals intelligence program — and that includes the NSA’s hacking — to our national security,” Aitel said. “This is not for play. They’re not building exploits for fun. It’s not a hobby. It’s for distinct and important national security needs. “So when he says ‘Give up your exploits,’ he essentially is saying, ‘We don’t need signals intelligence,’ which we do.” Ultimately, according to Aitel, companies like Microsoft placing the blame on the NSA with crude analogies equating NSA hacking tools to U.S. cruise missiles only serves to muddy the larger debate. “The bigger issue is Brad Smith and Microsoft, who continue to insist that everything fall their way in terms of how vulnerabilities are handled, which I don’t think helps the conversation around cybersecurity,” Aitel said. “There are a lot of very interesting things in cybersecurity that don’t involve Microsoft’s bottom line, and those are worth talking about.” READ MORE: The simple reason so many companies were hit by the WannaCry 2.0 ransomware As tensions rise with Russia, U.S. colleges still pay for Snowden speeches No, your Apple computer isn’t immune from ransomware ‘Risk’ director discusses the ‘tragedy’ of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks || IRS Probe of Bitcoin Goes Too Far, GOP Warns: A closely-watchedfightbetween the Internal Revenue Service and a popular bitcoin exchange took a new twist last week, as senior Republicans in Congress sent a sharply-wordedletterthat suggests the tax agency is overstepping its powers. The letter concerns an IRS investigation into possible tax evasion by customers who use Coinbase, a San Francisco-based company that many people use to buy digital currencies. As part of the investigation, which began last year, officials demanded that Coinbase turn over information for every one of its accounts. Coinbaseandits customersare currently in court trying to block the demand, saying it’s too broad, and now the letter from the Republicans is likely to give them extra ammunition. “The summons is estimated to affect 500,000 active Coinbase customers and would result in the production of millions of pages of associated records, many of which contain personally identifiable information … Based on the information before us,this summons seems overly broad, extremely burdensome, and highly intrusive to a large population of individuals,” says the letter, which is signed by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Ut), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and by Vern Buchanan and Kevin Brady, who head the House Committee on Ways and Means. (my emphasis) Get Data Sheet,Fortune'stechnology newsletter. The Republicans’ concerns echo those of Coinbase and its customers, who argue the IRS does not need every single Coinbase account to carry out its audit, and that the investigation sweeps in people who have clearly done nothing wrong. The tax agency, for its part, has pointed out thatonly 802 Coinbase users filed a tax formrelated to bitcoin in 2015, which suggests large number of people have failed to declare capital gains related to bitcoin. The IRS investigation also comes at a time when the price of bitcoin has been on an incredible tear, climbing from $13 in 2013 toa new highof over $2,000 last week. Those who profited from the higher prices--either by selling bitcoin for dollars or exchanging it for merchandise--are required to pay taxes on the gain. Some Coinbase customers, however, have not sold any bitcoin at all while many others hold only a minimal amount, raising questions of why the IRS demanded information about every account. One theory, according to a lawyerwho spoke withFortunelate last year, is that the IRS’s sweeping demand is a negotiating tactic to make Coinbase more cooperative, and that the two sides will reach an agreement to allow the agency to inspect some, but not all, of the accounts. The letter from the Republicans, which asks the IRS to explain its strategy for enforcing tax payments on digital currency by June 7, is likely to put pressure on the agency to come to a deal with Coinbase. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com • Meet EternalRocks, WannaCry's Scarier Successor • 3 Reasons Why Bitcoin Broke $2,000 • Bitcoin Hit Another Record and It's Gained Almost $4 Billion Just This Week • Bitcoin's Murkier Rivals Line Up to Displace it as Cybercriminals' Favorite • Why Bitcoin's Price Has Been Surging and Where It Could Go From Here || IRS Probe of Bitcoin Goes Too Far, GOP Warns: A closely-watchedfightbetween the Internal Revenue Service and a popular bitcoin exchange took a new twist last week, as senior Republicans in Congress sent a sharply-wordedletterthat suggests the tax agency is overstepping its powers. The letter concerns an IRS investigation into possible tax evasion by customers who use Coinbase, a San Francisco-based company that many people use to buy digital currencies. As part of the investigation, which began last year, officials demanded that Coinbase turn over information for every one of its accounts. Coinbaseandits customersare currently in court trying to block the demand, saying it’s too broad, and now the letter from the Republicans is likely to give them extra ammunition. “The summons is estimated to affect 500,000 active Coinbase customers and would result in the production of millions of pages of associated records, many of which contain personally identifiable information … Based on the information before us,this summons seems overly broad, extremely burdensome, and highly intrusive to a large population of individuals,” says the letter, which is signed by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Ut), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and by Vern Buchanan and Kevin Brady, who head the House Committee on Ways and Means. (my emphasis) Get Data Sheet,Fortune'stechnology newsletter. The Republicans’ concerns echo those of Coinbase and its customers, who argue the IRS does not need every single Coinbase account to carry out its audit, and that the investigation sweeps in people who have clearly done nothing wrong. The tax agency, for its part, has pointed out thatonly 802 Coinbase users filed a tax formrelated to bitcoin in 2015, which suggests large number of people have failed to declare capital gains related to bitcoin. The IRS investigation also comes at a time when the price of bitcoin has been on an incredible tear, climbing from $13 in 2013 toa new highof over $2,000 last week. Those who profited from the higher prices--either by selling bitcoin for dollars or exchanging it for merchandise--are required to pay taxes on the gain. Some Coinbase customers, however, have not sold any bitcoin at all while many others hold only a minimal amount, raising questions of why the IRS demanded information about every account. One theory, according to a lawyerwho spoke withFortunelate last year, is that the IRS’s sweeping demand is a negotiating tactic to make Coinbase more cooperative, and that the two sides will reach an agreement to allow the agency to inspect some, but not all, of the accounts. The letter from the Republicans, which asks the IRS to explain its strategy for enforcing tax payments on digital currency by June 7, is likely to put pressure on the agency to come to a deal with Coinbase. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com • Meet EternalRocks, WannaCry's Scarier Successor • 3 Reasons Why Bitcoin Broke $2,000 • Bitcoin Hit Another Record and It's Gained Almost $4 Billion Just This Week • Bitcoin's Murkier Rivals Line Up to Displace it as Cybercriminals' Favorite • Why Bitcoin's Price Has Been Surging and Where It Could Go From Here || Inside the World's Greatest Scavenger Hunt, Part 1: In the fall of 2015, my teenage daughter Tia crafted a spectacular, life-sized poodle out of feminine hygiene products. “It’s a tampoodle,” she told me. She made this, uh, artwork as an audition piece—to showcase her creative skills, as a tryout for an elite team in some kind of national scavenger hunt. (She made the team.) I thought the tampoodle was cute. I thought it was great fun that Tia was joining some kind of scavenger hunt. I had no idea what kind of ride was ahead. When most people think of a scavenger hunt, they probably imagine the list of items includes, you know, “Get the dean’s signature” or “Find a dog with a curly tail.” GISHWHES is not that. It stands for theGreatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen.(Its creator acknowledges GISHWHES may be the Ugliest Acronym the World Has Ever Seen.) Teams of 15 have one week to complete about 200 extremely difficult or hilarious tasks. They prove they’ve completed each item by submitting a photo or video of it; their $20 entry fees go to a charity, and the winning team gets a trip to some exotic location with Misha Collins, the hunt’s founder. Sample items from past GISHWHES lists: • • Do a dramatic reading of your grade-school report card. • • Find someone you love and butter them up—literally. Cover them in butter and then give them a big hug. • • Glaciers are melting—so act accordingly. Pose at a major glacier wearing a swimsuit with floaties. • • Have a tea party with a pediatric cancer patient, where you’re dressed as a character from “Alice in Wonderland.” • • Tour a sewage treatment plant dressed in formal attire with an accompanying violinist or flutist. • • Get a child to write a letter to the universe. Launch the letter into orbit. • • Film an erotically charged conversation between a housewife and pizza delivery man. The actors can ONLY talk about grammar and fonts. What astonished me is what a big deal GISHWHES is. Last year, 55,000 people registered to participate—not including all the friends and family members who lent favors, assistance, and props. (Registration for this year’s hunt opens this week.) GISHWHES holds seven Guinness World Records, including Biggest Media Scavenger Hunt, Largest Online Photo Album of Hugs, Longest Chain of Safety Pins, Most Pledges for a Charitable Campaign, and Largest Gathering of People in French Maid Outfits. (Why is there a Guinness record for Largest Gathering of People in French Maid Outfits!?) But in the end, GISHWHES is an event that does good in the world. Over the years, GISHWHES list items have persuaded players to a) raise over $1 million for charity, b) donate hundreds of thousands of pints of blood, c) volunteer at soup kitchens, d) register thousands of citizens to vote, and e) register to become bone-marrow donors. (That last item has already saved two lives, according to GISHWHES producers.) And the 2016 hunt raised $250,000 to buy homes for five Syrian refugee families. So yes, GISHWHES is a do-gooder enterprise. But it’s also brilliantly clever, gut-bustingly funny, and positively unforgettable. So my question is: Why haven’t people heard of GISHWHES? Why isn’t it a culturalthing? Why isn’t it, at the very least, a reality show? It’d be the most entertaining show on TV. Well, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. With the tolerance of my superiors at Yahoo, I decided to make myowndarned reality show. Above on this page is Episode 1 of a five-part series. Part 1 •Part 2•Part 3•Part 4•Part 5 GISHWHES was created, and is run to this day, by TV actor Misha Collins, a costar of the CW series “Supernatural.” (His heartthrob status helps explain why GISHWHES participants are predominantly female.) “I went to the University of Chicago,” he told me. “The University of Chicago has a scavenger hunt that we call Scav, that has been running about 30 years now. It took place over the course of a long weekend. We would completely abandon our academics and our sense of decency for those three days, and go all-out for this scavenger hunt. And I loved it. I actually think that it was one of the most educational aspects of my college experience, and infused with the most joy.” Years later, after a decade of struggling as an actor in Los Angeles, Collins finally landed a show. “I got on this TV show ‘Supernatural,’ and I developed a little bit of a fandom following, and I started to notice that there was a high level of creative engagement from our fans. That got my wheels turning. What can I do with this? How can I have fun with it?” Collins’s first side project with his fans wasa charity called Random Acts. “We’ve done some pretty big projects. We built an orphanage in Haiti; we’re finishing building a high school in Nicaragua right now. But we also do myriad smaller projects all over the world—as small as bringing roses into a senior citizen home.” Then, in 2009, as a lark, Collins ran a little scavenger hunt from his Twitter account. About 300 people participated; they were instructed to photograph their submissions and send them to an email address that Collins set up. “People engaged in it with an enthusiasm and a committedness that I could not’ve anticipated,” he says now. “I remember sitting in my apartment, looking at the submissions that had come in, and thinking, ‘This is amazing!’ The art people were creating, the tasks that I thought were impossible that people were pulling off—! I remember, ‘This is what I wanna do for my life’s work. This is awesome.’” And so, in 2010, GISHWHES was born. For the 2016 hunt, I embedded myself with my daughter’s GISHWHES team for the week. I filmed their efforts and followed their frustrations and joys. In the coming episodes, you’ll get to meet them—and you’ll get go to inside world’s biggest scavenger hunt. Part 1 •Part 2•Part 3•Part 4•Part 5 More from David Pogue: The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update Now I get it: Bitcoin David Pogue tested 47 pill-reminder apps to find the best one David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes non-toxic comments in the Comments below. On the web, he’sdavidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s@pogue. On email, he’s poguester@yahoo.com. You canread all his articles here, or you can sign up toget his columns by email. || What US ETF Market Looks Like Today: It was just 24 years ago that the first ETF, theSPDR S&P 500 (SPY), came to market—ETF No. 1. Now, with 51 new ETF launches having already occurred this year, we are about to hit a milestone: 2,000 ETFs listed in the U.S. These funds already command more assets than hedge funds in an asset base that grows about 20-25% yearly. With nearly $3 trillion in assets in U.S.-listed ETFs alone, some are already projecting the size of the market to double by 2020. If you talk to those who were part of the ETF industry’s early days—people likeState Street Global Advisors’ Jim RossandiShares’ former head Lee Kranefuss, you get a sense that no one would have guessed ETFs would take off as they did, and reinvent the way investors access the market. “The growth of ETFs in U.S. capital markets is a textbook case study in ‘Disruptive Innovation,’ right alongside well-known historical examples like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix and scores of others successful enterprises,” ConvergEx Nick Colas said in a commentary this week. “It is no exaggeration to say that there are more ETFs than investable stocks listed on U.S. exchanges.” Today’s market definitely looks very different from its early days. The era of plain-vanilla products designed around well-known equity indices is giving way to a wave of innovation that has ETFs tapping into broad, diverse and niche pockets through various strategies today. Here’s a broad overview of the market’s makeup, with data courtesy of FactSet: Asset Class Equity ETFsdominate in numbers and in assets. Roughly 70% of all U.S.-listed ETFs are equity funds—or some 1,385 ETFs in the market today. These U.S. and/or international equity ETFs have about $2.2 trillion in combined assets. That amounts to 78% of all U.S.-listed ETF assets, or nearly $8 out of every $10 invested in ETFs today. Investors have plenty of choices when it comes to equity ETF exposures. The biggest of these funds are all focused on U.S. stocks, led by SPY, with $233 billion in assets.IVVcomes at No. 2, with $103 billion; andVTIat No. 3, with $76 billion. Those three ETFs alone represent about 25% of assets specifically in U.S. equity ETFs, and 19% of all assets tied to equity ETFs, either domestic or international. Fixed income ETFs—the second-largest asset class in this industry—command about $490 billion in total assets, the bulk of which is in U.S. fixed-income funds. This is a segment of the market that’s still growing. There are only 317 fixed-income ETFs on the market today, which represents about 16% of all U.S. ETF listings. Many see fixed income as a still-opening-up frontier for more ETF innovation. The remainder of the market is split into smaller slices:Alternatives ETFsrepresent about 2.6% of the total market;asset allocation ETFs2.2%;commodity ETFs5.7%; andcurrency ETFs1.5% of the total number of U.S. ETF listings. Smart-Beta ETFs Market-cap-weighted strategies were the first, and remain the largest number of, funds in the market. But it’s smart-beta funds that are driving asset growth and product innovation. Smart beta goes by many names—some call it strategic beta, fundamental indexing, factor investing and more. But the ETFs in this category are simply rules-based strategies that aim to deliver better risk-adjusted returns than traditional market-cap-weighted indexes. They apply different selection screens, and weight securities in different ways to deliver a spectrum of results. Today there are roughly800 smart-beta ETFson the market—that’s four out of every 10 ETFs in the market—and funds falling under this rubric represented roughly half of the ETFs that launched last year. Among equity ETFs, nearly half are some flavor of smart beta today. In the fixed-income space, where active management is still widely accepted, smart beta has been slower to find a following—only about 9% of all fixed-income ETFs today are smart-beta funds. Costs ETFs have always been known for their low cost, and ongoing fee compression keeps pushing price tags lower. The cheapest ETFs on the market today carry a mere 0.03% expense ratio—that’s $3 per $10,000 invested. They are: • Schwab U.S. Broad Market ETF (SCHB) • Schwab U.S. Large-Cap ETF (SCHX) • iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF (ITOT) These are all vanilla strategies, and as the market moves more toward smart-beta approaches, expense ratios have averaged higher because the more complex a fund is, the more it usually costs. But even in the smart-beta segment, fee compression is real. The cheapest smart-beta ETFs today have 0.04% expense ratios—a pair of Schwab growth and value funds that use a multifactor selection process to pick securities, which are then market-cap-weighted in the portfolios. Most ETFs today have expense ratios between 0.3% and 1.0%. But there are funds that come with hefty expense ratios. There are 22 ETFs that have expense ratios of more than 2%, and the most expensive ETF has an ER of 9.20%—that’s $920 per $10,000 invested. It’s theVanEck Vectors BDC Income ETF (BIZD). ETF Issuers Roughly 82% of all U.S.-listed ETF assets are managed by three single ETF issuers—BlackRock’s iShares, Vanguard and State Street Global Advisors. iShares’s dominance is uncontested, as the firm alone commands about $1 trillion of all ETF assets in the U.S. But there are a growing number of ETF issuers, with new firms looking for ways to join the bandwagon as investors demand access to the ETF wrapper. Today we count nearly 80ETF issuersin all, each trying to find their niche in a market that’s increasingly diverse. At the end of the day, the number of ETF launches—which outpaces ETF closures year after year—and the continued entry of these new ETF players, suggest that 2,000 ETFs with nearly $3 trillion in the U.S. alone may very well be just the beginning for this “disruptive innovation” of an industry. Contact Cinthia Murphy atcmurphy@etf.com Recommended Stories • Bogle’s Recipe For Active Manager Survival • Don’t Choose An ETF Based On Fees Alone • Socially Responsible Dividends In An ETF • Running An Index ETF Is Harder Than It Looks • SEC To Review Decision Denying Bitcoin ETF Permalink| © Copyright 2017ETF.com.All rights reserved || Hackers are trying to bring the WannaCry ransomware back from the dead: A little more than a week ago, a particularly nasty piece of ransomware dubbed “WannaCry” began spreading at an impressive clip all across the globe. Targeting Windows machines — and based off of a leaked NSA exploit — impacted users found that all of their computer files had been encrypted and could only be recovered by making a $300 payment in Bitcoin. With the ransomware showing no signs of slowing down, an enterprising researcher named Marcus Hutchins managed to effectively stop WannaCry dead in its tracks by inadvertently enabling a kill-switch. As we noted last week , WannaCry at the point of infection attempts to communicate with a domain name consisting of a long string of nonsensical characters. If the domain is registered, WannaCry will stop spreading. If the domain is not registered, WannaCry will go on about its havoc-wreaking business. Don't Miss : You won’t have to wait until November to buy Apple’s next-gen iPhone 8 After taking a look at the WannaCry code, Hutchins spotted an odd-looking domain name and out of mere curiosity registered it, having no idea at the time that he was enabling the ransomware’s kill-switch. Without question, Hutchins’ action here helped stopped the malware from spreading even wider, but not before it managed to infect more than 300,000 computers across the globe. Interestingly enough, security researchers now claim that there’s a clever and concerted campaign to bring the malware back from the dead. The strategy? Taking the kill-switch domain off-line by any means necessary. According to a report from Wired , botnets are now being mobilized to launch a DDoS attack against the kill-switch domain. Now a few devious hackers appear to be trying to combine those two internet plagues: They’re using their own copycats of the Mirai botnet to attack WannaCry’s kill-switch. So far, researchers have managed to fight off the attacks. But in the unlikely event that the hackers succeed, the ransomware could once again start spreading unabated. … If the DDoS assault did succeed, not all WannaCry infections would immediately reignite. The ransomware stops scanning for new victims 24 hours after installing itself on a computer, says Matt Olney, a security researcher with Cisco’s Talos team. But anytime one of those infected machines reboots, it starts scanning again. “The ones that were successfully encrypted are in this zombie state, where they’re waiting to be reactivated if that domain goes away,” says Olney. Story continues At this point, there’s no way of knowing if the folks behind WannaCry are the ones trying to resurrect the malware. Some security researchers, though, believe that the new botnet campaign is actually being carried out by folks looking to have a bit of ill-advised fun at the expense of innocent users. Incidentally, French security researchers have since come up with a fix for the WannaCry ransomware called ‘wannakiwi’ that can be downloaded here. Trending right now: Android O’s most exciting new feature is a total game-changer You won’t have to wait until November to buy Apple’s next-gen iPhone 8 The hottest new Nintendo Switch game that isn’t Mario Kart is $20 off on Amazon See the original version of this article on BGR.com || If you bought $100 of bitcoin 7 years ago, you'd be sitting on $72.9 million now after new record high: Monday marks the seven-year anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day – the moment a programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz spent 10,000 bitcoin on two Papa John's pizzas. More important than the episode being widely recognized as the first transaction using the cryptocurrency is what it tells us about the bitcoin rally that saw it break through the $2,100 mark on Monday. Bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=-USS) was trading as high as $2,185.89 in the early hours of Monday morning, hitting a fresh record high, after first powering through the $2,000 barrier over the weekend, according to CoinDesk data. On May 22, 2010, Hanyecz asked a fellow enthusiast on a bitcoin forum to accept 10,000 bitcoin for two Papa John's Pizzas. At the time, Hanyecz believed that the coins he had "mined" on his computer were worth around 0.003 cents each. Bitcoin mining involves solving a complex mathematical solution with the miner being rewarded in bitcoin. This is how Hanyecz got his initial coins. The cryptocurrency has many doubters as it continues to be associated with criminal activity, but it has still seen a stunning rally. Here are two facts, on Bitcoin Pizza Day, however, that highlight this: While being worth $30 at the time, Hanyecz pizzas would now cost $21.8 million at current bitcoin prices If you bought $100 of bitcoin at the 0.003 cent price on May 22, 2010, you'd now be sitting on around $72.9 million A number of factors have been driving the rally: Recently passed legislation in Japan that allows retailers to start accepting bitcoin as a legal currency has boosted trading in yen, which now accounts for over 40 percent of all bitcoin trade Political uncertainty globally has driven demand for bitcoin as a safe haven asset A debate within the bitcoin community about the future of the underlying technology behind bitcoin known as the blockchain has been taking place. There was fear at one point this could lead to the creation of two separate cryptocurrencies but those worries have largely subsided with an alternative, more palatable option now being put forward. Story continues For an in-depth look at the factors driving bitcoin, click here . Bitcoin has rallied over 117 percent year to-date. year to-date. Also From CNBC Watch The Profit on Yahoo View , available now on iOS and Android . More From CNBC Massive cyberattack 'huge screw-up' by government, Wikipedia's founder says Daily Mail has 'mastered the art of running' fake news, Wikipedia founder says Bitcoin hits $1,900 record high with market cap up $4 billion this week alone || Chinese bitcoin exchanges resume withdrawals after freeze: By John Ruwitch and Brenda Goh SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Major Chinese bitcoin exchanges have started to resume allowing withdrawals of the cryptocurrency after nearly a four-month freeze that followed increased scrutiny from the central bank. Bobby Lee, chief executive of BTCChina, said in a statement on Thursday that his exchange had started "testing" withdrawals after upgrading its "know your customer" and anti-money laundering systems. Huobi, another exchange, said in a statement it would resume withdrawals on Thursday. Two industry sources said OkCoin, China's third major cryptocurrency exchange, had resumed allowing withdrawals. A spokeswoman for OkCoin declined to comment but referred Reuters to an industry news outlet that reported on the resumption. As the popularity of bitcoin spread, China quickly evolved into the world's leading venue for bitcoin trading. But volumes collapsed after the People's Bank of China began looking into the market more closely and conducting checks of the exchanges at the start of this year. Major exchanges halted withdrawals of bitcoins in early February, introduced trading fees and stepped up scrutiny of clients amid discussions with authorities. While withdrawals were suspended, investors could buy and sell bitcoins on Chinese exchanges but were barred from transferring them or downloading and removing them. One of the industry sources said the decision to resume withdrawals was made after the central bank had signaled that it was not forbidden. BTCChina and OkCoin were allowing customers to withdraw a maximum of 10 bitcoins a day, the source said. It remained unclear when more formal regulation of the industry would begin, the person added. The decision to resume withdrawals comes with the price of bitcoin near an all-time high. Prices on European exchange Bitstamp were around $2,400 on Thursday - up nearly 150 percent from the start of the year. The intensified regulator interest in bitcoin coincided with a clampdown on capital outflows, as authorities sought to relieve downward pressure on the yuan currency and stop the depletion of China's foreign exchange reserves. Bitcoin's relative anonymity prompted some industry observers to say it had become an attractive, if niche, option for tech-savvy Chinese to hedge against the yuan and skirt rules limiting how much foreign exchange individuals could buy each year. The yuan has stymied forecasts it would continue to fall after losing about 6.5 percent against the dollar last year. It is up more than 2 percent since the start of the year. (Reporting by John Ruwitch and Brenda Goh; Additional reporting by Alexandra Harney; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Christopher Cushing) || Bitcoin could hit $100,000 in 10 years, says the analyst who correctly called its $2,000 price: Bitcoin's(Exchange: BTC=-USS)price has the potential to hit over $100,000 in 10 years, which would mark a 3,483 percent rise from its recent record high, an analyst who correctly predicted the cryptocurrency's rally this year told CNBC on Tuesday. In December, Saxo Bank published its annual report called "Outrageous Predictions" withone of the forecasts calling for bitcoin to hit $2,000 in 2017. At the time the note was published,bitcoinwas trading at around $754, so the target price represented a 165 percent rise.Bitcoin hit $2,000 on May 20. But now, Kay Van-Petersen, the analyst behind the call, is looking long term and sees a big rise ahead forbitcoin. Here's how he came up with his price target in 10 years. Van-Petersen is assuming cryptocurrencies in general – not justbitcoin– will account for 10 percent of the average daily volumes (ADV) of fiat currency trade in 10 years. Foreign exchange ADV currently stands at just over $5 trillion, according to the Bank for International Settlements. Ten percent of $5 trillion is $500 billion. This is the ADV that cryptocurrencies could have. Bitcoin will account for 35 percent of that market share, which would that $175 billion of the $500 billion figure, he said. This would mean that $175 billion worth of bitcoin would be traded every day Also, Van-Petersen then implies that bitcoin's market capitalization would be ten times the average daily volume, giving a figure of $1.75 trillion for the market cap. The current figure is around $37.8 billion, according to data from industry website CoinDesk. Bitcoin has a limited supply of 21 million which is expected to be reached by the year 2140. In 10 years, the analyst thinks that there will be 17 million bitcoin in circulation, up from the current 16.3 million figure. If the potential 17 million of bitcoins in supply is divided by the $1.75 trillion market cap estimate, then each bitcoin would be worth just over $100,000. Van-Petersen – who ownsbitcoin– emphasizes that this is a rough calculation but that his growth predictions could be "conservative" given that in the year 2013 alone, bitcoin's price grew over 5,000 percent. The analyst said that cryptocurrencies will survive in the long run. "This is not a fad, cryptocurrencies are here to stay," Van-Petersen told CNBC in a phone interview. "There will emerge two to three main ones. Bitcoin will be one of those. And the reason is the first-mover advantage, the scale and the pioneering." Van-Petersen's views are not the official view of Saxo Bank, the analyst said. The bitcoin industry has had its fair share of problems and reputational damage. The digital currency has often had an image of being used for illegal means such as buying drugs online. Thecollapse of Mt.Gox in 2014, once the world's largest bitcoin exchange, is still fresh in the minds of users. Some members of the exchange are still waiting for compensation. More recent issues include some exchanges not allowing people to withdraw their money in fiat currency. On top of this, the view of bitcoin as a currency for criminals is still prevalent after the major WannaCry ransomware cyberattack saw hackers lock peoples' files andask for bitcoin in exchange to unlock them. Still, Van-Petersen says that the industry is still extremely young and big improvements will come. A few factors will boost bitcoin adoption including better wallets, easier methods to buy the digital currency, use of it for money transfers in areas like remittances, as well as citizens of countries with volatile economies and currencies buying it. "Volumes are going up, volatility is going down. A lot of people talk about the volatility, but if you are in Zimbabwe or Venezuela, this volatility is nothing. This is the interesting thing to me. I think in the West, a lot of people view it is as speculative, but emerging markets will get it, their needs will be different," Van-Petersen added. While Van-Petersen is offering one way to valuebitcoinin the future, others say that there are other factors to take into consideration. "It's one way of slicing the pie to try and predict future prices which always relies on a lot of assumptions," Charlie Hayter, CEO of industry website CryptoCompare, told CNBC by email. "Equating volumes to price value is one method of attempting a valuation, but it doesn't take into account the fundamentals of the ecosystem." The fundamentals of what bitcoin is capable of from a technical point of view and how regulation is molded around its use will determine its value too, Hayter added. More From CNBC • Bitcoin is outperforming major assets but hedge funds are still staying away • Bitcoin correction sees nearly $4 billion wiped off value of the cryptocurrency • Op-Ed: Bitcoin is more akin to the Nasdaq than gold and is not a safe haven asset || Hackers are trying to bring the WannaCry ransomware back from the dead: A little more than a week ago, a particularly nasty piece of ransomware dubbed “WannaCry” began spreading at an impressive clip all across the globe. Targeting Windows machines — and based off of a leaked NSA exploit — impacted users found that all of their computer files had been encrypted and could only be recovered by making a $300 payment in Bitcoin. With the ransomware showing no signs of slowing down, an enterprising researcher named Marcus Hutchins managed to effectively stop WannaCry dead in its tracks by inadvertently enabling a kill-switch. As we noted last week , WannaCry at the point of infection attempts to communicate with a domain name consisting of a long string of nonsensical characters. If the domain is registered, WannaCry will stop spreading. If the domain is not registered, WannaCry will go on about its havoc-wreaking business. Don't Miss : You won’t have to wait until November to buy Apple’s next-gen iPhone 8 After taking a look at the WannaCry code, Hutchins spotted an odd-looking domain name and out of mere curiosity registered it, having no idea at the time that he was enabling the ransomware’s kill-switch. Without question, Hutchins’ action here helped stopped the malware from spreading even wider, but not before it managed to infect more than 300,000 computers across the globe. Interestingly enough, security researchers now claim that there’s a clever and concerted campaign to bring the malware back from the dead. The strategy? Taking the kill-switch domain off-line by any means necessary. According to a report from Wired , botnets are now being mobilized to launch a DDoS attack against the kill-switch domain. Now a few devious hackers appear to be trying to combine those two internet plagues: They’re using their own copycats of the Mirai botnet to attack WannaCry’s kill-switch. So far, researchers have managed to fight off the attacks. But in the unlikely event that the hackers succeed, the ransomware could once again start spreading unabated. … If the DDoS assault did succeed, not all WannaCry infections would immediately reignite. The ransomware stops scanning for new victims 24 hours after installing itself on a computer, says Matt Olney, a security researcher with Cisco’s Talos team. But anytime one of those infected machines reboots, it starts scanning again. “The ones that were successfully encrypted are in this zombie state, where they’re waiting to be reactivated if that domain goes away,” says Olney. Story continues At this point, there’s no way of knowing if the folks behind WannaCry are the ones trying to resurrect the malware. Some security researchers, though, believe that the new botnet campaign is actually being carried out by folks looking to have a bit of ill-advised fun at the expense of innocent users. Incidentally, French security researchers have since come up with a fix for the WannaCry ransomware called ‘wannakiwi’ that can be downloaded here. Trending right now: Android O’s most exciting new feature is a total game-changer You won’t have to wait until November to buy Apple’s next-gen iPhone 8 The hottest new Nintendo Switch game that isn’t Mario Kart is $20 off on Amazon See the original version of this article on BGR.com [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Today BTC course 1.00 BTC = 1 807 USD #bitcoin #bitcoinAPIphp #bitcoinwallet || 1 BTC Price: BTC-e 2389.997 USD Bitstamp 2470.00 USD Coinbase 2573.00 USD #btc #bitcoin 2017-05-25 18:30 pic.twitter.com/AhHLy0bT6Z || One Bitcoin now worth $1305.53@bitstamp. High $1330.00. Low $1281.00. Market Cap $21.275 Billion #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/4OKORFOYnC || 18Apr2017 18:00 UTC #Bitcoin live spots - #XBTUSD @ 1,209.00000 $ - #XBTEUR @ 1,126.84350 € || 1 BTC Price: BTC-e 2305.951 USD Bitstamp 2380.00 USD Coinbase 2401.44 USD #btc #bitcoin 2017-05-26 11:30 pic.twitter.com/slMRnsT5I3 || $1947.24 at 15:00 UTC [24h Range: $1846.50 - $1954.99 Volume: 12387 BTC] || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 8 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $4,276.42 #bitcoin #btc || 1137.192 Eur | -0.13% | Kraken | 10/04/17 00:03 #Bitcoin || Bitcoin Vamos para los $31,000.00 pesos pic.twitter.com/JGU6ncsDHG || 2017-04-11 18:00 1 BTC son: 6.677.494Gs. #btc #gs #pyg #bitcoin #paraguay #guaranies
Trend: up || Prices: 2515.35, 2511.81, 2686.81, 2863.20, 2732.16, 2805.62, 2823.81, 2947.71, 2958.11, 2659.63
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-11-07] BTC Price: 7144.38, BTC RSI: 70.49 Gold Price: 1273.70, Gold RSI: 46.34 Oil Price: 57.20, Oil RSI: 78.17 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Investors need to pay attention to Bitcoin: David Garrity is the CEO of GVA Research . Cryptocurrencies are essentially “New Money,” backed by independently operated computers and user faith in an open source algorithm, that runs on blockchain technology. According to MIT Technology Review, “A blockchain is a shared, permanent, encrypted dataset, created by a network of computers according to a set of software rules.” Understanding the operation of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies (e.g. bitcoin) can be daunting. Yet, they have become central to the discussion of investing and technology, so it’s time to dive in. Here are five reasons why cryptocurrencies are significant: 1) In Bitcoin, Millennials Trust As of April 2016, the Millennials surpassed the Baby Boomers in size in the U.S., with 76mm Boomers and 77mm Millennials. Much as the Boomers before them drove the global economy and created from their tastes and preferences investment opportunities for decades, Millennials are having a growing effect that cannot and must not be ignored. When it comes to finance, Millennial experience is shaped by the dot.com bubble burst of the early 2000s and financial crisis of the late 2000s. When it comes to the financial system, Millennials have had to suffer from the mistakes and greed of their elders. However, while Millennials may not trust financial advisors, they do trust technology as the first generation to come of age with computers, smartphones, social media and as such a healthy admiration of creative entrepreneurship. Millennials are tech-centric and are comfortable investing in an asset class such as bitcoin which depends upon technology. Cryptocurrencies help Millennials bypass fears about the traditional financial industry by serving as a decentralized asset class in which to invest. Based on recent surveys, 87% of respondents aged 18-24 know of bitcoin vs. 76% of those aged 55+. While respondents aged 25-34 are most likely to invest in bitcoin as an asset for the future or to consider using bitcoin for purchases, older respondents have already made up their minds to not get involved with bitcoin. Story continues As Millennials increasingly drive the global economy, expect bitcoin to be more and more how they pay for the ride. Already we can see that digital payments are displacing older payment forms as the market capitalization of PayPal (ticker: PYPL, market cap: $87bn) has surpassed that of American Express (ticker: AXP, market cap: $83bn). Bitcoin is a currency with a future as Millennials put their trust in it. 2) When It Comes To Laundering, Digital Outperforms Physical BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has said that bitcoin is an index of money laundering. However, note that currently the $100 bill issued by the U.S. Treasury is the currency of money laundering the world over. There are more than $1.1 trillion worth of US$100 bills in circulation globally, a number that has doubled over the past decade. If Fink is right, then bitcoin has ample room to rise from its current value of $7,300 (implied value of $153bn for the maximum 21mm bitcoins possible) as it displaces US$100 bills. To be realistic, money laundering is an activity generally frowned upon by governments and one that they have sought to control through the introduction of anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. However, to be equally realistic, one should note that given how the rich and powerful like to keep their money clean, one shouldn’t expect to see regulation over cryptocurrency proceed in a way that diminishes their wealth by excessive regulation or outright bans. To the extent bitcoin is more secure and cleaner than $100 bills, expect to see more of it. 3) Bitcoin Is Driving A Fresh Investment Cycle In Highly Scalable Technologies Let’s be honest, the US$100 bill enjoys its status because the U.S. Dollar is the global reserve currency, a status enjoyed since the end of WWII when the USA was the strongest economy left standing in a world bombed flat by war. By having the global reserve currency, the USA is able to set monetary policy and interest rates that drive the global economy. With benefits like that, who wouldn’t want to have the opportunity to create a new global reserve currency? However, given the current likely undesirable outcomes from global scale nuclear conflict, it is not likely war will be the means by which the U.S. Dollar will be displaced from its global reserve currency status. Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin do offer the opportunity to compete. As the worldwide opportunity in creating such new money dwarfs the combined market capitalization of the FANG stocks, it is likely this point is not lost on policymakers in Beijing and Moscow, along with other countries. Consider the total addressable market for a new currency as there are over $5 trillion in physical Dollars, Euros, Yen and Yuan in circulation globally with multiples of that in total money supply across the economies where those currencies trade. On a relative basis, total cryptocurrency valuations of approximately $170bn appear almost immaterial. 4) Bitcoin Will Be Accepted By More Retailers There is significant disruptive structural change unfolding in the retailing sector centered in large part around Amazon.com ( AMZN ) which is at a point where it is accelerating the pace at which grows by now acquiring established retail outlets such as WholeFoods. With its large customer list and the competitive edge provided by its stellar technological capabilities, note with interest that Amazon has just recently registered three domains: amazoncryptocurrencies.com , amazoncrypotocurrency.com , and amazonethereum.com . With Millennials inclined to use bitcoin to pay for purchases, Amazon is most likely posing consumers the question: “How do you plan to pay for all those Xmas gifts?” 5) Bitcoin – A Powerhouse An index from cryptocurrency analyst Alex de Vries, aka Digiconomist, estimates that with bitcoin trading over $7,000, it would be profitable for bitcoin miners to burn through over 24 terawatt-hours of electricity annually as they compete to solve increasingly difficult cryptographic puzzles to “mine” more bitcoins. That’s about as much electricity as Nigeria, a country of 186mm, consumes annually. Since the average American household consumes 901 KWh per month, each bitcoin transfer represents enough energy to run a comfortable house, and everything in it, for nearly a week. On a larger scale, De Vries’ index shows that bitcoin miners worldwide could be using enough electricity to at any given time to power about 2.26 million American homes. As such, if bitcoin mining were a separate U.S. state, it would fall between Maryland (#20 with 2.2mm households) and Wisconsin (#19 with 2.33mm households). Terrapins, Badgers and bitcoin, oh my! To update Winston Churchill’s statement on Russia and its national policy prior to the outbreak of WWII, namely “it is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”, one might say of cryptocurrencies that they are “money wrapped within a cryptographic puzzle inside the enigma of 21st century technology”. While the key to understanding Russia was its national interest, there is no such unifying theme to consider with cryptocurrencies, only the rising tide of technological innovation washing away the foundational assumptions of established paradigms. We live in interesting times. David Garrity has over 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry, he has held senior roles including CFO and board of director positions for both publicly held and private companies, and has extensive experience in several disciplines including operating, advisory and research, and is CEO of GVA Research. David currently serves on the Board of Directors of BTCS Inc., a publicly-held U.S. company involved with Digital Assets and Blockchain technology development and application, and the Advisory Board of Venture.co. || Company Files Market Abuse Claim Against Jamie Dimon Re: Bitcoin Comments: FromTyler Durden: A week after Jamie Dimon made headlines by proclaiming Bitcoin a “fraud” and anyone who owns it as “stupid,” the JPMorgan CEO faces a market abuse claim for “spreading false and misleading information” about bitcoin. Unless you have been living under a rock for the past week, you will be well aware ofJPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s panicked outburst with regard the ‘fraud’ that Bitcoin’s ‘tulip-like’ bubble is. To paraphrase: “It’s a fraud. It’s making stupid people, such as my daughter, feel like they’re geniuses. It’s going to get somebody killed. I’ll fire anyone who touches it.” One week later, an algorithmic liquidity provider called Blockswater has filed a market abuse report againstJamie Dimonfor “spreading false and misleading information” about bitcoin. The firm filed the report with the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority againstJPMorganChase and Dimon, the company’s chief executive. Blockswater said Dimon violated Article 12 of the European Union’s Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) by declaring that cryptocurrency bitcoin was “a fraud”. The complaint saidDimon’s statement negatively impacted “the cryptocurrency’s price and reputation”. Blockswater said JPMorgan traded bitcoin derivatives for their clients on Stockholm-based exchange Nasdaq Nordic before and after Dimon’s statements (as we detailed here), whichSchweitzer said “smells like market manipulation”. Blockswater works with blockchain-based assets based in London and Austria. Its full complaint is below: Blockswater Files Market Abuse Report Against Jamie Dimon in StockholmBlockswater LLP believes that Dimon violated EU’s Market Abuse Regulation by “spreading false and misleading information” about bitcoin Bitcoin was trading at $3,592.65 on Friday morning, down 0.55% on the day. This article is brought to you courtesy ofZeroHedge. || A trader is being accused of running a bitcoin Ponzi scheme: (Ethan Miller/Getty Images) The US government is going after a New York man for allegedly operating a bitcoin Ponzi scheme. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Nicholas Gelfman, a Brooklyn resident and head trader at Gelfman Blueprint, a New York-based firm, "fraudulently solicited" $600,000 from 80 clients in a bitcoin Ponzi scheme. Investors,according to a release from the CFTC Thursday, gave money to Gelfman "for placement in a pooled commodity fund that purportedly employed a high-frequency, algorithmic trading strategy, executed by Defendants’ computer trading program called “Jigsaw.” "In fact, as charged in the CFTC Complaint, the strategy was fake, the purported performance reports were false, and — as in all Ponzi schemes — payouts of supposed profits to GBI Customers in actuality consisted of other customers’ misappropriated funds," the CFTC said. Gelfman covered up the scheme by "staging" a hack. Since transactions on bitcoin's blockchain network are decentralized and anonymous, the cryptocurrency provides an attractive option for criminals looking to conduct business outside of the watchful eye of government officials. The Italian mafia has used bitcointo launder money for its illicit activities, for instance, and the notorious WannaCry hackersextorted over $140,000 worth of the cryptocurrency from their malware victims. NOW WATCH:GARY SHILLING: The Fed is wrong about wage inflation More From Business Insider • 2 of China's biggest cryptocurrency exchanges are shutting down trading — but bitcoin is soaring • Ethereum is plunging following reports China could ban cryptocurrency trading • Bitcoin is tumbling after Chinese regulators say an exchange ban is certain || Japanese Stocks Hit Record Highs Following Elections: hurdle again after positive leads from Asia.The Nikkeirallied more than 1% and touched new record highs, after Abe’s victory in this weekend’s election, which paved the way for a continuation of loose monetary policy and underpinned stocks, which sending yen and yields down. The Hang Seng meanwhile underperformed and dropped as Chinese shares in Hong Kong meanwhile headed south after some disappointing earnings reports, and with reports of falling home prices weighing on developers. With the ECB set to confirm its QE extension on Thursday Eurozone markets modestly moved higher though, although the Spanish IBEX underperformed and was down amid escalating tensions in Catalonia. The Pound rose against EUR and yen, which contributed to the underperformance of the index that is dominated by international companies. U.S. stock futures are up while oil prices are moving sideways. Trump is considering Taylor and Powell for Fed chiefand he might have them fill both the Chair and Vice Chair positions, without indicating which order. That’s given the dollar a little lift since he’s agreed to make the decision by next week. The UK CBI industrial trends survey highlighted a souring in sentiment, with the balance of the general business situation falling to an -11% reading for the three months to October, down from +5% in the three months to July. However, expectations for total new orders rose to a balance of +20%, which is the most upbeat reading since April. The survey also found that cost pressures remain upbeat. Brexit remains front and center and while little substantive progress has been made on agreeing to divorce terms, which is a necessity for the EU before it moves on to talk about a future trading relationship and a possible transition period, there appears to be a galvanization in the ranks of diplomats on both sides as the clock ticks on and the pressure mounts. There were reports from the EU summit on Friday that PM May privately told EU diplomats that she is prepared to substantially up the current implied offer of 20 billion euros for the divorce settlement, which gave the pound a lift, though detail has been lacking. Spanish markets are underperforming as Catalonia tensions rise. Rajoy may have started the legal process to take direct control in Catalonia, but the protests over the weekend and Puigdemont’s declaration that Madrid is preparing to stage a putsch highlights that this conflict is far from over. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Midday Forex Snapshot – October 19, 2017 • Bitcoin Price: Market Law and a Bit of Sentiment • Japanese Stocks Hit Record Highs Following Elections • USD/CAD Daily Fundamental Forecast – October 23, 2017 • US Dollar Index (DX) Futures Technical Analysis – October 23, 2017 Forecast • Gold Causing Pain Among Traders || Crude Oil Price Update – Actual Cut in Output Would Send Prices Soaring Through $53.11: December West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures rallied on Monday to its highest level since September 29, putting it in a position to challenge the last main top at $53.11. The catalyst behind the rally was a new Iraq conflict that threatens output. Iraqi forces moved on Sunday and Monday to take controls of oil fields in the Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk and the surrounding areas. This conflict is different from the other military activity in the Middle East because it involves oil and oilfield infrastructure. The main trend is up according to the daily swing chart. A trade through $53.11 will signal a resumption of the uptrend. The short-term range is $53.11 to $49.44. Its retracement zone at $51.71 to $51.27 is support. Holding above this zone will help maintain the upside bias. On Monday, the market challenged a pair of downtrending angles at $52.30 and $52.70. This two angles are the last potential resistance angles before the $53.11 main top. On the downside, the nearest support angle comes in at $51.19. The current rally is being fueled by short-covering and speculation. The shorts are covering because of uncertainty and the specs are buying in anticipation of an escalation of the military activity in Iraq. These types of rallies usually result in short-term price spikes and they usually end rather quickly. In order to sustain any rally caused by military activity, traders will eventually want to see an actual impact on output. Until then, it’s all speculation. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • WTI Crude Oil Daily Analysis – October 17, 2017 • Natural Gas Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Bearish Specs Betting Warmer Weather Will Reduce Early-Winter Demand • Bitcoin Trades near All-Time Highs, the Ethereum Hard Fork, and the Slow March to $6,000 • Commodities Daily Forecast – October 17, 2017 • DAX Index Daily Fundamental Forecast – October 17, 2017 • Iraqi Tensions Impact Oil Prices, UK Inflation at Highest Since 2012 || Wall Street can't stop talking about Bitcoin: The price of Bitcoin is at a record high. After breaking through $5,000for the first time on Thursday, Bitcoin was up another 5% on Friday afternoon to trade near $5,700. Earlier in the day Bitcointopped $5,800to hit a fresh record. And with the controversial cryptocurrency in the headlines, Wall Street just can’t stop talking about Bitcoin. Aftersaying on Thursdaythat he was done talking about Bitcoin, JP Morgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon on Friday broke his brief silence, saying at the annual Institute of International Finance membership meeting in Washington, D.C. that he could care less about Bitcoin. Dimon had sworn off discussing the cryptocurrency after making waves last month by saying Bitcoin was in a bubble that would eclipse the size of the tulip bubble seen back in the 1600s. And yet that Dimon can really lay off ripping Bitcoin seems, at this point, to be in doubt. According toBloomberg, Dimon said the cryptocurrency is a “great product” if you’re a criminal,resurfacing the narrativearound Bitcoin that dogged the digital currency in its early years given its close association with Silk Road. Dimon also said that one day governments will crush Bitcoin and that people who buy Bitcoin are stupid. Bloomberg also said Dimon asked rhetorically, “Who cares about Bitcoin?” Except that a lot of people do. Including many people on Wall Street. On Thursday, after Dimon said he was done discussing Bitcoin further, JP Morgan’s CFO Marianne Lake said the bank is, “very open minded to the potential use cases in the future for digital currencies that are properly controlled and regulated.” And the commentary out of JP Morgan came on the heels of Goldman Sachs (GS)reportedlylooking at setting up a trading venue for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfeinsaid on Twitterearlier this month that he was “still thinking” about Bitcoin but wasn’t endorsing or rejecting the concept. Blankfein added that, “folks also were skeptical when paper money displaced gold.” So, there’s that. Additionally, Wall Street strategist Tom Lee — mostly known for his calls on the stock market — has spent considerable time in the last few months writing research reports on cryptocurrency and said back in August that he had a $6,000 price target for Bitcoin by mid-2018. Lee also sees Bitcoin rising to $25,000 by 2022 and his bullish view on the currency is “premised on expanded acceptance of digital currencies (as payment platforms), and ultimately broader adoption as a “store of value” (digital currencies have a lot of characteristics that make gold attractive).” Now, Dimon is certainly not alone in being skeptical of Bitcoin, especially given the price run-up we’ve seen this year. Dimon’s colleague at JP Morgan, strategist Marko Kolanovic,said in a note last monththat the cryptocurrency market “exhibits some parallels to fraudulent pyramid schemes.” And in a big report published on Thursday, analysts at UBS said that, “a twenty-fold increase in bitcoin prices in just two years, and an absence of any fundamental economic backing, cryptocurrency prices are almost certainly a bubble.” Comments on the extraordinary increase in the price of certain cryptocurrencies need not doom widespread adoption of the blockchain technology that Bitcoin sits on top of. And it is this technology — a decentralized, distributed ledger that encrypts all transactions executed on the blockchain — that really excites the true believers. Now, some cryptocurrency early adopters would argue that Wall Street and banking types are merely covering their butts by caring about the technology now because eventually fiat money will be replaced by digital money. This is certainly a grand vision, and in this vision the rise of Bitcoin poses a systemic risk to the Western banking industrial complex that has predominated since World War II. But Wall Street’s interest in Bitcoin is also likely driven by the fact that it’s new, it’s interesting, trading this stuff is exciting, and the potential upside is big. There is, at this point, clearly no putting the cryptocurrency genie back in the bottle and a development in how money moves around is something the financial sector cannot miss if it wants to continue being known as the financial sector. When Bitcoin first entered the public consciousness in 2013, the meme was that all you could do with it was buy drugs online. But in 2017, there is real money to be made and real money being invested in the space. And finding new ways to make money is more or less the whole point of modern finance. — Myles Udland is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter@MylesUdland Read more from Myles here: • Why a new Federal Reserve chair won’t rattle markets • America’s shortage of workers is about to get ‘much worse’ • The government can’t stop people from making the single-biggest investing mistake • It’s never been harder to fill a job in America • Berkshire’s Bank of America win is more proof you can’t invest like Buffett || CME Group's Leo Melamed: We'll 'Tame' Bitcoin: One of the senior figures at derivatives giant CME Group believes that bitcoin is on course to become its own tradable asset class. In an interview withReuterson Tuesday, the company's chairman emeritus Leo Melamed said bitcoin will likely come to trade in a similar way to how gold and stocks are exchanged today. Notably, CME Group last weekannouncedplans to launch a bitcoin futures contract, aiming to have the product available by the end of the year. The product is still contingent on approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the firm indicated at the time. Melamed told Reuters that he expects institutional investors to take part in the futures contracts, rather than just speculators, and called the move a "very important step for bitcoin's history." The product will enable investors to bet on bitcoin, as well as short-sell the cryptocurrency. He went on to say: "We will regulate, make bitcoin not wild, nor wilder. We'll tame it into a regular type instrument of trade with rules." In the interview, Melamed explained he initially did not believe in bitcoin, but that his interest later grew. "I’m still that same guy who believes in, at least examining change," he explained. Disclosure:CME Group is an investor in Digital Currency Group, CoinDesk's parent company. Leo Melamedimage via Waseda University/YouTube • CBOE President: Bitcoin ETFs Will Follow Futures Products • Derivatives Giant CME Group to Launch Bitcoin Futures Contract • New Chicago Blockchain Center Launches With Government Backing • Smart Contract Issues Set Off 'Alarm Bells', Says US Regulator || Dollar, shares bounce on relief at North Korea inaction: By Wayne Cole SYDNEY (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar won a reprieve from risk aversion on Monday after North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un decided to hold a party over the weekend rather than launch another missile, tempering safe havens like the yen and Treasuries. Investors remained cautious over the possible economic impact of Hurricane Irma as it chewed its way up the Florida coast, knocking out electricity to 2.5 million homes and businesses statewide. Nikkei futures (NKc1) were trading up 0.8 percent after Pyongyang held a massive celebration to congratulate the nuclear scientists and technicians who steered the country's sixth and largest nuclear test a week ago. The United States and its allies had been bracing for another long-range missile launch in time for the 69th anniversary of North Korea's founding on Saturday. The sense of relief was enough to lift E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 (ESc1) by 0.3 percent, while Treasury 10-year note futures fell 10 ticks. The U.S. dollar edged up to 108.43 yen (JPY=) and away from Friday's 10-month trough of 107.32. Against a basket of currencies, the dollar added 0.2 percent to 91.521 (.DXY) but that was still uncomfortably close to last week's 2-1/2 year low of 91.011. The euro eased to $1.2015 (EUR=), having hit a top of $1.2092 on Friday amid speculation the European Central Bank was closer to starting a wind-back of its stimulus program. ECB officials last week generally agreed their next move would be to cut their bond purchases and discussed a range of options, Reuters reported. China's central bank was also a focus in Asia after sources said it plans to scrap reserve requirements for financial institutions settling foreign exchange forward yuan positions with effect from Monday. "The removal potentially makes it easier for traders to purchase the USD, easing the pressure for yuan appreciation," said analysts at ANZ in a note. "The change likely signals some discomfort about the stronger yuan and its impact on Chinese exports." The dollar was last up 0.25 percent against the offshore yuan at 6.5013 yuan (CNH=), off a low of 6.4437. There were also reports Beijing was planning to shut down local crypto-currency exchanges, dealing a blow to Bitcoin's recent stellar rally. Bitcoin was quoted down 0.8 percent at $4,274 (BTC=BTSP) on the BitStamp platform, off the recent record high of nearly $5,000. In commodity markets, gold softened 0.7 percent to $1,337.01 an ounce (XAU=) and away from a one-year peak of $1,357.54. Oil prices regained a little ground after falling sharply on Friday amid worries that energy demand would be hit hard by Hurricane Irma. Story continues U.S. crude (CLcv1) was trading 22 cents firmer at $47.70 a barrel, while Brent (LCOcv1) rose 17 cents to $53.95. (Editing by Richard Pullin) View comments || A crypto company took out an ad in the Wall Street Journal to poke fun at Jamie Dimon: Jamie Dimon (Jamie Dimon called bitcoin 'a fraud' in September.REUTERS/Jason Reed) A cryptocurrency company took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday to fire back at JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who in September called bitcoin "a fraud." The ad, taken out by Eidoo, a cryptocurrency wallet company, said "Maybe Jamie will fire you. But you will be free to trade in the crypto world." That's alluding to comments made by Dimon on September 12. While speaking at a Barclays financial conference, Dimon bashed bitcoin saying it is in a bubble "worse than tulips bulbs ." Dimon added that he would fire anyone at the bank for trading the red-hot cryptocurrency for being stupid. Bitcoin is up more than 350% year-to-date. A full page ad in The Wall Street Journal can cost as much as $354,823 , a high price tag for most startups. But Eidoo, which provides an app for cryptocurrency investors to store their various coins and tokens, appears to have cash to spare. So far, it has raised more than 79,000 ether tokens in an initial coin offering, according to its website . That's worth roughly $23,700,000. ICOs allow startups to raise money by issuing their own cryptocurrencies. Recently, ICOs have come under scrutiny from regulators because companies can use them to raise quick money without having to disclose substantive information to investors. They've become a darling of blockchain and cryptocurrency startups looking to raise cash without having to go through the traditional avenues of venture capital or an initial public offering. Here's a picture of the ad: Crypto ad (Frank Chaparro) NOW WATCH: An Italian economist told us Berlusconi and Trump are the same … except Trump is meaner More From Business Insider These 15 little-known perks show why Amazon Prime is so much more than free shipping Forget the iPhone 8 and iPhone X — here are 7 reasons you should buy the iPhone 7 instead Here's what 6 of the most powerful Wall Streeters have to say about bitcoin || Goldman Sachs is reportedly exploring options for its stake in The Weinstein Company: Harvey Weinstein (Harvey Weinstein.Getty/Ian Gavan) Goldman Sachs is "exploring options" for its small stake in The Weinstein Company after more than two-dozen women came forward with accusations of sexual harassment against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, according to Shannon Bond at The Financial Times . Andrew Williams, a spokesman for the bank, told the FT the firm was exploring options for its stake, which is valued at less than $1 million. Goldman Sachs helped finance the creation of The Weinstein Company in 2005. Even before reports about Weinstein's alleged misconduct came to light, The Los Angeles Times said the company was "already facing financial strains because of a lack of commercial hits and increasing competition in the indie cinema space." Last week, a bombshell New York Times report exposed decades of sexual-harassment and abuse allegations against Weinstein, including from actress Ashley Judd. The Times reported that Weinstein has made legal settlements with at least eight women. Since then, over two-dozen women have come forward , including stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, and Cara Delevingne. Most of the alleged encounters followed a similar pattern of "business meetings" turning into a proposed massage and hotel room sexual harassment or assault, the Times report said. The accusations begin as early as the 1980s and include actresses, assistants, and other employees of Weinstein's companies. The Huffing Post reported on Friday that Lauren Sivan, who was previously a news anchor on local cable channel Long Island 12, alleges that a decade ago Weinstein trapped her in the hallway of a restaurant that was closed to the public and masturbated in front of her until he ejaculated. Weinstein was fired from The Weinstein Company by its board last the week. The statement announcing the firing said the decision was made "in light of new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days." Weinstein and his brother, Bob, who is now the head of the company, together own 42% of the company. Story continues Check out the full report from The Financial Times here . NOW WATCH: The secret to Steve Jobs' and Elon Musk's success, according to a former Apple and Tesla executive More From Business Insider Bitcoin just hit an all-time high — here's how you buy and sell it This map shows the devastating impact of fires ravaging parts of California's wine country GOLDMAN SACHS: Here's how to make a killing this earnings season [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] $link has so much support that I am stating to believe this will be the new $wtc when it comes to profits $btc $eth $dcr $qtum $ubq || #bitcoin non si ferma più? Analisi tecnica || #Putin Tells Central Bank Not to Create Barriers to #Cryptocurrencies || coindesk: The latest Bitcoin Price Index is 4,792.04 USD https://www.coindesk.com/price/ pic.twitter.com/vPiZqyAvqH || #bitcoin non si ferma più? Analisi tecnica || #bitcoin non si ferma più? Analisi tecnica || #Putin Tells Central Bank Not to Create Barriers to #Cryptocurrencies || #bitcoin non si ferma più? Analisi tecnica || BTC limanına sığındık hepimiz :) || #bitcoin non si ferma più? Analisi tecnica
Trend: up || Prices: 7459.69, 7143.58, 6618.14, 6357.60, 5950.07, 6559.49, 6635.75, 7315.54, 7871.69, 7708.99
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-09-30] BTC Price: 43790.89, BTC RSI: 47.59 Gold Price: 1755.30, Gold RSI: 45.34 Oil Price: 75.03, Oil RSI: 64.70 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin Price Prediction – Bulls Need to Revisit $43,000 or Face another Sell-off: Following a broadly bearish session on Tuesday, it’s been a broadly bullish morning for Bitcoin and the broader market. At the time of writing,Bitcoin, BTC to USD, was up by 3.91% to $42,340.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning low $40,601.0 before finding support. Steering clear of the first major support level at $39,076, Bitcoin rose to a late morning high $42,744.0. In spite of the recovery, Bitcoin fell well short of the first major resistance level at $43,023. It has also been a mixed morning for the broader crypto market. Through the morning,Crypto.com Coinwas down by 4.49% to buck the morning trend. It’s been a relatively bullish morning for the rest of the majors, however. At the time of writing,Cardano’s ADAandRipple’s XRPwere up by 7.83% and by 7.72% to lead the way. Binance Coin(+5.39%),Bitcoin Cash SV(+3.70%),Chainlink(6.93%),Ethereum(+6.28%),Litecoin(+4.24%), Polkadot (+4.57%) also found strong support. Through the early hours, the crypto total market cap fell to an early morning low $1,809bn before rising to a high $1,908bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $1,899bn. Bitcoin’s dominance rose to an early morning high 42.59% before falling to a low 42.03%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 42.02%. Bitcoin would need to avoid a fall back through the 38.2% FIB of $41,592 and the $41,350 pivot to bring the first major resistance level at $43,022 into play. Support from the broader market will be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from the morning high $42,744.0. Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, the first major resistance level would likely cap any upside. In the event of an extended rally through the afternoon, Bitcoin could test resistance at $45,000 before any pullback. The second major resistance level sits at $45,297. A fall back through the 38.2% FIB of $41,592 and the $41,350 pivot would bring the first major support level at $39,076 into play. Barring an extended sell-off through the afternoon, however, Bitcoin should avoid sub-$39,000 support levels. The second major support level sits at $37,403. Looking beyond the support and resistance levels, we saw the 50 EMA pullback from the 100 and the 200 EMAs through the morning. We also saw the 100 EMA pullback from the 200 EMA, also a bearish signal. Through the 2ndhalf of the day, a flattening of the 50 EMA on the 100 and 200 EMAs would provide support. Key through the late morning and early afternoon would be to avoid a fall back through the day’s pivot to $41,350 to support Bitcoin and the broader market. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – At Risk to Hawkish Rate Hike Surprise by Fed • Bitcoin Eyes The $40k Level As Bearish Sentiment Thickens • GBP/JPY Price Forecast – British Pound Gives Up Early Gains • Silver Price Daily Forecast – Test Of Resistance At $22.90 • Shiba Inu Tries To Settle Above $0.000007 As Bitcoin Rebounds • Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural Gas Give Up Early Gains Again || Riot Blockchain Records $31M In Bitcoin Mining Revenue, Up 1540% From Same Period Last Year: What Happened: Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) mining firm Riot Blockchain Inc (NASDAQ: RIOT ) reported record revenues in the second quarter of 2021. In a statement on Monday , the company said its mining revenue increased by 1540% to a record $31.5 million over the second quarter from the $1.9 million during the same period in 2020. This massive growth in Bitcoin-mining-related revenue, coupled with a 70% increase in its mining revenue margin, enabled Riot to produce $19.3 million of net income in Q2 2021. During the same period last year, Riot reported a net loss of $10.6 million. “With the successful acquisition of Whinstone US (“Whinstone”), the Company’s growth prospects have been significantly de-risked, and future financial opportunities are very exciting,” said Jason Le, chief executive officer at Riot, referring to the company’s recent expansion in Texas. View more earnings on RIOT “Riot is aggressively expanding its capacity at Whinstone, which is expected to provide the critical infrastructure necessary to successfully execute on driving continued growth for the Company.” Whinstone alone accounted for $2.9 million in revenue for the quarter, despite only being operational for one month after the acquisition. Price Action: After making its Q2 earnings public, Riot’s shares jumped 7.6% higher on Monday to a price of $36.93 before closing at $35.73. Meanwhile, Bitcoin had dropped below $50,000 at press time. The market-leading digital asset exchanged hands at a price of $49,300, losing around 2% over the past 24-hours. The average BTC price used to calculate Riot’s second-quarter 2021 mining revenues was approximately $46,600. See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Xiaomi Wants Regulatory Clarity Before Venturing Into Crypto In India Deloitte Blockchain Survey: Majority Believe Crypto Will Replace Fiat Within 10 Years © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || The Inevitability of Crypto in Iraq: Cryptocurrency was born out of a financial crisis. It was a proposed solution to the problems caused by, and inherent in, the worldwide banking system as well as centralized authorities. Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision, as set out in the Bitcoinwhite paper, was in some ways too good to be true at the time. The idea of a decentralized peer-to-peer digital cash was so obscure that had it not been for an elite of tech geeks who knew the real value of this technology, it would have been dismissed. Early adoption remained slow until more people realized the promises of crypto and its underlying blockchain technology. Abdurrahman Bapir is the founder of Kurdcoin, the first and largest crypto brokerage in Iraq. He is a master’s student in Politics and Economics of the Middle East at Kings College London.CoinDesk’sCrypto State: Middle East virtual eventis Aug. 11. Related:By Taxing Crypto, the US Government Has Accepted It&#8217;s Here to Stay More than a decade afterbitcoinfirst appeared, adoption of the cryptocurrency shows that the technology is in the early stages of revolutionizing finance and the world, providing solutions for the unbanked and banked alike. Nowhere is this more on display than in Iraq, which now has for the first time become a bridge that connect the unbanked in Iraq to the international economy in an otherwise financially disconnected part of the world. However, the widespread adoption of crypto in Iraq has come up against a host of obstacles facing both crypto users and businesses. In early 2017, when my team and I had just launchedKurdcoinas the first and only cryptocurrency brokerage in Iraq and Kurdistan Region, the number of people who knew and used cryptocurrencies was in the tens and hundreds. The community in the country has grown exponentially ever since. During the past four years, we have directly provided service to thousands of clients, and there are many Iraqi Telegram and Facebook peer-to-peer trading groups with thousands of members. The crypto use cases have been growing as well. Related:There’s Still Time to Fix Congress’s Crypto-Tax Mess One of the main impediments for blockchain adoption in Iraq has been the sustained hostile attitude of the authorities toward cryptocurrencies without exceptions. During the 2017 bull run, the Iraqi Central Bankissued a statementprohibiting the use of cryptocurrencies – a stance that has remained unchanged to date. Similarly, earlier this year, the Ministry of Interior of the Kurdistan Regional Governmentissued a statementwarning all foreign exchange and money transfer offices to stop brokering cryptocurrencies or they will face legal action. The outlawing of digital currencies and the absence of a coherent regulatory framework have come at a cost to both users and the local economy, as they have forced people to seek crypto investment opportunities in something of a black market with no accountability or regulatory oversight. Thousands of people have fallen victim to crypto scams, Ponzi schemes and other forms of fraud. Tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars of peoples’ money have been stolen by foreign agents or companies posing as legitimate businesses who require to be paid in crypto. That has slowly drained cash from the economy and mostly from already economically troubled regions. Less than a month ago, for instance, the website of a company calling itself Praetorian Group International, or PGI,disappearedand its team ran away with north of $40 million of investors’ money. It’s just the latest in a string of multimillion dollar Ponzi schemes that turn crypto dreams into nightmares. A vicious cycle is created in which the government banned crypto because it’s used in fraud, and fraudsters manage to continue to use it because it’s not regulated. The only way to break this cycle is by introducing a bill to regulate digital currencies and requiring all crypto businesses to be registered. Another limitation in Iraq is a general lack of knowledge about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology within both the government and wider society. At the governmental level, this lack of knowledge has led it to view cryptocurrencies in a completely negative light and mainly as a means for money laundering, fraud and online piracy. Areportby Deloitte about Iraq has underlined that concern, stating that “instead of pushing the cryptocurrencies to the periphery of financial systems, the central banks and other regulators as well as market authorities must play a leading role in making them mainstream.” On the societal level, the problem of general financial and crypto illiteracy means people make poor, uninformed financial and investment decisions and are unable to use cryptocurrencies to their full potential. If cryptocurrency is ever featured at prime time on Kurdish satellite channels, the hosts and participants often show a disappointing lack of knowledge, to the point that some of them do not know the difference between a local scam coin and bitcoin. We have tried to mitigate some of these challenges by pushing for regulation through major law firms, increasing knowledge about cryptocurrencies and spreading awareness regarding crypto scams and risks in order to create a better environment for crypto users in the country. Further, major exchanges like Binance,Crypto.comand Coinbase do not provide services in Iraq. Despite these roadblocks, cryptocurrency use in the country has been constantly increasing. Who can deny the largely untapped market potential? Iraq’spopulationof more than 40 million is mostly young, withmore than 60%under the age of 25. There are more than 37 million mobile cellular subscriptions and internet penetration is above75%. Although e-commerce, e-banking and digital payments are still major underdeveloped sectors, many young people pay for online shopping and subscriptions with crypto. Similarly, Iraqi population islargely unbanked, with fewer than 1 in 10 adults having a bank account. Many seem to have turned to crypto as an alternative both for investment and as a store of value, because it’s better and safer in several ways than storing cash up at home. Ignoring the warnings from authorities, businesses are also beginning to use cryptocurrency for transferring money within the country and outside, and companies and wealthy individuals are adding crypto to their investment portfolios. Despite a number of challenges, mass crypto adoption in Iraq seems to be inevitable because of the financial opportunities, ease of using crypto for payments and other applications. And it is happening fast. • Crypto Adoption in Middle East Will Come From Unstable Nations • The Node: Crypto Gets Political || Twitter is adding Bitcoin payments to its app to send another user crypto: Turkey Twitter (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) Twitter has announced new features for its platform, including more flexible controls and the ability to send cryptocurrency between users. Twitter is adding Bitcoin to its Tips feature, which allowed users to send money to others through PayPal and other third-party services, and rolling that out throughout the world. This allows users to add their bitcoin wallet to their profile and send the cryptocurrency directly within the app, starting today, through Strike, a third-party a payments application built on the Bitcoin Lightning Network. Breaking: Twitter is adding the ability to pay users with Bitcoin directly in the app as it rolls out its Tips feature to users globally. https://t.co/5EL7mXVeUK pic.twitter.com/mbyrP4BwHv — Adam Smith (@adamndsmith) September 23, 2021 Tips was originally only available for selected users but will now be accessible to users on iPhones with Android users coming soon. Twitter says that users in countries like Africa might not have access to traditional providers, and bitcoin represents “one of the best solutions” of “forward-looking” solutions. Twitter’s Jack Dorsey has been a long advocate of cryptocurrency, saying that it would “unite the world” and believes it will become the “ native currency of the internet ”. Tipping is entirely on third-party platforms, so does not receive a cut from donations; when users choose a service, it will open the app or a website. The bitcoin lightning wallet invoice is generated by Twitter when transferring crypto currency, and when that invoice is paid off-platform the social media site will send a notification to the receiver that can be replied with using a preset reply or emojis. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are also becoming a bigger part of Twitter, with the company ‘exploring’ NFT authentication, letting users directly connect their crypto wallets and show off their NFT ownership on Twitter. Story continues In a call with reporters, Twitter’s Product Lead for Conversational Safety Christine Su also said that the company will be introducing a way to leave a conversation that they have been tagged in and is ‘exploring’ word filters to remove unwanted speech or “targeted name calling” as well as emojis and other terms. These updates follow Twitter’s other changes, such as allowing users to control who can reply and the “Safety Mode” that the company is testing to auto-block accounts , as well as allowing users to remove followers – which was previously done via ‘soft blocking’, which is when someone blocks and then unblocks a user. Twitter is adding more context to its tweets so people can “trust who they are talking to”, Su says, by adding profile labels and a new “heads up” experiment that will inform users when they are joining a “potentially heated discussion” through a label underneath a Tweet, the company showed in a concept mock-up. Twitter will be finding these ‘vibes’, which is in “early days”, using automated technology, but eventually wants to allow authors to set their own tones to the conversation – comparing its experiment to Following up with its Communities feature, Twitter is trying to let users “set their own norms”. Twitter has said that moderators in those spaces will not be held responsible to Twitter’s rules, allowing users to create imagine an alternate timeline where everyone just gets you say hi to Communities—the place to connect with people who Tweet like you. testing now on iOS and web, Android soon! pic.twitter.com/TJdKwUa4D2 — Twitter Communities (@HiCommunities) September 8, 2021 Twitter says that tweets in a Community remains public, and can be quote-tweeted outside the community, but will not be spread outside the community by default unless a user already within that group decides to do so. A creator fund for audio creators is also being created, as well as recording and replay functions being added to the tool for Spaces, its Clubhouse-like voice-call groups . Read More How bad is bitcoin for the environment really? Crypto experts discuss bitcoin price predictions What is Solana? The crypto rising 200-times faster than bitcoin || Top Ranked Covesting Strategy Manager Makes Followers More Than $1M In 2 Months: The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. The current highest ranked trader in the fully transparent global Covesting leaderboards has made more than $1 million in total profits for their followers, all while generating more than 30,000% ROI. The story has begun to make waves across the web, mainly around trading communities like the officialCovesting Telegramand on Twitter. Here is a full breakdown of the strategy manager’s success and some insight into how they were able to achieve such sizable profits in so little time. Covesting And The Million Dollar Rise Of ChamelX Covesting is a peer-to-peer copy trading module designed by aDLT-licensed developerof the same name, who has partnered with the award-winning margin trading platform PrimeXBT where the tool lives exclusively today. The copy trading community connects followers with strategy managers – strategy managers who are ranked with transparency using risk and success metrics, as well as total profits. Followers must use this intel to find any diamonds in the rough. Strategy managers with the best metrics rise the ranks and attract more followers due to increased visibility. However, in this recent story, the strategy manager seemingly came out of nowhere and was able to reach number one in the Covesting leaderboards in less than two whole months. Typically when this occurs, there is evidence of a strategy manager taking risky trades, essentially placing all-or-nothing bets on assets like Bitcoin or Ethereum. If successful, the strategy manager would easily boost total profits. But the problem is that when risks are so high, strategy managers can often let a hot streak go to their heads and suffer losses. While one strategy manager was falling from the top, ChamelX began to grow their capital – and their followers’ capital. Transparent Trading Metrics Show How The Strategy Manager Performed After starting in late June, within two months, ChamelX was able to grow their total profits by more than 30,000%. This strategy manager took their initial followers’ equity and used it to make more than $1 million in profits for their followers. Strategy managers often come out swinging, rise the ranks, then fall just as hard. However, ChamelX is a different breed entirely. This trader uses careful margin allocation, keeping their account above 70 to 80% margin allocation almost the entire time. Only during one brief moment did the trader use their margin to protect positions, and the results were ultimately successful as their profits kept on climbing there on out. According to Covesting’s fully transparent metrics, the max drawdown the trader took was just over 70%. However, the last seven days of profitability alone nearly cover that drawdown, and the total profitability in the previous month left plenty of profits for booking. Consistency, Careful Margin Usage Was Key To Covesting Strategy Success With a win-to-loss ratio of more than 80%, it is the consistency that counts. This trader isn’t just making one large trade and letting it run. Instead, there is evidence of an active trader that occasionally has a red day, but the green days more than make up for it. Any risk management strategy that results in two steps forward and one step back is still a winning formula that, over time, will yield results. This latest story is just one of many, with another recent strategy managerturning six figuresinto more than $8 million in a matter of days while making a fortune for their followers at the same time. Covestinghas more than 400 active strategy managers currently to choose from, each with their own unique trading styles and strategies. Followers seek to build a portfolio of strategy managers to spread around risk and increase the chances for success. Not relying on just one strategy manager will improve the probability of luckily stumbling upon the next number one trader who makes a million or more for their followers. Image byprettysleepy1fromPixabay The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice. © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || United Wholesale Mortgage Plans To Begin Cryptocurrency Transactions In Q3: United Wholesale Mortgage (NYSE: UWMC ) has announced plans to become the first national mortgage lender to accept cryptocurrency for home loans. What Happened: CEO Mat Ishbia previewed the Pontiac, Michigan-based company’s expansion into the cryptocurrency realm during the second-quarter earnings call on Monday. “We’ve evaluated the feasibility, and we're looking forward to being the first mortgage company in America to accept cryptocurrency to satisfy mortgage payments,” Ishbia said. “That’s something that we've been working on, and we're excited that hopefully, in Q3, we can actually execute on that before anyone in the country because we are a leader in technology and innovation.” In an interview with the Detroit Free Press , Ishbia offered more details on which cryptocurrencies would be considered in transactions. “I think we’re starting with Bitcoin, but we’re looking at Ethereum and others," Ishbia said. “We’re going to walk before we run, but at the same time, we are definitely a leader in technology and innovation and we are always trying to be the best and the leader in everything we do. “That’s the plan,” he added. “Obviously there’s no guarantees – we’re still working through some details. But absolutely.” Related Link: Why Is Dogecoin Moving Today? Why It Matters: One of the first homebuying deals in the U.S. involving cryptocurrency took place in 2014 with the $1.6 million sale of land in Lake Tahoe for a home site. The transaction was completed with payment via Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC). However, the heavily regulated and risk-averse mortgage industry hasn't embraced cryptocurrency. The government-sponsored enterprises that dominate the industry’s secondary market, Fannie Mae (OTC: FNMA ) and Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC ), will not accept any transaction in a digital asset. If UMC plans to package its cryptocurrency-based loans for secondary market sale, the borrower's cryptocurrency payment would have to be converted into dollars and the borrower would need to provide documentation to verify ownership of the digital assets as part of the loan underwriting process. Story continues See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Biden Defends Afghanistan Withdrawal, Blames Kabul's Fall On Afghan Military, Leaders And Trump KISS Announces 'Final Residency' For New Year's Eve Weekend In Las Vegas © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || CoinUnited.io Acquires DJs of DeFi (DoD) NFT For $30K: LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / August 26, 2021 /TheDJs of DeFi (DoD), the 3D avatar team, recently launched the first generation of DoD branded NFTs exclusively on Refinable. The newly released "OG" NFT, DJ Fox, was acquired byCoinUnited.iowith a winning bid of 61.7 BNB worth US$30,045 at auction close. CoinUnited.io ownsone of the 7 highly limited DOGE NFTs, "Shocked Doge"with one of the seriesvalued at over $110 million. The DJs of DeFi are a group of dedicated DeFi mash-up masters pseudonymously represented online by their AR filter personas. The group recently announced the launch of the "most exclusive, world number 1 triple threat NFT" - DJs of DeFi (DoD) NFTs. The NFTs are a 3 in 1 value play: a 3D collectible, an AR filter and an NFT with utility perks. The utility provided by owning a DoD Avatar puts owners amongst an elite community of NFT holders. "The DJs of DeFi NFTs are a first of its kind. The art, the built-in utilities around AR, the unique features, are all next level! The DoD NFT designed by former Snapchat designers adds a unique presence amongst our collection. In that collection, we have NFTs from some of the top projects - CryptoPunks, Pudgy Penguins,Cool Catsbut we believe the DJs of DeFi are setting a new precedent not only raising the bar of real utility but future proofing new trends, such as the the rapid growth of the metaverse. This is just the beginning of more to come from the team," said DJ Fox of CoinUnited. "We are creating an economy where we provide pseudonymous NFT avatars with unique functionalities, built-in utilities and rewards to holders. DJ Fox is only the first of the unique DoD NFT Avatars to be released. We've got more underway. We believe CoinUnited certainly shares the same excitement with us on the DoD Avatars. This is why they seized the opportunity to be part of what will certainly be a new trend. We're thrilled they saw the innovation and look forward to having more investors join in the action," said MC Liquid of DJs of DeFI. The DJs of DeFi plan to release a total of 5 OG NFTs over a span of weeks and 2,000 Disciple NFTs based on each of the OG models. Holders of the OG NFTs will receive 10% of all 2,000 Disciples' minting fees. About CoinUnited.io CoinUnited was established in 2021 January, co-founded by Hong Kong's leading blockchain and cryptocurrency experts. Based on the motto: "Live beyond limits", it is the company's belief that cryptocurrency can break through the limitations of the traditional financial system, thus creating endless opportunities and leading everyone to a bright future beyond limits. Apart from being the #1 NFT collector in Asia, CoinUnited.io is Asia's largest Bitcoin ATM network. The team aims to popularize the development and application of crypto in Asia. CoinUnited.io has portrayed its love for NFTs by purchasing over 1,000 NFT artworks till date. This is what has made them Asia's largest NFT collector. The team has iterated that it will continue to purchase various NFT works. Some of their top collections include Cryptopunk, Meebit, RTFKT Punk and now DJ Fox. CoinUnited.io NFT Collections also include: 'Dedicate yourself to the craft... there's no limit of how far I can go.' Floyd Mayweather's inspiring life story minted in NFT. Purchased with 39 ETH (~100,000 USD at auction close).https://www.coinunited.io/nft/the-legacy "Lullaby" and it features actress and artist Lindsay Lohan singing over a beat produced by Manuel Riva. The aforementioned song is the first NFT by a woman to be sold on FansForever, which is a marketplace for exclusive celebrity NFTs. 1,000,000 Tron (TRX) cryptocurrency is used to purchase an NFT like Lohan's, which features a butterfly flapping its wings in unison with the former Disney actress' eyelids to the beat of 'Lullaby.'https://www.instagram.com/p/CNICKZuBKsV/?hl=en About DJs of DeFi DJs of DeFi began as a set of pseudonymous avatars for the creators and builders of CDzExchange. Being aware of how fun the carefully crafted, individually unique avatars are when used in the context of DeFi and the Web3 community revolution, the DJs of DeFi are building pseudonymous identities that have the freedom to share ideas in novel, fun and exciting ways. The aim is to build a DoD community where they provide people with their very own pseudonymous NFT Avatars which function as their key to the exclusive DJs of DeFi club and much more. Contact: MC LiquidEmail:mcliquid@cdz.exchangeWebsite:https://www.djsofdefi.com/YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/c/DJsofDeFiTwitter:https://twitter.com/djsofdefi SOURCE:DJs of DeFi View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/661408/CoinUnitedio-Acquires-DJs-of-DeFi-DoD-NFT-For-30K || Google To Ditch Qualcomm And Develop Its Own Smartphone Processors This Year: Search engine giant Google has announced that it would no longer be using Qualcomm’s processors on its smartphones as it would start building its own processors this year. Tech giantGooglerevealed earlier today that it would start building its own smartphone processors this year. According to its announcement, the processor would be called Google Tensor, and it will serve its new Pixel 6 and 6 Pro phones set to be released later this year. This latest development means thatGooglewill no longer be using chips manufactured by Qualcomm. However,Qualcommpointed out that it would continue to work with the search engine giant on existing and future products based on its Snapdragon platform. The Google Tensor processor is expected to power the company’s new flagship phones, which are expected to be launched in October. The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro phones will seeGooglemove away from offering affordable smartphones to high-end products. Google is looking to compete with Apple and Samsung by offering more high-end products to its customers. The move byGoogleis similar to that of Apple. The iPhone manufacturer ditched Intel and began manufacturing its own processors. Similar to Apple, Google will use Arm-based architecture for its processors. Arm processors are usually lower power and are mostly used across the industry for mobile devices, such as phones, tablets and laptops. The shares of Qualcomm andGoogleare both up as the United States market opens today. QCOM is up by 0.05% today despite the news that Google will no longer be using its smartphone processors. Year-to-date,QCOMhas remained rather flat as it began the year trading at $150, and it is now trading at $149.90 per share. GOOGL, on the other hand, is up by 0.08% so far today. Google is one of the best-performing stocks this year, up by 53% year-to-date. Google began 2021 trading at $1,752 per share, but an extended rally has seen it gone up by nearly $1,000 as it is now trading at $2,696. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Move Higher on Warm Weather Forecast • Gold Price Forecast – Gold Markets Settle at 200 Day EMA • GBP/USD Price Forecast – British Pound Gives Up Early Gains • USD/JPY Price Forecast – US Dollar Gives Up Early Gains • USD/MXN Extends Decline Due to a Dollar Post-Fed Hangover and Tests 19.80 Support • NCR Makes Crypto Push With Key Bitcoin ATM Deal || Preview: What to Expect From GameStop’s Q2 Earnings on Wednesday: The world’s largest multichannel video game retailer GameStop is expected to report its fiscal second-quarter loss of -$0.67 per share, an improvement from a loss of -$1.40 per share seen in the same period a year ago. The Grapevine, Texas-based company would post year-over-year revenue growth of about 20% year-on-year to around $1.1 billion. EPS estimates have been exceeded twice in the last four quarters. GameStop Corp. will report second-quarter fiscal 2021 earnings results after the market closes on Wednesday, September 8, 2021. GameStop shares have surged over 975% so far this year. The stock closed 5.04% lower at $202.75 on Friday. The U.S. financial markets will be closed for Labor Day on Monday, September 6. Analyst Comments “Caught in meme-frenzy, GameStop has soared and outperformed the industry year to date. The company has been undertaking efforts to fast-track growth, mainly in the digital arena. To accelerate transformation, the company has resorted to board as well as capital restructuring. In this context, the company concluded selling 5 million shares in its last at-the-market equity offering program, and generated net proceeds worth as much as $1.13 billion,” noted analysts at ZACKS Research. “Moreover, during first-quarter fiscal 2021, the company undertook steps to eliminate long term debt. Speaking of performance, the company witnessed significant improvement in the topline. It gained from sales growth across hardware, accessories and collectibles categories. Management highlighted that second-quarter sales trend continue to reflect growth, with total sales in May rising 27% year over year.” GameStop Stock Price Forecast Six analysts who offered stock ratings for GameStop in the last three months forecast the average price in 12 months of $88.33 with a high forecast of $190.00 and a low forecast of $25.00. The average price target represents a -56.43% change from the last price of $202.75. From those six analysts, one rated “Buy”, two rated “Hold” while three rated “Sell”, according to Tipranks. Story continues GameStop shares were rated “sell” by Credit Suisse Group in April. GameStop shares were raised by Wedbush to $50.00 in June from $39.00, and the firm assigned it an “underperform” rating. GameStop’s shares were rated a “sell” by Ascendiant Capital Markets it released its July research note. Lastly, in June, Zacks Investment Research lowered its rating for GameStop from a “buy” to a “hold” and set a price target of $231.00. Check out FX Empire’s earnings calendar This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: S&P 500 Price Forecast – Underlying Markets Closed for Labor Day Bitcoin As The Digital Gold Has Significant Upward Potential: Miller Opportunity Trust S&P 500 Looks Ready To Move Higher As Traders Stay Bullish Gold Price Forecast – Gold Markets Pull Back From Major Resistance Barrier USD/JPY Price Forecast – Dollar Continues to Sit at The ¥110 Region AUD/USD Price Forecast – Australian Dollar Pulls Back After Massive Run Higher || Silver Price Forecast – Silver Markets Quiet After CPI: Silver markets have gone back and forth during the course of trading on Wednesday as the world awaited CPI figures. That being said, the market certainly looks as if it is trying to figure out where to go next, after seeing such a massive selloff. One thing that you could say is working in the favor of silver is the fact that we at least are trying to stabilize after a massive selloff. Whether or not we see a major change in attitude suddenly is a completely different question, but it looks as if the $23.50 level is offering a little bit of a magnet for price. SILVER Video 12.08.21 That being said, it is probably worth mentioning that the so-called “death cross” is likely to happen in the next few days unless we see a major turnaround. That is a longer-term selling signal by some traders that focus on big time frames. Ultimately, we need to take out the candlestick from Monday to the upside at the very least for me to start thinking about the upside. On the other hand, if we take out the bottom of the Monday candlestick is likely that the market could go dropping towards the $20 level underneath. Regardless, I think the one thing you can probably count on is that silver is going to be choppy, and now that we have PPI numbers coming out on Thursday, it is possible that we may take a closer look at industrial and manufacturing inflation, which quite frankly probably has quite a bit of influence on what happens next as silver is a major industrial metal. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: USD/CAD: Loonie Gains as U.S. Dollar Retreats, Downside Risks Remain Bitcoin’s Rally to $90K+ Back on Track Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural Gas Continues to Test Big Figure EUR/USD Price Forecast – Euro Trying to Stabilize Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Traders Adjusting Short Positions After Core CPI Miss AUD/USD Price Forecast – Australian Dollar Turns Things Around After CPI [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 48116.94, 47711.49, 48199.95, 49112.90, 51514.81, 55361.45, 53805.98, 53967.85, 54968.22, 54771.58
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-05-15] BTC Price: 9328.20, BTC RSI: 59.45 Gold Price: 1753.40, Gold RSI: 61.90 Oil Price: 29.43, Oil RSI: 58.05 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Scams, Schemes and Crypto Privacy, Feat. Preston Byrne: CoinDesk reporter Leigh Cuen is joined by attorney Preston Byrne, a partner at the Washington, D.C., office of Anderson Kill, to talk about schemes, scams and constitutional rights. For daily insights and unique perspectives listen or subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast Network with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , IHeartRadio or RSS . This episode is sponsored by ErisX , The Stellar Development Foundation and Grayscale Digital Large Cap Investment Fund . Related: The Rise of the Dollar Killers “There is really very little difference, at least in the point of origin…whether something is a scam,” Byrne said, regarding inaccurate blogs and representations of software projects. “Take Ethereum, for example. Ethereum had all manner of promises that were made…the statements coming from the Ethereum Foundation were somewhat more measured.” Regardless of whether any particular project is an attempt at fraud, it’s likely that online money schemes of every variety will become more common during this coronavirus crisis. According to Thomas Papageorge, head of the Consumer Protection Unit at the San Diego District Attorney’s office, there’s a “clear pattern” of more white-collar crimes since the recession began. “The rate of incidents, the amount of fraud, does increase dramatically during an emergency situation like this,” Papageorge said. “I’ve heard about new types of scams that involve cryptocurrency … investment scams and bogus advice about protecting your savings or bitcoin .” Bitcoin evangelist Andreas Antonopoulos tweeted that fraudsters were impersonating him to offer unemployed people fake jobs, identity thieves looking for personal information . Likewise, CoinDesk impersonators are also targeting people across the sector. Related: Bitcoin News Roundup for May 8, 2020 See also: Why the Dollar Has Never Been Stronger or More Set Up to Fail According to Carnegie Mellon University economics professor Sevin Yeltekin, the financial stressors people are experiencing today make them “more vulnerable to those scams.” However, there is a silver lining, she said, because businesses that survive the current recession will do so because they reimagined how they operate, including “risk management.” Story continues Even tech-savvy people like Lisa Gus, startup investment lead at the Government Blockchain Association and co-founder of the startup WishKnish , can be vulnerable to fraudsters in such stressful times. Gus said she spent several weeks being led on by a scammer impersonating a Binance employee before her startup’s security solution MetaCert identified a phishing domain behind the fraudster’s email account, support@communitybinance.org . “About LinkedIn, I’m not the only one being inundated with fake [investment] offers…the amount of propositions I’ve been getting [is up],” Gus said. “Especially for larger companies, it’s impossible to track profiles that are associated with them.” With regards to this instance, a LinkedIn spokesperson recommended members “take precautions” in these trying times and “ report any messages or postings they believe are scams to us so we can investigate.” Larger companies often charge early-stage blockchain projects for working together, whether it’s cited as marketing costs or listing fees . In Gus’ case, the fraudster had due diligence paperwork and non-disclosure contracts, which made the scammer’s request for a bitcoin deposit less suspicious. As for retail users, ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees has “definitely seen more phishing attempts” since early March. Likewise, a Binance spokesperson said so far in 2020 the company saw an average of 180 scam reports per month, which dwarf the unreported instances. So the exchange offers a public verification tool to check whether websites, phone numbers, emails, Telegram and WeChat handles are actually affiliated with Binance. That’s why the blockchain explorer Etherscan launched the “ EthProtect ” program in April, to tag wallet addresses reportedly used for fraud. Etherscan CEO Matthew Tan said the company uses internal “circuit breakers” to minimize false positives and aims to provide users with “actionable data” to make “informed choices” about who they transact with. See also: Udi Wertheimer on Cypherpunk Myths and Bitcoin in Real Life As for the attorney Byrne, he said in some cases cryptocurrency projects may run afoul of consumer protection issues, even if they are not considered unregistered securities, frauds or scams. “There’s a range of representations of things, what you can say about things, that aren’t necessarily true but aren’t fraudulent,” he said. The fact is, cryptocurrency now exists. People will use it unethically, the same way they do with all other forms of money. But there are lawful and constructive ways to use the technology as well. “You can operate a bitcoin business in a regulatory compliant fashion,” Byrne said. “However, it requires a lot of work and advice and design to do that correctly.” Want more? Read my article about how the University of New Hampshire Law School is capitalizing on demand for blockchain expertise in the legal industry. For daily insights and unique perspectives listen or subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast Network with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , IHeartRadio or RSS . Related Stories 9 Reasons Why Bitcoin Has Never Been Stronger Going Into a Halving Bitcoin News Roundup for May 7, 2020 || HTC Is Bringing Cryptocurrency Mining to Its Exodus Blockchain Phone: Taiwan-based tech giant HTC will allow users of its Exodus blockchain phone to mine cryptocurrency, but it isn’t going to make them rich. Asreported by Forbeson Friday, the firm has partnered with Mida Labs to use its DeMiner app on the Exodus 1S model. The app allows users to minemonero(XMR) and can earn users up to $0.0038 in the crypto on average daily. The electricity used to carry out the mining tasks would come to less than half the income from mining, according to the report. That amount of income isn’t going to repay the cost of the phone in any reasonable timespan and, in fact, would take around 13,680 days (roughly 37 years) to earn the value of one unit of XMR at thecurrent priceof $52 apiece. Related:Crypto Long & Short: DeFi and Traditional Finance Are Forming an Unlikely Friendship See also:Bitcoin Halving: How Miners are Preparing for Lower Block Rewards However, HTC says the effort is aimed at bringing further decentralization to crypto mining, a process that sees computers used to secure the blockchain and process transactions in return for block rewards. Mining of cryptocurrency has progressed from using computer processors to graphics cards and even dedicated processors called ASICS for some blockchains as participants sought to maintain returns amid rising network difficulty. As such the ability to mine on a mobile phone is at least novel and may increase adoption and education around cryptocurrency. HTC said the DeMiner app – expected to launch sometime in Q2 2020 – used on the Exodus is roughly equivalent to a desktop computer in terms of mining (or hashing) power, but brings far lower energy demands. Related:Bitcoin’s Future: Exactly How a Coming Upgrade Could Improve Privacy and Scaling “The question is not should we use an ASIC or a CPU. The question is how can we further decentralize and ensure a more inclusive monetary system?” Phil Chen, HTC’s decentralized chief officer, said in the Forbes report. HTCintroduced the Exodus 1Slast October, touting it as the only mobile phone that can run a full bitcoin node. The Exodus range allows users to store cryptocurrencies in the built-in Zion hardware wallet with claimed “military-grade” security. Early last month, the firmrevealed a 5G routerthat will also support a full bitcoin node. • New Software Fix Offers Bitcoin Miners Increased Security • Bitfury Latest to Donate Crypto Mining Power to Coronavirus Research || The CoinDesk 50: Bitmain, the Behemoth of Bitcoin Mining: Founded in 2013, the Beijing-based Bitmain Technology remains at the center of the crypto economy. With its flagship AntMiner bitcoin mining equipment still dominating the hardware market and its mining pools accounting for about a quarter of the bitcoin network’s computing power, it retains a uniquely powerful place in the ecosystem of by far the largest cryptocurrency and blockchain project. That’s not to say it isn’t also controversial. Its vocal support for a Bitcoin hard fork (Bitcoin Cash) in 2017, following contentious community disagreement, won the company, and its masterminds, many enemies. This post is part of the CoinDesk 50, an annual selection of the most innovative and consequential projects in the blockchain industry. See the full list here . Related: Michelle Phan: The Beauty of Bitcoin Over the years, Bitmain has been involved in many controversial developments to the point that the Chinese crypto community refers to its foes as the “mining avengers.” In 2017, Bitmain filed a lawsuit against Yang Zuoxing, the former design chief behind Bitmain’s AntMiner S9 who started a rival miner manufacturer MicroBT, over patent infringement. But Bitmain lost the case eventually. Then in 2018, it brought another lawsuit over non-compete violation against the former creators of Bitman’s mining pool BTC.com, who left the company to start a rival service PoolIn, which has become the world’s top two bitcoin mining pool by total hash rate. Bitmain’s story started with Wu Jihan, one of the earliest bitcoin evangelists in China, translating Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper to Chinese in 2011. He invested in probably the world’s first known bitcoin-denominated initial public offering in 2012. It was a project started by Jiang Xinyu, a.k.a Friedcat., who was crowdfunding bitcoin to roll out an application-specific integrated circuit just for bitcoin mining. Related: The Rise of the Dollar Killers The hardware sold well initially and sensational success followed. In 2013, Wu, with a finance and psychology degree from China’s prestigious Peking University, decided to start his own company to manufacture mining hardware. He was joined by Zhan Ketuan, his partner on the technology side, who, in six years, would find himself ousted from the company in a coup started by Wu. Story continues Bitcoin’s last halving event in the summer 2016 marked the beginning of two years of extraordinary growth at Bitmain. In 2017 alone, still only four years old, it made $1 billion in profits. It made another $1 billion for the first six months in 2018 and then went on a high-profile fundraise in the summer, netting $700 million from external shareholders with a bet. The deal is this: if Bitmain can’t go public within five years since the fundraise at an agreed term, external investors could require the company to redeem all of their investment with an interest. At that time, Bitmain was boasting a hardware market share of nearly 80 percent. So the agreed term for the IPO was nothing but ambitious: raising at least $500 million at a valuation of no less than $18 billion. So much has changed in 2019, since its first IPO attempt failed in March in Hong Kong. Its rising rival, MicroBT, whose founder won over Bitmain’s patent infringement lawsuit, is seriously undermining Bitmain’s market dominance. In 2019, Bitmain’s mining pools BTC.com and Antpool lost the top two spots to F2Pool and Poolin, the latter of which still has an ongoing case with Bitmain over alleged non-compete violation. When Wu Jihan returned in a coup in November 2019 to kick out his founding partner Zhan, he told his people he’s back to save the sinking ship. Whether his tough comeback will work as he expected is yet to be proven, although it appears prepared to roll out more powerful equipment to weather the upcoming halving. It remains to be seen if Bitmain can replicate the sensational success it once had following the 2016 bitcoin halving. Related Stories Bitcoin in Emerging Markets: Latin America The CoinDesk 50: Brave Browser Delivered and BAT’s a DeFi Darling || Crypto M&A and Fundraising Dropped Sharply in 2019: PwC Report: Crypto companies kept buying each other last year even as both M&A and funding deal flow in the industry took a dive, according to a report released Monday by PwC. On the M&A side, crypto-native acquirers took 56 percent of the deal flow, compared to 42 percent in 2018. The total number of M&A deals flagged by the report dropped from 189 in 2018 to 114 last year, while the value of M&A deals dropped by a whopping 76 percent from $1.9 billion to $451 million. Larger companies were able to eat up ones that provided services that were ancillary to their own, PwC Global Crypto Lead Henri Arslanian told CoinDesk in an interview. Related:Makers of Keep Protocol Raise $7.7M to Bring Trustless BTC to DeFi “I think we should expect some of the big players to get bigger, but not by buying direct competitors,” Arslanian said. “Not by becoming vertically bigger but by becoming horizontally bigger. Unicorns are becoming more like octopuses where they have their hands in various areas of the crypto ecosystem.” Meanwhile, the declines on the fundraising side of the report weren’t quite as stark. Post-seed rounds took up eight percentage points more of overall fundraising deals in 2019, a sign of the sector’s maturation. “I think that’s something we should expect to see as well, as the industry matures, there will be enough deal flow and there will be enough exits as well to allow many of the crypto VCs to be successful,” he said. Fundraising overall decreased by 40 percent to $2.24 billion and the number of deals dropped by 122. Equity fundraising decreased by less, showing only an 18 percent drop. The rise of bitcoin in the second and third quarter of 2019 didn’t stave off the funding drop, and the industry should assume going into 2020 that the global economic downturn will further affect funding deals, the report said. Related:‘They Have the Users’: Binance CEO Explains Why He Bought CoinMarketCap Last year did see a doubling of corporate venture capital involvement, taking up 6 percent of the deals. As clear regulatory frameworks in Europe and Asia begin to develop, more institutional players are taking notice. Family offices with long-term investment strategies that Arslanian advises continue to show more interest in crypto over time, he said. The type of companies receiving investment also changed year-to-year. In 2018, most VC funding went to blockchain infrastructure projects while crypto compliance and regulatory companies saw the most investment in 2019. Deal flow is also moving away from the Americas and towards Asia and Europe, which increased their deal share by eight and six percentage points, respectively. Last year was the first year most of the crypto fundraising and M&A dealshappened outside of the U.S. Companies looking for new institutional clients are flocking to Hong Kong while firms looking for a retail audience are considering Singapore’s new regulatory framework, Arslanian added. “We’ve definitely seen a number of the large players from the U.S. and from Europe really look at Asia not only from an expansion perspective but also as a point of fundraising from strategic investors,” he said. Read the full report below: • Investors in Polychain Capital’s Crypto Hedge Fund Saw 1,332% Gains – If They Stomached the Dips • VC Deals in Crypto Remained Steady but Amount Invested Fell in 2019: Report || Bitcoin in Zimbabwe – Part 1 of a New Documentary Podcast Series: After three weeks of listening, recording and talkingbitcoin(BTC) in Africa, podcaster Anita Posch shares her experiences in part one of this new six-part documentary podcast series. Listen/subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast feed for unique perspectives and fresh daily insight withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS. In this first part of the “Bitcoin in Africa” podcast documentary series, join Anita as she learns about the current living situation of Zimbabweans and the country’s political history. Combining on-the-ground recordings, interviews and thoughtful narration, she paints a picture of why things are how they are, as well as the state of human rights and free speech. Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for March 20, 2020 “I wanted to see by myself if this is true and how far bitcoin is known and used there,” said Anita Posch. Recorded February 2020 in the run-up to the growing quarantine movement and coronavirus travel restrictions, Anita traveled to Zimbabwe and Botswana to listen, learn and record about the usage of bitcoin in these countries. In the world of bitcoin, countries like Zimbabwe and Venezuela are frequently mentioned as places where the cryptocurrency could or perhaps should be making a difference and where they can really help the people’s economic situations. Check out another ofAnita’s favorite episodes featuring Andreas M. Antonopoulos debunking arguments against bitcoinlike high volatility, energy consumption, inequalities and the exaggerated risk of possible failure. TRANSCRIPT:“Bitcoin in Africa: The Ubuntu Way” – Part 1 – Zimbabwe: Ideal conditions for Bitcoin? Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for March 19, 2020 ANITA Hello friends, bitcoiners and pre-coiners alike! This is the first episode of a multipart series called “Bitcoin in Africa: The Ubuntu Way” In February 2020 I travelled to Zimbabwe and Botswana to find out, if and howbitcoin(BTC) is used there. I spent three weeks in Zimbabwe, two weeks of that time I was in Harare the capital and I travelled for one week to Bulawayo and Victoria Falls. After that I spent some days in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana to meet and talk with the founder of the Satoshicentre Alakanani Itireleng. ANITA The instrument you heard is a mbira (pronounced m-BEER-ra , IPA (ə)mˈbɪəɾə) it is an African musical instrument, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. Why did I visit Zimbabwe? I wanted to see with my own eyes how the living situation is for people and, more importantly, to research the usage of bitcoin. Bitcoin is in my eyes first and foremost not a speculative, trading object, where everything is about price. For me it’s a tool of liberation that enables individuals and communities to free themselves of tight restrictions by authoritarian or totalitarian nation states that harm people’s human rights. This has many faces. In the so-called western world, in countries with freedom of speech, safety and a high level of wealth, it is the possibility to free oneself from the banking system. The banking system has in the last 30 years in combination with national and global regulations evolved into a very strict system of surveillance and allowances. Where we – the majority people of integrity are being policed by the banks – because of fear of money laundering and terrorism finance done by the few. In conjunction with “surveillance capitalism” – a term coined by Shoshana Zuboff in her book well worth reading – surveillance capitalism – which is the permanent recording of all our digital traces on Facebook, Google and Co. – that are being used not only to comfort us with better search results and convenience, but also to manipulate our decisions and extort our data for money and higher profits. This has had disastrous consequences for democracy, freedom and our privacy. So in countries with high living standards, safety and a relatively good working banking system with a low inflation rate controlled by so called “independent” central banks, I would argue that governments try to regulate bitcoin in the face of “money laundering and financing terrorism” – while in countries like Zimbabwe bitcoin has to be tamed or controlled by the governing elite, because of the possibility for more “human rights and freedom” for its citizens and their loss of power. This podcast special and my trip to Africa would not have been possible without my sponsors and supporters. I want to thank my sponsors first: Thank you: Peter McCormack and the whatbitcoindid podcast, Coinfinity and theCardWallet, LocalBitcoins.com a person-to-person bitcoin trading site, SHIFT Cryptosecurity, manufacturer of the hardware walletBitBox02and many thanks to several unknown private donors, who sent me Satoshis over the lightning network. This special is edited by CoinDesk’s Podcasts Editor Adam B. Levine and published first on the CoinDesk Podcast Network. Thank you very much for supporting the Bitcoin in Africa series with your work. Thanks goes also out to stakwork.com – stakwork is a great project that brings bitcoin into the world through earning. One can do microjobs on stakwork, earning Satoshis and cash them out without even having an understanding about the lightning network or bitcoin. I think we need more projects like that to spread the usage of bitcoin around the world. Thank you also to GoTenna, for donating several gotenna devices to set up a mesh network in Zimbabwe and to Team Satoshi, the decentralized sports team for supporting my work. This special is also brought to you by the Let’s Talk Bitcoin Network. Voice of captain:Mascati…. Welcome on board… Make yourself comfortable…. ANITA: I did talks about bitcoin in both countries and introduced around 100 people to the possibilities of using and earning bitcoin and showed them how it can improve their living situation in the short and long run. I met with many people from different backgrounds with a diverse set of goals and interests. I talked with them about their daily life, how the economic situation has changed in the last 20 – 40 years, about their hopes and fears for the future and of course about bitcoin and its chances and challenges in Africa. In 2014 Alakanani Itireleng a true Bitcoin OG founded the Satoshicentre in Gaborone to educate her fellow citizens about bitcoin: INTERVIEWEE:“I want to help people get into the Bitcoin ecosystem and set the ecosystem to make it like work for Africa, not only for Botswana to make it to work for for Africa, you know, we are the very people that need bitcoin. Yeah. We are the people. I think so too. Yeah, we are actually this is the place where it is needed the most. Like I was shocked when I was in the U.S. in Orange County. I saw a drive through bank. Yeah. I was like why do you guys have a drive through banks? You don’t need Bitcoin. So we need bitcoin.” ANITA February 2020: My trip to Zimbabwe starts. I arrive at Harare airport – before I am allowed to join the queue in front of the immigration desk my body temperature is measured – it is coronavirus season. All is good. They ask me where I come from: I say Austria. The answer is a question: Australia? I say no: Austria in Europe, next to Germany. Ah. Austria. Alright. I join the queue for the immigration procedure. I apply for a visa – and pay 30 U.S. dollar in cash. This, despite the fact, that in June 2019 the use of U.S. dollar and other foreign currencies was outlawed by the government So, if the government outlawed the use of foreign currencies, why did I just pay my visa fees with U.S. dollar cash? This is just one of many questions I ask myself during the three weeks of my stay in Zimbabwe. Next step, customs control: I am very nervous, because my suitcase is packed with devices for bitcoin use. I am bringing donations from my sponsors, several Hardware wallets, the BitBox02 by SHIFT cryptosecurity, several Card Wallets, a RaspiBlitz, which is a Bitcoin and Lightning Fullnode and several GoTenna devices to set up a mesh network to communicate and even send bitcoin, while being off the grid. So coming from the immigration desk I try to stay behind a couple to sneak through and I am lucky, the custom officers are not interested in me or my suitcase. I feel a great relief. After arrival my friends immediately take me out to an event. They say, you have to see that. And they were right. It was the Austrian new year’s concert in Harare. It felt a little weird. Being in a church, with an audience of 99 percent whites – so called “Murungus” in the local Shona language – attending. A group of elderly Rhodesians coming together to listen to a classical concert in the tradition of Vienna philharmonic orchestra. That’s not quite what I expected to find. But this audience is also a part of the country’s history and current life. This shows that Zimbabwe is a land of many contrasts. In the three weeks of my stay, I showered exactly one time. Bah, you might think. No, I did wash myself, but only in a so-called shallow bath. You fill the bathtub just a little bit, like 2 cm high and then you wash yourself sitting and pouring the water over yourself with a jug. Why? Because of the water drought, there is no public water supply. So people try to save as much water as possible, you don’t even flush the toilet, when you have been on the small side. You have to buy water privately, that is delivered every two weeks with a truck. And if possible, you collect the rainwater. Even though there is no water supply: the water company still sends bills and you have to pay them. Same with electricity: It depends in which area you live. If you are close to hospitals or to the areas where people from the government live, then your chances to have water and electricity all the time are high. If not, then you have to suffer from power outages. At the place where I was staying, the power went on around 11 p.m. and went off around 5 a.m. in the morning. That means that people – and there are a lot of them – who cannot afford to buy a solar panel and an inverter – have to work by night. If you cannot afford a gas stove, you have to cook by night. And still: the electricity provider ZESA sends you bills and you have to pay them. So I travelled the country and arranged a number of interviews. Three of my interview partners in Zimbabwe wanted to stay anonymous. One person is working for a human rights organization in Harare. Another one feared about his professional career and the third one is a teacher in a public school who is also afraid of possible threats. The other two I was talking with would have been ok with their names in the public, but I decided to leave their names out, too. Why? Because people are scared. As my interview partner who is working for a human rights organization puts it: HUMAN RIGHTS SPEAKER “The human rights situation here right now is really poor. I don’t, I haven’t I haven’t been this pessimistic about it in 10-15 years. It’s really is-. It’s as repressive as it has been with like, an added layer of like a sinister, vindictive. And I think that there’s a small number of activists or organizations trying to do something. And in some ways, because there’s so few of them, it’s really easy to just sit really hard. So if you are one of those handful of people you can get kidnapped, raped, beaten up and stuff. You know, you fight life, you know, every day. And like, how long does the energy last? So because some people I mean, that’s my observation on my feet, you know, just that you can do it for a certain period of time. And then you just I don’t know, it’s almost like a, like a fading out, you know?” ANITA So one can say there’s no free speech in this country? HR SPEAKER Yeah. And adding up –Especially what you receive from a kind of like whatever in form of like a global support network coverage of it’s very poor, you know? I mean, you get a headline in the media and like this, and this happens, but actually, the peer support internationally, I also like find quite poor. ANITA One of my interviews was taking place at a self-service restaurant in the middle of Harare. My guest and I started talking and I recorded with my audio recorder and two handheld microphones. After 20 minutes a woman from the restaurant approached us: UNKNOWN SPEAKER: ….recording is not allowed…. ANITA We continued and finished our interview and left for another restaurant. But this was a disturbing experience. At least for me. I am used to being able to record my own conversations wherever I want. But people here are scared. And as I realized afterwards reports from foreigners about Zimbabwe require a permit. Also you are not allowed to take pictures of government buildings. With all those complicated living conditions, what are the positives about living in Zimbabwe? HR SPEAKER The people, the people, people it is and yeah, the climate. And the possibilities. You know, if you are an entrepreneurial person you are very free to start new things – there are not so many strict regulations for starting a business. In fact, you have to have this self-sovereign attitude otherwise you couldn’t survive here. Still, it is very different, if you have the possibility to leave the country or not. Because It’s tough. I mean, I think that’s a big part of why people leave, is the combination of kind of lack of civic freedom and lack of economic prospects. And it’s a little bit like what we were just saying about the colleague who’s gone to work in London, like you had an opportunity like that, you take it and if you mean, even if, even if the choice was like, be a tomato vendor here, or work as a waiter in South Africa, I’ll work as a waiter in South Africa, or for any other foreign currency, I can send it home. I can support my family. ANITA: There are 16 million people living in Zimbabwe and only about 800.000 of them have a formal employment. That are only 5 percent of the population, that means 95% are informal unemployed, they hustle, they live off nothing. Of the 5 percent with a formal employment, most of them work for the government, are civil servants or teachers in public schools. This is what the headmistress of a school told me: TEACHER: “And everybody else is just living hustling. Yeah, we hustle. Oh, yeah, it’s … you have people who work but and who are self-employed. But very few people are like working from a for a proper institution, because even the institutions are in a difficult place because you’ll have rentals for example, charged in U.S. dollars, even though the government would say no, it’s not allowed Even if they rate it, it will be like astronomical prices. We like I don’t even earn that much. So typical rental, for example, for a one bedroom apartment, let’s call it that, which is pretty standard. You’re looking at about 250 – 350 US dollars, the average person at most is maybe earning 2500 Zim dollars, which is about 100 hundred dollars. So how do you pay your rent, but then and so now like it’s become, employment has almost become like a jail, because it’s like, because now you don’t have time, because they’ll take all your time, you don’t have time to find that additional 200 or $250 to pay your rent. But really, and truly, you need additional maybe $400 because you’ve got the other bills outside of rent. So it’s almost like being employed is almost a disadvantage almost in this country because you’re locked down at that price and even if everything goes up, every month, your salary will remain the same. And a lot of companies struggle to put, what did they call it? Something allowance of forgetting the term an adjustment, as Yeah, it’s called a salary adjustment to move with the market. It’s never really completely what you actually need. They’ll try maybe you get an extra 200 bond or an extra 500 bond. But it’s difficult, you know, it’s difficult to keep up with that corporate struggling as well. Very few corporates are able to pay people very well for it to make sense.” ANITA As a teacher and headmistress. she can tell about the situation in schools: Wow, I mean, I work in education. I work in education, and I can tell you, it’s difficult. It’s difficult. Have a staff complement of 14 and they, my, you have to then obviously get money from school fees. So you have a lot of schools now. Trying to diversify. Because if you put all that pressure on the parents, then your parents can’t afford to send their children to your school. So it’s like, Okay, what do you do? We need to increase our fees because I need to be able to pay my teachers more. But if I throw that burden on the parents, I, as a parent know that I can’t even afford that, you know, per term for every child that I’ve got some parents of two, three, four children, and they need to bring your children so what do you do you end up subsidizing? That’s when you have schools that have maybe a little Market Garden, you know, where you commercialize your kitchen and you start baking. You know, when you’re not making lunch for the kids, you’re selling food on the side so that you supplement your income. It is difficult and teachers have struggled the most, especially who work for state schools, public schools, they are in the worst possible position. Those who work in private schools are in much better position because they can afford to charge more government schools can’t charge what private schools are charging, because government schools supposed to the public schools supposed to be affordable for anyone to send their child to school, then they put in a difficult position where you’re told you cannot not accept a child because they haven’t paid fees. So you have to accept them. So you’ll have, let’s say, 50 children, and maybe only 15 of them have paid the school fees. But because as a government school, you’re not allowed to send children home because they have a right to education. How do you take care of the other 35 off 15 and still take care of your teachers and it’s, it’s our country, is madness, you know, the more I talk about it, you know, it sounds terrible. ANITA Not only that prices are rising daily, the whole society is crippled by corruption. Before 2017, when Robert Mugabe still was the country’s leader, there were roadblocks by police everywhere. They would stop your car and say that you have done something wrong or mock you about small things they find in your car – ending with demanding money. Friends told me that they stopped driving through the city of Harare, because at one time they were stopped by five roadblocks inside the city and had to pay around 100 USD in fines only to get from one side of town to the other. With the new government, this has changed. No more roadblocks inside Harare. When I was there, it was almost spooky. Because I did not see any police. A friend said: If you need the police at your home, because something has happened, you cannot just call them and they’ll come, you have to go and fetch them. And still there are roadblocks. A thing that I have never encountered in my life before: when we were on our roadtrip to Victoria Falls, we were stopped by roadblocks at the borders of each city. Coming from Austria, I have never seen something like that before. And it feels creepy. It’s like, every time I see police and I have to stop – or maybe they wave us through, you never know – it feels like you have done something wrong. Uncertainty, being at the mercy of their whims – that’s not a good feeling. INTERVIEWEE 2: As any person I hate talking ill about my country, but it’s the truth, sadly, sadly is the truth. We are struggling. We are struggling. We have doctors are not paid nearly what a doctor should be paid realistically. We don’t have equipment. We don’t have the right medication the cost of medication alone is unbelievable. You can’t afford to get sick. We were in a fuel queue with car behind us was a doctor, a doctor was in there. And he eventually was he was actually a doctor on call. And he’d also been in this queue for like, two hours or so. And the guy was supposed to be on call and knowing already that was so severely understaffed. A doctor who supposed to be attending to patients, but it’s stuck in a fuel queue is a problem. So he went up to the front and he tried to get fuel, at least in a jerrycan and he showed them his card and the fact that he was on coal and it was a huge fight. But I think in the end, he only got like 10 liters, which is enough just to get him to work and get back home at the end of it. And as we’re trying to help him sort of fill up his car. He then says, As a doctor, I can safely say to you cannot afford to get sick. Please do not get sick in this country, because it’s one of two things It’s either you cannot afford it, because they are hospitals that are beautifully equipped, fully staffed, all the medication, all these hospitals are here right now in this country, but you know you are paying a premium for it. Even our medical aids, not all of them are accepted at these hospitals. But then you have our government hospitals, which are not as well equipped. And if you don’t have the kind of money that is required to get proper health care, your chances of not making it or you know, probably not getting the best health care you possibly could a very, very high, very high and if a doctor can say, don’t get sick, what does that what does that tell you? ANITA: While traveling from Harare to Bulawayo I met a doctor, who lived a big part of his life in Zimbabwe. I would say, he is in his early 70s and he fought in the Rhodesian Bush War, which was a guerilla war to fight for the independence of Zimbabwe in the 1970s. It ended with the declaration of independence of Zimbabwe in 1980 with a new leader called Robert Mugabe. This doctor lives in Europe now, but every year he returns to his old home country to stay for some weeks. He brought a suitcase full of medical supplies with him, to donate it to a hospital, because public hospitals are lacking everything. At the airport, custom officers opened his suitcase and demanded money for the supplies. ANITA: Corruption is everywhere. And it seems that there are different rules for different people. Yes, I think one can say that for every country, but the differences are so big here. If you have USD, if you are in a high position, if you are in the right network, you can have a great life in Zimbabwe. I have seen private houses with swimming pools blue as the sky, many shiny SUVs and most of the better off people employ gardeners, maids and other staff. When I was there a new rule by the government was published. The minimum wage for a gardener or worker is allowed to be as little as 8 USD. Per month. And of course: this is not paid in USD, but in Zimbabwe dollar. For instance: The maid in a house – close to where I stayed – works seven days a week, from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., doing housework, cooking, taking care of the kids. She is a so-called live-in maid. Due to the power cuts she has to iron by night. She also sleeps in the house of her employer. For this, she earns 10 USD per month. Most of the time the families of workers like her live in another part of town, where the rents are cheaper. So, because they cannot afford a car, if they want to go home, they have to take the bus which costs them around 1-2 USD. How should anyone be able to live from that? And now a short word from my sponsors: Not your keys, not your coins – be the holder of your keys for your bitcoin. For that: Use a well-built hardware wallet like theBitBox02by SHIFT Cryptosecurity from Switzerland. With their upcoming app for Android you can connect the hardware wallet directly with your phone and send and receive bitcoin on the go. Check it out at shiftcrypto.ch – that’s shift c r y p t o.ch. You get free shipping with the code “anita” I could go on with these examples of mismanagement and corruption. For instance: MealieMeal – which is like a cornmeal- it is the Zimbabweans staple diet… The thing people eat on a daily basis like rice in Asia, noodles in Italy or potatoes in Germany. It’s part of their diet and normally relatively affordable. But it is not available at the moment. The producers of MealieMeal are being forced by the government to get paid in Zimbabwe Dollars. So they decided, before they are paid in this bad money that loses its value daily, they rather store the MealieMeal in their warehouses and wait for better deals. This is something that hits people in towns worse, than those in the countryside. Because there either you have your own corn or the local chief settles a deal with the producers so that his people get MealieMeal. Basically much of the conversation is about where to get what, at which prices: STREET AUDIO: Do you know that they have chibage? Anita: And I did not even mention the fuel queues up until now. So petrol. The urban spaces in Harare, Bulawayo and other towns are not densely populated in general. That means, that distances are very great. And there is no public transport like we know it. Yes there are a lot of mini buses and also bigger buses to travel over land. Someone like me would be completely lost, because there are no timetables or stops with signs. And yeah, there are no road signs at all. Nowhere. So you really need to know your way or ask people. That means everything is depending on cars and buses. If you cannot afford that, you have to walk. And I saw a lot of people walking. Women, who were carrying heavy bags on their heads – yes like we see it on television – and men, who interestingly enough, carry much less than their accompanying women. And yes, I have asked. It is a very patriarchal society. Coming back to the petrol. There are severe petrol shortages. You never know when and where you can get petrol. I was told that most of the time, when fuel shortages occured, the price was raised afterwards. In the weeks I was in the country, I saw many many people queueing for petrol. Long lines of cars are parked at the side of the streets waiting for the petrol station to open. People spend nights and days queueing, never knowing for how long the petrol will last? One of my interview partners excused himself for not calling me at the time we agreed upon, because he was in the petrol queue for such a long time, that he did not have power anymore in his cell phone. Before we dive deeper into the current situation in the following episodes, let’s take a look back and take a look into the history of this beautiful land Zimbabwe and its people. TheEncyclopædia Britannica begins its history of Zimbabwewith “The Stone Age” The first Bantu people are thought to have reached Zimbabwe between the 5th and 10th centuries CE. Zimbabwe is home to many stone ruins, including those known asGreat Zimbabwe, which has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1986. Overview of Great Zimbabwe. The large walled construction is the Great Enclosure. Some remains of the valley complex can be seen in front of it. The Portuguese, who arrived on the east coast of Africa at the end of the 15th century, dreamed of opening up the interior and establishing a route to connect their eastern settlements with Angola in the west. The first European to enter Zimbabwe was probably Antonio Fernandes, who tried to cross the continent and reached the neighborhood of Que Que (now Kwekwe). A second great movement of the Bantu peoples began in 1830, this time from the south. The Ndebele, carved out a kingdom. The Ndebele were warriors and pastoralists, in the Zulu tradition, and they mastered and dispossessed the weaker tribes, known collectively as Shona (Mashona), who were sedentary, peaceful tillers of the land. For more than half a century, until the coming of European rule, the Ndebele continued to enslave and plunder the Shona. This is an important fact for the later development. During this period, however, British and Afrikaner hunters, traders, and prospectors had begun to move up from the south, and with them came the missionaries. In South Africa Cecil Rhodes formed the British South Africa Company, which received its charter in October 1889. Its objects were to extend the railway, to encourage immigration and colonization, to promote trade and commerce, and – of course – to secure all mineral rights, in return for guarantees of protection and security of rights to the tribal chiefs. The Ndebele resented this European invasion, and in 1893 they took up arms, being defeated only after months of strenuous fighting. The Shona had at first accepted the Europeans, but they too became rebellious, and the whole country was not pacified until 1897. “The Rhodes Colossus” by Edward Linley Sambourne, published in Punch after Rhodes announced plans for a telegraph line from Cape Town to Cairo in 1892. By 1892 about 1,500 settlers from the south had arrived in Rhodesia. The railway reached Bulawayo in 1896 and Victoria Falls in 1904. After Cecil Rhodes’s death in 1902 he was buried in the Matopos Hills and they built him a monument that stands on top of these hills destroying the beauty of the land. And now a short word from my sponsors: TheCard Walletis the ideal solution to store your bitcoin keys in the medium and long run. No Software updates needed, it’s 100 percent offline, it leaves no traces on the blockchain if you give it away as a gift or inheritance. With the card wallet you’ll get one bitcoin address, you can send bitcoin to it, whenever you wish and all you have to do is, to store it in a safe place. That’s it. The manufacturers are the Austrian state printinghouse, which is also the producer of Austria’s passports and Coinfinity, Austria’s first bitcoin broker. Order your card wallet at cardwallet.com/anita and Get 20 percent off. In 1922 – British South Africa Company administration ended, the white minority opts for self-government. 1930 – Land Apportionment Act restricts black access to land, forcing many people into wage labour. Between 1930-1960s – Black opposition to colonial rule was growing. 1965 – Prime minister Ian Smith unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom under white minority rule, sparking international outrage and economic sanctions. The Rhodesian Bush War lasted from 1972 to 1979 it was a Guerrilla war against white rule. According to Rhodesian government statistics, more than 20,000 people were killed during the war. Rhodesian security forces, guerrillas and around 8.000 black civilians, and 500 white civilians were killed. In 1980 – Zanu leader Robert Mugabe won independence elections. He became the first prime minister as Zimbabwe achieved an internationally recognized independence on April 18, 1980. He stayed president of Zimbabwe until 2017. Mugabe was born to a poor Shona family – hence remember how the Ndebele enslaved and plundered the Shona, before the European rule. Because between 1982 and 1985, Mugabe sent the military and the so called 5th brigade – trained by North Korean – to crush armed resistance against him from Ndebele groups – in a military crackdown known as Gukurahundi, a Shona term which translates roughly to mean “the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains”. The Gukurahundi campaigns were also known as the Matabeleland Massacres. Approximately 20,000 Matabele were murdered in these first years after the war; most of those killed were victims of public executions. Margaret Thatcher’s U.K. government was aware of the killings but remained silent on the matter, cautious not to anger Mugabe and threaten the safety of white Zimbabweans. The United States also did not raise strong objections, with President Ronald Reagan welcoming Mugabe to the White House in September 1983. In October 1983, Mugabe attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in New Delhi, where no participating states mentioned the Gukurahundi. Economically, Southern Rhodesia developed an economy that was narrowly based on production of a few primary products, notably, chrome and tobacco. It was therefore vulnerable to the economic cycle. The deep recession of the 1930s gave way to a post-war boom. This boom prompted the immigration of about 200,000 whites between 1945 and 1970, taking the white population up to 307,000. They established a relatively balanced economy, transforming what was once a primary producer dependent on backwoods farming into an industrial giant which spawned a strong manufacturing sector, iron and steel industries, and modern mining ventures. These economic successes owed little to foreign aid. In the 1990s hundreds of thousands of acres of largely white-owned land were expropriated. In April 1994, a newspaper investigation found that not all of this was redistributed to landless blacks; much of the expropriated land was being leased to ministers and senior officials. Responding to this scandal, in 1994 the U.K. government – which had supplied £44 million for land redistribution – halted its payments. Over the course of the 1990s, Zimbabwe’s economy steadily deteriorated. By 2000, living standards had declined from 1980; life expectancy was reduced, average wages were lower, and unemployment had trebled. By 1998, unemployment was almost at 50%. As of 2009, three to four million Zimbabweans – the greater part of the nation’s skilled workforce – had left the country. Mugabe increasingly blamed the country’s economic problems on Western nations and the white Zimbabwean minority, who still controlled most of its commercial agriculture, mines, and manufacturing industry. From a human rights perspective I also want to talk about Mugabe’s growing preoccupation with homosexuality, lambasting it as an “un-African” import from Europe. He described gay people as being “guilty of sub-human behavior”, and of being “worse than dogs and pigs”. This attitude may have stemmed in part from his strong conservative values, but it was strengthened by the fact that several ministers in the British government were gay. Mugabe began to believe that there was a “gay mafia” and that all of his critics were homosexuals. Critics also accused Mugabe of using homophobia to distract attention from the country’s problems. In February 2000, land invasions began as armed gangs attacked and occupied white-owned farms. The farm seizures were often violent; by 2006 a reported sixty white farmers had been killed, with many of their employees experiencing intimidation and torture. A large number of the seized farms remained empty, while many of those redistributed to black peasant-farmers were unable to engage in production for the market because of their lack of access to fertilizer. The farm invasions severely impacted agricultural development. Zimbabwe had produced over two million tons of maize in 2000; by 2008 this had declined to approximately 450,000. By 2009, 75% of Zimbabwe’s population were relying on food aid, the highest proportion of any country at that time. Zimbabwe faced continuing economic decline. Hyperinflation resulted in economic crisis. By 2007, Zimbabwe had the highest inflation rate in the world, at 7600 percent. By 2008, inflation exceeded 100,000% and a loaf of bread cost a third of the average daily wage. Increasing numbers of Zimbabweans relied on remittances from relatives abroad. The country’s lucrative tourist industry was decimated, and there was a rise in poaching, including of endangered species. Mugabe directly exacerbated this problem when he ordered the killing of 100 elephants to provide meat for an April 2007 feast. In 2008, the parliamentary and presidential elections were held. After the election, Mugabe’s government deployed its ‘war veterans’ in a violent campaign against his opponent Tsvangirai supporters. Between March and June 2008, at least 153 MDC supporters were killed. There were reports of women affiliated with the MDC being subjected to gang rape by Mugabe supporters. Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans were internally displaced by the violence. These actions brought international condemnation of Mugabe’s government. This is only 12 years ago. No wonder, that people are scared. In 2009, Mugabe’s government declared that – to combat rampant inflation – it would recognize U.S. dollars as legal tender and would pay government employees in this currency. This helped to stabilize prices. But then in November 2016 a new national currency called bond notes was introduced amid public resistance. In 2017 Mr. Mugabe resigns after the military takes control. Former vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa becomes president. People have hope, that from now on Zimbabwe might become a better place. But as it seems, nothing really has changed. In January 2019, protests break out in major cities after the government more than doubles fuel prices in an attempt to tackle shortages and the black market. In June 2019, Zimbabwe outlaws the use of any other foreign currency. Only Zimbabwean dollars are allowed as legal tender. That meant that All USD one had held on a bank account in the country were changed into Zimbabwe dollar at the exchange rate of 1:1. This did not last long. Today – 9 months afterwards – the exchange rate on the streets is 1:43. So now 43 Zim Dollar are equivalent to 1 US Dollar. INTERVIEW: When I came here two and a half weeks ago, I think the official exchange rate was one to 17. And in the shops, we had one to 20 or 25. Today, we got one to 30 in a shop. While so in, yeah, in two and a half weeks, the rtgs or the bond, Zimbabwe bond lost a lot. I don’t know how many percent that exactly now, but actually a lot of Yes. value. Yeah. So what do you see? Or what do you think is coming next? I mean, do you think you’re going into hyperinflation again? Speaker 2 We are in hyperinflation. Anita Posch You are still in again? Yes. Speaker 2 Yeah. I think we are. It’s just that it’s not. t’s not on the scale, where last time we just like I feel like it just ran out of people’s hands like when we will became trillionaires. And quadrillion is like it just there was no control left like no one’s Coming and no one knew how to deal with it. We’ve been there before. So now it’s like okay, let’s try and control it. But it is in we are in currently in hyperinflation, I believe so maybe an economist will tell me I’m wrong. Anita: In the three weeks of my stay the exchange rate on the street went from 1:20 to 1:30 in only three weeks, this is a huge change. This is a sad situation because for the people living is getting difficult again. And by the way: The Reserve bank of Zimbabwe maintains a Twitter account, where you can find tweets, which paint a picture about what is happening in the country. For instance, one tweet is threatening people with disciplinary measures for posting pictures of new banknotes on social media! In the next episode you will hear more about the banking situation and how people here are used to living in a multicurrency system, which theoretically is a perfect starting point for people to adopt bitcoin. If you like my show please subscribe to it in your podcast player and share the episode on social media. You can find additional pictures and videos from my travel on the episode page at bitcoinundco.com. Please do follow me on Twitter, my handle is@anitaposch, or write an email to hello @ anitaposch.com . If you want to sponsor the podcast – I am currently looking for new partners please feel free to send me a message. Thanks for listening. Music: Start with yes Delicate beats, editing by Adam B. Levine and the CoinDesk podcast network, Idea content and production yours truly Anita Posch. Listen/subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast feed for unique perspectives and fresh daily insight withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS. • Can Open Source Networks Address Medical Shortages? Feat. Bruce Fenton • Why Bitcoin Is the Only Truly Free Market, Feat. Dan Tapiero || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -04/05/20: Bitcoin fell by 0.92% on Sunday. Partially reversing a 1.81% gain from Saturday, Bitcoin ended the week up by 15.61% to $8,899.8. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin rally to an early morning intraday high $9,198.0 before hitting reverse. Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $9,072.13 and the second major resistance level at $9,161.97. The reversal saw Bitcoin slide to a mid-afternoon intraday low $8,738.0 before finding support. Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $8,824.33 before briefly rebounding to $8,900 levels late in the day. The near-term bearish trend, formed at late June 2019’s swing hi $13,764.0, remained firmly intact, reaffirmed by the March swing lo $4,000. For the bulls, Bitcoin would need to break out from $10,000 levels to form a near-term bullish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a bearish day for the pack on Sunday. Bitcoin Cash ABC (-3.75%), Cardano’s ADA (-3.70%), EOS (-3.55%), Monero’s XMR (-3.33%), Stellar’s Lumen (-3.57%), and Tezos (-3.35%) saw heavy losses. Binance Coin (-2.34%), Bitcoin Cash SV (-2.28%), Ethereum (-1.87%), Litecoin (-2.25%), Ripple’s XRP (-2.00%), and Tron’s TRX (-2.37%) saw relatively modest losses. It was also a mixed week for the majors, in the week ending 3 rd May. Stellar’s Lumen led the way, rallying by 17.05%, with Ripple’s XRP (+11.69%) and Tron’s TRX (+11.86%) also seeing solid gains. Bitcoin Cash SV (+5.65%), Cardano’s ADA (+6.76%), Ethereum (+6.29%), and Litecoin (+7.86%) weren’t far behind. Binance Coin (+4.51%), EOS (+3.58%), and Monero’s XMR (+1.79%) trailed, while Tezos fell by 1.06%. Through the week, the crypto total market cap rose from a Monday low $220.56bn to a Thursday high $263.29bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $244.53bn. Bitcoin’s dominance recovered to 64% levels following a Wednesday breakout before breaking through to 65% levels. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 65.9%. Story continues 24-hour trading volumes rose from sub-$130bn levels to a Thursday high $253.89bn before sliding back. At the time of writing, 24-hr volumes stood at $158.47bn. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 1.99% to $8,723.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $8,961.8 before falling to a low $8,631.0. Steering clear of the major resistance levels, Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $8,692.53 Elsewhere, it was a bearish start to the day for the majors. Bitcoin Cash SV (-3.91%), EOS (-3.88%), and Litecoin (-3.30%) led the way down early on. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to move through to $8,950 levels to bring the first major resistance level at $9,151.53 into play. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break back through to $9,000 levels. Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, resistance at $9,000 would likely leave Bitcoin short of the first major resistance level. In the event of another breakout, the first major resistance level and Sunday’s high $9,198 would likely cap any upside. Failure to move through to $8,950 levels could see Bitcoin fall deeper into the red. A fall back through the first major support level would bring $8,500 levels into play before any recovery. Barring a crypto meltdown, however, Bitcoin should clear of the second major support level at $8,485.27. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: USD/JPY Fundamental Weekly Forecast – With Economies Reopening, Traders Will Be Watching Coronavirus Curve Sell in May and Go Away! U.S. Stocks To Watch Today Price of Gold Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Long-Term Buyers Waiting for Test of Value Area AUD/USD Forex Technical Analysis – Next Downside Target Area is .6254 to .6236 EOS, Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP – Daily Tech Analysis – 04/05/20 || Bitcoin Under Pressure After Oil Prices Crash to Record Lows: Bitcoin is looking weak after Monday’s big crash in the oil markets. The top cryptocurrency by market value is changing hands near $6,820 at time of writing, having faced rejection above $7,200 yesterday., according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index . Bitcoin’s fall came as the price of oil, popularly known as “black gold,” tanked on oversupply fears. Notably, traders fled from the May futures contract on the West Texas Intermediate’s (WTI) crude, the main oil benchmark for North America, sending prices below zero for the first time on record. Related: First Mover: What the Oil Price Collapse Means for Bitcoin’s Halving Valuation The unprecedented sell-off has injected uncertainty into global financial markets. As a result, stocks dropped on Monday with the S&P 500 losing 1.8 percent of its value. The risk-off macro-environment has again strengthened bearish pressures for bitcoin. “The downside in BTC ismore likely attributable to losses in the equities market, which may bedirectly or indirectly affected by Crude prices, than the downward trend forcrude directly,” said Matthew Dibb, co-founder of Stack. Read more: Negative Oil Prices Could Hurt Bitcoin Miners Who Use Flared Gas Bitcoin has largely moved in tandem with the stock markets, in particular the S&P 500 index, from the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in the last week of February. Related: Market Wrap: Oil in Turmoil, Bitcoin Gains Slightly to $6.9K The latest drop in bitcoin prices marks a failure by the bulls to keep gains above the widely tracked 100-week average at $7,054. Bitcoin closed last week above the 100-week average, having repeatedly failed to do so in the preceding four weeks. As a result, some observers were expecting the upward momentum to gather pace. That didn’t happen, as noted. The failed breakout is accompanied by a negative reading on the weekly chart’s money flow index – a sign that sellers have the upper hand right now. As a result, further losses toward $6,472 (April 16 low) could be seen. Story continues The bearish technical setup is accompanied by continued sell-off in equities and oil. While WTI’s May futures contract, set to expire on Tuesday, has risen back above $1, the June contract is now facing increased selling pressure and is currently trading near $11.80, down 40 percent on the day. Analysts at Goldman Sachs have warned the plunge in black gold is symptomatic of unprecedented supplies. Put simply, oil is likely to continue taking a beating in the short term. Importantly, a cash crunch seems to be gripping the markets again, as is evident from the losses in traditional safe havens like gold, the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc – alongside a 0.5 percent uptick in the dollar index. “[Bitcoin] may go down to $6,400,” Chris Thomas, head of digital assets at Swissquote Bank, told CoinDesk. However, some observers are optimistic about bitcoin’s future prospects. “ The [miner reward] halving should help keep a bid to bitcoin in the coming months,” Richard Rosenblum, co-head of trading at GSR, told CoinDesk. Read more: Remote Working Proves Unexpected Hero as Half of US Economy Shifts to Home Offices Rosenblum added bitcoin is a futuristic product that will ultimately benefit from the growing prevalence of technology in consumers’ everyday lives. Meanwhile, Stack’s CEO Matthew Dibb thinks bitcoin and other major digital assets have largely remained “out of harm’s way” despite the oil crash. “While BTC is slightly down on today’s markets, we are not seeing any significant correlation between the market and energy commodities,” said Dibb, adding the cryptocurrency will remain bullish as long as prices are holding above $5,800. Supporting these arguments is the recent decline in the number of bitcoins held on exchanges, which suggests a shift to the long-term holding strategies. Disclosure: The author currently holds no cryptocurrencies. Related Stories First Mover: 10 Takeaways for Bitcoin From Negative Oil Prices Market Wrap: Oil Futures Plunge, Bitcoin Dips and Tether Has a $7B Day || World Series of Poker postponed until fall: In what may qualify as the most obvious shutdown decision amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Series of Poker made things official on Monday. This summer’s World Series has been postponed. Organizers are now targeting the fall to hold the annual series of poker tournaments that sees players vie for hundreds of millions of dollars and coveted winners’ bracelets. “We are committed to running the World Series of Poker this year but need additional time to proceed on our traditional scale while prioritizing guest and staff well-being,” a statement from WSOP executive director Ty Stewart reads. The series was scheduled to begin on May 26 at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and run through July 14. The annual series consists of much more than the highly publicized $10,000 No-Limit Texas Hold ‘em main event. This year’s series was scheduled to host 117 tournaments with buy-ins ranging from multiple $400 events to the $250,000 Super High-Roller No-Limit Hold ‘em event originally scheduled for June 27. According to the release, “changes are anticipated” to the event schedule upon the series’ anticipated return. The 2020 World Series of Poker has been postponed. (AP Photo/John Locher) Blow for poker industry Poker players from around the world flock to Las Vegas every summer to compete in tournaments and cash side games. The postponement and potential cancellation of the World Series is a big blow to the industry. But like with most shutdowns amid the coronavirus crisis, it is inevitable. With players sitting in tight quarters and passing cards and chips back and forth, a poker room is a prime location for a contagious virus to thrive. Nevada casinos are under state-wide shutdown orders until April 30 and are likely to remain shuttered for significantly longer. Can tournaments move online? With casinos shut down worldwide, the poker community has largely moved online with players buying into public tournaments with Bitcoin and playing private cash games on the internet. Stewart stated that “official WSOP competitions are expected to be played online this summer,” but with laws largely restricting online poker in the United States, the internet isn’t a viable alternative to include a broad array of players for the series’ marquee events. Story continues Online WSOP events are only legally accessible in Nevada, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. What WSOP competitions will be available online is not yet clear. More from Yahoo Sports: 5 best moments from first two episodes of Jordan documentary Burrow called Manning for advice ahead of NFL draft Lakers’ Davis puts L.A. home on market, but what does it mean? Nationals GM: No ring ceremony until fans are allowed back || Miners Are Selling More Bitcoin Than They Are Mining: While bitcoin (BTC) looks set to prolong its recent bullish moves, those responsible for making new bitcoin have increased their selling. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value rose from $3,867 to $7,000 in the 13 days to March 25, according to CoinDesk’sBitcoin Price Index. Yet, throughout the 81 percent recovery rally, miners sold more coins than what they generated, according to the miner’s rolling inventory (MRI) figure, a measure created by crypto data company ByteTree to track the changes in inventory levels held by miners. The 21-day rolling MRI stayed above 100 during the entire duration of the recent recovery from lows below $4,000. An MRI above 100 means miners are selling more than they mine and running down inventory, while a below-100 MRI reading indicates miners are amassing inventory by selling less than they mine. Related:Investors Regained Confidence in Bitcoin Amid Price Recovery, Data Suggests Because prices continued to go up, there was more than enough appetite for the bitcoin the miners fed the market. See also:Bitcoin Is a Safe Haven for a Worse Storm Than This Mining poolsaccount forthe highest percentage of bitcoin flowing into exchanges and have significant influence on prices. Yet, some view the market’s reaction as a positive indicator. “When the price of bitcoin can rally sharply from the local lows and buyers can absorb the extra bitcoin sold by the miners with little impact, it is a sign of strength in the overall market,” Connor Abendschein, crypto research analyst at Digital Assets Data told CoinDesk. Related:US, European Stocks Up but Crypto Traders Remain Cautious Miners also ran down inventory on Wednesday, asnoted byByteTreefounder and Chairman Charlie Morris. “Miners sold 2,788 against 1,588 mined, slamming the market, yet the market takes it. This is bullish,” Morris tweeted during Wednesday’s European trading hours. The cryptocurrency dropped from $6,700 to $6,500 during the Asian session, possibly on miner selling, but reversed losses later in the day. Other analysts, however, are of the opinion that one-day variances in net miner sales are often too small to make a valid judgement of the bullishness of the market. “Wednesday’s sell volume of 2,788 wasn’t statistically significant enough to have much meaning on the larger bitcoin price movements.” said Alexander S. Blum, COO atfintech companyTwo Prime. “Compared to the amount of Bitcoins in the world, the miner sales were less than 1 percent,” Yet because miners on average have sold more coins during the price recovery, it may be indicative of underlying market strength. To put it another way, the price rally looks to have legs. Seealso:Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Posts Second-Biggest Percentage Drop in Its History Nonetheless, the cryptocurrency remains vulnerable to bouts of risk aversion in traditional markets. Global equities have regained some poise over the past couple of days, mainly due to the massive fiscal and monetary stimulus unveiled by the U.S. The coronavirus outbreak, however, is showing no signs of slowing down and markets are yet to get a true sense of the economic damage, which could be far bigger than what’s widely forecasted. For example, the U.S. initial jobless claims soared past three million in the week ending March 21, double economists’ expectations for 1.5 million new claims. Not surprisingly, that has some expected dire predictions from certain corners of the market. “If you think what’s happening now is the economic crisis, you’re wrong,” renowned gold bug (and crypto skeptic) Peter Schifftweetedearly Thursday. “This is the health crisis. The economic crisis is the one that follows, and will result from the fiscal and monetary cure. The crisis will not just be worse than the Great Recession, but the Great Depression.” “We must remain cautious for another liquidity crisis,” Chris Thomas, head of digital assets at Swissquote Bank told CoinDesk. • We Won’t Ever Think About the Financial System the Same Way • Bitcoin in Rangebound Trading as Equity Markets Fail to See Stimulus Boost || Crypto Long & Short: Is Bitcoin More Like Gold or Equities?: In the recent market turmoil,bitcoin(BTC) did not act like the uncorrelated asset many thought it was. Nor did gold. As things calmed down a bit (or as we got used to the new volatility), gold resumed its upward climb. But there are problems.It turns out that gold is not as fungible as we assumed. You’re readingCrypto Long & Short, a newsletter that looks closely at the forces driving cryptocurrency markets. Authored by CoinDesk’s head of research, Noelle Acheson, it goes out every Sunday and offers a recap of the week — with insights and analysis — from a professional investor’s point of view.You can subscribe here.Surging demand combined withrefinery closuresand shipping restrictions has created a shortage of gold coins and the small gold bars most popular with retail investors. And if you do manage to source one, you’ll pay a premium to the spot price. Related:Miner Perspectives on Bitcoin Halving 2020, Part 1 of a New Podcast Series Accordingto Bloomberg, spot gold traded at $1,580/oz on Wednesday, while gold coins sold for $1,786/oz and 1oz gold bars for $1,729/oz. Gold bars and coins normally sell at a premium to spot, but the premium is apparently nowmore than twiceits usual level in some formats, and many dealers have a waitlist. Even the kilobar, a heavier lift (geddit?) for retail investors than the smaller coins and 1oz bars, is at a much higher markup than usual. Even larger denominations used for futures settlement are experiencing supply issues. Unusually, the London Bullion Market Authority (LBMA) and COMEX, associations based in London and New York, respectively, that jointly establish the global gold price through the trading of unallocated gold- and cash-settled futures, this week put out ajoint statementreassuring the market of their gold stocks.Yet, storieshave surfacedof COMEX not being able to settle some of its futures contracts with the standard 100oz gold bar and needing to import 400oz gold bars from London. Last week, the CME Group (parent of COMEX) announced anew gold futures contractwith settlement in either 100-ounce, 400-ounce or 1-kilo bars. Yet accordingto BullionStar, as of Friday there were no 400oz gold bars in New York.There’s so much going on here that we could write a book, but for now it’s worth keeping an eye open for disruption in physical settlement of gold futures. It’s also worth remembering that the bitcoin market may have its problems, but actual delivery is not one of them. The end of the first quarter of 2020 this week gives us some nice packaging to wrap around relative performance figures, and an opportunity to look at where the market might go from here. Related:Looking for a Halving Payday? Quick Wins in Investing Are Rare BTC’s fall was part of a broad market rout, with sharp falls in most traditional asset classes. As the above chart hints, BTC’s correlation to equities rose sharply, while its correlation to gold fell. On a longer time frame, however, the BTC/Gold relationship is stronger than that of bitcoin and equities, and we expect this to become the norm again as markets settle into a new outlook. Unless you’ve been living under a rock recently (which would be forgivable given what’s going on), you’ll have heard of the bitcoin “halving” (or “halvening”). If you’re familiar with bitcoin technology, you’ll know what it is; if you’re not, well, buckle up. The halving is a fascinating insight into how decentralized incentives can maintain a system of programmatic monetary policy with a hard cap. For a quick introduction,here’s our explainer(with video!). If you want more detail, over 30 charts and some in-depth miner commentary, as well as a look at what the impact on the price could be,download our free report. Inside, you’ll see how bitcoin’s technology and its market have an intertwined relationship unlike any other asset class. Its value stems from the resilience of its protocol, which no single entity controls. In the increasingly fragile fiat system, with rules that change according to convenience, this will attract attention even if just for intellectual curiosity.The halving will hone that attention, as it highlights just how novel bitcoin’s technology is. What’s more, it is happening at a time when fiat currency supply breaks all bounds of control. The juxtaposition is stark, and raises important questions about what constitutes value and how much we should sacrifice fundamentals for convenience.While bitcoin’s previous two halvings preceded a strong price rally, we can’t count on this one having the same effect. The bitcoin market is markedly different than it was four years ago, with a different level of institutional involvement, a more sophisticated market structure and a greater relevance in macro trends. The reduction of selling pressure from a lesser flow of new supply may play a part, as might the narrative around the halving and the extra mainstream attention it brings. Narratives shape sentiment which influences prices, although investors may prefer to wait for fundamentals to become more clear. But if ever there was a time when it was appropriate to focus investor attention on an alternative supply mechanism for a potential store of value, for whatever reason, it is now. Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world in terms of volume,has boughtCoinMarketCap, the most popular crypto data site in the sector, in terms of traffic.TAKEAWAY:In an exclusive interview with CoinDesk, Binance founder and CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao gave the data site’s large number of users as one of the main drivers of the deal. This hints at a renewed push into the retail crypto investment market, and a possible consolidation in the crypto market sector, with exchanges buying ancillary businesses to broaden their service and reach. It remains to be seen how this changes both CoinMarketCap’s and Binance’s offering and target market – and whether other exchanges follow suit with similar acquisitions. Binancewas also in the news fordelisting leveraged tokensissued by derivatives platform FTX, which replicated a long or short position with 3x leverage.TAKEAWAY:The reason Binance gave is that users weren’t reading the small print and didn’t seem to realize that these instruments could lose them a lot of money if not handled correctly. On the other hand, FTX, in which Binance has an undisclosed stake, has not experienced similar issues. This could be because of Binance’s heavily retail user base, while FTX users are probably more sophisticated. Either way, this is an interested example of self-regulation – these tokens were profitable for the exchange in that they generated a significant amount of volume, but, you know, “protecting users comes first.” Options market datashows a 4 percent chance of bitcoinhitting all-time highsthis year, and a 16% chance of ending the year above $10,000.TAKEAWAY:Call and put spreads can be used to calculate the market’s expectations of prices at expiry, but, like all prices, they react to information and are likely to continue to move up or down as expiries near and as traditional market directions become more clear. As interest rates drop to zero, how willstablecoin issuerscover their costs?TAKEAWAY:Dollar-backed stablecoin issuers have been making a tidy profit on the interest they earn on the deposited dollars. If that gets totally taken off the table, will they resort to raising fees? Will that impact stablecoin demand, which has been rising as more investors park excess cash in stablecoins rather than fiat currency? Cryptocurrencyexchange data firm Kaikobroke down the March 12-13bitcoin price movementsto highlight the role of liquidity in volatility.TAKEAWAY:Analyses like these help to understand the role of market depth (size of bid and ask orders) in volatility – if bids and asks can be just wiped off the board in a sharp price movement, the movement will become even sharper in the absence of support levels. On March 12-13, market depth got decimated and spreads widened significantly, which exacerbated the price slippage, volatility and sharp decline. Analytics firm Glassnode highlightsmetrics that showbitcoin network activityis recovering after the crash.TAKEAWAY:I love network metrics – to think that we can get an almost-real-time look at what is actually happening under an asset’s hood in terms of movement, accumulation and adoption… The increase of active addresses and number of small transactions suggests that panic is subsiding. And a historical comparison of more esoteric metrics such as net unrealized profit (NUPL) and market value vs realized value (MVRV) hint that the bitcoin price has reached a bottom. Coinbasepoints the fingeratleverage in the crypto sectoras the main culprit of the March 12 crash.TAKEAWAY:I agree – many accounts claimed that it was due to a fire-sale of any liquid asset to raise liquidity for margin calls elsewhere. While there may have been some of that, we haven’t seen much evidence. And if itwerethe case, it would imply a much greater crypto presence than we had realized of large institutional investors. Also, it does not make intuitive sense that institutions would exit a highly volatile asset on the way down, knowing it would be difficult to get back in at a similar price, unless they really had no other more liquid and less volatile assets in their portfolio – an unlikely scenario. Leverage in bitcoin derivatives is relatively steep, especially on the larger exchanges, which leaves traders more vulnerable to margin calls than in other assets. And the sharp drop in open interest shows how much the crash affected the leveraged derivatives market. After the rout of mid-March, several exchanges have reporteda sharp uptickinnew user signups. Kraken, for instance, saw an 83% increase in signups, Luno had 50% more active users, and peer-to-peer crypto exchange Paxful doubled its signup rate.TAKEAWAY:Is this a sign of people wanting to hedge against the fragility of the fiat system? Or is it a sign of lockdown boredom, in which anything with sanitary risk holds appeal? Amid market turmoil and talk in traditional markets of circuit breakers, short-selling bans and even total market shutdowns, there have beensome mutteringsabout applying similar measures to crypto markets.TAKEAWAY:They will forever be just mutterings, though – crypto markets can’t close, no matter what, and that’s a good thing. Open-source code platform GitHubhas buried the Bitcoin Core codein an abandoned coal mine in an Arctic mountain.TAKEAWAY:To add to the overall apocalyptic feel of the times…. (I’m kidding. Sort of.) • Bitcoin Takes Tumble, Traders Fret Correlation and Next Month’s Halving • How Financial Models Could Move Bitcoin’s Price After the Halving [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 9377.01, 9670.74, 9726.58, 9729.04, 9522.98, 9081.76, 9182.58, 9209.29, 8790.37, 8906.93
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 21/07/19: Bitcoin Cash ABC rallied by 5.57% on Saturday. Reversing a 2.01% fall from Friday, Bitcoin Cash ABC ended the day at $325. Bullish from the start of the day, Bitcoin Cash ABC rallied from an early intraday low $307.86 to a late afternoon intraday high $343.65. Bitcoin Cash ABC broke through the first major resistance level at $316.71 and second major resistance level at $325.57. Whilst steering well clear of the major support levels on the day, Bitcoin Cash ABC came up short of the 38.2% FIB of $359. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was up by 1.05% to $328.42. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC rise to a morning high $331 before easing back. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $343.15, Bitcoin Cash ABC fell to a morning low $321.41 before finding support. Bitcoin Cash ABC steered well clear of the first major support level at $307.36 early on. For the day ahead, a hold above $325 levels would support another run at the first major resistance level at $343.15. Bitcoin Cash ABC would need the support of the broader market, however, to break out from the morning high $331. Barring a broad-based crypto rally, Saturday’s high $343.65 and the first major resistance level should limit any upside on the day. Failure to hold above $325 levels could see Bitcoin Cash ABC test the first major support level at $307.36. Barring a crypto meltdown, Bitcoin Cash ABC should steer clear of sub-$300 support levels on the day. Litecoin rose by 1.86% on Saturday. Partially reversing a 2.61% fall from Friday, Litecoin ended the day at $100.48. A choppy morning saw Litecoin recover from an early intraday low $97.53 to strike a morning high $101.64. Steering clear of the major support and resistance levels, Litecoin eased back to $98 levels before hitting an intraday high $106.04. A late pullback limited the upside on the day. Whilst steering clear of the support and resistance levels, the 38.2% FIB of $99 continued to be in play. At the time of writing, Litecoin was down by 2.2% to $98.27. Tracking the broader market, Litecoin struck an early morning high $101.86 before hitting reverse. Litecoin fell to a morning low $96.77 before recovering to $98 levels. The reversal saw Litecoin fall through the 38.2% FIB of $99 to come within range of the first major support level at $96.66. For the day ahead, a move back through to $101 levels would support a run at the first major resistance level at $105.17. Litecoin would need the support of the broader market, however, to break out from $101 levels. Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, Litecoin would likely continue to struggle at the 38.2% FIB. Failure to move back through to $101 levels could see Litecoin fall deeper into the red. A fall through the first major support level at $96.66 could bring the second major support level at $92.84 into play. Ripple’s XRP gained 4.19% on Saturday. Following a 0.26% fall from Friday, Ripple’s XRP ended the day at $0.33278. A bullish start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP rise from an early intraday low $0.31822 to a morning high $0.3330. Steering clear of the major support levels, Ripple’s XRP broke through the first major resistance level at $0.3246 and second major resistance level at $0.3297. Recovering from pullback to $0.32 levels, Ripple’s XRP rallied to a late intraday high $0.34097. Ripple’s XRP broke back through the first and second major resistance levels. Ripple’s XRP came up short of the third major resistance level at $0.3422, however. At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was down by 1.47% to $0.32788. A mixed start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP hit a morning high $0.33501. Tracking the broader market, Ripple’s XRP fell back to a morning low $0.3260. In spite of the early moves, Ripple’s XRP steered clear of the major support and resistance levels early on. For the day ahead, a move back through to $0.33 levels would support another run at the first major resistance level at $0.3431. Ripple’s XRP would need support form the broader market, however, to break out from Saturday’s high $0.34097. Barring a broad-based crypto rally, Saturday’s high and the first major resistance level should limit any upside on the day. Failure to move back through to $0.33 levels could see Ripple’s XRP struggle on the day. A fall through the morning low $0.326 would bring the first major support level at $0.3203 into play. Barring a crypto meltdown, Ripple’s XRP should steer clear of sub-$0.31 support levels. Please let us know what you think in the comments below Thanks, Bob Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Asian Investors Biding Time Ahead of ECB, Fed Policy Decisions • Gold Price Prediction – Prices Consolidate as Traders Await the ECB • GBP/USD Daily Forecast – Pound Sold Ahead of Announcement of New Leader • Cardano’s ADA Technical Analysis – Support Levels in Play – 23/07/19 • Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Form Outside and Rally on Tropical Update • Forex Daily Recap – Strong 108.73 Resistance Rejected Ninja’s Upside || Samsung Galaxy S10 to support three major stablecoins: Samsung has announced that its flagship Galaxy S10 smartphone will support three stablecoins as well as Bitcoin. The South Korean tech giant revealed plans to support Bitcoin at the start of the year, with reports also suggesting that blockchain fitness start-up Lympo will allow withdrawals to the Samsung wallet . Lympo is one of 33 cryptocurrencies that can be used on the device, with the likes of BAT, BNB, ETH, KCS, XEM, and QTUM all being included . Not a small deal, right? Guess which phone I will be buying and recommending to all of my friends! It's spreading. Bitcoin, BNB, Major Stablecoins Added by Samsung Galaxy S10 with Wallets Automatically Generated for Phone Owners https://t.co/s1QB3tAllk — CZ Binance (@cz_binance) August 30, 2019 And now it seems that users will be able to hold three major stablecoins on their phones as support has been announced for TrueUSD, Maker, and USD Coin, according to U.Today . Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao commended the announcement in a tweet, stating that he will buy the phone and will recommend it to friends. “Not a small deal, right? Guess which phone I will be buying and recommending to all of my friends! It’s spreading,” he wrote . In 2018, Samsung shipped more than 292 million smartphones globally. If the tech giant is able to reach these figures again with the upcoming S10, it could cause a spike in the adoption of cryptocurrencies globally thanks to its crypto integration. Enjin CTO Witek Radomski also told Coin Rivet in May that the Samsung phone will be the first to support the ERC-1155 token standard. For more news, guides, and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . The post Samsung Galaxy S10 to support three major stablecoins appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Latest Bitcoin price and analysis (BTC to USD): At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading just above $11,340 after a sharp $500 dip over the weekend. Overall, price has dropped about 3% since last Monday. Bitcoin has been moving steadily upwards since the start of August, with price pumping from $9,500 and powering through the $10,000 and $11,000 levels with relative ease. Will the minor weekend correction hinder Bitcoin or will price push higher this week? Or will we see more major retracements back to the $10,000 region and below? Chart by TradingView As you can see from the chart above, BTC is now firmly back above its 20-day EMA after a couple of weeks of price bouncing around it. Last week I said I expected price to bounce between $9,000 and $11,000 before making its way upwards again towards the $12,000 and $13,000 levels and above. Even though the trend is our friend, there is the potential for significant retracements that would see price touch or even drop below Bitcoin’s 100-day EMA. Remember that in the previous bull run, price retraced between 30% to 40% a few times before reaching all-time highs. At the moment, I believe we’ll continue to push higher up, especially after the US Federal Reserve’s recent rate cut and the US-China trade war wreaking havoc on the traditional financial markets. #bitcoin vs CB. What does the future hold? https://t.co/KJx1WSDT9G — Pedro Febrero (@Febrocas) August 4, 2019 Volume seems to be recovering as well. Over the past month, volume has gone from $20 billion to $27 billion then back to $14 billion in late July. At the moment, we’re back above $14 billion and on a good trend towards $20 billion. Bitcoin’s market dominance has also increased slightly from 66% to 68%. Story continues Hopefully this latest downturn was just a bump in the road and the market will continue its positive momentum once again. Looking at the overall market behaviour, I’m quite confident that we’re still in a bull run – or at least that’s what my analysis shows. Safe trades! Current live Bitcoin pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Bitcoin price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: US Dollar – BTCtoUSD British Pound Sterling – BTCtoGBP Japanese Yen – BTCtoJPY Euro – BTCtoEUR Australian Dollar – BTCtoAUD Russian Rouble – BTCtoRUB About Bitcoin In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered. On 31st October 2008, a paper was published called “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. This was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. To date, no one knows who this person, or people, are. The paper outlined a method of using a P2P network for electronic transactions without “relying on trust”. On 3rd January 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence. Nakamoto mined block number “0” (or the “genesis block”), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins. More Bitcoin news and information If you want to find out more information about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Here’s an article to get you started. As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered financial advisement. The post Latest Bitcoin price and analysis (BTC to USD) appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Bitcoin's Catch-22 Will Keep It From Spurring a Monetary Revolution: Over the past couple of years, there have been a number of fast-growing industries that have caught the attention of investors. The rise of cannabis, the evolution of artificial intelligence, and the continued expansion of cloud computing have investors excited. But the fact of the matter is that bitcoin has run circles around all three of these popular industries. Following a miserable 2018 during which the most popular cryptocurrency in the world lost more than 80% of its value, bitcoin has rebounded in a big way in 2019. Recently, the top crypto token in the world by market cap briefly crossed the $14,000 level, which it hadn't seen in close to a year and a half. Even as of this past Monday, bitcoin wastrading firmly above the $10,000 mark per token. Image source: Getty Images. For cryptocurrency enthusiasts, bitcoin represents a changing of the guard in terms of monetary policy. With payments being processed on a transparent and immutable digital ledger known as ablockchain, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin could transform the way money is moved from one party to another. In particular, bitcoin promises the potential of faster settlement times and cheaper transactions. For context, an overseas money transfer using a traditional banking network can take up to a full week to validate and settle, whereas bitcoin can complete the transaction in an hour or less. In addition, bitcoin's valuehas also benefited from its perceived scarcity. Without getting too far into the weeds, the supply of bitcoin is limited to 21 million tokens, with annual inflation of the existing token base, which currently stands at roughly 17.8 million tokens, of less than 4%. This inflation derives from the fact that cryptocurrency miners are responsible for proofing the validity of transactions on bitcoin's blockchain, and are awarded bitcoin tokens for being the first to do so for a particular block (i.e., a group of transactions). With bitcoin nearing its coin cap, there's perceived scarcity. Bitcoin has also, arguably, been the beneficiary of good press of late. For example,Facebook's(NASDAQ: FB)announcement that it would create a currency-backed crypto token known as Libra is a shot in the arm to the long-term potential of crypto. If Facebook, the largest social media company in the world, plans to launch a new payment medium based on crypto, then bitcoin must have started revolution... right? Well, not so fast. Image source: Getty Images. It's no secret thatI'm not the biggest fan of bitcoin as an investment, and I've previously laid out why I believe it should be avoided. But this goes beyond simply buying bitcoin and hoping it increases in value so investors can book a profit. The reason bitcoin won't be able to lead a monetary revolution is that it's held hostage by a Catch-22: Its "scarce" token coin and its utility as a medium of payment work in opposition to one another. One of the reasons bitcoin holds such lofty values is that investors view the supply as being limited to 21 million tokens. However, this limitationis the result of programming code, as opposed to real world conditions of the type that limit the supply of gold. Though it's unlikely, bitcoin's token count could be increased if the bitcoin community were to reach a strong consensus. Then, there's the matter of bitcoin's utility. It can certainly be argued that it is accepted in more countries than ever before, and that bitcoin's divisibility to eight decimal places allows people all over the globe to use it for transactions. But what you may not realize is that in the neighborhood of 40% of outstanding tokens aren't in circulation. Rather, they're being held by investors over the long run. The reality is that bitcoin can have either perceived scarcity or utility, but not both. With its current token count, it could never seriously challenge fiat currencies, but this relative undersupply has helped keep the price of tokens high. Meanwhile, substantially upping the token count would allow for increased utility, but the resulting inflation would kill the perception of scarcity and likely ravage bitcoin's token price. Image source: Getty Images. Perhaps an even better argument against bitcoin is that, while its blockchain has been the basis for innovation throughout the crypto industry, new blockchain projects are being developed and tested that either work using fiat currencies or are completely independent of a digital token. Those could make bitcoin obsolete in the not-so-distant future. There are also projects like Facebook's Libra token that are being tied to a basket of fiat currencies and securities. Thesestablecoin projectshave much more to entice retailers given their perceived lack of volatility. Retailers are understandably hesitant to accept bitcoin because of its wild swings in price and what those uncertain swings could do to their margins. As much as some folks want to believe that bitcoin is the next big thing in money transfers, it's time to recognize that it's not. More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors.Sean Williamshas no position in any of the stocks or cryptocurrencies mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook, but has no position in any of the cryptocurrencies mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Crypto Price Prediction Game MoonRekt Now Accepts Bitcoin: Hxro, the startup behind the crypto-denominated game of skill, chance, and social engineering – MoonRekt – announced that players will be able to spend bitcoin to play the game. From 600 early-stage users,MoonRekthas grown to more than 37,000 registered players – albeit if some were enticed with free HXRO, tokens native to the platform. The game initially allowed users to bet HXRO, worth about 5 cents, on whether bitcoin’s price will rise or fall within a 5-minute window. Though the game is steeped in crypto’s ironic swagger, referring to price swings as MOON or REKT, the stakes are real. Related:Crypto Gamers Are Showing Little Interest in Decentralized NFTs Now, players will be able to bet the far more valuable cryptocurrency, bitcoin. “As professional traders, we want to create a platform that mimicked the high-energy experience in the pits of the largest global derivatives exchanges,” said Rob Levy, Hxro’s president and co-founder. “Our goal is to eventually become the preeminent alternative venue for playing cryptocurrencies, and we expect to add additional token protocols as demand for them reaches a critical mass,” said Hxro CEO Dan Gunsberg, in a statement. The team also plans to launch a game that simulates portfolio construction, called MUHBAGS. A company representative said, players will compete against one another as “fantasy traders” to see who can build the best portfolio. Related:PUBG Players Can Get Crypto Rewards for Winning Games This Summer Additionally, according to a statement, the company plans on expanding the number of bonuses and rewards on offer, which will be a boon to users of HXRO tokens. For now, however, the company will continue to take a flat 3 percent from the pot on both the HXRO and BTC versions of MoonRekt. Screenshot from the HXRO beta game • Reddit Co-Founder Ohanian Leads $3.75 Million Round in ‘Hearthstone’ Competitor • Kleiner Perkins, Galaxy Invest in EOS Blockchain-Based Gaming Startup || After Switzerland, crypto firm Sygnum now seeks banking license in Singapore: After winning a banking license in Switzerland, cryptocurrency firm Sygnum is now seeking such a license in Singapore as well.Sygnum has initiated talks with regulators for a capital markets services license in the island nation, co-founders Mathias Imbach and Gerald GohtoldBloomberg in an interview published Wednesday. “In order for us to provide a full suite of services, we need to operate as a bank” in Singapore, Goh said.Just earlier this week, Switzerland’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA)granteda banking and securities dealers’ license to Sygnum. At the time, the firm alsorevealedplans for a license in Singapore, saying it will allow offering fund management services, including a digital asset multi-manager fund. With FINMA's license in place, Sygnum is now transitioning to become a full bank in Switzerland this year. One becoming a Swiss bank, Sygnum will be able to issue, store, trade and manage cryptocurrencies bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH), and convert fiat currencies such as Swiss francs, Singapore and U.S. dollars and euros into the two cryptocurrencies, per the Bloomberg report. Sygnum will also offer custody, brokerage and tokenization services for cryptocurrencies to qualified investors and institutions. The firm has raised about 60 million Swiss francs (~$61 million) to date, which are sufficient for the next few years, Imbach told the news source. || SynchroBit(TM), the Revolutionary Innovative Hybrid Trading Platform at the Cutting-edge of Blockchain Technology: LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / August 20, 2019 / Recently, Forbes featured innovation company, SYNCHRONIUM® has announced the public release of their innovative hybrid digital assets trading platform, the SynchroBit™. By introducing new concepts, technologies, and solutions for both rookies and professionals, the platform aims to open new horizons to the digital assets traders for minimizing their risks and maximizing their ROIs. SynchroBit™ is a multi-purpose hybrid digital assets trading platform that enables trading of digital assets supporting Fiat as well as crypto assets. Founded by a group of international experts in digital asset trading, blockchain, finance, digital marketing and developers who have a holistic approach for developing an entire ecosystem for SYNCHRONIUM®, which will support a host of modules and functionality. SynchroBit™ is one of the biggest projects under the SYNCHRONIUM® umbrella. It is designed to provide an economic backbone to other modules and projects. It is a business environment that will be the engine of SynchroSphere™ , the gamut of services bundled as an ecosystem. What makes SynchroBit™ special when compared to other blockchain projects is its unique consensus protocol, PoSync, which is revolutionary with the capability of serving 1,000,000 transactions per second when other blockchains are struggling to achieve thousands of transactions in a second. Being completely peer-to-peer, SynchroBit™ prevents market manipulation of any kind. SynchroBit™ was born out of the need for security, integrity, integrated fund management features, lack of diversity of assets, liquidity and holistic trading platforms that can serve both Fiat and Crypto and still be easy to use for traders. Some of the features that make this platform a whiff of fresh air in the crowded crypto trading market are: Hybrid functionality SynchroBit™ is a hybrid trading platform, which means it combines the benefits of a centralized trading exchange as well as a decentralized one (DEX). This solves the problems of speed and clunky user interface in the DEX market as well as of high-trust and integrity in the centralized exchange market. Story continues Diversified markets SynchroBit™ markets will have high liquidity and diversity of assets. All the valuable digital assets can be traded on this unique platform. Diversity is built into the tech architecture of the platform providing users with enhanced liquidity, diversity of assets for high profitability, trading in global financial assets along with cryptocurrencies. Simplicity and diversity Platforms that provide diversity tend to be complicated and the ones that are easy-to-use cut down on flexibility and the range of options for trading. SynchroBit™ is one platform that is simple and easy to use but also provides diverse options for users to trade with. This combo makes it appealing for many expert traders. Security We have seen billions of dollars being stolen by hackers in exchanges across the world. SynchroBit™ takes its security seriously. They have built security in all the processes. With the use of high-tech latest tools and best in the world cybersecurity advisors and staff. The platform team also plans to collaborate with the users to help in identifying the areas of improvement. Wallets Technology SynchroBit™ has an impressive armor of wallets that were previously inaccessible for retail users. Their highly secure wallets are tamper-proof because they are hosted on asymmetric nodes on various blockchain networks. These wallets are decentralized wallets for crypto and Fiat. They also have a cold-wallet option for the users. With multiple crypto addresses, the wallet's complete control is with the user since no private keys are stored on SynchroBit™ servers. Lower Risk, Higher ROI SynchroBit™ aims to minimize the risk and maximize the ROI of the traders by introducing innovative solutions and treading tools. As an example, they introduced the Trend-Limit™ which is an innovative trading solution for wiser strategies and setting dynamic triggers for profitable trading on a given market trend. In the next versions of the platform, SynchroBit™ will provide the users with AI aided trade, Social Trading, PAPM™, Group Trading, and a wide range of innovative solutions as well. Ease of use User experience is one of their key focus areas. Keeping in mind every kind of user, they have designed desktop and smartphone versions of the application. It is not only easier to use, it is also smarter and faster. It has features that make the user's lives very easy. Their Performance Analysis tool provides users with their key statistics on a simple dashboard. Public and private chatrooms that serve different purposes from sharing news to discussing ideas with friends and closed circle of traders. Integrated Customer Service The biggest complaint that traders have is the lack of support and service. With so much liquidity in the system, traders often require assistance to use the platform. The aspect of providing great service is lacking from most platforms today. SynchroBit™ aims to solve this problem by integrating customer service and support in the product design. The customer service plans will provide users with market insights, advanced analytics, account management and a host of other features. The team will provide personalized customer service with agents working round the clock, every day of the year. To take it one step further, the support network is decentralized in numerous countries in their local languages. Users will be able to avail support via email, chat or phone making it very convenient for those on the go. The platform is also committed to observing the Anti-Money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) norms of every jurisdiction that they operate in. Using AI, they make the trading experience more secure. Versions of the Platform SynchroBit™ believes in continuous improvement and keeping this in mind, clearly demarcated versions of their platform have been released and planned. Version 0x was the first version that was ready in November 2018 that was to be tested by the private community. With insights from the usage, the next version, SILEO was developed. This version had major improvements including fiat wallets, integration of hardware cold-wallets, stable coin integration, new pairs for trading, security and UX enhancements. INIZIO is the next version, the first one to be open to the public. It has various UX, security, functionality improvements along with achieving decentralization and processing of 1 million transactions on the exchange’s core. Version Delta, slated to be released at the start of 2020, will offer margin trading, integration with SNB Token, a launchpad for IEOs, and desktop / mobile apps among numerous smaller improvements. Version Sigma, the next major leap, will take the trading functionality to the next level with the Energy market and precious metals modules, new fiat currencies and integration with the SynchroBit™ platform. Sigma will be released mid-2020. Omega version will be a comprehensive version to be released in January 2021 and finally, the Covenant will be SynchroBit™ version 1.0, the complete version of SynchroBit™ vision. With e-commerce features, card processing capabilities, and AI aided-trading, this version will mark the integration with SYNCHRONIUM®’s public blockchain. Developer Friendly SynchroBit™ provides the developers with full APIs to use them on various trading apps and programs. There is a comprehensive API guide on their website by which, developers can quickly develop new applications and integrate the platform with their sites. Instant Deposits and Withdrawals Are you tired of long-pending for depositing your crypto funds on the exchanges? SynchroBit™ is a quite fast platform which can handle more than 1,000,000 orders per second. Also, due to its full integration with most popular blockchain networks, including BTC, BCH, XRP, XLM, ZEC, LTC, and ETH, users can instantly deposit their funds on the tamper-proof wallets. Unverified users have the withdrawal limit up to 5 BTC every 24 hours. Passing KYC successfully, users can reach the withdrawal limit of 100 BTC in every 24 hours as well. SNB Token and ICO SynchroBit Coin (formally known as SNB Token) is the fuel of the SYNCHRONIUM® ecosystem. Based on Ethereum's popular blockchain, SNB is an ERC-20 token. This token will be the payment mechanism on all SYNCHRONIUM® platforms and dApps and will be utilized for paying the trading fees. SNB Token will be listed on some of the popular exchanges in the crypto world including, CoinLim, CoinsBit, BTC-Alpha, SistemKoin, Mercatox, Alderdice, Atromars, CREX 24, LiveCoin, and many more. Further information is available on the SynchroBit™ White-Paper . Benefits Benefits of holding SNB Token include the ability to pay using SNB Token , integration with various partner platforms and the other platforms on SYNCHRONIUM® and thereby, increased demand of SNB, and those who hold SNB Tokens will be allowed to trade without any fee on the SynchroBit™ platform. Also, on some of the partner exchanges, trading with SNB Token will be with zero fees as well. SYNCHRONIUM® plans to make SNB Token available on major payment cards in the EU which enables holders of SNB Token to use it for their micropayments almost everywhere. The ICO is being conducted in three rounds starting from 1st August 2019. Every investor who contributes to the token must clear the SNB KYC process to be a legitimate investor. SNB Token will also be distributed through Initial Exchange Offering on partner exchanges. SNB Token is priced at $0.20 for the first round, $0.25 for the second round, and $0.35 for the third round in the ICO offering. Conclusion The game-changing platform like SynchroBit™ is everything that the market needs. The team has innovated at every level, right from the consensus mechanism that is at the heart of all services to the ecosystem, the platform, products and customer service. In an era where every exchange in global finance is able to deliver either very complicated solutions to a handful of users or very simplified rigid solutions to the masses, SynchroBit™ team has got the balance right. Useful links SYNCHRONIUM® corporate website: https://synchronium.io SynchroBit™ Platform: https://synchrobit.io SNB Token ICO: https://snbtolen.io Facebook: https://facebook.com/Synchrobit Twitter: https://twitter.com/SynchroBit Telegram: https://t.me/snbex CONTACT: Name: Dr. Babak Behboundi Email: Alpha@synchroniun.io Phone: +44 808 196 0706 SOURCE: synchronium View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/556734/SynchroBitTM-the-Revolutionary-Innovative-Hybrid-Trading-Platform-at-the-Cutting-edge-of-Blockchain-Technology || Bitcoin Price Sees Steep Drop After Rejection Above $12K: The price of bitcoin’s recent rise above $12,000 was stopped short a few hours into its rally, with prices sliding by more than $1,000 over the course of the U.S. trading session that followed. Beginning 10:15 UTC and lasting until 22:15 UTC, BTC witnessed a large pullback, followed by a small bounce near $11,200, providing temporary support. Still, bitcoin’s localdailyhigh near $12,325 was the highest price point since July 10. With a daily open on August 6 set at $11,800, BTC broke $12,000 at 06:45 UTC to cement a 24-hour high just under $12,300 at 10:15 UTC. From there, a 30-minute sell-off was induced, with its price falling to $11,671. Related:Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary Questions Bitcoin’s Role as ‘Safe Haven’ At the time of writing, BTC is currently changing hands at $11,471 The move down, however, failed to draw significant supporting volume with only 1.1 billion traded over a 24-hour period. This hints a deeper drawdown to levels near $11,200 could be possible. Major names such as ether (ETH), litecoin (LTC), XRP (XRP) and EOS (EOS) also began to fall in value at around the same time as BTC, losing between 2-6 percent over 12 hours. Related:Bitcoin Price Rises Above $12K to Hit One-Month High Disclosure:This author holds bitcoin at the time of writing. Line Image via CoinDesk • Bitcoin Eyes $12K Price Hurdle as Dominance Rate Hits 28-Month High • Bitcoin’s Price Jumps Back Above $11K for the First Time In 3 Weeks || Bitcoin Stood Still in Anticipation of Halving: Later on, Bitcoin has several development scenarios. The optimistic one, with higher lows and higher highs, suggests that the current situation may be as it was in September-October 2017, when the cryptocurrency for some time rolled back before spiking to a historical high around $20,000. The launch of delivery BTC futures, with a new round of escalation of the trading war, stock collapse or tightening of the geopolitical situation, can create conditions for such an impulse of growth of Bitcoin, which will resist sharp take profits by large investors. The pessimistic scenario suggests that the bullish impulse has already run out. Regulators are consistently postponing the consideration of applications for the launch of various Bitcoin investment instruments. Large capital and scalpers prevent bullish impulse from developing into a full-fledged rally, fixing profit after relatively small (by Bitcoin standards) price hikes. Crypto-enthusiasts and retail investors are finally losing leverage on price dynamics due to the presence of major players in the market. Such a long tug-of-war has a negative impact on sentiment and runs the risk of turning into a decline in BTC. The neutral scenario implies that Bitcoin will be caught in the range of $9-$13K for a long time. As we approach halving in May 2020, market participants will start pushing up the benchmark cryptocurrency, as was the case with Litecoin (LTC): that soared by 370% before halving. In the case of Bitcoin, the growth amplitude may be much weaker, as the starting price point of the “halving rally” may not be as low as it was in the case of Litecoin. Meantime, the traditional global financial system is moving into a very worrying direction. In addition to increasing technical and trade isolation, central banks want to get full control over the flow of funds within the country and are particularly interested in foreign transactions. In this case, the emergence of “national cryptocurrencies” and the conversion of all settlements into the non-cash form will be a natural step in the evolution of the monetary system. China will be a pioneer in this area, as the country is approaching the launch of its first “state cryptocurrency”. As with all other technical innovations, the country has banned all foreigners and is developing its own “autocratic analogue”. Story continues As sad as it may be to admit, the emergence of Bitcoin and “Satoshi’s vision” of financial interaction without intermediaries may lead to the exact opposite result: it is the cryptocurrencies that will deprive people of any anonymity in spending and give governments unlimited monetary power. This article was written by FxPro This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude oil markets rally on China hopes Gold Bulls Must Love the Hong Kong Protests AUD/USD Price Forecast – Australian dollar continues to show weakness Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Traders Watching for Yield Inversion to Signal Recession Corn Prices Continues its Collapse, Soybean Maintain Levels E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis – Strengthens Over 2933.50, Weakens Under 2932.25 || Bitcoin retakes $10,400 as traders put up long positions: Bitcoin has once again broken above the $10,000 barrier this week, now sitting at $10,411. The cryptocurrency has been on a gradual uptrend since early yesterday and has posted gains of 2.77 percent in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin is currently leading the top ten coins in terms of 24-hour growth, narrowly edging out Bitcoin Cash and Stellar to secure the top spot. Similarly, Bitcoin has seen its value skyrocket against other major cryptocurrencies in August, gaining more than 10 percent against Ethereum and 12.5 percent against XRP this month. Although Bitcoin has experienced only modest gains this week, many traders and analysts remain bullish on Bitcoin. Case in point, according to Coinfarm , exactly 75 percent of the top-performing traders on BitMEX are in long positions right now. This means they expect the price to go up in the near term. In related news, Blockchain—a wallet provider with more than 41 million users— integrated with crypto payment processor BitPay today, enabling its users to easily pay for goods and services around the world with Bitcoin. If it can encourage the HODLers to start spending, then it could help to boost adoption. But that may be no easy task. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] I'd like to pay off my son's debts. Here's to hoping. || I’m still trading #binaryoptions and #Forex 📈📉 . Make sure you’re trading with e-maxtrade. #BTC #BTCFX #bullrun #crypto https://t.co/VVL1UH4Bir || https://t.co/VMGQizXJ2C || https://t.co/EDtpUnWYet https://t.co/EDtpUnWYet Priceline of Ethereum Classic / Bitcoin cryptocurrency has formed a bullish Butterfly pattern and entered in potential reversal zone. RSI is entered in oversold zone. Price action has also hit the support of bolliner bands || @shingoror456 Ready for at least 100 BTC crypto fund using IMO || @HQ_Airdrops #BTC $BTC || I drew these arrows a few days ago and have eliminated my second possible scenario. My first scenario was we pumped and got rejected at the 0.5 fib. This is exactly what happened. It was the most likely, as I observed a major bearish pivot. $crypto $btc $btcusd #bitcoin #btc https://t.co/wgp0Wko4l2 || Cryptobridge's Volume : 34.38 BTC and 0.34 MUSD at 03:47 on 15-08-2019 || $EPAZ's Bitcoin Sharing &amp; Blockchain Social Media App Webbeeo Is In Alpha Testing Phase https://www.owltmarket || This is just the beginning. #bitcoin #bitcoincash #ripple #ethereum #ethereumclassic #zcash #monero #btc #bch #xrp #eth #ltc #etc #dash #zec #xmr #sbtc #btg #mona #eos #cryptocurrency #virtualcurrency #trading #chart #blockchain #fintech #比特币 #虚拟货币 #比特幣 #虛擬貨幣 https://t.co/DWwYVXIA3Q
Trend: down || Prices: 10346.76, 10623.54, 10594.49, 10575.53, 10353.30, 10517.25, 10441.28, 10334.97, 10115.98, 10178.37
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-11-17] BTC Price: 60368.01, BTC RSI: 45.37 Gold Price: 1869.70, Gold RSI: 67.25 Oil Price: 78.36, Oil RSI: 42.08 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Why Moderna Shares Are Rising: Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA ) shares are trading higher by 3.5% at $438.00 as investors watch for signs of progress on booster shot policy. Moderna last week released a statement detailing incremental data from the Phase 3 COVE study suggested waning immunity a year after the first two doses — a supporting argument in favor of a booster dose... Read More Moderna is commercial-stage biotech that was founded in 2010. The firm's mRNA technology was rapidly validated with its COVID-19 vaccine, which was authorized in the United States in December 2020. Moderna had 24 mRNA development programs as of early 2021, with 13 of these in clinical trials. Programs span a wide range of therapeutic areas, including infectious disease, oncology, cardiovascular disease and rare genetic diseases. Moderna has a 52-week high of $497.49 and a 52-week low of $63.64. See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Moderna, Adobe Lead The Nasdaq-100 Lower This Vaccine Stock's 3-Month Return Makes Bitcoin, Ethereum And Dogecoin Look Trifling © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Genesis Digital Expands in US With 300MW Bitcoin Mining Facility in Texas: Genesis Digital Assetsis building a new self-hosted bitcoin mining data center in West Texas with 300 megawatt of capacity and power sourced from Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), according to astatementon Monday. • Genesis Digital said ERCOT sources more than 40% of its energy from wind and solar power, consistent with the company’s goal to mine bitcoin with renewable energy. • “As we continue our rapid expansion plans in the United States, we remain committed to our sustainability and social commitments, by identifying ways to power our industrial-scale bitcoin mining farms with renewable energy and create job opportunities for the local communities in which we operate,” Executive Chairman and co-founder Abdumalik Mirakhmedov said in the statement. • The company said it currently has mining power of over 3.8 exahash per second, which is more than 2.4% of the global bitcoin mining hashrate. • The total network hashrate, or computing power, for bitcoin was about 144 EH/s as of Oct. 31, according to data analytics firm Glassnode. • On Sept. 21, Genesis Digital said itraised$431 million to expand its bitcoin mining operations in North America and the Nordic region. • The company plans to bring online another 9.4 EH/s mining power in the next 12 months and expects to reach a capacity of 1.5 gigawatts by the end of 2023. • Genesis Digital Assets is not related to Genesis, the crypto lending firm owned by CoinDesk parent company Digital Currency Group. || Twitter (TWTR) To Sell Mobile Ad Unit MoPub to AppLovin for $1B: TwitterTWTR recently entered into a definitive agreement to sell its MoPub mobile advertising network to game developer and ad-tech companyAppLovin CorporationAPP for $1.05 billion in cash.The MoPub network is used by 45,000 mobile apps and reaches 1.5 billion addressable users. As part of Twitter, MoPub generated revenues of more than $188 million in 2020, representing nearly 5.9% of the advertising revenues.The sale of MoPub followsApple’s AAPL iOS 14.5 update in April that has made it difficult for advertisers to track user activity on their iPhones and iPads. The network allows companies to track ad inventory in real time, similar toAlphabet's GOOGL Double Click.Twitter intends to utilize the proceeds received from the sale deal to build its owned and operated revenue-generating features and drive growth across key areas for the service including performance-based advertising, small and medium-sized business (SMB) offerings, and commerce initiatives. The sale is aligned with Twitter's goal of reaching $7.5 billion in revenues by the end of 2023.It will provide additional details on the estimated financial impact of the deal when it reports its third-quarter earnings on Oct 26. Twitter, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Twitter, Inc. Quote Twitter is exploring new revenue streams that tap into explosive growth in the young content creator economy, sparked by the popularity of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube among others platforms with features like Super Follows and Ticketed Spaces.Attracting and keeping creators and their audiences have become crucial for the tech companies battling to attract an audience and advertising profits.Last month, Twitter enabled users to tip their favorite content creators with bitcoin besides third-party payment providers, as the network steps up its efforts to attract content creators essential to drawing crowds online. Besides Bitcoin, Twitter will let users connect nine traditional payment providers to their profiles to accept tips.This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company also plans to support authentication for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are digital assets such as images or videos that exist on a blockchain. The feature will let users track and showcase their NFT ownership on Twitter by allowing NFT creators to connect their crypto wallets to Twitter. You can seethe complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.Twitter also launched Clubhouse-like audio rooms, new interest-based communities and a number of experimental features designed to make the platform more interactive and safer.The company is ramping up tools for users to keep exchanges on the platform civil, or avoid wading into unexpectedly contentious online conversations. Twitter also created new features like enabling users to edit follower lists and a tool to archive old tweets to restrict their visibility to others after a specific amount of time.Moreover, the company has made a number of acquisitions this year so far including that of ad-free reading tool Scroll and popular newsletter platform Revue besides podcast app Breaker in an attempt to meet its top-line goals. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportApple Inc. (AAPL) : Free Stock Analysis ReportAppLovin Corporation (APP) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTwitter, Inc. (TWTR) : Free Stock Analysis ReportAlphabet Inc. (GOOGL) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || Former SEC Official Expects More Bitcoin ETF Approvals: Lisa Bragança, a former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission branch chief, said in an interview on CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover” on Monday that she expects the SEC will approve more exchange-traded funds (ETFs). “I’m expecting that the [SEC] will allow additional ETFs to get registered because they don’t want just one, they want customers to have lots of choices,” Bragança said. On Friday, ProShares got the green light from the SEC to start trading its bitcoin futures ETF on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). It is set to begin trading on Tuesday, which would make it the first to do so, a step that the crypto community has long been waiting for. About 30 other applications are yet to be reviewed, however, and SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has hinted that only futures ETFs will be approved this year. The move to approve any bitcoin or cryptocurrency-related ETF is a result of his leadership, according to Bragança. “I don’t think this would have happened if we had another chairman from the old guard,” she said, adding that Gensler seems “far more willing to experiment” than he’s often credited for. “He’s not trying to cause the SEC to bungee jump with bitcoin, but he is … pushing the agency to learn more and be out of the usual comfort zone,” she said. Bragança said the watchdog agency still has concerns about whether bitcoin’s price is susceptible to manipulation, the usual reason for delaying decisions on financial vehicles. See also: What Is a Bitcoin ETF? But the successful monitoring of the futures market by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and pedigree of institutions eyeing potential ETFs gave the SEC “comfort.” “This is pretty much the minimum step that the SEC could take […] it shows confidence that the SEC has in these markets,” she said. || China limits investments in cryptocurrency mining: China's war against cryptocurrency could soon extend to a broader ban on crypto mining. Reuters reports the country has added crypto mining to a draft "negative list" that limits or outright bans investments in a given industry, whether by Chinese or foreigners. Would-be investors would need to get approvals, and those are unlikely given China's anti-crypto stance. Bitcoin.com notes China's Development and Reform Commission is asking for public commentary on the list through October 14th. It's doubtful public input will change the approach to crypto mining, however. China has deemed crypto transactions illegal, claiming the digital currency sparked a rise in money laundering and other financial crimes. The country has been testing its own cryptocurrency , though, and some suspect the country just wants a more stable currency it can directly control. The move could further make cryptocurrency impractical in China. Just don't mourn for crypto as a whole. The price of Bitcoin has surged over 30 percent since China's September crackdown — these bans may have given crypto a second wind where it was otherwise poised to level off. It may just be a question of whether or not an official Chinese currency skews the market. || Three Additional Grayscale Products Now Trading on OTCQX Market: Trading has commenced for Grayscale Zcash Trust, Grayscale Stellar Lumens Trust, and Grayscale Horizen Trust New York, Oct. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --Grayscale Investments®, the world’s largest digital currency asset manager, today announced that Grayscale®Zcash Trust, Grayscale®Stellar Lumens Trust, and Grayscale®Horizen Trust (the Trusts) have begun trading on the OTCQX® Best Market, the top tier operated by OTC Markets Group Inc., under symbols ZCSH, GXLM, and HZEN, respectively. The Trusts are open-ended trusts sponsored by Grayscale and are intended to enable exposure to the price movement of the Trusts’ underlying assets through an investment vehicle, avoiding the challenges of buying, storing, and safekeeping the assets directly. “This is an important milestone for digital currencies, and demonstrates Grayscale’s continued commitment to moving each of our products from a private placement to the public markets,” said Craig Salm, Grayscale’s Head of Legal. “For the past six years, investors have leveraged Grayscale products and the OTCQX Market to gain diversified exposure to the digital currency ecosystem, and we are pleased that they will now – for the first time – be able to access Horizen (HZEN), Stellar Lumens (GXLM), and Zcash (ZCSH) as publicly-quoted securities.” SECONDARY MARKETS for the PRIVATE PLACEMENTSGrayscale Zcash Trust (ZCSH), Grayscale Stellar Lumens Trust (GXLM), and Grayscale Horizen Trust (HZEN) have offered a private placement to accredited investors since October 2017, December 2018, and August 2018, respectively. As of October 17, 2021, there were 3,777,700 Shares outstanding of Grayscale Zcash Trust and each share represented ownership of 0.09052055 ZEC. As of October 17, 2021, there were 824,600 Shares outstanding of Grayscale Stellar Lumens Trust and each share represented ownership of 93.0860093 XLM. As of October 17, 2021, there were 6,838,000 Shares outstanding of Grayscale Horizen Trust and each share represented ownership of 0.09231138 ZEN. Shares created through the Trusts’ respective private placements become eligible to sell into the public market after a statutory one-year holding period under Rule 144 of the Securities Act.* Investors will be able to buy and sell freely-tradable ZCSH, GXLM and HZEN shares through their investment accounts in the same manner as they would other unregistered securities. INVESTMENT OBJECTIVEThe investment objective of each Trust is for the Shares (based on assets per share) to reflect the value of the digital currency held by the Trust, determined by reference to the applicable CoinDesk index or reference rate at 4:00 p.m. New York time, less the Trust’s expenses and other liabilities. CoinDesk's ZCX Index is the reference for Grayscale Zcash Trust, CoinDesk's XLMX Index is the reference for Grayscale Stellar Lumens Trust, and CoinDesk's ZEN Reference Rate is the reference for Grayscale Horizen Trust. The Trusts will not generate any income, and regularly distribute their underlying assets to pay for their ongoing expenses. Therefore, the amount of assets represented by each respective Share gradually decreases over time. The Trusts are not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are not subject to disclosure and certain other requirements mandated by U.S. securities laws. GRAYSCALE PRODUCT FAMILYGrayscale's investment products are available to institutional and individual accredited investors through their respective periodic and ongoing private placements. In addition to its Zcash (ZEC), Stellar Lumens (XLM), and Horizen (ZEN) offerings, Grayscale’s single-asset investment products provide exposure to Bitcoin (BTC), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Chainlink (LINK), Decentraland (MANA), Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Filecoin (FIL), Litecoin (LTC), and Livepeer (LPT). Grayscale also offers investors exposure to digital assets through its diversified products, Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund, which provides coverage of the upper 70% of the digital currency market by market capitalization, and Grayscale DeFi Fund, which provides exposure to a selection of industry-leading DeFi protocols through a market-capitalization weighted portfolio designed to track the CoinDesk DeFi Index . As of October 15, 2021, Grayscale managed approximately $52 billion in assets. ZCSH, GXLM, and HZEN represent Grayscale’s seventh, eighth, and ninth publicly-quoted investment products. Grayscale® Bitcoin Trust (OTCQX: GBTC), Grayscale® Bitcoin Cash Trust (OTCQX: BCHG), Grayscale® Ethereum Trust (OTCQX: ETHE), Grayscale® Ethereum Classic Trust (OTCQX: ETCG), Grayscale® Litecoin Trust (OTCQX: LTCN), and Grayscale® Digital Large Cap Fund (OTCQX: GDLC) are also publicly-quoted and available to all investors with access to U.S. securities. Investors will be able to find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for Shares onwww.otcmarkets.com/stock/ZCSH/disclosureonce trading for ZCSH commences,www.otcmarkets.com/stock/GXLM/disclosureonce trading for GXLM commences andwww.otcmarkets.com/stock/HZEN/disclosureonce trading for HZEN commences. *The Trusts offer a private placement to accredited investors. Because the Trusts do not currently operate redemption programs, there can be no assurance that the value of the Shares will approximate the value of the respective digital assets held by the Trusts, less the Trusts’ expenses and other liabilities, and the Shares may trade at a substantial premium over, or a substantial discount to, such value and the Trusts may be unable to meet their respective investment objectives. This press release is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security in any jurisdiction where such an offer or solicitation would be illegal, nor shall there be any sale of any security in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of that jurisdiction. About Grayscale Investments®Founded in 2013, Grayscale Investments is the world’s largest digital currency asset manager, with more than $52B in assets under management as of October 15, 2021. Through its family of investment products, Grayscale provides access and exposure to the digital currency asset class in the form of a security without the challenges of buying, storing, and safekeeping digital currencies directly. With a proven track record and unrivaled experience, Grayscale’s products operate within existing regulatory frameworks, creating secure and compliant exposure for investors. Grayscale products are distributed by Genesis Global Trading, Inc. (Member FINRA/SIPC, MSRB Registered). For more information, please visitgrayscale.comand follow@Grayscale. CONTACT: Jennifer Rosenthal press@grayscale.com || Ethereum Remains Under Pressure While Bitcoin Stays Close To $60,000: Ethereumis currently trying to settle below the support level at $4,200 whileBitcoincontinued to test the support at the 50 EMA at $59,100. The world’s leading cryptocurrency has already made several attempts to settle below the 50 EMA, but these attempts yielded no results. This is an important moment for crypto markets as Bitcoin’s move below the 50 EMA may trigger a sell-off. In this scenario, Bitcoin may quickly get to the test of the next support level at $57,700. Other cryptocurrencies show mixed dynamics after yesterday’s sell-off.Dogecoinis trying to settle back above $0.24 whileShiba Inuis testing the support at $0.000047.Solanais trying to settle below the support level at $216. Meanwhile,XRPattempts to get above the resistance at $1.10. It looks that crypto traders are evaluating their options after yesterday’s sell-off. Crypto markets managed to stabilize, but it remains to be seen whether they are ready for a material rebound. Ethereum is currently testing the support level at $4,200. In case this test is successful, Ethereum will get to another test of the support level which is located at $4,100. RSI is in the moderate territory, and there is plenty of room to gain additional downside momentum in case the right catalysts emerge. In case Ethereum declines below the support at $4,100, it will head towards the next support which is located at the 50 EMA at $3,920. A move below the 50 EMA will open the way to the test of the support at $3,715. On the upside, the nearest significant resistance level for Ethereum is located at the 20 EMA at $4,330. In case Ethereum manages to settle back above the 20 EMA, it will move towards the resistance level at $4,535. A successful test of the resistance at $4,535 will push Ethereum towards the resistance at $4,650. If Ethereum moves above this level, it will head towards the resistance at $4,770. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out oureconomic calendar. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Ethereum Price Prediction – Bulls Eye A Return to $4,300. EMAs Suggest sub-$4,000, However • The MachineFi Could Propel IoTeX to Bigger Gains • Financial Stability Review Raises Concerns Amidst another Spike in Eurozone Inflation • Shiba Inu Rebounds As Whale Transactions Provide Support • Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Focus on Slew of Fed Speakers after Bullard’s Hawkish Tone • Bitcoin Suffers Worst Daily Loss For A Month || Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Sellers Return as Treasurys Firm Ahead of Friday’s NFP Report: Gold futures are trading lower on Monday after a second attempt to follow-through to the upside, following last Thursday’s nearly 2% gain, failed to attract enough new buyers to extend the move. Traders are blaming higher Treasury yields and a steady U.S. Dollar for the weakness in the non-yielding, dollar-denominated asset. At 09:00 GMT,December Comex goldis trading $1751.40, down $7.00 or -0.40%. Overall, helping to put a lid on gold prices are worries about Federal Reserve tapering, expected to begin in November, and a sooner-than-expected interest rate hike that could take place in late 2022. Reduced central bank stimulus and interest rate hikes tend to push government bond yields up, translating into a higher opportunity cost for holding gold that pays no interest. Providing some support are lingering concerns over higher inflation and a slowdown in economic growth. Euro Zone inflation at a 13-year high in September and elevated price spikes in the United States are two factors gold bulls are centering on. Gold bulls are also paying close attention to the surge in energy costs as this factor seems to be driving the higher inflation. Traders also continue to monitor the broader economic impact of Chinese property developer Evergrande’s debt crisis, which has some traders whispering the dreadful word “contagion”. Volume is a little on the light side and some traders appear to be squaring positions ahead of Friday’s U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP) report that could set the tone in the market for the rest of the month. Traders are zeroing in on this report because the Federal Reserve has steered them to it by saying strong job growth will be necessary before the next rate hike. U.S. Treasury yields kicked off the first full trading week in October slightly higher. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note added less than a basis point, rising to 1.469%. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond also climbed less than a basis point to 2.046%. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield hit 1.56% last week, its highest point since June, with investors concerned about inflationary pressures and tighter monetary policy. The U.S. Dollar is trading mixed-to-lower on Monday as investors express caution by squaring positions ahead of Friday’s U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls report while dealing with renewed concerns about China’s property sector. Shares in embattled developer China Evergrande were halted in Hong Kong without any immediate reason, rekindling market nerves about the possibility of global contagion – or at least distress in China’s property sector. Investors are concerned that a collapse at Evergrande could hurt an already fragile Chinese economy and a drag on global growth. Gold is going to have a hard time sustaining a rally as long as the threat of a November tapering by the Fed and a late 2022 interest rate are out there. Traders are more likely to sell rallies than buy strength. Something is going to happen that encourages gold investors to buy strength with confidence. This week it could be the U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls report. Otherwise, we’re likely to see more buying on weakness. Unfortunately, the buying could keep occurring at lower and lower prices until enough buyers step in to change the main trend to up. It’s hard to fight the Fed so gold is going to continue to struggle unless the Fed is forced to back away from its hawkish tone. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out oureconomic calendar. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • GBP/JPY Price Forecast – British Pound Continues Consolidation Against Yen • GBP/USD Price Forecast – British Pound Continues Recovery • USD/CAD: Loonie Hits Nearly One-Month High on Strong Oil Prices • E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis – Needs to Hold 14686.00 to Generate Upside Momentum • Bitcoin Price Prediction – Bears in Control, Eyeing sub-$47,000 Levels • Dogecoin Fans Swoon Over Elon Musk’s Floki Update || Bitcoin (BTC) Momentum Indicators Suggest Breakout Attempt Above Resistance: BeInCrypto – Bitcoin (BTC) attempted to move above the $63,530 resistance area on Nov 2 but was rejected. It’s currently in the process of finding support before potentially making another breakout attempt. This storywas seen first onBeInCryptoJoin our Telegram Groupand get trading signals, a free trading course and more stories likethisonBeInCrypto || ProShares' bitcoin futures ETF sees the 2nd-heaviest debut volume on record with 24 million shares traded: • The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF saw big demand when it began trading on Tuesday. • More than 24 million shares of the fund - ticker BITO - changed hands. • That made it the second-biggest ETF debut on record. • Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell. The launch ofthe ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETFis officially a hit with investors. The ETF, which gains exposure tobitcoinvia futures contracts rather than owning it outright, saw more than 24 million shares trade hands in its trading debut on Tuesday,according to Bloomberg data. That gives it the distinction of the second-most-traded fund launch of all time, generating more than $1 billion of turnover, Bloomberg found. The launch easily beat the popularInvesco QQQ Trust ETFlaunch in March of 1999, when $265 million was traded on its first day. The best ETF launch of all time is the BlackRock US Carbon Transition Readiness ETF, which launched in April of this year and saw a one-day turnover of more than $1 billion, according to Bloomberg. "It [ProShares Bitcoin ETF] has legit shot at $1 billion and top spot," senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunastweeted on Tuesday. And first-year inflows into the fund could exceed $50 billion, according to a Monday note from Fundstrat's Tom Lee. Such strong demand for the ETFcould help drive bitcoin to $168,000, he said. The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF trades under the ticker symbol "BITO" and has an annual expense ratio of 0.95%. The ETFtraded up as much as 5% in Tuesday trades, while bitcoin was up about 1%. Read the original article onBusiness Insider [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 56942.14, 58119.58, 59697.20, 58730.48, 56289.29, 57569.07, 56280.43, 57274.68, 53569.77, 54815.08
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-12-29] BTC Price: 27362.44, BTC RSI: 79.35 Gold Price: 1879.70, Gold RSI: 55.45 Oil Price: 48.00, Oil RSI: 61.83 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] MicroStrategy CEO Explains Why Bitcoin Is ‘a Million Times Better’ Than ‘Antiquated’ Gold: MicroStrategy’s headline-grabbing bitcoin bet was a rational response to a macroeconomy in chaos, said Chief Executive Michael Saylor. Appearing Tuesday at CoinDesk’s Bitcoin for Advisors virtual conference, Saylor shed new light on one of this year’s biggest cryptocurrency stories: his software company’s recent purchases of $425 million inbitcoin. That surprise September move by Nasdaq-listed MicroStrategy marked one of the first – and largest – embraces of bitcoin by a mainstream corporation. Related:First Mover: Bitcoin Pause, Ethereum Snafu, 1,000% Returns Put Focus on Exchange Tokens In a prerecorded fireside chat with CoinDesk Chief Content Officer Michael Casey, Saylor unpacked MicroStrategy’s bitcoin thought process, why it decided to eschew cash as a treasury reserve and whether gold can reclaim its spot as the marquee store of value in an increasingly digital world. Saylor’s short answer: Gold can’t. He thinks bitcoin has seized the lead. Hoarding gold is “an antiquated approach to storing value,” he said. Bitcoin is “a million times better.” In Saylor’s telling, MicroStrategy’s bitcoin journey began with the realization its $500 million cash pile was being eaten alive by government money printers. With recent emergency stimulus inflating the U.S. money supply faster than a Thanksgiving parade balloon, company executives felt compelled to move the treasury reserves away from the dollar. Related:Number of Bitcoin ATMs Up 85% This Year as Coronavirus Drives Adoption “What we’re trying to do is preserve our treasury,” he said. “The purchasing power of the cash is debasing rapidly.” Read more:‘I Didn’t Buy It to Sell It. Ever.’ MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor on His $425M Bitcoin Bet For the last decade or so, theM2 money supply– the sum of physical cash, checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit and money market funds – grew a modest 5.5%, Saylor noted. “A rational view of business treasury strategy would be, you had to get more than five and a half percent as your cost of capital in order to hold your purchasing power from 2011 to 2020,” he said. But when COVID-19 hit this year, tanking the economy, the measures taken to contain the damage swelled M2 by 20%, raising the hurdles for corporate treasurers to preserve that purchasing power. “The cost of capital of every cash treasury or every treasury in the world is now 20%,” Saylor said. To be sure, U.S. inflation, as measured by the core Consumer Price Index (which excludes food and energy) declined briefly in 2020. But to Saylor, that measure is “irrelevant.” “If inflation only means a market basket of things with no food and energy in them, then almost by definition I’ve defined a metric which will never go up,” he said. He pointed to cash holders in inflation-prone countries like Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela. They know all too well their purchasing power takes a hit when money supply expands. “What if you live in Europe and the United States? It wasn’t obvious. But it needs to become obvious,” Saylor said. “I think people will figure it out.” Convinced the dollar was no place for MicroStrategy’s excess capital, Saylor said he and his executives began trawling around for a “tangible” asset alternative. “We had to cycle through real estate, bonds, equity, precious metal, derivatives or crypto,” Saylor said. Of that group, precious metals, particularly gold, has long stood as an enticing store of value, a scarce, safe-haven asset recognized around the world. Not to Saylor. For starters, he balked at the notion that gold is scarce. “Gold is the least abundant of the commodities, but you can still produce gold,” he said. But he’s also acutely concerned with what he describes as the clashing interests of gold miners and gold bugs. One is trying to capitalize on the market by mining replenishable supply while the other is hoping that access remains scarce, pushing prices up. Read more:Square Puts 1% of Total Assets in Bitcoin in Surprise $50M Investment “The gold miners are the enemies of the gold holders,” said Saylor. “The gold miners are trying to destroy your value, right? They’re not trying to help you.” He predicts an even bigger problem with the gold market: Investors fleeing to bitcoin. Even if they don’t know it yet, Saylor thinks gold investors will eagerly dump the commodity for what he calls a superior store of value. It’s not an if. It’s a when. “Not a good bet to bet against ingenuity and assume that people will be lazy and ignorant for the next decade, because it’s not likely,” Saylor said. Citing one analyst’s prediction that Federal Reserve action will keep equities moving upward regardless of the recent election’s outcome, Saylor said the “most aggressive monetary expansion” is probably ahead. Investors will therefore likely continue treating blue-chip juggernauts from Apple to Amazon as a new kind of safe haven. “They’re desperately grasping at straws,” Saylor said. All those assets are reliant on the fiat currency he sees as crumbling away. Read more:Billionaire Hedge Fund Investor Druckenmiller Says He Owns Bitcoin in CNBC Interview “Equities don’t make a good store of value over the long term, unless the company can raise its prices faster than the rate of monetary expansion, or raise its gross margins faster than the rate of monetary expansion,” he said. Saylor predicts monopolistic corporations will be the only ones positioned to achieve that kind of price pump. But the politicians won’t let those corporations exercise such power indefinitely, he said. So, back to square one. “Ultimately you have to find something which you can’t print more of that doesn’t have its fundamental underpinnings tied to a fiat currency, and the only thing that I can find right now is bitcoin,” he said. • MicroStrategy CEO Explains Why Bitcoin Is ‘a Million Times Better’ Than ‘Antiquated’ Gold • MicroStrategy CEO Explains Why Bitcoin Is ‘a Million Times Better’ Than ‘Antiquated’ Gold || The global hardware wallet market was valued at USD 178.20 million in 2019, and it is expected to be valued at USD 661.23 million by 2025, registering a CAGR of 26.72%, during 2020-2025: Hardware wallets are the physical devices that store private keys for cryptocurrencies offline in an encrypted device. Private keys in these wallets are required while spending cryptocurrencies and the wallets enable traders to store the keys safely, while protecting the information. New York, Nov. 24, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Hardware Wallet Market - Growth, Trends, Forecasts (2020 - 2025)" -https://www.reportlinker.com/p05989453/?utm_source=GNW?- With the expansion of the cryptocurrency market in December 2017, a lot of new users gained knowledge about blockchain and cryptocurrency and started exploring the same. Thus, there has been a huge and rapid rise in the blockchain and cryptocurrency wallet users. ?- Companies producing hardware wallets are experiencing an exponential increase in demand. With an increase in the number of people owning multiple cryptocurrencies, the demand for wallets is also increasing. The flexibility offered by these solutions, in comparison with software, web wallets, and paper wallets, is also impacting the growth of the market studied.?- With the investments in the market studied increasing, companies are focusing on innovation, with devices supporting multiple currencies and wireless technologies. Recently, Indiegogo launched HooFoo, the first app and hardware combination wallet that secures and simplifies cryptocurrency transactions. The recent numerous Bitcoin exchange hacks have driven the company to invent a safer cold storage Bitcoin wallet for cryptocurrency. ?- Further, with the growing concerns regarding cyber attacks are posing challenges to the market’s growth. Recently in July 2020, Bitcoin hardware wallet maker Ledger revealed that its e-commerce database was hacked in June 2020, leaking 1 million emails and some personal documents. No user funds were influenced by the breach. ?- The rapidly growing demand for cryptocurrency during the pandemic has influenced the market for the hardware wallet positively. Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are gradually making a transition from uncertain investment instruments to payments. Specific attention to payment habits and the financial life cycle has arose as the COVID-19 pandemic has led to more calls for dematerialization of payments.?Key Market TrendsNFC Type to Hold Significant Share- The adoption of cryptocurrencies in real-world stores is progressing slowly, even though it has the potential of being a convenient, fast, and secure way of paying for goods. Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, can be used in real-world environments in a convenient matter, without requiring a banking license. They can also be used to save merchant money and for safeguarding the privacy of customers.?- NFC technology enables the flexible usage of cryptocurrency by providing means of storage. More importantly, it enables the usage of crypto assets in everyday purchases. By using this technology, cryptocurrency can be turned into an everyday way of payment, and it works just by pairing with a mobile app.?- By utilizing NFC, payment is allowed even if either the payee or payer is not connected to the Internet, depending on the type of payment request. This scheme is particularly useful for tourists who are not willing to pay high roaming fees or are at places where the Internet reception is unreliable or not present at all.?- Over the next few years, NFC may be one of the key technologies, especially in the context of conducting transactions and exchanging digital content, as it enables seamless functioning (with just a touch gesture), thus, driving the market growth for cryptocurrency transactions over NFC technology.Asia-Pacific Expected to Witness Significant Growth- Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing market for hardware wallets, owing to the growing adoption of cryptocurrency in the region, as well as due to the increasing trend of the digital and cashless economy in countries, like India, Japan, and South Korea.?- Though the ban on digital currency exchange in China can hinder the regional growth, growing digital economy acceptance in the rest of the region, especially in India, Japan, Australia, and South Korea, is developing a massive market for cryptocurrencies in the region. These countries are also among the ones where the most adoption of hardware wallets is taking place in the region.?- Southeast Asia is also evolving into a digital currency competition among governments. For instance, the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport in the northern Philippines are building the ‘Crypto Valley of Asia,’ a USD 100 million blockchain hub. This also offers a huge opportunity for the hardware wallet market in the region.?- The growing number of cyber attacks in the cryptocurrency market in the region is also fueling the growth of the regional hardware wallet market. For instance, in June 2018, hackers stole around USD 30 million, in crypto, from Bithumb, South Korea’s leading virtual currency exchange, prompting the exchange to suspend all deposits and payments temporarily. This is also forcing vendors to adopt hardware wallets, to have a more secure process.?Competitive LandscapeThe hardware wallet market is moderately fragmented. The market studied comprises of several global and regional players, vying for attention in a fairly-contested market space. As the market studied poses low barriers to entry for new players, several new entrants have been able to gain traction in the market, by offering products, which are rich in features, at competitive prices. The market studied is characterized by increasing levels of product penetration, moderate/high product differentiation, and high levels of competition. Some of the recent developments in the market are:- April 2020 - ShapeShift announced the acquisition of Portis, an Israeli startup that built the leading Web3 wallet SDK for developers of crypto applications to easily integrate wallet functionality into their product.- March 2020 - CoolBitX Limited announced that it has closed USD USD 16.75 million in its Series B funding round, led by Japan’s financial group SBI Holdings, with participation from the National Development Fund of Taiwan, Korean crypto exchange BitSonic, and another Japanese financial group Monex. With this funding, CoolBitX lays down its strategy of expanding the Sygna product line’s presence beyond the APAC region as the first-to-market FATF-compliant solution for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) around the world. ?Reasons to Purchase this report:- The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format- 3 months of analyst supportRead the full report:https://www.reportlinker.com/p05989453/?utm_source=GNWAboutReportlinkerReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.__________________________ CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 || Data Is Labor: Why We Need Data Unions: In the aftermath of a divisive U.S. presidential election that seems to mark the tail end of the 20th Century, I’m reminded of the daughters of the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The “Mill Girls” of Lowell, Mass., made up 75% of all textile workers in the U.S. In the 1830s, they took jobs to put their brothers through college and feed their families. These young women, starting to work at age 15, were the fabric of their community’s economic production. It was the close-knit nature of their sisterhood that became what we now know as the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the AFL-CIO. Labor has traditionally organized people in a common cause like union representation. Most of us have had to sell our labor for capital that someone else owns, giving us an incentive to work for common workplace standards. But that traditional labor-for-capital model has been joined by another driver of economic activity. Now our data is the labor that drives capital creation and distribution. And it’s time for us to take back what our communities are owed. James Felton Keith is the author of “Inclusionism,” founding president of the Data Union, and advisory board member at the Streamr Network. Related:Why Bitcoin Thrives (and Why It Won't Replace the Dollar) The Lowell organizing efforts were notable not only for the “unfeminine” participation of women, but also for the political framework used to appeal to the public. They warned that “the oppressing hand of avarice would enslave us.” They used this sentiment in an 1836 strike song. Oh! isn’t it a pity, such a pretty girl as I Should be sent to the factory to pine away and die? Oh! I cannot be a slave, I will not be a slave, Related:Crypto Execs Need Liability Insurance For I’m so fond of liberty, That I cannot be a slave. In the modern era newspapers, NGOs and government officials from every continent are asking, “Are we slaves to big data?” Unlike the community of mill women, we’re not organizing for wages, not alone, we’re organizing for income based on the value of our community-of-participants. The thread of our data is the seminal input to every company’s productivity. Last week, I received a leaked copy of the forthcoming EuropeanData Governance Act(DGA). We anticipate some form of this legislation to pass the European Parliament in the March 2021 time frame. The legislation mentions “data unions” explicitly in sections 26 and 27. (26) An emerging variant are data cooperatives or data unions that seek to achieve a number of objectives… (27) …data cooperatives as intermediaries between data subjects and potential data users in the economy Data unions (or cooperatives or collectives or communities) are a relatively new-old concept for a new natural resource: personal data. Unlike its wage-based rival of time, data is what economists call a non-rival good, meaning multiple users can consume it at once. Per the language of Europe’s recently enacted privacy regulation (GDPR) both data controllers (big tech platforms) and data processors (lil’ app companies) can generate value on data about you and your community alongside other firms, in the words of rapper Future,At The Same Damn Time. Now our data is the labor that drives capital creation and distribution. And it’s time for us to take back what our communities are owed. There is a market failure here. All good markets produce adequate arbitrageurs (arbs), and in the current market the argument about 1) what data is, 2) the price of data and 3) who is owed it, is one-sided. One who engages in arbitrage, an individual or an institution, has a formal opinion on the value (i.e. price) of a good. In this case a good is your data. One example of a current data union is the software applicationSwash. The app provides transparency on the monetization of your browser data and in-turn provides the opportunity to offer a different opinion in price. This is where a data union gets interesting. If entity A (your browser) suggests that your data is worth an amount for their identifiable buyers and entity B (an app like Swash) suggests that your data is worth another amount, a third party can technically participate in the buyers market for your data to arb an actual price. See also: Ben Powers –The Web Wasn’t Built for Privacy, but It Could Be Another example of a current data union is theData Dividend Project’s attempt to litigate on behalf of what we call data subjects (people) to seek redress for mispricing or misuse of a particular community’s personal data through its technological or non-technological platform. The success of a data union seeking legal remedies would ideally trigger the implementation of a technological data union, like the app mentioned. Data unions can bring balance to a business case as exploitative as the music industry’s treatment of talent that puts their community’s culture on display. On the heels of the European Union passing the DGA, I am anticipating a wave of data cooperatives to pop up in an ad hoc way, based on the demand of visionary labor activists across all continents that host transnational companies. I’m aware of at least 50 data unions organizing in the shadows of the western world right now. There are three ways we can make data unions happen. Data Union as a Policyis a method of insisting that cooperatives of data subjects (individuals) exist, by elected officials and governmental bodies. Data Union as a Lawsuitis a method of data subjects suing data users (institutions) for redress in scenarios where there are claims by individuals for indemnification. Data Union as Techis a method of embedding technologies that create a distribution mechanism for rightful compensation based on transactions between data subjects and users. In the 2020s, these three types of data union methods will fortify a new way of indemnifying people for their participation in the world. I think it’ll transform how people view economics, ethics and human rights. With the EU’s DGA passing, I expect to see dozens of organized labor groups adopt some form of data union approach. This generation will know that its #DataIsLabor. • Data Is Labor: Why We Need Data Unions • Data Is Labor: Why We Need Data Unions || Citibank Analyst Says Bitcoin Could Pass $300K by December 2021: A senior analyst at U.S.-based financial giant Citibank has penned a report drawing on similarities between the 1970s gold market and bitcoin. The whole of bitcoin’s existence has been characterized by major price swings, “exactly the kind of thing that sustains a long-term trend,” said Thomas Fitzpatrick, global head of the company’s CitiFXTechnicals market insight product, in his report solely intended for the bank’s institutional clients. The report was first leaked to the cryptocurrency community by Twitter user “ClassicMacro” ina tweeton Saturday, noting Fitzpatrick is “a big fan of moon targets.” Related:Market Wrap: Bitcoin Ascends to $16.8K; Uniswap and Tether 35% of Ethereum Transactions Fitzpatrick pointed to bitcoin’sweekly chartand used technical analysis (TA) of prior highs and lows to determine a target of $318,000 by December 2021. “This kind of technical analysis is of little value,” ClassicMacro commented in his tweet. “There is no edge in guessing targets so far in time with TA. All we know is that price is likely to continue going up.” The Citibank executive drew on bitcoin’s 2010-11 “exponential move” as being “very reminiscent” of the 1970s gold market. Gold had experienced 50 years of a constricted $20–$35 price range before a breakout occurred after a change in fiscal policy by the Nixon administration in 1971. See also:Bank of England Official Balks at Shielding Banks Against Digital Currencies: Report Related:Bitcoin at $318,000 Next December? One Citibank Exec Says It’s Possible A decoupling of gold from fiat currencies, the COVID-19 pandemic and the desire for central banks to pursue aggressive quantitative easing policies could lead to future explosive price growth in bitcoin, according to Fitzpatrick. “Readers love this,” commented ClassicMacro. “What matters here is Citi’s clients being exposed to the bitcoin moon.” • Citibank Analyst Says Bitcoin Could Pass $300K by December 2021 • Citibank Analyst Says Bitcoin Could Pass $300K by December 2021 || European Equities: A Week in Review – 25/12/20: The Majors It was a mixed week for the European majors in the shortened week ending 24 th December 2020. German and Italian markets were closed on Thursday and Friday, with France on a shortened session on Thursday. The DAX30 and CAC40 fell by 0.32% and by 0.10% respectively, while the EuroStoxx600 rose by 0.02%. A bearish start to the week left the majors in the deep red. News of a new coronavirus strain in the UK and a lack of progress towards a Brexit deal weighed. EU member states and beyond banned UK travel in response to the news of the new strain in a bid to avoid exposure to the more virulent strain. Sentiment shifted on Tuesday, however, supporting recovery from Monday’s sell-off. Support kicked in following news of U.S lawmakers agreeing on an $892bn COVID-19 stimulus package, however. Even news of Trump’s unwillingness to sign the stimulus bill failed to sink the majors. Expectations are that a more substantial and meaningful package would provide more material support to the economic recovery. In spite of the negative news on the COVID-19 front, news of an imminent Brexit deal also delivered support for the majors. The Stats It was a quiet week on the economic calendar. Key stats included Flash Eurozone Consumer Confidence and German GfK Consumer Climate figures. For the Eurozone, the Flash Consumer Confidence Indicator rose from -17.6 to -13.9. In spite of the uptick, the indicator remained well below its long-run average of -11.2, however. From Germany, the GfK Consumer Climate Indicator fell from -6.7 to -7.3 in January. Economists had forecasted a larger decline to -8.8. A fall in income expectations weighed on the headline figure, with the latest spike in new COVID-19 cases and lockdown measures raising uncertainty. On Wednesday, finalized 3 rd quarter GDP figures from Spain had a muted impact on the majors. Spain’s economy expanded by 16.4% in the 3 rd quarter, according to finalized figures, revised down from a prelim 16.7%. In the 2 nd quarter, the economy had contracted by 17.9%, quarter-on-quarter. From the U.S Economic data was on the heavier side, with November core durable goods, personal spending, and inflation figures in focus. Weekly jobless claims figures also drew interest ahead of the holidays. In the week ending 18 th December, initial jobless claims stood at 805k, falling back from an upwardly revised 892k from the previous week. Durable goods orders were also positive, with orders rising by 0.9% in November, following a 1.8% increase in October. Core durable goods fell short of forecasts, however, rising by 0.4%. In October, core durable goods orders had increased by 1.9%. Story continues On the negative, however, was a fall in personal spending. In November, personal spending fell by 0.4%, reversing a 0.3% rise in October. Economists had forecasted a 0.2% decline. Inflation figures were market neutral in spite of falling short of forecasts. In November, the core PCE Price Index rose by 1.4%, following a 1.4% increase in October. Economists had forecasted a 1.5% increase. Other stats included finalized 3 rd quarter GDP and consumer sentiment figures together with November housing sector data. The stats had a muted impact on the European majors, however. The Market Movers From the DAX , it was a mixed week for the auto sector. Continental bucked the trend, rising by 2.39%. It was a bearish week for the rest of the majors, however. Volkswagen and Daimler fell by 0.33% and by 0.50% respectively, with BMW ending the week down by 0.72%. It was a mixed week for the banking sector, however. Commerzbank rose by 1.32%, while Deutsche Bank slipped by 0.67%. From the CAC , it was a bullish week for the banks. Credit Agricole rose by 2.14% to lead the way, with BNP Paribas and Soc Gen seeing more modest gains of 0.53% and 1.35% respectively. It was another bullish week for the French auto sector, however. Peugeot rose by 2.43%, with Renault gaining 1.22%. Air France-KLM ended a run of weekly losses, with a 3.69% gain, with Airbus ending the week up by 3.42%. On the VIX Index It was a 2 nd consecutive week in the red for the VIX . In the week ending 24 th December, the VIX slipped by 0.19%. Following on from a 7.46% slide from the previous week, the VIX ended the week at 21.53. For the week, NASDAQ and Dow rose by 0.38% and by 0.07% respectively, while the S&P500 fell by 0.17%. The Week Ahead It’s another particularly quiet and shortened week ahead on the economic calendar . Key stats include French jobseeker totals and December inflation figures from Spain. The numbers are unlikely to have any influence on the European majors, however. From the U.S, it’s also a quiet week ahead. The weekly jobless claims figures are due out in the week. With the European markets closed or set for early closure on Thursday, however, jobless claims figures won’t influence the majors. Away from the economic calendar, the key drivers will continue to include Brexit and COVID-19 news. Any chatter from Capitol Hill on the COVID-19 stimulus package will also provide direction. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Can Bitcoin Hit $100,000 in 2021? Regulators and the Bulls may have to Battle it out! Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural Gas Markets Form Support Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude Oil Quiet Heading Into the Holidays Silver Weekly Price Forecast – Silver Markets Show Bearish Candle Oil Mixed Despite Positive Brexit News Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold Markets Have Neutral Week View comments || Bluesky Digital Assets Corp., Releases Q3, 2020 Financial Results: Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - December 1, 2020) - Bluesky Digital Assets Corp., (CSE: BTC), (CSE: BTC.PR.A), (OTC Pink: BTCWF), ("Bluesky" or the "Corporation") released today a summary of its Unaudited Q3, 2020 Interim Financial Statements for the three and nine months ended September 30 th , 2020. Key highlights include: Total Gross Revenue from the Corporation's Digital Assets Mining operations increased to $198,264 CDN in Q3, 2020 from $42,792 CDN in Q3, 2019 representing an increase of 363%. Total Gross Revenue from the Corporation's Digital Assets Mining operations increased to $198,264 CDN in Q3, 2020 from $182,500 CDN in Q2, 2020, representing a quarter over quarter increase of 8%. Total Gross Revenue from the Corporation's Digital Assets Mining operations was $94,450 CDN for all of fiscal 2019 representing a monthly average of $7,870 CDN per month in Gross Revenue being generated from the Corporation's Digital Assets Mining operations. With Q3 ,2020 completed, the average monthly Gross Revenue generated from the Corporation's Digital Assets Mining operations was $53,529 CDN per month for the first nine months of 2020, representing a monthly average increase of 580% vs. fiscal 2019's monthly average of $7,870 CDN per month. Digital Asset Mining operating costs amounted to $112,671 CDN in Q3 of 2020 which amounted to an operating profit of $85,593 on the Digital Assets Mining operations division. Q3 2020 loss decreased 86% vs. the same period in 2019. Total loss amounted to -$198,234 in Q3 2020 vs. -$1,452,328 in Q3 2019. Fully Diluted EPS was -$0.01 for Q3, 2020 vs. -$0.03 in Q3, 2019. Mr. Ben Gelfand CEO & Director stated: "We continue to make very strong gains in our digital assets mining business despite the halving of Bitcoin which occurred on May 11 of this year and despite the unprecedented downturn in the global economy due to COVID-19. Our active Mining operations continue to produce a rapid increase in our monthly gross revenues and concurrently our expenditures continue to rapidly decline. On November 24 th we announced that we had successfully closed the first tranche of our private placement offering where we raised $723,500 CDN in gross proceeds. Much of the proceeds from the first tranche are being allocated to secure digital mining equipment which we will be rapidly deploying. We believe that once the new mining equipment is delivered, and fully deployed, we anticipate that we will be in a position to consistently mine 15 to 20 Bitcoins per quarter. Should Bitcoin remain above $17,000 CDN and we don't encounter delays in the arrival of the equipment, or any COVID related shutdowns, we also anticipate that with the new equipment in place and in operation, the Corporation could witness its first profitable quarter using its current business model in Q1 of 2021. It should also be noted that the loss incurred this quarter, approximately $153,000 CDN of the $198,234 was attributed to both depreciation and a loss via the sale of our one of our legacy business assets and without the latter two items we would be in a profitable position." Story continues About Bluesky Digital Assets Corp. Bluesky Digital Assets Corp, is building a high value digital currency enterprise. Bluesky mines digital currencies, such as Bitcoin and Ether, and is developing value-added technology services for the digital currency market, such as digital mining proprietary software. Offering a complete ecosystem of value-creation, Bluesky is targeting reinvesting appropriate portions of its digital currency mining profits back into its operations. A percentage of the profit will be invested in the development of a proprietary Artificial Intelligence ("AI") based technology. Overall, Bluesky takes an approach that enables the Corporation to scale, and respond to changing conditions, within the still-emerging digital currency industry. The Corporation is poised to capture value in successive phases as this industry continues to scale. For more information please visit www.blueskydigitalassets.com . For further information please contact: Mr. Ben Gelfand CEO & Director Bluesky Digital Assets Corp. T: (416) 363-3833 E: ben.gelfand@blueskydigitalassets.com Mr. Frank Kordy Secretary & Director Bluesky Digital Assets Corp. T: (647) 466-4037 E: frank.kordy@blueskydigitalassets.com Forward-Looking Statements Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. The forward- looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements included in this document are made as of the date of this document and the Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation. Although management believes that the expectations represented in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such. Neither CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. We seek safe harbor. - 30 - To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/69263 || Morning News Call - India, November 23: To access a PDF version of this newsletter, please click here http://share.thomsonreuters.com/assets/newsletters/Indiamorning/MNC_IN_11232020.pdf If you would like to receive this newsletter via email, please register at: https://solutions.refinitiv.com/MNCIndiaSubscriptionpage FACTORS TO WATCH 11:00 am: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Chief Economic Adviser K. Subramanian at CII MNCs conference in Mumbai. 11:30 am: NABARD Chairman G.R. Chintala, Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey, Special Secretary - Logistics - Pawan Agarwal at CII National Food Processing conclave in Mumbai. 3:00 pm: Minister of State for Agriculture Parshotttam Rupala, Agriculture Commissioner S.K. Malhotra at ASSOCHAM webinar at Mumbai. 6:30 pm: International Monetary Fund Executive Director for India Surjit Bhalla, Tata Steel Chief Executive and Managing Director T.V. Narendran, Morgan Stanley India Managing Director Ridham Desai at Asia Society webinar on the Indian economy in Mumbai. LIVECHAT - REUTERS GLOBAL MARKETS FORUM Tom Wilson, Reuters EMEA Cryptocurrency Correspondent, joins the forum to discuss Bitcoin's surge over the last week and how the landscape for the cryptocurrency market has changed over the past few years. To join the conversation at 08:30 pm IST, click here https://refini.tv/2P8N0Wp INDIA TOP NEWS • Indian central bank committee recommends reshaping domestic banking industry A working group at India's central bank has recommended a series of changes that could transform the country's banking landscape by paving the way for large industrial conglomerates to set up banks. • Indian watchdog clears Reliance-Future's $3.4 billion deal despite Amazon's objections India's antitrust body on Friday cleared conglomerate Reliance Industries' $3.4 billion deal to buy Future Group's retail assets, thwarting Amazon.com's efforts to block the deal. • Modi says India set to double oil refining capacity in 5 years, earlier than expected India plans to nearly double its oil refining capacity in the next five years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday, offering a much more aggressive timeline than previously despite the coronavirus pandemic blighting the economy. • Singapore Airline's India venture Vistara eyes direct flights to U.S. Vistara, an Indian full-service airline owned by Tata Group and Singapore Airlines, is considering starting direct flights to the United States as the COVID-19 pandemic increases demand for non-stop travel, a senior executive said on Friday. • India says local COVID-19 vaccine final trials could end within two months India's health minister said on Sunday a locally-developed COVID-19 vaccine candidate could complete its final trials in a month or two, raising hopes for a rapid roll-out in a country with the world's second highest number of infections. • India could get access to AstraZeneca vaccine by January, local manufacturer says The head of an Indian company contracted to make AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine said it could deliver it to health care workers and elderly Indians by January as the country's caseload of infections crossed nine million on Friday. • Bharat Biotech offers Brazil potential COVID-19 vaccine Bharat Biotech this week offered Brazil a COVID-19 vaccine that is in late-stage clinical trials and a possible technology transfer partnership, a company executive said on Friday. • Gland Pharma jumps in market debut Shares of Gland Pharma got off to a flying start in their market debut on Friday, rising as much as 23% and highlighting a strong appetite for drug stocks. GLOBAL TOP NEWS • Biden to unveil first Cabinet picks on Tuesday, envisions scaled-down inauguration President-elect Joe Biden will announce the first of his Cabinet appointments on Tuesday and is planning for a scaled-down inauguration due to the coronavirus pandemic, aides said on Sunday, as he lays the foundation for his new administration despite President Donald Trump's refusal to concede. • COVID-19 shots could reach first Americans by mid-December, top health official says U.S. healthcare workers and others recommended for the nation's first COVID-19 inoculations could start getting shots within a day or two of regulatory consent next month, a top official of the government's vaccine development effort said on Sunday. • Singapore's economy to return to growth in 2021 after worst slump Singapore's economy contracted less than initially estimated in the third quarter due to the gradual easing of COVID-19 lockdown measures and authorities expect the city-state to bounce back to growth next year from its worst recession. LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) • SGX Nifty nearest-month futures were trading 0.4% higher at 12,935.50. • The Indian rupee is expected to rise against the U.S. currency after the dollar index began the week on the defensive amid firm risk appetite. • Indian federal government bond yields are expected to trade largely unchanged in early session, ahead of a fresh supply of papers at a debt switch auction today. The yield on the benchmark 5.77% 2030 bond is likely to trade in a 5.86%-5.92% band today. GLOBAL MARKETS • U.S. stocks closed lower on Friday as investors wrestled with fiscal stimulus developments, concerns over a lengthy rollout of vaccines, and a growing number of state-level shutdowns to combat the spiraling COVID-19 pandemic. • A broad gauge of Asian shares edged up to record highs morning as hopes for imminent coronavirus vaccines buoyed investor sentiment, but worries over the impact of economic lockdowns and uncertainty over U.S. stimulus capped gains. • The U.S. dollar marked time as the prospect of an early rollout of coronavirus vaccines was offset by concerns about economic restrictions to control the spread of the virus, leaving safe-haven assets in limbo. • U.S. Treasuries pared an overnight yield drop but ended lower on the day in choppy trading on Friday as investors balanced the prospect of new fiscal stimulus against the request by the U.S. government for the Federal Reserve to return unused funds from programs meant to backstop markets. • Oil prices extended their gains as traders were optimistic about a recovery in crude demand thanks to successful coronavirus vaccine trials, but price gains were contained by renewed lockdowns in several countries. • Gold prices ticked higher in early Asian trade, supported by a weaker dollar and hopes of further U.S. stimulus aimed at cushioning the economic blow from the COVID-19 pandemic. CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 74.12/74.15 November 20 2,188.16 crores (766.31) crores 10-yr bond yield 5.88% Month-to-date 44,378 crores 813 crores Year-to-date 92,266 crores (1,06,333) crores (FII investment numbers are in Indian rupees. Source: National Securities Depository Limited) For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 74.07 Indian rupees) (Compiled by Siddharth Athreya V in Bengaluru) || The 3 Big Market Events From This Week: The U.S. presidential election remains undecided going into the weekend, as state officials continue to tally votes in battleground states including Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada. Source: Shutterstock More than 159 million Americans voted in the presidential election, but it looks likes recounts could happen in at least Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin. Hopefully a winner is called soon, but in the meantime, Wall Street doesn’t seem worried. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips In fact, it’s been celebrating the prospect of gridlock in Washington D.C. as the Senate appears it will remain in Republican control. The Dow rose 6.2% this week through Thursday and is taking a breather today. While the elections consumed most of the media’s bandwidth this week, China’s online and mobile commerce leader,Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd.(NYSE:BABA) made headlines Tuesday when its potential subsidiary, the financial services company Ant Group, had its IPO on both the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges suspended two days before the planned public debut. The IPO was set to become the biggest of all time, topping Saudi Amarco’s 2019 public offering that raised $29.4 billion. Ant Group is widely known for operating China’s most used digital wallet, Alipay, which has over 900 million users in China alone. Alipay launched in 2004, and is also known for running one of the largest money market funds in the world. It’s more recently expanded into wealth management, micro loans and other financial technology services. In 2011, Alibaba sold Alipay to a group owned by Alibaba co-founder, Jack Ma. In 2018, Alibaba then bought a 33% stake in Ant Financial, Ant Group’s earlier incarnation. Ant Group’s impending IPO was scuttled shortly after Ma apparently made public statements criticizing China’s financial regulators and banks, which he claimed were holding back growth and are in need of reform. China’s regulators didn’t take kindly to Ma’s public criticisms and suspended the IPO indefinitely. As a result, the stock dropped like a rock – falling over 8% the same day. On Thursday, BABA released results for its second quarter in fiscal year 2021. Annual active consumers on Alibaba’s sites climbed to 757 million and mobile monthly users rose to 881 million, as the company’s “domestic core commerce business continues to grow steadily” in the wake of the pandemic in China. The stock bounced back a bit today but is still down for the week. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap,bitcoin(BTC), soared to its highest level since January 2018 on Thursday, piercing through $15,000. So far this year, bitcoin is up nearly 109%. According toCoindesk, the number of accounts holding the cryptocurrency keeps rising with the price, which likely means more and more retail investors are dipping into the crypto market. Indeed, digital payments and financial services companySquare(NYSE:SQ), which announced it beat analyst estimates for revenue and earnings in the third quarter Thursday, reported its popular Cash App generated $1.63 billion in bitcoin revenue and $32 million in bitcoin gross profit, up about 11X and 15X, year-over-year. That was almost 80% of the company’s total Cash App revenue for the third quarter. The company is leading a trend of facilitating bitcoin purchases for everyday customers. Square competitor,PayPal Holdings(NASDAQ:PYPL), has also begun selling bitcoin. The company recently announced it will allow customers to buy, hold and sell bitcoin and a few other cryptocurrencies. The cryptocurrencies held in PayPal accounts can be used to pay for purchases at 28 million stores around the world. Interestingly, companies have even begun storing some of their own cash reserves in bitcoin. In October, Square joined firms likeMicroStrategy Inc.(NASDAQ:MSTR) and the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust by adding $50 million worth of bitcoin to its own treasury. Grayscale currently owns about $6.7 billion worth of bitcoin and has plans to keep ramping up its supply. While that all appears to be great news for the sector, personally, I’m not a fan of bitcoin or cryptocurrencies. Instead, I preferfundamentally superior stocksthat have outstanding earnings and revenue growth. And with an absolutely stunning third-quarter earnings announcement season underway, myGrowth Investorportfolio is teaming with opportunities in cutting edge technology sectors. Take 5G wireless connectivity … From artificial intelligence and virtual reality to smart factories and robotics, remote surgery, self-driving cars and connected cities, 5G is the keystone technology that supports and enhances the buildout of the others. And the 5G rollout has already arrived. Currently, 100 mobile operators in 44 countries or territories have launched 5G services to some degree, according to the Global mobile Suppliers Association. And there are now 138 million 5G connections worldwide, representing a 116% increase from the first quarter of 2020. This is big business. Nokia believes 5G-enabled industries are poised to generate$8 trillionworth of economic activity by 2030. The bottom line: 5G is what’s helping keep us all connected in the modern economy. If you live somewhere without reliable broadband access, you might have trouble keeping up with shopping or even finances in the “new normal.” That is, until ultrafast 5G wireless changes all that for you. Now that we’re all upgrading to 5G from coast to coast, and around the world, it’s mind boggling to consider all the technology involved. And, particularly, all the new hardware that will be required. This is wherethe best opportunity for investorscomes in. For my money, I’m not going to bet on any one application of 5G. Or even one provider of 5G. I want the companies who makeallof it possible. Mobile providers likeAT&T(NYSE:T) andVerizonCommunications(NYSE:VZ) need 5G to maintain their edge — and get people into new smartphone contracts. But the big profits will come from the companies that help create 5G. One such company I like now is much lesser known than the Big Telecom companies but has excellent growth prospects. This company is already one of the biggest semiconductor equipment manufacturers in the world. These days, its products for machine learning, optics, sensors and analytics are getting deployed for all sorts of next-generation technologies: the self-driving cars, robotics, cloud computing and the larger Internet of Things (IoT). This is the kind of stock that can help you profit fromallthe 5G infrastructure that’s popping up everywhere. And the time to invest is now. The company released its third-quarter report last week and beat Wall Street’s expectations for the top- and bottom-line. It’s climbed 11.9% over the past month, and blew past its 52-week high this morning. I recommended the stock toGrowth Investorsubscribers back in December 2019, and it’s sitting pretty on myBuy Listwith a 44.7% gain. But there’s plenty more upside remaining. Analysts are anticipating 9% sales growth and 19.5% earnings growth in the upcoming quarter. So,if you’re looking to invest in this growing 5G company, your window to get in while the stock price is still low is closing quickly. For all the details, simply watch my free briefing on 5G and join us atGrowth Investortoday. As soon as you do, I’ll send you a copy of my special report,The King of 5G “Turbo Button” Technology, that will tell you everything you need to know about this company and 5G. Note: The Editor hereby discloses that as of the date of this email, the Editor, directly or indirectly, owned the following securities that are the subject of the commentary, analysis, opinions, advice, or recommendations in, or which are otherwise mentioned in, the essay set forth below: Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. (BABA), PayPal Holdings (PYPL) Louis Navellier had an unconventional start, as a grad student who accidentally built a market-beating stock system — with returns rivaling even Warren Buffett. In his latest feat, Louis discovered the “Master Key” to profiting fromthe biggest tech revolution of this (or any) generation. The postThe 3 Big Market Events From This Weekappeared first onInvestorPlace. || Money on Chain Launches New Bitcoin Layer 2-based Decentralized Token Exchange: MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY / ACCESSWIRE / November 25, 2020 / Money On Chain is pleased to announce the launch of TEX, a new decentralized token exchange built on RSK, Bitcoin's smart contract sidechain. TEX automates token swaps using smart contracts, offering users access to DoC, BPro, RIF, and rBTC, among others. The launch further expands the footprint of Bitcoin DeFi based on the RSK technology stack. The TEX uses a unique trading mechanism, inspired by the method used at The London Gold Fix , which sets the value of gold twice a day. Based on an Order Book (OB), the order execution is not instantaneous and occurs on ticks. Ticks occur every few minutes to allow the order book to form a price to be discovered before the match is made. The frequency of ticks depends on market activity. This is especially important in a new network and enables organic liquidity growth. Users who place orders in the OB can cancel them at any time. With the public order book, the TEX design avoids front-running, and with pricing via ticks, TEX aims to ensure a fairer price discovery, even at low trading volume. Max Carjuzaa, co-founder of Money On Chain commented: "The TEX is an important piece of the Money On Chain protocol. The decentralized order book ensures a fair and transparent price discovery process and establishes a secondary market for tokens." The TEX has two types of orders: Limit Orders and Market Maker Orders. A limit order lets the trader set the trade conditions to ensure that they buy or sell at the intended price or better. The buyer will not spend more than the maximum they were willing to pay, and the seller will not receive less than the minimum they were expecting to obtain. The price will be the average between the two. A market maker order is a special type of limit order. Here, the trader specifies a percentage difference with a fair price. The TEX obtains fair pricing from an oracle or the last tick where an oracle is not available. Story continues TEX is designed to be a fairer way to trade in a Bitcoin ecosystem. TEX is already live, so traders can immediately start trading in a decentralized and transparent manner. Diego Gutierrez Zaldivar, CEO of IOVlabs added: "We are very excited about this announcement that shows momentum for Bitcoin Defi is growing. Decentralized exchanges, together with sovereign digital identities will play a key role in Bitcoin's future and provide the core tools for financial freedom." For more information about the TEX visit: https://moneyonchain.com/tex-bitcoin-decentralized-exchange/ About Money on Chain Money On Chain wants to bring Bitcoin to mass adoption. To that end, it offers solutions to meet the needs of different types of users: a fully bitcoin-collateralized stablecoin (DoC), a bitcoin on steroids (BPro) and a dizzying bitcoiner option for lovers of leveraged trading (BTCx). All this, without requiring the delivery of private keys. To make this possible, it developed an unique mathematical-financial model with proven robustness, even in extreme market situations. For more information, visit https://moneyonchain.com/ About RSK The RSK network is the most secure smart contract platform in the world, secured by Bitcoin's unparalleled hash power via merge-mining. RSK adds value and functionality to the bitcoin ecosystem by enabling smart-contracts, near instant payments, and higher-scalability. The network scales to up to 100 transactions per second without sacrificing decentralization, and reduces storage and bandwidth using probabilistic verification, fraud detection, and more. For more information visit https://www.rsk.co/rsk-blockchain/ Contact Dan Edelstein pr@marketacross.com +972-545-464-238 SOURCE: IOV Labs View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/618339/Money-on-Chain-Launches-New-Bitcoin-Layer-2-based-Decentralized-Token-Exchange || Bitcoin breaks $18,000 as rally powers on, all-time high in sight: By Tom Wilson LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin on Wednesday broke through $18,000 to hit a new year-to-date peak as its blistering 2020 rally, driven by demand for its perceived quality as an inflation hedge and expectations of mainstream acceptance, powered on. The original and biggest cryptocurrency was last up 3% at $18,175, its highest since Dec. 2017. It has gained over 160% this year, and has jumped 17% in the last 3 days alone. Bitcoin is now close to its all-time high of just under $20,000, which it touched at the peak of its retail investor-fuelled 2017 bubble. The emerging asset's 12-year history has been peppered with vertiginous price rises and equally sharp crashes. (Reporting by Tom Wilson, editing by Sinead Cruise) [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 28840.95, 29001.72, 29374.15, 32127.27, 32782.02, 31971.91, 33992.43, 36824.36, 39371.04, 40797.61
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-08-14] BTC Price: 11768.87, BTC RSI: 64.69 Gold Price: 1937.00, Gold RSI: 53.61 Oil Price: 42.01, Oil RSI: 56.48 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Here’s How to Expand Who Contributes to Bitcoin Core: A Bitcoin Core dev and her exchange partner discuss Bitcoin and privacy and how to incentivize more developers to contribute to the protocol. For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , iHeartRadio or RSS . This episode is sponsored by Bitstamp and Crypto.com . Related: Bitcoin News Roundup for July 6, 2020 OKCoin and BitMEX recently came together to provide a $150,000 grant to Bitcoin Core developer Amiti Uttarwar. See also: Summer 2020 Is Funding Season for Open-Source Bitcoin Development In this conversation, Amiti and OKCoin CEO Hong Fang discuss: Why OKCoin believes it is essential for companies in the space to support Bitcoin Core development How OKCoin and BitMEX came together around this grant Why Amiti is focused on the P2P layer Why Amiti believes bitcoin should be private by default Why Bitcoin Core will better serve more populations if more populations are represented in who is building it Find our guests online: Related: What Artists Love About Crypto Hong Fang Website: https://www.okcoin.com Twitter: @hfangca Amiti Uttarwar Twitter: @amizi For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , iHeartRadio or RSS . Related Stories Here’s How to Expand Who Contributes to Bitcoin Core Here’s How to Expand Who Contributes to Bitcoin Core || BTSE to offer margin and settlement for Bitcoin Dominance Futures: Bitcoin-based fintech company BTSE has launched a new derivative where investors can take a position on Bitcoin’s overall share of the market and settle it in a variety of currencies. “BTSE’s Bitcoin Dominance Futures with multi-asset capability is a part of our mission to strengthen the bridge between trading traditional fiat and cryptocurrencies. BTSE also offers the most liquid futures on the market for this tool, allowing our users to access higher volume and product variety,” says Jonathan Leong, CEO of BTSE. Bitcoin dominance has become an ever present metric among cryptocurrency traders and Bitcoin holders as it demonstrates sentiment in the market as well as the relative strength of altcoins. BTSE’s futures products draws data from Binance-owned CoinMarketCap while it has plans to add values from TradingView in the near future. Currently, Bitcoin’s market cap is at $171 billion, which makes up 62.2% of the entire cryptocurrency market cap. The money flow index (MFI) is a technical oscillator that measures the inflow and outflow of money into an asset over a period of time by analyzing both price and volume. In this #BTSE Academy post, we learn about the MFI indicator and we can use it: https://t.co/AfkN9QFQBs pic.twitter.com/apXPyTg0ij — BTSE (@BTSEcom) July 17, 2020 BTSE is the second to offer the new trading tool after Bitfinex, but the first to offer the trading tool with multi-asset collateral capability. Using BTSE’s All-In-One-Order Book, users have greater flexibility to decide which margin they’d like to place their trade in, as well as the currency they’d like to settle in. This is advantageous as traders can avoid price slippage if Bitcoin is in decline, and users are not required to convert assets and pay unnecessary transaction and conversion fees at the end of trade. Story continues Traders can post margin and settle their profits in any combination of fiat currencies, including USD, EUR, HKD, and cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH, Tether, or USDC. Bitcoin Dominance Futures act as a great trade alternative to Bitcoin Futures contract for more risk-averse traders, too. The trade offers less-volatile exposure because it references Bitcoin to a broader basket of digital assets. Bitcoin’s dominance value has shown less volatility than its spot price and this figure has become attractive for newly introduced Bitcoin traders within the market. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . || First Mover: Bitcoin Rises More in One Day Than Stocks Have Gained All Year: Bitcoin prices surged 5% on Wednesday, outpacing stocks and gold amid calls for more government stimulus, as the economic toll of the coronavirus mounts. The oldest and largest cryptocurrencyrose to $11,755. The price is now approaching $12,000 for the second time in a week, a level thatbitcoinhasn’t sustainably traded above for more than a year. You’re readingFirst Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. You cansubscribe here. Related:Blockchain Bites: Bulls Reborn, Backrunning Bots, Bitmain Blowout Bloomberg News went so far as to declare in an article Wednesday that “bitcoin mania appears to be almost back in full bloom.” Bitcoin is seen by many digital-asset investors as a hedge against inflation, and the bets are growing that governments and central banks will have to pump trillions of dollars more into the financial system to stimulate the economy out of the worst recession since the 1930s. Gold, historically seen as a reliable inflation hedge,surged this week to a new record above $2,000. Yet, even gold’s 35% gain this year is no match for bitcoin’s 63% price increase. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is now up 3% on the year, with some traditional investors arguing that stocks have become detached from reality, merely propped up by the roughly $3 trillion of freshly created money that the Federal Reserve has pumped into the global financial system this year. Related:Bitcoin Entering 'New Adoption Cycle,' Coin Metrics Exec Says “Bitcoin and the crypto markets are once again able to claim independence from the traditional markets,” Mati Greenspan, co-founder of the foreign-exchange and cryptocurrency analysis firm Quantum Economics, wrote Wednesday in a newsletter. The U.S. government’s budget deficit this fiscal year is projected to soar to $3.7 trillion, far surpassing the previous record of $1.4 trillion in 2009, according to theAssociated Press. An extra $600-per-week federal benefit for laid-off workers lapsed last week, threatening the economic recovery, and U.S. lawmakers arewrangling over the detailsof a new spending measure that could range from $1 trillion tomore than $3 trillion. “Bitcoin’s long-term value proposition as a hedge against fiat currency debasement only grows stronger,” Anil Lulla, of cryptocurrency research firm Delphi Digital, noted Wednesday in anop-ed for CoinDesk. The International Monetary Fund warned this week in ablog postthat “another bout of global financial stress could trigger more capital flow reversals, currency pressures and further raise the risk of an external crisis for economies with preexisting vulnerabilities, such as large current account deficits.” All that just plays to bitcoin’s strengths, as more investors start to extrapolate the likely stimulus needed to recover from a protracted economic downturn. According Bloomberg News, analysts for the U.S. bank JPMorgan wrote Tuesday that while older investors are buying gold,younger investors are buying bitcoin. The analysis firm Coin Metrics noted that over the past week bitcoin had averaged over 1 million daily active addresses for the first time since January 2018. That was in the wake of the cryptocurrency hitting an all-time high around $20,000 in 2017. And Norwegian cryptocurrency-analysis firmArcane Research noted in a report this weekthat bitcoin daily trading volumes have been “growing strongly,” with several days topping $2 billion. The number of open bitcoin futures contracts on the CME exchange has jumped to a new record around $850 million. “The strong momentum in the market continues,” Arcane wrote. “The sharp rise in open interest at CME is a clear indication of increased institutional demand for bitcoin.” Chris Thomas, head of digital assets for broker Swissquote,told CoinDesk’s Daniel Cawreyon Wednesday that bitcoin could break past $12,000 by Friday. The signs certainly appear to be pointing in that direction. BTC: Price: $11,700 (BPI) | 24-Hr High: $11,807 | 24-Hr Low: $11,380 Trend: Bitcoin is looking north after twin bullish cues were activated by a 5% rally Wednesday. Firstly, with the UTC close at $11,755, bitcoin marked an upside break of a narrowing price range witnessed Monday and Tuesday. In addition, Wednesday’s UTC close established a strong foothold above $11,400. The bulls had repeatedly failed to keep gains above that level on Monday and Tuesday. The combination of range breakout and convincing move above a key hurdle has opened the doors for a re-test of recent highs above $12,100. Still, the case for a rally to recent highs would only weaken if prices fall back below the former hurdle-turned-support of $11,400. At press time, bitcoin is changing hands near $11,700. • First Mover: Bitcoin Rises More in One Day Than Stocks Have Gained All Year • First Mover: Bitcoin Rises More in One Day Than Stocks Have Gained All Year || ALT 5 Sigma Launches Real-Time Physical Gold and Silver Trading Priced in Bitcoin and (USDT) Tether: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 6, 2020 /ALT 5 Sigma, Inc. ("ALT 5"), today announced the launch of real-time physical gold and silver trading on its proprietary trading platform ALT 5 Pro,www.alt5pro.com. According to the company, users of ALT 5 Pro can buy, sell and hold physical gold and silver with no storage fees, and users can withdraw the physical gold or silver and have it shipped anywhere globally. The Physical Gold and Silver are priced in real-time in both Bitcoin and Tether (USDT). The price fixing in real-time and the storage of the precious metals is done in partnership with Octillion Group Limited and the transport and insurance will be performed by the Ferrari Group Ltd. "After numerous demands by the users of ALT 5 Pro, we are very happy to be launching a unique approach to real-time physical trading of gold and silver" said Andre Beauchesne, President & CEO of Alt 5 Sigma Inc. "Our users can now trade in real-time the physical precious metals, but can also hold it without any storage fees and have it delivered to their home of office in a safe and secure manner. In addition, the partnership we have established with Octillion and related service contract with the Ferrari Group provides a total solutions for our users," further added Mr. Beauchesne. About ALT 5 Sigma Inc. ALT 5 is a fintech company specializing in the development and deployment of digital instruments trading, exchange platforms and financial blockchain services. ALT 5 was founded by financial industry specialists out of the necessity to provide the digital asset economy with security, accessibility, transparency, and compliance. ALT 5 products and services include ALT 5 Pay (alt5pay.com) and ALT 5 Pro (alt5pro.com) which provides its clients the ability to buy, sell and hold digital assets in a safe and secure environment deployed with the best practices of the financial industry. ALT 5's products and services are available to Banks, Broker Dealers, Funds, Family Offices, Professional Traders, Retail Traders, Digital Asset Exchanges, Digital Asset Brokers, Blockchain Developers, and Financial Information Providers. For more information, visitwww.alt5sigma.com. Contact: Andre BeauchesneTel. 1-800-204-6203info@alt5sigma.com For more information on ALT 5 Pro, visitwww.alt5pro.comFor more information on ALT 5 Pro Gold and Silver, visithttps://alt5pro.com/gold-and-silver/For more information on ALT 5 Pay, visitwww.alt5pay.com SOURCE:ALT 5 Sigma, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/600483/ALT-5-Sigma-Launches-Real-Time-Physical-Gold-and-Silver-Trading-Priced-in-Bitcoin-and-USDT-Tether || China Police Said to Detain Crypto OTC Traders Amid Money Laundering Crackdown: As Chinese police step up efforts to crack down on illegal economic activities, crypto over-the-counter (OTC) traders are being detained to assist investigations. In another sign Chinese law enforcement are targeting cryptocurrency trading, Zhao Dong – a prominent Chinese crypto OTC trader and the co-founder of crypto lending platform RenrenBit – has been held up by police in the city of Hangzhou. A rumor that Zhao had been taken away first emerged on WeChat on Thursday, after a screen capture describing his detention began circulating within the local community and was later reported by local news outlets. As the rumor drew wider attention given Zhao’s prominent status, a representative of RenrenBit said in a statement on the social media platform Weibo that one unnamed OTC trading desk in Beijing had its whole team taken away by police late last month. It does not appear that any of the OTC traders were outright arrested. Related: How Chainlink and Cosmos Fit Into China's Grand Blockchain Initiative RenrenBit said Zhao, who has invested in the OTC team but was not involved in day-to-day trades, returned to China from Japan in early June and is now “actively” assisting local police in anti-fraud and anti-money laundering investigations. In 2017, the Chinese government prohibited local crypto exchanges from allowing trades between cryptocurrency and Chinese yuan. Many traders turned to OTC platforms as a result, which essentially enable peer-to-peer trading by connecting buyers and sellers. Individual users in China have been relying on OTC desks to buy or sell USDT or bitcoin with Chinese yuan to participate in crypto-to-crypto trading. A person with direct knowledge of the issue, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case, told CoinDesk that Zhao is currently being held by police but added this is systematic effort, not an isolated incident. The issue has also sparked some fear among other OTC desks in China, the person said. Story continues The person said law enforcement agencies across Chinese provinces have increased their scrutiny over crypto OTC desks since mid-June, and have taken away more than one trading desk to assist on investigations related to money-laundering activities. But the news about Zhao has drawn wider attention since he is well-known as one of the largest OTC traders in China, and has been a member of China’s crypto community since 2013. Related: Bitcoin Miner Maker Ebang Estimates $2.5M Loss for Q1 in IPO Prospectus Update Read more: Chinese Police Freezing OTC Traders’ Bank Accounts Over ‘Tainted’ Crypto Transactions Although the recent investigations do not necessarily suggest buying or selling cryptocurrency through OTC is illegal, a more systematic target could have a larger ripple effect on OTC desk operations in China, which remain a significant part of local crypto trade. The latest action by Chinese police follows a wide bank account freeze reported in early June, where more than 1,000 people were estimated to have been affected. At the time, a wide range of OTC desks and users in China had their bank accounts frozen by law enforcement after being suspected of either knowingly or unknowingly facilitating illegal activity, such as telecom frauds or ponzi schemes, to launder proceeds via crypto OTC trading. Cryptocurrencies, especially the dollar-pegged USDT, have been a popular method for Ponzi schemes or fraud organizers to launder money in China, which would then contaminate the fiat money and cryptocurrencies that are circulating in the Chinese OTC market. Law enforcement’s investigations of these illegal schemes are a way to track the flow of contaminated fiat money and crypto assets. Users or OTC desks who even unknowingly touch these questionable assets might have their bank accounts frozen. Related Stories China Police Said to Detain Crypto OTC Traders Amid Money Laundering Crackdown China Police Said to Detain Crypto OTC Traders Amid Money Laundering Crackdown || Nigerians Are Using Bitcoin to Bypass Trade Hurdles With China: Chukwuemeka Ezike sends thousands of dollars’ worth of bitcoin a month in order to trade with Chinese exporting companies. In return, he receives spare auto parts, construction equipment, and juices for a family business his father started more than 30 years ago. Ezike works full-time at Singapore-based crypto exchange Huobi as its community manager but helps with his family’s business on the side. He says bitcoin is faster than exchanging currencies the old-fashioned way. And he can use it to leapfrog bank limits of $10,000 a day, which he often needs to do. Related: Bitcoin Recovers From $11.3K Despite Losses in European Stocks Ezike doesn’t pay the manufacturer directly. Over WeChat, he works with a middleman named “Allen” who exchanges Ezike’s bitcoin for renminbi, China’s national currency, and then passes it on to the manufacturer. Ezike couldn’t divulge which companies he deals with, saying, “The Chinese are sensitive with the data that’s shared.” He’s one of several Nigerians using bitcoin for this purpose. Ezike even helps other Nigerian companies make similar cross-border transactions with bitcoin. Using bitcoin for global trade In several ways, bitcoin makes sense for global trade. The currency jumps borders with ease, where other currencies encounter friction. If the counterparty is willing to receive bitcoin on the other end, it’s often faster and cheaper than legacy payments. But this can be a big “if” because bitcoin is a newer way of transferring money and people aren’t exactly used to it quite yet. While bitcoin has these nimble properties, it hasn’t disrupted international trade and value transfer just yet, especially given the currency’s current limitations . If more people use bitcoin at once, the network becomes congested and payments slow down. Related: Why It's Time to Pay Attention to Mexico's Booming Crypto Market Story continues Behind the scenes, developers around the world are working on the Lightning Network to fix these problems so that more people, maybe one day even millions, can all use bitcoin regularly without seeing a spike in fees and sluggish transactions. Read more: What Is Bitcoin’s Lightning Network? All that said, some Nigerians are becoming reliant on using bitcoin as a way to trade internationally, and are finding bitcoin has significant benefits over legacy financial systems. Foreign exchange woes Nigerian bitcoin entrepreneur Chimezie Chuta has another theory for why some are using bitcoin for trade with China and beyond. Like most other countries in an increasingly globalized world, Nigeria imports a significant percentage of the goods that it uses. As Chimezie Chuta put it: “Nigeria is a very import-heavy country. Food industry, drugs, you name it, construction equipment, cars.” Much of these goods are bought from Chinese manufacturers. “Nigeria’s economy is heavily import dependent and China is a major import partner to Nigeria,” Chuta adds. Nigerians have to struggle with this process, though. “Access to [foreign exchange (FX)] for importation by Nigerian business owners is highly limited because the [Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)] has limited liquidity to cater for everyone,” Chuta told CoinDesk. Read more: Charlie Shrem TLDL: Ray Youssef and Crypto’s Role in Africa If Nigerians want to reap the benefits of trade, they need to hunt down a way to exchange their naira (Nigeria’s national currency) for other currencies. In Nigeria, finding U.S. dollars or Chinese remnibi is not an easy task. “Importers typically rely on the black market for the additional FX needed and that comes at a very high price,” Chuta said. This phenomenon has been covered in Bloomberg , for instance. This is one of the other reasons Ezike has turned to bitcoin as an alternative. “The hustle for [the] dollar and all that is quite a thing I love to avoid,” Ezike told CoinDesk. With bitcoin, he can “take out all international banking routing processes,” he said. Others are reaching the same conclusion. “Chinese exporters have expressed willingness to accept bitcoin payments for their goods; hence, many business people in Nigeria find it more convenient to make such payments with bitcoin for obvious reasons,” Chuta said, adding that bitcoin is speedier, open and trustless. More naira problems Entrepreneur Monyei Chinazaekpele was able to buy clothes, COVID-19 masks and tests from House of Trippy in China, to resell to customers in Nigeria. He decided to use bitcoin after experiencing mounting frustration with current banking limitations, especially their impact on global trade. “I was enlightened about the monetary policies on the ground. I was shocked to my nerve,” he told CoinDesk. Chinazaekpele reiterated Chuta’s and Ezike’s point that foreign exchange is tough in Nigeria. “You can’t easily switch to other currencies,” he said, adding that he’s hopeful it’s just “a matter of time” before this situation improves. “Basically, bitcoin is stress-free to use and honestly, the naira is not a good store of value,” Chinazaekpele said, pointing to the naira’s 12% inflation rate, which means the value of the currency depreciates by that much value every year. Bitcoin’s price fluctuates, and sometimes the price goes down. But Chinazaekpele argues that bitcoin generally doesn’t have this inflation problem because over the long term the price has been going up. Chinazaekpele’s also looking to buy a cashew processor with bitcoin, but he’s still working out the details with the factory, which is also located in China. Keeping it on the down-low All this trade with bitcoin is happening behind the scenes. Businessmen and women on the ground aren’t exactly eager to publicize that they’re using bitcoin for international trade. For one, the legality of cryptocurrency is fuzzy in the region. The CBN has issued several warnings to banks. The latest in 2018 advised banks “not to use, hold or transact in any way with the technology.” “In the bitcoin space we don’t know what reaction to expect, so we try to be a little bit discrete,” Ezike told CoinDesk. That’s why he doesn’t want to reveal the name of his father’s importing business. By only revealing his individual name, he’s less fearful that the Nigerian government will “attack” the business. Read more: Where FATF Crypto Compliance Gets Interesting: Africa “We have had accounts frozen at some point due to bitcoin transactions,” Ezike said. “We had to appeal to re-open them.” He added that it’s the same situation in China, which is why the people he transacts with there “ensure they [keep] a low profile.” As for the relationship between the government in Nigeria and crypto, Ezike said that “they are really confused about what to do with it. But hopefully they will embrace it.” Related Stories Nigerians Are Using Bitcoin to Bypass Trade Hurdles With China Nigerians Are Using Bitcoin to Bypass Trade Hurdles With China || Twitter confirms 'Bitcoin' hackers copied the data of several accounts: Ever sinceWednesday’s “bitcoin scam” hackwhere attackers used Twitter’s internal tools to take over a number of high profile accounts, there’s been speculation about what they were truly after. While tweets from hijacked accounts claimed to seek Bitcoin, the accounts accessed — and any others potentially accessed —could be far more valuable for the non-public information they contain, like linked address books and direct messages. As far as we know, that includes information for people like Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, but those are only the ones we know about. Late Friday night,Twitter confirmedthat its investigation shows attackers exported the data on “up to eight of the accounts involved,” without specifying which ones (in alater tweet, the company indicated that none of the eight were Verified accounts). Of the 130 that it had previously said were targeted, Twitter now says the attackers performed a password reset and were able to access 45 of them, but did not specify why they may not have done so on the the others. Multiple reports, including one on Friday afternoon from theNew York Times, have featured accounts from posters on the “OGUsers” gray market forum where high-profile accounts are sometimes traded. By the accounts of their sources, an unknown person going by the name of “Kirk” claimed to be a Twitter employee and offered takeovers on any account, working at times via middle men, and collecting money via the same address advertised in the tweets. According to some of the customers and middlemen from the incident, they apparently believe Kirk accessed Twitter’s internal Slack channels, and found credentials for its internal admin tools there. Twitter’s own accounting of the incident isn’t any clearer, simply stating “The attackers successfully manipulated a small number of employees and used their credentials to access Twitter’s internal systems, including getting through our two-factor protections.” || The Crypto Daily – The Movers and Shakers – July 8th, 2020: Bitcoin fell by 1.00% on Tuesday. Partially reversing a 2.99% gain from Monday, Bitcoin ended the day at $9,267.5. It was a mixed start to the day for Bitcoin. Bitcoin rose to an early morning intraday high $9,389.4 before hitting reverse. Falling well short of the first major resistance level at $9,475.2, Bitcoin slid to a late intraday low $9,211.1. Steering clear of the first major support level at $9,161.4, Bitcoin moved back through to $9,260 levels to limit the loss on the day. The near-term bullish trend remained intact in spite of the recent pullback to sub-$9,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend. Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Tuesday. Cardano’s ADA jumped by 11.78% to lead the way. Binance Coin (+2.94%), Stellar’s Lumen (+2.76%), and Tezos (+2.71%) also bucked the trend on the day. It was a bearish day for the rest of the majors, however. Bitcoin Cash SV (-4.55%) and Tron’s TRX (-4.80%) led the way down. Bitcoin Cash ABC (-1.28%), EOS (-2.14%), Ethereum (-0.97%), Litecoin (-1.54%), Monero’s XMR (-0.68%) and Ripple’s XRP (-1.93%) also joined Bitcoin in the red. In the current week, the crypto total market cap rose from a Monday low $254.54bn to Tuesday high $267.10bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $263.81bn. Bitcoin’s dominance fell from a Monday high 65.58% to a Tuesday low 64.30%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 64.58%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.07% to $9,261.2. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $9,278.6 to a low $9,256.0. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day. Cardano’s ADA was on the move once more, rising by 1.20%, with BNB up by 0.23% at the time of writing. It was a bearish start for the rest of the majors, however. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash and Tron’s TRX were down by 1.07% and by 2.19% to lead the way down. Bitcoin would need to move through the $9,290 pivot to support a run at the first major resistance level at $9,367.57. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break back through to $9,300 levels. Barring an extended crypto rebound, the first major resistance level and Tuesday’s high $9,389.4 would likely cap any upside. In the event of a crypto breakout, Bitcoin should break through the second major resistance level at $9,467.63. Failure to move through the $9,290 pivot level would bring the first major support level at $9,189.27 into play. Barring an extended crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should avoid sub-$9,100 levels. The second major resistance level at $9,111.03 would likely limit any downside. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • GBP/JPY Price Forecast – British Pound Breaks Towards Major Level • Credit/Investments Turned Into End-User Risk Again • European Equities: DAX Set to Open in the Red, with No Stats to Provide Direction • Gold Price Prediction – Prices Break Out To 8-Year Highs as US Yields Ease • Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural Gas Markets Continue Breakout • Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Rise but Fail at Resistance || Coda Protocol Sets Aside $2.1M in Tokens for Development Grants: Bitcoin clocked highs near $9,600 this morning, having trapped bears on the wrong side of the market with a brief dip below $9,000 on Monday. Analysts say a risk reset in the traditional markets fueled bitcoin’s rise from $8,900 to $9,580 in the last 24 hours. “Bitcoin has regained poise, possibly tracking the recovery in global stock markets,” said Asim Ahmad, co-chief investment officer at London-based Eterna Capital. Major European equity markets are reporting gains of over 2% at press time, while futures tied to the S&P 500 are up 1.2%, according toInvesting.com. The situation was different 24 hours ago when S&P 500 futureswere down2% due to renewed fears over the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Sentiment on Wall Street turned positive during yesterday’s U.S. trading hours after theFederal Reserve announcedit would start buying yet more corporate bonds. The S&P 500 ended the day with a 0.83% gain. The risk appetite improved further during Tuesday’s Asian hours afterBloomberg reportedthat the Trump administration is preparing a near $1 trillion infrastructure proposal. The turnaround in the global equities likely helped bitcoin rise back to $9,600. In the past, the cryptocurrency has closely followed traditional markets during bouts of coronavirus-induced panic. Most notably, the cryptocurrency crashed from $10,000 to $3,867 in the first half of March, as stock markets cratered at the prospect of a coronavirus-induced recession. In the following five weeks, both stocks and bitcoin witnessed solid recovery rallies. At press time, bitcoin is changing hands near $9,550, representing a 1% gain on the day. While the unprecedented stimulus programs are widely expected to bode well for bitcoin in the long run, in the short-run, the cryptocurrency remains vulnerable to losses in stock markets. Related:Bitcoin Rises to $9.6K as Stocks Cheer Additional US Stimulus Plans Prices may fall again fall back to $9,000 in the next 24 hours if the stock markets lead the way lower. Fed Reserve President Jerome Powell islikely to presenta dour outlook on the economy during his semi-annual policy report on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Fed said last Wednesday that the economy would take years to normalize, dashing hopes for a V-shaped recovery. From a technical analysis perspective, a clear break above $10,000 is needed to confirm a bullish breakout. The bulls have persistently failed to keep gains above that level over the past three months. “Bitcoin has been flirting with the $10,000 mark since May but has since been coming back down,” said Vijay Ayyar, Asia head at cryptocurrency exchange Luno. “This is what is typically known as ‘distribution’, where a lot of the gains made in the past few months by large traders are sold into weaker hands.” The psychological $10K barrier, however, may soon be breached as larger investors seem to be accumulating bitcoin. As of Monday, there were 2,151 addresses with balance more than 1,000 BTC, the highest since mid-March, according to data fromGlassnode. The so-called bitcoin “rich list” has increased by nearly 3% over the past two months. A convincing move above $10,000 would likely yield a stronger rally to resistance lined up at $11,950 (September 2019 high). Meanwhile, on the downside, $8,500 is a key support. “If that level is breached, prices could decline to the levels we saw in the crash in March: $7,700, and then $7,100,” said Ayyar. Disclosure:The author holds no cryptocurrency at the time of writing. • Market Wrap: Bitcoin Drops, Then Pops as Traders See Weaker Markets Coming • Sorry, Bloomberg: Here Are 6 Reasons Why 2020 Is a Great Year for Bitcoin || Bluesky Digital Assets Corp., Announces Appointment of CFO: Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 2, 2020) - Bluesky Digital Assets Corp., (CSE: BTC), (CSE: BTC.PR.A), (OTC Pink: BTCWD), ("Bluesky" or the "Corporation") announced today that Ms. Evelin Wong has resigned as the Corporation's CFO with immediate effect. The Corporation has appointed Mr. Frank Kordy as CFO on an Interim basis. Mr. Kordy previously served as the Corporation's CFO from December 2013 to December 2015. Mr. Kordy has served in the capacity of CFO for several CSE and TSXV listed entities. Mr. Frank Kordy Director stated: "I would like to thank Ms. Wong for her efforts and support in serving in the capacity of both Controller and then as CFO over the course of the last four years and I wish her nothing but success in all of her future endeavours." About Bluesky Digital Assets Corp. Bluesky Digital Assets Corp, is building a high value digital currency enterprise. Bluesky mines digital currencies, such as Bitcoin and Ether, and is developing value-added technology services for the digital currency market, such as digital mining proprietary software. Offering a complete ecosystem of value-creation, Bluesky is targeting reinvesting appropriate portions of its digital currency mining profits back into its operations. A percentage of the profit will be invested in the development of a proprietary Artificial Intelligence ("AI") based technology. Overall, Bluesky takes an approach that enables the Corporation to scale, and respond to changing conditions, within the still-emerging digital currency industry. The Corporation is poised to capture value in successive phases as this industry continues to scale. For more information please visit www.blueskydigitalassets.com . For further information please contact: Mr. Steve Low Investor Relations Boom Capital Markets . T: (647) 620-5101 E: steve@boomcapitalmarkets.com Mr. Ben Gelfand CEO & Director Bluesky Digital Assets Corp T: (416) 363-3833 E: ben.gelfand@blueskydigitalassets.com Mr. Frank Kordy Secretary & Director Bluesky Digital Assets Corp. T: (647) 466-4037 E: frank.kordy@blueskydigitalassets.com Story continues Forward-Looking Statements Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. The forward- looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements included in this document are made as of the date of this document and the Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation. Although management believes that the expectations represented in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such. Neither CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. We seek safe harbor. - 30 - THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/59070 [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: no change || Prices: 11865.70, 11892.80, 12254.40, 11991.23, 11758.28, 11878.37, 11592.49, 11681.83, 11664.85, 11774.60
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-05-22] BTC Price: 2173.40, BTC RSI: 80.47 Gold Price: 1260.70, Gold RSI: 58.43 Oil Price: 50.73, Oil RSI: 60.97 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] The hotel industry's secret plan to bring down AirBnB: It’s always been pretty obvious why the hotel industry might not be big fans of AirBnB. After all, AirBnB lets us find lodging that’s homier, less cookie-cutter, and far less expensive than renting hotel rooms. But this week,The New York Times reported onjust how much AirBnB bothers the hotel industry: Its trade group, the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA), which has a multimillion-dollar budget, has actually developed a secret program to cause trouble for AirBnB. So far, the plan has succeeded in virtually shutting down AirBnB apartment rentals in New York City. (The AHLA helped persuade New York lawmakers to impose a law that issuesfines as high as $7,500for people who repeatedly advertise their apartments on AirBnB for less than 30 days if they’re not also staying there.) Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Miami, and Washington, D.C. are the trade group’s next targets. Clearly, the hotel lobbyists are concerned about losing business to AirBnB and similar services. But they’re also unhappy with the uneven playing field. “Airbnb hosts often do not comply with rules imposed on hotels, like anti-discrimination legislation, local tax collection laws, and safety and fire inspection standards,” the Times reports. The hotel industry’s other complaints: Lots of people are abusing the AirBnB model by buying many apartments and then renting them, essentially operating as a big hotel business. City governments are also concerned that these AirBnB businesspeople are, in the process, snapping up the supply of housing that city residents desperately need. Needless to say, AirBnB suspects that the hotel industry has other motivations. “The hotel cartel is intent on short-sheeting the middle class so they can keep price-gouging consumers,” AirBnB spokesman Nick Papas told the Times. Only one thing about AirBnB’s road ahead is sure: the hotel industry intends to make it as rough a ride as possible. More from David Pogue: Inside the World’s Greatest Scavenger Hunt, Part 1 The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update Now I get it: Bitcoin David Pogue tested 47 pill-reminder apps to find the best one David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes non-toxic comments in the Comments below. On the web, he’sdavidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s@pogue. On email, he’s poguester@yahoo.com. You canread all his articles here, or you can sign up toget his columns by email. || Why leaked NSA hacking tools are not like stolen Tomahawk missiles: Last week a malicious computer worm dubbed WannaCry 2.0 began attacking older, unpatched versions of Microsoft operating systems,infecting hundreds of thousands of systemswith ransomware that held user data hostage in exchange for Bitcoin payments. The cyberattack used code from a powerful National Security Agency tool called EternalBlue, which a mysterious group of hackers known as The Shadow Brokers leaked earlier this year. Tech companies have been quick to blame the NSA for finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in commercial products like Windows, to say nothing of losing them. On Sunday,Brad Smith, Microsoft’s(MSFT)president and chief legal officer,arguedthat an “equivalent scenario with conventional weapons would be the U.S. military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen.” The next day, Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, speaking via video chat to the K(NO)W Identity Conference in Washington D.C. from an undisclosed location in Russia,repeatedSmith’s argument. “An equivalent scenario to what we’re seeing happening today would be conventional weapons, produced and held by the U.S. military, being stolen, such as Tomahawk missiles,” Snowden said while describing Smith’s letter to a crowd less than a mile from the White House. U.S. officials acknowledge that the NSA deserves scrutiny about protecting tools it develops to collect foreign intelligence. “They’ve absolutely got to do a better job protecting [the hacking tools],” General Keith Alexander, head of the NSA from 2005 to 2014,toldThe Washington Post. “You can’t argue against that.” However, the Tomahawk analogy may be a stretch. Dave Aitel, a former NSA research scientist and CEO of the cybersecurity companyImmunity, explained why hacking tools are not like bombs. “The very first thing is you can steal a Tomahawk missile from me, but you cannot steal it from me without me knowing you’ve stolen it,” Aitel said. “And of course, you can steal an exploit or other intellectual property from me and I may never find out. Another is that two people can have [the same exploit] at the same time.” Aitel, who specializes in the offensive side of cybersecurity, added that “deep down, the biggest difference is that you have to learn a lot about exploits to protect yourself, and I don’t really have to learn a lot about Tomahawk missiles to protect myself from Tomahawk missiles.” Nevertheless, the analogy has been relatively well received. Travis Jarae, CEO and Founder of One World Identity, which hosted the conference in Washington, andpaid a speakers bureauto digitally host Snowden, said that the Tomahawk analogy is “not wrong” given the contemporary threat environment. “Warfare is digital,” explained Jarae, who was previously Global Head of Identity Verification at Google. “We spy on people digitally … I thought it was a little aggressive to compare it to a missile, but [government hacking] is very damaging.“ Aitelnoted that it makes sense why Smith and others in the tech business would make that argument. “[Brad Smith’s] job is to create favorable economic conditions for Microsoft at a strategic level, and if he pressure governments to stop using exploits, then that helps him from a PR perspective,” Aitel said. “It doesn’t help the users because people are still going to have exploits. That’s always going to be true.” Snowden also echoed Smith’s criticisms of the U.S. government’s decision to develop secret software exploits, telling the audience at the K(NO)W Identity Conference that secret government exploits are a problem, and the NSA should have voluntarily revealed the EternalBlue exploit long ago. But other former NSA officials have pushed back against that idea,tellingthe Washington Post that EternalBlue netted an “unreal” foreign intelligence haul that was like “fishing with dynamite.” “Edward Snowden knows full well the value of the signals intelligence program — and that includes the NSA’s hacking — to our national security,” Aitel said. “This is not for play. They’re not building exploits for fun. It’s not a hobby. It’s for distinct and important national security needs. “So when he says ‘Give up your exploits,’ he essentially is saying, ‘We don’t need signals intelligence,’ which we do.” Ultimately, according to Aitel, companies like Microsoft placing the blame on the NSA with crude analogies equating NSA hacking tools to U.S. cruise missiles only serves to muddy the larger debate. “The bigger issue is Brad Smith and Microsoft, who continue to insist that everything fall their way in terms of how vulnerabilities are handled, which I don’t think helps the conversation around cybersecurity,” Aitel said. “There are a lot of very interesting things in cybersecurity that don’t involve Microsoft’s bottom line, and those are worth talking about.” READ MORE: The simple reason so many companies were hit by the WannaCry 2.0 ransomware As tensions rise with Russia, U.S. colleges still pay for Snowden speeches No, your Apple computer isn’t immune from ransomware ‘Risk’ director discusses the ‘tragedy’ of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks || U.S. regulators to review decision denying Bitcoin ETF - filing: By Trevor Hunnicutt NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission plans to review its decision last month to block the listing of the first U.S. exchange-traded fund tracking the digital currency bitcoin, a regulatory filing showed on Tuesday. A more-than-three-year effort by investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss to convince the SEC to allow it to bring the Bitcoin ETF to market stalled when the agency's staff ruled against them in March. Bitcoin is a virtual currency that can be used to move money around the world quickly and with relative anonymity, without the need for a central authority, such as a bank or government. A fund holding the currency could bring more professional investors to the asset and push its price higher. Yet bitcoin presents a new set of risks to investors given its limited adoption, a number of massive cybersecurity breaches affecting bitcoin owners and the lack of consistent treatment of the assets by governments. Bitcoin traded up 1.7 percent at $1274.99 earlier on Tuesday. The digital currency has rebounded after initially plunging following the SEC's initial decision calling the digital currency market "unregulated." CBOE Holdings Inc's Bats exchange had applied to list the ETF and appealed to the commission to review its staff's decision. The exchange did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Diane Craft) || IRS Probe of Bitcoin Goes Too Far, GOP Warns: A closely-watched fight between the Internal Revenue Service and a popular bitcoin exchange took a new twist last week, as senior Republicans in Congress sent a sharply-worded letter that suggests the tax agency is overstepping its powers. The letter concerns an IRS investigation into possible tax evasion by customers who use Coinbase, a San Francisco-based company that many people use to buy digital currencies. As part of the investigation, which began last year, officials demanded that Coinbase turn over information for every one of its accounts. Coinbase and its customers are currently in court trying to block the demand, saying it’s too broad, and now the letter from the Republicans is likely to give them extra ammunition. “The summons is estimated to affect 500,000 active Coinbase customers and would result in the production of millions of pages of associated records, many of which contain personally identifiable information … Based on the information before us, this summons seems overly broad, extremely burdensome, and highly intrusive to a large population of individuals ,” says the letter, which is signed by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Ut), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and by Vern Buchanan and Kevin Brady, who head the House Committee on Ways and Means. (my emphasis) Get Data Sheet , Fortune 's technology newsletter. The Republicans’ concerns echo those of Coinbase and its customers, who argue the IRS does not need every single Coinbase account to carry out its audit, and that the investigation sweeps in people who have clearly done nothing wrong. The tax agency, for its part, has pointed out that only 802 Coinbase users filed a tax form related to bitcoin in 2015, which suggests large number of people have failed to declare capital gains related to bitcoin. The IRS investigation also comes at a time when the price of bitcoin has been on an incredible tear, climbing from $13 in 2013 to a new high of over $2,000 last week. Those who profited from the higher prices--either by selling bitcoin for dollars or exchanging it for merchandise--are required to pay taxes on the gain. Story continues Some Coinbase customers, however, have not sold any bitcoin at all while many others hold only a minimal amount, raising questions of why the IRS demanded information about every account. One theory, according to a lawyer who spoke with Fortune late last year, is that the IRS’s sweeping demand is a negotiating tactic to make Coinbase more cooperative, and that the two sides will reach an agreement to allow the agency to inspect some, but not all, of the accounts. The letter from the Republicans, which asks the IRS to explain its strategy for enforcing tax payments on digital currency by June 7, is likely to put pressure on the agency to come to a deal with Coinbase. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com Meet EternalRocks, WannaCry's Scarier Successor 3 Reasons Why Bitcoin Broke $2,000 Bitcoin Hit Another Record and It's Gained Almost $4 Billion Just This Week Bitcoin's Murkier Rivals Line Up to Displace it as Cybercriminals' Favorite Why Bitcoin's Price Has Been Surging and Where It Could Go From Here || Bitcoin Wallets Under Siege From 'Large Collider' Attack: A group called the “Large Bitcoin Collider” claims it can smash open bitcoin wallets by using a so-called brute force attack, which directs mass amounts of computer power at individual wallets in order to guess their private keys. The project, which has been underway for months, relies on a distributed network of computers (similar to bitcoin itself), and invites anyone to participate-those who do could potentially share in the proceeds of the wallets cracked open. A “trophy list” on the home page of Collider (an apparent reference to the Hadron Collider ) suggests the group has successfully opened over a dozen wallets, though only three had any bitcoin in them. It’s unclear if the group is motivated by financial gain or the cryptographic challenge of smashing wallets-the answer is probably both based on the site’s webpage and outside observers. A Q&A list on the Collider’s website says robbing even a tiny amount from non-profit group like the Internet archive “would make you an unconditional jerk.” But it also suggests other wallets are fair game, and that proceeds would be divvied up among the Collider participants. Meanwhile, others think the wallet-smashing endeavor is a fool’s errand, according to Motherboard , which first reported on the Large Bitcoin Collider. In this view, the project is too hard and the rewards too low and infrequent (as this Reddit commenter explains ) to pay off. But some speculate the goal of the project is not to rob a whole lot of wallets, but instead to strike a mother lode from a long-lost wallet from bitcoin’s early days: “About 10% of Bitcoins were created early, before 2012, and have never been traded. If somebody ever finds the key of the early lost Bitcoins, they’ll have a huge payoff, over a billion dollars. Speculation is that either “Satoshi Nakamoto”, whoever he is, is holding onto them for a big payoff, or somebody lost the private key for all those early Bitcoins. As the years go on, the second explanation seems more likely,” said the top comment on the site Hacker News . Story continues Get Data Sheet , Fortune s technology newsletter. As for the process of cracking open wallets, it involves the laborious task of creating private keys-which are dozens of characters in length-and trying them against existing bitcoin addresses. The Collider has so far created and checked 3,000 trillion private keys, a researcher told Motherboard. As for the legality of all this, it’s unclear. On one hand, the law is pretty clear that you are not supposed to join a conspiracy in order to rob people. But on the other hand, as the group’s website points out, “It is not illegal to search for colliding private keys.” For bitcoin owners, the risk of the Large Bitcoin Collider performing a stick-up on your private wallet is pretty tiny for now. But if the process also results in someone creating a collision for bitcoin’s general hashing algorithm-as happened with the longtime crypographic standard SHA-1 (cracked by Google this year)-that would spell a lot more trouble, though as one reader points out , bitcoin’s encryption algorithm can be upgraded. This article was originally published on FORTUNE.com || Swedroe: Private Equity Adds Risk, Little Return: The term “private equity” is used to describe various types (e.g., buyout funds and venture capital funds) of privately placed (nonpublicly traded) investments. Even though buyout (BO) funds and venture capital (VC) funds have similar organizational and compensation structures, they are distinguished by the types of investments they make and the way those investments are financed. BO funds generally acquire 100% of the target firm (which can be public or private) and use leverage. VC funds take minority positions in private businesses and do not use debt financing. Today BO funds account for about three-fourths of private equity deals. Private equity (PE) excites many investors, offering the opportunity for spectacular returns (although, as with most investments, we generally hear only the stories with happy endings). Even the term conveys an exclusive nature, especially for investors who yearn to be “players.” Capital committed to PE funds worldwide has risen substantially in the past two decades, thanks largely to U.S. pension funds searching for alternatives to public equity markets that might help them meet their return objectives. Endowments seeking to replicate the successes of the Yale Endowment have also contributed to the growth of PE funds. And it is reasonable to assume that high-risk, illiquid investments are priced by investors to deliver higher expected returns than publicly traded securities to compensate for the greater risk. The Historical Evidence Steven Kaplan and Berk Sensoy contributed to the literature on the performance of PE funds through an extensive survey of current research on the performance of private equity. Following is a summary of the findings from their October 2014 paper, “ Private Equity Performance: A Survey ”: BO funds have outperformed the S&P 500 net of fees by about 20%, on average, over the life of the fund. VC funds raised in the 1990s outperformed the S&P 500, while those raised in the 2000s have not. Before the 2000s, buyout and VC fund performance showed strong evidence of persistence. Since 2000, there is little evidence of BO fund persistence (with the exception of persistence among those in the bottom quartile, the worst performers), while VC fund persistence has remained strong. Unfortunately, the returns data presented by Kaplan and Sensoy isn’t risk-adjusted. Private equity is really much riskier than an investment in a publicly traded S&P 500 Index fund, making it a wholly inappropriate benchmark. For example ... Companies in the S&P 500 are typically among the largest and strongest companies, while VC typically invests in smaller and early-stage companies with far less financial strength. Studies have estimated betas for BO funds at about 1.3 and for VC funds at 1.6 to 2.5. Adjusting for the higher betas alone would have erased any evidence of outperformance. Similarly risky but also publicly available small value stocks have also outperformed the S&P 500 by a wide margin—from 1927 through 2016, the S&P 500 returned 10.0%, while the Fama-French Small Value Index (ex utilities) returned 13.6%. Investors in private equity forgo the benefits of daily liquidity. It’s well-documented in the literature that investors will demand a premium for investing in illiquid assets, especially those that perform poorly in bad times (like PE). There’s no adjustment in the returns data for the risk of illiquidity. In addition to the lack of liquidity relative to investments in mutual funds, private equity investors also forgo the benefits of transparency and broad diversification (and for individuals, the ability to harvest losses for tax purposes). The median return of PE is much lower than the mean (the arithmetic average) return. PE’s relatively high average return reflects the small possibility of a truly outstanding return, combined with the much larger probability of a more modest or negative return. In effect, PE investments are like options (or lottery tickets). They tend to provide a small chance of a huge payout but a much larger chance of a below-average return. And it’s difficult, especially for individual investors, to diversify this risk. The standard deviation of private equity exceeds 100%, in comparison to standard deviations of about 20% for the S&P 500 and about 35% for small value stocks. Story continues In their survey, Kaplan and Sensoy observed that the authors of the 2013 study, “ Limited Partner Performance and the Maturing of the Private Equity Industry ,” found that, in the more recent sample of PE funds raised between 1999 and 2006, there was no evidence that endowments outperform other limited partner types or display any superior skill at selecting general partners. According to Kaplan and Sensoy, this study (which Sensoy also co-authored) concluded that “the disappearing endowment advantage is consistent with other secular trends in the industry, particularly the decline in VC performance since the late 1990s and the decline in performance persistence in BO firms.” Latest Evidence Reiner Braun, Tim Jenkinson and Ingo Stoff contribute to the literature on private equity performance and its persistence with their study, “ How Persistent is Private Equity Performance? Evidence from Deal-Level Data ,” which was published in the February 2017 issue of the Journal of Financial Economics. Their findings were consistent with those of Kaplan and Sensoy. Their study covered timed cash-flow data at the deal level for 13,523 investments made by 865 buyout funds (not VC funds) run by 269 general partners (GPs). The investments were split roughly equally between the U.S. and Europe, with a few in other regions, and span the period 1974 to 2012. This is important, as most other studies examined only U.S. data. The authors noted: “As well as being extensive and detailed, for the vast majority of the GPs in our sample we have their complete investment history. This is clearly critical when analysing performance persistence, and lack of completeness is a problem that has plagued earlier analyses. We source the data from three fund-of-fund managers who required all GPs who sought capital to provide this detailed deal-level information in a standardized format. Importantly, the sample includes all the GPs upon which the fund-of-fund managers performed due diligence, whether or not they actually chose to invest.” They also partitioned the data sample into an early period up to the end of 2000 and a later period from 2001 onward. Following is a summary of their findings ... While there was evidence of performance persistence in the early period, it was weaker than performance persistence found in previous studies and has largely disappeared in recent years. The authors stated: “This is consistent with the PE sector maturing, with financial engineering and valuation techniques becoming commoditized, professionals moving between or forming new GPs, and the ways to create operational improvements to portfolio companies becoming assimilated across firms.” Competition has clearly increased in recent years, but not evenly over time or by region. When a large amount of capital chases deals, persistence tends to be lower. There is significant evidence of top-quartile performance persistence but only in low competition states. On the other hand, GPs who make bad deals tend to repeat, irrespective of the state of competition. Braun, Jenkinson and Stoff concluded: “Overall, the evidence we present suggests that performance persistence has largely disappeared as the PE market has matured and become more competitive.” They add: “Those Limited Partners (LPs) who were early investors in PE—such as endowments—established relationships with successful GPs which were valuable when the market was developing. However, those relationships, and access to funds—at least on the buyout side—are now much less valuable and are no longer a source of LP out-performance.” For investors, the research has an important implication: If past performance provides little guidance on the choice of GPs, how can one identify the future top performers? Swensen On Private Equity If you’re considering investing in PE or sit on the board of a committee that is doing so, be sure to consider these sage words of advice from David Swensen, chief investment officer of the Yale Endowment: “Understanding the difficulty of identifying superior hedge fund, venture capital, and leverage buyout investments leads to the conclusion that hurdles for casual investors stand insurmountably high. Even many well-equipped investors fail to clear the hurdles necessary to achieve consistent success in producing market-beating active management results.” In his book, “ Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment ,” Swensen offered the following observation on BO funds: “Investors in buyout partnerships received miserable risk-adjusted returns over the past two decades. Since the only material differences between privately owned buyouts and publicly traded companies lie in the nature of the ownership (private vs. public) and character of capital structure (highly leveraged vs. less highly leveraged), comparing buyout returns to public market returns makes sense as a starting point. But because the riskier, more leveraged buyout positions ought to generate higher returns, sensible investors recoil at the buyout industry’s deficit relative to public market alternatives. On a risk-adjusted basis, market equities win in a landslide.” Swensen also cited a Yale Investments Office study that provides some insight into the additional return required to compensate for the risk in leveraged buyout transactions. He writes: “Examination of 542 buyout deals initiated and concluded between 1987 and 1998 showed gross returns of 48% per annum, significantly above the 17% return that would have resulted from comparably timed and comparably sized investments in the S&P 500. On the surface, buyouts beat stocks by a wide margin. Adjustment for management fees and general partners’ profit participation bring the estimated buyout result to 36% per year, still comfortably ahead of the marketable security alternative…. Because buyout transactions by their very nature involve higher-than-market levels of leverage, the basic buyout-fund-to marketable-security comparison fails the apples-to-apples standard. To produce a risk-neutral comparison, consider the impact of applying leverage to public market investments. Comparably timed, comparably sized, and comparably leveraged investments in the S&P 500 produced an astonishing 86% annual return. The risk-adjusted marketable security result exceeded the buyout result of 36% per year by an astounding 50%age points per year.” Summary The bottom line is that if you’re willing, able and have the need to take more risk in search of higher returns, the most likely to place to find that is not in PE, but rather in publicly available small value stocks. And you can access these higher expected returns through low-cost, passively managed and tax-efficient funds. You can globally diversify their risks as well. In addition, you’ll have all the benefits of daily liquidity and transparency. Larry Swedroe is the director of research for The BAM Alliance , a community of more than 140 independent registered investment advisors throughout the country. Recommended Stories Monday Hot Reads: Positive Buzz Sends First Marijuana ETF High How New Short Squeeze ETF Can Juice Returns Swedroe: Private Equity Adds Risk, Little Return How Hedge Funds Use ETFs Bitcoin ETFs For Dummies Permalink | © Copyright 2017 ETF.com. All rights reserved View comments || Bitcoin’s civil war threatens to blow up the cryptocurrency itself: People walk next to a crack along a damaged road leading to Alto Hospicio commune, after a series of aftershocks, in the northern port of Iquique It is not uncommon for a new technology still finding its footing to undergo periods of tumult—witness the long ago war over videotape formats VHS and Betamax. Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency growing in popularity, turns out to be no different. For the last several years, technical experts have been arguing over how to adapt the currency’s software to allow it to handle more transactions and meet the increased demand. The debate has recently become so heated that it threatens to throw bitcoin itself into chaos, a phenomenon most clearly seen in the recent plunge in bitcoin’s price. Uber has taken its self-driving cars off the road after one flipped over in Arizona The conflict threatens to “fork” bitcoin, splitting it in two. Each branch would run a different version of the cryptocurrency’s software. Bitcoin’s principal innovation has been its blockchain, an immutable ledger of all the transactions ever performed with the cryptocurrency. A fork would generate two versions of the ledger, creating practical problems, like coins that could vanish , and philosophical ones, like agreeing on which blockchain represents the one, true, bitcoin. The tension reached a fever pitch last week when bitcoin’s top exchanges (with some notable exceptions, such as Coinbase) issued a joint statement explaining how they would deal with the split, called a hard fork. This acknowledgement of the very real possibility of a fork sent bitcoin traders scrambling to sell their holdings. Bitcoin fell 24% over two days, from March 16, though it has recovered significantly . The most useful language for English speakers to learn, according to an economist Both camps have doubled down on their positions, and the saber rattling is growing louder. There is talk of of changing the proof-of-work algorithm that bitcoin runs on, which could render the bitcoin mining industry, which earns millions a day in revenue, useless in one fell swoop. Miners—who process transactions and also increase the total supply of bitcoin in circulation—are now threatening legal action against developers who are working on such a proposal. There’s also a widely circulated conspiracy theory that involves John McAfee, the anti-virus entrepreneur who’s embroiled in a murder case in Belize . McAfee is supposedly colluding with a powerful Chinese miner to force a fork. The arguments The bickering over the right way to grow bitcoin’s transaction capacity is known as the block size debate. It has been raging for years. Last January it claimed a famous victim: longtime Core developer Mike Hearn, who quit the bitcoin world dramatically (paywall) because of the block size impasse. As if on cue, Hearn’s departure was dismissed as a “ whiny ragequit ” and the battle continued. Story continues The squabble over block size has divided the bitcoin world into the Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Unlimited camps. The Core group, trading under the current BTC ticker, wants to solve the transaction problem by implementing a clever workaround called Segregated Witness, or SegWit, that will effectively increase the block size from the current 1 megabyte to 2 megabytes. The 1 MB restriction was an arbitrary limit put in place by bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto; some speculate it was to ensure that the bitcoin blockchain could be easily downloaded by users, and thus encourage adoption. In any case, it was a problem to be dealt with only if bitcoin succeeded. The Bitcoin Unlimited camp, which would trade under a new ticker symbol BCU, wants to remove any restriction on block size and thus transaction capacity. But that would force a hard fork and two bitcoins would then inhabit the Earth. The Unlimited camp is backed by Roger Ver, an early bitcoin adopter whose relentless evangelizing for the cryptocurrency earned him the moniker “ Bitcoin Jesus .” Unlimited is also backed by major miners, and part of its pitch is that miners should decide on block sizes. It proposes to do this by letting miners set their own caps for blocks, reasoning that eventually, miners will come to an agreement about what the optimal block size should be. Supporters of Core argue that the Unlimited code is riddled with bugs. Indeed, last week a bug was exploited, sending 70% of Unlimited nodes offline thus reducing the amount of processing power devoted to implementing it. But Core is making a larger, philosophical point, about who controls the bitcoin network. They don’t like the idea of miners setting block sizes because they believe it increases centralization of bitcoin. Without a block size cap, powerful miners can simply mine bigger blocks, and thus be responsible for larger chunks of the bitcoin network, entrenching themselves further. Coffee money or digital gold? There’s also a struggle about bitcoin’s function. As Adam White, who runs the GDAX exchange, tells Forbes , the Core camp wants to treat bitcoin as digital gold: a finite resource whose fundamental properties can’t be changed. The Unlimited folks want bitcoin to be digital cash, with limitless transaction capacity so that everyday payments can be recorded on the blockchain. Vinny Lingham, a noted analyst of the bitcoin industry, observes : “Roger [Ver] wants cheap coffee transactions, Core wants to ensure [bitcoin is] sufficiently decentralized and secure.” Still, bitcoin’s blocks are getting filled up, meaning transactions can’t be processed quickly enough—hence the urgency for a solution. Critics say that Core developers’ proposal for a 2 MB block size, SegWit, simply delays the inevitable—a hard fork—because it doesn’t raise the cap enough. A solution to Satoshi’s block size limit can no longer be avoided. Who’s winning? So who’s winning? One exchange has opened what is effectively a prediction market for a hard fork. It lets traders buy tokens representing the adoption of either Core or Unlimited. If Unlimited isn’t adopted, and a fork doesn’t occur, Unlimited tokens become worthless. By this measure Core is winning: tokens representing its adoption are worth four times the Unlimited tokens. But Unlimited is gaining ground among miners. About 40% of the processing power, or hashrate, on the bitcoin network supports Unlimited, compared to 60% supporting Core, according to analytics site Coin Dance . And the gap is rapidly closing. The picture isn’t as simple as who’s got more hashing power. In order for Core’s SegWit proposal to be adopted, 95% of hashing power must be devoted to it, according to a threshold set by its developers. Unlimited doesn’t have a fixed threshold. Instead, it relies on a rather circular logic: It can only be adopted if miners decide to admit blocks larger than the current 1 MB, but miners would only have an incentive to so if other miners did the same. “It’s kind of like people getting together to cross a road. Everyone holds hands and then someone decides to cross and everybody crosses with it,” one Redditor explained . A hard fork isn’t unprecedented for a major cryptocurrency. Ethereum experienced this after a hack , birthing what’s now known as ethereum classic . The fork also arose from ideological disagreements: The solution to the hack was to undo some transactions, which struck some ethereum users as an unprincipled move. A blockchain’s immutability is one of the pillars of the cryptocurrency world. Today the two coexist; there is even a publicly traded ethereum classic fund for the over-the-counter markets, although the value of all ethereum in circulation is about 18 times greater than ethereum classic. But ethereum is a lot younger than bitcoin; it was only a year old when it split. The value of all ethereum in circulation is about a quarter of bitcoin’s current $17 billion value. A messy hard fork for bitcoin could mean serious disruptions for miners, who operate industrial-scale facilities, the well-funded exchanges, and the myriad startups who have raised $1.5 billion in venture capital collectively since 2012. A lot is riding on the question of how to scale bitcoin, and the conflict is showing no signs of easing up. Read this next: Bitcoin might just be a plausible response to the “war on cash” declared by governments around the world Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief , our free daily newsletter with the world’s most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: Employee burnout is becoming a huge problem in the American workforce IBM, remote-work pioneer, is calling thousands of employees back to the office View comments || SAP unveils blockchain service in the cloud: A new Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) product has been launched by SAP at its annual Sapphire event in Orlando, U.S. According to a statement released on Tuesday the "ready-to-use blockchain technology" will sit in the SAP Cloud. This means that any clients can access it remotely from anywhere, as you would with hotmail or similar cloud computing based services that are not reliant upon expensive to install 'on premise' technology or software owned by the end user. A fee is paid to access the cloud-based service run by a third party such as SAP. The offering is part of the new SAP Leonardo product line, also launched at this year's Sapphire end user conference. The blockchain element is based on the Hyperledger open source blockchain platform, using its standards and protocols. SAP joined Hyperledger as a premier member early in 2017. The vendor describes SAP Leonardo as a "comprehensive digital innovation system" because it includes the blockchain cloud service element alongside other emerging technologies such as machine learning, the internet of things (IoT) and so on – all of which are integrated into the "one ecosystem". This makes sense as to get the network benefit of automatically ordering new parts or consumables in a business supply chain a net-connected IoT system would, for example, need to use artificial intelligence (AI) inspired machine learning to automate procedures and the blockchain could be used to enact smart contract orders and/or pay for goods. The interconnectivity of the technologies aids their effectiveness if the people, process and technology are correctly aligned. What is the blockchain? The blockchain is sometimes referred to as distributed ledger technology (DLT) to differentiate it from the original Bitcoin crypto-currency 'chain'. In its simplest form it is a reliable record of who owns what, and who transacts what. It is effectively a digital modern version of a traditional ledger run by a bank or accountancy. Story continues Potential applications are in payments, supply chain deliveries, trade reconciliations on the financial markets and so forth where its ledger recording capabilities could be faster and cheaper operationally-speaking than existing legacy IT systems. Data regarding transactions, files, or information is shared across a peer-to-peer network. Every participant can see the data and verify or reject it using consensus algorithms. Approved data is entered into the ledger as a collection of 'blocks', stored in a chronological 'chain', which is secured through cryptography. Blockchains can include land titles, loans, trades, intellectual property, identities, votes – almost anything of value – and end uses for this experimental technology are not restricted to the banking industry alone. It could, for instance, for used to verify diamonds and prevent the trade in so-called blood diamonds. SAP is only one of many existing technology vendors looking to use the system. Banks themselves are exploring how to use the blockchain via the R3 consortium, their own IT initiatives, or by partnering with specialist vendors such as Ripple which uses the Interledger protocol and aims to displace the global correspondent banking payment and securities messaging network operated by SWIFT. Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook . More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || More than 75 banks are now on Ripple's blockchain network: The concept of ablockchainoriginated in 2009 with the digital currency bitcoin, but now Wall Street institutions are interested in blockchain technology without bitcoin. RippleNet is a blockchain-like protocol for faster settlement of international payments. It launched in 2012 butits concept predates bitcoin.And it has added 75 banking clients already. Ripple Labs announced on Wednesday it has signed 10 new banks from all over the world, including BBVA in Spain; MUFG in Japan; Akbank in Turkey; SEB in Sweden; and Axis Bank and Yes Bank, both in India. Add those 10 to the 47-bank consortium in Japan that implementedRipple in March. And add those 57 to existing big-name clients like Bank of America, RBC, Standard Chartered and UBS, and RippleNet starts to look like it’s gaining traction very quickly. “Our pace [of signing new clients] has dramatically increased,” says Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse. “I also think people are getting more comfortable with blockchain technologies. It’s no longer a science experiment. It’s not theory, it’s very real.” Thebitcoin blockchain is a decentralized, public, permissionless ledgerthat records every transaction and trade done in bitcoin. But now all manner of companies, from “blockchain as a service” startups like Rippleand Chainto established tech giants like IBM, are developing all manner of distributed ledgers forareas like food shipment tracking, smart contracts, and agriculture. In many cases these applications of blockchain are closed and permissioned, which is a very different proposition than the spirit of the anonymized, open-to-all bitcoin blockchain. In banking, for now, the main appeal is toimprove the efficiency of their transaction processing. Ripple’s value proposition to banking clients is cheaper rates and faster transfer times for international payments. The bank’s customers don’t have to know or care that they’re using Ripple (it isn’t like you’d tell your bank, “I want to send this money using Ripple”), but would certainly notice the faster transaction time than they’re used to. Garlinghouse gives the pitch to banks this way: “If your customer wants to send yen to Japan, you are captive to the correspondent banking network and your customer has a bad experience and you, as a bank, have to endure cost to transmit that money.” Ripple’s Consensus Ledger can process 1,000 transactions per second, and settles an international payment in three seconds on average. (He compares that to the bitcoin blockchain, which has slowed recently to two hours per transaction, creating a debate over block size; to be fair, both speeds are much faster than sending money with a traditional clearinghouse like Western Union.) Ripple can also be used for in-country payments; many of the banks in Japan are using Ripple for domestic payments due to the sluggishness of the local payments network there. But for the most part, Ripple is focusing on cross-border payments because that’s the biggest pain point for banks and banking customers. Santander added a function to its mobile app that lets customerssend money abroad over the Ripple network.While Ripple is hardly the only blockchain-for-banking startup out there, Garlinghouse boasts, “We are the only company in the space with real customers.” Competitors, Garlinghouse says, “are still playing in the sandbox. And proof of concepts are not a business model.” That’s tough talk, and true only to an extent. Chain has partnered with heavy-hitters like Visa, Citi, and Nasdaq, but for now the results have been experiments, trial runs,or “previews” like Visa B2B Connect. All the experimentation has led critics to say that the Wall Street interest in blockchain is all just talk, or as IBM blockchain exec Jerry Cuomo puts it, “blockchain tourism.” Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas acknowledges that the term itself has become a “classic technology buzzword.” But Garlinghouse is confident that distributed ledger technology and its many applications will bring about the “Internet of value.” Many have applied that phrase to bitcoin (causing some contention over who owns the phrase), but Garlinghouse says it hasn’t lived up to that promise. “We feel like to enable an Internet of value, you have to connect through repositories of value, and those are the banks,” he says. “Where many in the bitcoin community have espoused a view of, ‘Down with the banks, down with fiat currency,’ Ripple has taken the opposite: we think the banks are critical to the future of an Internet of value.” Bitcoin has risen 178% in value in the past year(it’s now around $1,300), but critics now doubt that the coin can become more than a speculative investment. “We might end up finding that bitcoin is the Napster of digital assets,” Garlinghouse says. “Napster lived in a world devoid of trademark law, and royalties, andtried to live outside of the rules, and you could say the same about bitcoin. I’m not predicting that bitcoin will go the way of Napster, but I would point out that bitcoin has demonstrated some very cool capabilities that, in the end, bitcoin may not be the best tool for.” Ripple has its own digital token, XRP, and it is often billed by tech press as a bitcoin competitor, but that’s not quite right. Ripple uses it as a settlement token, and banking clients don’t have to use it or touch it at all. It is more of an institutional digital asset than a public investment vehicle like bitcoin, though anyone could buy some XRP if they wish. (Its value has risen 345% in the past year, but in dollars it is worth just 3 cents; again, its trading price is not the point.) Ripple’s XRP coin is “about reducing the cost for banks to fund liquidity around the world,” says Garlinghouse. That can double as a statement of Ripple’s purpose, too. And if its banking clients, over time, decide that Ripple’s rail has reduced friction and made customers happier, expect Ripple to continue adding banks and financial clients, who are itching to show their innovativeness by saying they’re in the blockchain tech space. — Daniel Roberts covers bitcoin and blockchain tech at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at@readDanwrite. Read more: America’s big banks are staffing up—for blockchain Why 21 Inc is the most exciting bitcoin company right now Coinbase is more bullish on bitcoin than ever How big banks are paying lip service to the blockchain Bitcoin’s biggest investor just bought its biggest news site || Over 200 Fintech Startup Finalists to Celebrate Worldwide Fintech Innovation at the Benzinga Global Fintech Awards in New York City May 11: Benzinga Announces Finalists for 2017 Benzinga Global Fintech Awards; Over 200 Companies Will Compete at Fintech's Premier Event in New York City May 11 DETROIT, MI / ACCESSWIRE / April 17, 2017 / Benzinga , a leading online financial media publication and data provider, announced today the finalists for the 2017 Benzinga Global Fintech Awards . The Benzinga Global Fintech Awards is the largest fintech event focusing on the capital markets. In its third year, Benzinga has expanded the event's purview to the global stage, bringing over 200 companies to New York City from countries including India, Israel, Poland, and Singapore. The Benzinga Global Fintech Awards finalists were chosen by their peers in a social voting competition. In all, 372 companies applied to the competition, and 225 finalists received over 100,000 votes to advance to the judging round. Finalists will soon enter the judging stage of the Benzinga Global Fintech Awards competition. A judging board of more than 30 leaders in every fintech vertical will rank the finalists in terms of how innovative their products are and their potential to reshape the finance industry. The judging panel includes an " unprecedented " level of fintech talent, such as current and former C-suite executives of financial institutions like Morningstar and Thomson Reuters, as well as many leading investors, VCs, television personalities and financial innovators of all stripes. Firms from DE Shaw and J.P. Morgan to TD Ameritrade and Fidelity are all contributing insight and mentorship to the 225 Benzinga Global Fintech Awards finalists. The Benzinga Global Fintech Awards finalists, by category: Best Use of Alternative Investments Platform, Tool, or App BankerBay CFX Markets ClearVest Advisers, LLC CoolMellon Entrex Equitise Frictionless Healthcare Finance Income& Kettera Strategies Mercury Capital Advisors SAF Platform Seedrs Swaper YieldStreet Best Analysis Platform, Tool, or App Alpha Hat Artivest BondCliQ ChartYourTrade F.A.S.T. Graphs NewsHedge Novus Orchard Platform Polly Portfolio TradingView Web Financial Group Ycharts Story continues Best Digital Mortgage or Real Estate Platform, Tool, or App Brickvest BRICKX BuildFax Cadre Morty Neat Capital Neighborhood Pay Services PeerStreet Quicken Loans / Rocket Mortgage RealtyMogul RealtyShares Unison Home Ownership Investors Best Education & Personal Finance Platform, Tool, or App BillGO Clarity Money Copper Street Dream Forward 401(k) FinTech Business School MoneyLion Shift SmartAsset TradeBench Best Financial Advisor or Wealth Management Platform, Tool, or App Advisor Engine ALBRIDGE Backstop Solutions Group BaseVenture CBOE Vest FUNDBASE LendingCalc Mil Advisor MyVest ORION RobustWealth STRATIFI Truelytics Best Forex Platform, Tool, or App Fortex FXPRIMUS FXStreet Markets.com MarketsFactory.com MobyTrader Remitly TF Global Markets uChange Best InsurTech Platform, Tool, or App Aclaimant Bought By Many Coverfy CoverWallet Embroker FitSense Insureon League Life.io Neuroprofiler Senteri UnBrokerage WeSavvy Best Lending Platform, Tool, or App Bizfi Datanomers Global Debt Registry IdFinance InterNex Capital MYJAR P2Binvestor PayMe Rubique Stilt Suretly Think Money TWINO Best Proprietary Technology or APIs Alpha Exchange Connamara Systems Dataminr Finicity Nomad COnnection OpenFin OptionsCity Overbond Push Payments Quovo Redtail Technology Tradier Xignite Best RegTech Platform, Tool, or App AQMetrics AU10TIX ComplyAdvantage ComplySci Neurensic Qumram Rippleshot ThetaRay Trulioo Trunomi Uniken Best Research Platform, Tool, or App AlphaSense FinanceBoards MackeyRMS OptionMetrics PitchBook Slingshot Insights Sqoop Street Diligence Virtual Cove Best Robo Advisor Betterment Clinc Exeria Gravity Investments Polaris Portfolios Scalable Capital Unicorn Bay Vestwell Ways2Wealth Wealthfront Wealthsimple WiseBanyan Best Trading Execution or Brokerage Platform DriveWealth Fidelity FINVASIA Lime Brokerage (Wedbush) m1 Finance OptionsHouse SelfWealth Sterling Trading Tech StocksToTrade T3 Live TD Ameritrade (AMTD) Best Trading Idea Platform, Tool, or App ADVFN Alpaca BullBoard Chaikin Analytics Equities.com iStockPicker SharingAlpha Stocks For The Week TalkMarkets Ticker.tv TickerTags Trade Ideas Tradespoon Trumid Financial Vest Cycle Vetr Best Under-banked or Emerging Market Solution Amplify Billmo, LLC Eastpesa Limited Elevate FarmDrive Ovamba PayActiv Ping Express WorldRemit Best Use of Blockchain or Bitcoins AlphaPoint Blockchain Brave New Coin I/O Digital Melonport Netcoins Paxos Purse Remitt SecureKey Technologies Finding Alpha AlphaStreet Cindicator Croudify DarcMatter ExtractAlpha Kavout PortfolioEffect Prattle PureFunds RelateTheNews SavaNet Tradagon Visible Alpha Institutional Innovators Bond Price Validation Bridge Financial Technology ChartIQ Cloud9 Technologies Intro-act Marstone, Inc. Opportunity Network Veriday Investing In Millennials Aspiration EZMCOM Inc GRAIN Lean Financial MATADOR Payscape SprinkleBit STASH Leveling the Playing Field CALL LEVELS Capitali.se Click IPO Securities DIY.Fund EnergyFunders finbox.io IEX OptaCredit Fintech Private Limited trigger Solving Problems Through Payments Alipay CHeckbook.io disburze PayKey Payment Rails RenovITe Technologies Inc Sharepay Soundpays Spendesk SWITCH Inc Zebit ZOOZ The Benzinga Global Fintech Awards judges include: Pete Casella, Point72 Ventures Adam Boyden, RPM Ventures Amir Goldman, Susquehanna Growth Equity Partners Yin Luo, Wolfe Research Nathan Richardson, TradeIt David Teten, ff Venture Capital James Altucher Tim Seymour, CNBC Vicki Walia, Alliance-Bernstein Bill Libby, Goldman Sachs (GS) Kim Trautmann, DRW VC Seth Merrin, LiquidNet Steve Lau, WorldQuant Ventures Matt Harris, Bain Capital Ventures Tricia Rothschild, Morningstar Charlie Hartel, Yahoo! Finance (YHOO) Ed Skolarus, Investor's Business Daily Gene Munster, Loup Ventures Ken Scichiano, TA Associates Nicholas Britz, Google Finance Bill Nosal, NASDAQ John Hart, TD Ameritrade (AMTD) Alex Wong, DE Shaw Ventures Kelli Keough, J.P. Morgan Chase Matt Hatch, E&Y Jennifer Samalis, Fidelity David Jegen, F Prime Capital Man Mahjouri, Tradeworx Philip Brittan, Fmr. Thomson Reuters Sue Britton, Fintech Growth Syndicate Jeff Chiapetta, Charles Schwab Sonny Singh, BitPay Media Information: Spencer White events@benzinga.com (for media email inquiries please put "MEDIA" at the beginning of the subject line) 313-723-2000 About Benzinga Global Fintech Awards Designed to uncover the most innovative companies within the financial technology capital markets sector, the Benzinga Fintech Awards provide winning finalists with new opportunities for growth and exposure. For last year's winners, please visit www.benzingafintechawards.com or use the hashtag #BZAwards. About Benzinga Benzinga is a leading originator of actionable financial insights for traders and investors. Benzinga's news desk is constantly breaking stories and moving billions of dollars of market capitalization through its real-time terminal, Benzinga Pro. Benzinga's original content is syndicated to 70 partner websites, such as Yahoo! Inc.'s Yahoo! Finance, Microsoft Corporation's MSN, CNNMoney, Fox Business, Marketwatch, and more. Benzinga is the leading provider of news to the North American brokerage community, with a client list including TD Ameritrade, LightSpeed, TradeKing, and many more. The company is headquartered in downtown Detroit and dedicated to driving Detroit's renaissance. For more information, check out Benzinga.com , Cloud.Benzinga.com , and Pro.Benzinga.com . SOURCE: Benzinga [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] #DolarTrue BTC 15/05/2017 02:04 PM BTC Venta Panama : 1695.38 BTC USA : 1731.00 BTC Compra VEF : 9,761,868 USD/VEF : 5698.07 || #Monacoin 19.3円↓[Zaif] -円→[もなとれ] #NEM #XEM 13.349円↑[Zaif] #Bitcoin 214,845円↓[Zaif] 05/12 00:00 口座開設はこちらで！ https://goo.gl/31dyoO  || Current price of $BTC is $1213.00 via Chain #bitcoin #btc || $1065.00 at 19:15 UTC [24h Range: $1023.01 - $1081.00 Volume: 10342 BTC] || Make Money with Bitcoin! It is easier than you think. Start with as little as $20.00... https://xcoins.io/investors?r=p6v938 … || $1785.98 at 00:15 UTC [24h Range: $1670.01 - $1840.42 Volume: 17717 BTC] || $1061.11 at 16:45 UTC [24h Range: $1023.01 - $1081.00 Volume: 10086 BTC] || El precio del bitcoin es de US$ 1975.00. #bitcoin #btc || Current price of $BTC is $1957.00 via Chain #bitcoin #btc || #bitcoin #miner BITMAIN ASIC Antminer S9 13.5TH/s - Brand New $2799.00 http://ift.tt/2mXOzsd pic.twitter.com/EBGi0CQD9Q
Trend: up || Prices: 2320.42, 2443.64, 2304.98, 2202.42, 2038.87, 2155.80, 2255.61, 2175.47, 2286.41, 2407.88
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] BitMex to Launch XRP Swaps, Delist 2 Other Derivatives: BitMEX is releasing an XRP-U.S. dollar quanto swap targeted at crypto’s budding derivatives market. A quanto swap is a cross-currency interest rate swap where one counterparty pays the other a foreign interest rate. When the contract expires, the notional amount gets settled in cash at a pre-defined exchange rate. These kind of swaps can be beneficial for speculators in search of liquidity and where they can post margin in their preferred currency. The XRP/USD quanto product is set to go live on Feb. 5. The move coincides with the delisting of existing BitMEX UP and DOWN contracts. The last ones are expected to be settled by Jan. 31, with no new UP and DOWN contracts to be issued thereafter. The cryptocurrency exchange and derivatives trading platform said the affected contracts are XBT7D_U105 and XBT7D_D95. Related: Crypto Asset Firm Amun Launches Inverse Bitcoin ETP BitMEX said in a release the contract details would be available on Testnet beginning Friday, with more information to follow. A DOWN contract allows buyers of the contract to participate in the potential downside of the underlying instrument. An UP contract allows sellers of the contract to participate in the potential upside of the underlying instrument. “We are also working on new products and features which will be rolled out gradually in the upcoming quarters,” BitMEX said. Related Stories Merchants Can Now Accept XRP Via Crypto Payment Processor BitPay Deribit Using New Trading Tools to Capture ‘Exploding’ Options Market Startup Crypto Exchange Blade to Launch Zero-Fee Trading in February || Currency ‘Cold War’ Takes Center Stage at Pre-Davos Crypto Confab: ST. MORITZ — The United States may be entering a second Cold War, according to some investors, who seem mildly curious but otherwise unconcerned about the prospect. “It’s a kind of Cold War, but not just for crypto,” said Multicoin Capital’s Beijing-based partner Mable Jiang . “Currency is the leverage.” Jiang said China’s goal is to leverage the rise of cryptocurrency, including both domestic bitcoin mining and a state-issued digital currency, to supplant the dollar and become the world’s leading economic power. Such rivalries feel lightyears away in the frosted Swiss alps, which are teeming with high-net-worth individuals soaking up the last few days of politician-free ski slopes before the World Economic Forum in Davos. Related: Why ‘Crypto Dad’ Is Building the Digital Dollar Foundation Roughly 250 people gathered at the Crypto Finance Conference St. Moritz this week, hosted in a luxurious mountain getaway at 6,000 feet, for a series of talks that largely revolve around embracing strict compliance standards. (Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss took a break from skiing to argue that thorough regulatory standards could help the U.S. retain its leading role in the global financial system.) For crypto conference regulars who recall the post-2017 token boom correction, this gathering might feel like falling into a time machine, complete with security token sales and closed-loop stablecoins. Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum (WEF) worked with 38 central banks around the world in 2019 to develop digital payment or asset strategies, according to Sheila Warren, the WEF’s head of blockchain and distributed ledger technology. From Cambodia to Colombia, many emerging nations plan to launch operational stablecoin projects, beyond pilots, in 2020. “There’s this sense that they [emerging economies] could actually benefit from pegging a stablecoin to a basket of currencies in a way that they can’t currently do if they issue paper money,” Warren said. Story continues Today, most global commerce relies on dollars in some fashion. Warren said there’s “certainly an interest” among emerging economies in developing systems that don’t pass through New York clearinghouses. That’s where Jiang said the Chinese plans for a digital RMB currency come in. Related: Fake News on Steroids: Deepfakes Are Coming – Are World Leaders Prepared? “It’s not actually for people who live in China. They have WeChat or AliPay,” she said. “It’s another global settlement currency, including for developing countries around the world, which they [the Chinese] are friends with.” Attendees of the CFC St. Moritz conference. (Photo courtesy of CFC St. Moritz) Warren said the U.S. would likely resist systems that circumnavigate the dollar, adding Chinese government officials are actively participating in talks related to the WEF’s blockchain initiative. ConsenSys, the Ethereum Foundation and the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance are among the companies consulting leaders in those emerging economies, she said. However, Warren added, the WEF doesn’t make those introductions nor recommend any country issue a digital currency. It merely offers guidelines and support to decision makers in emerging economies. Carmen Benitez, CEO of the Switzerland-based startup Fetch Blockchain LTD, heads yet another firm consulting countries eager to issue a cryptocurrency. “They approached us,” Benitez said of her clients in the Colombian president’s office, which is setting up a bank-managed stablecoin for government projects in 2020. “They want a coin … they like the idea of keeping [the economic flow] as closed as possible with the coin.” BankerCoin Cypherpunks might argue a state- or bank-issued currency with strict limitations imposed by the issuer bears little resemblance to “cryptocurrency.” But that doesn’t deter the blockchain fans gathered at St. Moritz. Benitez said using a blockchain-based currency would provide better transparency and automation than Colombia’s current, paperwork-heavy system. Likewise, most attendees appeared more excited about fitting tokens into a traditional banking framework than they were about innovations like the Lightning Network, for example. “Stablecoins and central bank digital currencies will be [widespread] in just a few years,” said Cyrus de la Rubia, chief economist of Hamburg Commercial Bank. “Even if Libra doesn’t come true, there will be another privately issued stablecoin backed by fiat currencies.” To many of these attendees, bitcoin offers a welcome diversification of investment options. Indeed, Grayscale director Michael Sonnenshein said the firm garnered more assets in 2019 than all previous years combined, leading to a total of $2.4 billion worth of crypto under management. Bitcoin products are still the most popular, although altcoin dips don’t deter investors. “We saw stronger inflows into our ethereum product last year,” Sonnenshein said. “Investors are looking at more than just bitcoin.” Generally speaking, self-custody isn’t a priority for such institutional, European clients. This bothers Pascal Gauthier, CEO of hardware wallet company Ledger, who said there’s scant focus on secure custody as Europe is regulating bitcoin-related activities “very heavily, very quickly.” European regulations like AMLD5 require all companies involved with money transmission, potentially including lightning liquidity providers, decentralized finance (DeFi) products like Compound and custodial wallets, behave more like banks in 2020 by collecting know-your-customer (KYC) information. This even applies to small startups working with microtransactions. Plus, the Financial Action Task Force established new rules that may force exchanges to collect more information related to addresses that users send crypto to in 2020. Although no one knows for sure how these rules will play out, as they appear difficult to enforce, veteran bitcoiner Joseph Weinberg, co-founder of the Shyft Network, said he worries this approach may be regulating away censorship-resistance. “Lightning applications may be accepting micropayments but acting as hubs, so if you think about being a payment channel provider, you’re effectively involved as an intermediary,” he said. “At the end of the day, this is all about sanctions.” WEF’s Warren agreed dominant economic players, like the U.S., are now tightening the reins on activities with the potential to circumnavigate sanctions. Digital Dollar Some digital fiat advocates believe blockchain technology could even make sanctions more effective. Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo, who recently became co-founder of the Digital Dollar Foundation to advocate for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) from the U.S., said the term Cold War was a wee bit “strong” for disparity between the U.S. and China. Yet he generally agreed the economic rivalry was reminiscent of “the race to land on the moon.” “Many other global powers are looking to assert their own currency as an important reserve currency,” Giancarlo said. “A digital dollar allows for a more scalpel-like approach to sanctions.” Former CFTC Chairman Christopher Giancarlo speaks at the CFC St. Moritz conference. (Photo courtesy of CFC St. Moritz) On the other hand, de la Rubia said it would take a long time for any digital currency to rival the U.S. dollar’s global dominance. He argued that the European Union (EU) would love for Saudi Arabia to price oil contracts in Euros, yet the EU has been unable to contradict the dollar’s supreme liquidity. “Bitcoin will always be volatile, with supply well-defined and demand moving,” he said. “As long as China has international capital controls, it will be hard for the yuan to take over, even as a digital currency.” When asked about bitcoin, Giancarlo preferred to compare Facebook’s Libra project to his own Digital Dollar aspirations and the yuan. “Only one of those three [currency issuers] would be constitutionally prohibited from mining that data for any purpose other than illicit use,” he said. “A digital Yuan will absolutely be monitored by the government for many purposes … a commercial venture absolutely will mine that data to say whether you are shopping at Nordstrom or at Target.” Giancarlo said he wants to dedicate the rest of his career to modernizing America’s financial infrastructure, and he sees a blockchain-based fiat currency as a part of that. He would not say what role bitcoin might play in that future. Instead, he said there’s an increasing interest in exploring “legitimate and positive use cases.” Currency is, after all, a tool for political leverage. And although “blockchain” is on the tips of everyone’s tongue this time of year in Switzerland, few people at St. Moritz acknowledge the role a decentralized cryptocurrency might play beyond an investing hedge. Those who are bullish on bitcoin, not just blockchain, are left wondering how bitcoin can be a geopolitical hedge if most conduits for moving money around the ecosystem are essentially banks. Snowy St. Moritz. (Photo by Leigh Cuen for CoinDesk) Related Stories Former CFTC Officials Ramp Up Push for Digital Dollar With Accenture Partnership Ahead of Davos, What Can Cash Teach Us About Crypto? || Litecoin Soars 41% As Investors Gain Confidence: Investing.com - Litecoin was trading at $72.815 by 05:52 (10:52 GMT) on the Investing.com Index on Sunday, up 41.44% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage gain since January 5. The move upwards pushed Litecoin's market cap up to $2.747B, or 1.35% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Litecoin's market cap was $14.099B. Litecoin had traded in a range of $42.727 to $72.887 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, Litecoin has seen a stagnation in value, as it only moved 0.44%. The volume of Litecoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $2.847B or 4.28% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $38.9723 to $72.8867 in the past 7 days. At its current price, Litecoin is still down 99.98% from its all-time high of $421,092.53 set on December 27, 2019. Elsewhere in cryptocurrency trading Bitcoin was last at $7,429.9 on the Investing.com Index, up 1.37% on the day. Ethereum was trading at $135.27 on the Investing.com Index, a gain of 1.31%. Bitcoin's market cap was last at $135.358B or 66.71% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while Ethereum's market cap totaled $14.804B or 7.30% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles Richard Heart’s HEX Now Trading For Less Than 1 Satoshi After 52% Drop Litecoin Climbs 20% In Rally Biggest Crypto Price Movements of 2019 View comments || A Plan to Decentralize Bitcoin Mining Again Is Gaining Ground: Braiins, the company behind one of the largest bitcoin mining pools, recently released a code spec that could be promising for decentralized mining. The spec,Stratum V2, could significantly change how bitcoin mining functions and would add security and efficiency to mining pools, the entities that organize miners spread across the world. Although it aims to improve bitcoin mining pools in a number of ways, the primary benefit comes from a component that reduces one of the most pressing problems in bitcoin: mining pool centralization. Related:1 Gigawatt Bitcoin Mine Under Construction in Texas Would Dwarf Bitmain’s “If this protocol does everything it promises, ‘mining centralization’ as an argument will be completely dead,” bitcoin developer and educator Jimmy Songsaid. Meanwhile,Squarebitcoin developer Matt Corallo, one of the designers of the protocol, wrote in arecent Reddit AMA: “This is huge for mining centralization. Instead of being focused on the centralization of pools (which is the world we’re in today), we can focus on the centralization of actual miners [and] farm owners!” Last year, Corallo revealedBetterHash, a plan to combat the centralization problem in mining pools. Now Braiins and Corallo are pooling their work to build one protocol that fixes a number of current mining pool issues. Mining has long been a difficult proposition for individual miners. In the early days to bitcoin, miners from around the world began connecting to so-called mining pools to earn a more consistent paycheck. All of the miners worked in tandem and when one member of the pool got lucky, the thinking went, the entire pool benefited. Related:Ukrainian Railways Branch Caught Mining Crypto With State Power In time, weighted mining pools emerged as a safer, more profitable way of mining by taking in all of the bitcoin earned by their miners and redistributing them based on mining power contributed. Unfortunately, according to recent datafrom Blockchain.info, only three mining pools control over 50% of bitcoin’s mining power, thereby centralizing the mining power in a few hands. This is a problem. When one of the miners in a mining pool wins a block and rakes in the 12.5 bitcoin reward, the mining pool decides which transactions go into that block. Bitcoin experts worry that these centralized entities could use this power to censor transactions they don’t like. To prevent this, Stratum V2 supports “job negotiation” modeled off of Corallo’s BetterHash. This changes the relationship between the miner and the mining pool. Instead of mining pools deciding what transactions go into blocks, miners decide which ones to include. “[If] there are cases of transaction censorship in the future, we have a security measure in the protocol that miners can use to circumvent the censorship,” Capek said. This also means that miners, not mining pools, will be able to vote on protocol upgrades to bitcoin if Stratum V2 is adopted by mining pools. “With the job negotiation protocol, miners can also choose their block header version field. This allows them freedom in any potential voting via BIP8/BIP9 style mechanism,” Capek said. All that said, Capek stressed that the new specification is not necessarily a “silver bullet” for mining centralization. He pointed out that the mining pools that want to censor bitcoin transactions could simply opt-out of adopting the protocol. “At the same time it’s important to mention that a pool that would ‘intentionally’ perform such censorship would not allow its users to negotiate their jobs,” he said. Meanwhile, Luke Dashjr, veteran bitcoin coder, arguedon Twitterthat there are other aspects of mining centralization that still need to be addressed. For example, the fact that only a handful of companies produce mining hardware, the computers made specifically for producing bitcoin, is also a grave threat to decentralization. Decentralization isn’t the only draw in Stratum V2. Mining pools will have an incentive to adopt the new protocol because it will save them money and prevent attacks that could cause them to lose rewards. First, it makes transferring data back and forth more efficient. It could also make stealing mining pool hash power much harder. “Last but not least, we have addressed the security aspects by allowing fully encrypted and authenticated communication using the current state of the art technology called ‘Noise Protocol Framework,'” Capek said. This peer-reviewed technique is the same technology used by the mobile messenger WhatsApp and bitcoin’s lightning network. Braiins is still finalizing a few features in the specification, such as deciding which encryption algorithm to use for hiding data from snoops, Capek said. But a version is available to test and most of the Stratum V2 specification draft is now up for review. Capek expects it to take at least 12 months for mining pools to adopt the protocol. “Getting everybody on board is a matter of realizing the benefits on the security and efficiency side, which in turn leads to saving some operational costs,” he said. • WATCH: Coinmine Adds Interest Payments to Its At-Home Crypto Miners • Founder of Bitmain Rival Held by Police Over Possible IP Dispute || Clipper malware used to steal cryptocurrency funds: Hackers are using new malware methods which lift copy-and-paste data to steal cryptocurrency from unsuspecting victims. The malware, called a ‘clipper’, replaces users’ crypto addresses with the hacker’s own address when copy and pasting. Cybersecurity researcher Lukas Stefanko discovered the exploit earlier this year. It is most often deployed through fake or infected apps on the Google Play store. It is believed that similar malware has been used on Windows devices from as early as 2017. The exploit, which is still being used today, waits for users to copy a receiving cryptocurrency wallet address and then hijacks the clipboard of a users’ machine to replace the paste value with the hacker’s wallet address. This results in cryptocurrency users sending their funds directly to a wallet they don’t control. The exploit works so well because many users neglect to double-check the pasted address, instead relying on the copy-and-paste data to be accurate. The malware is delivered through downloads, some of which are impersonations of legitimate cryptocurrency software such as MetaMask. Stefanko claims that the malicious downloads aren’t restricted to dodgy sites or app stores, and some are even being downloaded through highly trustworthy sites such as CNET. The need for user-friendly addresses Many cryptocurrency experts have called for user-friendly wallet addresses that are easier to remember or recognise at a glance but which don’t compromise on cryptographic security. Current addresses, which may be in excess of 34 characters long and case sensitive, are incredibly difficult to read and compare, which is why most users rely on copy and pasting to ensure they’ve got the right address. Stefanko wrote on Bitcointalk, the popular Bitcoin forum where the exploit was first revealed, that: “Even if you check part of the pasted Bitcoin address, chances are the first few characters are the same, and you still won’t notice the address was changed.” Story continues Avoid falling prey to malware The most simple way to avoid falling prey to such scams is to double-check every single digit of a pasted cryptocurrency address, no matter how tedious this may seem. Stefanko also warned against using Windows software such as Cortana, as the built-in AI helper contains key-logging capabilities which could be used by hackers. Multiple entities have been blamed for the proliferation of cryptocurrency malware, from shady organised criminal gangs to highly clandestine North Korean hacking groups . If you’d like to learn more about the threats of crypto malware and steps you can take to protect yourself, read here . The post Clipper malware used to steal cryptocurrency funds appeared first on Coin Rivet . || The Aussie Dollar Gets an RBA Boost as Focus Shifts back to Geopolitics: Earlier in the Day: It was a relatively quiet day on the economic calendar through the Asian session this morning. The Aussie Dollar and the Pound were in action in the early part of the day, with current account figures and retail sales numbers providing direction. Later in the morning, the RBA also released its final monetary policy decision of the year… On the geopolitical front, the markets reacted to Trump’s latest tariff threats from the U.S session. Trump announced plans to roll out tariffs on Argentinian and Brazilian Aluminum and steel exports to the U.S. Late in the day, the U.S President also threatened tariffs on all French exports to the U.S in retaliation to digital taxes. The latest threat came in response to the WTO’s decision that the EU has failed to remove all subsidies to Airbus. For the Aussie Dollar The current account surplus widened from A$5.9bn to A$7.6bn in the 3 rd quarter. Economists had forecast a surplus of A$6.1bn. The Aussie Dollar moved from $0.68198 to $0.68229 upon release of the figures that preceded the RBA interest rate decision and rate statement. On the monetary policy front, the RBA held interest rates steady at 0.75%. Salient points from the rate statement included After a soft patch in the 2 nd half of last year, the Australian economy appears to have reached a gentle turning point. The central scenario is for growth to pick up gradually to around 3% in 2021. Low-level interest rates, recent tax cuts, ongoing spending on infrastructure, an upswing in house prices and a brighter outlook for the resources sector should all support growth. For the domestic economy, the outlook for domestic consumption continues to deliver uncertainty. A sustained period of tepid wage growth continues to weigh on consumer spending. Other sources of uncertainty include the effects of the drought and the evolution of the housing construction cycle. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at around 5.25% before gradually declining to below 5% in 2021. Wage growth is expected to remain subdued for some time. The Board expects inflation to pick up gradually to be close to 2% in 2020 and 2021. A rise in asset prices and low mortgage rates should lead to increased household disposable incomes that should support household spending. Considering the effects of low-interest rates and the long and variable lags in the transmission of monetary policy, the Board decided to hold the cash rate steady. The Board is prepared to ease monetary policy further if needed to support economic growth, full employment and the inflation target over time. Story continues The Aussie Dollar moved from $0.68193 to $0.68397 upon release of the rate statement. At the time of writing, the Aussie Dollar up by 0.21% to $0.6883, the upside coming as the RBA held back from any chatter of rate cuts this time around… Elsewhere At the time of writing, the Japanese Yen was down by 0.19% to ¥109.19 against the U.S Dollar, while the Kiwi Dollar was up by 0.09% to $0.6509. The Day Ahead: For the EUR It’s a quiet day ahead on the economic calendar . Key include Spanish unemployment change figures in the early part of the session. Barring particularly dire numbers, the EUR will likely brush aside the numbers. A lack of stats will leave the market focus on geopolitics, with the UK elections and chatter on trade the key drivers on the day. At the time of writing, the EUR was down by 4% to $1.1075. For the Pound It’s a relatively busy day on the data front. November BRC Retail Sales Monitor provided direction in the early part of the day. Early this morning, the BRC Retail Sales Monitor slid by 4.9%, year-on-year, reversing a 0.1% rise in October. According to the BRC report , While the headline figure was grim reading, if adjusted for the timing of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, sales were estimated to have increased by a more reasonable 0.4%. Later this morning, finalized construction PMI figures are also due out. Barring a material shift from prelim, however, we would expect the PMI to have a muted impact on the Pound. UK election chatter will continue to drive the Pound. Any widening the Tory lead would support the Pound. At the time of writing, the Pound was down by 0.02% to $1.2937. Across the Pond It’s a quiet day on the economic calendar , with no material stats due out of the U.S. A lack of stats leaves the Greenback in the hands of risk appetite in the day and any chatter on trade. At the time of writing, the Dollar Spot Index was up 0.06% at 97.914. For the Loonie It’s another quiet day on the economic calendar , with no material stats due out of Canada to provide direction. The Bank of Canada is in action tomorrow. Even better than expected Manufacturing PMI numbers from China and the EU failed to provide support on Monday. Weak GDP numbers from last week raised doubts over whether the BoC will stand pat on policy near-term. This is in spite of Gov. Poloz’s recent comments. The Loonie was up by 0.04% to C$1.3303, against the U.S Dollar, at the time of writing. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Natural Gas Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Change in Mid-Term Forecast Could Trigger Short-Covering Rally Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Rebound After Tumbling Last Week Fresh Trump Tariff Threats Blunt Risk Appetite Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 03/12/19 Reducing Power of US dollar as the World Currency proves to Be Trend Ethereum and Stellar’s Lumen Daily Tech Analysis – 03/12/19 || Highest in 2 Years: 65% of Bitcoin Hash Power Is in China, Report Finds: For all of bitcoin’s promise of being the world’s first decentralized, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency, 65 percent of the total hash power resides in China. That’s the highest in at least two years according to a recent report byCoinShares Research. Skeptics like economist Nouriel Roubin often claim there is a massive centralization of power among miners and the blockchain is not even close to decentralization and democracy. That the majority of bitcoin’s hashrate is being supplied by China adds weight to their charges. The hashrate refers to the computing power dedicated to mine blocks and secure the network. At press time, bitcoin’s hashrate stands at 91.34 exa hashes per second (EH/s), according tobitfinfocharts.com. Related:Ride ‘Em, Cowboy: Bitmain’s Marketing Gambit Ups Its Texas-Sized Position on Bitcoin It is likely the world’s second-largest economy has the biggest influence on the top cryptocurrency. If a couple of big Chinese miners were to switch off, the hashrate will likely drop sharply, making the network less secure. The majority of bitcoin mining power resides in China mainly due to natural factors. A mining market analyst at bitcoin asset manager and trading platform RRMine, who asked not to be named, told CoinDesk: “China is a large country and there are many poorly developed areas with low-price, abundant electricity, such as Xinjiang, Yunnan, Inner Mongolia and Sichuan. As we all know, electricity costs and mining machines are two important factors for mining costs, so mining companies and individual miners prefer setting up mines in China.” Half of the global mining poweris locatedin Sichuan, which has an ample supply of cheap hydroelectricity. Related:Bitmain Shifts Miner Sales Tactics, Betting Big on Bitcoin Halving Pump Further, major improvements have been made in the mining hardware over the last year or so and most of that has been predominantly installed in China, according to CoinShare’s Chris Bendiksen. The upgraded hardware includes the likes of Bitmain’s Antminer 15 and 17 series and MicroBT’s Whatsminer 10 and 20 series, which work significantly faster to produce as much as five times the hashrate per unit as their predecessors. China’s hashrate dominance will likely fall in the long run, as the latest generation hardware is expected to make an entry into the non-Chinese market. Meanwhile, politically stable and well-connected countries like Norway, with abundant hydropower potential, are likely to become mining powerhouses. Bitmain is alreadybuildingthe world’s largest bitcoin mining farm in Texas, which has abundant power resources. The hashrate has risen sharply from 50 EH/s in June to 91 EH/s at press time, having peaked at 100 EH/s in October. The surge in bitcoin’s required computing power was fueled by its price rally from $4,000 to $13,000 in the four months preceding July. Miners’ willingness to use high-power mining machines and expectations of further price rally ahead of the May 2020 reward halving also upped the hashrate, according to RRMine analysts. The halving will reduce the reward per block mined from current 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC. Miners, therefore, would want to mine as many bitcoins as possible before the reward is reduced substantially in May. Further, RRMine analysts are expecting the price to peak and boost mining profitability ahead of halving. It’s worth noting that historically, bitcoin has put on a good show in the six months leading up to the supply-cutting event. Thus, while pricing may remain volatile and unpredictable, the hashrate is less likely to see a significant drop ahead of May 2020. • 1 Gigawatt Bitcoin Mine Under Construction in Texas Would Dwarf Bitmain’s • PODCAST: Meltem Demirors on the 3 Things Bitcoin Represents || Craig Wright private key delivered, claims to prove Bitcoin holdings: Craig Wright’s lawyers have informed the United States District Court of the Southern District of Florida that a third party has provided the necessary private key to unlock the encrypted file that contains a list of his Bitcoin holdings. The file has been presented to the court via a notice of compliance from Wright’s lawyers. The proof of Wright’s holdings has also been delivered to the plaintiff, Ira Kleiman, who is representing the Kleiman estate. Kleiman vs Wright Dr Wright, an Australian cybersecurity researcher living in London, is the defendant in a lengthy legal dispute with representatives of the late Dave Kleiman. The pair are thought to have jointly played a significant role in the early creation of the Bitcoin protocol. Acting on behalf of Kleiman’s estate, the plaintiffs allege that a significant sum of BTC was misappropriated by Wright after Kleiman’s death . Wright claimed that he could only access the disputed funds once the ‘Tulip Trust’ that protected them had expired – which happened at the beginning of 2020. However, he has so far only produced the encryption key which unlocks a list of total Bitcoin holdings and has not provided the private keys necessary to access the funds themselves. As a result, the pressure is still on Wright to deliver the final private keys, which he claims will arrive by “bonded courier” before February 3. February 3 deadline Wright has until February 3 to prove he has access to the Bitcoin wallets. Court filings from January 10 show that Wright was given an extension to an earlier ruling which would have seen him forfeit 500,000 Bitcoin, worth around $4 billion, to the Kleiman estate. Wright claims that if he can prove he has the private keys, then his pivotal role in creating the original Bitcoin protocol will be proven beyond reasonable doubt. Kleiman worked alongside Wright in the early days of the Bitcoin protocol’s creation, and many industry experts believe that Kleiman was in fact the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto. Story continues However, Kleiman’s death in 2013 saw Wright claim to be the creator of the protocol. Kleiman’s surviving family claim that Wright misappropriated funds from his late business partner, and now seek restitution of the full 1.1 million BTC. You can read more about the Kleiman vs Wright case here . The post Craig Wright private key delivered, claims to prove Bitcoin holdings appeared first on Coin Rivet . || 2019 in review: Which altcoins performed the best vs Bitcoin?: 2019 has proved to be a roller-coaster year for the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin started the year at lows of around $3,150 before threatening to break its all-time high in the summer, surging all the way up to $14,000. However, as can be expected with the volatility of the crypto markets, the world’s largest cryptocurrency is now around 45% down from that summer high and is currently trading at $7,500 at the time of writing. But which altcoins grew the most against Bitcoin during 2019? In this article, I’ll take a look at the top three altcoins that have performed the most impressively over the course of the year. 2019 in review Before I dive a bit deeper into each altcoin individually, let me take a moment to compare the gains among the top five coins vs Bitcoin. Much to my surprise, the top altcoin of 2019 is Ocean Protocol (OCEAN). The OCEAN token grew a whopping 404% against Bitcoin over the year. Next up is Chainlink (LINK) with an impressive 256% gain, followed closely by Egretia (EGT), Tezos (XTZ), and Ripio Credit Network (RCN). Let’s take a closer look at the biggest movers individually: Ocean Protocol, Chainlink, and Tezos. OCEAN/BTC Above we can see the chart for OCEAN vs Bitcoin, courtesy of TradingView . What the chart shows is a fairly straightforward positive trend line since the summer. From mid-August 2019 to December 2019, Ocean Protocol grew over 400%. Moreover, looking at the EMAs, price is still performing quite well. It is currently sitting at 621 sats and is looking to break 700 sats soon. Ocean Protocol claims it is kickstarting a data economy by breaking down data silos and equalising access to data for all. OCEAN provides an ecosystem for the data economy and associated services, with a tokenised service layer that securely exposes data, storage, and algorithms for consumption. However, since its inception, the OCEAN token is down quite a lot from its original IEO price. I personally believe the rally this year has been led by early investors who got a 22.5% discount rate from the IEO price . As such, I cannot vouch for the fundamentals of the project since it has only recently started trading to the public. Depending on the behaviour of OCEAN whales (institutional investors who bought in during the pre-seed stage ), the token could continue to increase in price. However, since so much of the supply is locked away with big players, I do expect a major dump to take place sometime in the near future -much like what happened with Matic and other IEOs. LINK/BTC Here we can see the chart for Chainlink vs Bitcoin, courtesy of TradingView . Story continues Fundamentally, the Chainlink network provides reliable tamper-proof inputs and outputs for complex smart contracts on any blockchain. LINK is currently trading above 25,500 sats. Until fairly recently, LINK was the top performing altcoin of the year. However, a substantial dump in November took the altcoin below its 20-day and 50-day EMAs. At the moment, it’s looking grim for Chainlink as price is almost touching the 200-day EMA, near 24,000 sats. Despite this latest downtrend, LINK is still up over 230% against Bitcoin since the start of the year. At its peak, Chainlink was up over 330% versus Bitcoin. However, LINK hasn’t been able to hold its gains and the volume profile shows the coin could be in dire straits. If LINK is unable to hold support near 24,000 sats, it could drop further down towards the next levels of support at 20,000 and 12,000 sats. It’s important to underline though that Chainlink dumped over 50% between July and September before making its way to new all-time highs. This means we could see LINK drop below 18,000 sats before pumping again. If buyers remain in control, I expect LINK to pump sometime during Q1 2020. The altcoin historically reaches new all-time highs every 115 to 130 days, so we could see a new high during February or March 2020. On the other hand, if price drops down further below 12,000 sats and is incapable of pushing towards the 200-day EMA, I would switch my position and avoid LINK. XTZ/BTC Next we can see the chart for Tezos vs Bitcoin, once more courtesy of TradingView . That November pump looks quite impressive, doesn’t it? That’s because Tezos’ mainnet was released around that time. Fundamentally, Tezos is an open-source platform for assets and applications backed by a global community of validators, researchers, and builders. At the moment, XTZ is trading at around 22,800 sats. The altcoin has grown over 170% against Bitcoin since early November. From March 2019 to the end of April 2019, XTZ grew over 150% versus BTC. However, the pump convinced investors who had been holding Tezos since 2017 to start selling. Tezos dropped below all its EMAs, and the ensuing death cross saw XTZ touch a low of 8,000 sats. Essentially, the altcoin fell close to 70% in just over 60 days. From July to November, there was a strong consolidation period while sellers remained in control. XTZ’s year was saved by the November pump and Tezos once again finds itself above all its EMAs. However, the volume profile doesn’t show a major support interval until the 12,000 sats range, meaning we could see substantial drops even during bullish rallies. My current analysis is that if XTZ isn’t capable of breaking the 26,000 sats level and drops below its 20-day and 50-day EMAs, I’m expecting Tezos to consolidate between 10,000 and 12,000 sats for quite some time. Nevertheless, it seems a great time to wait for XTZ to cool down before making any serious moves. Safe trades! The post 2019 in review: Which altcoins performed the best vs Bitcoin? appeared first on Coin Rivet . View comments || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -09/12/19: Bitcoin rose by 0.29% on Sunday. Partially reversing a 0.55% fall from Saturday, Bitcoin ended the week up by 1.54% to $7,564.6. A bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin slide to an early morning intraday low $7,433.6 before finding support. Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $7,483.33 before making a move. Rebounding through the late morning, Bitcoin struck a mid-afternoon intraday high $7,620.0 before easing back. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $7,636.43, Bitcoin eased back to sub-$7,600 levels, limiting the upside on the day. The near-term bearish trend, formed at late June’s swing hi $13,764.0, remained firmly intact, in spite of the upside in the week. For the bulls, Bitcoin would need to break out from $11,000 levels to form a near-term bullish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the top 10 cryptos, it was a mixed day for the majors. Ethereum and Stellar’s Lumen led the way, with gains of 2.22% and 1.96% respectively. Bitcoin Cash ABC (+1.42%) and Bitcoin Cash SV (+1.60%) also saw solid gains on the day. EOS (+0.82%), Litecoin (+0.86%), and Ripple’s XRP (+0.92%) saw more modest gains, while Binance Coin fell by 0.06% to buck the trend on the day. For the week, it was also a mixed bag for the pack. Binance Coin (+1.10%) and Ripple’s XRP (+1.95%) joined Bitcoin in the green for the week. It was a bearish week for the rest of the pack. Bitcoin Cash SV (-6.33%) and Litecoin (-4.00%) led the way down. Through the week, the crypto total market cap slid from $203bn levels on Monday to a Wednesday low $194.62bn before hitting $206bn levels on Sunday. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $205.25bn. Bitcoin’s dominance reached 67% levels before falling back to 66% levels at the end of the week. 24-hour trading volumes fell back from $70bn levels mid-week to sub-$50bn levels on Sunday. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.01% to $7,563.8. A range-bound start to the day saw Bitcoin fall from an early morning high $7,564.6 to a low $7,563.4. Story continues Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, EOS (-0.28%) and Ethereum (-0.05%) joined Bitcoin in the red early on. It was a more positive start to the day for the rest of the pack, however. Binance Coin led the way, rising by 0.62%, with Litecoin and Ripple’s XRP up by 0.20% and by 0.23% respectively. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to steer clear of sub-$7,540 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $7,645.2. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break back through to $7,600 levels. Barring a broad-based crypto rally on the day, the first major resistance level and Sunday’s high $7,620 would likely cap any upside. A fall through to sub-$7,540 levels would bring the first major support level at $7,458.8 into play before any recovery. Barring an extended sell-off through the day, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of the sub-$7,400 levels for a 3 rd consecutive day. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: The Weekly Wrap – The Greenback Had the Final Say in a Busy Week U.S Mortgage Rates Hold Steady as Geopolitics and Stats Send Mixed Signals The UK General Election – It’s the 5-Day Countdown Natural Gas Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Vulnerable to Short-Squeeze if Demand Picture Shifts The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -07/12/19 It’s Geopolitics in the Day Ahead, with Trade and the UK Elections in Focus [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 8909.82, 9358.59, 9316.63, 9508.99, 9350.53, 9392.88, 9344.37, 9293.52, 9180.96, 9613.42
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2019-01-29] BTC Price: 3448.12, BTC RSI: 36.33 Gold Price: 1308.20, Gold RSI: 69.87 Oil Price: 53.31, Oil RSI: 56.52 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 18/12/18: Bitcoin Cash ABC rallied 11.98% on Monday, following on from a 3.58% gain on Sunday, to end the day at $88.49. Tracking the broader market through the day, Bitcoin Cash ABC rallied from an early morning intraday low $77.89 to a late in the day intraday high $91.00, breaking through the day’s major resistance levels before pulling back through the third major resistance level at $88.94 by the day’s end. While hitting $90 levels for the first time since 13thNovember, the bearish trend formed at mid-November’s swing hi $290 remained intact, with the bulls needing to break out from the 23.6% FIB of $125 and target the 38.2% FIB of $156 to begin a bearish trend reversal. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was up 1.22% to $89.57, a mixed start to the day seeing Bitcoin Cash ABC fall from a start of day morning high $89.88 to a morning low $87.79 before recovering, the major support and resistance levels left untested early on. For the day ahead, a move through to $90 levels would support a run through Monday’s high $91 to bring $93 levels and the first major resistance level at $93.7 into play, with sentiment across the broader market to dictate whether Bitcoin Cash ABC can breakout out to hit $95 levels before any pullback. Failure to move through to $90 levels could see investors take some froth off the top of Monday’s gains, a pullback through the morning low likely to bring $85 levels into play before any recovery, a broad based crypto sell-off needed to bring the day’s first major support level at $80.59 into play on the day. Litecoin jumped by 14.51% on Monday, following on from Sunday’s 7.91% gain, to end the day at $28.88. Rallying from a start of a day intraday low $25.15, Litecoin broke through the first major resistance level at $26.83 and second major resistance level at $28.43 to an intraday high $30.48 before easing back late in the day. It was Litecoin’s first visit to $30 levels since 6thDecember, though the recent run has not been enough to reverse the extended bearish trend formed at early May’s swing hi $182.35. At the time of writing, Litecoin was up 0.21% to $28.94, with moves through the early morning seeing Litecoin recover from an early morning low $28.43 to hit a morning high $29.60 before easing back, the major support and resistance levels left untested early on. For the day ahead, a move back through the morning high $29.6 would support a run through Monday’s high $30.48 to bring $31 levels and the first major resistance level at $31.19 into play, though sentiment across the broader market will need to remain bullish for Litecoin to break through to $31 levels. Failure to move back through the morning high could see Litecoin fall back through the morning low $28.43 to bring $27 levels into play before any recovery, the day’s first major support level at $25.86 unlikely to be tested barring a broad based crypto sell-off. Ripple’s XRP surged by 15.42% on Monday, following a lackluster 0.95% gain on Sunday, to end the day at $0.33814. Recovering from an early morning intraday low $0.29073, Ripple’s XRP rallied through the 2ndhalf of the day to an intraday high $0.34895 before easing back, Ripple’s XRP breaking through the day’s major resistance levels with ease through the day. For the bulls, a breakout from the 23.6% FIB of $0.4164 to $0.50 levels and the 38.2% FIB of $0.5225 would be needed for a bearish trend reversal to begin forming. At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP up 3.18% to $0.3489, with moves through the early morning seeing Ripple’s XRP rally from an early morning low $0.33632 to a morning high $0.35398 before easing back, the day’s major support and resistance levels left untested early on. For the day ahead, a move back through the morning high $0.35398 would support a run through to $0.36 levels to test the day’s first major resistance level at $0.3612, while a breakout to $0.37 levels would need support from the broader market on the day. Failure to move back through the morning high could see Ripple’s XRP struggle later in the day, a pullback through the morning low $0.33632 to $0.32 levels a signal of a possible reversal, with the day’s first major support level at $0.3029 very much in play in the event of a shift in sentiment through the day. Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency Instantly Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • EM Currencies Gain Ground on Dollar Weakness: Yuan Steady • Bitcoin – The Bulls Finally Deliver, but the Job is Far from Done • Defiant Xi Jinping Blows Chance to Make Major Announcement on US-China Trade Relations • AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast – China’s Xi Speech Could Set Tone, RBA Warns About Housing Correction • USD/JPY Fundamental Daily Forecast – Lower as Stock Index Futures Retreat from Highs Following Xi Xinping’s Defiant Remarks • GBP/USD Price Forecast – GBP/USD Trades Flat Amid Lack Of Brexit Progress & Silent Macro Calendar || Bitcoin Space Growing on Almost All Metrics — Except Economics: bitcoin garden crypto Infrastructure underpinning the world’s leading cryptocurrency bitcoin is looking better even though its value has fallen by more than 80 percent since the peak, argues prominent cryptocurrency software engineer Jameson Lopp. The renowned cypherpunk, who also serves as the chief technical officer to cryptocurrency security company Casa, narrowed down bitcoin ‘s performance in 2018 based on multiple metrics. The aggregated data revealed that the digital currency had an excellent year concerning general and academic interest, funding, data anchoring, software upgrades, and on-chain security. It also found that bitcoin performance suffered in almost every vertical that was dependent on its economics. Bitcoin Grows Despite Poor Trading Numbers bitcoin price The report noted that value of every BTC transaction, which had peaked at over $100,000, declined by 90 percent in 2019 to $10,000. It nearly reversed the trend that had started when BTC/USD was trading at $4,000 in 2017. The data noted that the network’s average UTXO, which stands for the unspent output from bitcoin transactions, also lowered from the 2017 average of 30 BTC to 13 BTC in 2018. The situation remained the same in crypto trading space, which noted a steep fall in volumes as the market turned bearish. However, Lopp recognized that offline bitcoin trading was on its way up throughout 2018. He tweeted: While bitcoin trading volume generally dropped along with the exchange rate over the course of 2018, there were a few notable exceptions in local markets. Colombia, India, Peru, & Venezuela trended upwards in terms of BTC traded via Localbitcoins. Lopp also noted that the amount of bitcoin ATMs had doubled in 2018 , confirming that the digital currency was more popular regarding offline trading than online retail. $3.12 Billion Investment Despite a bearish makeover , bitcoin and its sister markets continued to attract more investments than they did in the previous years. Venture capital funding into the crypto space grew almost fourfold in 2018, from $876.28 million to $3.127 billion. It ensured that trust in the potential of blockchain did not fade even though 90 percent of companies that wanted to create a blockchain-enabled product failed. Story continues Critics have argued that companies that were building blockchain-enabled platforms were absent-mindedly selling ideas that were impractical. The infamous ICO bubble burst because of all of these untrustworthy startups whose foundations were weak and thoroughly impractical from day one. It brought Lopp’s report to a metric that showed that academics were researching bitcoin and blockchain at a broader level than they did in previous years. For instance, the number of Google Scholar articles which mentioned bitcoin surged from 10,600 in 2017 to more than 14,400 in 2o18. Google Scholar articles published mentioning Bitcoin: 2009: 83 2010: 136 2011: 427 2012: 737 2013: 1,570 2014: 3,790 2015: 4.680 2016: 5,470 2017: 10,600 2018: 14,400 (will continue to rise due to listing lag) — Jameson Lopp (@lopp) December 20, 2018 “[It] is great for the long-term prospects of this industry as we continue to gain a greater understanding of what we’re building,” Lopp stated. The figures also explained why developers’ involvement in the Bitcoin Core and Lightning Network repositories outpaced other crypto projects. While the Bitcoin Core GitHub saw 3,274 commits from 194 developers, the Lightning Network noted 3,050 commits made by 139 developers. In the same time, bitcoin cash recorded 786 commits from 41 developers. Monero , however, fared better after posting 2,086 commits from 111 contributors. “Yes, Bitcoin fared poorly [concerning the] exchange rate in 2018,” said Lopp. “But by almost any other metric the system is improving and growing. Those of us who are dedicated to this system shall continue to BUIDL and add value; we have no control over the market, but I expect that it will catch up to us sooner or later.” Featured Image from Shutterstock. Price Charts from TradingView . The post Bitcoin Space Growing on Almost All Metrics — Except Economics appeared first on CCN . || Fixed Income Investing in Volatile Markets: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. Rising market volatility and macro uncertainty can be a good reminder of why investors have looked to core fixed income to anchor their portfolios. The diversification potential of core bonds, as well as their risk-adjusted return potential, can help investors de-risk their equity exposure while potentially providing attractive returns. On the upcoming webcast, Fixed Income Investing in Volatile Markets , David Braun, Head of U.S. Financial Institutions Portfolio Management at PIMCO, and Don Suskind, Head of ETF Strategy at PIMCO, will provide tips and insights for attractive risk-adjusted returns and stability within a broad investment portfolio. Bond investors seeking to diversify their bond portfolios and limit interest rate risks may turn to actively managed short-term strategies that could allow for more options to protect capital and manage liquidity while generating income. For instance, fixed-income investor can protect against the potential upcoming rate-induced volatility through short duration actively managed bond funds, such as the PIMCO Low Duration Active ETF ( LDUR ) and the PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Active ETF ( MINT ) . The bond ETFs are backed by an active management team to select opportunities in low-duration bonds. The active manager has the flexibility to go beyond traditional government debt and include other debt securities like corporate credit to diversify and limit potential risks. LDUR has a short 1.06 year duration, so a 1% rise in interest rates would only translate to about a minimal 1.06% decline in the fund’s price, and it shows a 3.39% 30-day SEC yield. The ETF largely includes investment-grade debt, but potential investors should be aware that the active ETF includes a hefty tilt toward investment-grade corporate debt. Additionally, MINT is meant to be used as an incremental step outside of the money market funds. Investors would use the active ETF for capital preservation or to take a defensive view on the market. MINT shows a 0.31 year duration and a 2.67% 30-day SEC yield. The fund only includes investment-grade debt, but most of it is in investment-grade credit 57.8%, followed by mortgage 19.1% and other short-duration instruments 10.5. Story continues Financial advisors who are interested in learning more about fixed-income investments can register for the Wednesday, December 5 webcast here . POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM SPY ETF Quote VOO ETF Quote QQQ ETF Quote Top 34 Gold ETFs Top 34 Oil ETFs Q&A with Industry Veteran Brian O’Donnell on ETF Distribution The Top 10 Health Insurance Trends of 2019 Kevin O’Leary: Resist the Urge to Overspend on an Engagement Ring An Emerging Market ETF That Capitalizes on the Growing Middle-Class Consumer Consider Bitcoin Cash When Crypto Carnage Stops READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Living on Bitcoin Day 5: An In-Store Buy At Last (Spoiler: It’s Pot-Related): This is the fifth instalment of reporter Colin Harper's "Living on Bitcoin" experience in San Francisco. Find out what happened to him earlier onDay 1,onDay 2,onDay 3and onDay 4. I woke up in a millionaire’s bed today, something I never thought I’d say because I ain’t gonna make a million bucks, and I always doubted I could’ve finagled my way into the bed of someone who had. Jeremy’s room is your prototypical festival bro living space: Bob Marley poster in one corner, jam band festival posters for Camp Bisco and Gathering of the Vibes (among other music festivals) tacked above a 50-inch, Toshiba plasma screen, which was leaning against the wall and propped up on the box it came in. A tangled cluster of conference passes (many speaker or VIP) hung from a back wall above the felt loveseat. Below one of the room’s three windows, there’s a bookcase sectioned off into six cubbies, which include Hunter S. Thompson, Michael Lewis, Truman Capote, and some self-help and econ/business books. Almost poetically, a book calledEgo is the Enemyappropriately placed in a cubbie diagonally opposite to the one housing Tucker Max’sAssholes Finish First. On the third floor, I made the coffee I bought at Whole Foods, warmed one of the croissants and did some work. Over Slack, my colleague Aaron van Wirdum suggested I try a map called Bitcoin Map on the Google Play store to see if it had any bitcoin-accepting places listed that I could be missing. I pulled it up, browsed some places I had previously tried but knew no longer did. Then, I glanced at Haight-Ashbury on the map one last time and noticed a smoke shop and one-time hookah lounge that accepted bitcoin. On the off chance, I called them up. “Do you guys still accept bitcoin?” “Yes, we do.” “Seriously?!” “Yes.” Exuberant, I let a triumphant expletive slip and thanked the woman, assuring her that I would be by later that day. Itwouldbe a smoke shop that becomes the first place where I can spend some bitcoin,I thought to myself. With that victory, my spirits were lifted and I began to make preparations for my day. Needing to get more credit for Uber, I tried out Gyft, a gift card purchasing platform that made Hill’s second run at this in 2014 so much easier. Vinny Lingham started it, and the platform accepts other forms of payment than just bitcoin. I couldn’t use it though. I tried to buy an Uber gift card, but my Samourai wallet wouldn’t accept the BitPay QR as valid (which, given Samourai’s general crypto maximalism, made sense and also seemed to sum up the difficulties of the experiment to that point). I opted for Bitrefill again. Then I started doing some research on Kraken and Coinbase’s locations in San Francisco. According to Google, they have the same office address, which I found odd. Putting the address into my Uber app, I decided to make my way to the heart of San Francisco’s Financial District to see if I could pester my way into either or both offices. “Just show up and ask to talk to people,” Hill’s advice echoed in my head. The addresses I got on Google led me to a mailing address, but then a bit of sleuthing got me addresses (supposedly) of the actual offices for both Kraken and Coinbase. Kraken’s, though, turned out to be a FedEx, which led me to think that my informant was screwing with me or that Kraken had registered that address intentionally so as to not be bothered. Coinbase’s office was right, so I cut the informant some slack. I secured a receptionist’s number from the security desk in the lobby but didn’t really have time to make an appointment for later. This wasn’t 2013 anymore: I couldn’t just drop in on their three employees in an apartment office anymore. This was 2019 and Coinbase had become a unicorn with more than 500 employees and six offices in three countries. The rain was light but steady when I was searching for Kraken and Coinbase’s offices, but it would come down progressively harder the longer I walked. I passed a Target on my route in which I could have bought an umbrella (Paxful and Gyft have Target cards), and it highlighted a problem with banking on bitcoin through gift cards. You have to preplan your purchases, or else you have to stop, connect to wifi, and use an exchange that takes bitcoin to buy new cards before you can redeem them. It seems obvious, but it’s not as seamless as cash, debit or credit. Even so, there aren’t so many hoops to jump through — just enough to make doing so outside in the rain an inconvenience. My denim jacket was thoroughly soaked, so I stopped inside a Starbucks and ordered a coffee with a Starbucks gift card I bought on Paxful. I ordered a seasonal latte, basic white boy that I am, but I had the barista only pump about a third of the usual flavor shots into it because I don’t like drinking syrup. While downtown, I visited Quantstamp’s offices, as Christian had set me up with a buddy of his who worked there, Jared let me in and we talked crypto. He mentioned a bubble tea cafe nearby that used to accept crypto, but it proved to be yet another red herring, making me worry that maybe the smoke shop on Haight might not either. Ubering back to the castle, I sent some additional funds to my Samourai wallet ahead of my trip to the shop. Rachel wanted to come along, partly I think for the fun of it but also because she was fiending for some Juul pods and was banking on my generosity to secure her some. We reached the smoke shop shortly before close as one employee was busy allocating merch to a back closet. It was what you expected from a smoke shop: pieces, bongs andactualtobacco pipes in various sizes and in a motley of translucent, glass-infused colors. They sell smokes and vaping supplies too, but no Juuls or Juul pods (to Rachel’s great dismay). Approaching the counter, I try to confirm what I’d been told over the phone. “Y’all take bitcoin, right?” “Bitcoin? Yes, I think,” said the middle-aged, Asian woman, hesitantly. “We used to at least. Ask him,” she says, pointing to the man stacking the backroom with inventory. Her husband, a middle-aged, white guy with glasses, a mariner’s cap and close-shaven beard, who looks like he might read communist theory and know his way around a VPN, dashed my bitcoin-spending hopes with his answer. “I don’t think so. Honey, do we still have the payment processor?” he asked. They didn’t.Snapcard, which may have very well been the same defunct-processor that Woot Bear used, was no longer in service, so they stopped taking it some time ago. They had originally decided to start accepting bitcoin in 2013-2014 when it was “cool” to do so, and the husband was kicking himself for not doing it sooner. “People would want to come in and buy rolling papers and we didn’t want to take it, which was stupid,” he chuckled. I asked if they still had a Coinbase account to which I could send bitcoin, but the wife said that her son held the account and they didn’t know how to use it. After a few more failed attempts at trying to find a solution, I gave up, thanked them and left the shop. As I left, I was convinced there was some grand conspiracy to keep me from spending bitcoin, until the woman peeked her head out of the shop to beckon us back. “I think we figured it out,” she said. Eager and a bit antsy, I leaned over the counter to observe her Coinbase app while I tried for the items I had picked out (a glass piece that’s totally not for me and white sage for the castle). As it turned out, they weren’t verified with Coinbase, so they could only buy/sell on Coinbase and not send/receive. This annoyed me: Why do one when you can’t do the other? “It’s ok,” I said, resigned at this point. But the woman insisted. She was nice enough to let me just scan the QR code for her son’s wallet, and she even gave me a five buck discount on the piece. Effusive, I thanked them and asked for their names, which they prefered I not publish here. Apparently, San Francisco is not too friendly to tobacco shops. “The city is trying to annex the smoke shops,” the husband told me. That coupled with the stigma of bitcoin and the illicit drug market’s symbiotic dependence on the dark web (and the fact that the business is basically a head shop) made them wary enough of potentially damaging publicity. The fact that the transaction almost happened then didn’t, only to almost not happen and then succeed was representative of how the experiment has been panning out so far. The bitcoin PoS was makeshift, but it finally happened, and I was happy enough to finally get the first IRL transaction out of the way, even if it came on day five. It was also directly peer-to-peer — no middleman payment processor involved, which I liked. Finally, something to write home about. Returning to the castle, I would spend the rest of the night fraternizing with the residents who were quickly becoming acquaintances and friends. They all had their own goals and projects, and the interactions in my short time with them will be worth a story one day. There’s Rachel, who’s known Jeremy since 2015; Liz, the Queen of the Castle (obviously); Michael, a laid back relations or community manager who “kinda does crypto but not really;” Orest and Aymard, who work at Ausum Ventures with Jeremy; Teddy and Hans, who are building a blockchain query database for legal documents; Vivian, the VP of the same self-driving car startup, comma.ai, that used to reside in the castle’s basement; and a prodigious, 18-year-old developer-entrepreneur who runs his own AI financial consultation startup and whom Jeremy referred to once as his “protégé.” “So, are you like the wunderkind developer prodigy of the house?” I asked him. “Pretty much. But it’s not just that.” “What, like you’re also the wunderkind entrepreneurial prodigy?” “Something like that,” he responded with a smile and honest innocence. He told me he would rather not be identified in the article because the banks and other businesses he works with don’t know that he’s still a kid, he confessed. That he had operated so long without them finding out was astounding to me. The Prodigy began his company when he was a freshman in high school. No, not college (he never took that road),high school. In the company’s early stages, he decided to go all in on his vision. “So I pretty much left high school.” No diploma or degree to speak of, he moved to San Francisco when he was 15. In what would have been his sophomore year, he was focused on driving business growth while his peers were testing for learner’s permits. An early investor in Ethereum and a sometimes crypto-head, he met Jeremy at a crypto castle party in 2017, and Jeremy would take him under his wing and offer him a home. Now he works out of the community surrounded by the advice and the tutelage of the castle’s residents, who, while still young entrepreneurs themselves, have plenty of experience and tips to impart to the kid. I highlighted The Prodigy here because or his age and precociousness but also because the whiz-tech kid who eschews education in favor of justdoingmakes for a pretty good story. Realistically, I could have profiled some of the other residents and their endeavors as well (for instance, I plan on doing an article on some of the innovative, impactful startups Ausum Ventures has invested in). But The Prodigy particularly personified the house’s ethos: driven, focused, entrepreneurial and hardworking. “Do you do drugs or drink?” I asked him. “No. Never.” “Good. Don’t,” I advised him. Truth is, considering the portrait of the millionaire party boy that has been painted of Jeremy in the past, the castle was nothing like that. It wasn’t like the mainstream coverage would imply: no end-to-end daily benders or booze-infused ragers. I don’t think anyone even touched a drink while I was there. Everyone was busy working. As Rachel would tell me, “No one drinks here. They all have shit to do.” Colin's adventures continue...find out what happens onDay 6 here. As Kashmir Hill did in her original journey, Colin is accepting BTC tips to help him along the way. Tip jar: 3CnLhqitCjUN4HPYf6Qa2MmvCpSoBiFfBN This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 17/12/18: Bitcoin Cash ABC gained 3.58% on Sunday, reversing a 2.89% fall on Saturday, to end the week down 25.7% to $79.00. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC rally to a mid-morning intraday high $81.31, breaking through the first major resistance level at $80.03 before easing back to sub-$80 levels, with resistance at $80 proving to be too great late in the day, a break back through to $80 short lived. A start of a day intraday low $76.27 saw Bitcoin Cash ABC steer clear of the day’s major support levels on the day. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was up 0.47% to $79.37, with moves through the early morning seeing Bitcoin Cash ABC fall from a morning high $80.07 to a morning low $77.88, the day’s major support and resistance levels left untested early on. For the day ahead, a move back through to $80 levels would support a run at Sunday’s $81.31 high to bring the day’s first major resistance level at $81.45 into play, though Bitcoin Cash ABC will need to hold onto $79 levels through the morning to support a move later in the day. Failure to move back through to $80 levels could see Bitcoin Cash ABC hit reverse later in the day, a fall through the morning low $77.88 bringing $76 levels and the first major support level at $76.41 into play before any recovery. Litecoin rallied by 7.91% on Sunday, following on from a 0.95% rise on Saturday, to end the week down just 0.2% at $25.24, a 3rdday in the green easing the pain from the bearish start to the week. A particularly bullish start to the day saw Litecoin rally to an early morning high $26.25, Litecoin breaking through the day’s major resistance levels before striking a mid-day intraday high $26.67. Easing back through the afternoon, Litecoin fell back to $25 levels late in the day, unable to hold above the day’s third major resistance level at $25.25 by the day’s end. At the time of writing, Litecoin was up 1.66% to $25.66, with Litecoin rising from a start of a day morning low $25.15 to a morning high $25.79 before easing back, the day’s major support and resistance levels left untested early on. For the day ahead, a move through to $26 levels would bring Sunday’s high $26.67 and the day’s first major resistance level at $26.83 into play before any pullback, resistance on the way through to $27 levels likely to pin Litecoin back from a breakout to $28 levels and the day’s second major resistance level at $28.43. Failure to move through to $26 levels could see Litecoin struggle later in the day, with a fall through $25.10 likely to signal the start of a partial reversal of late last week’s gains, a fall through to $24 levels bringing the first major support level at $23.48 into play before any recovery, heavier losses not expected on the day. Ripple’s XRP gained just 0.95% on Sunday, partially reversing Saturday’s 1.15% loss, to end the week down 7.62% to $0.29307. Tracking Litecoin at the start of the day, Ripple’s XRP struck an early morning intraday high $0.30484, breaking through the first major resistance level at $0.2966 and second major resistance level at $0.3028 before easing back. By the day’s end, Ripple’s XRP was unable to hold onto $0.30 levels, with Ripple’s XRP falling back through the resistance levels by the day’s end. At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was down 0.11% to $0.29274, with Ripple’s XRP recovering from an early morning low $0.29073 to strike a morning high $0.29451 before easing back, the day’s major support and resistance levels left untested early on. For the day ahead, a move back through the morning high to $0.2960 would support a move through to $0.30 levels to test the day’s first major resistance level at $0.3018, with Ripple’s XRP likely to struggle to breakout from there to take a run at $0.31 levels and the second major resistance level at $0.3106. Failure to move through to $0.2960 could see Ripple’s XRP take a bigger hit later in the day, with a fall through the morning low $0.29073 bringing $0.28 levels and the first major support level at $0.2873 into play. Heavier losses could be on the cards should sentiment across the broader market deteriorate, with the second major support level at $0.2815 in play in the event of a broad based crypto sell-off. Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency Instantly Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • GBP/USD Price Forecast – GBP/USD Range Bound Above Mid 1.25 Handle As Brexit Bears Cap Upside Move • NEM’s XEM Technical Analysis – Support Levels Eyed – 17/12/18 • Fears of Economic Slowdown to keep Bears in Control • Open UBI Ecosystem Launched by GoodDollar and Partners in Berlin • Natural Gas Price Futures (NG) Technical Analysis – Trading on Weak Side of Main Retracement Zone at $3.775 to $3.980 • E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Analysis – Trading Below Pivot at 24369 Confirms Downside Bias || Anti-Bitcoin JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon: No Recession Ahead, Dow is Rebounding: Jamie Dimon — theanti-bitcoin CEOof JPMorgan Chase — says a global recession is not coming, so everyone needs to “take a deep breath” and chill out. Dimon said the Dow and other stock market indices are merely experiencing a temporary hiccup, but that doesn’t mean the US economy will slide into a recession anytime soon. “It looks to me like a slowdown [not a recession],” Dimon toldFox Business(video below). “Sentiment changed dramatically for a whole bunch of different reasons. But the United States is still growing, at 2.5%. We just had some good wage data.” It’s very possible we have a slowdown. People [should] take a deep breath. Things will open up a little bit. Dimon said the recent stock market slump occurred due to concerns about rising interest rates and a potential US trade war with China. But things have calmed down since then, and the market has rebounded nicely. Despite the recent market turmoil, the US economy is in good shape at the moment. The unemployment rate has plunged to a 48-year-low, and 312,000 jobs wereaddedin December 2018 — far more than the 177,000 that were expected. “It looks like there will be growth,” Dimon said. “It’s not like we’re going into a global recession. We’re going to have maybe slower growth than people expected a couple of months ago.” Moreover, Jamie Dimon says that US consumer sentiment is in “good shape” and will continue to improve. “If you look at actual data, people are getting jobs, more people [are] working, wages going up,” Dimon explained. “Household balance sheet in very good shape, credit card credit — extraordinarily good. It’s better than we deserve at this point in the cycle.” On Jan. 8, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 23,787, up 256 points, continuing afive-dayrally. Dimon’s bullish outlook differs sharply from the bearish projections of Canadian economist David Rosenberg, a strategist with Gluskin Sheff, a Toronto investment firm. As CCN reported, Rosenberg isn’t impressed by the Dow’s recent recovery. In fact, he claims there’san 80% chancethat the US will fall into a recession, bringing the global economy down with it. “We’ve got more than 80% chance of recession just based on the fact the Fed is tightening policy,” Rosenberg told CNBC (video below). For the record, in 2017, Rosenberg predicted that the US economy would crash down in 2018, but that did not happen. Rosenberg placed much of the blame for the purported forthcoming recession onJerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve. The Fed has raised interest rates seven times during President Donald Trump’s two-year presidency. In contrast, the Fed hiked rates just once during Barack Obama’s eight years in office. Powell received widespread criticism after the Fed hiked interest rates for the fourth time in 2018, causing the stock market to tumble and spurring fears of a recession. Retired US Congressman Ron Paul — the father of current US Senator Rand Paul — reacted by renewing his calls toabolish the Federal Reserve. Amid volcanic backlash from many sides, Powell softened his stance. On January 4 — two weeks after hiking rates for the fourth time in 2018 — Powell promised to be “flexible” and sensitive to how repeated rate hikes could tank the stock market. “We’re listening carefully, with sensitivity to the message that the markets are sending,”Powell vowedJan. 4. “And we’ll be taking those downside risks into account as we make policy going forward.” Meanwhile, in Crypto Land, many executives remain bullish about bitcoin and expect a watershed 2019 for the industry. As CCN reported, Travis Scher — a vice president at crypto investment firm Digital Currency Group — expects aninflux of institutional investmentsthis year amid an industry-wide consolidation. “This is very real — companies like Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, and ICE are publicly making big moves in the space,” Scher said. “The change-averse corporate executives who have derided crypto will be embarrassed when their dismissive quotes resurface down the line.” Featured image from Flickr/Fortune Global Forum The postAnti-Bitcoin JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon: No Recession Ahead, Dow is Reboundingappeared first onCCN. || It’s ‘Ripple’: Kraken Wades into XRP Cryptocurency Naming Debate: As Kraken adds XRP margin trading, it appears to have been drawn into a Ripple versus XRP naming debate that first emerged earlier this year. How the debate began with Kraken is unclear, but Kraken tweeted in an obvious response to a reference to its adding “Ripple XRP” to the platform and a recent blog post announcing the additions of XRP and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) to its margin trading offering . There does seem to be some ambiguous, and maybe tongue in cheek requests to buy “Ripple” shares rather than XRP coins via Kraken. Dear XRP Army, Ripple is (and was first) a payment protocol whose native currency is XRP. You could suggest the eponymous company change its name (again) to avoid ambiguity. The convention is <protocol> <asset>, like: Ripple XRP, Ethereum ether, Bitcoin bitcoin, etc. — Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) December 29, 2018 Some in the Kraken user community seem to prefer XRP to be named simply XRP but Kraken argues it’s following an industry-wide convention of talking about coins in terms of protocol, then asset, just like Ethereum (ETH) or indeed Ethereum ether! It’s easy to see where the confusion stems from, coins, companies, and protocols are used interchangeably but generally, there is a convention to talk in terms of blockchain followed by the coin’s “ticker.” People seeming to find confusion in a company having the same name as a protocol, some claiming to think that buying XRP is buying Ripple company stock, some wanting "Ripple" to never be mentioned in the same sentence as XRP. — Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) December 29, 2018 The response to Kraken has been mixed, with some Twitter followers openly expressing their annoyance with Kraken, or maybe whoever is tweeting for Kraken, suggesting Kraken could lose custom over the debate, which continues… Story continues Efforts to Distance Ripple and XRP Kraken may have fallen into a much older argument that there should be some distance between Ripple, or Ripple Labs because the cryptocurrency and blockchain exists in its own right. Ripple itself tweeted in May 2018 and a slight shift in branding from Ripple XRP to XRP occurred: There is a community movement for a unique #XRP symbol. We agree! XRP is independent of Ripple. Submit your idea now. #XRPCommunity https://t.co/ZnfVMiK9i2 — Ripple (@Ripple) May 10, 2018 The “XRP Symbol” initiative’s organizer Alexavier Guzman said: “Because XRP does not currently have its own symbol or logo, the currency is often associated with Ripple’s trademark…Because of this, many people believe that XRP is a product of Ripple, and even go as far as to call XRP ‘ripples.’” XRP received its own, new, logo, a few weeks later. It’s hard to see how, or why, XRP could be split from Ripple. XRP utilisation is a major part of Ripple Labs growing RippleNet offering and suite of financial software. Though XRP isn’t being used by Ripple’s 100 plus financial and banking adopters of its blockchain network, Ripple certainly would like more of them to use XRP for transactions. At the end of the day, Ripple develops financial products that use XRP and at one point owned 80% of the total supply of XRP. Ripple Lab’s still owns around 60 billion XRP. The success of the XRP coin is inextricably intertwined with Ripple. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post It’s ‘Ripple’: Kraken Wades into XRP Cryptocurency Naming Debate appeared first on CCN . || 3 Top Crypto Stocks for 2019: If you follow the cryptocurrency markets at all, you already know that 2018 has not been a great year. Leading cryptocurrency bitcoin has lost 74% of its value in 2018, and most other major cryptocurrencies have fared even worse. Year to date, Ripple, Ethereum, and Litecoin are down by 80%, 81%, and 85%, respectively, just to name a few of the other major tokens. Having said that, there's still a lot of interest in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, and it's entirely possible that we could see a surge in bitcoin and some of the other major digital assets. However, instead of investing directly in cryptocurrencies, it could be a smart idea to put your money in a business that will do just fine no matter what happens in the cryptocurrency world, but that will do even better if the crypto world has a good year in 2019. With that in mind, here's why Square (NYSE: SQ) , NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) , and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) could be worth a look while cryptocurrencies are down after a rough 2018. Design of linked hexagons with blockchain written in the center. Image source: Getty Images. A crypto trading business and so much more Square has evolved quite a bit over the past few years, from a niche manufacturer of payment processing hardware for small businesses into a lender, person-to-person payments facilitator and so much more. Growth has not only been impressive but continues to accelerate. The company's adjusted revenue grew by a staggering 68% year over year in the most recent quarter, while payment processing volume continues to climb and subscription- and services-based revenue are 155% higher than a year ago. Plus, the Cash App remains a largely untapped source of potential revenue and cross-selling opportunities. Speaking of which, Square started allowing its Cash App customers to begin buying and selling bitcoin in early 2018. While the company's $43 million bitcoin revenue during the third quarter isn't exactly a big needle-mover, if cryptocurrencies experience a resurgence, it could certainly evolve into a bigger piece of the pie. Story continues This high-flying tech leader has been cut in half Graphics chip leader NVIDIA has done extremely well in recent years thanks to booming sales for PC gaming and data center applications. However, another major application of graphics cards -- cryptocurrency mining -- has seen demand fall off a cliff as many mining activities are simply no longer profitable. In a nutshell, the demand drop combined with an abundance of inventory has hurt pricing power. The company expects cash flow to be depressed for the next few quarters, at a minimum. For now, NVIDIA is aggressively buying back shares to take advantage of its lower share price -- which is down by more than 50% from its 2018 high. And once the dust settles from the current supply and demand problem, NVIDIA will still have a thriving data center and gaming business to generate cash flow and has several potential future catalysts such as applications for self-driving cars , medical imaging, and robotics, just to name a few, as my colleague John Ballard recently wrote . And while cryptocurrency mining isn't a major revenue stream for the company right now, that could certainly change if bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices rise to the point where mining becomes worthwhile once again. Crypto investments and lots of room to grow First off, Goldman Sachs has backed off from the actual cryptocurrency markets. In September, the investment banking giant reportedly scrapped its plans to open a cryptocurrency trading desk, mainly due the uncertain regulatory environment digital assets are facing right now. However, Goldman does have substantial capital invested in blockchain- and cryptocurrency-related start-ups. For starters, in 2015 Goldman invested in Circle, a blockchain technology company which recently introduced a U.S.-dollar backed "stablecoin." And just recently, Goldman invested in digital asset custodian BitGo. So, it's fair to say that Goldman is poised to benefit as blockchain technology evolves. In addition, the company also has a thriving business, including a rapidly growing but still young consumer banking business that could bring in tons of new customers over the coming years. More From The Motley Fool 16 Cryptocurrency Facts You Should Know Experts Warned – The Crypto ‘Bloodbath’ Is Here How to Buy Bitcoin Matthew Frankel, CFP owns shares of Square. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Nvidia and Square. The Motley Fool has the following options: short January 2019 $80 calls on Square. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || This Week in Crypto: Ohio Embraces Bitcoin, Judge Hassles SEC, and DJ Khaled Fined for ICO Promotion: The last week of November was all about taxes, regulation, and SEC enforcement for Bitcoin and the wider crypto ecosystem. • Sirin Labs Launches the FINNEY: The world’s first blockchain phone on the market,the FINNEY, launched at an event in Barcelona on Thursday. CCN’s Josiah Wilmoth wason the scene. The phone, its dApp store, and native blockchain integration have many wondering if crypto has finally arrived. • Ohcrypto — Ohio State Government Embraces Cryptocurrency: Ohio state treasurer Josh Mandeldefended his state’s decisionto allow tax payments via Bitcoin on Bloomberg news. Earlier in the week, the statehad announced the move, complete with a web portal for doing so. Crypto critics commented that the move wasn’t a full embrace of cryptocurrency because the state used BitPay, while traditional finance critics expressed concern about the “ease” of using cryptos. Any way you slice it, Ohio is the first of these United States to take such a step, one that Mandel referred to as “small.”Does that mean Bitcoin is becoming a “real” currency? • NodeJS Module Vulnerability Compromises CoPay and Tons of Other Web Wallets: Avulnerability in an upstream NodeJS packageput millions of Bitcoin addresses at risk through “what can objectively be referred to as social engineering, laziness, and incompetence.” CCN asks why BitPay, who relied on this module and relies on several others, does not simply contribute more to the packages it relies upon or fork them and locally import updates. • Bitcoin SV Sees 48% Rebound: Bitcoin SV presents itself as a more serious contender this week, with the market recognizing its efforts ina 48% reboundamidoverall market decline. Analystsbelievethat Big Bitcoin will be down for a while yet. HODLers not affected. Following a minor sleight in a California federal court, the federal government seems to have flexed its regulatory muscles this week. • Treasury Lists and Bans Bitcoin Addresses as Part of Sanctions: For the first time this week, theUS Treasury specifically bannedsome Bitcoin addresses for interactions with US persons. It’s important to note that it’s already illegal under existing sanctions for any US person to do most types of business with Iran or Iranian nationals, so the listing of Bitcoin addresses is only notable in that it is a first, not that it mentions a form of payment. Treasury listed the addresses of two Iranian men in designating them as especially unable to do business with US persons – meaning that in the event sanctions are dropped, these people are still persona non grata. Anonymous Bitcoinersresponded by sending the addressesa bit of Bitcoin with political messages. • Bulgarian Authorities Seize $3M in Ill-Begotten Crypto: CCN’s David Hendeyincovered the Bulgarian seizureof some $3 million in illegally obtained cryptocurrency. He wrote, “The case highlights the increasing capacity of governments and regulators to track cryptocurrency transactions as they look to close all loopholes permitting money laundering, tax evasion, and terror financing. In September, CCN reported that blockchain research company Diar published data showing that U.S. government agencies have collectively spent $5.7 million hiring contractors who perform blockchain analysis, which involves linking an individual’s identity with their cryptocurrency funds.” • Judge Tells SEC They Didn’t Prove Blockvest ICO Is A Security: In what mightamount to a legal precedent, a California federal judge told the SEC it had not adequately proven that Blockvest was a security under federal law. This doesn’t mean Blockvest is off the hook, merely that the injunction and freezing of their assets will not carry on prior to a conviction. From the report, “In a brilliant defense, Blockvest claimed its tokens were only used for testing of the exchange, nothing more. The meat and potatoes of the defense was also that the majority of the people ‘investing’ were friends known well to defendant Reginald Buddy Ringgold III, and that claims they had made online regarding the raising of “$2.5 million” were overly optimistic, relied on a single investor, and that that deal had fallen through.” • DJ Khaled and Floyd Mayweather Formally Charged for Fraudulently Promoting ICOs: CCN’s Samantha Cheng detailed the charges (and settlements) against Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled, who had promoted the Centra Tech ICO last year and neglected to tell anyone they were paid promoters, among other questionable activities. Khaled and Mayweather were not required to admit wrongdoing in the settlementwhich amounts to a collective $767,500 between them. • French Regulators Get Upset about Retail Bitcoin: The French version of the SECwent on the offensiveagainst a crypto start-up in France that intends to sell Bitcoin at retail stores across the country beginning early 2019. The move follows reports in the crypto space that the start-up, KeplerK, had received explicit approvalfrom an affiliate of the same body. • Israeli Entrepreneur Moshe Hogeg Accused of Misusing ICO Funds: CCN’s Mark Ememreported on the allegationsagainst renowned Israeli cryptonaught Moshe Hogeg, who is accused of draining funds from two ICO-backed companies and thereby making them insolvent. From the report: “As a result, 17 individuals who claim to be shareholders of IDC Investdotcom Holdings, the company associated with Hogeg and which is more popularly known as Invest.com, have filed a petition seeking to liquidate the firm. A temporary liquidator has subsequently been appointed by a court in Tel Aviv, according to The Times of Israel.” Hogeg denies the allegations and has filed a counter-suit. With aBitcoin ETF still in the distant future, crypto exchanges remain dedicated to easing the entrance of traditional capital into the volatile crypto markets. Meanwhile, the Chairman of Waterchain told Forbes readers that crypto will create“an entirely new economy”and a high-ranking NYSE authority saidcrypto isn’t going anywhere. • Coinbase Adds Ethereum Classic and Zcash: Coinbase addedEthereum Classic, the Ethereum whose blockchain never hard forked in response to the DAO hack. They alsoadded Zcash, but apparently, itdidn’t help ZEC much. • HBUS Launches Cheeky Billboard Campaign:Huobi-affiliated HBUS haslaunched a billboard campaignin California which touts itself as “evolved” while “Coin base” (note the space) is referred to as the Homo erectus of trading. • Nasdaq Announces Bitcoin Futures Market: In an important precursor, Nasdaq has said itwill be launching a “transparent and regulated” Bitcoin futures marketin early 2019. Nasdaq will not be the only ones in this space early next year. From the report: “Nasdaq’s rival ICE (Intercontinental Exchange) — the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange — is also charging ahead with its own plans to launch a physically-settled bitcoin futures product in the first quarter of 2019. Bakkt, a cryptocurrency exchange built by ICE, plans to roll out its bitcoin futures market on January 24, after scrapping the original launch date of Dec. 12, 2018. AsCCN reported, ICE cited an unforeseen increase in demand for its futures product, the Bakkt Bitcoin (USD) Daily Futures Contract, for the delay.” • Huobi Creates Exchange-Centric Stablecoin HUSD: Huobi has created a stablecoin for its users — not a tradeable coin like others, but a product within their exchange —they are calling HUSD, which is composed of four major stablecoins: Gemini Dollar, Paxos Standard, USDCoin, and True USD. • USDT Announces Native Redemption With Steep Fee Schedule: In a perplexing move, Tether announced that it will allow direct redemption of Tether over $100,000, following a move by Bitfinex toward “stablecoin neutrality. From the report: “Users who want to cash out USDT at Bitfinex will do so at market rates, rather than 1-for-1, right along with the other stablecoins that are being offered. As we’ve reported in the past, tether occasionally divorces from its dollar peg due to market pressures, sometimes by as much or more than five cents. […] On the other hand, newcomer Paxos Standard (PAX) charges no fees. Withdrawals are not instant due to the way Paxos works, but they happen on a regular schedule which is published by the company. They also reserve the right to change their fee structure at any time. Similarly, Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) does not charge a fee for withdrawals. Both it and Paxos have a minimum of $100 for conversions.” • Paxos Standard Gains Traction at Binance: Paxos Standardannouncedit will now be a base token in six new pairs at Binance this week, with the potential for more based on the performance of those markets. Binance currently relies heavily USDT for stablecoin markets butrecently launched USDⓈ, a combined stablecoin market that will apparently integrate as many stablecoins as the world’s largest crypto exchange’s markets can handle. Images from Shutterstock The postThis Week in Crypto: Ohio Embraces Bitcoin, Judge Hassles SEC, and DJ Khaled Fined for ICO Promotionappeared first onCCN. || Oil Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Production Cut Agreement Should Be Supportive: U.S. West Texas Intermediateand international benchmarkBrent crude oilfutures finished higher last week, helped by the news that OPEC along with other major exporters including Russia reached an agreement to reduce production in an effort to curtail supply and stabilize prices. Technically, the markets settled higher for a second week, indicating their may have been a little speculative buying mixed in with short-covering. According to the report, the OPEC-led group agreed to rollback output by 1.2 million bpd during the first six months of 2019. The production cuts fell right in line with forecasts heading into the meeting. Traders were looking for the cuts to fall between 1.0 million and 1.4 million barrels per day. A breakdown of the agreement shows OPEC members agreed to trim production by 800,000 bpd, while non-OPEC producers agreed to shave 400,000 bpd off the market. A further breakdown shows Saudi Arabia will reduce its production down to about 10.7 million bpd in December and to 10.2 million bpd in January. Russia is going to be responsible for cutting about 228,000 to 230,000 bpd. In other news, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that domestic crude supplies fell by 7.3 million barrels for the week-ended November 30. This was the first reported draw in 11 weeks. Analysts had forecast a decline of 2.39 million barrels. The EIA also said gasoline stockpiles rose by 1.7 million barrels the week-ended November 30, while distillate stockpiles climbed by 3.8 million barrels. Traders were looking for a supply increase of 357.000 barrels in gasoline and a 1.25 million barrel build in distillate inventories. The technical chart pattern indicates that buying is increasing. A key fundamental obstacle is out of the way so I expect to see more short-covering and speculative buying this week. Additionally, the markets could get a boost from a weaker U.S. Dollar, which could drive up foreign demand for U.S. crude. Gains could be capped by concerns over a slowing global economy, worries over a potential escalation in the U.S.-China trade dispute and stock market weakness and volatility. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Rebound and Form Bull Flag Pattern • Bitcoin – Bulls Need Another Win to Calm the Nerves • What is Price Action and How to Analyse Candlesticks • Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast – crude oil markets looking to find a bottom • Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 08/12/18 • Advantages of the stock market [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] #cryptocurrency Price Analysis for #Bitsend #BSD : Last Hour Change : 1.56 % || 18-12-2018 12:00 Price in #USD : 0.0662699387 || Price in #EUR : 0.0582521376 New Price in #Bitcoin #BTC : 0.00001893 || #Coin Rank 634 || #BitValve #ICO #PREICO #btv #cryptocurrency #bitcoin #ethereumhttps://twitter.com/bitvalve/status/1075506448648560641 … || Top 10 Mentions on Twitter in the last hour - $BTC $ETH $LTC $XRP $TRX $EOS $HOT $XLM $BCH $XVG More on http://CoinTrendz.com  pic.twitter.com/LjBEvYVbZC || Jan 21, 2019 11:00AM #Bitcoin Price: USD 3588.17 | EUR 3120.07 | JPY 388127.42 || Malware Mines Monero On Cloud Servers https://www.ethnews.com/malware-mines-monero-on-cloud-servers … #Blockchain #Crypto #BTC #EOS #ETH #bitcoin #LTC #XLM #IOTA #NEO #dash #ETC #BCH #XRP #ZeCash #Cardano #ADA #IOHK #TRX #TMT #fintech || 2019/01/17 01:30 #Binance 格安コイン 1位 #NPXS 0.00000013 BTC(0.05円) 2位 #HOT 0.00000017 BTC(0.07円) 3位 #BCN 0.00000022 BTC(0.09円) 4位 #DENT 0.00000030 BTC(0.12円) 5位 #NCASH 0.00000048 BTC(0.19円) #仮想通貨 #アルトコイン #草コイン || oops! #Bitcoin https://www.ccn.com/oops-south-korean-crypto-exchange-accidentally-sends-traders-5-million-in-bitcoin/ … || Hey, plus que quelques heures pour tenter de remporter une clé Ledger Nano S, le livre "Bitcoin métamorphoses" ou un tshirt les hackeuses!!! Rendez-vous sur http://cryptoquiz.fr  : http://www.cryptoquiz.fr/pages/quiz-leshackeuses-atelier-blockchain.html … @LesHackeuses @jfavier92300 @AdliTB @Ben_BitConseil @LedgerHQpic.twitter.com/0PiSQfLASM || Sorry if I go too braggy here, but I sincerely see @witnet_io as the most disruptive one thing we've seen since Bitcoin and Ethereum themselves. If you wonder "when mainnet?": late this year. Going from testnet to mainnet is no joke. You get everything right or you are reckt! || Binance Jersey launched! Trade BTC and ETH for EUR and GDP now. Join me now on the link below! I love Binance http://bit.ly/binance-je  #binance #bitcoin #ethereum #gdppic.twitter.com/ujs6ZHMqvA
Trend: up || Prices: 3486.18, 3457.79, 3487.95, 3521.06, 3464.01, 3459.15, 3466.36, 3413.77, 3399.47, 3666.78
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-04-17] BTC Price: 1193.91, BTC RSI: 59.23 Gold Price: 1289.40, Gold RSI: 74.00 Oil Price: 52.65, Oil RSI: 60.90 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin Crash Creates Golden Opportunity: I’ve been wrong about my timing of the silver and gold trade twice now. Once to my followers in Momentum Trader and another time in a much more public way, on Bloomberg the end of last year. My fundamental investment thesis surrounding gold hasn’t been wrong just my timing. And now, with gold prices bouncing off $1,200 and last week’s Bitcoin debacle I’m taking another stab at it. The Bitcoin debacle I’m referring to is last week’s decision by the SEC to reject the Winklevoss Twins’ proposal for a Bitcoin ETF. An ETF would have helped to legitimize the cryptocurrency and expose it to an entire new market of potential investors. The SEC’s decision was based on the unregulated nature of the Bitcoin market itself. With no way of overseeing the underlying investment, there was no way the SEC could give it a stamp of approval. You could argue that Bitcoin and gold are both alternatives to global fiat currencies. Neither has a central bank which governs them nor do they pay interest. They are both a store of value and can be held anonymously. Gold and silver have a tendency to track with each other so I’m including it when I look for stock ideas. Of course there’s one giant difference between the two. Gold has been a historic store of value for ages and something you can physically possess. Bitcoin is a digital currency that was created from nothing a few years ago. There is still a huge amount of skepticism surrounding Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. A rash of high profile hacks, essentially digital bank robberies, have loomed like a cloud over Bitcoin for years. This ETF would have been something like a Bitcoin coming out party. However, that was not the case and Bitcoin’s value plunged in Friday trading. Nearly simultaneous there was a huge rally in gold prices with the metal bouncing from just under $1,200 an ounce, an obvious psychological support level. Gold still does have an inverse relationship with yields. As interest rates rise you tend to see pressure on gold prices. We all know the Fed is going to hike rates next week. That is a huge negative on gold pricing. But if the metal can rally even in the face of that hike, then there could be overpowering fundamentals at play. Story continues One way to play a potential continuation of silver and gold’s move higher is to look at the silver and gold miners. A lot of these companies got lean and mean in order to survive the plummet in prices and have emerged with much stronger balance sheets. They have found ways to minimize their acquisition costs and streamline their mining process. I’ve put together a list here of gold stocks that are Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stocks for you to investigate a little further. Alamos Gold (AGI) Alamos Gold Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and extraction of gold deposits in North America. It also explores for silver and precious metals. The company holds interests in the Young-Davidson mine, which includes contiguous mineral leases and claims totaling 11,000 acres located in Northern Ontario, Canada; the Mulatos mine located within the Salamandra Concessions in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range in the east-central portion of the State of Sonora, Mexico; and the El Chanate mine that comprises 22 mineral concessions covering 4,618 hectares situated in the State of Sonora, Mexico. It also holds interests in a portfolio of development stage projects in Mexico, Turkey, Canada, and the United States. Avino Silver (ASM) Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. engages in the production and sale of silver, gold, and copper bulk concentrates; and the exploration, evaluation, and acquisition of mineral properties. The company owns 42 mineral claims and leases 4 mineral claims in the state of Durango, Mexico. It also holds 100% interests in the Bralorne mine located in the Lillooet mining division, British Columbia, Canada; and the Eagle property located in the Mayo mining division of Yukon, Canada. Fortuna Silver (FSM) Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. engages in the exploration, extraction, and processing of mineral properties in Latin America. The company explores for silver, gold, lead, and zinc deposits. It holds interests in the Caylloma mine located in the Arequipa Department in southern Peru; and the San Jose mine located in the State of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Great Panther Silver (GPL) Great Panther Silver Limited, a silver mining and exploration company, engages in the mining of mineral properties in Mexico. It explores for silver, gold, lead, and zinc. The company holds interests in the Topia Mine and Guanajuato Mine Complex properties. It also holds mineral property interests in the exploration stage, such as the El Horcon and Santa Rosa projects located in Mexico, and Coricancha Mine Complex located in the Central Andes of Peru. Bottom Line I think Bitcoin blowing up here could benefit gold and silver over the short run. That being said, a great way to play the rise in these metals could be to look at the silver and gold miners. This is a short list to start researching the best one to buy. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Great Panther Silver Limited (GPL): Free Stock Analysis Report Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. (FSM): Free Stock Analysis Report Avino Silver (ASM): Free Stock Analysis Report Alamos Gold Inc. (AGI): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research || The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update: I don’t even understand the concept ofWindows 10 Creators Update, which you can download starting Tuesday, April 11. In 2015, Microsoft (MSFT) announced that Windows 10 would be thelast named version of Windowsever. That thereafter, the company wouldn’t release huge megalithic new versions, as it always had before—it would, instead, trickle out improvements and new features as they were ready, piece by piece. “Windows will be delivered as a service, bringing new innovations and updates in an ongoing manner,” the company said. Well, so much for that. Apparently, we’re back on the annual schedule. The other baffling element is the name: Creators Update. As it turns out, most of the features that would have justified that title never saw the light of day. Evidently Microsoft figured it couldn’t have them ready in time for its big 2017 update,and abandoned them. For example, there was supposed to be a cool app that would let you wave your phone around an object and automatically generate a 3-D model of it on the screen. There was supposed to be an app called Groove Music, something along the lines of Apple’s GarageBand. Thepromised People baron the taskbar never materialized, either. So what did make the cut? Lots of stuff that keeps up with other operating systems, and lots of small refinements. Here’s an overview. • Anew columnin the Start menu. Microsoft has moved the icons for Power (containing the Restart, Shut Down, and Sleep commands), Settings, File Explorer (new desktop window) icon, and Personal (containing “Change account settings,” “Lock,” and “sign out”). Instead of clogging up the main Start menu, they now appear in a special, skinny vertical stack of buttons at its far left. As a result, the main (middle) Start menu column lists only apps. This is good stuff. • Hide the apps.On the other hand, you can hide that list of apps, so that the entire Start menu is made of tiles. (You do that in Settings -> Personalize -> Start.) • Foldersin the tiled area of your Start menu. Just drag one tile atop another to create a new folder. You’ve just created a tile that, when clicked, sprouts tiles showing its contents. Another win for common sense. • Control Panelis gone from the Start menu contextual menu. That’s anunenhancement for most people. • Action Center updates.Volume and brightness sliders now appear in the Action Center, saving you a click or two every time you tweak them. • Dynamic lock.If you pair your smartphone (even an iPhone) with your PC using Bluetooth and turn this feature on, then the PC locks automatically when you walk away with your phone. It takes about 30 seconds for the computer to notice that you’re gone, so it’s not what you’d call Fort Knox security. But it’s better than no safety net at all. • Privacy settingsfor your apps’ access to your location, calendar, typing, and so on are now listed individually. OK, fine. • More control overaccent colors(title bars, Start menu, taskbar, action center); for example, you can specify any color you like. You’re no longer limited to a handful of shades. • Downloadable themes(desktop wallpaper photos with associated color schemes) in the Microsoft Store. • Night Lightchanges the screen tones from blue to warmer ones, on the theory that blue light messes up your sleep juice before bed. • In Settings -> Apps and features,you can now restrict Windows 10 to running apps that came from the Windows Store—and, in theory, have been proven to be safe by Microsoft. (See also: Gatekeeper on the Mac.) • Microsoft’s voice assistant now understands yourrequests for recurring reminders. So you can say, for example, “Remind me every Friday at 5 p.m. to buy the party pizza,” or “Remind me about my anniversary once a year.” • More commands.You can now turn off, lock, restart, or sleep your PC computer with a voice command to Cortana. You can also adjust your computer’s playback volume by voice, and play/pause/skip tracks from the iHeartRadio and TuneIn apps. You can even ask Cortana, “What song is this?” • More appscan respond to Cortana commands, including Netflix (NFLX), Hulu, Twitter (TWTR), Pandora (P), and so on. (Here’s the complete list.) To learn what commands an app can understand, type its name into Cortana. • Full-screen Cortana.Once you’ve left your PC unused for at least 10 seconds, you can say, “Hey, Cortana” to see Cortana’s full-screen mode, where text is big enough to read from across the room. • You can alsonavigate the Windows 10 setup processby voice. • Save sets of tabsfor later re-use. • Tab previews!Point to a tab without clicking to see a miniature of the window it represents. Or click the little down-arrow button to see thumbnails of all of them at once. • No Flashon unknown websites. • You canread ebooksfrom Microsoft’s new ebooks store (or other ePub-format documents) right in the browser. You can adjust the font, type size, or page color, and even have it read aloud to you. • Paint 3Dis one of the few pieces left of the grand 3-D vision that Microsoft originally defined for the Creators Update. It’s a simple app that lets you create 3-D shapes by combining, turning, and resizing basic spheres, cones, rectangles, and so on. • If your PC has a touchscreen, and you have a stylus, you can draw a path in the Maps app; the app tells you itsreal-world distance. • The newTraffic Check iconin Maps produces an estimate of the driving time to your work address, if you’ve recorded it. • Draw or write on photos and videosin the Photos app, using your finger or a stylus. (If you write on a video, your writing will appear during playback at that spot.) • New filtersin the Photos app. • More “Insights” inSticky Notes. The Sticky Notes app spot data types like fight numbers, email and web addresses, phone numbers, and stock abbreviations. Once those items turn blue, you can click them to produce a related command button. For example, click a phone number to see a Call button, or a date to see an Add Reminder button. • An evolving Settings app.There’s now a page called Apps, where you’ll find all of your programs’ settings. The redesigned System -> Display page has been reorganized. On the Devices -> Bluetooth & Other Devices page, you now get a single screen to manage all of your peripherals. • TheStorage Space feature, if you turn it on, monitors your PC and automatically deletes temporary files and empties the Recycle Bin after 30 days. • Centralized troubleshooter. In Settings -> Update & security -> Troubleshoot, Microsoft has assembled icons for all of Windows’s troubleshooting wizards in one place. • A revampedsecurity center, with a one-click Fresh Start button that reinstalls Windows when things are really messed up. (Unfortunately, this new app is called Windows Defender Security Center, which is not the same thing as the regular Windows Defender anti-malware app. Confusing.) • Specify longer work days,of up to 18 hours (“Active hours”), during which Windows will never restart to install an update. • Game Modeis supposed to give you better frame rates (smoother game animation) by dedicating more PC resources to your game, but most people report the difference isn’t noticeable. • Beam:you can now broadcast the games you’re playing live to the internet, and interact with your admirers. • A new Share menu.Now, if you want to send a page (or other material) to someone else, you have to look for Windows’s special Share icon. There’s no longer a Share panel on the side of the screen, and the Windows+H keystroke is dead. • Copy screenshot.Press Windows key+Shift+S to copy a rectangular area of your screen to your clipboard. (The existing screenshot shortcuts are still around.) • Accessibility upgradesinclude compatibility with Braille devices; availability of the Narrator during installation (and during the Windows Recovery Environment); and the keyboard shortcut for Narrator is now Ctrl+Windows key+Enter (rather than Windows key+Enter), in hopes of making it less likely that you’ll hit it accidentally. • Better ink.If you have a touchscreen and stylus, you can do more when you write on the screen. For example, you can add more to a drawing you’ve made earlier, you can erase only part of a line, and you get improved onscreen tools like protractor and ruler. Microsoft says that it has also made zillions of under-the-hood changes: better stability and security, greater options for software companies to exploit Windows’s power. So no, Creators Update isn’t nearly as big a deal as Microsoft originally intended—actually, not an especially big deal at all. But even though most of the changes are small, they build on Windows 10, which was already coherent, attractive, and stable. If you already have Windows 10, Creators Update is free. So download away—even if you wonder why it’s called what it’s called. More from David Pogue: Now I get it: Bitcoin David Pogue tested 47 pill-reminder apps to find the best one David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers I paid $3,000 for my MacBook Pro and got emotional whiplash Here’s the real money-maker for the Internet of Things David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes non-toxic comments in the Comments below. On the web, he’sdavidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s@pogue. On email, he’s poguester@yahoo.com. You canread all his articles here, or you can sign up toget his columns by email. || AT&T’s Union Deal Reverses Outsourcing 3,000 Jobs: Amid several more contentious labor negotiations, and its biggest union announced they had settled terms early for a unit that covers 20,000 workers in the south. The Communications Workers of America and AT&T said they had struck a tentative four-year contract deal for workers in the company’s wired telephone, cable, and Internet business in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas a month before the old contract expired. A key piece of the deal, which still must be approved by the workers, is a promise by AT&T to hire 3,000 people locally for jobs that have been previously outsourced, mostly overseas. The agreement comes as AT&T is facing tougher talks with the CWA over contracts that have already expired for 21,000 workers in the company’s wireless business and 17,000 workers in the phone, Internet, and cable units in Nevada and California. While negotiations continue in those cases, the workers have been protesting around the country andauthorized a strike, if necessary. But AT&T has had mostly good relations with its workers in recent years-unlike Communications , which suffereda bitter, seven-week strikelast year. Friday’s announcement marks another in a long line of successful deals. Since the start of 2015, AT&T has completed 28 straight deals with its unions, covering 123,000 workers. The last strike at the company was in 2012, and just for two days. Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter. Under the deal announced on Friday, workers will get wage increases totaling over 11% over the four years and two weeks of paid parental leave for mothers or fathers, AT&T said. The CWA highlighted that the deal included “affordable” healthcare plans, one of the sticking points in the two more contentious negotiations. But the commitment by AT&T to hire locally for jobs previously outsourced may have been just as important. Like the Verizon workers who went out on strike, AT&T’s workers have also lately been focused on their employer’s outsourcing of call center jobs outside of the country. The union charges that the carrier has moved 8,000 call center jobs since 2011 to countries including the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and the Philippines. Halting the offshoring of call center jobs has also been the focus of a growing number of Democratic lawmakers in Congress. They introduced legislation this week, with the backing of the CWA,to discourage call center offshoring, after a plea to President Donald Trump to take such action by executive order was ignored. AT&T said it committed to hire 3,000 people in the local areas to fill work that is currently mostly performed offshore. “We worked with the union to bring work opportunities to the region,” a spokesman for the company tellsFortune. “Regarding the type of jobs, we will make those decisions as we work through and evaluate the needs of our business-we will consider all areas of our operations in the Southwest and place them where it makes the most sense.” See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com • This Scam Surpassed Identity Theft for the First Time Ever Last Year • Why NBC's Snap IPO Investment Is One of Its Biggest Bets Ever • Bitcoin Just Became More Valuable Than Gold • Here's How Snap's IPO Just Proved We're In a Tech Bubble • This Amazing Stat Suggests the Trump Bump Will Continue || Bitcoin site CoinDesk poaches Bloomberg exec as new CEO: CoinDesk, the leading trade publication covering bitcoin and blockchain news, has a new CEO, its first: Kevin Worth, former CFO of Bloomberg Digital Media. While digital currency may be a non-traditional coverage area, the job otherwise looks like an obvious fit with Worth’s background in managing digital content businesses. In the late 90s, Worth worked in corporate strategic planning at the New York Times. Then he was founding CEO of The Deal, the financial data and news site funded by investment banker Bruce Wasserstein. Worth stayed on for a year after The Deal sold to The Street. He spent the past couple of years as CFO of Bloomberg’s digital and television businesses. Just over 12 months ago, in January 2016,CoinDesk sold to Digital Currency Group, the biggest investment firm in bitcoin and blockchain startups (withinvestments in over 90), led by Barry Silbert, the founder of SecondMarket. DCG placed its own Ryan Selkis in charge of CoinDesk on the business side, but pledged that Selkis and DCG would have no involvement in editorial decisions at the site. Selkis was never CoinDesk’s CEO; Worth is its first. He will run business and editorial, the way that a typical magazine publisher would; the site’s editor is Pete Rizzo. CoinDesk has 13 full-time employees.Last month, the site made its first acquisition:the bitcoin data app Lawnmower. Lawnmower’s historical price data and charts, as well as its staff, got folded into CoinDesk’s in-house research arm (which produces reports such as a new one on blockchains for insurance), a sign it is serious about the information-selling side of its business. DCG’s main interest in CoinDesk was always for Consensus, its live bitcoin conference in May, first held in 2015. Last year, the event attracted 1,5000 attendees. Worth, from his time at Bloomberg, has seen the growth of live events as a money-maker for publishers. These days, live programming is a vital arm of the business for news organizations like Time Inc, Business Insider, and Re/code. Under Worth, expect CoinDesk to place further emphasis on two pillars: live events like Consensus, and research reports for a fee. “To me, if you look at where the value in the content marketplace is being created,” Worth says, “it’s live events and business information products. I see an opportunity for CoinDesk to gain a pole position in becoming the must-have, go-to resource for the industry.” Worth sounds more fired up about events and information than the news side, which is what CoinDesk is for many of its readers: a vital news outlet. He confirms that Consensus, for now, is his “main focus.” So, moving forward, will CoinDesk look more like a data resource, or a news blog? “I think it’s a little all-of-the-above,” Worth says. “I can tell you that the playbooks I have had in the past think about having many different audiences, and how to serve all of them. What got me so excited about coming is that it’s pretty much a whiteboard.” In terms of news coverage, it sounds like CoinDesk may soon see itself less as a mainstream news site covering bitcoin and blockchain news for the masses. When asked if other business news outlets that cover bitcoin news are competitors, Worth says, “If they are serving a broad, general interest community, then no. We are keeping our eye on serving industry professionals.” Just a few months ago, Worth knew very little about the digital currency bitcoin, and the blockchain technology that underpins it. (What exactly is blockchain?Watch this video.) After Barry Silbert called, “I did a lot of research and started to learn a lot more, and I drank the kool-aid, if you will,” says Worth. He hasn’t bought any bitcoin as an investment just yet. Digital currency, Worth says, “feels a little bit to me like when the first Internet hype came. There is a tremendous need to understand all the potential implications, people trying to understand it and make sense of it. From my time at Bloomberg I’m close to the world of institutional finance, and that’s an industry that hasn’t really had the amount of transformation that has gone on in, say, the media business. So, let’s see where the opportunity is for those businesses to transform, which are much more fundamental to the global economy.” As the interest in blockchain technology (especially from banks) has grown, CoinDesk has grown and expanded its purview from bitcoin, to additional digital assets like Litecoin, Ripple, and Ethereum, to blockchain news. In the near future, Worth sees the challenge and competition coming from data providers, not necessarily media outlets. “I see this as a wide open field,” he says. “What I’m focused on, to be honest with you, it’s not other media or content companies that are the competition, but other information providers who might move into the space, whether that’s consulting firms or other information providers. But we ought to be smarter than them, because they may just have two or three people looking at it and we have a whole team.” Other information providers that might move into the bitcoin and blockchain space? That sounds like it could include… Bloomberg, his old employer. And that’s fine for Worth, who says he learned a great deal while there. “I understand what their business model is about. It’s really the only company I can think of where they have scale but it’s still dominated by the owner, who is still the CEO and it’s his capital and you follow his lead,” Worth says. After his years there, he’s ready for something “entrepreneurial.” And that’s why Silbert tapped Worth, he says: corporate experience that can help turn a modest-sized blog into a full-scale information seller. “I believe digital currency is a transformational asset class that will attract meaningful amounts of capital over time,” Silbert says. (It’s a sound bite he likes to repeat.) “And then there’s a lot of interest in blockchain, and distributed ledger technology, to make processes more efficient… We’re obviously super bullish on bitcoin, blockchain technology, and all the applications that are going to come. All we needed was an experienced operator like Kevin to come in and help scale the business.” CoinDesk expects to become profitable this year. — Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering technology and media. Follow him on Twitter at@readDanwrite. Read more: Bitcoin is becoming the new gold Expect more blockchain hype in 2017 Here’s where big banks stand on blockchain Why 21.co is the most exciting bitcoin company right now || Bitcoin dives after the SEC shoots down plans for another bitcoin ETF: (Attendants pose with a bitcoin sign during the opening of Hong Kong's first bitcoin retail store.Reuters/Bobby Yip) Bitcoin has slid into negative territory after the US Securities and Exchange Commission rejected the plans for the SolidX Bitcoin ETF.The cryptocurrency is down 0.7% at $1,033 a coin. It was as high as $1,066 earlier on Tuesday. The regulator cited the fact that bitcoin is traded on unregulated markets, which means the SEC wouldn't be able to prevent fraud or market manipulation.In its ruling theSEC said: "As discussed further below, the Commission is disapproving this proposed rule change because it does not find the proposal to be consistent with Section 6(b)(5) of the Exchange Act, which requires, among other things, that the rules of a national securities exchange be designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices and to protect investors and the public interest. The Commission believes that, in order to meet this standard, an exchange that lists and trades shares of commodity-trust exchange-traded products (“ETPs”) must, in addition to other applicable requirements, satisfy two requirements that are dispositive in this matter. First, the exchange must have surveillance-sharing agreements with significant markets for trading the underlying commodity or derivatives on that commodity. And second, those markets must be regulated. Tuesday's announcement follows a similar ruling that was reached on March 10, when the SEC said it had rejected the Winklevoss twins' bitcoin ETF. 2017 has been a volatile year for bitcoin. The cryptocurrency gained 20% in the first week of the year, but soon crashed 35% after reports surfaced that China was going to crack down on trading. First,China's biggest exchanges started charging a flat fee of 0.2% per transaction, then they announced they wereblocking customer withdrawals. But bitcoin continued to climb higher, putting in a peak of $1,327 a coin shortly before the SEC rejected the Winklevoss ETF. Since then, however, bitcoin has tumbled more than 20% following reports developers were threatening a "hard fork" that would split the currency in two. Bitcoin has been the top-performing currency every year since 2010, aside from 2014. A third SEC ruling on a bitcoin ETF, by Grayscale Investments, is also expected to be rejected; although the timing of a final decision is not yet known. (Investing.com) NOW WATCH:7 mega-billionaires who made a fortune last year More From Business Insider • Bitcoin tanks below $1,000 • Bitcoin spikes above $1,000 • Bitcoin tumbles below $1,000 || Bitcoin hits record high above $1,200 on talk of ETF approval: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Digital currency bitcoin jumped to a record high above $1,200 on Friday, as investors speculated the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to be issued in the United States is set to receive regulatory approval. Traditional financial players have largely shunned the web-based "crytpocurrency", viewing it as too volatile, complicated and risky, and doubting its inherent value. But bitcoin, invented in 2008, performed better than any other currency in every year since 2010 apart from 2014, when it was the worst-performing currency, and has added almost a quarter to its value so far this year. It soared to as high as $1,200 per bitcoin in early Asian trading on Europe's Bitstamp exchange, before easing to about $1,190. That put the total value of all bitcoins in circulation -- or the digital currency's "market cap", as it is known -- at close to $20 billion, around the same size as Iceland's economy. Some analysts say regulatory approval of a bitcoin ETF would make the currency relatively attractive to the often more cautious institutional investor market. But despite potentially high returns, low correlations with other currencies and assets, falling volatility and increasing liquidity, there is scant evidence so far that most major players are considering investing in the digital currency. "Bitcoin is just not liquid enough for us to even think about," said Paul Lambert, fund manager and head of currency investment at Insight, in London. "We manage billions and billions of dollars – we'd need to be able to go into that market and trade in hundreds of millions of dollars at a time, and my sense is it's not like that." Three ETFs that track the value of bitcoin have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for approval. The SEC will decide by March 11 whether to approve one filed almost four years ago by investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. If approved, it would be the first bitcoin ETF issued and regulated by a U.S. entity. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly, graphic by Nigl Stephenson) || What Snap’s Pop and Drop IPO Means For ETFs: When Snap, parent company of the Snapchat app, went public last week, it was the hottest initial public offering in more than two years. Hoping to buy in to the latest social media trend, investors bought up Snap's stock hand over fist, propelling shares higher by 44% in their trading debut. At its peak, Snap was valued at more than $34 billion ($29.44/share) and was up more than 70% from its IPO price. The flurry of trading in Snap shares was from investors directly buying into the stock. Most ETFs don't own Snap―at least not yet―and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Pop And Drop After peaking last Friday, shares of the company lost nearly a third of their value to briefly trade below $21. That's the lowest price for the stock since it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange, though still above the IPO price of $17 (large institutional investors that are clients of the underwriting banks are typically the only ones with access to shares at the IPO price). If Wall Street analysts are right, the post-IPO swoon in Snap shares may not be over. According to CNBC, not a single analyst has a "buy" rating on the stock, while six have "sell" ratings on it amid concerns about valuations and slowing user growth. On the other hand, the company's app boasts a massive 158 million daily active users, and grew revenue sevenfold from 2015 to 2016. In essence, bulls hope that Snap becomes the next big social media powerhouse like Facebook, while bears pan it was the next Twitter, a hyped-up company that ends up disappointing investors. No Guarantee Of Place In S&P 500 Given these mixed signals for Snap’s stock, perhaps it's fortunate that most ETFs won't buy in to the company until the dust settles. It will be at least six to 12 months before the committee for the S&P 500 considers including it for inclusion in the large-cap index. That's just the minimum amount of time. It took even longer for other social media heavyweights to join the index. For Google and Facebook, it was 19 months before they were added to the S&P 500. Meanwhile, Twitter has never been included in the S&P 500 despite being larger than many of the index's other components, highlighting the fact that a big market value doesn't guarantee a spot in the venerable index. That means it will be awhile―if ever―before investors see Snap as a holding for theSPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), theTechnology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK)and many other funds tied to the S&P 500. Voting Rights Concerns Adding another roadblock to Snap's journey into ETFs is resistance on the part of some investors to the company's voting structure. None of the Snap shares offered on the market last week have voting rights―an unprecedented situation for an IPO―which leaves firm control of the company in the hands of its two founders. Balking at what it sees as an unfair situation, the Council of Institutional Investors has urged S&P Dow Jones Indices and MSCI to exclude Snap from their indices, according to a Reuters report. Both index providers are reviewing the situation, but a decision is not expected for at least a few months. If S&P and MSCI don't include Snap in their indexes, that means the plethora of ETFs that track those indices won't include it either. Prominent Place In Some ETF With all that said, regardless of what S&P and MSCI decide, a spot for Snap is all but guaranteed in at least some ETFs. TheVanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTI)is a fund that holds all U.S. small cap, midcap and large-cap stocks. It tracks a CRSP index that reconstitutes quarterly. That means Snap could be a VTI holding by June, according to current index rules for IPOs. Of course, whether Snap ends up in an investor's broad stock market ETF is relatively inconsequential. Funds such as VTI are highly diversified, and one company—no matter how big or exciting it is—won't noticeable impact returns. In contrast, for some niche ETFs, Snap has the potential to significantly impact returns. Take theGlobal X Social Media ETF (SOCL), with $84 million in assets. It tracks up to 50 social media companies from around the world, including Facebook, Tencent, Twitter, Yandex and NetEase. YTD Return For SOCL As one of the largest social media companies today, Snap has a prominent place in SOCL's portfolio. As of Wednesday, the company accounted for 4.4% of the fund, making it the 12th-largest holding. Snap Included In IPO ETF Another ETF where Snap will likely feature prominently is the $682 millionFirst Trust U.S. Equity Opportunities ETF (FPX). FPX buys stocks of companies that recently went public, hoping to capitalize on the rapid growth that new public companies often see. FPX holds a basket of the 100 largest IPOs, with an aim to keep them in its portfolio for their first 1,000 trading days, or about four years. Current top holdings include Kraft Heinz, AbbVie, Shire, PayPal and Facebook. Snap is already a holding for FPX, representing a tiny 0.28% of the fund's portfolio, according to the issuer website. That figure is likely to increase substantially at the next quarterly rebalancing later this month. A smaller rival IPO product, the $14 millionRenaissance IPO ETF (IPO), doesn't include Snap as a component yet, but it's expected to become one at the quarterly rebalancing later in March. The ETF keeps its holdings for two years. Top components currently include First Data, TransUnion, Shopify, Univar and Blue Buffalo. YTD Returns For FPX & IPO Contact Sumit Roy atsroy@etf.com Recommended Stories • Why Small Cap ETFs Are Underperforming • Fed Raises Rates, Maintains ‘Gradual’ Pace • SEC Rejects Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF • Swedroe: Political Biases Can Impact Your Investing • Big Bitcoin ETF Decision Coming Today, Or Maybe Not Permalink| © Copyright 2017ETF.com.All rights reserved || USD/CNH Patterns to Watch after PBOC Talks on U.S.- China Relationship: DailyFX.com - This daily digest focuses on Yuan rates, major Chinese economic data, market sentiment, new developments in China’s foreign exchange policies, changes in financial market regulations, as well as market news typically available only in Chinese-language sources. - The USD/CNH is testing a major support. Watch key levels next. - The PBOC Governor addressed on investment negotiations between China and the U.S. - Looking for more trade ideas? Review DailyFX’s 2017 Trading Guides and watch DailyFX webinars . To receive reports from this analyst, sign up for Renee Mu’ distribution list . Yuan Rates USD/CNH Patterns to Watch after PBOC Talks on U.S.- China Relationship Prepared by Michael Boutros . USDCNH is testing the monthly opening-range lows with key support seen at the 61.8% retracement of the January rally at 6. 8391 . The pair has been trading within the confines of a well-defined descending pitchfork formation with the upper median-line parallel highlighting resistance & near-term bearish invalidation at 6.8839 - note that this level also converges on the February high. The near-term focus remains weighted to the downside while below this region with a break lower targeting confluence support at 6.8048 where the 61.8% extension of the decline off the yearly high converges on the 50-line of the operative slope. Subsequent support targets at 6.7765-6.7818 (38.2% retracement & the 2017 opening-range low). From a trading standpoint we’ll favor fading strength while below the upper parallel with a break of the range lows targeting subsequent support objectives. Market News PBOC News : China’s Central Bank. - China’s Central Bank released the full text of Governor Zhou Xiaochuan’s speech at Boao Forum this weekend. “China has been conducting negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty with the U.S., though some of the talks have been suspended. China is waiting for the new U.S. government to decide how to move forward on these talks”, according to the Governor. Mr. Zhou also said that “if the U.S. adopts valued added tax [on imported goods], China welcomes; however, implementing a border adjustment tax is controversial.” Story continues This indicates that the outlook of trade and investment between the two countries still has some uncertainty. This may not be good news for the Chinese economy, as it has already experienced slow growth in exports and imports. - The PBOC announced on Monday that it has hosted a supervision work conference last week for cross-border Yuan business and set targets for the 2017: the regulator will guide the development of offshore Yuan markets and promote cross-border Yuan business to develop in a healthy way. The Chinese regulator has been strengthening oversight on cross-border Yuan transactions and this is likely continue to be the case in 2017. As of March 27th, the “Big Three” Chinese Bitcoin trading platforms, BTCChina, OKCoin and Huobi, have not yet removed restrictions on Bitcoin withdrawals, which came into effect following a series of inspections on illegal cross-border transactions launched by the PBOC. Sina News : China’s most important online media source, similar to CNN in the US. They also own a Chinese version of Twitter, called Weibo, with around 200 million active users monthly. - In the first two months of 2017, China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) made a profit of 201.86 billion Yuan, rising +40.3% compared to the same period last year, according to China’s statistics bureau. In specific, oil, petrochemical, coal and steel industries that experienced major losses last year, all reported gains this January and February. This is likely driven by soaring energy prices. On the other hand, machinery and electricity companies reported significant drops in profits, likely led by the same reason - higher energy costs . To receive reports from this analyst, sign up for Renee Mu’ distribution list . original source DailyFX provides forex news and technical analysis on the trends that influence the global currency markets. Learn forex trading with a free practice account and trading charts from IG . || Hackers Threaten to Wipe iPhones Unless Apple Pays Ransom: A hacker group is trying to extort up to $100,000 from Apple by threatening to remotely wipe hundreds of millions of iPhones and iCloud accounts it claims it has accessed. The Vice website blogMotherboardreports that the hackers — who call themselves the “Turkish Crime Family” — are demanding that Apple either fork over $75,000 in cryptocurrencies Bitcoin or Ethereum or give them $100,000 worth of iTunes gift cards. In exchange, the hackers say they’ll delete the large cache of iCloud and Apple email account data they claim to have. Motherboard says the cybercriminals allegedly have access to anywhere between 300 million and 559 million accounts. The Turkish Crime Family has given Apple a deadline of April 7 to meet its demands. However, before you panic at the thought of losing all your iPhone’s data — including pictures, videos and other files — an Apple spokesperson tellsFortunethat its systems are secure and have not been breached. In an emailed statement to Fortune, an Apple spokesperson writes: “There have not been any breaches in any of Apple’s systems including iCloud and Apple ID. The alleged list of email addresses and passwords appears to have been obtained from previously compromised third-party services.” According to Fortune, it’s possible the hackers’ alleged data cache is from a previous data breach at LinkedIn. Even if Apple’s response leaves you reassured that your iPhone and iCloud data are safe, this is a good reminder to take extra measures to safeguard your personal information and electronic data. For example, activate two-factor authentication and make sure you’re not using the same password on multiple sites. According to Fortune: Apple customers who secure their iCloud accounts with the same passwords they use on other online accounts—especially ones at LinkedIn, Yahoo, Dropbox, and other sites recently revealed to have suffered big breaches over the past few years—should adopt new passwords that are long, strong, and unique. For more on staying secure, check out: • “7 Ways to Guard Your Wallet — and Identity — When Shopping Online“ • “5 Free Tools That Identify Secure Websites“ • “Change Your LinkedIn Password — and Others — ASAP“ Have you had your data stolen before? Share your experiences below or onFacebook. This article was originally published onMoneyTalksNews.comas'Hackers Threaten to Wipe iPhones Unless Apple Pays Ransom'. • 15 Painless Ways to Save $1,000 by Summer • 30 Awesome Things to Do in Retirement • Secret Cell Plans: Savings Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint Don’t Want You to Know About || U.S. investment firm plans launch of first ever ethereum classic private fund: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. investment firm Grayscale Investments plans to launch the first-ever private fund focused on ethereum classic, a blockchain platform, according to Barry Silbert, founder of the company's parent Digital Currency Group. Ethereum classic's token is the seventh largest digital currency in terms of market capitalization, totaling $126.6 million. The coin powers a decentralized blockchain hub in which developers can create different applications that can dramatically enhance the transfer and sharing of information and value. Ethereum classic was built on the same fundamental principles as bitcoin: decentralization and immutability. On Monday, ethereum classic traded at $1.42 on digital asset exchanges. "As investors have grown more interested in digital currency as an asset class, we've also seen growing frustration with the difficulty in purchasing non-bitcoin digital currencies," Silbert told Reuters. "We're excited to launch a fund for ethereum classic to satisfy the growing interest we are seeing in ETC from more mainstream investors." The ethereum classic fund will be an open-ended trust that can raise an unlimited amount of capital, Silbert said. Digital Currency Group will be seeding it with its own capital and it will be offered initially to accredited investors, he added. This will be the second digital currency fund for Grayscale, which launched the Bitcoin Investment Trust in 2013, the only publicly-traded U.S. security in the over-the-counter market invested in bitcoin. Ethereum classic has had a rocky history. It came out of a split from the original ethereum blockchain platform created by Russian programmer Vitalik Buterin and launched in 2015. In April 2016, a blockchain solutions company called Slock.it announced the launch of The DAO on Ethereum. The DAO was designed as a decentralized crowdfunding model, in which anyone could contribute ethereum tokens to become a voting member and equity stakeholder in the organization. Story continues The DAO eventually raised $150 million as of late May last year. But on June 17,2016, an anonymous hacker funneled approximately $60 million in tokens into a separate account. The ethereum network decided to undertake a "hard fork", in which the community would create an entirely new version of the ethereum blockchain, erasing any record of the theft, and restoring the stolen funds to their owners. A new blockhain platform was then formed, keeping its ethereum name, and the original version was branded as ethereum classic. Both ethereum and ethereum classic trade on digital asset exchanges. The new ethereum has a larger market cap of $1.8 billion, with the token trading at $19.97 on Monday (This version of the story corrects the headline and first paragraph to show Grayscale plans to launch ethereum classic private fund, not that it has already launched the fund) (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Andrew Hay) [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Hashnest - http://www.hashnest.com : HASH NEST Bitcoin Mining GHS S9 Fast Support… https://goo.gl/fb/Edh1ah  #bitcoin #btcb0t || Free Bitcoin with Luno - Sign up for Luno and get NGN 100.00 worth of Bitcoin when you buy or sell BTC 0.10, using code: STV44 Sign (1/2) || #bitcoin #miner Antminer S7 4.73 Bitcoin Miner $700.00 http://ift.tt/2oLYTsd pic.twitter.com/2tJiBQ78s9 || Bitcoin、Litecoin、Monero、DASHなどを完全匿名で現金で個人間で簡単に対面売買することができるサイト、btc-trade-p2pの運営をしております。 #暗号通貨　#ビットコイン　#bitcoin　#BTC http://btctrade.web.fc2.com  || $1201.20 at 03:45 UTC [24h Range: $1195.00 - $1219.71 Volume: 3880 BTC] || Qatar Bitcoin Fastest Investments For Income In Retirement, list of businesses. http://ow.ly/pT4v3095fcL  || Bitcoin Price Above $1,000 For One Whole Week, Passes $1,060 http://bit.ly/2l25jAY  || Core Developer: Bitcoin is About Financial Sovereignty, Not Speed - The Merkle https://goo.gl/cWuuKN  https://twitter.com/BitcoinWrld/status/832660001239887877/photo/1pic.twitter.com/4sA3KVyznc  || Aktueller #Bitcoin-Preis: 1155.00 EUR / 1234.23 CHF || http://ift.tt/2m11zgI  "Bitcoin thrives in an over regulated environment because it provides a path for those being regulated out of pros…
Trend: up || Prices: 1211.67, 1210.29, 1229.08, 1222.05, 1231.71, 1207.21, 1250.15, 1265.49, 1281.08, 1317.73
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Researchers Uncover Bitcoin ‘Attack’ That Could Slow or Stop Lightning Payments: The bitcoin lightning network could be vulnerable to a simple and disruptive attack, according to a recentresearch paper. Written by Saar Tochner, Aviv Zohar, and Stefan Schmid, the paper describes a denial-of-service (DoS) attack that could be used to slow down or even stop a huge percentage of payments on the network and, although the behavior hasn’t been seen in the wild and lightning’s technology is still in-progress, it’s considered a major flaw in the network as it stands today. The paper, entitled “Hijacking Routes in Payment Networks,” was published in mid-September. Tochner and Zohar both hail from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem while Schmid works at the University of Vienna. Related:As Lightning’s Economy Takes Shape, Devs Are Split on Proposed Fee Hike “The attack allows for a disruption of payments on the lightning network,” said Zohar. This is possible because each lightning network payment is passed across a network of nodes in order to reach its destination. If one of these middle nodes is a bad actor it can slow the payment down rather than swiftly pass along the payment as it’s supposed to. What’s more, it currently doesn’t take much to execute the denial of service attack, according to Zohar. “It is extremely easy to execute. It takes opening a few lightning channels to key points, promising zero fees, and then not relaying any payments,” he said. Related:Bitcoin’s 3% Price Rise Neutralizes Bearish Setup It’s an attack that the researchers haven’t seen in the wild, but it could potentially make the lightning payment network more difficult to use. And it’s a discovery that has gotten the attention of developers who work on bitcoin and lightning. “I wish I had thought of the attack,” bitcoin researcher Gleb Naumenko told CoinDesk. “The paper is very interesting, so is the analysis of the different heuristics used for path-finding, and we’re very happy to see independent researchers work on how lightning can be abused and attacked,” said lightning startup Acinq CTO Fabrice Drouin. When a user sends a payment across lightning, their app decides which path to take based on many factors, including which node requires the lowest fees. Though there are hundreds of nodes in the lightning network, a bad actor can use this attack to make sure there’s a high probability that their node will be selected. They can do this by “analyzing how each implementation computes routes to design a strategy that enables attackers to get their nodes selected in as many routes as possible,” said Drouin. “We can open channels that offer short and low-cost routes in the network which then are selected (almost always) for the route,” Zohar further explained. By doing this, they can capture a significant portion of the network’s payments at a given time. “We find that just five new links are enough to draw the majority (65% – 75%) of the traffic regardless of the implementation being used,” the paper explains. What’s more, they can do this over and over again to ensure the payment keeps getting stopped. “Then, when a payment request comes in, we can just refuse to pass it onward. When a new path is selected […] the attacker channels are again selected for the route,” Zohar said. As bad as the attack sounds, it hasn’t appeared in the wild – yet. “I think the network is just not in heavy use right now and disrupting it does not cause too much damage. The attack does not directly give funds to the attacker, so the incentive will only be there if lightning is heavily used as a payment network,” Zohar said. It should be noted that, for the attacker, such a maneuver is “not cheap,” Drouin argues, because “attackers need to open actual channels and lock funds, which will get closed and pay on-chain fees whenever a payment is locked and times out.” Still, Zohar argues it’s “not that expensive, given the damage you do,” adding: “You’d need around 20 or so new channels to attack some 80% of all transactions, so the total cost would be around $2000.” Lightning developers agree this is a serious attack vector but they are optimistic that future changes will make the attack much harder. “It’s something [that’s] hard to talk about because we are still developing the pathfinding system in LND and it’s a moving target,” said Alex Bosworth, who is the infrastructure lead at Lightning Labs. LND is an implementation of lightning network made by Lightning Labs. Bosworth further noted that changes are coming in fast, and that the new version of LND that just came out on Tuesday, for example, has some “major changes” that impacts the routing analyzed by the researchers to come up with this attack. “I wouldn’t say that there is any way to conclusively stop people who are trying to disrupt payments because this is a system where the peer-to-peer design means that anyone can participate and route or not route as they prefer,” he said. The lightning code is changing very rapidly and there are plenty of modifications still in the pipeline. Some of these changes could make it a lot harder for bad actors to execute an attack, lightning developers argue, including system for banning “bad” users. “Also, as the network grows, lightning network implementations will deploy more aggressive heuristics to ban misbehaving peers … and such attacks will become more an more short-lived,” Drouin said. “For example, we don’t just look at the cheapest fees when we compute routes, we try to select older channels, so an attacker would have to wait and behave before they can carry out the attack,” he said. Drouin further argued that there are other improvements forthcoming includingtrampoline payments, a feature proposed by Blockstream lightning developer Christian Decker, who was known for independently inventing a payment channel network similar to lightning in 2015. Lightning is supposed to be instant but behind the scenes each node in the network carrying a payment from point A to point B needs to do a little computation as it carries the data. In fact, not all lightning users have equipment that’s powerful enough to perform these calculations, thereby requiring the “trampoline” system. The typical user in today’s network might send a bitcoin payment from a smartphone, for instance, which isn’t exactly a powerful machine. So one idea is to allow these smaller nodes to outsource computation to “trampoline” nodes that have more computational power. Fibre opticsimage via Shutterstock • Looming Death Cross Suggests Bitcoin May Be Nearing Price Bottom • Binance Hikes Leverage to 125x for Launch of Bitcoin-Tether Futures || More than 330 web abusers arrested in operation sparked by one of Britain's worst paedophiles: Matthew Falder was jailed for 32-years - PA A global investigation launched following the conviction of a Cambridge academic for appalling paedophile offences, has resulted in the arrest of more than 300 dark web child abusers. The suspects were detained in 38 countries around the world, including the UK, Ireland, the United States and Saudi Arabia after investigators identified a website hosting a quarter of a million horrific videos. The probe came in the wake of the conviction last year of Dr Matthew Falder, 29, who was jailed for 32-years for conducting a campaign of appalling web based abuse against a string of vulnerable victims. Falder, who had a masters and a PhD from Cambridge University, admitted blackmailing scores of men, women and children into carrying out humiliating and degrading acts, which included encouraging the rape of a child. Labelled as 'hurtcore', Falder duped his targets into sending naked images of themselves and then blackmailed them into carrying out a series of depraved activities across the web. Falder, who worked as an academic at Birmingham University, contacted more than 300 potential victims, but by operating on the dark web, he managed to evade capture for eight years. Following his capture an international taskforce began investigating the dark web platform he had been using and on Wednesday announced that a total of 337 suspects had been arrested in 38 countries. The NCA was involved in a gobal taskforce tackling dark web paedophiles The Welcome To Video site, which was run from South Korea – contained more than 250,000 horrific videos and users had made more than one million downloads, with some paedophiles using the Bitcoin cryptocurrency to pay for the abuse images. In the UK seven men have already been convicted in connection with the network with one man jailed for 22 years for raping a five-year-old boy and appearing on Welcome To Video sexually abusing a three-year-old girl. Matthew Falder had a PhD from Cambridge University Credit: PA British investigators travelled to South Korea to help track down Jong Woo Son, the 23-year-old who was allegedly running the site. Story continues Yesterday Mr Son was charged with nine counts in the United States relating to him running the website. He has already been convicted and jailed in his home country. Nikki Holland, NCA Director of Investigations, said: “Dark web child sex offenders – some of whom are the very worst offenders – cannot hide from law enforcement. “They’re not as cloaked as they think they are, they’re not as safe as they think they are. “The NCA is relentless in pursuing them and we have specialist capabilities, which we use for all UK law enforcement, to unmask them and help take down sites like Welcome To Video. “I’m immensely proud of the role we played in catching some very depraved and dangerous global offenders and for beginning the work that eventually caught Jong Woo Son.” || Bakkt to Launch Options on Its Bitcoin Futures Dec. 9: The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is launching bitcoin options contracts through its subsidiary Bakkt. Bakktannounced Thursday that it would “launch the first regulated options contract for bitcoin futures,” adding a new product to its current slate of physically-settled bitcoin futures contracts. CEO Kelly Loefflersaid in a Medium postthat the contracts were built in response to customer feedback, and that ICE Futures USself-certified the contractthrough the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). “We’re committed to bringing trust and utility to digital assets and the options contract is an example of the many products we’re developing for regulated markets,” she wrote. “The Bakkt Bitcoin Options contract will be based on the benchmark Bakkt Monthly Bitcoin Futures contract and represents another important step in developing this asset class for institutional investors, their customers and investors.” Related:Crypto Derivatives: On Misleading Measurements Notably, customers will have the choice of options contracts settled with cash, meaning customers receive the fiat equivalent to the contract’s value at expiration, or physically, meaning they receive the actual bitcoin. When Bakkt launched its bitcoin futures contract a month ago, the company sawlow trading volume. However, it appears to have picked up in recent days. Bakkt volume chart by Galen Moore for CoinDesk Loeffler added: “We’ve been working closely with market participants to build liquidity, create market transparency and build open interest. Notably, we saw a record 590 contracts of Bakkt Bitcoin Monthly Futures change hands yesterday, October 23. We also completed a milestone with seamless physical deliveries in both our daily and monthly bitcoin futures contracts.” Related:Liquidity Provider B2C2 Launches Gold Derivative Settled in Bitcoin Bakkt is joining CME in launching options. The Chicago-based exchange announced it would launch bitcoin options on top of its futures contractsin the first quarter of 2020. In addition to its options contracts, Bakkt is launching a market maker programto boost trading of its monthly contract, according to a letter addressed to the CFTC. “The Exchange believes the new Program will incentivize additional liquidity and volume in the new Bakkt Bitcoin (USD) Monthly Futures Contract,” the letter states. Kelly Loeffler image via CoinDesk archives • Now Traders Can Make Bets on When Facebook’s Libra Will Launch • Galaxy Digital, XBTO Just Made the First Block Trade of Bakkt Bitcoin Futures || Bitcoin edges towards major $2,000 correction: Bitcoin has continued its four-week downtrend after a further 2.5% slump this morning, with a $2,000 move to the downside becoming increasingly likely. The $7,900 level of support is now being tested for the first time since October 23. A breakdown from this level could pave the way for a cataclysmic correction to the historic $5,900 level of support. The next logical stopping point for Bitcoin, if $7,900 is indeed broken to the downside, would be $7,400, which is the same level that spurred a 40% rally to the upside on October 25. However, lightning doesn’t usually strike twice in terms of Bitcoin’s price action, and a decline to $7,400 would almost certainly result in a prolonged move down to the $6,000 region. If price stays below $8,000 for the next two days, the daily chart death cross will come to fruition, which has the potential to drive price all the way down to yearly lows. The exponential moving average death cross has happened just twice since 2014, and on both occasions it caused respective 61% and 72% corrections. However, if Bitcoin can defy all odds and rally from the $7,900 level, it could narrowly avoid the death cross for the second time in a month – although price would need to exceed $8,800 for it to be invalidated. Bitcoin is now 24.16% down from October’s high of $10,350 and 43% down from the yearly high in June. Since reaching $14,000 in June, Bitcoin has made four clear lower highs that demonstrate a bear market reversal and a significant downtrend. For more news, guides, and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . The post Bitcoin edges towards major $2,000 correction appeared first on Coin Rivet . View comments || Bitcoin, Ethereum & Ripple - American Wrap: 11/6/19: Bitcoin price prediction: A new old history leads the forecast The BTC/USD is in a period of technical agony, trapped between multiple technical hurdles. Since late June, when the BTC/USD pair set the relative maximum at $13,000, the Bitcoin has been sliding down a medium-term bearish channel. The current scenario is a small-sized replica of the situation seen by the BTC/USD pair from the late 2017 highs to the December 2018 lows. On this occasion, the break was on the rising side. Ethereum technical analysis: ETH/USD $200 barrier is proving to be a problem Ethereum price is trading in the green, up 0.25% the session on Wednesday. ETH/USD continues to move within a narrowing range, subject to further committed direction. A strong barrier of resistance is in the way of greater upside at the psychological $200 mark. Ripple's XRP technical analysis: XRP/USD at make or break $0.3000 Ripple's XRP price is trading with the green by some 0.65% in the session on Tuesday. XRP/USD is moving within consolidation mode, subject to the next committed move. The bulls continue to flirt with the big $0.3000 mark, yet to conquer. Image Sourced from Pixabay 0 See more from Benzinga Bitcoin, Ethereum & Ripple - American Wrap Bitcoin, Ethereum & Ripple - American Wrap NEO, Ripple & Litecoin - European Wrap © 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Markets mixed as UK returns to Brexit limbo: The Brexit process has been thrown back into uncertainty after Boris Johnson was defeated over his withdrawal timetable - Getty Images Europe Markets mixed amid return to Brexit limbo and patchy US earnings data Sterling falls below $1.29 after MPs reject Brexit bill timetable, but is still near five-month high Former Thomas Cook bosses accept they made mistakes at company Metro Bank founder Vernon Hill steps down as chairman with immediate effect Sports Direct rails against Goals Soccer Centres ‘skulduggery’ Jeremy Warner: Britain’s savings market has long been a mess, it is also an accident waiting to happen 5:04PM Wrap-up: A mixed bag Metro Bank shareholders will get a chance to react to those results tomorrow Credit: Paul Grover for the Telegraph Those Metro results landed too late for markets, which mean – in this instance – that they’re too late for the blog. We’ll have a full report up on them shortly, but for the share price reaction, tune back in tomorrow morning. Tomorrow afternoon, we’ll have Mario Draghi’s final speech as he prepares to step down from the European Central Bank. Thanks for following along! 4:59PM Metro Bank swings to £2.2m underlying loss Oof – Metro Bank just published its third-quarter trading update, which shows it swung to an adjusted pre-tax loss of £2.2m, from a £6.7m profit in the second quarter. It company said it had maintained a “strong liquidity and funding position”, adding: Metro Bank is further evaluating its future plans to balance growth, profitability and capital efficiency, the results of which will be communicated in conjunction with the full year results. That could be worse – Ian Gordon of Investec had warned the Telegraph last week that it would be “another tough quarter for Metro” and predicted a £7.6m quarterly loss. Here’s our story from earlier today on the exit of Metro’s founder: Metro Bank founder Vernon Hill becomes ‘emeritus chairman’ 4:51PM Lights out: Another energy supplier goes bust I’ll wrap up markets shortly – before then, here’s my colleague Vinjeru Mkandawire: Toto Energy, an energy company with around 134,000 domestic customers, has become the latest small supplier to cease trading. In a statement on Wednesday, Ofgem said that it would choose a new supplier to take on all of Toto Energy’s customers. Cordelia Samson, an energy expert at uSwitch.com said: “This latest supplier failure must raise serious questions for the regulator, which allowed it to acquire over 40,000 customers from another now-defunct energy company only three months ago. “Toto were known to be struggling with customer service and running their operations efficiently. They also missed making their payments for renewable energy this year. While they had made improvements, clearly these weren’t enough to keep them afloat.” Toto is the eight energy company to go bust this year and the sixteenth since the start of 2018. It follows Ofgem’s announcement about tightening the rules for existing providers, to minimise the risk of more of them going out of business. Story continues Here’s more of spate of energy companies being forced to pull the plug: Energy suppliers to face tougher checks from watchdog Ofgem 4:25PM Zuckerberg testimony: the battle begins Our US tech reporter Laurence Dodds reports: Mark Zuckerberg has begun his testimony to Congress in Washington DC, and it opened, as hearings with Facebook executives always do, with a barrage of criticism. “Perhaps you believe that you are above the law, and it appears that you are... willing to step on and over anyone including people of colour, your own users and even our democracy to get what you want, said Congresswoman Maxine Waters. “It should be clear why we have serious concerns about your plans to establish a global digital currency that will challenge the US dollar.” Zuckerberg has two arguments against this. Laurence examines those arguments in more detail here, explaining why Congress should think twice about rejecting Libra out of hand: Why we should think twice before rejecting Facebook’s Libra currency ​ 4:13PM Full report: Former Thomas Cook boss defends debt pile Taxpayers will be paying KPMG and Alix Partners £11m for assisting the Official Receiver in the last four weeks Credit: FRIEDEMANN VOGEL/EPA-EFE/REX And here’s another wrap, this time on the Thomas Cook hearing earlier. My colleague Oliver Gill reports: Thomas Cook’s former boss has fired a stinging broadside at his successors, insisting they should have been able to cope with a doomsday debt pile built up during his time in charge. Manny Fontenla-Novoa told a Commons committee probe that the 2007 debt-fuelled merger between Thomas Cook and MyTravel provided “a great platform for future growth”. The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy committee also heard how Harriet Green, Mr Fontenla-Novoa’s direct successor and the predecessor to Mr Fankhauser, was sacked following a bust-up with chairman Frank Meysman. Read more here: Thomas Cook chief defends doomsday debt pile he built up with toxic takeover deal 3:52PM Full report: Boeing revenues devastated by 373 MAX crisis Boeing 737 Max planes mothballed at Grant County airport in Washington state Credit: GARY HE/EPA-EFE/REX My colleague Simon Foy has a full report on Boeing’s revenue fall: The company said it will reduce the production of the 787 to 12 planes a month beginning in late 2020, blaming the “global trade environment”. Revenues fell to $19.9bn (£15.5bn) for the three months to September, down from $25.1bn for the same quarter last year. Boeing has been mired in crisis since its 737 Max fleet was grounded worldwide last March following two fatal crashes that killed 356 people. Read more: Boeing revenues plunge as 737 Max crisis drags on 3:41PM The mystery of cryptocoining... Here’s Markets.com’s Neil Wilson on the Bitcoin price drop: To be honest right now it’s a bit of a headscratcher and may be down to technical selling inspired by the rejection of the move towards $8,400 earlier in the week. The market has been waiting for a major move for a while as the completion of the descending triangle neared completion. Of course with Mark Zuckerberg about to testify on Capitol Hill about Libra, you could draw some correlation between this and shakier sentiment towards cryptos more broadly, however such a conclusion appears quite tenuous. The blowout has sparked a broad-based selloff in our other crypto markets with Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Litecoin and Ripple all down 7-9pc. And here’s our columnist Garry White: As Facebook's lovely CEO testifies in DC, here's my column from last week on why - despite the undeniable urge - we shouldn't break up Big Tech > > Dismantling Big Tech would help no one but China https://t.co/fNiwGun78J via @telebusiness — Garry White (@GarryWhite) October 23, 2019 3:25PM Mel Stride is new chair of Treasury Select Committee Telegraph deputy political editor Anna Mikhailova tweets: Some MPs were concerned Stride will be 'marking his own homework' - scrutinising policies he was running as Treasury minister However he has a reputation as a v capable minister and was a high flier - promoted to Leader of the House just before Boris Johnson came in — Anna Mikhailova (@AVMikhailova) October 23, 2019 Parliament has made a decision... Yes that's right...for the new Treasury Select Committee Chair 263 votes for @MelJStride . — Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) October 23, 2019 Mr Stride, a Conservative,  beat candidates in a race drained of big beasts by the Tories’ recent purge. Read more about the selection process here: Race for Treasury Committee chair decimated by Tory expulsions 3:21PM Sports Direct finally finds an auditor Sports Direct’s former auditor Grant Thornton quit after a fallout with the company Credit: Leonhard Foeger/REUTERS Combining two of this blog’s favourite topics, Sports Direct has managed to find itself an auditor! Mike Ashley’s retail giant has had to settle outside of the Big Four (Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC) to find a willing candidate, opting for RSM UK, one of the UK’s smaller ‘challenger’ audit firms. The decision ends speculation that the government will have to intervene to install an auditor at the FTSE 250 firm. Previously bean-counter Grant Thornton quit abruptly after the the two companies fell out over the retailer’s most recent accounts. Read more on Sports Direct’s search here: Sports Direct taps smaller firms for help in race to find an auditor 3:15PM Zuckerberg faces congressional committee over Libra Over in the US, Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg is giving testimony to the US Congress House Financial Services Committee, where he is being grilled by politicians over the social media company’s plans for digital coin Libra. You can read his testimony here You can watch live here On Wall Street, things are fairly balanced out, with Boeing shares rising despite its steep profit fall. Credit: Bloomberg TV 3:02PM Centamin shines One kilogram bars of gold Credit: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg Gold miner Centamin is the biggest riser on the FTSE 250 today, after reporting it is still on track to meet its 2019 targets as it heads for its best month of production so far this year. The company, which operates the Sukari mine in Egypt, said it remains set to hit a target of 490,000 ounces of gold, which is at the lower end of its guidance. It had produced 332,141 ounces so far. Despite October’s strength, gold production was 17pc lower overall than in the second quarter, and down the same amount for the year before. Andrew Pardey, its chief executive, said: This quarter was one of continuing transition. Further key staff changes were made at Sukari as we continue to strive for increased performance in key areas of the operation. The operational leadership team have commenced a comprehensive review, supported by external consultants, across all sections of the mine, including mining methodology and infrastructure. 2:18PM US results: Profit falls at Boeing and Caterpillar A photo of Boeing 737 MAX airplanes parked on the tarmac at the Boeing Factory in Renton, Washington Credit: Lindsey Wasson/ REUTERS Two big sets of results from the US: plane-maker Boeing said its quarterly profit fell 53pc amid pressure from the scandal around its 737 MAX jets, while machinery company Catterpillar – a bellwether for the construction sector – recorded its first fall in quarterly profit in three years. Here’s Reuters on Boeing: Boeing cut production of its flagship Dreamliner and delayed the arrival of a successor to its 777 mini-jumbo, piling new pressures on a rejigged senior management team as the continued safety grounding of its 737 MAX sliced third quarter profits. It reported a 53pc drop in quarterly profit on Wednesday and had a negative free cash flow of $2.89bn in the quarter, compared with a positive free cash flow of $4.10bn a year earlier. ...and Bloomberg on Caterpillar: Caterpillar lowered its earnings forecast for 2019, blaming heightened “economic uncertainty” for slowing customer purchases. The world’s largest maker of mining and machinery equipment reported the first decline in quarterly profit in almost three years. The Deerfield, Illinois-based company said sales fell 5.2pc and it expects demand to be flat in the fourth quarter. Wall Street is set to open fairly flat. 2:10PM Round-up: Moody’s warns over Brexit delay, Monzo loses another executive, FundingSecure collapses Extending Brexit beyond October 31 will increase uncertainty for businesses, according to Moody's Credit: Peter Summers/Getty Here are more of the day’s top stories: Brexit delay is 'negative' for UK, Moody’s warns : The latest delay to Brexit leaves the UK mired in uncertainty and delivers a potential blow to the country’s creditworthiness, one of the world’s biggest ratings agencies warned on Wednesday. Monzo loses another senior executive : Monzon has lost another senior executive just months after its chief financial officer departed the digital bank in March. Woe for thousands of peer-to-peer investors as FundingSecure platform collapses : The troubled peer-to-peer sector has been dealt a further blow after another platform, FundingSecure, fell into administration. 2:03PM Bitcoin price slumps to four-month low The price of popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin has taken a chunky hit in the past few minutes, and has hit its lowest level since June – with about 5pc coming off the currency. Bitcoin moves can be a little bit... unhinged, but if I see anyone explaining why this has happened I’ll let you know. 1:56PM AIG to launch new syndicate at Lloyds of London, to focus on wealthy American Lloyds of London’s headquarters are in the heart of the City Credit: Simon Dawson/REUTERS US group AIG will use the Lloyds of London insurance marketplace to mount a major push to provide coverage for ultra-high-net-worth clients. AIG hopes the new operation – dubbed Syndicate 2019 – will bring in $1bn in premiums. It will launch at the start of 2020. Peter Zaffino, AIG’s chief operating officer, said: We look forward to working closely with Lloyd’s to bring Syndicate 2019 to market, and to delivering enhanced differentiation and value to the US high net worth customer base. AIG’s outline of its existing offerings for ultra-high-net-worth individuals includes “wine cover” and a subsection on yacht insurance. 1:41PM Doubts grow over British Steel deal ahead of Thursday deadline British Steel’s plant in Scunthorpe, north Lincolnshire, employs 5,000 Credit: Steve Morgan Hopes British Steel will be rescued by Turkish investor Ataer Holding are fading ahead of a deadline for the bid on Thursday, my colleague Ed Clowes reports. He writes: The steelmaker's future will again be thrown into doubt if  military pension fund Ataer walks away from a provisional deal with the UK government to buy it. British Steel collapsed in May after running out of cash and has since been kept on life support by taxpayers. Ataer made an approach two months ago and was given exclusive access to the company's accounts. The pension fund, which owns 50pc of Turkey’s largest steel producer, has until Thursday to strike a deal and save 5,000 jobs, mostly at its sprawling 2,800 acre site in Scunthorpe. Read more here: British Steel deal in doubt as deadline looms 12:25PM Markets still mixed... Other than Germany’s DAX, which is flat, the FTSE 100 is the only major European index not experiencing a drop today – boosted by the pound’s weakening. Credit: Bloomberg TV 12:19PM Sterling hangs tight Boris Johnson is currently facing questions in Commons chamber, but thus far it seems like nothing substantive has come through from a markets perspective. Traders, who are currently keeping the pound just under $1.29, want to know one thing: when the Brexit delay is until. Follow live political updates here: Brexit latest news: Boris Johnson meets Jeremy Corbyn to discuss new way forward on Brexit Bill before they clash at PMQs – watch live 12:12PM Round-up: Construction cartel fined, self-driving cars will save more lives than they take, fracking security bill hits £13m Anti-fracking protestors at Little Plumpton near Preston Credit: HOWARD BARLOW With the Thomas Cook hearing wrapped up (and MPs scuttling back to the Chamber ahead of Prime Minister’s Questions), here is a wrap-up of the morning’s top stories: Taxpayer spending on fracking protests and security hits £13m : Taxpayers have forked out more than £13m to police fracking protests and provide security at shale gas drilling sites since 2011, a report has revealed. Self-driving cars will kill - but also save lives, says Toyota boss : Self-driving cars will kill people, but will save more lives than they take, according to Toyota’s research chief. Construction cartel fined £36m by competition watchdog : Three construction firms have been fined more than £36m by the competition watchdog for price-fixing. 11:58AM If you want to know more about the Thomas Cook bosses... ...here’s a good backgrounder by the Financial Times, which categorises Mr Fontenla-Novoa, Ms Green and Mr Fankhsauser as ‘the dealmaker’, ‘the slash-and-burn specialist’ and ‘the stabiliser’ respectively: FT: Top trio who oversaw Thomas Cook’s rise and fall (£) 11:53AM Thomas Cook inquiry today: Five key takeaways Thomas Cook collapsed last month Credit: RONALD WITTEK/EPA-EFE/REX Here are the five main points that jump out to me from today’s session: Hays Travel paid just over £6m for 555 bricks-and-mortar Thomas Cook stores – just over £10,800 a pop. KPMG and AlixPartners have bagged £11m in fees since the tour operator collapsed last month. Manny Fontenla-Novoa, chief executive until 2011, said the company could have succeeded if it continued, adding that he never thought its debt pile could not be managed. Harriet Green, chief executive from 2012 until 2014, says the company could have been saved by taking an asset-light, digitally-driven approach, but says she was forced out before she could complete her transformation plan. Ms Green says there “clearly should have been” a different approach to how the company handled goodwill from its purchases. 11:47AM Closing remarks: Regrets, they have a few... Some valedictory statements here... Ms Green says she should have made sure board had experience of transformations, and should have done more to emphasise models that were less asset-heavy (i.e. by buying fewer aeroplanes). Mr Fontenla-Novoa says he is “desperately sad” about the collapse. Mr Scott says the company should have moved more quickly. The witnesses were also asked what they are doing now. From their responses: Ms Green operates businesses in Asia and the Pacific for IBM Mr Fontenla-Novoa runs a consultancy business Mr Scott is not working After some more chatter, Mr Fontenla-Novoa says the model he attempted to install at Thomas Cook “was not broken”, pointing to the example of rival Tui (which is still operating). Rachel Reeves, in briefing closing statements, says Mr Fontenla-Novoa should reconsider his statement given the blame placed upon him by his successors, saying the former boss has “missed the opportunity” for humility. ...and that’s it! I’ll wrap that all up in a moment. 11:37AM Green’s pay Under further questions from Mr Kyle, Ms Green is describing press reports from the time of her exit about her spending, and over alleged tensions within the company. Here’s some of our reporting from before and after her exit: Harriet Green steps up Thomas Cook turnaround Harriet Green in shock exit as Thomas Cook boss Former Thomas Cook boss Harriet Green awarded £5.6m share bonus Ms Green says there were disagreements within the company about its strategic approach. She says her expenses were higher in her first year as she was focused on rescuing the company, and says they fell by a third in he second year. She also says she was paid less than her predecessor and successor. 11:32AM The best-laid plans... MP Peter Kyle is drilling down on the company’s strategic planning, saying “every two years there was just a new, fresh approach” and suggesting Thomas Cook could never “find its feet” because it was constantly undergoing new strategic reviews. Mr Fontenla-Novoa says he cannot comment on things that occurred after he left the firm in 2011, but says it had a consistent plan until then. Harriet Green Credit: Screenshot Ms Green says the company came up with a plan to create an internet business when she arrived, to chip away at a “wall of debt” and make the company more efficient. As an example, she says that when she arrived, Thomas Cook was entering into internal negotiations over things like renting its own hotels internally. Ms Green adds that “yielded a significantly better debt position”. She says she was unable to complete her “six-year plan” before leaving the company, saying that there are “asset-light”, “digitally-driven” models for tour companies that Thomas Cook could have moved towards. She says the company “needed to focus” in 2012, and needed cash to invest. Describing selling off parts of the company as “self help”, she said she is “incredibly frustrated and sad” that the company did not continue her plan after she left. Pressed by Mr Kyle, Ms Green says despite positivity around the company’s plans, and a rising share price, she was told in late 2014 that Thomas Cook wanted “a traditional travel person to take this business forward”. 11:23AM ‘Potential for manipulation’ MP Drew Hendry is focusing on a letter sent from auditors EY to Thomas Cook management (after Mr Scott left the company), which said the company’s accounting standards offered “potential for manipulation”. Mr Scott says that he would not have characterised the use of goodwill that way. He says PwC and EY took part in “detailed discussions” over how to handle the companies accounts, and is insisting that that there was a robust debate over topics such as goodwill levels. 11:19AM Green: Approach should have been different Ms Green says when she joined overall goodwill was at £2.66bn, and was “a bit less” by the time she left. She says discussion over the levels of goodwill was “quite intense”, adding “clearly” there “should have been” a different approach taken. 11:15AM Goodwill was ‘unusual’ Customers were left stranded after the tour group collapsed in September Credit: COSTAS METAXAKIS/AFP Stephen Kerr says that, by the start of the decade, Thomas Cook was using its suppliers “as a bank”, leading it to build up substantial end-of-year debts. Ms Reeves adds that the tour operator was not paying suppliers within 30 days during this period. Mr Fontenla-Novoa says that Thomas Cook would not have done anything that was outside of regular practice, and says he would need to investigate further. Questions have now switched on Ms Green and Mr Scott, who were more recently in place at the travel group, having both joined in 2012. Ms Sandbach is focusing on why the goodwill from MyTravel was not written down until 2018. Here’s out story from when the write-down came to light: Thomas Cook crisis escalates as it lands £300m in emergency funding Q: Why was the goodwill not written down? Mr Scott is saying that there were sensitivities, but they did not see any changes major enough to warrant an adjustment. Ms Reeves has accused Mr Scott of “passing the buck”, asking: “should you have done something sooner?” Mr Scott admit, under pressure, says that it was “unusual” that such a big write-down could occur. He says the financial plan “clearly” deteriorated over 2018. 11:04AM Disposables and debts Mr Fontenla-Novoa, now being cross-examined by MP Stephen Kerr, is defending the rationale behind Thomas Cook sticking to a strategy of utilising high-street stores to sell holidays, despite the role of the internet. The MPs are focusing on whether decisions made while Mr Fontenla-Novoa was in charge ultimately doomed the company. Q: Did the debt build-up doom your strategy? Mr Fontenla-Novoa says he “can’t accept that”, and says Peter Fankhauser, who was the group’s chief executive when it collapsed, should have (along with his board) looked at selling off some assets sooner than that. He says “I believe there was growth in the market”, pointing out competitors have grown. Rachel Reeves, channelling Mr Fankhauser, says the ex-CEO would argue that Thomas Cook could not invest in expanding because it was overly burdened by debt. 10:56AM MyTravel travails Manny Fontenla-Novoa Credit: Screengrab MP Ian Liddell-Grainger is focusing on Manny Fontenla-Novoa, asking about Thomas Cook’s purchase of MyTravel, a rival package holiday firm. Q: Was the debt taken on by Thomas Cook buying MyTravel what began the group’s downfall? Mr Fontenla-Novoa said the decision was taken to merge the two business was taken because it gave the company a “huge presence” in Northern Europe, as well as in Canada. He says the move to consolidate allowed it to create a group with £9bn in revenue. He says he thought the debt taken on seem appropriate to him at the time, but added that the financial crisis a year after the takeover had a “huge impact” on consumer confidence. The ex-chief executive also cited the Icelandic ash cloud and a weaking pound as reasons that the tour group entered “tough times”. 10:50AM Audit reform chatter BEIS Committee chair Rachel Reeves reflects that this is another case of MPs having to hear about audit failures “after the horse has bolted”, and reaffirming the committee’s call for audit reform, which began after the collapse of outsourcer Carillion. New boss of audit watchdog fails to publish his own accounts on time Auditor walkouts on the rise in ‘watershed moment’ for accountants, industry body warns The former bosses are entering now... 10:45AM Goodwill/badwill We’re focusing now on the issue of goodwill, which MP Antoinette Sandbach is saying kept Thomas Cook from trading while insolvent. Q: Why was the goodwill not written down sooner? Mr Rule says: “I can see that there are questions to be asked about the goodwill.” Mr Barrett adds it is likely to be something that the watchdog looks at as it continues to probe Thomas Cook’s 2018 accounts. Continuing, Mr Rule says the FRC tells companies to regularly re-assess their goodwill levels and ensure that they are being written down when appropriate. 10:41AM Tough at the top The big audit firms have come under close scrutiny in recent years Credit: Jack Taylor/Getty We’re onto the ethics of audit, which is one of the BEIS Committee’s favourite topics. David Rule is saying that when the FRC inspects audits, it tends to find there are three main problems: Auditors being unwilling to push back against management Audits being done too quickly Senior audit firm partners not being fully engaged with the process Here’s more from the FRC: Auditors earning millions advising clients on diversity are full of old white men, watchdog finds 10:35AM Risky business Elizabeth Barrett, from the FRC, says the audit watchdog has already been looking into Thomas Cook’s 2018 audit when the travel giant went bust. She adds however that more than 100 firms seen as a “risky” are picked for such expectations, and said pressure from public opinion and the press did not impact the decision to begin an investigation. Q: Why was the FRC scrutinising Thomas Cook’s accounts? David Rule adds that levels of short-selling in Thomas Cook shares were among the reasons they decide to look into its audit. Thomas Cook auditors under fire as scrutiny builds over firm’s finances Ms Barrett says the FRC will be looking closely at “audit assumptions” made by EY, the tour operator’s most recent auditor, as well as whether accountants adequately pushed back against management assumptions. She says she is hesitant to go further, because the FRC is already conducting a probe into EY’s role in the collapse. Regarding FRC's investigation of accounting firm EY's audit of Thomas Cook: Relates to "sufficiency of challenge that they have applied to management’s estimates and assumptions and the sufficiency of the audit evidence to support the work that they’ve done." — Rob Davies (@ByRobDavies) October 23, 2019 10:30AM Received wisdom... The questions and responses so far have been quite focused on the role of the Official Receiver, the official who takes control of a company’s property after it collapses. MP Vernon Coaker is asking Mr Beale whether the Government came to the Insolvency Service for advice over what would happen if Thomas Cook entered liquidation. Q: Did you speak to the Government ahead of the collapse? Mr Beale says that after taking up his position as chief executive of the Insolvency Service on September 2, he met with officials on September 6, and and September 13 sent Transport Secretary Grant Shapps a memo about the role the Insolvency Service would pay if Thomas Cook failed. 10:17AM Hays Travel paid just over £6m for Thomas Cook stores Hays Travel bought all 555 of Thomas Cook’s stores Credit: TOLGA AKMEN/AFP One revelation already: Hays Travel, the firm that swept in to buy Thomas Cook’s 555 physical locations after the group’s collapse , paid just over £6m for the stores according to Dean Beale, from the Insolvency Service. ‘If you look at our advantage, the sums are very nice’ – why Hays Travel’s owners bought Thomas Cook’s stores Mr Beale said: The assessment of the Official Reciever was that this was a good deal. He added, following a question from MPs, that: “the recommendation was that this was the best deal on the table”. He says he does not know how much the repatriation of stranded Thomas Cook customers (dubbed Operation Matterhorn) cost. Finally, he says special managers KPMG and AlixPartners have already been paid £11m in fees since Thomas Cook collapsed. 10:08AM Bosses speaking shortly... Currently, MPs are hearing from Dean Beale, chief executive of the Insolvency Service; and Elizabeth Barrett and David Rule from the Financial Reporting Council, which is the UK’s audit watchdog. The former bosses will speak from 10:45am. You can follow along with the video live here , via Parliament’s website. 9:58AM Highlights from the hearings so far Here are some of the key toplines from the first two BEIS Committee hearings: The (recent) bosses Thomas Cook bosses only had one meeting with a Government minister in the build-up to last month’s collapse. Former chief executive Peter Fankhauser said that if the Government had provided £200m to secure a bailout from Chinese lender Fosun, then the tour company would have been saved. Mr Fankhauser says he will consider whether to return some salary to support victims of the collapse. Read more: UK minsters ‘stood on sidelines as Thomas Cook bosses were offered overseas government help’ The accountants PwC said the firm would now never  take on a dual role of advising on a company’s remuneration policy while also handling its accounts (somewhat of a moot point, since doing so is now banned). Read more: Thomas Cook auditors defend fee bonanza as MPs lash out 9:52AM Three key points that may come under scrutiny Former Thomas Cook employees arrive at Portcullis House ahead of a hearing last week Credit: Peter Summers/Getty These are the main things MPs may focus on during today’s session (which you can wtach live here ): Pay: Ms Green and Mr Fontenla-Novoa are likely to come under strutiny for their own remuneration the chief executives of Thomas Cook, during years where the company was quickly accumulating debt as part of its efforts to expand. Accounting practices: Thomas Cook used a controversial system, in which exceptional items – totalling £1.8bn over eight years – were stripped out to calculate a ‘underlying profit’ figure, which was then used to calculate executive pay. Goodwill: MPs may question the ex-bosses over the group taking more than a decade to write down £1.1bn of goodwill (effectively intangible assets such as brand recognition or staff training) from its purchase of MyTravel in 2007. Thomas Cook’s debt problem dates back to the acquisitions made by previous CEO Manny Fontenla-Novoa (who is not here today). As you can see from this chart, the group’s debt level at year end remained stubbornly above £1 billion at year-end for a decade. (Source: Berenberg) pic.twitter.com/IHqLZBNmzg — Joel Hills (@ITVJoel) October 15, 2019 Here’s  a reminder of the travel group’s storied 187-year history. 9:37AM Here’s a reminder of the scale of the Thomas Cook collapse... 9:24AM Coming up: former Thomas Cook bosses to face questioning by MPs At 10:45am, former Thomas Cook chief executives Harriet Green and Manny Fontenla-Novoa will face questioning by MPs on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy committee, who are holding an inquiry into the travel group’s collapse last month . The ex-CEOs will be joined by former chief financial officer Bill Scott. In the second half of tomorrow's evidence session on the collapse of Thomas Cook we are questioning former Thomas Cook CEOs Manny Fontenla-Novoa and Harriet Green as well as former CFO Bill Scott. You can watch on https://t.co/dvOvoTLXhw https://t.co/w6GCXdprFt pic.twitter.com/POoq8EDZBz — Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee (@CommonsBEIS) October 22, 2019 The session follows  panels with Thomas Cook’s leadership, and its former auditors PwC and EY. UK minsters ‘stood on sidelines as Thomas Cook bosses were offered overseas government help’ Thomas Cook auditors defend fee bonanza as MPs lash out The bosses today are likely to face questions about the company’s substantial debt piles,  its approach to accounting for exceptional items, and its delay in writing down £1.1bn in goodwill from its acquisition of MyTravel in 2007. Harriet Green was chief executive of Thomas Cook from July 2012 until November 2014 Credit: Dominic Lipinski/ PA Manny Fontenla-Novoa (pictured here in 2009) was Thomas Cook chief executive between 2003 and August 2011 Credit: Eddie Mulholland/Sunday Telegraph 8:58AM FTSE 100 pulls back to flat After an early drop, the FTSE 100 is the green side of flat now, despite pressure from some Brexit-exposed stocks. The blue-chip index has experienced mixed trading over recent sessions, with a climbing pound doing no favours to business who primarily operate abroad. 8:52AM How the pound shifted during last night’s Commons drama Sterling fell sharply after the Commons rejected Boris Johnson’s timetable for votes on the Withdrawal Agreement Bill last night. The currency is still well up on the month however, and only a little more than a cent off a five-month high, following two weeks of big gains that say it climb as high as $1.30. It is is also (if we go even further back), solidly below its pre-referendum levels, and even where it stood early last year. Markets.com’s Neil Wilson said: The pound remains the proxy for the Brexit process and it’s displaying nervousness that Parliament still can’t get its act together and see a deal through. Uncertainty prevails for the time being, but Parliament has backed a deal and that feels like a key moment. As the likelihood of a no-deal outcome reduced over recent weeks, the level of traders betting that the pound will weaken fell back from two-year highs: 8:40AM Fresnillo falls after predicting production at low end of estimates Fresnillo is a gold and silver miner with its operations focused in Mexico Credit: LAYTON THOMPSON Fresnillo is the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 today, after the gold and silver miner said production this year would land towards the lower end of its guidance. The company, which has been plagued by production problems, said it expected higher silver production in the fourth quarter. Chief executive Octavio Alvidrez said: ...while grades remain variable, we are now processing higher volumes of ore on a more consistent basis at Fresnillo The company has tended to be boosted by macroeconomic worries, often gaining strongly whenever the US-China trade war grows more intense, causing precious metals to rally. 8:31AM Sports Direct accuses Goals Soccer Centres of ‘skulduggery’ Sports Direct, owned by tracksuit tycoon Mike Ashley, launched a blistering tirade on the five-a-side football pitch operator Credit: John Nguyen/JNVisuals Sports Direct has hit out at the management of Goals Soccer Centres, accusing the firm of wiping out shareholders through “skulduggery”, my colleague Michael O’Dwyer reports. He writes: The pile-them-high-sell-them-cheap sportswear retailer, owned by tracksuit tycoon Mike Ashley, launched a blistering tirade on the five-a-side football pitch operator on Wednesday. The invective followed Sports Direct's announcement on Monday that it did not intend to make an offer for the troubled business. Goals did not “truly engage with an offer process”, Sports Direct claimed, adding that it had been granted only “limited and fitful” access to information required for its bid. Read more here: Sports Direct rails against Goals Soccer Centres ‘skulduggery’ 8:16AM European market open downbeat Stock markets across Europe have opened down, with the FTSE 100 falling despite the weaker pound – which usually offers support to the internationally-exposed index. Credit: Bloomberg TV 8:14AM Takeaway.com boss stands by Just Eat tie-up plans A Takeaway.com rider Credit: Handout Following the launch of a £5bn takeover offer for Just Eat by investment group Prosus yesterday, the boss of Takeover.com – the food delivery firm’s preferred tie-up partner – has stood by their previous deal plans. In a statement, Jitse Groen, chief executive of the Netherlands-headquartered company, said: The merger of Just Eat and Takeaway.com is going to create a superb company. It will benefit from leadership positions in what will be three of the world’s largest profit pools: the UK, Germany and Holland. It will be a global leader, built around a solid, profitable, and proven business model. More importantly, it will be led by the most experienced team in the industry with more than 40 years of combined experience. Just Eat shares are up narrowly today. The company dropped back into the FTSE 250 today, after being caught in the wrong place at the wrong time when M&G secured its place among the blue-chips on Monday. Here’s more on the takeover story from yesterday, via my colleague Oliver Gill : Prosus – the Dutch arm of South African tech behemoth Naspers – tabled an all-cash offer for the business on Tuesday, gatecrashing Just Eat’s own plans for a £9bn merger with its rival Takeaway.com. The swoop has been rejected by Just Eat’s board but could still be rammed through if it wins their backing. Analysts said Prosus, armed with a $20bn M&A warchest, could gain enough support if they offered around 800p-a-share. Read more: £5bn hostile takeover offer for Just Eat sparks hope of bidding war 8:02AM Metro Bank founder steps down with immediate effect Vernon Hill has been forced out of Metro Bank and will be replaced by City grandee Sir Michael Snyder Credit: EDDIE KEOGH/Reuters Metro Bank founder Vernon Hill will step down from his role as chairman with immediate effect and has agreed to accept an honorary position as “emeritus chairman”, my colleague Simon Foy reports. He writes: The American billionaire will be replaced on an interim basis by City grandee Sir Michael Snyder, who joined Metro’s board in 2015 and was the City of London’s policy chairman from 2002 to 2008. Sir Michael was previously tipped as the obvious internal candidate to replace Mr Hill. “The board thanks Vernon for his vision which inspired and created Metro Bank 10 years ago. He leaves a lasting legacy of creating fans through exceptional customer service and has revolutionised British banking,” said Sir Michael. Read more here: Metro Bank founder Vernon Hill steps down as chairman with immediate effect We’re still awaiting the company’s results, which are expected to come out later today. 7:28AM Pound loses ground Sterling is down around 0.6pc against the dollar at $1.2870 and 0.5pc against the euro at €1.1567 after yesterday's events in Westminster . The FTSE 100 is tipped to open slightly lower, at 7,181.5. 7:25AM Welcome to Wednesday’s blog Boris Johnson looks set for defeat on his pledge to have a Withdrawal Agreement in place by the end of the month Credit: UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor Good morning. Yesterday was a bright day for the FTSE 100, which saw its biggest gains in seven sessions after a poor day of trading for the pound. The currency spent the London session below the five-month high of $1.30 that was reached yesterday. The pound fell after MPs in Westminster rejected the Government's timetable for implementing the Brexit Withdrawal Bill. 5 things to start your day 1) Canadian copper miner Taseko is preparing to list in London as it seeks to woo more investors who can fund its expansion. The firm – which is already on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges – runs Canada’s second largest copper mine, and is about to start production at another site in Arizona. 2) Taxpayer spending on fracking protests and security hits £13m : The full cost of the shale gas industry to government departments, regulators, police forces and local authorities has reached £32.7m in less than a decade, according to research from the National Audit Office. 3) The UK’s security services have revealed details of a previously secret operation to block criminals from making fraudulent purchases using stolen credit card information. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a division of spy agency GCHQ, said Operation Haulster has stopped millions of pounds being stolen from families by hackers. 4) Boeing is facing fresh woes as Kevin McAllister becomes the first senior executive to be ousted from the company amid its 737 MAX crisis. Mr McAllister, who joined the firm three years ago, was replaced immediately by Stan Deal, chief executive of Boeing’s services division. 5) More shoppers will be able to buy milk, butter and bread from hundreds of local corner shops as Uber Eats, the loss-making takeaway app, makes its first foray into the competitive grocery arena .  The tech company has inked a deal with Costcutter, the convenience store chain, which will allow more than 1,700 shops to sell everyday items via the app across the country, What happened overnight Stocks in Asia headed for a mixed start Wednesday after developments on Brexit sapped risk appetite, dragging US shares lower with Treasury yields. The pound sank. Equity futures dropped in Japan and were little changed in both Hong Kong and Australia. Coming up today It has been something of a year from hell for Metro Bank, with a cancelled bond sale last month preceding the announcement that its founder and chairman Vernon Hill would step down from the challenger lender’s board. Though Metro was later able to complete a £350m fundraising effort, initial issues with the sale arrived amid low shareholder confidence after a share price crash, an accounting scandal and fears over the future of the lender following poor results. Despite the headaches, Jefferies analysts have kept a “buy” rating on Metro’s shares – which are down about 85pc this year – but said store openings and loan growth are both expected to be weak in its third quarter results today. "The big test for Metro Bank is not whether the worst is behind them,” said CMC Markets’ Michael Hewson, “but whether new management can turn around market perceptions of competence, and restore trust at a time when margins in UK banks are already tight, and competition is fierce.” Preliminary results: Filtronic, Softcat Interim: Antofagasta, Centamin, Fresnillo, HarbourVest, Hochschild Mining, Quilter, Metro Bank || What causes a Bitcoin bubble?: Bitcoin bubbles generally tend to grow after a fresh wave of new users join the market. The first registered Bitcoin bubble popped in 2011. This was then followed by a second bubble in late 2013. After that bubble burst, the market had to wait over four years before the biggest Bitcoin bubble of them all exploded spectacularly. In December 2017, Bitcoin reached $20,000 – a record price in the history of any cryptocurrency. But once the bubble burst, the digital asset came crashing down to lows of $3,150. Given that Bitcoin’s price is currently around 50% of its all-time high, will we ever see another massive run? Let’s take a look at what causes a Bitcoin bubble and whether it’s possible to predict one. Bitcoin price history Looking at the chart above, you can see how Bitcoin’s price bottomed at around $3,150. Price action, in terms of US dollars, has been showing bullish signals recently as the EMAs are once more starting to diverge and point upwards. The same signal appeared between April and September 2019. During this period, BTC climbed around 180% from about $5,000 to nearly $14,000. Not only that, but looking at the volume profile, you can see that volume is building up and creating a safety net below $9,000. This means, in terms of probabilities, there’s a higher chance of price breaking above $9,000 than below. Moreover, not only has volume grown 550% since January 2019, it has also reached over $44 billion twice during the same period. Bitcoin is gaining new whales Since early 2019, Bitcoin seems to have gained new strength as new investors have started pouring into the market. Number of #Bitcoin addresses holding more than 1000 $BTC 👀 pic.twitter.com/SGdBXrob5e — glassnode (@glassnode) October 11, 2019 Although one can never be sure if different addresses belong to different people, I’m going to assume there aren’t many people or businesses that own over 1,000 Bitcoin in one single address. Story continues In that case, the above chart should shock you. It shows that the number of addresses with over 1,000 Bitcoin, which at the current price represents a whopping $9,300,000, has grown substantially. From late 2019 to today, about 600 addresses with over 1,000 BTC were created – or funded to be precise. Should we assume institutional investors and VCs are betting heavy on the king of cryptocurrencies? I suspect so. Is a Bitcoin bubble on the horizon? If the first ingredient of a Bitcoin bubble is new players, the second is the sudden reduction in supply. This event is usually referred to as the “Bitcoin halving”, and it represents the date at which Bitcoin’s block rewards are halved. Around May 2020, Bitcoin miners will start to receive 6.25 BTC per block mined rather than the current 12.5 BTC. If today about 1,800 BTC are mined per day, after the supply cut, we should see around 900 BTC being mined on average each day. What will happen to Bitcoin’s price in USD terms? Even though I cannot foresee the future, I imagine there will be extra pressure for price to rise. After all, miners’ profits will be cut in half. According to the graph above, courtesy of @100trillionUSD , a few months after each halving event, BTC’s price action has gone through the roof. At the same time, past history doesn’t dictate future price, so the same “expected” bull run might not take place. In conclusion, Bitcoin bubbles are formed when there’s new people coming into the market, which is driven by miners selling at higher prices to maintain profits. The post What causes a Bitcoin bubble? appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Alibaba Offers Bitcoin Rewards Through Lolli Shopping App for ‘Singles Day’: Lolli, an affiliate retail startup that gives online shoppers bitcoin instead of regular cash-back perks, just announced its firstAsian partnershipwith Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Lolli’s in-browser app allows users to shop through merchants’ websites as they normally would, but earn small bitcoin rewards delivered to the in-browser wallet. CoinDesk reached out to Alibaba for comment and will update the article if we hear back. Related:Bitcoin Price Faces Drop to $8.5K After Consecutive Weekly Losses This announcement comes on Singles Day, the Nov. 11 Chinese shopping holiday comparable to the U.S.’s Black Friday.Alibaba Group’sonline Singles Day sales have reportedly generated more than$23 billionso far this year. However, Lolli’s head of communications, Aubrey Strobel, told CoinDesk that Lolli perks will only be available to purchases made in the U.S. For Chinese-Americans, foreign students or travelers, this new option could add additional perks if they participate in online holiday sales, but residents in China will be unable to participate. “Its products would be shipped from China to U.S. users,” Strobel said. Lolli CEO Alex Adelman referred to this partnership as a milestone for the startup, which plans to expand internationally in 2020. Related:Why Bitcoin’s Next ‘Halving’ May Not Pump the Price Like Last Time “This partnership is a great first step to connect the two largest economies, China and the US, through bitcoin and commerce,” he told CoinDesk. “The opportunity is available for US users only for now but we plan to expand internationally soon, letting everyone in the world easily earn and own bitcoin.” Stepping back, several cash-back crypto startups are gearing up for the holiday shopping season. There are now several bitcoin retail apps, including competitors likeFold, Pei andSPEDN, targeting customers over the 2019 holiday shopping season, offering more bitcoin options than in previous years. Alibabaimage via Shutterstock • How Bitcoin’s Lightning Can Be Used for Private Messaging • Bitcoin’s Weekly Chart May See Golden Cross for First Time in 3.5 Years || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -13/11/19: Bitcoin hit rose by 1.06% on Tuesday. Partially reversing a 3.66% slide from Monday, Bitcoin ended the day at $8,830.0. A relatively range-bound morning saw Bitcoin rise from an early morning low $8,722.3 to a mid-morning high $8,795.7 ahead of a choppy afternoon. Steering clear of the major support and resistance levels early on, Bitcoin rallied to a midday intraday high $8,910.0. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $9,025.3, Bitcoin slid to a mid-afternoon intraday low $8,602.0. Holding above the first major resistance level at $8,533.3, Bitcoin moved back through to $8,800 levels to deliver the upside on the day. For the bulls, the extended bullish trend remained intact in spite of failing to break back through the 38.2% FIB of $9,734. Bitcoin has continued to hold above the 62% FIB of 7,245. Across the rest of the top 10 cryptos, it was another mixed day for the majors on Tuesday. Stellar’s Lumen hit reverse, following its trend-bucking gain on Monday, sliding by 4.10%. Litecoin and Ripple’s XRP also saw red, with the pair falling by 0.55% and by 0.79% respectively. It was positive for the rest of the pack, however, which joined Bitcoin in the green. Binance Coin led the way, rallying by 4.38%, with Tron’s TRX up by 2.73%. Bitcoin Cash ABC (+1.35%), Bitcoin Cash SV (+0.31%), EOS (+1.15%), and Ethereum (+1.26%) saw more modest gains. Through the start of the week, the total crypto market cap fell from a current week high $246.9bn to a current week low $237.75bn on Monday. On Tuesday, the market cap fell back from $240bn levels to a day low $237.9bn  before recovering. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $239.99bn. Bitcoin’s dominance continued to hold at 66% levels on the day, supported by Tuesday’s partial recovery. 24-hour trading volumes continued to sit at sub-$70bn levels. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.78% to $8,761.4. A bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin fall from an early morning high $8,849.9 to a low $8,761.3. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was red across the crypto board. Binance Coin and Bitcoin Cash ABC were down by 1.65% and by 1.39% to lead the reversal. Ripple’s XRP and Ethereum were down by 0.09% and by 0.73% to lead the majors early on. Bitcoin would need to move through to $8,780 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $8,959.33. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break through Tuesday’s high $8,910. Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, Bitcoin would likely come up short of $9,000 levels for a 2ndconsecutive day. In the event of a crypto rally later in the day, the second major resistance level at $9,088.67 would likely cap any upside. Failure to move through to $8,780 levels could see Bitcoin slide deeper into the red. A fall back to sub-$8,700 levels would bring the first major support level at $8,651.33 into play before any recovery. Barring a crypto meltdown, however, Bitcoin should continue to steer clear of sub-$8,600 levels. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • US Stock Market Overview – Stocks Close Higher, Driven by Healthcare, Trump Fails to Deliver • Crude Oil Price Update – Inside Retracement Zone; Strengthens Over $57.36, Weakens Under $56.08 • E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – Vulnerable to Steep Sell-off Under 27495 Gann Angle • Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 13/11/19 • European Equities: FED Chair Powell, Geopolitics and Stats in Focus • UK and U.S Inflation and FED Chair Powell Put the GBP and USD in Focus || Velas Officially Launches Masternodes Staking Program: ZUG, SWITZERLAND / ACCESSWIRE / November 15, 2019 /Velas AG is pleased to announce the launch of its masternode staking program. Masternodes will stake native VLX coins to build a trusted network of validators that will act as block producers for the Velas blockchain. The launch is a significant milestone in the development of Velas, the world's first Artificial Intuition-enabled, delegated proof-of-stake smart contract platform. Within the Velas environment, transactions are verified by staking VLX coins. Holders of VLX can stake their coins as a masternode themselves, or as part of a masternode election. Overall, staking VLX builds the Velas node network, and brings consensus to the current state of the blockchain. Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, which now require specialist hardware to mine, there are no hardware barriers to becoming a masternode on the Velas network. The only requirement is to be holding a minimum of one million VLX coins, plus a small amount extra for the staking fees, currently set at 0.1 VLX. Staking is a simple process that can be easily done using one of the Velas wallets.Launchedearlier this year, the wallets are available within a web browser, or as a desktop application compatible with Windows, MacOS, or Linux operating systems. Once the node is up and running, it takes around four hours for the staking rewards to start allocating. Ultimately, rewards will be assigned based on the determination of the Velas artificial intuition algorithm. However, while the company is still developing the platform, staking rewards will be fixed to around 8% of the stake VLX, representing an opportunity for earning passive income. VLX holders that don't meet the minimum threshold of one million VLX tokens to become a masternode operator still have the opportunity to participate in staking. Velas is providing the opportunity for users to pool staking resources via a partnership withCoinPayments. To participate in pool staking, holders of VLX need to create an account at CoinPayments. From there, they can deposit their VLX in a staking pool for the opportunity of earning a share of the staking rewards. Holders of VLX participating in the election process are also eligible to receive staking rewards. Nodes that are successfully elected will distribute 80% of their block rewards to the VLX holders who voted for them. Speaking of the masternodes staking launch, Velas CEO Alex Alexandrov stated: "The master nodes staking program launch is an important step in our alpha launch that brings us closer to beta in 2020, and the achievement of our vision overall. We've worked hard to create a staking process in which anyone can participate. Ultimately, Velas will solve the cost and scalability problems faced by users of existing blockchains, enabling revolutionary levels of productivity and security." About Velas Founded by CoinPayments CEO Alex Alexandrov,Velashas developed a platform that delivers instant, interoperable transactions, and uninterrupted block formation. Velas stands for Virtual Expanding Learning Autonomous System and is a delegated proof-of-stake blockchain enabled by artificial intuition. Unparalleled durability and increased tolerance mean that the Velas blockchain is unique within the field of distributed ledger technology, opening up a new era in e-commerce and the global economy. SOURCE:Velas View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/566719/Velas-Officially-Launches-Masternodes-Staking-Program [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] New Bitcoin ETF Proposal Filed With SEC by Gold Fund Veteran https://t.co/EyYVkcgb5Y || Binance - BTC Market #KNC - Unusual selling activity 1.34 BTC in 24 seconds (12%) B: 0.00001885 🔴 (0.48%) A: 0.00001889 🔴 (0.68%) 24H Vol: 12.96 BTC Last signal: 3 days ago (2/7D) || Not getting too excited here, for those who can't see it diagonal resistance looks broken if we don't dump from here.. My thick red resistance line is Namek Express once broken, the last time we broke similar structure was our move from $4keks to $5keks, then to $7keks. $BTC https://t.co/nvQ8Bavnhd || Biggest injury questions for all 32 NFL teams https://t.co/PMdnVJDHod ▶️ https://t.co/aw3pmZX04g #Bitcoin #Sportsbook https://t.co/tzjaZ15gNl || Today october 31, a long wait for my ✈️ back home, it's time to read this amazing Bitcoin magazine 10th anniversary edition that I got on @LNconf 😃👏 There's no better way to celebrate this long journey https://t.co/dcBAvez683 || @StockBoardAsset Powell also said yesterday there's no connection between Money Supply &amp; Inflation. Strange fact - since yr 2000: 1) Money Supply (TMS) at average 8% to 10% p.a. 2) 1980 CPI model shows CPI 8% to 10% #fintwit #gold #Crypto #BTC #Bitcoin #Fed @ForexStopHunter @LawrenceLepard https://t.co/9qzNnKDTPR || @TonyVal76476318 Just back from a Vegas poker trip. Plenty of IT guys at the tables last week, with the IT cons going on. Three whom I engaged, knew of BTC (one had used it for online poker), all vaguely knew of Ripple. Once I ran down XRP's points, they got it, shockingly quickly. #0doubt 🔥 || @BltvToken What do I think? I would have considered your case genuine if you proposed to use bitcoin. This does not need a token! || Currently on round #11527 with 85/100 participants (0.09814207 BTC each) || @UpbitID @klaytn_official https://t.co/HYYtQBO1bl
Trend: up || Prices: 7152.30, 6932.48, 6640.52, 7276.80, 7202.84, 7218.82, 7191.16, 7511.59, 7355.63, 7322.53
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2018-10-11] BTC Price: 6256.24, BTC RSI: 35.51 Gold Price: 1223.50, Gold RSI: 62.43 Oil Price: 70.97, Oil RSI: 45.51 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 18/08/18: Bitcoin Cash Hits $600 Bitcoin Cash rallied 16.77% on Friday, following Thursday’s 0.92% gain, to end the day at $602.4. It was a day long rally, with a start of a day intraday low $515 holding above the first major support level at $499.37. Bitcoin Cash broke through the first major resistance level at $535.67 by mid-morning, with a pickup in appetite across the broader market leading to a breakout. Bitcoin Cash broke through the second and third major resistance levels to a late in the day intraday high $604.9 before easing back to $602.4 by the day’s end. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash was down 1.99% to $591.8, Bitcoin Cash pulling back from a start of a day morning high $610 to a low $589.6 before steadying, the early moves leaving the major resistance and support levels untested. For the day ahead, a move back through to $600 would support a run at the first major resistance level at $633.2, though Bitcoin Cash will need to hold on to $590 levels through the morning to avoid a pullback later in the day, some degree of profit taking likely to pin back Bitcoin Cash in the early hours. Failure to break out from $600 to take a run at $630 levels could see Bitcoin Cash take a hit later in the day, any fall through $575 likely to bring the first major support level at $543.3 into play before any recovery, though we would expect any losses on the day to be relatively minor in the event of a sell-off that should leave the major support levels untested. {alt} Get Into Bitcoin Cash Trading Today Litecoin Hits the $60s Litecoin jumped by 11.25% on Friday, following Thursday’s 1.89% gain, to end the day at $61.72. Tracking the broader market, Litecoin rallied from a start of a day intraday low $55.16, which held above the first major support level at $53.84, to a late in the day intraday high $61.88. The moves through the day saw Litecoin break through the first major resistance level at $57.39 and second major resistance level at $59.31, with the break into $60 levels the first since Monday. At the time of writing, Litecoin was down 1.65% to $60.8, an early rally through to a morning high $62.6 coming up short of the first major resistance level at $64.01, with Litecoin succumbing to a broad based market slide, investors taking some money off the table following Friday’s rally. A pullback to a morning low $60.45 saw Litecoin steer clear of the first major support level at $57.29 and more importantly hold on to $60 levels. For the day ahead, a move back through to $62 levels would support a run at the first major resistance level at $64.01, though we can expect Litecoin to face some resistance on the move through to $63 levels, holding on to $60 levels through the morning key to supporting a rebound later in the day. Story continues Failure to hold on to $60 levels through the morning could see the day’s first major support level at $57.29 come into play before any recovery, with the second major support level at $52.87 unlikely to be tested barring materially negative news hitting the wires. {alt} Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency Instantly Ripple Makes a Splash Ripple’s XRP led the way on Friday, surging by 25.23%, following Thursday’s 4.71% gain, to end the day at $0.36668. A shift in sentiment through the day saw Ripple’s XRP break through the major resistance levels to a late in the day intraday high $0.37481, before easing back to $0.36 levels, Ripple’s XRP holding above the third major resistance level at $0.3459 at the day’s end. News of Ripple Labs naming three exchanges, in the U.S, Mexico and the Philippines, to support cross-border transactions and permit the trading of local currency with Ripple’s XRP supported the sizeable move, though sentiment across the market had already been on the mend in the latter part of the week. At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was down 4.12% to $0.35333, with Ripple’s XRP pulling back from a start of a day $0.37267 high that came up short of the first major resistance level at $0.39777. For the day ahead, holding above $0.3438 will be key to support a recovery later in the day, with a move back through to $0.36 levels signaling a run at the first major resistance level at $0.39777, though we can expect Ripple’s XRP to face plenty of resistance following Friday’s surge. Failure to hold above $0.3438 will likely lead to a more material sell-off to bring the first major support level at $0.3129 into play before any recovery, sub-$0.30 support levels unlikely to be tested on the day. {alt} Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency Instantly This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: EUR/USD Weekly Price Forecast – Euro hanging on for dear life GBP/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – British pound continues to struggle against Japanese yen USD/JPY Price Forecast – US dollar falls against yen to close out the week S&P 500 Price Forecast – stock markets resilient on Friday Silver Weekly Price Forecast – Silver markets plunge for the week S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – stock markets continue to show resiliency View comments || Crude Oil Price Forecast – crude oil markets rally significantly to kick off the week: The WTI Crude Oil marketwas up rather drastically during the day on Monday, reaching over 2% and gains as the OPEC ministers have chosen not to increase production, even though the Iranian sanctions are about to come into play. Because of this, the supply should tighten significantly, and that will drive up the value of black gold. However, you want to pay attention to the US dollar as well, because although it was somewhat soft on Monday, we saw a pretty significant turnaround. At this point, I think that you can expect a lot of volatility and although the obvious direction is to be buying, you should probably wait for some type of pullback to take advantage of value, I see a particularly interesting entry just above the $71 level if you get that opportunity. Brent marketsalso rallied a bit during the trading session, reaching above the $80 level rather handily. That’s a good sign, but I also recognize that the $80.50 level is an area of concern. I think that if we can pull back to that level and find more support, it’s assigned that we will eventually go much higher. I like the idea of buying on dips, because although we have just cleared the psychologically and structurally important $80 level, retesting it and proving it to be important would of course be an excellent turn of events for the buyers. Ultimately, I think that the market will favor the upside, but again, I believe you should be looking for value. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Bitcoin Trading Volumes On the Surge Amidst Argentina Inflation Crisis • EUR/USD Being Steady, Trade Wars Are in Focus • GBP/USD Daily Price Forecast – British Pound Flat Ahead of US FOMC Update • Greenback’s Path Hinges on the Fed’s dot Plot • The USD is on the Move ahead of Trump Addressing the General Assembly • Precious Metals Trade Dovish Ahead of US Fed Rate Decision || Citigroup is the Latest Bank to Offer Crypto Custody: Here’s How it Will Affect the Market: citigroup bitcoin According to Business Insider’s Frank Chaparro, sources close to Citibank revealed that the $175 billion New York-based bank will offer crypto custody solutions to institutional investors. Through the launch of a product called Digital Asset Receipt (DAR), Citigroup will enable institutional investors to invest in cryptocurrencies in a fully insured and regulated manner. Similar to ETFs Conceptually, a DAR is similar to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as investors do not actually have to own the stock or asset that is represented by DAR. For example, Citigroup has been offering DARs based on foreign stocks which US-based investors cannot purchase. By owning DARs issued by Citibank, investors in the US essentially possess instruments that represent the value of the stocks or assets that are owned by Citibank on behalf of its consumers. With Bitcoin, Citibank would issue DARs which its clients will be able to purchase equipped with insurance, protection, transaction monitoring, and other systems that are required by the financial regulators of the US. By investing in DARs, institutions will be able to hold instruments that represent the value of Bitcoin . Chaparro, a journalist at Business Insider, wrote : “The bank will alert the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp, a Wall Street middleman that provides clearing and settlement services, once it’s issued the receipt, one of the people said.” Citigroup is still in an early stage in issuing DARs based on Bitcoin. Analysts have stated that the emergence of a wide range of institutional products like Coinbase Custody, Goldman Sachs custody, and Citigroup DARs will improve the liquidity and infrastructure of the global crypto market. Impact on the Market bitcoin etf Most major banks based in the US including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley are cautious in dealing digital assets and issuing publicly tradable instruments on top of cryptocurrencies due to the regulatory uncertainty in the region. Story continues Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are said to be the first banks to offer crypto custody solutions in the near future, but representatives from both banks have emphasized that the two financial institutions are early in their process of entering the cryptocurrency market. Hence, whether it is Bitcoin ETFs , ETNs, or custody solutions, the earliest period in which publicly tradable instruments will be released to the public would be in 2019. Most recently, Sweden-based XBT Provider expanded its Bitcoin ETN to US markets. Less than a month since its launch in the US, the Bitcoin Tracker One ETN was suspended by the US SEC. Once institutional products hit the market and pension funds, hedge funds, and large-scale conglomerates take interest in cryptocurrencies as stores of value that are not dependent on the broader financial market, a large sum of capital will flow into the cryptocurrency market via custody solutions. The optimism expressed by billionaire investor Mike Novogratz towards the next mid-term rally of cryptocurrencies that could potentially be triggered by the entrance of institutional investors have increased the interest towards robust crypto custodian solutions over ETFs, which are highly unlikely to be approved by the SEC in the months to come. Images from Shutterstock The post Citigroup is the Latest Bank to Offer Crypto Custody: Here’s How it Will Affect the Market appeared first on CCN . || This High-Yield Stock Is Working Hard to Cash In on the Fast-Growing Permian Basin: Oil and gas production in thePermian Basinis up more than 50% since December 2016. While that high-octane growth rate has the country on pace to producerecord-setting volumes this year, it has also caused some growing pains. Among them is that there isn't enough pipeline capacity to move all that oil and gas out of the region. Because of that,pipeline companies are building new infrastructure as fast as they can. One of the many companies working to solve the Permian's pipeline problems isSummit Midstream Partners(NYSE: SMLP). Themaster limited partnership (MLP)is currently working on a long-haul pipeline that would transport natural gas from the northwest portion of the region to a major hub in Texas. The project would not only provide needle-moving growth for Summit -- and help support its sky-high 14.5%-yielding distribution -- but it could be a crucial supply link for the industry. Image source: Getty Images. Summit Midstream set up shop in the Permian last year when it signed an agreement to develop a natural gas gathering and processing system to support the growth ofExxonMobil(NYSE: XOM). The company is currently investing $110 million in building the Lane Plant, which will process 60 million cubic feet of natural gas per day (MMcf/d), as well as constructing some gathering pipelines to transport gas produced by ExxonMobil and some third-party customers to the plant. It's also building some additional lines to gather crude oil. The company's initial footprint should serve as a springboard for future growth. For example, Summit could build additional oil handling infrastructure as well as pipelines to gather produced water. Furthermore, the company has the potential to expand the Lane Plant's capacity up to 600 MMcf/d in the future. However, the largest project Summit has in development is the Double E pipeline, which could cost between $400 million to $450 million and move more than 1 Bcf/d of natural gas from the Lane Plant and other receipt points to an industry hub in Waha, Texas. Summit has already secured ExxonMobil as a foundational shipper for the project after the oil giant signed a long-term contract for half the pipeline's capacity. Exxon also has the option to acquire up to half the equity in the pipeline. While Summit still needs to secure shippers for the rest of the pipeline's planned capacity, the company noted that interest has been strong. That's no surprise since gas production in the Permian is on track to double over the next 10 years, which means producers need to secure space to move it out of the region. Summit hopes to lock up enough contracts to green-light the project by the end of the third quarter, which would put it on the path to finishing the pipeline in the second quarter of 2021. It's an important project for Summit since it could move the needle for the $2.3 billion MLP. Assuming the company maintains a 50% stake and earns a similar return as its other Permian projects, it could boost Summit's earnings by around 9% from this year's level. That would go a long way in helping support or even potentially grow the company's high-yield payout in the coming years. Image source: Getty Images. ExxonMobil's involvement in this project is worth noting since it increases the likelihood that Summit will move forward. That's because the Permian is crucial to Exxon'sgrowth planwhere it expects to expand output fivefold by 2025 as part of a broader strategy to boost production 25%. Given the importance of the Permian to its growth strategy, Exxon has been locking up capacity on pipelines so that nothing hinders its ability to expand. That led it tosign up as an anchor shipperonKinder Morgan's(NYSE: KMI)newest gas pipeline project, the Permian Highway Pipeline, which should start service at the end of 2020. Exxon committed to shipping up to 450,000 MMcf/d on the 2 Bcf/d pipeline that will transport gas from Waha to the Gulf Coast. That commitment, timeframe, and starting point suggest that Summit's Double E pipeline could be a crucial link to get Exxon's gas to the Permian Highway Pipeline. The project could also be an important one to facilitate another pipeline that's under development.Targa Resources(NYSE: TRGP),MPLX(NYSE: MPLX),NextEra Energy, and private equity-backed WhiteWater Midstream recently announced that they're working on the Whistler Pipeline project, which would also move 2 Bcf/d from Waha to the Gulf Coast. The partners have already locked up gas supplies from a variety of sources, including from gas processing plants operated by Targa Resources as well as from the 1.4 Bcf/D Agua Blanca Pipeline, which is owned by a joint venture between Targa, MPLX,WPX Energy, and WhiteWater. However, the Whistler Pipeline's developers still need about 500,000 MMcf/d of additional volume commitments to fill its capacity, which could come from producers shipping on Double E. Summit Midstream is developing what appears to be a key natural gas pipeline project in the Permian Basin. Not only would Double E help get ExxonMobil's fast-growing production to Waha, where it could catch a ride on the Permian Highway Pipeline, but it could help supply the Whistler project as well. While the project meets those needs, it would fuel needle-moving growth for Summit. That's why investors should keep an eye on this proposed pipeline since it may very well be an important one for the region as well as for Summit Midstream Partners. More From The Motley Fool • 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices • 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 • 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Matthew DiLalloowns shares of Kinder Morgan. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Kinder Morgan. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Commercial Use of Bitcoin Cash Payments has Dropped: Analytics Firm: Cryptocurrency advocate Roger Ver, often referred to as Bitcoin Jesus is having a tough time with the adoption of Bitcoin Cash (BCH). In a report published onBloomberg, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis says the Bitcoin fork is barely being used in commerce. Bitcoin Cash was forked from Bitcoin over a year ago. At the time, Ver had converted his holdings into Bitcoin Cash, telling everyone who cared to listen that he had switched allegiance to BCH. He even overhauled his Bitcoin.com website, to focus on the cryptocurrency. In a review conducted by the firm on the world’s 17 largest crypto merchant processing services such as BitPay and Coinfy, they found a reduction in Bitcoin Cash payments from $10.5 million in March 2018 to $3.7 million in May. Bitcoin payments also slumped from a peak of $412 million in September 2017 to $60 million in May 2018. The decline follows the slump in global digital currency prices this year which has seen Bitcoin losing over 60 percent of its value, while BCH lost around 75 percent. “There are fewer users of Bitcoin Cash, fewer holders,” Kim Grauer, senior economist at Chainalysis told Bloomberg in a phone interview. Gauer believes the adoption has been low due to the concentration of ownership. Chainalysis records about 56 percent of Bitcoin Cash being controlled by 67 wallets not located on crypto exchanges. Of those wallets, two of them hold between 10,000 and 100,000 Bitcoin Cash. Ver has remained resolute in his quest to drive market adoption of BCH. Last week, in a YouTubevideowith Bitcoin.com’s lead developer Corbin Fraser, Ver had unveiled the Wormhole Cash protocol, a tool that allows developers issue tokens on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain. Ver and Fraser went further to suggest the crypto publication could launch an ICO. ” ICOs and CryptoKitties are probably coming to Bitcoin Cash in the near future,” Fraser had commented in the video, to which Ver responded: “They’re probably coming to Bitcoin.com, too. We’ve been thinking about having our own ICO for maybe the games part of the platform; maybe we’ll issue a token and pay dividends or use part of the money… to buy back the tokens on the open market.” Featured image from Shutterstock. The postCommercial Use of Bitcoin Cash Payments has Dropped: Analytics Firmappeared first onCCN. || SEC to review decision rejecting bitcoin ETFs: By Trevor Hunnicutt and Michelle Price NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday it will review a decision by its staff to block nine bitcoin-based exchange-traded funds from coming to market. Staff at the SEC on Wednesday rejected applications for new funds from three companies, suggesting they were not yet convinced that the products would not be subject to fraud or manipulation. But the SEC's four commissioners will review those decisions, according to letters the SEC posted on its website. SEC staff have delegated authority to make a decision on such applications, meaning the commissioners and the SEC chairman have the power to review the decision if they desire. The commissioners had previously voted 3-1 to reject another bitcoin ETF application, with Republican commissioner Hester Peirce dissenting on the basis she felt doing so stifled innovation. The virtual currency can be used to move money around the world quickly and with relative anonymity, without the need for a central authority, such as a bank or government. A fund holding the currency could attract more investors and push its price higher. Bitcoin was trading up nearly 2 percent at $6,480 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange on Thursday after the SEC posted the letters. (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in New York and Michelle Price in Washington; Editing by Dan Grebler) || Satoshi’s Vision: Craig Wright to Launch BCH Node to ‘Restore Original Bitcoin Protocol’: bitcoin cash An intramural debate among Bitcoin Cash developers about the future of the BCH protocol is heating up, with a development group backed by nChain and Craig Wright vowing to create a new full node client that does not include the so-called “unnecessary changes” being added to Bitcoin ABC, the most popular full node BCH client. Craig Wright-Backed nChain to Launch Competing BCH Client Dubbed Bitcoin SV — a not-so-subtle acronym for “Satoshi Vision” — the software, in nChain’s words, is designed “to provide a clear BCH implementation choice for miners who support Bitcoin’s original vision, over implementations that seek to make unnecessary changes to the original Bitcoin protocol.” The company says that Bitcoin SV will double down even further on Bitcoin Cash’s commitment to on-chain scaling (as opposed to second-layer scaling through technologies such as Plasma and the Lightning Network) by raising the block size limit to 128MB from the current 32MB limit . For reference, the vast majority of recent BCH blocks mined over the past several days have been smaller than 100KB, or less than one-third-of-one percent of the current limit. bitcoin cash blocksize Additionally, the first release of Bitcoin SV will restore four “Satoshi opcodes” — scripting operations that had originally been included in Bitcoin but were disabled in later software updates. These opcodes are: OP_MUL, OP_LSHIFT, OP_RSHIFT, and OP_INVERT. Additionally, Bitcoin SV will remove the limit of 201 opcodes per individual script. Jimmy Nguyen, CEO of nChain , said: “Answering the call of miners, nChain is happy to provide technical capabilities needed to support Bitcoin SV. Once the Bitcoin protocol is fully restored and maintained, global businesses and developers can reliably build robust applications, projects and ventures upon it – just as they reliably build upon the long-stable Internet protocols. The future of Bitcoin is big blocks, big business, and big growth. Bitcoin SV is an important step toward that big future by advancing the professionalization of Bitcoin.” Story continues CoinGeek, a Bitcoin Cash mining pool founded by billionaire entrepreneur Calvin Ayre , has already announced publicly that it will mine with Bitcoin SV following the software’s release ahead of the scheduled Bitcoin Cash hard fork in November and has said that it will “continue to support only consensus changes that restore the original Bitcoin protocol, and those that may be demonstrated as absolutely necessary to meeting the goal of massive on-chain scaling to terabyte+ blocks.” At present, CoinGeek’s mining pool accounts for approximately 22 percent of the BCH hashrate. bitcoin cash mining chart “Because miners should drive the roadmap in the Bitcoin space, CoinGeek and other miners asked nChain to create a professionally-driven implementation of the Bitcoin full node software (for use on BCH) that restores the original Bitcoin protocol,” Ayre said. “CoinGeek is sponsoring the project and intends to mine with Bitcoin SV. We invite other BCH miners to join us in using Bitcoin SV to voice their support for the Satoshi Vision.” CoinGeek, nChain Spar with Bitcoin ABC over Future of Bitcoin Cash bitcoin cash nodes The decision of nChain, with CoinGeek’s backing, to launch Bitcoin SV is the culmination of heated debates within the Bitcoin Cash technical community over the future of the BCH protocol. Bitcoin ABC, the full node implementation developed by Amaury Séchet and currently used by most miners, has announced plans to activate, among other changes, two new opcodes during the protocol’s November hard fork — OP_CHECKDATASIG and OP_CHECKDATASIGVERIFY — as well as implement canonical transaction ordering . These proposals have been met with strong resistance by Wright and Ayre, who have argued that, among other things, these opcodes could lead to “unlicensed gambling” since they can be used to implement “oracle” services such as those that make decentralized prediction markets possible. Ayre, incidentally, made his fortune through an online gambling empire, though it is Wright in particular who has used this as an argument against these opcodes. OP_CHECKDATASIGVERIFY is not happening. If a certain ABC dev wants to push this, then we will just fund replacement Devs. Trust me. There are others. Miners vote Think we are not serious. Watch the Axe fall. @CalvinAyre @yhaiyang — Dr Craig S Wright (@ProfFaustus) August 9, 2018 No. That exists today And, the idea that unlicensed gambling will be tolerated is a joke. It, in the way some think will exist will just allow a way to shutdown anything using it — Dr Craig S Wright (@ProfFaustus) August 9, 2018 According to nChain, Bitcoin SV will be based off BItcoin ABC v0.17.2, and its development will be led by BitcoinJ-Cash developer Daniel Connolly. The firm plans to have the SV codebase ready for a full security audit in mid-October. Featured Image from Shutterstock The post Satoshi’s Vision: Craig Wright to Launch BCH Node to ‘Restore Original Bitcoin Protocol’ appeared first on CCN . || ICON Records 23% Gain Again While Crypto Market Sees Gloomy Forecast: ICON (ICX) and WanChain (WAN) have recorded massive 23 percent gains again in the past 24 hours, becoming the two best performing assets in the global crypto market for two days straight. The valuation of the crypto market increased from $213 billion to $214 billion on August 27 as some major cryptocurrencies like EOS and IOTA saw fairly large gains in the range of 4 to 15 percent. Volume is the Issue Throughout the past week, despite the strong performance of the crypto market, analysts expressed their concerns regarding the decline in the volume in major digital assets. Specifically, the volume of Bitcoin, which hovered around $4.5 billion last week, has fallen below $3.5 billion. Ethereum, EOS, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, and other major cryptocurrencies have also seen a large drop in their daily trading volume. Most notably, Ether, whose volume surpassed $2 billion last week, has dropped to $1.3 billion. Meanwhile, the volume of Tether (USDT), a stablecoin pegged to the value of the US dollar, has increased from $1.5 billion to $2 billion, suggesting that a large portion of investors are still relying on USDT to hedge the value of their cryptocurrencies. As such, as some traders have suggested, it is more likely for Bitcoin to drop from the $6,700 mark than break out of the $6,850 resistance level. If the volume of Bitcoin had been higher in the $4.5 billion region, the same trend would have signaled a short-term surge in the price of Bitcoin. “Barring the price action ambiguity surrounding London open, BTC looks prime for a drop, maybe a wick above $6,771 is possible. There has been a healthy distribution (wyckoff cycle) over the past few days every time BTC was above $6,700. Next couple of days would be interesting,” one trader known as Crypto Brahma said . What About Tokens? Throughout August, tokens have heavily depended on the performance of Bitcoin. Traditionally, tokens have replicated the price trend of Ethereum and EOS with intensified movements on the upside but due to the lack of momentum in Ether, tokens have relied on the price movement of Bitcoin. Story continues If the Bitcoin price fails to sustain momentum at the $6,700 mark which is likely due to its low volume, it is highly likely for tokens to drop against Bitcoin in the next 24 hours. Even if the Bitcoin price remains stable in this price range, given the massive gains demonstrated by tokens against Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the US dollar, a minor retraction is due. But, some tokens like ICON, Ontology, and WanChain, which have seen a spike in their volume with ICON’s daily trading volume on Binance rising from 800 BTC to 5,000 BTC within a two-day period, may require the price of Bitcoin to fall by at least 2 to 3 percent in order to see a trend reversal and drop to their previous lows. Featured image from Shutterstock. Charts from TradingView . The post ICON Records 23% Gain Again While Crypto Market Sees Gloomy Forecast appeared first on CCN . || Weed stock Tilray is on a wild ride: Weed stock Tilray ( TLRY ) has been sending investors on a ride. Shares of Tilray fell 19.1% to $99.50 per share at market close Monday, marking the British Columbia-based medical marijuana company’s third day of declines. Some other members of the cannabis industry also saw their shares fall Monday, with shares of New Age Beverage ( NBEV ) down 35.6% and shares of Cronos Group ( CRON ) lower by 5.2%. Shares of Tilray have been cut by more than two thirds since hitting a high of $300 per share last Wednesday afternoon. Tilray opened with shares higher by 50.7% on Sept. 19 after the company’s CEO, Brendan Kennedy, told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that investment in cannabis companies “is a global opportunity .” Earlier last Tuesday, Tilray gained approval from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to import medical cannabis into the U.S. for testing purposes. ‘Is it a bubble? Absolutely’ Shares of Tilray continued to climb last Wednesday as traders scrambled to get in fast. The stock then began to collapse after shares were halted for trade five times within an hour. It finished Wednesday’s session up 38% at $214.06 per share — after seeing intraday gains of more than 90%. Tilray’s intraday volatility last Wednesday produced some winners as well as some losers . Prominent investor Whitney Tilson predicted that individual investors would be hit the hardest amid the collapse in Tilray’s stock price. Short-seller Whitney Tilson talks weed stocks on the Final Round. (Photo: screenshot/Yahoo Finance) “I’ve been short selling for 20 years … and I’ve seen this story so many times before,” Tilson said on Yahoo Finance’s Final Round. “It created good opportunities to make money on the short side. But it makes me sort of feel bad because I know who’s going to get incinerated here, and it’s the retail investors.” Cramer echoed warnings for individual investors in response to Wednesday’s hectic day of trading. “This whole group has gotten too hot – no argument here,” Cramer said on Thursday . “Is it a bubble? Absolutely.” (Graphic: David Foster/Yahoo Finance) ‘Cannabis stocks today feel like Bitcoin and Ethereum did in December’ While Tilray has pulled focus as the most valuable pot company, shares of marijuana industry peers Aurora Cannabis ( ACBFF ), Canopy Growth Corporation ( CGC ), and New Age Beverage have been similarly volatile. Story continues The recent cannabis boom has prompted comparisons to the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and ballooning prices of cryptocurrencies last year . “The prices of the cannabis stocks today feel like Bitcoin and Ethereum did in December of last year,” said former hedge fund manager and emergent cryptocurrencies authority Mike Novogratz in an interview Thursday at Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit. “So if I was long on them I’d sell them. And if you’re a speculator, I’d short them.” Bitcoin saw a miraculous rise in 2017 before a steep fall in 2018. (Photo: St. Louis Fed) Even with the past week’s volatility, Tilray is still up about 485% from its July initial public offering price of $17 per share and boasts a market cap of more than $9 billion. Kennedy asserted Tuesday on CNBC that medical marijuana could be around a $100 billion industry globally. In the video above, Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer notes that, “The problem is there are fundamentals, but they don’t begin to justify the valuations. And you [say] that’s because the potential is unlimited. Like, you can take a little sip in the state of Colorado. But soon, all 50 states, you’ll be guzzling gallons, right? So that’s sort of how it’s supposed to play out. But to get from here to there is a huge stretch.” Milestones that ‘attract pharmaceutical companies to the space’ Regulatory changes and new deals have helped propel the industry forward. Aurora Cannabis saw a spike in share prices after Bloomberg reported that the company was in talks with Coca-Cola to produce beverages infused with cannabidiol earlier this week. The Canadian company, which currently trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange, plans to establish a U.S. listing next month. Bruce Linton, chief executive officer of Canadian company Canopy Growth, sees the cannabis industry growing as the legalization of medical marijuana use expands to other countries and becomes more entwined with the pharmaceutical industry. A Tilray scientist waters some marijuana plants. (Photo: Tilray) “You’re going to see, over the next year or two, a great number of milestones met which are going to attract pharmaceutical companies to the space,” Linton said in an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box . “If you can reduce anxiety in a medical world, you can see where they start to crisscross and become part of the recreational world.” The business activities of cannabis companies will help to “boost and develop” a variety of other industries, Marijuana Business Daily CEO Cassandra Farrington said on Yahoo Finance’s Midday Movers Friday . She cited construction – which would get a boost on demand for new facilities to grow the crops – and the beverage industry as two such examples. “Whatever you’re interested in, whatever you are following in the marketplace, there is an aspect of cannabis that you should be paying attention to,” Farrington said. An earlier version of this story was published on Saturday, Sept. 22. Emily McCormick is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @emily_mcck READ MORE: Weed is the new blockchain Munson on weed stocks: ‘90% of them are frauds’ ‘100% illegal’: The business of weed banking is veiled in secrecy || Thai Actor Maintains Innocence with $24 Million Bitcoin Fraud: The charges on famous Thai actor Jiratpisit “Boom” Jaravijit and his sibling, Thanasit Jaravijit were heard earlier this week in court concerning an alleged bitcoin fraud worth nearly a billion baht (about $24 million), according to alocal newsoutlet. The popular soap actor showed up at court well ahead of schedule but tried to avoid reporters who kept asking about his siblings and his involvement in the scam. According to the news outlet, Boom continues to maintain his innocence in the fraud, despite incriminating evidence held by the Bangkok Crime Suppression Division (CSD) against him including an “electronic account” under his name used to receive bitcoin deposits. After a grueling interrogation with the authorities, Boom told reporters he had nothing to do with the incidence and neither was he in contact with the prime suspect in the case—his elder brother—Parinya Jaravijit. Boom was arrested at a film location on August 8, 2018, where he waschargedwith money laundering. According to the complaints made by Finnish businessman, Aarni Otava Saarimaa, Boom and his accomplices had promised high growth returns to investors who invested in DNA 2002 Plc shares, a bitcoin-related business. Renowned stock exchange investor Prasit Srisuwan brokered the deal, but the investors didn’t get the stock as promised, neither were they called for a shareholders meeting. Srisuwan, who brokered the deal, is also subject to an arrest warrant. He told reporters last month that he was a victim in the case and not a culprit. CSD deputy commander Chakrit Sawasdee had argued that Srisuwan will still be charged with fraud on the basis of collecting $24 million worth of Bitcoin from Saarimaa without delivering the 500 million shares in DNA 2002 at 0.50 baht each. According to the authorities, the bitcoin scam gang allegedly exchanged Saarimaa’s bitcoin for baht and then laundered the money through a series of bank accounts. Featured image from Shutterstock. The postThai Actor Maintains Innocence with $24 Million Bitcoin Fraudappeared first onCCN. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] CryptoWatch: Bitcoin hovers near $6,500, but will take months to repair technical damage, says chart expert https://bankinformer.com/884333/cryptowatch-bitcoin-hovers-near-6500-but-will-take-months-to-repair-technical-damage-says-chart-expert/ … || ロシアのクラウドファンディングサイトであるBoomstarterにて、サトシナカモトを国際的に探す為のプロジェクト( #Findsatoshi)を行う為の資金調達が始まってますよっと！ 既に、4万ドル以上集まっているらしく、三大陸で探偵を雇って捜索を行う為に使われるそう！ #サトシナカモト #BTC #Findsatoshi https://t.co/HAzcbYIKUI || Price: $6,479.34 1h: 0.18% 24h: 0.11% 7d: -7.17% Market Cap: $111,796,978,432.00 #Bitcoin #BTC || 2018/08/18 22:00 #Binance 格安コイン 1位 #HOT 0.00000009 BTC(0.06円) 2位 #BCN 0.00000028 BTC(0.2円) 3位 #NPXS 0.00000028 BTC(0.2円) 4位 #DENT 0.00000031 BTC(0.22円) 5位 #SC 0.00000091 BTC(0.65円) #仮想通貨 #アルトコイン #草コイン || True!pic.twitter.com/lEF8Rs7jvr || #BTCUSD Market #1H timeframe on August 16 at 03:00 (UTC) is #Bullish. #cryptocurrency #bitcoin #btc #crypto #trading #idea #report technical analysis || ツイート数の多かった仮想通貨 1位 $BTC 760 Tweets 2位 $TRX 371 Tweets 3位 $ETH 297 Tweets 4位 $XRP 250 Tweets 5位 $IOST 143 Tweets 2018-08-14 10:00 ～ 2018-08-14 10:59 COINTREND いまTwitterで話題の仮想通貨を探せ！ https://cointrend.jp/  || Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index - Digiconomist https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption … || Spread your #Bitcoin around and see what is undervalued. Take profits on the way, buy the dip, let some ride, and have fun. $WAN is still under a $1 and this was $3 when $ONT was $1. #Ontology is now $2.00. #Wanchain. Gauge the market well and get good picks! #BTC $BTC pic.twitter.com/5bLTtEPpbf || Get 3% OFF On #GenesisMining #CloudMining With #PromoCode: "jywAkr" Start #Mining: https://goo.gl/QPNV5r  | Article: How Can Andreessen Horowitz Profit From its $15m Investment in a Stablecoin? http://zpr.io/6wZDz  | #bitcoin #investment #blockchain
Trend: up || Prices: 6274.58, 6285.99, 6290.93, 6596.54, 6596.11, 6544.43, 6476.71, 6465.41, 6489.19, 6482.35
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-01-27] BTC Price: 30432.55, BTC RSI: 43.07 Gold Price: 1844.90, Gold RSI: 44.96 Oil Price: 52.85, Oil RSI: 64.31 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] US Floats Long-Dreaded Plan to Make Crypto Exchanges Identify Personal Wallets: U.S. cryptocurrency users hoping to transfer their holdings from an exchange to their own personal wallets may need to comply with new know-your-customer (KYC) requirements under a rule proposed by the Treasury Department Friday. Under theadvanced notice of proposed rulemaking, users who want to send cryptocurrencies from centralized exchanges to a private wallet would need to provide personal information about the owner of that wallet to the exchanges, if the amount sent is greater than $10,000 in one day. The exchanges would also need to submit and store records involving such transactions with a total value over $10,000 in a given reporting period, or just maintain records for transactions over $3,000. In other words, users of centralized cryptocurrency exchanges who want to move their holdings onto their own private wallet, or to someone else’s, would have to provide detailed personal information for transactions greater than $3,000, and exchanges would be required to report either individual or groups of transactions that add up to more than $10,000 to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Related:US Treasury Bulking Up Crypto Policy Advisers as Wallet Reg Rumors Swirl Along with anotherrecent proposal, the move would increase the amount of work individuals and exchanges must put into transferring cryptocurrencies, as well as increase the amount of personal data exchanges must hold onto or report to the Treasury Department. This would bring crypto closer in line with the traditional banking system, perhaps giving greater comfort toinstitutional investorswho areincreasingly consideringthe asset class, but undermining the technology’searly promiseofprivacyandself-sovereignty. At a minimum, privacy would require jumping through more hoops: In a press release, the Treasury said the rule would close “loopholes” around virtual currency transaction reporting. Related:Blockchain Bites: Google Goes Down, Nexus CEO and US Treasury Get Hacked The general public will have until Jan. 4, 2021 to provide comments or feedback (although another part of the document says feedback can be submitted within 15 days after the rule is published in the Federal Register, the national logbook, on Dec. 23). “FinCEN assesses that there are significant national security imperatives that necessitate an efficient process for proposal and implementation of this rule,” the document read, adding: “U.S. authorities have found that malign actors are increasingly using CVC to facilitate international terrorist financing, weapons proliferation, sanctions evasion, and transnational money laundering, as well as to buy and sell controlled substances, stolen and fraudulent identification documents and access devices, counterfeit goods, malware and other computer hacking tools, firearms, and toxic chemicals.” Rumors that this rule was in the works circulated last month when Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted that the Trump administration was preparinga rushed rulethat would require exchanges to verify know-your-customer information for the recipient of a transfer to a self-hosted wallet. The move would introduce a large amount of friction for crypto users, Armstrong warned at the time. The rule would be largelyin line with guidancefrom the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) last year that required its member nations to implement KYC rules for virtual asset service providers (VASPs), a term for crypto exchanges and other startups, as well as the so-called “travel rule.” At the time, FATF’s guidelines suggested that individual crypto wallets could be designated VASPs, saying: “In cases where the VASP is a natural person, it should be required to be licensed or registered in the jurisdiction where its place of business is located – the determination of which may include several factors for consideration by countries.” Any time a VASP customer sends $10,000 or more in crypto to a self-hosted wallet in a single day, their VASP would be required to verify their identity, collect the identity of their counterparty, and file a report with FinCEN, under Treasury’s proposed rule. The rule would force banks and money services businesses (MSBs) to compile and verify the same information for all unhosted wallet transactions over $3,000. They would not need to file a report with FinCEN for these four-figure transfers, however. As has been rumored for weeks, the rule’s main target appears to be self-hosted wallets (FinCEN calls them unhosted wallets). These are wallets that grant their users access to the private keys, giving them full control over the funds, just like the leather wallet in your pocket or purse. Read more:How FinCEN Became a Honeypot for Sensitive Personal Data Treasury also intends to apply the reporting rules to foreign wallets tied to countries on FinCEN’s money laundering watch list. This means Myanmar (which FinCEN calls Burma), Iran and North Korea to start. FinCEN suggested that a large portion of crypto transaction activity might be suspicious, writing that “despite significant underreporting due to compliance challenges in parts of the CVC [convertible virtual currency] sector, in 2019, FinCEN received approximately $119 billion in suspicious activity reporting.” “A significant majority” of these transactions might relate to possible legal violations, the document said. The document also references “digital assets with legal tender status (LTDA),” a term apparently referencing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The term first appeared around the end of October in government documents. LTDAs have legal tender status, but are not currencies, according to a footnote. They can be treated as being similar to “coins and currency of a foreign country, travelers’ checks, bearer negotiable instruments” or other financial instruments. Read more:Self-Hosted Bitcoin Wallets Become Front Line in Fight Over Crypto Regulations Another note says that at present, “only a limited number of transactions occur involving LTDA,” though several countries are developing LTDA systems. LTDAs are referenced as being distinct from CVCs in the advanced notice. Marta Belcher, a civil liberties and technology attorney, told CoinDesk that in her view, “one of the most important things about cryptocurrency is that it imports the civil liberties benefits of cash into the digital sphere by allowing for anonymous transactions.” The ANPR is part of a trend where the U.S. government seeks to implement traditional banking system surveillance tools in the crypto space, said Belcher, who is also special counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “There are photos from the Hong Kong protests of long lines at the subway stations as protestors waited to purchase tickets with cash so that their electronic purchases would not place them at the scene of the protest,” she said. “These photos underscore that a cashless society is a surveillance society; that is why the ability to import the anonymity of cash to the digital world is so important for civil liberties.” The rule received pushback from the crypto community well before details were officially announced. Armstrong criticized the rule, saying he believed there may be unintended consequences. Part of the concern stems around the rapid pace at which Mnuchin – and agencies that report to Treasury – are implementing new rules. FinCEN, a bureau of the Treasury, moved tolower the thresholdfor applying the travel rule to international money transfers, including cryptocurrencies. While that rule change proposal did see a public comment period, it wasshorter than typicalby at least 30 days. Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association, said in a statement, “Undercutting that ability with last-minute rulemaking in the twilight days of an outgoing administration is not the way to make the type of long-lasting, responsive regulations that will support the safe growth of this industry in the U.S. Whether regulators acknowledge it or not, crypto is here to stay and should be considered a pro-growth part of the national economy, not something to be brushed aside quietly at the midnight hour.” Read more:Industry Pros Weigh In on Rumors of New Crypto Wallet Regulations Peter Van Valkenburgh, research director at Coin Center, likewise called Friday’s proposal “rushed,” saying some of the recordkeeping requirements might be “infeasible in the context of cryptocurrency transactions.” FinCEN does not appear to be bothered by these fears. In fact, the agency asserts it has no legal requirement to hold a comment period of any length but is giving the public a shot anyhow. Delaying implementation could spur individuals to move their funds fast, FinCEN warned. The moves increase the amount of work individuals and exchanges must put into transferring cryptocurrencies, as well as increase the amount of personal data exchanges must hold onto or report to the Treasury Department. Republican lawmakerseven decried the move, with a public letter signed by U.S. Representatives Warren Davidson (Ohio), Tom Emmer (Minn.), Ted Budd (N.C.) and Scott Perry (Penn.) asking Mnuchin to discuss the move with elected officials. Earlier on Friday, Senator-elect Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said she was concerned by the move. Other industry representatives criticizing the move include Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, whowrote an open letterto Treasury Department staff saying the proposed rule “would inadequately address the actual risks that are at issue,” and harm the industry overall. The U.S. follows a number of other nations in implementing stricter identity verification rules around crypto wallets. France, the Netherlands and Switzerland have all created their own form of stringent wallet rules this year. De Nederlandsche Bank, the Netherlands’ central bank, apparentlybegan requiring exchangesto ask its customers what they intend to use their cryptocurrencies for as well as verify that they were the owner of the wallets they were trying to transfer funds to. Similarly, Switzerland has required exchanges to “prove ownership of non-custodial wallets” sincethe start of the year. Read more:FinCEN Encourages Banks to Share Customer Information With Each Other Prior to the U.S., France was the latest countryto force such identification requirementson crypto exchanges, barring anonymous accounts and hinting at further digital ID rules. Unlike the other countries, however, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire cited concerns around crypto being a potential source of terrorism funding rather than FATF in the rules’ rollout. Van Valkenburgh noted that the U.S. proposal differs from the overseas variants, writing, “We are, nonetheless, gratified that the U.S. has not chosen to repeat the mistakes made overseas, and, instead, policymakers have proposed an extension of rules that already apply to traditional financial institutions dealing in cash.” UPDATE (Dec. 18, 2020, 23:10 UTC):Updated with additional context and information. • US Floats Long-Dreaded Plan to Make Crypto Exchanges Identify Personal Wallets • US Floats Long-Dreaded Plan to Make Crypto Exchanges Identify Personal Wallets || Apple Co-Founder Wozniak’s New Venture Lists Token to Help Fund Energy Efficiency Projects: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak haslaunchedEfforce, a company that facilitates investments in energy efficiency projects via cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. The company aims to be a marketplace to streamline the process of financing and undertaking such projects by enabling them to receive crowd contributions from investors via its token, WOZX, which waslistedon Thursday through HBTC. Efforce claimed the listing has increased its market value tenfold to $950 million. The token will also be listednext weekon South Korea-based crypto exchange Bithumb Global. Related:5 Reasons Why Bitcoin Just Hit an All-Time High Price According to Efforce, energy services companies (ESCOs) tend to have limited access to capital since they often are unable to turn to traditional banking channels, as banks lack the technical expertise to properly assess the return on investment. ESCOs can register energy efficiency projects with Efforce and it will validate the projects, and evaluate their investment needs, calculate returns and create Energy Performance Contracts. There will be a smart meter on the company’s blockchain to measure each project’s energy savings and turn them into energy credits that are saved in investors’ profiles for use or sale. “We created Efforce to be the first decentralized platform that allows everyone to participate and benefit financially from worldwide energy efficiency projects, and create meaningful environmental change,” Wozniak said in a statement. Related:China's State-Sanctioned Blockchain Project BSN Adds Polkadot, Oasis, Bityuan to Network The company was co-founded by Wozniak, Jacopo Vanetti, Andrea Castiglione and Jacopo Visetti, who also founded AitherCO2. • Apple Co-Founder Wozniak’s New Venture Lists Token to Help Fund Energy Efficiency Projects • Apple Co-Founder Wozniak’s New Venture Lists Token to Help Fund Energy Efficiency Projects || Avantis Tackles Muni ETF Space: Today, Avantis rolled out an ETF targeting the municipal bond space. The Avantis Core Municipal Fixed Income ETF (AVMU) is actively managed using a quantitative approach. AVMU charges an expense ratio of 0.15% and lists on the NYSE Arca. The fund managers look at expected income and capital appreciation in order to select bonds that will outperform. The process starts with sorting eligible components into groups based on a wide variety of criteria, including industry sector, credit rating, duration, country and currency, according to the fund documentation. From there, the managers use the implied yield curves of the different groups to calculate their respective expected returns before assigning weights to the individual groups with the goal of improving performance, the prospectus says. The fund may use derivatives in its portfolio, and generally targets a weighted average duration that is within two years of that of its benchmark. The S&P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index tracks the largest and most liquid investment-grade municipal bonds and has more than 12,500 components. It underlies two of the biggest municipal bond ETFs available to investors, the $20 billion iShares National Muni Bond ETF (MUB) and the $10 billion Vanguard Tax-Exempt Bond ETF (VTEB) . Interestingly, despite its complex active methodology, AVMU has an expense ratio that is 10 basis points cheaper than the 0.25% charged by MUB. VTEB’s expense ratio is just 0.06%. Avantis is a unit of American Century and is led by Eduardo Repetto, a former co-CEO of Dimensional Fund Advisors. Contact Heather Bell at hbell@etf.com Recommended Stories Hot Reads: Bitcoin Plunges More Than 10% TrueShares Adds ETF With January Reset Innovator Adds 2nd Series Of Stacker ETFs Fixed Income Returns During Rising Rates Permalink | © Copyright 2020 ETF.com. All rights reserved View comments || Bitcoin Mining Stocks Soar as BTC Blows Past $20K: Share prices for publicly traded bitcoin mining companies are soaring as the leading cryptocurrency sliced through the highly anticipated $20,000 mark Wednesday morning. • Riot Blockchain (RIOT), Marathon Patent Group (MARA) and Hive Blockchain (HIVE) all show double-digit percentage gains since the daily open at last check. Hive is up 25% on the day. • All three companies are now individually worth over $450 million. • Toronto-based Hut 8 (HUT) mining gained nearly 9% since the trading started Wednesday. The company currently is worth $168 million. • Over the same period,bitcoingained 7%. • “Mining stocks are a very attractive way for investors to get upside exposure to [the] bitcoin price while being limited on the downside due to the infrastructure nature of the business,” Ethan Vera, co-founder of mining company Luxor Technologies, told CoinDesk earlier this month. • “The best mining companies can deliver profits in bear markets and have outsized returns in bull runs,” Vera said. • Year to date, bitcoin has gained over 185%. • Bitcoin Mining Stocks Soar as BTC Blows Past $20K • Bitcoin Mining Stocks Soar as BTC Blows Past $20K • Bitcoin Mining Stocks Soar as BTC Blows Past $20K • Bitcoin Mining Stocks Soar as BTC Blows Past $20K || Bitcoin ‘Underperforms’ During Tax Time: Analysis: January ushers in a new tax season. It is also, historically, a time when bitcoin underperforms relative to the other months of the year. Some analysts say that may not be a coincidence. From 2014 to 2020, bitcoin was down in four out of seven Januarys and six out of the past seven Marchs. According to Delphi Digital, average losses for those months were 5.24% and 12.59%, respectively. “As we enter tax season, [a period when] bitcoin has historically underperformed other months, this by no means is predictive on a stand-alone basis but important to note,” Paul Burlage, analyst at Delphi Digital, told CoinDesk. Related:Dalio Expects to Soon Offer Alt-Cash Fund, Says 'Bitcoin Won't Escape Our Scrutiny' At the press time, bitcoin’s price was at $31,571.54, down 1.22% in the past 24 hours. The No. 1 cryptocurrency by market cap fell below $30,000 briefly earlier Wednesday, according to theCoinDesk BPI. According to Delphi Digital’s January bitcoin outlook report, one of the biggest reasons for the drop is that “those [investors and traders] who realized significant gains trading various crypto assets last year will likely have to sell at least a portion of their holdings to cover expected tax liabilities.” “It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly how much selling pressure can be expected, and different jurisdictions treat capital gains more favorably than others,” Kevin Kelly, co-founder and head of global macro at Delphi Digital, said. “But bitcoin alone added more than $400 billion to its total market value last year. A decent portion of those returns accrued to speculators and traders who may have already realized some gains or rolled profits into other corners of the crypto market, thus triggering taxable events.” The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released updated instructions with on answers to virtual currency-related questions during taxpayers’ tax filing at the end of December. Compared with 2019, 2020’s tax form places a yes-or-no question (“At any time during 2020, did you receive, sell, send, exchange, or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency?”) right on the first page,one of the first questions asked. Related:First Mover: Crypto Gawks at GameStop, Sees Shades of Self IRS guidance alsofurther clarifies thattransactions involving “virtual currency” will include “purchase of virtual currency.” In recent days, there has been market chatter around Treasury SecretaryJanet Yellen’s proposal on taxing unrealized capital gains. Such a proposal would have a broader impact on crypto-related gains. John Todaro, director of institutional research at TradeBlock, told CoinDesk last week that tax proposals on unrealized capital gains would impose a degree ofimpact on investors on almost every asset. Cryptocurrency analytics firm TradeBlock is a subsidiary of CoinDesk. Read More: Bitcoin Slumps to $31K on Sell-Off in US and Europe The Biden Administration’s tax proposal also hassome pointsthat might affect crypto investors. One of the proposals, for example, includes collecting taxes of “long-term capital gains and qualified dividends at the ordinary income tax rate of 39.6% on income above $1 million,” which could impact larger crypto investors. Bradley Keoun contributed to this report. • Bitcoin ‘Underperforms’ During Tax Time: Analysis • Bitcoin ‘Underperforms’ During Tax Time: Analysis || Bitcoin touches record above $29,000, extending 2020 rally: By John McCrank NEW YORK (Reuters) - The price of Bitcoin topped $29,000 on Thursday for the first time, with the digital currency almost quadrupling in value this year amid heightened interest from investors big and small alike. The world's most popular cryptocurrency touched $29,300 before pulling back, most recently down 0.67% at $28,774.36. It has surged by nearly half since breaking $20,000 for the first time on Dec. 16. Bitcoin's potential for quick gains, as well as expectations it could become a mainstream payment method, has attracted demand from larger U.S. investors, as well as from traders who normally stick to equities. "You can buy a stock like Amazon, you can buy a stock like Apple, and you know what you got," said Dennis Dick, a proprietary trader at Bright Trading LLC. "Bitcoin you really just have digits on a screen and you're really hoping that the guy behind you sees it as being worth more than what you just paid for it, so it's a purely speculative view," he said. Still, intrigued by the story behind bitcoin and the traction it was getting with institutional investors, he put 1% of his net worth into a bitcoin fund around five weeks ago, which has doubled in value since then, and he sold half on Thursday. "When you double your money within five weeks, if you sell half of it, I figure now you’re playing with the house's money," he said. Recent gains have taken bitcoin's market capitalization past $536 billion, according to industry website CoinMarketCap https://coinmarketcap.com. (Reporting by John McCrank; editing by Jonathan Oatis) || Ethereum’s Ether Cryptocurrency Sets New All-Time Price High Above $1,450: The price of ether (ETH), the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain network, soared to record levels on Sunday. • Prices hit $1,454.32 – topping the previous all-time high of $1,439.33 set only last week – before settling back to $1,447.77, up more than 17% in the last 24 hours. • WhileETHhas trailed its larger cryptocurrency sibling,bitcoin(BTC), in its journey to new lifetime highs, it has outpaced the top cryptocurrency on a year-to-date basis with an 88% increase. BTC has risen 10.98% so far this year. • Ethereum’s Ether Cryptocurrency Sets New All-Time Price High Above $1,450 • Ethereum’s Ether Cryptocurrency Sets New All-Time Price High Above $1,450 • Ethereum’s Ether Cryptocurrency Sets New All-Time Price High Above $1,450 • Ethereum’s Ether Cryptocurrency Sets New All-Time Price High Above $1,450 || Investview (INVU) Reports Record $1.4 Million Month Bitcoin Mining Revenue and Increased Bitcoin Holdings: Eatontown, NJ, Dec. 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --via NewMediaWire--Investview, Inc. (OTCQB: INVU), a diversified financial technology and global distributor organization that operates through its subsidiaries to provide financial education tools, content, research and management of digital asset technology that mines cryptocurrencies, with a focus on Bitcoin mining and the generation of digital assets, has reached a new all-time-high monthly revenue and profit margin as INVU increased its Bitcoin mining revenue by an estimated 67% (from approximately $840 thousand in October 2020 to approximately $1.4 million in November 2020) and profit margin by an estimated 109% (from approximately $386 thousand in October 2020 to approximately $808 thousand) in November 2020. Investview produced nearly 80 Bitcoin in November- averaging approximately 2.64 BTC per day. This growth was made possible through INVU’s strategic investments in cryptocurrency mining hardware, software & enhanced IT operations, and was further bolstered by significant Bitcoin price increases which appreciated by over 80% in the last 60 days to near $19,500. Investview’s EVP of Crypto Operations Rob Walther commented, “We are pleased to announce that INVU’s strategic decisions to increase investment into additional mining hardware, optimize mining software, and enhance our IT operation, combined with the substantial increase in the price of Bitcoin, has contributed to the largestrevenue and profit margin ever earned by INVU’s digital asset mining operation. This represents a new milestone for INVU with revenue growth of 67% to $1.4 million and profits expanding by over 109% to $808 thousand in November. With favorable Bitcoin price projections ahead, INVU can expect to continue this aggressive growth trajectory through our additional & planned mining equipment purchases, and through our ongoing enhancements to IT operations.” About Investview, Inc. Investview, Inc. is a diversified financial technology and global distributor organization that operates through its subsidiaries to provide financial education tools, content, research and management of digital asset technology that mines cryptocurrencies, with a focus on Bitcoin mining and the generation of digital assets. For more information on Investview and its family of wholly-owned subsidiaries, please visit:www.investview.com Forward-Looking Statements All statements in this release that are not based on historical fact are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and describe our future plans, strategies and expectations, can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terms such as "believe," "expect," "may," "should," "could," "seek," "intend," "plan," "goal," "estimate," "anticipate" or other comparable terms. These forward-looking statements are based on Investview’s current beliefs and assumptions and information currently available to Investview and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. More information on potential factors that could affect Investview’s financial results is included from time to time in Investview’s public reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K. The forward-looking statements made in this release speak only as of the date of this release, and Investview, Inc. (“INVU”) assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements to reflect actual results or changes in expectations, except as otherwise required by law. Investor RelationsContact: Mario RomanoPhone Number: 732.889.4308Email: pr@investview.com || Kimchi Spreads, ‘Rat Poison,’ Shape Shifts: What You Need to Know in Crypto Today: Good afternoon, readers: Bitcoin hit a fresh all-time high above $35,000 while former Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler lost her U.S. Senate seat . Meanwhile, a major Ripple investor filed suit against the fintech and Shapeshift is converting to a decentralized exchange. Top shelf Rat poison? Echoing Warren Buffett’s infamous line that bitcoin is “rat poison squared,” heavyweight investor Bill Miller said that could be true, but “ the rat could be cash .” In his Q4 newsletter Miller went on to say inflation is likely in the U.S. due to unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus, and that bitcoin could provide a way for companies to avoid devaluing their balance sheets. State action A ban on crypto derivatives trading went into effect today in the U.K. The nation’s financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said these products are ill-suited for retail consumers due to their outsized risks when introducing the legislation in October, while industry voices think the measure is overwrought and favors institutional investors. Related: First Mover: Bitcoin Hits Record as 'Blue Wave' and 'Kimchi Premium' Look Bullish Shifting shape ShapeShift is going decentralized in a bid to get rid of its know-your-customer (KYC) rules. The Colorado-based non-custodial exchange is now routing orders through decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and phasing out its centralized exchange. Quick bites NEW ORIGIN? Origin is relaunching its yield-generating stablecoin following a November attack that drained OUSD holders of $7 million. ( CoinDesk) YIELD FRONTIER: David Hoffman makes the case that Ethereum is the last bastion for yield. ( CoinDesk – op-ed ) PRICE APPRECIATION: Ethereum enters top 100 of world’s largest assets, joining bitcoin, gold and silver, as well as companies like Saudi Aramco. ( Decrypt ) RENT SEEKER? Who said you can’t spend crypto? Redditor sells free Moon tokens to pay rent. ( Cointelegraph ) PAGE SIX: Who gets Custody of Kim Kardashian’s bitcoin in the divorce? ( Decrypt ) Market intel Korean spreads The “kimchi premium,” the spread between South Korean’s upbit exchange and Binance, was at 4.15% yesterday, the highest since early 2018 . An often-cited figure to explain retail interest in the country, CoinDesk’s Muyao Shen also thinks this premium could explain why bitcoin prices drop during Asia’s trading hours – some traders sell bitcoin at higher prices on South Korea-based crypto exchanges. At stake Rippled suits? In Matt Levine’s much-awaited return to his opinion-heavy Bloomberg newsletter, Money Stuff, the financial columnist wrote about the effects of securities fraud action on business environments. In the U.S., he writes, there’s a growing trend that “everything is securities fraud.” Making a bad video game that causes a gaming studio’s stock to drop: securities fraud. Harboring a culture of harassment: securities fraud. Playing up a news release for something insignificant: securities fraud. Story continues Though Levine’s headline calls it a “dystopian future,” his conclusion is a bit more positive. A culture where smart lawyers can find restitution for stockholders affected by negative performance is a “general” way to keep publicly traded firms from doing generically bad things, even if they are not affected by these actions in principle. Related: Valid Points: New Year, New Price Gains For ETH “Everything is securities fraud, even things that aren’t actually illegal; anything that gets bad press or moral disapprobation can lead to a securities lawsuit. It is in its way an oddly principles-based form of regulation: You don’t need specific rules against specific types of bad conduct; all you need is evidence that the company did a thing and the stock dropped because of it,” Levine concludes. There aren’t many publicly traded companies in the crypto industry this trend might apply to, though the attitude – of pursuing legal action for any perceived or real financial loss – still pervades. Yesterday, one of Ripple Labs’ biggest financial backers filed suit against the crypto incumbent to redeem its investment. Back in 2019, the multi-billion asset manager Tetragon Financial Group led Ripple’s $200 million Series C. And now that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Ripple for potential securities fraud, Tetragon wants its cash back. Filed in Delaware, Tetragon said it will attempt to “enforce its contractual right to require Ripple to redeem” its preferred stock, Bloomberg reported, and even freeze Ripple’s assets until it pays up. Ripple rejected the lawsuit, saying its investor can only redeem its equity for cash “if XRP is deemed to be a security on a go-forward basis,” according to a court filing. While Tetragon isn’t claiming securities fraud on behalf of Ripple, it is an effect of an ongoing securities fraud investigation. The SEC claims Ripple raised $1.3 billion over a seven-year period by selling XRP to retail investors. Ripple is the primary holder of XRP, though it has claimed over the years the network is sufficiently decentralized like Ethereum and that it is not the crypto’s creator. Whether XRP is a security is now up for the courts to decide, but the lawsuit has already led to material outcomes. Grayscale Investments (sister company to CoinDesk) and Bitwise both removed XRP from their crypto index funds, while several exchanges have made moves to delist or suspend XRP trading. One might wonder if XRP is deemed to be a security and Ripple found to have violated securities law, if exchanges might have the right to pursue legal action against the firm. Because, as Levine points out, litigiousness is baked into U.S. business culture. Who won #CryptoTwitter? Related Stories Kimchi Spreads, ‘Rat Poison,’ Shape Shifts: What You Need to Know in Crypto Today Kimchi Spreads, ‘Rat Poison,’ Shape Shifts: What You Need to Know in Crypto Today View comments || Bitcoin Is Pricey and Headed for a Crash – Consider These Smart Crypto Alternatives: In the past year, cryptocurrencyBitcoin has more than quadrupled in value, with 300% gains since October 2019. It also lost 50% of its value in March 2020 over two days. The volatile currency peaked at about $40,000 per coin in December, but has since stabilized around the $30,000s. See:Mark Cuban: “Bitcoin is Exactly like the Dot Com Bubble”Find:How To Invest in Cryptocurrency Experts this week are warning about a crash unless the cryptocurrency jumps back up above the $40,000 mark soon. JP Morgan analysts wrote in a note shared by Bloomberg that investors “could propagate the week’s correction.” If the price doesn’t break through the $40,000 wall anytime soon, analysts say, “Momentum signals will naturally decay from here up till the end of March.”If you feel like you missed the Bitcoin boat and the price is too high of an investment for you right now, several other cryptocurrencies remain on a slow rise. As with other cryptocurrency, Litecoin saw significant gains in 2020, but it remains an affordable $125 per coin right now, and hovering in the mid-$100s. Litecoin has lower transaction fees and faster processing times than Bitcoin, in part due to a simplified blockchain – the technology that records, tracks, and encrypts cryptocurrency transactions. As a long-term, buy and hold investment, Litecoin could yield significant gains over time. It’s the fifth largest cryptocurrency based on market capitalization, according to stock market news site Benzinga. Learn More:PayPal Finally Welcomes Bitcoin, More Cryptocurrencies With a market capitalization of around $68,000 billion, Ethereum stands as the second largest crypto after Bitcoin. Trading at nearly $1,300 per coin right now, getting in requires a modest investment, but it’s hovering near its all-time high of $1,448. The attraction of Ethereum, in part, is that developers can build “decentralized apps” on the Ethereum network. Additionally, the coin’s new network is faster and more secure than the original network, giving the cryptocurrency staying power as a long-term investment. See:How to Get Bitcoins Initially started as a joke in 2013 by software developers Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus, and often touted on Twitter by billionaire CEO Elon Musk, Dogecoin is an open-source cryptocurrency similar to Litecoin. Those who mine Litecoin often mine Dogecoin at the same time, which helps keep the currency alive. Dogecoin is considered an “inflationary” coin because, unlike Bitcoin, which has a set limit of coins that will be created, Dogecoin can be released in unlimited supplies. It holds a market capitalization of around $600 million. The lowest priced coin on this list, Dogecoin is valued at about 0.009 USD, which means you can buy a lot of Dogecoin without making much of a dent in your wallet. Analysts say the coin could hit $1 by the end of 2021. Survey:Americans Think Bitcoin, Stocks Are the Riskiest Investments — Are They Right? It’s hard not to be drawn to an investment that shares a name with a classic 1980s sci-fi movie. Tron is a unique crypto designed for the entertainment industry, allowing content creators to collect payment in the form of “Tronix.” Tron is in the class of penny stocks, worth about just 0.03 USD, which is close to its one-year high. If you’d like to get into the crypto world without a lot of risk, buying and holding Tron, or even watching the market to make a few bucks, can help you get a feel for trading crypto. Crypto service CoinSwitch predicts that TRX could exceed .50 per coin by 2023 and potentially hit $1 by 2030. It’s not fast money, but it’s an easy foray into the crypto world for beginners. Discover:Crypto Bubble Brings a Curious Problem for Investors Binance is hailed as the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. Its currency is called Binance coin (BNB). Many experts hail BNB as one of the most stable cryptos available, in part because the exchange uses 20% of its profits each quarter to buy back and “burn” the currency to maintain its value. The currency has a market capitalization of approximately $5.5 billion and it’s the ninth largest crypto in the world right now, sources say. More From GOBankingRates: • These Are the Best Banks of 2021 – Did Yours Make the Cut? • 36 Ways To Save For Your Emergency Fund and Any Unexpected Situations • Top 100 Banks Leading the U.S. in 2021 • 25 Things You Should Always Do Before Buying a Used Car This article originally appeared onGOBankingRates.com:Bitcoin Is Pricey and Headed for a Crash – Consider These Smart Crypto Alternatives [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 33466.10, 34316.39, 34269.52, 33114.36, 33537.18, 35510.29, 37472.09, 36926.07, 38144.31, 39266.01
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin Recovers Above $20K as Short ETF Sees Record $51M in Weekly Inflows: Bitcoin (BTC) coasted over the $20,000 mark Wednesday morning even as recession fears linger among investors and an institutional product to short the asset gained traction last week. Bitcoin rose some 2% in the past 24 hours, continuing a gradual recovery after last month’s sudden drop to the $17,700 level. The asset faces resistance at the $21,500 level, price charts show, while support exists at the $18,800 mark. The recovery came as institutional traders piled into the ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITI), a recently launched exchange-traded fund that bets against the prices of bitcoin. It saw some $51 million worth of inflows over the past week, as per areportearlier this week by crypto fund CoinShares. The figure is a record high since the ETF’s launch in late June. “Investment products saw inflows totaling US$64 [million] last week,” CoinShares analysts said. “Although the headline figures obscure the fact that a significant majority were into short-bitcoin investment products (US$51m).” However, CoinShares said the inflows into BITI were likely from being one of the first offerings that allowshortingexposure via futures contracts for investors as opposed to a change in sentiment. “The inflows into short-bitcoin possibly due to first-time accessibility in the U.S. rather than renewed negative sentiment,” CoinShares said, pointing out that bitcoinlongproducts from Canada, Europe and Germany saw a combined $20 million in inflows. However, some market observers said the inflows into short positions suggest investors expect a downtrend instead of continued recovery in the coming weeks. “People who are involved in the market think that the bottom is still to come, so if they can't make money on the rise, they want to make money on the fall by shorting Bitcoin,” shared Pawel Cichowski, head of dealing at crypto exchange XBO, in a Telegram message. “With signs of a global recession coming up and the bond yield curve inverting, nobody knows for sure where the price of bitcoin will go next. However, based on ProShares statistics, people are preferring to expect the worst,” Cichowski added. The increase in short bitcoin funds outflows comes weeks after institutional investors withdrew over $423 million from crypto products,as earlier reported. Such moves come amid rising concerns of inflation and recession among investors. In an appearance at the European Central Bank’s annual forum last week, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated the central bank's commitment to increasing interest rates to curtail inflation. Powelladded he was more concernedabout the challenge posed by inflation than about the possibility of higher interest rates pushing the U.S. economy into a recession. Thelatest forecastsfrom Bloomberg Economics have pegged the odds of a U.S. recession in the next year at 38%. Meanwhile, market sentiment remained mixed among equity traders on Wednesday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, Japan’s Nikkei 225, and the Shanghai Composite dropped over 1.2% since Wednesday’s start, while Europe’s Stoxx 600 and Germany’s DAX gained 1.3%. Premarket futures in the U.S. dropped nominally, while Crude Oil WTI regained the $100 mark after plunging below that level on Tuesday. || EU seeks to limit banks’ crypto exposure: European Union (EU) banks with exposure to highly volatile cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin should face higher capital requirements, according to a proposed amendment to a European financial services law. See related article: Bitcoin miner Stronghold to return mining rigs to cut debt; shares plunge as losses widen Fast facts Crypto assets like Bitcoin, which are considered risky and collectively categorized as class 2, would have the highest caution rating, limiting banks from lending beyond a certain cap, according to a European Parliament document . “An institution’s total exposure to class 2 crypto-asset exposures must not be higher than 1% of the institution’s tier 1 capital at all times,” the report said. Tier 1 capital refers to the core measure of a bank’s financial strength from a regulator’s point of view and stands for the core capital in a bank’s reserves. Class 1 crypto assets, such as regulated stablecoins, would have no upper ceiling and flexible capital requirements as they are considered less risky. Bitcoin fell 1.74% in the past 24 hours to trade at US$23,413 as of 4 p.m. in Hong Kong, while Ethereum declined by 2.63% to US$1,846, according to CoinMarketCap . See related article: Investors yank out US$29 mln this month from Bitcoin: CoinShares || Bankrupt Crypto Lender Celsius Gets Cash-Injection Offers, Approval to Sell Mined Bitcoin: Bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network , which disclosed Monday that it was running low on money, said it has gotten several proposals to inject cash into the company and won approval from a U.S. judge to sell bitcoin (BTC) that it mines. Celsius lawyer Josh Sussberg disclosed the receipt of cash-injection offers during a Tuesday bankruptcy hearing but didn't say how big the offers were. Moving hastily on this is “mission critical” for Celsius, Sussberg said. It’s customary for companies reorganizing in U.S. bankruptcy court to seek financing to keep their operations going. Celsius, which fell into bankruptcy this year after the crypto rout prompted it to prevent customers from withdrawing their money , needs liquidity. Financial projections in a court filing Monday showed the company will run out of cash by October and holds $2.8 billion less in crypto than it owes to depositors. Before filing for bankruptcy, Celsius sold bitcoin that it mined to help fund its operations. Judge Martin Glenn’s approval Tuesday opens the door for that to continue. A document filed prior to the hearing showed that Celsius mined $8.7 million worth of bitcoin in July; the company’s operational and capital costs exceed that. Read more: Celsius Lays Out Mining-Focused Reorganization Plan at First Bankruptcy Hearing || First Mover Asia: Crypto Can’t Shake the Correlation Narrative; BTC, ETH Sink but Meme Coins Rise: Good morning. Here’s what’s happening: Prices:Bitcoin and ether fall slightly, but meme coins continue to rise. Insights:Crypto is struggling with a stocks correlation narrative. Catch the latest episodes ofCoinDesk TVfor insightful interviews with crypto industry leaders and analysis. Andsign up for First Mover, our daily newsletter putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. ●Bitcoin (BTC): $23,870−1.3% ●Ether (ETH): $1,877−2.0% ●S&P 500 daily close: 4,305.20+0.2% ●Gold: $1,790 per troy ounce+0.5% ●Ten-year Treasury yield daily close: 2.82%+0.03 Bitcoin, ether and gold prices are taken at approximately 4pm New York time. Bitcoin is the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (XBX); Ether is the CoinDesk Ether Price Index (ETX); Gold is the COMEX spot price. Information about CoinDesk Indices can be found atcoindesk.com/indices. Bitcoin and Ether Fall, but Meme Coins Are Rallying By James Rubin Most major cryptos were on the defensive for a second consecutive day, with bitcoin and ether both trading slightly lower from respective two-plus-month highs they reached less than 48 hours ago. BTC was recently changing hands below $24,000 after cracking $25,000 on Sunday and down roughly a percentage point over the past 24 hours. Ether was trading under $1,900 less than two days after breaching $2,000 for the first time since late May, as investors large and small paused from more recent risk-embracing postures. "The recent crypto rebound has hit a wall as retail traders continue to lick their wounds and institutions respect key technical levels," Edward Moya, senior market analyst for foreign exchange Oanda, wrote in an email. "Bitcoin can’t yet break above the $25,000 level, but it seems to be maintaining a bullish trajectory here." Over the past seven days, ETH has outperformed BTC amid growing anticipation of the Merge, which will shift the Ethereum protocol from proof-of-work to a faster, more energy efficient proof-of-stake protocol. ETH’s total market capitalization is now 50% of BTC’s, approaching levels last seen in January. ETH’s market cap compared to BTC’s indicates the potential for a “flippening” event, where ETH’s total market cap exceeds BTC’s. In a report, FSInsight suggested that ether could approach bitcoin’s market cap over the next 12 months. "The upcoming merge has led to elevated trading activity for ETH, especially in the options market, where the open interest surpassed BTC’s for the first time in history," Arcane Research noted in a newsletter. Other cryptos were mixed, with popular meme coins DOGE and SHIB continuing their recent surge and rising more than 13% and 3%, respectively. But MANA, YGG and SAND all recently fell more than 2.5%. Futures tracking DOGE and SHIB recently had over $25 million in liquidations, data showed, suggesting part of the rally in them has stemmed from futures bets. But the two cryptos' gains have also been confounding. Equities Stocks were mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was slightly in the green after big box retailers Walmart (WMT) and Home Depot (HD) posted unexpectedly strong second-quarter earnings but the tech-focused Nasdaq down declined a fraction of a percentage point. The tech sector, which has largely correlated with crypto pricing, has been weathering disappointing results from major chip manufacturers. Still, a 17-month low in housing starts offered investors the latest hopeful sign that the the U.S. economy was decelerating sufficiently for the Federal Reserve to scale back interest rate hikes at some point over the next six months. A decline in the July Consumer Price Index (CPI) last week suggested that the bank's recent monetary hawkishness was slowing inflation. Travis Kling, founder and chief investment officer for Ikigai Asset Management, told "First Mover" on CoinDesk TV that these signs could "bode well for asset prices broadly and for crypto as well." Crypto news The fallout from the terraUSD (UST) stablecoin collapse and wide-spreading price declines has slowed this month but is far from over. In anannouncementon its website, cryptocurrency lending platform Hodlnaut said it had filed an application with the Singapore High Court to be put under judicial management, which is a form of protection from creditors. The application was filed on Aug. 13, five days after the companyfroze withdrawals, and will temporarily safeguard the lender from any legal claims. Hodlnaut is the latest in a long line of crypto companies that have been stung by the recent market downturn, Singapore-based exchange Zipmexreceived creditor protection on Monday, while trading firm Three Arrows Capitalowes billions of dollars to creditorsafter imploding in June due to leverage. Later Tuesday, Stronghold Digital Mining (SDIG) said itwas negotiatingwith its lenders over a possible debt restructuring or refinancing agreement that would keep the bitcoin miner afloat. Publicly traded miners have suffered in the bitcoin bear market, with their shares falling more than 60% on average this year, worse than bitcoin itself, which has lost less than half of its value. Stronghold's share price has tumbled about 70%. Also Tuesday, Acala’s native stablecoin, aUSD, came close to regaining its peg to the U.S. dollar. The Polkadot-based decentralized finance (DeFi) platform burned over 1.2 billion aUSD tokens that were minted by exploiters over the weekend who took advantage of a bug in one of the platform’s liquidity pools. Oanda's Moya struck an upbeat note despite bitcoin's recent retreat, highlighting institutional interest in digital assets. "Pretty much everyone on Wall Street thought that the mid-June lows would get retested for bitcoin, but now it seems this dead cat bounce doesn’t want to stop," he said. "It appears the institutional money is mostly behind this recent rebound, which suggests it could have a better chance of lasting." [{"Asset": "Dogecoin", "Ticker": "DOGE", "Returns": "+13.7%", "DACS Sector": "Currency"}, {"Asset": "Gala", "Ticker": "GALA", "Returns": "+3.5%", "DACS Sector": "Entertainment"}, {"Asset": "Shiba Inu", "Ticker": "SHIB", "Returns": "+2.8%", "DACS Sector": "Currency"}] [{"Asset": "Loopring", "Ticker": "LRC", "Returns": "\u22123.0%", "DACS Sector": "Smart Contract Platform"}, {"Asset": "Chainlink", "Ticker": "LINK", "Returns": "\u22122.7%", "DACS Sector": "Computing"}, {"Asset": "Decentraland", "Ticker": "MANA", "Returns": "\u22122.5%", "DACS Sector": "Entertainment"}] Crypto's Struggle With Correlation By Sam Reynolds Long ago, crypto was thought of as an asset to use in time of risk. When Cypriot authorities forced the country’s people to take a haircut on deposits in 2013, they turned to bitcoin to preserve wealth. Now, things are different. Crypto is a different kind of asset. A risk asset like tech stocks. Not the safe haven it once was. Nobody knows when this will end, or even if it will return to where it once was. In an email to CoinDesk, Scott Sheridan, CEO of options trading platform Tastyworks, pointed to the bull market’s major equity valuations as a magnet for more capital, which in turn drives up prices. Sheridan, for his part, rejects the idea that crypto can be considered a safe haven given its volatility. “Crypto, on the other hand, doesn’t have the same valuation metrics. It’s still in its infancy and so are its valuation models,” he said to CoinDesk via email. “That ambiguity, with respect to valuations, is what allowed for investors to justify chasing prices higher. If I’m right on that, then I would expect the volatility in crypto to outlast the volatility in equities, something you don’t want if you’re seeking a safe haven.” Crypto and stocks will rebound together Sheridan thinks crypto won’t turn around until equities do and market volatility subsides. “Once we get back to a VIX [an index measuring volatility] near its mean of 18, then I think you’ll see equity prices stabilize and at that point, you might see crypto stabilize or begin moving higher. Until then, I think the combination of potential alpha in equity markets and the evolving state and subsequent turbulence in crypto are more geared toward speculation than they are sheltered from the storm,” he continued. *** Speaking at this year’s Consensus festival, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz predicted it will be in October when the U.S. Federal Reserve flinches first on raising interest rates. But that all depends on how inflation goes and how economies worldwide respond. With the People’s Bank of China taking aseemingly different approach than the Fed– lowering rates while the Fed raises them – it could be a while before things stabilize. U.S. FOMC minutes released 11 p.m. HKT/SGT(3 p.m. UTC):U.S. FOMC minutes released 2 p.m. HKT/SGT(6 a.m. UTC):U.K. core consumer price index(July) In case you missed it, here is the most recent episode of"First Mover"onCoinDesk TV: Former CFTC Commissioner Dawn Stump on Crypto Regulation; Celsius On Pace to Run Out of Cash by October "First Mover" spoke with former CFTC Commissioner Dawn Stump on the future of crypto regulation and her new role at crypto risk monitoring firm Solidus Labs. Plus, a closer look at Celsius Network as a new court filing revealed the crypto lender holds $2.8 billion less in crypto than it owes to depositors. Crypto Twitter Sees 'Bearish Wedge' Pattern in Bitcoin's Price Recovery:The rising wedge – a pattern that has appeared in bitcoin's price charts – has some analysts and traders calling for a renewed sell-off toward $16,400. Jump Crypto Picked to Revamp Solana to Make Blockchain More Reliable:The crypto trading firm and builder is reupping its commitment after the once-hot blockchain hit potholes. Acala Stablecoins Near $1 Peg After Community Burns 1.2B aUSD Minted by Exploiters:Developers said trace reports were underway to identify the transactions performed by the 16 wallet addresses connected to the exploit. US Fed Opens Pathway for Crypto Banks to Tap Central Banking System:The central bank will create a three-tiered system for evaluating whether a financial institution should have access. SEC Files Complaint Against Dragonchain for Unregistered Initial Coin Offering:The complaint alleges the blockchain startup failed to register more than $16 million in crypto asset securities. Stop Attacking DeFi Founders for Complying With the Tornado Cash Sanction:Crypto projects are being criticized for censoring use of their websites. Other voices:Voyager customer lost $1 million saved over 24 years and is one of many now desperate to recoup funds(CNBC) "Dog coins vs$BTCover the last 30-days" (@cryptowat_ch) ... "The series seems designed to resuscitate Kwon’s sullied image. In a 30-minute interview, filmed over two days, Yahoo Finance alum Zack Guzman asks Kwon questions including, “Are you anElizabeth Holmes,”did lawyers counsel him against speaking to the press, and is it “fair” to say UST was valueless from the start." (CoinDesk columnist Daniel Kuhn) || Celsius says users can settle for cash at a discount or go long on crypto: In a presentation on Monday, embattled crypto lender Celsius Network presented a plan of action as it enters Chapter 11 proceedings to restructure and stabilize its business in an effort to placate stakeholders. See related article: Celsius says it owes its users US$4.72B amid a US$1.19B balance sheet deficit Fast facts The firm expects to use minted Bitcoins from its mining subsidiary to boost its balance sheet and fund mining operations, the presentation said. At the bankruptcy hearing, Pat Nash, Celsius’ lead attorney, said the firm’s mining division currently mints 14.2 Bitcoins a day and expects to increase operations to mine 10,100 Bitcoins in 2022. Even if Celsius mints 10,100 Bitcoins, at a price of US$21,900 , the minted Bitcoins will be valued at more than US$221 million — far below Celsius’ deficit of US$1.19 billion. A sale of the mining unit would also help Celsius raise money. In the presentation, Celsius added that it is also exploring “asset sales and third-party investment opportunities” to meet its liabilities. According to the bankruptcy filings , Celsius has assets worth US$4.3 billion, although most assets are illiquid, and liabilities amounting to US$5.5 billion, out of which US$4.7 billion are user liabilities. Celsius customers could either choose to receive a discounted cash settlement or remain “long” on crypto, the presentation said. But with Nash arguing in court that Celsius customers handed over custody of digital assets to the lender and are, therefore, unsecured creditors, Celsius users may have to face the brunt of its collapse. See related article: Celsius files for bankruptcy after closing DeFi loans || Frontnode Announces Future Support for Additional Cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, XRP, Dogecoin): Tallinn, Estonia - (NewMediaWire) - August 9, 2022 -Frontnode, the Estonian-licensed crypto exchange focusing on Bitcoin only, announced today the future listing of prominent crypto assets Ethereum, Litecoin, XRP and Dogecoin. In a statement, Sirje Soo, the company's CEO says: "Up until now, our focus has been to provide the most accessible way for users to invest in and use Bitcoin. Adding more currencies was always a part of our long-term road map, and we are glad to say that we have finally reached the point where we will be able to provide more currencies. Our current expectations are that we will add the new currencies late in Q3 2022." The list of new listed coins is: Ethereum Litecoin XRP Dogecoin By continuing its relentless focus on easy, yet compliant KYC procedures, as well as AML, Frontnode aims to give the casual investor and everyday adopter of crypto the opportunity to try more forms of crypto without more compliance work than absolutely necessary. The addition of new currencies marks a major step towards Frontnode becoming a safe haven for users trying to learn and explore, without risking so-called "rug pulls" and other external risks unrelated to the crypto asset itself. Soo continues: "Our goal has always been to promote the adoption of crypto currencies. We want to make what sometimes can be seen as inherently complicated and hard to understand, accessible and low risk. Now that these currencies have reached a critical mass in terms of market capitalization, we feel that most of the risk in a longer perspective has largely disappeared. That is why we are comfortable to add these now and we look forward to seeing the response from our customers." Frontnode.comis owned and operated by LBXO Holding OU, company number 14746140, licensed by the Estonian FIU under license FTV000004. To learn more about the exchange, visitFrontnode.com. Media Contact Company: Frontnode Contact: Media Team Email: info@frontnode.com Website:https://frontnode.com/ SOURCE:Frontnode View the original release onwww.newmediawire.com || Obscure Indicator Shows Why $20K is Important for Bitcoin: Today we’ll look at a little-known indicator that clarifies a lot withBitcoin(BTC-USD), plus we’ll check in with the “crypto banks” and venture capitalists. Here’s the latest and greatest fromThe New Digital World: Source: rzoze19 / Shutterstock.com Even as the bear market wears on… Bitcoin just refuses to break $20,000 for long. (Even touching $24,000 last week!) Butwhy? One clue could lie in bitcoin’s “HODLer Supply Concentration” around $20,000, as Glassnode calls it in today’sWeek On-Chainnewsletter. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Glassnode broke down the BTC market into long-term versus short-term holders (and exchanges), measuring each group by their “Unspent Realized Price Distribution.” The analysts foundway moreURPD at $20,000 than other price levels of bitcoin. And this was mainly driven by the Short-Term Holders – who also showed “elevated demand”at $30,000 and $40,000. Big picture:“Long-term supply dynamics continue to improve as redistribution takes place, gradually moving coins towards the HODLers,” concludes Glassnode. But $20,000 is especially telling because it attracted such a “large cluster” of Short-Term holders, suggesting “a significant transfer of ownership from capitulating sellers to new and more optimistic buyers.” My takeaway:It’s easy to dismiss these “big, round number” prices as an arbitrary way of analyzing the markets. But it’s about investor psychology – and that’s everything in a market that’s still so speculative (versus driven by fundamentals). Clearly, the psychology is having an impact. So, when the media makes a big deal of the round numbers – I’d have to say it’s worthwhile. Later in this issue:We’ll see how BTC $20,000 plays into Luke and Charlie’s latest forecast for theirCrypto Investor Network. On Thursday, we got some notable numbers from Sam Bankman-Fried’s“crypto bank” of choicefor his acquisition spree: BlockFi. In the“Transparency Report,”we learned BlockFi’s liquidity and credit risk as of June 30. There wasa handy infographicand everything. The headlines:“BlockFi has $1.8B in outstanding loans, $600M of which are uncollateralized,” asCryptoSlateworded it. This was the angle most other reporters took on it… But, proportionally, $600 million doesn’t seem too bad. If 75% of BlockFi’s loans are more conservative, I don’t know if that’s some huge indictment of the company, in and of itself. Bigger story:“Many, but not all” institutions are required to post collateral to get a loan from BlockFi. It gets more interesting when you see how the different clienteles break down: • Institutions have borrowed $1.5 billion from BlockFi as of June 30. • $600 million (out of the $1.5B) may be uncollateralized, as BlockFi said these loans represented “exposures to individual loan counterparties.” • Retail clients have borrowed $300 million. And “we typically allow retail clients to borrow funds with a value of up to 50% of their collateral.” So, BlockFi is saying all the retail loans are collateralized – evenovercollateralized… But that’s only 16% of its loan business. Red flag:IfTerraandCelsiusare any indication – $600 million is more than enough to kick off a “waterfall” of trouble in the crypto markets. Lenders in the crypto space may want to take a page from DeFi’s book, instead. DeFis likeAave(AAVE-USD) require collateralization, like withits new stablecoin, for example. Luckily for the crypto banks, though…FTX(FTT-USD) and Alameda Ventures (both founded by Sam Bankman-Fried) are ready to ride to the rescue. The latest:FTX and Alameda are looking tobail out Voyager Digital userswho were affected by its bankruptcy. In return, those users would simply become FTX users. The total price tag of the deal isn’t totally clear – but Voyager is calling it a“low-ball bid dressed up as a white knight rescue.” I have to wonder, though, if the dollar amount is the issue… or the fine print. After all, asCointelegraphexplains, “FTX is proposing to buy out all Voyager Digital digital assets and digital asset loans, except loans to Three Arrows Capital, which would remain Voyager Digital’s problem.” The 3AC founders have been, shall we say, hard to pin down sincebecoming poster boysfor the June crypto collapse…so, good luck to Voyager and their other creditors. If you were with me inThe New Digital Worldlast Monday, you’ll remember thatCrunchbasereported $9.3 billion of crypto VC deals in the first half of 2022. Turns out:Crunchbasemay have been low-balling it! At least, according to JPMorgan.PerBloombergthis morning: “As of July 14, the year-to-date venture capital investment in the crypto and blockchain industries stood at $17.9 billion, according to the investment bank.” JPMorgan counted $9.8 billion in the first quarter alone! This then fell to $7.9 billion in the second quarter. But still: “It exceeds most prior full-year totals, representing more than 60% of the $29.4 billion VCs poured into crypto in [all of] 2021,”Bloombergnotes. Looking back at some of the major deals cited inBloomberg’sglowing feature: • Trade Republic, a German crypto app, raised $1.2 billion in June. • ConsenSys – which owns the leading crypto wallet MetaMask and plans tolaunch a crypto for it– enjoyed a $450 million round in March. • Circle, best known for the increasingly popular stablecoinUSD Coin(USDC-USD), raised $400 million in April. • TheNEAR Protocol(NEAR-USD) blockchain raised $350 million in April. “When bad news leads to positive price action, that usually means we are in the midst of a bear-to-bull-market trend reversal.”– Luke Lango & Charlie Shrem,Crypto Investor Network The “bad news” they’re referencing? “This past week, Zipmex (a crypto exchange operating in southeast Asia) halted withdrawals, and Quebec’s pension management fund (which invested $150 million into Celsius) said that its losses related to that investment will take ‘time to resolve.’ The contagion continues to spread. Yet, crypto prices are moving higher.” The “positive price action” they’re referencing in Saturday’sCrypto Investor Networkupdate? When BTC traded above $23,000 late last week, it was “a rare break for BTC above its 50-day moving average while its 200-day moving average is still declining. Such short-term upside breakouts in a longer-term downtrend often represent critical turning points for the crypto.” “To be clear: We do not expect current strength to last. We do believe that this breakout will end with BTC consolidating in the $20,000 range,” Luke and Charlie wrote on Saturday. “Certain alts – like ETH – may pop on discrete catalysts (like the ETH Merge). But we expect most of the altcoin market to remain rangebound until early 2023, at which point we expect the new boom cycle to begin.” So… Some cryptos will pop higher while most of them consolidate. After the events of May and June, I’ll take a boring market any day (over a collapsing one!) Especially when certain cryptos haveunique catalyststhat many investors are “sleeping on.” Put it on your radar withthis urgent briefingwalking you through the steps you should take today. Afterwards, Luke and Charlie will have an investor report for you:The Burn Coin With 10X Potential.Click here to see the strategy and the new pick to take advantage. On the date of publication, Ashley Cassell did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines. To have more news from The New Digital World sent to your inbox,click here to sign up for the newsletter. The postObscure Indicator Shows Why $20K is Important for Bitcoinappeared first onInvestorPlace. || Singapore-based Bitcoin miner scales back Kazakhstan project: Concerns over power supply and cost uncertainties have prompted Singapore-based Bitcoin miner SAI.TECH (SAI) to terminate the remainder of its expansion plans in Kazakhstan, the Nasdaq-listed company said in astatement. See related article:Bitcoin rig maker Canaan to deploy self-mining soon in US, executive says • SAI has terminated the second phase of 90MW power supply cooperation, part of a 2021 agreement with Better Tech Limited. • The decision stems from SAI.TECH receiving concerns from its power partners and hosting customers about its operation stability and costs, the statement said. • Operations had already been delayed due to national riots in Kazakhstan that commenced in January this year, the company said. • SAI will, however, continue to execute its first phase of cryptocurrency mining operation, which started in August last year and has 15MW of capacity. • Kazakhstanbecame the world’s second-largestBitcoin producer last year after miners moved there followingChina’s mining crackdowns. • However, in an attempt to regulate the sector and curb illegal mining, Kazakhstan’s energy authority identified anddisconnected13 unauthorized crypto mining farms in the country earlier this year. • The Central Asian nation alsoorderedcryptocurrency miners to file regular status reports. See related article:Beijing banned crypto mining, so China miners went underground || Bitcoin and ETH Price Prediction: Bulls In Control, MATIC Could Rally To $1.30: • Bitcoin is eyeing a fresh move towards the $23,000 level. • Ether (ETH) is consolidating above the $1,500  support level. • MATIC surged over 50% heading towards $1.30. Bitcoin has managed to remain above a support trendline for the past few days leading to a rally past the $22,000 resistance level, all the way to $22,750. BTC is now consolidating above the 21-day simple moving average (H1) indicating bullish price action in the short term. So far, the bears have defended the $22,750 zone, but the general sentiment in the market seems to be shifting towards a more positive outlook. This recent price action follows a brief dip back to the support line which was quickly bought up by the bulls. If the price of bitcoin stays above $21,550, it could see further rallies all the way up past $23,000 and higher . The first major resistance is near the $25,750 level, above which the price could start targeting the $30,000 psychological zone. ETHhas confidently pushed past the resistance at $1,440 and is now consolidating above the $1,500 level. The 21-day simple moving average (H1) has so far provided support indicating further rallies may be coming. This recent price action follows a brief breakout above $1,600 which was quickly pushed back down by the bears. ETH may range at this level for a few days before it can attempt to move higher again. If there are wider corrections in the market, ETH has support near $1,400 and $1,230. This is where Ethereum has previously found support and the $1,400 is particularly important since it marked the top for ETH in the 2017-18 cycle. If ETH is able to flip the previous resistance into a solid support level, then bears may have a hard time keeping prices low. Following widespread sell-offs in the crypto markets,MATIChas managed to bounce more than 100% from its lows in June. MATIC has seen continued growth over the past few days, confidently pushing past the resistance at $0.65 and heading towards the $1.00 mark. The price has now shot past the $0.75 level and the 21-day simple moving average which has provided support on several occasions. Notably, MATIC has also crossed the 38.2% Fib retracement level indicating further bullish momentum. However, the $1.00 mark will likely act as the next major resistance level as it serves as a psychological barrier and a key zone to look out for according to the Fib retracement tool. A breach of this level and a few days of consolidation will indicate that the bulls are in control with a higher target of $1.30 in the medium term. A failure to breakout may push prices back down to the $0.85 level before another attempt can be made. Cardano (ADA)is struggling to gain pace above the $0.512 level. If the bulls succeed, the price could rise toward $0.55. Binance Coin (BNB)is showing positive signs above the $260 level. A clear move above the $268 level may see it targeting $280 next. Polkadot (DOT)is heading towards the resistance at $8.00. A confident move above this level may see a bigger move towards the $10.00 zone. A few trending altcoins areXEM,FTM, andETC. Out of these,ETC is gaining paceabove the $25 resistance zone and may rise to $30 if current market conditions continue. Also, XEM rallied over 10% and broke the $0.045 barrier. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Putin says Ukraine did not make good on preliminary peace deal • Sri Lanka could tip back to chaos if six-time PM voted president • Shanghai reports 10 new local asymptomatic COVID cases, 5 symptomatic for July 19 • Americans endure ‘dragon’s breath’ heat wave, set to last into next week • U.S. senator seeks passage of Big Tech antitrust bill as time runs short • U.S. Senate votes to move ahead on chip bill to compete with China || Tether launching British pound stablecoin: Tether is to launch a new stablecoin pegged to the British pound. Photo: by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images (SOPA Images via Getty Images) Tether is to launch a stablecoin pegged to the British pound. However, the largest stablecoin by market cap is being tested with billions of redemptions amid the cryptocurrency crash, and rival USDC has flipped tether in daily transactions on Ethereum. Tether's ( USDT-USD ) new product will be pegged 1:1 to the British pound and will be called GBPT. The stablecoin token linked to the pound will begin life as an ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockchain and is expected to be deployed in early July. Read more: Crypto: Tether hole widens as it loses another billion in a day Tether’s CTO Paolo Ardoino in a company statement said: “We believe that the United Kingdom is the next frontier for blockchain innovation and the wider implementation of cryptocurrency for financial markets. Read more: Crypto live prices "We hope to help lead this innovation by providing cryptocurrency users worldwide with access to a GBP-denominated stablecoin issued by the largest stablecoin issuer.” Tether's interest in providing a stablecoin based upon the pound follows the UK Treasury’s plans to turn the nation into a global crypto hub. In April the UK Treasury recognised stablecoins as a “valid form of payment”. In a UK Treasury statement, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced that by regulating crypto effectively investors will have "the confidence they need to think and invest long term". Tether, USDT, has been steadily losing its market share to competitor stablecoin USDC after a slew of redemptions over the past weeks. Data from Coingecko has revealed how Tether’s market cap lost 19% since the start of May, dropping from an all-time high of $83bn to $66.8bn. Read more: Crypto: Stablecoin storm spreads after billions of tether is cashed out Whereas USDC has gained 5% and hit an all-time high of $56bn. Data from Nansen , a crypto analysis firm, reveals that daily transactions of USDC on the Ethereum blockchain has overtaken USDT. This has been interpreted as a signal of future dominance of USDC and of investors losing confidence in USDT in the long term. Story continues On Wednesday the cryptocurrency market dipped slightly after a flurry of green on Tuesday. Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) declined as much as 2.9% to $20,244, still holding above the key $20,000 level. Ethereum ( ETH-USD ) fell by a maximum 3.3% to $1,084.80. Speaking to Bloomberg about the current crypto crisis, Mark Newton, head of technical strategy at Fundstrat Global Advisors said: “Bitcoin has made ‘a bottom’ but probably not ‘the bottom’. “Upside targets should materialise near $23,300 with a max near $24,800 before prices pull back to likely challenge lows into the final week of June.” Watch: Can you live exclusively off bitcoin? [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 21534.12, 21398.91, 21528.09, 21395.02, 21600.90, 20260.02, 20041.74, 19616.81, 20297.99, 19796.81
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2018-01-16] BTC Price: 11490.50, BTC RSI: 36.75 Gold Price: 1335.40, Gold RSI: 75.17 Oil Price: 63.73, Oil RSI: 72.89 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin's Price Climbs Above $8,000 to Hit New High: Bitcoin's price rose above $8,100 for the first time on Sunday. Data from CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) indicates that the price climbed to $8,101.91 between 20:00 and 20:15 UTC. This move came after bitcoin – which toed the $8,000 line during Friday trading – crossed that threshold several hours earlier. That the price of bitcoin would surge above this height was in the cards last week, as was suggested by analysis at the time. Conversely, last week saw some dramatic movements on the price front, with markets dropping below $6,000 only to recover days later. Market commentary throughout the week was led, in part, by speculation around pending futures product launches and interest among institutional investors overall. Indeed, the move confirms a possibility floated by analysts from investment bank Goldman Sachs earlier this month. The firm's analysts have published several forecasts since earlier this year, notably predicting some of the developments seen over the summer. As of press time, the price of bitcoin has slipped back below $8,000, trading at around $7,983. Hot air balloon image via Shutterstock Related Stories $8,200: Bitcoin's Price Starts Week With New All-Time High Survey: Bitcoin Investors Won't Sell Until Price Nears $200k Bitcoin Price Decline Continues As Markets Drop Below $6,500 Where to, Bitcoin? Price Sees $1,000 Spread As '2x' Averted || The markets story of 2017 — fake news, real returns: 2017 will go down as one of the strongest years for global stocks in the last decade. And while these returns can be attributed to thesynchronized upswing in global economic growthandstrong corporate profitability, hanging in the background of markets all year were a series of risks. President Donald Trump’s chaotic administration, stop-and-start Brexit negotiations, and saber-rattling from North Korea were just some of the obstacles that seemed to stand between investors and a strong year for markets in 2017. Seemingly endless fretting in the U.S. over whether tax reform was being priced into markets, and whether a failure to pass tax reformwould send markets lower, ended up being for nought. Thedeal got doneand stocks are at a record high. And yet with these risks dominating news headlines seemingly every day, volatility in markets was muted virtually all year and the VIX is sitting just off its all-time lowhit in Novemberas we end the year. So in the end, the markets story of 2017 was the lack of volatility amid a chaotic news cycle. This year in markets, the news was fake but the returns were real. As this chart fromBespoke Investment Groupshows, each seeming challenge from the news cycle — the Mueller probe, the debt ceiling, the Fed tightening — was deflected by markets that were determined to push higher. In the U.S., theDowhas gained over 25% theS&P 500rose has added just about 20%, while the tech-heavyNasdaqis up nearly 30% this year. The small-capRussell 2000index is up about 13% in 2017. Around the world, stocks were also higher. Stocks in Europe (IEV) are up 20% this year and emerging markets (EEM) have gained almost 30% this year. In India (INDA), stocks have gained 35%. Richard Turnill, BlackRock’s global chief investment strategist, writes that two major lessons were learned by investors in 2017. “First, low volatility can be sustained for longer than many expect,” Turnill writes. “Our research shows that equity market volatility tends to stay low in steady economic expansions, provided systemic financial vulnerabilities remain in check. “Second, geopolitical risks are not all created equal.” And it is this second point that seemed particularly difficult to digest in 2017. In 2016, investors began the year with two dreadful months in markets, all while two major political risks loomed — June’s Brexit vote and the November presidential elections in the U.S. Both events produced surprise results and chaos in markets. Yet markets quickly bounced back after both votes, eventually pushing to new record highs, a harbinger of the resilience to come in 2017. Because while political risks may have increased starting in the second half of 2016, so too did the global economic cycle begin to turn higher. And though the stock market may not be the economy, the fortunes of both are closely intertwined. Looking to 2018,Wall Street believeswe’ll see more of the same — strong stock returns and solid economic growth. Atleast two firmshave also increased their year-end price targets following the passage of tax cuts by Congress. It is almost assured that the news cycle will not slow down next year. Donald Trump is still the president, mid-term elections in the U.S. are coming in November, the U.K. has still not settled on the terms of its exit from the EU, and North Korea is unlikely to be a more stable international player. But as investors look to 2018 trying to discern a potential direction for markets, don’t forget that markets and politics might appear to be relatives, yet only sometimes do these worlds collide. — Myles Udland is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter@MylesUdland Read more from Myles here: • Evidence shows corporate tax cuts don’t work • Walmart’s strong quarter shows why Amazon had to buy Whole Foods • Foreign investors might be the key to forecasting a U.S. recession • It’s been 17 years since U.S. consumers felt this good about the economy • TOM LEE: Bitcoin is an important asset for investors to own || Bitcoin dips below $11,000 after setting another record high: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin dipped back under $11,000 on Monday, coming off a record high just shy of $11,800 it hit on Sunday after a surge from less than $1,000 at the start of the year. The cryptocurrency, which trades 24 hours a day and seven days a week, climbed as high as $11,799.99 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange at around 2100 GMT on Sunday. It was not clear what caused the move higher over the weekend other than new investors joining the upstart market, with so-called wallet-providers reporting record numbers of sign-ups over the past week. Analysts said Friday's announcement by the main U.S. derivatives regulator that it would allow CME Group Inc and CBOE Global Markets to list bitcoin futures contracts had turned sentiment positive after a choppy week. "The price rises are triggered by continued media interest driven by the expectation of futures trading on CME," Charles Hayter, founder of data analysis website Cryptocompare, said. By 1310 GMT on Monday, bitcoin had slipped back to around $10,919, down 2 percent on the day but still up more than 100 percent over the past three weeks. Sunday's high marked a 1,121 percent increase since the start of the year. Think Markets analyst Naeem Aslam said reports Britain wants to increase regulation of bitcoin and other digital currencies by expanding the reach of European Union anti-money-laundering rules that force traders to disclose their identities and report suspicious activity, had knocked bitcoin off its highs. But others said greater regulatory scrutiny would help. "If anything, regulation will only increase bitcoin's rate of growth as regulation lends credibility and engenders trust," Nicholas Gregory, CEO of London-based cryptocurrency firm CommerceBlock, said. Sunday's record high for bitcoin came as Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced the launch of the "petro", which he said would be a cryptocurrency backed by oil reserves, to shore up a collapsed economy. Opposition leaders said the digital currency would need congressional approval and some cast doubt on whether it would ever see the light of day in the midst of turmoil. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; editing by Alexander Smith) || Volatility Creeps Higher as Markets Start Moving Toward Safety: U.S. equities finished higher Tuesday, posting their best one-day gain since September despite a ballistic missile launch by North Korea and an apparent breakdown in bipartisan budget talks. Bank stocks rallied sharply thanks to the passage of the GOP’s tax overhaul through the Senate Budget Committee — clearing the way for a vote by the whole chamber later this week. Also adding to sentiment in the stock market today was a comfortable reception to Federal Reserve governor Powell’s confirmation hearing to become the next Fed Board Chair. In the end, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.1%, the S&P 500 gained 1%, the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.5% and the Russell 2000 gained 1.5%. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Treasury bonds were mixed, the dollar outperformed, gold was little changed and crude oil lost 0.2% after a joint OPEC, non-OPEC committee reportedly recommended extending last year’s supply cut agreement through the end of next year (with a review in June). Click to Enlarge Breadth was heavily positive, with advancers outpacing decliners by a 2.2-to-1 ratio. Volume was in-line with recent trends, as NYSE volume totaled 102% of the 30-day average. Financials led the way with a 2.6% gain while REITs were the laggards, down 0.3%. The 10 Best Stocks for Your 401k RV maker Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE: THO ) gained 13.3% on a big fiscal Q1 earnings beat with “towables” a bright spot. Buffalo Wild Wings (NASDAQ: BWLD ) gained 6.3% after Arby’s (owned by Roark Capital) moved to acquire the company in a near-$3 billion deal. On the downside, Domino’s Pizza, Inc. (NYSE: DPZ ) lost 1.3% after cautious comments by Longbow Research. On the economic front, the consumer confidence index increased for the fifth straight month to a new cycle high driven by labor market strength. Cyber Monday sales looked good. And the Case-Shiller home price index rose 0.5% month-over-month and was up 6.2% from last year amid climbing rental rates, low mortgage rates, and low housing inventory. Conclusion Click to Enlarge Stocks pushed to new record highs — stretching already historic thin valuations even further amid an ongoing contraction in breadth — as objections to the GOP tax bill by Senators Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Bob Corker (R-TN) disappeared. But with a full Senate vote looming, the fate of the bill remains uncertain given wildcards like Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ). Considering this — and the approach of another Federal Reserve rate hike this month — it’s not surprising that the CBOE Volatility Index actually crept higher today. That’s a sign that hedgers are moving into downside protection in case Congress can’t deliver a major policy victory on such a tight timetable. Story continues I recommended by Edge Pro subscribers play along, adding a December $31 call option position in the Short-Term VIX (NYSEARCA: VXX ) fund. Check out Serge Berger’s Trade of the Day for Nov. 29. Today’s Trading Landscape To see a list of the companies reporting earnings today, click here . For a list of this week’s economic reports due out, click here . Tell us what you think about this article! Drop us an email at editor@investorplace.com , chat with us on Twitter at @InvestorPlace or comment on the post on Facebook . Read more about our comments policy here . Anthony Mirhaydari is the founder of the Edge (ETFs) and Edge Pro (Options) investment advisory newsletters. Free two- and four-week trial offers have been extended to InvestorPlace readers. More From InvestorPlace The 9 Best Stocks to Buy on the Dip The Bitcoin Bubble: It’s Not Different This Time The 10 Best New Stocks of 2017 The post Volatility Creeps Higher as Markets Start Moving Toward Safety appeared first on InvestorPlace . View comments || Why bitcoin could be a major market risk next year, explained: Bitcoin has soared quadruple digits this year, and one market watcher sees the cryptocurrency posing a potential risk to investors next year given its extreme volatility and lack of regulation. Intense fervor around bitcoin has pushed bitcoin up more than 1,500 percent in 2017 on one exchange. Michael Bapis with the Bapis Group at HighTower sees risks afoot, though he sees the price rising higher still. Here are his reasons. • The force is with bitcoin for the moment, but its momentum may be short-lived. Governments are already beginning to investigate regulation for the cryptocurrency universe, which would pose a risk to those who hold it. • Questions around bitcoin's transparency persist, and too many variables exist in the space. • The price is incredibly volatile and sees major price swings that traditional asset classes such as stocks and bonds typically do not. The volatility can be driven by investors' unawareness as to what the asset really is, or what the underlying supply and demand is like. The price could climb still in 2018, of course. • Deutsche Bank earlier this month listed a "bitcoin crash" on a list of significant market risks next year. Those looking to get in and buy should anticipate high levels of volatility and mounting unknowns. Bottom line: Bitcoin has seen unprecedented momentum this year, but it may be short-lived and pose a broader risk next year. Bitcoin has soared quadruple digits this year, and one market watcher sees the cryptocurrency posing a potential risk to investors next year given its extreme volatility and lack of regulation. Intense fervor around bitcoin has pushed bitcoin up more than 1,500 percent in 2017 on one exchange. Michael Bapis with the Bapis Group at HighTower sees risks afoot, though he sees the price rising higher still. Here are his reasons. • The force is with bitcoin for the moment, but its momentum may be short-lived. Governments are already beginning to investigate regulation for the cryptocurrency universe, which would pose a risk to those who hold it. • Questions around bitcoin's transparency persist, and too many variables exist in the space. • The price is incredibly volatile and sees major price swings that traditional asset classes such as stocks and bonds typically do not. The volatility can be driven by investors' unawareness as to what the asset really is, or what the underlying supply and demand is like. The price could climb still in 2018, of course. • Deutsche Bank earlier this month listed a "bitcoin crash" on a list of significant market risks next year. Those looking to get in and buy should anticipate high levels of volatility and mounting unknowns. Bottom line: Bitcoin has seen unprecedented momentum this year, but it may be short-lived and pose a broader risk next year.More From CNBC • The unlikely ‘dogs of the Dow’ picks that could howl in 2018 • What you need to know about options spread trading in IRAs • Apple could ring in the New Year with $1 trillion market cap || This uncanny chart shows the Bitcoin bubble could be about to burst: Bitcoin vs Asset bubble chart Bitcoin's exponential surge in the latter quarter of 2017 became one of the biggest stories of the year . However, if its current trajectory continues, it could become one of the biggest stories of 2018 for all the wrong reasons. After starting 2017 at around $900, the cryptocurrency broke the $11,000 barrier a mere 12 hours after hitting $10,000 at the end of November before rising to a peak in excess of $18,000 shortly afterwards. The number of Google searches for Bitcoin spiked as hype built, with volume for the week ending December 2 double that for the preceding seven-day period. Search interest peaked the week before Christmas. However, since then it hasn't been plain sailing. A big drop in price in late December was followed by a recovery, but since the start of this year the price has fallen again. This is a make-or-break time for Bitcoin, the price of which has – so far – followed the trajectory of a classic asset bubble to an eerie degree. If it is a bubble, it is about to burst. Is Bitcoin about to burst? The four phases of an asset bubble In 2008 Dr Jean-Paul Rodrigue , from the Department of Economics and Geography at Hofstra University in New York, described a four-stage model for the value of an asset during a bubble. No two bubbles are the same – and the length of the phases will differ from bubble to bubble – but the model is useful in trying to understand what is, or at least could be, going on with Bitcoin. 1. The stealth phase The first phase – the "stealth" phase – is the point at which early adopters realise that an opportunity for investment is developing. These investors are keen market watchers but also recognise the significant risk of the proposition in these early days. As such, they invest cautiously and without making too much noise. In the case of Bitcoin, these early adopters would now have made a significant return on their early investment – provided they didn't lose their log-in . Story continues The four phases of an asset bubble 2. The awareness phase As the proposition becomes more obvious other investors start getting involved, pushing up the value of the asset in question. During this phase there could well be an early sell-off as those who are new to the party make a quick profit off the back of the increase. Hype around the asset will start to gain momentum during this period. 3. The mania phase This is where the bubble really starts expanding. With word spreading of the investment opportunity, amateur investors start to eye an apparently fail-safe way to make some cash. The hype starts to fuel itself exponentially as the excitement around the increasing value of the asset pushes up the value of the asset. This feeds the delusion that prices can only increase and profits are guaranteed. Chart: Bitcoin is worse than the Dutch Tulip Bubble At this point new investors are more like speculators , with very little interest in the asset itself; they are gambling on price increases. This was evident during the US housing market crash between 2006 and 2009 when purchasing houses just to "flip" them was at its peak. This is where Bitcoin was at in December 2017 . 4. The blow-off phase This phase is home to a classic Emperor's New Clothes moment that turns the tide from manic buying to panic selling on a large scale. There is no guaranteed signal for when this will occur but at this point the savvy investors will have already started to cash out, leaving a greater concentration of those who made excitement-fueled purchases still in the game. When prices falter, those left in play lose confidence very quickly and the value of the asset plummets just as quickly as it rose before regressing back to the mean of where the market was headed before the bubble. Interestingly, the curve also accounts for the fact that there could be a small recovery in the value of the asset before it begins to plunge to rock bottom, prompting believers to think it will return to "normal". During the famous Dutch Tulip Bubble in the 17th century the price of a bulb rose 20-fold over the course of a few months from November 1636 and February 1637, before plummeting by 99pc by May 1637. The Dutch Tulip bubble didn't burst for a while Where does Bitcoin fit in to this model? Arguments about whether Bitcoin is a bubble or the internet age's answer to the Gold Rush have been bandied backwards and forwards in recent months. Based on Bitcoin's price relative to the theoretical asset bubble curve, the answer is likely to come soon. If Bitcoin is a bubble, then we're at the beginning of the blow-off phase when investors will start to panic and the value of the cryptocurrency will plummet. Given signs that China may be about to clamp down on its Bitcoin mining businesses, it would be a brave person to invest in the cryptocurrency at the present time. If Bitcoin does manage to hold stable in the coming weeks, however, then it could well be here to stay for the foreseeable future. || The Social Security Administration May Be Steering You Wrong: Cost-cutting can be great, but it can also lead to undesired consequences. Consider, for example, the Social Security Administration (SSA), which has undergone multiple years of budget cuts and faces further cuts. While the major agency continues to serve tens of millions of retired and disabled Americans and many survivors, its recent performance leaves room for improvement. Specifically, a study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that many retirees are not being given some critical information that would help them get the most out of the program. older man looking astonished, with mouth open Image source: Getty Images. Social Security in a nutshell Social Security pays close to 62 million Americans, with benefits totaling $955 billion in 2017. About 42 million recipients are retirees collecting retirement benefits. Others are dependents of those retirees, disabled workers and their dependents, and survivors, including children. Not only is Social Security a massive program, it also is a critical one for most Americans. The program was designed to replace about 40% of pre-retirement income for those who earn an average income. But the reality today is that a majority of elderly beneficiaries get 50% or more of their income from Social Security, while 23% of married ones and 43% of unmarried ones get fully 90% or more of their income from it, according to the SSA. Just how much are they getting? Well, what you get out of Social Security largely depends on what you paid into it. Remember that workers get 6.2% of their wages withheld as a Social Security tax, with their employers coughing up a corresponding 6.2%, for a total 12.4% tax on earnings. (The self-employed have to pay both the employer and employee portions, forking over the entire 12.4% on their own.) The average monthly retirement benefit was recently $1,375, which totals $16,500 per year. If your earnings have been above average, though, you'll collect more than that -- up to the maximum monthly Social Security benefit for those retiring at their full retirement age, which was recently $2,639. (That's about $32,000 for the whole year.) Story continues hand that has written you should know this, in block letters Image source: Getty Images. What's the problem? Budget cuts to Social Security have led the SSA to trim its workforce, close more than 60 field offices, and reduce the hours that representatives are available to help the public. This has resulted in longer waits in person, on the phone, or online, when people seek help or information. The SSA has tried to offset the reductions by beefing up its online presence and offering more services online. Given the fact that Social Security benefits are so important to most retirees, and that many people don't fully understand their options, it's vital that the SSA give people the information they need to make the best decisions for themselves. But a 2016 GAO report found that when retirees and pre-retirees consult the SSA, they're often not given some key information that could help them get more out of the program. For example, "... in 8 of 26 claims interviews in which the claimant could have received higher benefits by delaying a claim, the claims specialist did not discuss the advantages and disadvantages of delay." That's a problem. While most retirees would do well to start collecting benefits at their full retirement age or even at age 62, some might be best served by delaying collecting up to age 70, in order to get bigger checks. Starting to collect early is often smart, though, as you'll get many more checks, despite their being smaller. If you expect to live a longer-than-average life, however, and you can afford to delay starting to collect, that can be the wise choice. Many people seeking information or guidance from the SSA are also not briefed on basics of how their benefits are calculated. For example, benefits are based on earnings in the 35 years in which a worker earned the most. If you only work 31 years, four years of zero earnings will be entered into the formula, lowering your benefits. What to do The situation isn't good, but there are some smart things you can do to deal with it. For starters, learn more about how to maximize your Social Security benefits on your own. Don't be afraid to consult the Social Security Administration, too. Some advise that it's best to go in person to get more information, and that if the front-line person you meet with doesn't seem to be serving you sufficiently well, ask to see a "Tier 2" representative, who will be even more informed. You might also keep abreast of plans in Washington to change Social Security, whether it's Congress looking to shrink its budget further to reduce benefits, or to strengthen the program and possibly increase benefits. Contact your representatives to let them know what you'd like them to do regarding Social Security. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Bitcoin Short Shortage Keeps Crypto Futures Wobbling Above Spot: For traders used to seeing arbitrage plays vanish within seconds, bitcoin futures’ rise back to more than $1,300 above the spot price a full day after their debut is another testament to the cryptocurrency’s unconventional evolution. Professional investors and analysts predict the premium will collapse over time. Yet its persistence and volatility — from as low as 1.8 percent to as high as 13 percent — indicate how a market that’s captured Wall Street’s attention can still be slow to homogenize. There are many impediments to closing the gap, but it’s not impossible. Watching the premium may be just the latest fleeting obsession of traders. “For the moment, this premium can be sustainable — but if brokers stop filtering shorts, it could come crashing down dramatically,” Robin Bhar, a commodities analyst at Societe Generale SA, said by phone. “It’s almost as if the normal rules don’t apply here. It would be analogous to a physicist finding a situation where gravity doesn’t apply.” The premium is enduring for a couple of reasons. Typically, traders bet that two strongly correlated assets will eventually converge toward the same price. They make money by selling the more expensive asset short and buying the cheaper one, sometimes delivering it in place of the borrowed asset they need to replace. But the future now trading on Cboe Global Markets Inc.’s exchange is settled in dollars, not with the delivery of bitcoins, which impedes shorting. Position limits and a bar on block trades also pose obstacles. A trader “may not own or control more than 5,000 contracts net long or net short” in all futures expirations, and block trades won’t be permitted until Dec. 17, according to the contract specifications. Furthermore, traders “cannot arbitrage between various exchanges,” Robin said, further limiting short-selling opportunities. That the spread has persisted to the degree it has is a function not only of trading obstacles, but also of bitcoin euphoria, according to Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank A/S in Hellerup, Denmark. “This is a consequence of irrational exuberance and the fact that some brokers so far are not allowing short trades in the future,” Hansen said by email. “For this to become a reasonably functioning market the gap between spot and futures should come down.” || Crypto-currencies take huge dive as South Korea considers ban: All the major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple, have taken huge hits in the last 12 hours. The global cryptocurrency market is down nearly $100 billion following news that South Korea, one of cryptocurrency’s biggest markets, is considering a ban on all crypto trading in the country. At a press conference this morning, Justice minister Park Sang-ki said that the government is drafting a bill that would ban all trading of virtual currencies on exchanges located in South Korea. “There are great concerns regarding virtual currencies and the justice ministry is basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges,” Park told a news conference, according to Reuters . Don't Miss : Today’s top deals: $12 Alexa smart bulb, Nest Thermostat, Sony soundbar, perfect egg cooker, more The news sparked a panic among cryptocurrency investors. The price of Bitcoin within South Korea plummeted by $2,000, and the global price of Bitcoin on the GDAX exchange dropped by 12 percent immediately, before rebounding in the following hours. Alternative currencies were particularly hard-hit: Ethereum dropped globally by around nine percent, and Ripple, a recently-popular alt-coin, fell by over 50 percent in one go. According to CNBC , the global cryptocurrency market lost $106 billion in market cap in the space of a few hours, before beginning to claw back some of those losses. Following the crash in value, the South Korean government clarified that its draft bill was not finalized, and so no decision has been formally made as of yet. Once the government presents a draft bill, it will still have to go through the legislative process and be passed by the National Assembly, which is likely to take months. In the meantime, you can expect crypto exchanges catering to South Koreans to set up shop outside of the country. Thus far, China is the only country to have successfully banned crypto trading. In its case, the decentralized currency posed a threat to China’s tightly-regulated domestic banking system, and China’s “Great Firewall” provided an easy way to prevent crypto-currency trading in the country. South Korea does not exercise the same control over its currency or internet services, meaning any ban might be harder to enforce. Story continues BGR Top Deals: Today’s top deals: $12 Alexa smart bulb, Nest Thermostat, Sony soundbar, perfect egg cooker, more 8 paid iPhone apps on sale for free right now Trending Right Now: Another new feature was just confirmed for the Galaxy S9 This iPhone X deal is too good to turn down, T-Mobile customer or not Researchers discover bizarre ‘Hypatia’ stone is made from material not found in our Solar System See the original version of this article on BGR.com || Gold Price Prediction for December 15, 2017: Gold prices rebounded as demand for retail products surged, showing that the holiday season is kicking into gear. Prices increased for a second consecutive day, running into resistance near the 10-day moving average at 1,257. Support is seen near the December lows at 1,236. Negative momentum is decelerating as the MACD (moving average convergence divergence) histogram prints in the red with an increasing trajectory which points to consolidation. Retail Sales Were Strong U.S. retail sales rose 0.8% in November and was up 1.0% excluding autos. October’s 0.2% headline increase was bumped up to 0.5% and the 1.9% September gain was boosted to 2.0%, while the 0.1% ex-auto gain was revised higher to 0.4% and the 1.2% September increase was revised to 1.3%. Excluding autos, gas, and building materials, sales were up a firm 0.8% versus 0.4% previously. Motor vehicles and parts sales dipped 0.2% from a prior 1.2% jump. That was about the only negative number. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: A Cycle of Opportunities for Yen Traders Important CAD Pairs’ Technical Outlook: 14.12.2017 E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis – December 14, 2017 Forecast How to Buy Bitcoin in Australia? EUR/USD Daily Technical Analysis for December 15, 2017 ECB Leaves Rates Unchanged – Confirms QE Until September – Lifts Growth and Inflation Forecasts [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] こんばんは。 bitcoin priceという || ハッキング対策でＢＴＣを全部現金化したら、さらにグングンと価値があがりました。 暗号通貨バブルになかなか乗り切れないです。 || BitKong | Fun & Addictive, provably fair bitcoin game https://bitkong.com/en?r=Zn3tRhqD  #bitcoin via @bitkongme || bitcoin priceってゆうか、 || Bitcoin Serves A Purpose http://www.priceactionlab.com/Blog/2017/12/bitcoin-purpose/ … $BTC #cryptocurrency || bitcoin priceってゆうか、 || Long/Short Bitcoin swings with up to 100x Leverage at BitMex! Get a 10% Fee Discount here! http://bitmex.com/register/n18UPN  (Psst... ETH, BCH, LTC, etc. also available with leverage!) $FCT | $VTC | $BTC | $DCR | $FCT | $ADA | $LSK | $HSR | $REC | $BCHpic.twitter.com/IrIi6zmppZ || This is a #tsunami #blockchain #Bitcoin #cryptocurrency #crypto #tokensale #investing #investor #trading #trader #BTC #Blockchain #fintech #Ethereum #tech #Financepic.twitter.com/fgX07fW9A3 || bitcoin priceってゆうか、 || こんばんは。 bitcoin priceという
Trend: no change || Prices: 11188.60, 11474.90, 11607.40, 12899.20, 11600.10, 10931.40, 10868.40, 11359.40, 11259.40, 11171.40
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-03-10] BTC Price: 56008.55, BTC RSI: 66.33 Gold Price: 1721.50, Gold RSI: 39.11 Oil Price: 64.44, Oil RSI: 64.74 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] In Nigeria, One Bitcoin Can Cost $68,000. Here’s Why.: Bitcoin has already passed the $68,000 mark in Nigeria, but that’s if you use the official exchange rate. Awosika Ayodeji, a Nigerian blockchain project designer, isn’t complaining. He is happy to wake up and seebitcoinprices quoted using unofficial U.S. dollar exchange rates because it means he’d be getting more naira per dollar when he converts his crypto earnings to his local currency. At the same time, however, “buying [bitcoin] becomes more expensive, too,” Ayodeji noted. Related:Canadian Bank Launching Fiat-Backed Digital Currency in Claimed World First On Friday, Nigeria’sofficial exchange ratefor the U.S. dollar was around 380 naira per dollar. Using this rate, abitcoinlisting on peer-to-peer platformLocalBitcoins in Nigeriaof around 26,000,000 naira converted to $68,246. On the surface, this looks like a hefty 24% premium, which in this context refers to bitcoin’s price being much higher in specific locations than it is on average worldwide. In Nigeria, these premiums aren’t consistent. On peer-to-peer platform Paxful, the listed bitcoin prices were based on $1 trading for around 475 naira. This rate converted to $54,736, a price much closer to the average bitcoin trading price of the day. In fact, the informal market dollar exchange rate in Nigeria on Friday wasaround 478 naira, reflecting the rate seen on Paxful and the bitcoin prices listed on LocalBitcoins. In emerging markets that are facing a currency crisis, bitcoin prices can actually shed light on the informal market for U.S. dollars. In Argentina, Latin American crypto exchangeBitsolisted the bitcoin price at 8,700,993 Argentinian pesos on Friday, which converted to a whopping $98,000 using the official exchange rate, which was around 89 Argentine pesos per dollar. But bitcoin listings on exchanges like Bitso indicated the dollar was worth around 150 pesos, reflecting theinformal going ratefor the dollar. Yele Bademosi, chief executive officer at social payments app Bundle Africa said exchanges are most likely using informal dollar rates, thus inflating bitcoin’s price in local currency. According to Andrés Ondarra, country manager for Argentina at Bitso, the market exchange rate for the dollar is usually higher than the official exchange rate in Argentina as well. Related:Wrapped BTC, ETH Coming to Kadena's Decentralized Exchange “This is mainly reflecting the difference between the informal U.S. dollar rate and the official one. The gap between the official and the informal dollar in Argentina is around 70%,” Emiliano Limia, press officer at Argentine crypto exchangeBuenbittold CoinDesk via an email. Exchanges using informal rates instead of official ones indicate the local bitcoin markets exist outside of government rules, and that bitcoin trading might reveal the real value of the local currency against the dollar. According to Gina Pieters, a professor of economics and the University of Chicago who published apaperon how bitcoin can detect exchange rate manipulation and capital controls, bitcoin premiums can occur for a number of reasons. “It seems unlikely that the price should be that much higher unless there is the manipulation of the nominal exchange rate channel,” Pieters said in an email to CoinDesk, referring to the price of one currency in terms of another. In fact, the thesis of Pieters’ 2016 paper was that bitcoin trading can be used to approximate unofficial exchange rates, “which, in turn, can be used to detect both the existence and the magnitude of the distortion caused by capital controls and exchange rate manipulations.” Due to the falling purchasing power of the naira, on any given day, Nigeria hasmultiple exchange ratesfor the dollar. The informal exchange rates are typically much weaker, with Nigerians having to dish out more naira per dollar, indicating the local currency may be worth less than what the government says. According to a chapter in economist Koji Kubo’sbookabout Myanmar’s foreign exchange market, multiple exchange rates emerge within the unofficial market when governments implement “exhaustive exchange restrictions” or limitations on the amount of foreign currency that could be bought or sold. In 2020, Argentina’s government imposed strict controls on the purchase of U.S. dollars,restrictingthe amount of dollars citizens could buy and hold to $200, in an attempt to stop capital from flowing out of the country. The dollar black marketflourishedas a result, with people scrambling to buy more dollars to protect their wealth, and even paying more pesos per dollar. This quickly spilled over to crypto as Argentines tried to ditch the peso for stronger currencies: demand for bitcoinsoaredin 2020. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s facing aU.S. dollar shortage: in 2020, local mediareportedNigerian banks were limiting the amount of dollars Nigerians can spend abroad to as low as $500. Thanks to the scarcity of dollars that could not meet local demand, the value of the naira fell in local informal markets as people showed willingness to pay more naira per dollar. “The general market is now setting the price to $480 as that seems to be the present value generally accepted between buyers and sellers,” Ayodeji said. The lower informal exchange rate can mean sending money to family in Nigeria or Argentina in bitcoin can be beneficial as one bitcoin can get you more of the local currency, but this also means that the purchasing power of the local currency is weakening. Sending money out of the country can be problematic, as your wealth converts to less dollars. It’s typically difficult to estimate local informal dollar rates: Ayodeji said black market currency merchants might ask for even more naira per dollar. But bitcoin conversions can calculate a decent estimate, Ayodeji said. Still, premiums can exist even after you factor in the difference in exchange rates. One possible reason is, in countries with high inflation, people may be willing to pay more for bitcoin. “In the euro area the prices are pretty much the same as spot prices in big centralized exchanges,” Jukka Blomberg, chief marketing officer at LocalBitcoins, said in an email. But “in countries such as Venezuela, there can even be quite big premiums.” Blomberg explained this is because Venezuelans who are willing to sell their bitcoin in exchange for their local currency typically want a higher premium due to the risk they have to take by accepting a highly inflationary currency such as the bolivar. In Venezuela, where the inflation rate hit a staggering10 million%in 2019, and the value of the bolivar was droppingalmost dailyagainst the U.S. dollar, people beganturning to bitcoin. In fact, the local demand for bitcoin drove crypto adoption in Venezuelaaheadof other hyperinflationary countries like Argentina. Nigeria is also aninflationary country, and citizens have been turning to bitcoin to weather value drops in naira. Demand for bitcoin was so high that the central bank of Nigeria first ordered banks to shut down all accounts associated with crypto trading, and released a five-page explainer thatsaidthe measure was taken to protect the country’s financial system. According to Ayodeji, the naira exchange rate on crypto platforms changed drastically the days after the ban was announced, perhaps driven by the panic that followed, and the demand for bitcoin dropping slightly: the unofficial exchange hit between 410 and 420 naira per dollar, Ayodeji said. “But the market circled back,” he said. • In Nigeria, One Bitcoin Can Cost $68,000. Here’s Why. • In Nigeria, One Bitcoin Can Cost $68,000. Here’s Why. || PayPal to Buy Crypto Custody Firm Curv: Sources: PayPal is said to be in the process of buying Curv, a technology firm that powers the secure storage of cryptocurrency, according to three sources familiar with the situation. Israeli news outlet Calcalist reported Tuesday that Curv was being sold for between $200 million and $300 million, without naming the buyer. “PayPal is buying Curv for $500 million,” a source from within the digital asset custody space told CoinDesk on Monday. “From where I’m hearing it, I’m pretty sure it’s true.” Related: BC Group, VSAL Join Forces to Serve Institutional Bitcoin Market in Asia Several people in the cryptocurrency space have said PayPal, which made an entrance there last year, turned its attention to Curv after talks to buy crypto custody and trading firm BitGo fell through last year. PayPal offered $750 million in cash for BitGo, two sources familiar with the deal told CoinDesk. PayPal did not return requests for comment by press time. Curv declined to comment. “PayPal has made some great acquisitions in the past such as Vemno, and now they want to own something in crypto,” one of the sources told CoinDesk. Curv has raised over $30 million to date, including a $23 million funding round in July. Related: Gensler Straddles Innovation and Enforcement in Senate Hearing PayPal partnered with New York-regulated Paxos to offer direct purchases of cryptocurrency for its millions of U.S. users. The payments giant said last month it would be bringing the crypto service to the U.K. soon. Related Stories PayPal to Buy Crypto Custody Firm Curv: Sources PayPal to Buy Crypto Custody Firm Curv: Sources || Blockchain Bites: Clearing the Record on Yellen’s Crypto Concerns and the Bitcoin Double-Spend Fracas: After dropping 13% yesterday, bitcoin is once again on the ascent. Meanwhile, Janet Yellen has offered a more nuanced view of crypto and small Ethereum mining pools are organizing a campaign against a potential network upgrade. Miners revolt!Eight Ethereum mining pools amounting to around 30% of the network’s hash power have formed aquasi-cartel to push back against a proposed blockchain updatethat would reduce their mining fees. Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559, floated by Vitalik Buterin, would burn mining fees to help reduce transaction cost volatility. While larger mining pools, like BitFly, F2Pool and Sparkpool, are ambivalent about the upgrade, smaller miners are calling to nix EIP 1559, according to CoinDesk tech reporter Will Foxley. Trust progress?Grayscale Investments is laying the groundwork for what could befive new cryptocurrency trusts,forchainlink,basic attention token,decentraland, livepeer andtezos. Preliminary paperwork was filed by the firm’s “statutory trustee,” though it does not guarantee any of these investable products will see the light of day, according to reporting from CoinDesk’s Dan Palmer. (Digital Currency Group owns both CoinDesk and Grayscale.) Related:Crypto Long & Short: No, Bitcoin Was Not a Response to the Financial Crisis Banking depositsSignature Bank disclosed$10 billion in deposits from its cryptocurrency companyclients, in an earnings call Thursday. Representing 16% of the New York firm’s total deposits, this sum is also twice that of competitor Silvergate Bank, which is widely considered the first crypto-forward bank, CoinDesk’s Nathan DiCamillo reports. Without revealing names, Signature’s chief executive said it now banks the “top five crypto exchanges.” Crypto sweepThe U.S. government’s top investments watchdog flagged a series ofunregistered cryptocurrency companiesfor allegedly duping mostly international investors with false corporate information. Of the 28 suspect investment firms the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) called out Thursday, CoinDesk reporter Danny Nelson found eight that appear to target would-be cryptocurrency investors. Big in JapanFollowing the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission’s (SEC) lawsuit against Ripple,Japanese XRP-stans are left wondering. The cryptocurrency has gained traction in the country as a remittance tool, is backed by one of the largest Japanese financial firms, SBI, and is considered a “cryptocurrency” – not a security, arguably – by Japan’s economy regulator. “The crypto community, I feel, sees this as a big blow to them and as kind of a precursor to what could come in the future, that other companies are also vulnerable,” Mike Kayamori, Liquid Global CEO, told CoinDesk’s Sandali Handagama. BITCOIN ETF:Five reasons it should be approved. (Bloomberg opinion) Related:Why Did Bill Miller and His Son Buy MicroStrategy Debt? It's the Bitcoin HUMAN TRADERS:A quant fund (not crypto-specific) is giving people a chance. (Bloomberg) FOR THE FAITHFUL:Joe Weisenthal thinksbitcoinis a religion. Who’s the Pope? (Bloomberg) BLUE SKIES?Jack Dorsey’s open-source social media platform released a 6o-page overview of the decentralized ecosystem. (Blog) CUT TO THE CORE:A notable Bitcoin Core dev reflects on his time building and argues Bitcoin needs to decentralize. (Blog) Efficient markets?Two events batted around to explain bitcoin’s13% price dropon Thursday are a bit more complicated than they appear on the surface. Yesterday, bitcoin saw itsbiggest intraday dropsince March 12, 2020, when bitcoin tumbled 39%. Looking for cause, some suggested the markets threw a temper tantrum in response to a rumor that a double-spend appeared in the wild, on the Bitcoin blockchain. That story was picked up by themainstream press. Others, that traders were spooked by comments made by Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen, who raised concerns about crypto’s use in the criminal underground. That story was picked up by themainstream press, too. CoinDesk tech reporter Colin Harper set the record straight: The transaction that looked like a double-spend – the very phenomenon Bitcoin was created to address – wasa normal occurrence. The trouble bubbled up after BitMEX researchers found an orphan block containing a 0.00062063 BTC transaction that was also included in a valid block mined to the blockchain. But it really was no big deal. In what’s called a block reorganization, Bitcoin programmatically dealt with the issue. While the bitcoin was technically “double-spent,” Harper notes, “no new coins were added to Bitcoin’s supply.” Meanwhile, following a U.S. Senate confirmation hearing where Yellen spoke briefly about money laundering and terrorist funding issues that plague bitcoin on Wednesday, the former Federal Reserve Chair disclosed anuanced opinion of cryptoin a letter to the Senate Finance Committee a day later. To wit: “I think we need to look closely at how to encourage their use for legitimate activities while curtailing their use for malign and illegal activities,” said the Treasury Secretary nominee. “If confirmed, I intend to work closely with the Federal Reserve Board and the other federal banking and securities regulators on how to implement an effective regulatory framework for these and other fintech innovations.” She is likely to be confirmed today, CoinDesk regulatory reporter Nikhilesh De said. While neither the rumored double-spend nor Yellen’s concerns are nonevents, they were both based on limited or faulty information that was picked up, (including in yesterday’s Blockchain Bites). That said, neither news items should be blamed for the market spat, nor should the new information in the public register be seen as leading to today’s price appreciation. As Nic Carter as written, the efficient market hypothesis, the idea that states that asset prices reflect all available information,is complicated. For now, like during the panic in March, it’s best to keep in mind that “time in the market beats timing the market.” Bitcoin’s supportYesterday was a show of solidarity in the Bitcoin community, after nChain Chief Scientist Craig Wright pushed for cultural touchstones, Bitcoin.org and Bitcoincore.org, to pull thefirst cryptocurrency white paperoff their sites. Wright, who has long claimed to be Bitcoin’s pseudo-anonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, has filed for patents over Bitcoin’s earliest documentation and intellectual property. The notably rambunctious developer, law student and academic is also the creator of Bitcoin SV (for Satoshi’s Vision), a fork of Bitcoin Cash and competitor coin. Bitcoin.org rebutted Wright’s legal challenge and kept the document up, though Bitcoincore.org – the main repository for the Bitcoin code base – took it down. No matter, as CoinDesk Managing Editor Zack Seward reported, some of crypto’s most prominent voices have decided tohost a mirror copy.These include Square, Coin Center, Facebook subsidiary Novi and CoinDesk, among dozens more companies, nonprofits and individuals. It has also been uploaded to the “uncensorable” Arweave platform as well as internet alternative the InterPlanetary File System (IFPS), Seward notes. According to Bitcoin.org, the Bitcoin white paper was published under an open MIT license by Nakamoto, making it a public domain document. “There is no doubt” people have the legal right to host the white paper, the nonprofit said. Wright has long been a thorn in the Bitcoin community’s side, launching several lawsuits against prominent personalities who questioned his claims of being the authentic Nakamoto. Hodlnaut, the pseudonymous account behind the lightning torch experiment and who was sued for defamation, was vaulted into the spotlight in 2019 with a wave of bitcoin enthusiasts adopting his cartoon cat avatar for their Twitterprofile photos. While the event shows Bitcoin is still capable of rallying together, the real issue at play is much bigger than Wright’s copyright claims. Dozens of businesses have patent key technologies off of, or that support, this open-source system. In some sense, some would argue, a copyright is simply anathema to Bitcoin’s core ideal of permissiveness. • Blockchain Bites: Clearing the Record on Yellen’s Crypto Concerns and the Bitcoin Double-Spend Fracas • Blockchain Bites: Clearing the Record on Yellen’s Crypto Concerns and the Bitcoin Double-Spend Fracas || How Bitcoin Could Be Affected by February’s Positive Jobs Report: Jobs in the U.S. rose by 379,000 in February,far abovethe general consensus of 185,000 to 200,000 jobs, coming in much better than January or December’s report. The U.S. added a revised 117,000 out of 105,000 expected jobs in January and lost a revised 306,000 jobs in December. In February the unemployment rate fell from 6.3% to 6.2%. Lea este artículoen español. Related:Soaring Prices for Enjin, FLOW and Rarible Reveal Risks of 'NFT Marketplace' Tokens The positive report could create more volatility in the U.S. Treasurys market, David Beckworth, a former international economist at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, told CoinDesk. On Thursday, bond yields rose to 1.5% after U.S. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that theeconomy would see temporary inflation upon reopening. The rate climbed further to1.61%after Friday’s jobs report came out. Because of the market’s sensitivity to interest rates outlooks, it’s possible there will be a sell-off of high-risk assets (likebitcoin) with the jobs report overshooting estimates, said Steven Kelly, a research associate at the Yale Program on Financial Stability. It’s unlikely that the Fed will pull back on quantitative easing or raise rates in response to volatility in Treasury yields, Kelly added, but it could consideryield curve controlorOperation Twist. Related:Wealth Managers Want Clarity on Bitcoin Rules: Reuters The Fed would have to see “material unintended consequences of QE” to pull back on its $120 billion-a-month of bond purchasing, Kelly said. For now, bitcoiners can still count on the Fed bringing more liquidity to the markets and giving investors the liquidity to invest more in riskier assets. “Part of QE isn’t just about lower yields,” Kelly said. “It’s about encouraging the search for yield to some extent. That’s often cited as a financial stability downside of QE, but it’s also part of the point – it’s to discourage a flight to safety.” The largest increase in jobs came the service sectors hit hardest by COVID-19 – leisure and hospitality industries added 355,000 in the month of February. “We have an economy that is poised to snapback,” former Federal Reserve macroeconomist Claudia Sahm said on Thursday. “This is still short of mission accomplished; 10 million jobs are still missing.” The employment-to-population ratio, which measures the number of people employed against the total working-age population, changed little month-to-month at 57.6%, down 3.5 percentage points year-over-year. Employment declined in state and local government education, construction and mining, with local government education losing 37,000 jobs and state government education losing 32,000. The actual jobs increase could be higher since the Bureau of Labor Statistics survey went out three weeks ago, Sahm added. Vaccinations have increased significantly since then – U.S. President Joe Biden announced this week that there would be enough vaccine supply to cover all Americans by the end of May, two months ahead of previous estimates. While the additional jobs are not insignificant, they are unlikely to have an impact on stimulus negotiations, Sahm added. This means that somewhere between a $1.5 trillion and $1.9 trillion relief bill (depending on negotiations) is coming for Americans soon, she said. Update (March 5, 15:02 UTC):Adds additional details from the jobs report and commentary from experts. • How Bitcoin Could Be Affected by February’s Positive Jobs Report • How Bitcoin Could Be Affected by February’s Positive Jobs Report || Starlink Begins Taking Preorders, Musk Eyes IPO When Cash Flow Predictable: SpaceX is expanding the beta testing of its Starlink satellite network that will offer internet service from space. Strong performance from the company could lead to an IPO of the satellite division. What Happened:Starlink has widened the public beta testing for its satellite internet service, reportsCNBC. Starlink is owned by SpaceX, the rocket company owned and founded byTesla Inc(NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk. Customers can preorder the satellite service that will cost $99 a month. The preorder is fully refundable. A reservation does not guarantee service and service could take more than six months to fulfill. Some customers got messages saying they would be covered in late 2021, others were told not until 2022. The service is available to customers in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom as part of the initial public beta rollout. Starlink rolled out a public beta in October to some customers, offering service for $99 a month and a $499 upfront cost for a kit that includes a WIFI router and user terminal. An FCC filing last week revealed Starlink has amassed over 10,000 customers since launching the public beta testing three months ago. Related Link:Elon Musk Vs. Jeff Bezos: World’s 2 Richest People In Battle Over Satellites What’s Next:The SpaceX-owned Starlink segment has been rumored as an IPO target for years. Musk told reporters in 2019 that Starlink could generate $30 billion a year in revenue, making the company a hot target for a potential IPO. Starlink has launched over 1,000 satellites and hopes to have 4,425 in orbit by 2024. The FCC has approved 11,943 satellites to be launched by Starlink. In September, MusksaidStarlink has plans to IPO and retail investors would get top priority. The billionaire entrepreneur told a follower on Twitter to hold him to it when it comes to retail investors getting first dibs at the Starlink IPO. “SpaceX needs to pass through a deep chasm of negative cash flow over the next year or so to make Starlink financially viable,” Musk shared on Twitter. The CEO warned that satellite constellation companies have gone bankrupt before. “We hope to be the first that does not.” The IPO timing could come down to the timing of the company launching all of its satellites and service to more areas. This could provide financial stability and help with projections. “Once we can predict cash flow reasonably well, Starlink will IPO.” Photo courtesy: SpaceX via Flickr See more from Benzinga • Click here for options trades from Benzinga • Pro-Bitcoin Senator Cynthia Lummis Joins Banking Committee: Why It's Important • 15 Bitcoin Stocks To Watch On Tesla News © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Revolutionizing the Blockchain Tech and Bitcoin World, This Is the Story of Bohdan Prilepa: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / March 3, 2021 /Entering the world of technology is a make or break kind of moment. This is the same forBohdan Prilepawho began his first steps into the technology world just a few years ago. He decided to take that leap of faith and not turn back! "When you enter the blockchain technology market, you either run away or stay. I stayed. For me, it's a huge new world, where everything is changing at a cosmic speed. Look at the way cryptocurrencies have gone in a relatively short time period, for bitcoin was first launched only in 2009. How much has happened in this area in these 12 years, it seems like in cryptocurrencies, each year of development is equal to a decade. And I am glad I am not just a witness to this progress, but an active participant in it," Bohdan remarks. Now the CEO of multiple companies, the leap into the world of technology clearly has paid off for Bohdan. He is spearheading numerous projects in an attempt to revolutionize the market and do more than the average tech company. "Now I present an ambitious new blockchain project. This fork of Bitcoin is calledBitcoin Ultimatum, BTCU. This is a somewhat revolutionary name, and we gave it to the project for a reason. We really want to revolutionize the crypto market. The product we are presenting has been lacking in this market for a long time. Because there is bitcoin, in which many want to invest money, but the coin itself in terms of technology has long been outdated. Mining on machines, the transactions confirming from half an hour to a whole day. And there is also the second coin by capitalization - ether. For its time, it was a super-innovative platform, but today, as we can see, Ethereum cannot cope with the glory that has fallen on it. Yes, they are great, they are taking some steps, implementing PoS. But staking and sharding implementation will take about two years, and it is still unknown how all this will take root and how it will work. We are initially building a hybrid of these two networks, and also with the most advanced features that neither BTC nor ETH have," Bohdan states. Bitcoin Ultimatum and Bohdan's method of operating is incredibly different from other companies and this has helped skyrocket him to the top of this environment. He is making big waves by trying to create this universal coin. "If we talk about Bitcoin Ultimatum, then our difference from all other cryptocurrencies is that they have one or two useful properties with which they enter the market. We are making a universal coin, which has the properties of the two most powerful cryptocurrencies and, in addition, its own advantages, which BTC and ETH do not have. BTCU will immediately work on staking, plus we decided to confirm transactions through the Proof of Authority mechanism, thanks to which we were able to completely abandon mining on devices. Smart contracts can be launched on the BTCU blockchain, while we are a fork of Bitcoin," Bohdan explains. "While I'm working on current projects, in particular, we still have a lot of work to do on the Bitcoin Ultimatum project. I want to invite all to join our great BTCU community and become a part of the crypto revolution" Bohdan exclaims. To find out more about Bohdan, you can follow him on Instagramhereand check out his websitehere. CONTACT: Paula Henderson561-768-4444phendersonnews@gmail.com About VIP Media Group: VIP Media Group is a hybrid PR agency. Their diverse client base includes top-class entrepreneurs, public figures, influencers, and celebrities. SOURCE:PRMR View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/633109/Revolutionizing-the-Blockchain-Tech-and-Bitcoin-World-This-Is-the-Story-of-Bohdan-Prilepa || Seychelles Regulator Issues Investor Alert Over Crypto Exchange Huobi Global: The Seychelles Financial Services Authority (FSA) alerted investors Monday over an entity called Huobi Global Limited. The Seychelles regulator believes the entity is linked to cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global and is operating in the country despite never being licensed to do so. The International Business Company (IBC) Huobi Global Limited “appears to be affiliated” with the online trading platform of the same name, the Monday notice states. The FSA is encouraging investors to exercise caution when dealing with the company. Talking to CoinDesk, a Huobi representative said: “Huobi Global Limited is a Seychelles-registered company that is part of Huobi Group. It provides services to global customers in accordance with applicable laws.” The person said the firm’s legal team is drafting a detailed response to the FSA’s notice. Huobi Global’s legal statement on its exchange platform, last updated two years ago, makes multiple references to the laws and regulations of the Republic of Seychelles. CoinDesk reached out to the FSA for comment but had not received a reply by press time. See also: Huobi Said to Be Launching Bitcoin, Ether Funds After Being Granted Hong Kong License Related Stories Seychelles Regulator Issues Investor Alert Over Crypto Exchange Huobi Global Seychelles Regulator Issues Investor Alert Over Crypto Exchange Huobi Global Seychelles Regulator Issues Investor Alert Over Crypto Exchange Huobi Global Seychelles Regulator Issues Investor Alert Over Crypto Exchange Huobi Global || Link Global Technologies Announces Closing CAD $1,314,798 Oversubscribed Non-Brokered Private Placement Units Offering: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 17, 2021 /LINK GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES INC. (CSE:LNK; FRA:LGT; OTC PINK:LGLOF) ("LINK" or the "Company"), an innovative power and infrastructure solutions provider for Bitcoin mining and data hosting operations, is pleased to announce the closing of its non-brokered private placement (the "Financing") previously announced onFebruary 10, 2021, by issuing 2,191,329 units (each, a "Unit") at a price of CAD $0.60 per Unit for the total gross proceeds of CAD $1,314,798. Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company (each, a "Share") and one-half of one transferable common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one additional Share at a price of CAD $0.90 per Share for a period of 19 months from the date of closing of the Financing. The Company also announces it has extinguished debt in the amount of $12,600 owed by the company to arms' length third party vendors, in exchange for the issuance of 21,000 Units. The Company paid finders' fees of CAD $49,056 and issued 81,760 finders' warrants, each of which entitles the holder to purchase one Share at a price of CAD $0.90 for 19 months from the date of closing of the Financing. All securities issued in the Financing are subject to a four-month hold period expiring June 18, 2021. Link intends to use the net proceeds from the Financing for: • The commissioning of new 10 Megawatt (MW) power sites in Alberta. Link is generating power from dormant and stranded natural gas assets, and supplying this power via fixed-price contracts to its clients, which include Bitcoin miners and data hosting operations. This site will generate an additional revenue of USD $350,000 per month for Link, as previously announced in a press release dated January 4, 2021. • Marketing and general working capital purposes. Link President and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Jenkins commented, "We are very pleased with the level of interest in Link's latest financing, and we appreciate the support from our new and existing shareholders. We are executing on our business plan as previously outlined in March 2020, and have since secured over 20 Megawatts (MW) of power-generating assets, of which 8.75 MW has been in operation since 2020, generating revenues in excess of USD $1.5 million (unaudited) for the Company. Along with hosting of machines we begin to mobilize our own fleet of mining machines to self-mine for Bitcoin, with the added advantage of leveraging our growing supply of low-cost, reliable power, generated from dormant and stranded natural gas assets. Link has substantial experience in operating crypto mining machines and the Company looks forward to commencing its Bitcoin mining operations on February 21, 2021." None of the securities acquired in connection with the Financing will be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and no such securities may be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. About Link Global Technologies Inc. Link is engaged in the business of providing infrastructure and operating expertise for digital mining and data hosting operations. Link's objectives include locating and securing, for lease and option to purchase, properties with access to low-cost reliable power, and deploying this low-cost power to conduct digital mining and supply clean energy and infrastructure for other data-hosting services. On behalf of Link Global Technologies Inc. Stephen Jenkins Chief Executive Officer & Director For more information visithttp://linkglobal.io/or contact: Steve Jenkinsstephen@linkglobal.io+1-877-770-6545 Investors please contact: info@linkglobal.io+1-833-707-8708 The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION.This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "forecast", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes", or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "would", "could", "should" or "might" occur. Forward-looking statements made in this news release include, but are not limited, to: the intended use of the net proceeds from the Financing; that the Company's new site will generate an additional revenue of USD $350,000 per month for Link; that the Company is in a position to mobilize its own fleet of crypto mining machines to self-mine for Bitcoin, with the added advantage of leveraging its growing supply of low-cost, reliable power, generated from dormant and stranded natural gas assets; and that the Company looks forward to commencing its Bitcoin mining operations in the near future. All such forward-looking statements are based on factors or assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection, including assumptions based on historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments. Since forward-looking statements relate to future events and conditions, by their very nature they require making assumptions and involve inherent risks and uncertainties. The Company cautions that although it is believed that the assumptions are reasonable in the circumstances, these risks and uncertainties give rise to the possibility that actual results may differ materially from the expectations set out in the forward-looking statements. In the case of the Company, these risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors include, without limitation: that the Company may use the net proceeds from the Financing for uses other than those set out in this news release; those set out in the Company's most recent MD&A, fluctuations in the price of electricity, fluctuations in the price of digital currencies/Bitcoin, the future potential halving of Bitcoin, increases in the network difficulty rate and price of digital currencies/Bitcoin, negative changes in the level of digital currency/Bitcoin rewards per block, the securing of economic rates for the purchase of power, the opportunities for acquiring digital currency mining hardware, unanticipated changes in laws, regulations or other industry standards affecting the business of the Company, reliance on key management personnel, the Company's ability to implement its business plan, litigation risk, stock price volatility, the effects of general economic and other factors beyond the control of the Company, and other matters that may occur in the future. Given these risks, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements, which apply only as of the date hereof. Other than as specifically required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent or otherwise. This news release contains future-oriented financial information and financial outlook information (collectively, "FOFI") about Link's prospective results of operations, including revenue, all of which are subject to the same assumptions, risk factors, limitations, and qualifications as set forth in the above paragraphs. FOFI contained in this news release was made as of the date of this news release and was provided for the purpose of providing further information about Link's future business operations. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any FOFI contained in this news release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by securities law. Investors are cautioned that the FOFI contained in this news release should not be used for purposes other than for which it is disclosed herein. SOURCE:Link Global Technologies Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/630325/Link-Global-Technologies-Announces-Closing-CAD-1314798-Oversubscribed-Non-Brokered-Private-Placement-Units-Offering || Crypto Exchange Asks Customers To Return Bitcoin After Selling It At 88% Discount: What Happened:The largest crypto exchange in Southeast Asia, Philippines-based PDAX, experienced a technical failure that led to Bitcoin trading at $6,000 – an 88% discount to its current price. Following the incident, PDAX asked its customers to return their Bitcoins, threatening legal action, a local news outlet Bitpinas has reported. According to the exchange’s CEO, the system error was not due to a hack but a technical “glitch” caused by a massive surge in trading activity. Why It Matters:The initial outage is said to have taken place on February 18; however, since then, reports have surfaced on social media of customers being locked out of their exchange accounts and being asked to “return their Bitcoin.” “After almost 24 hours, they sent me a demand letter and SMS, requesting me to transfer back the BTC, or they “may” be compelled to take legal actions against me.” said one trader who believed his purchase was well within his rights without violating any laws or regulations of the trading platform. See also: How to Buy Bitcoin (BTC) Rafael Padilla, an attorney representing the affected users who are currently locked out of their accounts, commented on the issue on Facebook. “Our client’s trade transaction was legitimate under applicable laws, decided cases, and of course according to PDAX’svery own terms and conditions/user agreement.” According to Padilla, PDAX has opted to lock users out of their accounts because it cannot unilaterally reverse the transactions. An official statement from PDAX claims that 95% of accounts have been restored, but according to the report, many users are still locked out of their accounts. “It’s very understandable that a lot of users will feel upset they were able to buy what they thought an order was there for Bitcoin at very low prices. But unfortunately, the underlying Bitcoins were never in the possession of the exchange, so there’s never really anything there to be bought or sold, unfortunately.”, said PDAX CEO Nichel Gaba in a press conference earlier today. Image:vjkombajnvia Pixabay See more from Benzinga • Click here for options trades from Benzinga • Elon Musk's Tweet About Dogecoin Sends Price Up 10% In 30 Minutes Again • MicroStrategy Buys Additional .026B Worth Of Bitcoin, Surpasses Tesla's Bitcoin Holdings © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Stock Market Today: Tech Roller Coaster Leaves Investors Thrilled: People smile and yell while on a roller coaster Getty Images My oh my, what a head fake that was. What was shaping up to be another potential setback for the technology sector and the rest of the stock market today turned into a roaring rebound into the weekend. SEE MORE The 21 Best Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2021 On Friday, the Labor Department reported that February nonfarm payrolls improved by 379,000 – robustly better than estimates for 200,000 jobs – and that unemployment had ticked lower, from 6.3% to 6.2%. "The much better-than-expected payroll report continues the narrative that the economy is in recovery, and a resurgence in the services side of the economy is helping to drive it," Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera Investment Management, said earlier in the day. "Also, in a reversal to recent market dynamics, good news is good news as equity markets are poised to rally today." It didn't seem like it at first, though. Sign up for Kiplinger's FREE Investing Weekly e-letter for stock, ETF and mutual fund recommendations, and other investing advice. The Nasdaq Composite declined by as much as 2.6% before midday, with the other major indices also spilling red ink. An afternoon recovery, led by the likes of Microsoft ( MSFT , +2.2%) and Alphabet ( GOOGL , +3.1%), flipped the tech-heavy index 1.6% in the green to 12,920. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1.9% higher to 31,496, led by Intel ( INTC , +4.1%) and UnitedHealth Group ( UNH , +3.9%). Other action in the stock market today: The S&P 500 charged ahead by 2.0% to 3,841. The small-cap Russell 2000 improved by 2.1% to 2,192. U.S. crude oil futures popped yet again, by 3.5% to $66.09 per barrel – their highest prices since 2019. Gold futures slipped below the $1,700 mark, declining 0.1% to $1,698.50 per ounce. Bitcoin prices, like the rest of the market, took a dive but finished up, improving 1.7% to $49,169. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.) Story continues stock chart for 030521 How to Achieve a Smoother Ride It's unlikely to be the end of recent volatility, but it's a glorious way to end a difficult week. SEE MORE 25 Dividend Stocks the Analysts Love Most for 2021 Given that the market has been largely living and dying by the direction of interest rates, "markets will be very tuned into the next FOMC meeting on March 17, and Chair Powell, for any guidance over the evolution of FOMC communications," says Rick Rieder, BlackRock's chief investment officer of Global Fixed Income. "They have said that they will communicate well in advance before shifting policy toward tapering and then ultimately raising rates, and we expect further clarification to emerge in the coming months." "We would expect more clarification on the path of policy from the Fed in the coming weeks and months. Until then, though, expect more volatility, since markets hate uncertainty, as amply displayed over the past week." But not everyone has been sweating the past week: Investors who know they're getting an ample portion of their returns from regular dividend payments can watch stocks zig and zag with a little less stress. We often share sources of substantial income, whether it's these 21 "retirement-ready" picks or these 11 monthly dividend payers , most of whom offer both high and frequent payouts. But you should also be aware of the wide variety of income strategies you can execute with exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This list of 10 high-yield ETFs , paying out between 3.5% and 10.2%, tackles not just a wide variety of asset classes, but also several flavor-of-the-day sectors including financials and energy. Take a look! SEE MORE The 21 Best ETFs to Buy for a Prosperous 2021 You may also like Your Guide to Roth Conversions The Best Funds to Buy for the Roaring ’20s Retirees, Get an Upfront Tax Break for Delayed Charitable Giving [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: no change || Prices: 57805.12, 57332.09, 61243.09, 59302.32, 55907.20, 56804.90, 58870.89, 57858.92, 58346.65, 58313.64
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-12-08] BTC Price: 16569.40, BTC RSI: 81.90 Gold Price: 1245.20, Gold RSI: 34.80 Oil Price: 57.36, Oil RSI: 55.81 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] BlackRock's Rick Rieder is not scared of stocks: Stock prices are trading at record levels with valuations stretched to levels we haven’t seen since the dotcom bubble. Does that scare BlackRock’s Rick Rieder? “Not at all,” he said. “Not at all.” Rieder, BlackRock’s Global CIO of Fixed Income, explained during Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit on Wednesday that he’s looking at the stock market relative to the bond market, where historically low interest rates are incentivizing investors to move money out of bonds and into stocks. Critically, investors are doing this because the low yields offered by the bond market just aren’t generating the kind of income that investors, including retirees, need. Rick Rieder at Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit. “Given the dynamic that there’s not enough … income in the world. There’s not enough cash flow in the world today,” he said. “If you take all of the coupon flow off of Treasuries, German bunds, Japanese JGBs — coupon flow, not even where rates are, what the coupon is in the portfolio — it doesn’t equate to the top five companies in the S&P 500. Meaning the cash flow sits in the equity market today.” Rieder echoes the sentiment of veteran stock market investors, including billionaire Warren Buffett , who argue that stock market valuations must be considered in the context of interest rates. Specifically, low interest rates justify higher stock market valuations. “When people say the multiple is here and it’s high, actually if you keep the discount rate down, it can run high for a long time,” Rieder said. Looking at valuation measures like price-earnings (PE) ratios is a good start when considering value. But investing isn’t as simple as just looking at one metric. “The determination of where you go to try and generate positive return is becoming more and more of an interesting art,” Rieder said. Sam Ro is managing editor of Yahoo Finance . More from Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit: Tom Lee: Bitcoin is an important asset for investors to own How America’s crazy politics could finally rattle the markets The last 8 years in labor market improvement have been disturbingly uneven Moody’s Analytics chief economist: Why the Republican tax plan is set up to fail View comments || USD/JPY Tumbles after U.S. Equities Give Back Gains: The U.S. Dollar surged to a three-month high against the Japanese Yen on Monday in reaction to the overwhelming election victory by Japan’s ruling party. Investors were betting that this would lead to a continuation of “Abenomics”, or the ultra-easy monetary policies that have kept downward pressure on the yen. Essentially, the price action was driven by the divergence between U.S. Federal Reserve monetary policy and the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy. The Fed is tightening and the BOJ is implementing a loose policy. This is helping to drive up U.S. Treasury yields at a time when the BOJ is trying to hold rates steady at or below zero percent. The widening of the interest rate differential between U.S. Government Bonds and Japanese Government Bonds is making the U.S. Dollar a more attractive investment. Late in the session, the USD/JPY tumbled from its high to close lower. This move was fueled by profit-taking and a reversal of the carry-trade. U.S. equity markets also reversed down to close lower, forcing investors to sell dollars and buy yen in order to pay back loans from Japanese banks. The September U.S. Dollar Index was also supported by a weaker Euro, which represents about 57 percent of the index. Investor uncertainty and position-squaring ahead of the European Central Bank’s meeting on Thursday, October 26 influenced the price action. Traders are betting on a more hawkish stance from the ECB offset by hints it is not in a rush to tighten policy. In other news, speculators pared net bearish bets on the U.S. Dollar to their lowest level in more than a month, according to data released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. There were no major economic releases on Monday, but investors continue to watch for developments over U.S. tax reform and President Trump’s selection for Fed Chair. Trump said on Monday he is “very, very close” to making his decision on who should chair the Fed and was considering at least three people: Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell, Stanford University economist John Taylor and current Fed Chair Janet Yellen. Gold prices reversed to close slightly higher on Monday after early session weakness drove the market into its lowest level since October 6. Initially, the market was under pressure due to rising Treasury yields, a firmer U.S. Dollar and increased appetite for risk. A sharp break in U.S. equity markets late in the session sent investors into the safety of gold. Oversold technical factors also factored into the short-covering rally. U.S. West Texas Intermediate and international-benchmark Brent crude oil finished mixed on Monday with WTI closing marginally higher and Brent ending the session lower. The markets were generally supported by a drop in the U.S. rig count and concerns over Middle East supply. Increased imports from India also contributed to the early strength. Prices fell late in the session after some analysts warned that the United States market may not be tightening by as much as expected. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Natural Gas Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – “Lingering” Cold Could Trigger Breakout Over $3.223 • Major US Indices Forecast, October 24, 2017, Technical Analysis • Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Lack of Fresh News Creating Short-covering Opportunities • S&P 500; US Indexes Fundamental Daily Forecast – Investors Focused on Earnings, Tax Cuts • Tuesday Support and Resistance Levels – October 24, 2017 • Bitcoin – 6000 Plus, what’s next? || Frat boys may have helped save UNC athletics from NCAA sanctions over the school's academic scandal: (North Carolina fans at a Tar Heels basketball game.Grant Halverson/Getty Images) The NCAAannounced on Friday that it "could not conclude"that UNC Chapel Hill violated academic rules after a years-long investigation into an academic scandal, saying the university will not be sanctioned. Part of what may have saved UNC from punishment was an argument that certain benefits for student-athletes were also available for non-student-athletes. The NCAA report said the existence of "paper courses" — which never met and only required one final paper — was widely known around the school. "The panel cannot conclude that extra benefit violations occurred surrounding the offering or managing of the courses as alleged. The courses were generally available to the student body, and non-student-athletes took the courses," according to the NCAA report. "Based on the general availability and the lack of specific examples, the panel cannot conclude a systemic effort to impermissibly benefit student-athletes," it said. While most of the attention following theoriginal scandal of widespread fake classesfocused on the school's student athletes, the 2014 report found more than 50% of the students enrolled in the so-called paper classes were non-athletes — with many being referred through the campus' fraternity system. According to investigator Kenneth Wainstein's report, the "paper courses" were "hardly a secret" on campus and predominantly spread by word-of-mouth among undergraduates. "As with any course that offers an easy path to a high grade, word of these classes got around," the report states. One of the largest referrers to these fake courses run by the African and Afro-American Studies department was UNC's fraternity system. The investigators spoke to several fraternity members about the paper courses: "[Two] fraternity members explained that they saw these classes as somewhat of a 'loophole' in Chapel Hill's otherwise demanding curriculum, and they never conceived of these classes as being in any way tailored to athletes. In fact, they recalled that a number of their non-athlete fraternity members took so many AFAM classes that they inadvertently ended up with AFAM minors by the time they graduated." According to the Wainstein report, "Over the course of ten years, there were 729 enrollments in the paper classes by members of fraternities (and some sorority sisters)." The report said fraternity members may have another incentive to take the courses besides a normal student desire for easy As. At UNC — much like athletes need a certain minimum GPA to remain eligible to compete — each Greek house needs to achieve an overall minimum GPA among its members to maintain university recognition and stay on campus. The report notes that the investigators "understand that the need to meet these requirements played a role in the decision among fraternity members to take these classes." More than 3,100 students were enrolled in the "paper classes" over an 18-year period. More From Business Insider • NCAA will not sanction UNC athletics for role in academic scandal • Bitcoin just hit an all-time high — here's how you buy and sell it • This map shows the devastating impact of fires ravaging parts of California's wine country || Volatility Creeps Higher as Markets Start Moving Toward Safety: U.S. equities finished higher Tuesday, posting their best one-day gain since September despite a ballistic missile launch by North Korea and an apparent breakdown in bipartisan budget talks. Bank stocks rallied sharply thanks to the passage of the GOP’s tax overhaul through the Senate Budget Committee — clearing the way for a vote by the whole chamber later this week. Also adding to sentiment in the stock market today was a comfortable reception to Federal Reserve governor Powell’s confirmation hearing to become the next Fed Board Chair. In the end, theDow Jones Industrial Averagegained 1.1%, theS&P 500gained 1%, theNasdaq Compositegained 0.5% and theRussell 2000gained 1.5%. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Treasury bonds were mixed, the dollar outperformed, gold was little changed and crude oil lost 0.2% after a joint OPEC, non-OPEC committee reportedly recommended extending last year’s supply cut agreement through the end of next year (with a review in June). Click to Enlarge Breadth was heavily positive, with advancers outpacing decliners by a 2.2-to-1 ratio. Volume was in-line with recent trends, as NYSE volume totaled 102% of the 30-day average. Financials led the way with a 2.6% gain while REITs were the laggards, down 0.3%. • The 10 Best Stocks for Your 401k RV makerThor Industries, Inc.(NYSE:THO) gained 13.3% on a big fiscal Q1 earnings beat with “towables” a bright spot.Buffalo Wild Wings(NASDAQ:BWLD) gained 6.3% after Arby’s (owned by Roark Capital) moved to acquire the company in a near-$3 billion deal. On the downside,Domino’s Pizza, Inc.(NYSE:DPZ) lost 1.3% after cautious comments by Longbow Research. On the economic front, the consumer confidence index increased for the fifth straight month to a new cycle high driven by labor market strength. Cyber Monday sales looked good. And the Case-Shiller home price index rose 0.5% month-over-month and was up 6.2% from last year amid climbing rental rates, low mortgage rates, and low housing inventory. Click to Enlarge Stocks pushed to new record highs — stretching already historic thin valuations even further amid an ongoing contraction in breadth — as objections to the GOP tax bill by Senators Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Bob Corker (R-TN) disappeared. But with a full Senate vote looming, the fate of the bill remains uncertain given wildcards like Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ). Considering this — and the approach of another Federal Reserve rate hike this month — it’s not surprising that the CBOE Volatility Index actually crept higher today. That’s a sign that hedgers are moving into downside protection in case Congress can’t deliver a major policy victory on such a tight timetable. I recommended by Edge Pro subscribers play along, adding a December $31 call option position in theShort-Term VIX(NYSEARCA:VXX) fund. Check out Serge Berger’sTrade of the Dayfor Nov. 29. To see a list of the companies reporting earnings today,click here. For a list of this week’s economic reports due out,click here. Tell us what you think about this article! Drop us an email ateditor@investorplace.com,chat with us on Twitter at@InvestorPlaceorcomment on the post on Facebook. Read more about ourcomments policy here. Anthony Mirhaydari is the founder of theEdge(ETFs) andEdge Pro(Options) investment advisory newsletters.Free two- and four-week trial offers have been extended to InvestorPlace readers. • The 9 Best Stocks to Buy on the Dip • The Bitcoin Bubble: It’s Not Different This Time • The 10 Best New Stocks of 2017 The postVolatility Creeps Higher as Markets Start Moving Toward Safetyappeared first onInvestorPlace. || Why a blockchain startup called Govcoin wants to 'disrupt' the UK's welfare state: Is Govcoin really innovating to help the welfare state or simply another cynical example of privatisation? Shutterstock The UK chancellor’s recent Budget reminded us that systemic problems continue to plague the government’s delayed roll-out of universal credit – a single monthly welfare payment that will replace six separate benefits. Philip Hammond also spoke of the UK government’s commitment to innovation, with the chancellor calling for a new tech startup to be founded in Britain every half hour . Put the two together and what do you get? Govcoin. You probably haven’t heard of Govcoin because the government has been very discrete about trials of the technology, which began last year. It’s the brainchild of a London-based tech startup of the same name, led by mathematician, former financier and entrepreneur Robert Kay. Govcoin, intent on “disrupting” welfare state provision, has been working with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) since early 2016 to develop a blockchain solution for welfare payments. So how does it work? Virtual jam jars Govcoin aims to virtually mimic the jam-jar method which, according to the Money Advice Service, is a good way to manage your savings. The aim of Govcoin is to use this traditional method in the virtual environment of a mobile phone app to give claimants instant access to benefits and avoid delays in payment processing. “Claimants can – voluntarily – download an app, which enables them to create virtual jam jars and apportion money to them. Whether that’s ‘rent’, ‘gas and electric’ – it’s entirely up to them,” said Kay in an interview with City AM last autumn. “People who are on the fringes of financial inclusion,” he added, “or who are financially excluded, need a special service which can give them instant access to their benefits – three days going through the banking system may mean using a payday lender, or being thrown out of your house.” Given the recent and ongoing problems faced by government over slipping deadlines for the deployment of universal credit, as well as concerns that delays in payments could lead to an increase of cases of homelessness , Govcoin must sound like music to the ears of ministers. But isn’t it simply a proposal for the wholesale privatisation of welfare distribution – a proposal legitimised by the government’s wider commitment to unfettered tech innovation? Story continues Future markets in welfare provision Kay claims Govcoin will financially empower benefit claimants. But its distribution model involves benefits being paid – not in pounds and pence – but in the form of a cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin . Govcoin promises to allow claimants to pay for goods and services – such as utilities – linked to the system. This is significant because, unlike Sterling, cryptocurrencies in the form of coins or tokens transacted on a blockchain can harbour additional and potentially valuable data regarding the person “spending” it. This data can then be used to create new markets in goods and services, or what Adam Greenfield refers to in his book, Radical Technologies , as “ever-tighter loops of response to desire”. Using benefit claimants’ data in this way is highly cynical. Far from empowering individuals, it offers up seriously vulnerable people to the forces of commercial opportunism. This might appear unreasonably speculative on my part and there have been “categorical assurances” made by the government that it won’t be used to monitor the activities of claimants. What is more, according to Kay , “the DWP has no access to the application or the data” held by Govcoin. Should the UK’s vulnerable welfare claimants really be part of the blockchain gang? Shutterstock. But I’m not sure government or the state ought to be the concern here, given how clear Kay has been about the commercial opportunities offered by the technology in this sector. Govcoin aims to monetise the project through a network of merchants. However, it doesn’t end there. “We also haven’t looked at advertising opportunities yet, but clearly they exist,” Kay said. Just because the DWP – we’re told – won’t have access to the data, doesn’t mean the data will evaporate. Quite the opposite in fact when the immutable recording of information and data that blockchain provides is taken into account. The technology might in this sense be considered “disruptive” – insofar as that term has any real meaning in the context of political economy, as I have argued elsewhere . But not in any way that can or should be considered good, fair or even reasonable. If the cost of disrupting welfare provision in order to satisfy desires for innovation involves the cynical exploitation of vulnerable people for commercial gain, then it is not a cost worth paying. Great opportunities ahead of us? Govcoin is yet to be implemented and it’s uncertain if the DWP plans to move it beyond small-scale trials. If Hammond’s Budget speech is to be believed, the tantalising opportunity of a tech “solution” to the problems of universal credit may be too tempting for the government to overlook. Conservative peer Lord Henley, who is a government spokesman on the Govcoin experiment, said in March 2017 : “There is no next trial planned at this stage.” More recently, during a upper chamber debate on the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” – in which blockchain is viewed as playing a key role – Henley failed to mention Govcoin by name. A feeble response was elicited from Henley, following an enthusiastic comment made by fellow Tory peer Lord Holmes, who – hinting at the subject – said: “There are some excellent initiatives in various departments, not least the use of blockchain in the Department for Work and Pensions to greatly empower benefits recipients.” Henley replied: “My noble friend is right to say that there are great opportunities ahead of us.” The government may be backing tech innovation, but it doesn’t mean companies such as Govcoin should have a free pass into the heart of civic life. Ironically, the dream for some who backed the technology from the start was that cryptocurrencies and blockchain would mean less government interference – not more. This article was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original article . The Conversation Robert Herian has received funding from AHRC and is a member of the Labour Party || Bitcoin surges above $15,000 after climbing $2,000 in 12 hours: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin rocketed above $15,000 for the first time on Thursday, after adding more than $2,000 to its price in fewer than 12 hours. Bitcoin, the world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, has seen a more than fifteenfold surge in its value since the start of the year. It climbed to as high as $15,344 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange around 1420 GMT, leaving it up more than 12 percent on the day, having traded just above $13,000 12 hours earlier . Many market-watchers said the launch this weekend of bitcoin futures by CBOE, one of the world's biggest derivatives exchanges, was helping drive up the price on expectations it would draw more investors to the market. "Futures trading will mean more demand...and is a form of ratification of the underlying tech - bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general. They are now on the main stage," said Charles Hayter, founder of cryptocurrency data analysis firm Cryptocompare. But some are warning that the launch of bitcoin futures, which will allow investors to take speculative "short" positions on the cryptoccurrency, as well as "long" positions, could cause even greater volatility. "Aggressive traders, such as hedge funds and algorithm-driven funds, (will be able) to use this futures market to enter bitcoin trading with high levels of liquidity for aggressive short-selling and knock the prices really low," said Think Markets analyst Naeem Aslam. "Players now have an incentive to be on the short side and make profits hedging against the upside." The latest surge brought bitcoin's "market cap" - its price multiplied by the total number of bitcoins in circulation - to more than $260 billion, according to Coinmarketcap, a trade website. That, in theory, makes its market value higher than that of Visa. The value of all cryptocurrencies now stands at around $415 billion, according to Coinmarketcap. Bitcoin has more than tripled in price since the start of October, putting it on track for its best quarter since the end of 2013, when it surged above $1,000 for the first time. It slumped in 2014, after Mt Gox, then the world's biggest bitcoin exchange, collapsed, saying it had been hacked and had 650,000 bitcoins stolen. Related: Watch original series, sports and more ongo90. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly, Editing by Abhinav Ramnarayan) || Goldman Sachs predicts stocks will rally 11% in 2018: Goldman Sachs has released its 2018 stock market forecast, and it’s bullish. In a note to clients published Tuesday, David Kostin and the equity strategy team at Goldman Sachs said they expect the S&P 500 will rise 11% in 2018 to hit 2,850 by year-end. Goldman is the latest Wall Street bank to come out with a bullish call on the stock market for the year ahead, withYahoo Finance’s Sam Ro detailing over the weekendthat so far strategists at BMO Capital, UBS, Deutsche Bank, and Credit Suisse have each called for double-digit returns in 2018. Goldman argues that what it calls “rational exuberance” will be a guiding theme in 2018, with the firm citing above-trend U.S. and global economic growth, low and slowly rising interest rates, and profit growth boosted by tax reform as tailwinds for the stock market. Kostin sees S&P 500 earnings rising 14% in 2018 in the event tax reform passes; last week,economists at Goldman saidthey think there is an 80% chance that tax reform is passed by early next year. If tax reform fails to pass in Congress, Kostin sees S&P 500 earnings rising 5% next year with the market falling to 2,450 in the near-term. On Tuesday morning, S&P futures were trading near 2,590. Through Monday’s close, stocks were enjoying one of their best years since the financial crisis with the Dow up more than 18% year-to-date, the S&P 500 up over 15%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq up better than 26% so far this year. Those who are concerned that elevated stock valuations will lead investors towards some sort of inevitable cliff are unlikely to find comfort in Kostin’s description of the current environment as “rational exuberance,” as this echoes the title of Yale professor Robert Shiller’s famous book “Irrational Exuberance,” released just before the height of the tech bubble. Shiller’s title was taken from afamous 1996 speech given by then-Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who asked, “But how do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions, as they have in Japan over the past decade?” It took almost four years for the tech bubble to burst. Kostin writes that, “The current equity rally echoes aspects of the 1990s bull market.” “From its December bear market low through 1996, the S&P 500 index delivered a total return of nearly 330% (17% annualized), just slightly behind the magnitude of the current rally,” Kostin notes. “Both economic expansions were long lasting (ultimately lasting 120 months in the 1990s while the current expansion stands at 100 months and counting). Subdued inflation contributed to the extended equity bull markets during both periods.” Kostin notes that Greenspan was early in his concerns about the market, adding that the market more than doubled between his comments and the bubble bursting. “The current equity market valuation is certainly stretched in historical terms but it does not appear unreasonable based on the high level of corporate profitability,” Kostin writes. “Earnings drive stocks over time and should support the index rising to 2850 at year-end 2018, 3000 at the end of 2019, and 3100 by the close of 2020, representing a price gain during the next three years of 20%…An earnings-driven bull market is inherently rational for a fundamental equity investor.” — Myles Udland is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter@MylesUdland Read more from Myles here: • Walmart’s strong quarter shows why Amazon had to buy Whole Foods • Foreign investors might be the key to forecasting a U.S. recession • It’s been 17 years since U.S. consumers felt this good about the economy • TOM LEE: Bitcoin is an important asset for investors to own • Wall Street can’t stop talking about Bitcoin || How Blockchain will change our Life, Economy and the World: Again, Slow and Simple: What is Blockchain??? Why is Blockchain Needed? So How can Blockchain Technology Change our life? Banks are Scared of Blockchain! Blockchain is not only Bitcoin, it’s much more than That The Blockchain Revolution – Time will Tell Blockchain has been around since the evolution of Bitcoin, with many have been somewhat skeptical of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto’s new virtual currency in the wake of the last global financial crisis. In the early days, the focus remained largely on the cryptocurrency itself and not the technology behind it. After all, exponential gains in a new asset class tend to overshadow what’s the driving force behind it. Things have changed and, while Bitcoin prices may continue to break into unchartered territory, the technology behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that have since been launched is all the rave. This technology is called blockchain. The blockchain is a peer-to-peer distributed ledger of time-stamped transactions. For the purposes of cryptocurrencies, the entire ethos was to decentralize away from central banks through Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Therefore, it’s a movement against the centralization and the control of fiat money . While with fiat money, central banks are in control of the ledger, with cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, the user maintains their own copy of the ledger and all copies of the ledger are synchronized through what is known as a consensus algorithm. There is so much hype over the blockchain technology now that both private and public sector organizations have opened their eyes and seen the light. What blockchain technology can offer is not only never seen before, but will become life-changing for today’s generation and be deemed as one of the greatest inventions of modern times. For the private sector, companies have been exploring the endless possibilities of blockchain for a number of years now, but it’s perhaps been over the last 12 months that the noise has begun to crescendo. It’s all over the news wires and the recent interest from government agencies has certainly added to the hype. Story continues As always, new technologies bring out the statisticians and charts have been doing their rounds, which represent the hype cycle of emerging technologies. One particularly detailed graphic has been produced by Gartner, a leading data and research provider in the Information and Technology space. The Gartner Hype Cycle illustrates the different phases that an emerging technology passes through before it becomes a part of everyday life. Source: Gartner According to Gartner, blockchain technology has already passed the peak of the hype cycle and has entered a period of disillusionment, which brings about a realism to blockchain technology. The general view is that passing the period of inflated expectation has been an important step in blockchain’s advancement through the hype cycle. Governments and captains of the industry have now embarked on projects to fully assess blockchain’s capabilities and how it can be incorporated into day to day processes. Some sectors have moved faster than others. The incorporation of blockchain technology into day to day practices within large multinationals has already stated, with the finance sector is the quickest out of the blocks, getting into the hype and down to business. Again, Slow and Simple: What is Blockchain??? Blockchain was originally created to be a decentralized ledger of Bitcoin transactions that take place within the Bitcoin network. A decentralized or distributed database/ledger essentially means that the storage devices, where the ledgers are located, are not linked to a common processor. The blockchain contains the ever-growing list of transactions by way of blocks. Each block is time-stamped and then linked to the previous block to become a part of the blockchain. Get Into Bitcoin Trading with Plus500 Users are only able to edit the sections of the blockchain that belong to them. In order to edit, the user is required to have private keys, which is equivalent to a password. The great feature of blockchain technology is the fact that every copy is synchronized even though the blockchain is not linked to a common processor or accessed through devices linked to the processor. An example of storage devices linked to a common processor could be office computers logged onto the company network. A master data file is edited and saved. No synchronization is required as there is only one master file stored centrally. With blockchain, it would be as though all the computers were off-line but were able to access and edit a master file that was always in sync, without there being a need for the master file saved on the company’s central server. Any edits to the synchronized file are time stamped with the date and time of the change. Any entry or editing of the file cannot then be changed and the record will be there indefinitely. There are three key components of Blockchain technology: Peer-to-peer networking : Computers are linked through a peer-to-peer network. In blockchain technology, the lack of a centralized server removes the control element that a company or a government agency has with a centralized server. Each machine within the network will have all of the data updated and shared. Synchronised. Consensus Protocols : Within the peer-to-peer network, all of the computers need to reach an agreement on the addition of new blocks to the blockchain. This is done by using consensus protocols or rules. The rules are written into the software that is run by the computers within the peer-to-peer network. The software makes sure that the computers in the network are synchronized and are in agreement at all times. Blockchains : The agreement on the shared data is known as the blockchain. The blockchain makes it easier for computers to verify the growing amount of data held within the network. New data entries refer to previous data entries to create the link in the chain. To illustrate the process, taking Bitcoin as an example makes the most sense as most people are familiar with the concept of currencies, albeit virtual and their transactions. Computers are connected to the internet and run Bitcoin software. The software can either be mining software or simply a Bitcoin wallet. If we take deposits and withdrawals of Bitcoin, an update of each transaction carried out by the computer and then sent to all of the other computers within the network, in this case, Bitcoin. The Bitcoin ledger is updated or synchronized on all of the computers linked to the Bitcoin network. Two key rules within the Bitcoin consensus protocol are: Bitcoins cannot be sent before they have been received. This rule is embedded within the software to prevent fraud. One computer within the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network is selected at random to decide the order of transactions within the 10 minute period. The need to randomly select a computer to decide the order of transactions is because computers within the Bitcoin network are located all over the world. Internet speeds mean that a computer in Australia may receive the order of transactions differently to a computer located in the UK. The computer decides the correct order of the valid transactions. The randomly selected computer is rewarded with new Bitcoins for the verification and ordering of transactions. For the blockchains outside of Bitcoin, differences will be found within the consensus protocol and of course, the information shared across the network. Why is Blockchain Needed? Since the invention of the World Wide Web and cell phones, there has been very little to shout from the rooftops about. Sure, we’ve got cars that can drive themselves and the hype over artificial intelligence is building, but nothing is likely to be as material as the introduction of blockchain technology, not only into the financial system but into everyday life. For the financial system, the prospect of a decentralization away from a centralized system is a daunting one to consider. Can the world truly exist without fiat money? The evolution of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have not only drawn significant attention but have also threatened the very foundations of the financial system as we know it today. After all, this was the intention of Satoshi when the global financial crisis hit the global economy harder than any crisis in history. With the increased level of wisdom and education, should central banks avert the crisis that many still struggle to recover from? Satoshi believed so and the Bitcoin network agrees. Granted, Bitcoin’s market capitalization and that of the cryptoworld pales into insignificance when compared with the $83.6tn dollars of paper money in circulation and the financial system today. But Bitcoin’s market capitalization has now surpassed that of many of the largest companies in the U.S and would in fact rank within the top sixty by market cap. All of this within just 8 years. Source: Geektime While many see Bitcoin as a currency, the surge in Bitcoin’s value may well have as much to do with the blockchain technology than the virtual currency itself. So, while the heated debate over whether Bitcoin is a bubble or not continues to simmer on the surface, few will argue against the benefits and the ultimate impact of blockchain technology on the financial system and everyday life. What changes can be to the financial system by using blockchain and how will that benefit us? In today’s world, we have little choice but to pay the fees that cover the costs of an archaic financial system, with call centers, back office teams in their masses and the reams of paperwork that continue to destroy the world’s ecosystem. Add to that, the sizeable number of crimes committed each year, which is possible because of the systems in place today. It is estimated that more than 40% of financial intermediaries suffer from financial crime each year. With shareholders continuing to demand double-digit returns and regulatory costs ballooning, it’s not surprising that the general public is left to pick up the bill. Blockchain has been touted as the golden egg for the financial system. One can only imagine the benefits of incorporating the technology into the system. A decentralized ledger with appropriate levels of security and available across the respective peer-to-peer networks, and removing the intermediaries that add to the exorbitant costs faced by the financial system. Get Into Bitcoin Trading with Plus500 There’s always a downside to the arrival of a material shift in processes as a result of technology and that is the displacement of workers. But, in the interest of depositors and those that are exposed to the flaws of the financial system today, this will likely be considered an acceptable cost by the majority. Real-time verification and recording of transactions including money, equity, bond and commodities recorded on a decentralized ledger is a groundbreaking concept. The removal of silos within the financial system and the lengthy reconciliation process will feel like Utopia compared with how the system works today. So How can Blockchain Technology Change our life? The social impact of blockchain technology has already begun to be realized and this may just be the tip of the iceberg. Cryptocurrencies have already provided doubts over financial services through digital wallets, the rollout of ATMs and the provision of loans and payment systems. When considering the fact that there are more than 2 billion people in the world today without a bank account, such shift is certainly a life changer and can only be a positive one. Perhaps the shift for cryptocurrencies will be easier for developing countries than the process of fiat money and credit cards. In a way, it is similar to the transformation that developing countries had with cellular phones. It was easier to acquire mass amounts of cell phones than to provide a new infrastructure for landlines phones. Decentralizing away from governments and the control over people’s lives will likely be embraced by many and the social implications can be quite significant. One only needs to consider the spate of identity thefts that have hit the news in recent years. Handing the control of identification to the people would certainly eliminate such events and allow people to reveal information with trust. In addition to giving the underprivileged access to banking services, greater transparency could also raise the profile and effectiveness of charities working in developing countries that fall under corrupt or manipulative governments. An increased level of trust in where the money goes and who benefits would surely lead to increased contributions and support for the needy in parts of the world that are in desperate need of aid. Ironically, and not inline with the public opinion, blockchain can built a financial system that is based on trust. Taking it one step further, blockchain technology is well placed to remove the possibility of vote rigging and all of the other negatives associated with the current process. In certain countries, we have heard of voters being intimidated or worse for polling stations that have been shut down by governments in an attempt to control the outcomes in a world where true democracy has been brought into question. Issues with the election process are certainly not confined to the developing world. Last year’s U.S presidential election is a case in point, where allegations of Russia hacking voting systems cast doubt on whether the outcome was democratic or rigged in favor of the Republicans or perhaps the Russians. Believe it or not, Blockchain can actually solve some of these problems. Of course, with a new technology, there are new obstacles and problems that will come but the cycle goes on and those new problems will be solved with more sophisticated solutions. A decentralized ledger would provide all of the necessary data to accurately record votes on an anonymous basis, and verify the accuracy and whether there had been any manipulation of the voting process. Intimidation would be non-existent with voters being able to cast their votes in the privacy of their home. Perhaps the greatest social impact of blockchain technology is here. Banks are Scared of Blockchain! Cost savings within the banking industry have been estimated to range from $16bn to $20bn per year through the adoption of blockchain technology. It’s not just the cost savings, however. Consider a shift in fundraising approaches away from the debt capital markets and initial public offerings to Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) . If we take it a step further, would there be any need for the equity markets as we know them today? Cryptocurrencies could replace traditional shares of companies, listed or unlisted and the blockchain technology would then manage and record the transfer of shares for the given company on a decentralized ledger. Maybe it will not happen tomorrow, but, it could be the reality. Get Into Bitcoin Trading with Plus500 Intermediaries would no longer be needed and it could see the end of the traditional brokers of today. A migration from physical to virtual money would then just seem to be inevitable – market sentiment driving the value of cryptocurrencies as economic indicators drive paper currencies today. What would be the purpose of central banks when the use of paper money slumps in favor of virtual money? Japan has already embraced cryptocurrencies as legal tender. As the market continues to evolve, others will follow. If central bankers want to continue enjoying their days in the limelight, they’re going to need to catch up. One function that remains lacking is the regulatory side. Taking the control away from the governments, perhaps central banks will eventually become equivalent to oversight committees. Drawing up the regulatory framework and mapping out the progressive inclusion of blockchain technology into the financial system. Some would argue that such a function would be of far greater value. The outlook for blockchain technology looks bright and the gains made from adopting the technology will be beyond comprehension. How the technology is embraced will ultimately be the key to how it benefits the financial markets and the world in general. For now, the world’s largest banks and central banks have begun to invest significant capital into the use of blockchain technology. While bank CEO’s have been generally dismissive towards Bitcoin, the view is quite different when it comes to the underlying technology. First movers are likely to be the world’s largest banks that will want to get ahead of the curve to avoid being left behind. JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM:N) announced in October that it had launched a new payment system using blockchain technology in partnership with Royal Bank of Canada (RY:TO) and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ:AX). The three banks are not alone with IBM have been assigned by various groups to revamp internal processes using the blockchain technology . Microsoft is also there and likely to be one of the leaders in the pack. The speed which banks are moving is an indication of how scared they are of what blockchain could mean for them. Central banks won’t be far behind… Blockchain is not only Bitcoin, it’s much more than That Having discussed the positive impact that blockchain technology can have on democracy, there are countless other areas in which blockchain technology can have a dramatic effect. Some examples include: Supply Chains : The ability to track foods from farm to shelf is one that has recently made the news. IBM announced that it has begun working with the larger food suppliers, including Nestle and Walmart , to take advantage of blockchain technology. Of particular interest to food, suppliers are being able to identify the source of food contamination, as well as being able to track the producer within the food supply chain. Beyond food, the transparency of blockchain can also give consumers the true source of manufactured goods, which has become important in today’s society. Energy sector : The trading of energy with the use of blockchain could allow the consumer to sell excess energy to their neighbors, removing the control from the utility companies. Similar to financial markets, there may even be a range of prices as supply and demand dictate price. Governments : Governments have already begun pilot projects to incorporate blockchain technology into their daily operations. The intention being to make the efficiency gains that the technology can deliver. In the UK, the government has used blockchain technology in the disbursement of student loans and also to track the payment of benefits to the underprivileged. The government’s view is that blockchain could reduce corruption, the number of fraud cases and costs by shifting away from the current use of paper. Elsewhere, governments are looking to use the technology for record keeping, including land property deeds. The use of the ledger could, in fact, be used to record the transfer of titles and deeds of property. Healthcare : The removal of the paper trail in the healthcare system and making patients’ medical records are available to the patients’ without the threat of hacking or leaking. Additionally, a decentralized ledger of medical data may even be able to provide the necessary data points to support the fight against virus and disease. Music Industry : Protection of rights and distribution of earnings within the music industry is a key consideration, as the industry looks at ways to adopt the technology. Removing the ability for piracy and allowing listeners to download music stored on the blockchain, paying for the music with cryptocurrency would be one of the paradigm shifts in the industry. It would also mean that the right people get paid… It may well be the death of distributors, but it’s unlikely that artists within the industry will lose any sleep over such a prospect. Blueprints have already been published in a decentralized blockchain ledger that is expected to solve the issues of rights and payments. The first artist to engage cryptocurrencies in the music industry was Bjork with a release of a new album that provides buyers with 100 Audiocoins . These are just a small number of examples. Blockchain technology is being explored across all of the major sectors and with many industries already rolling out pilot projects, the skeptics may have to eat their words. The Blockchain Revolution – Time will Tell Whether blockchain technology does, in fact, become a part of everyday life remains to be seen. While inflated expectations raised the possibility of an end to central banks and their responsibilities as we know it today, an end to the centralized financial system is perhaps a step too far for now. The current system which the banking systems and the global economy function on a daily basis are still founded in our social life. Removing the oversight responsibility of central banks and handing it over to the general public is an unthinkable step, but this doesn’t mean that certain qualities of blockchain technology and the ethos of decentralization cannot be adopted. The realms of possibilities are endless and alongside corporations and the banking system, central banks are now exploring the possibilities and how blockchain technology can be incorporated into the financial system. The fact that central banks are exploring the technology suggests that there is an open mind to embrace blockchain technology. After all, central banks are in place to decentralize from their respective governments. So this would just be an evolution of the independence that central banks are supposed to be working on today. One possibility is to create a peer-to-peer network comprised of the greatest economic minds of today and tomorrow. This would free central banks from possible pressures from respective governments, eliminate the currency war phenomenon seen since the global financial crisis and bring an end to accusations of certain economies enjoying more favorable trade terms. And let’s not forget the “free will” printing of money that has put a Band-Aid on the debt woes of governments around the world. Time will tell how blockchain evolves, but one thing looks to be certain today. Status quo is no longer an option and change is needed. The Best and Safest Way to Buy and Sell Bitcoins For those who are looking to take advantage of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies price fluctuations, Some brokers provide traders with instant access to trade Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. The process is fast and easy with convenient and advanced trading platform (desktop and mobile), low spreads and instant execution. Click here for more details . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Global Equities Rise, US Futures Point to a Higher Open The European currency is troubled by the German politics Riskier Assets Rebound as Political Concerns Fade US Dollar Index (DX) Futures Technical Analysis – November 21, 2017 Forecast Comex High Grade Copper Price Futures (HG) Technical Analysis – November 21, 2017 Forecast Correction on the EURUSD is bigger than expected. AUDJPY with a nice bearish setup || Amazon is launching a 'Secret' cloud service for the CIA (AMZN, MSFT, GOOG, GOOGL): Amazon • Amazon Web Services introduced Secret Region, a new service specifically for the CIA and the rest of the intelligence community. • It's not really a secret service: It's name just indicates it can handle data that's been classified at the "secret" level. • Amazon has offered the CIA a Top Secret Region since 2014 as part of a $600 million deal. • The extension of that older CIA deal with this new Secret service underlines the market dominance of AWS. Amazon Web Services, the retailer'smarket-leading cloud computing arm, introduced on Monday a so-calledSecret Region— a service designed for the CIA and other intelligence agencies. The Secret Region isn't quite as secret as the name implies. The "secret" in its name just means that it's qualified to host software and data that are classified at the "secret" level, which is right below "top secret." That makes Amazon Web Services more applicable to intelligence agencies, which regularly deal with such sensitive information. The Secret Region will be just one among many regions Amazon operates as part of its AWS supercomputing cloud. The largest Amazon Web Services region is US-East-1, a facility in Northern Virginia. WhenUS-East-1 goes down, all of the apps that rely on it start to struggle, causing outages. Amazon has actually already offered a top-secret region since 2014. That service is a cloud offering Amazonbuilt specifically for the US intelligence communityas part of a $600 million deal. The new Secret Region is an extension of the same Amazon-CIA arrangement. A key difference is that the Secret Region will be available to non-intelligence government agencies, assuming they file the right paperwork. The government and Amazon are promoting the new service as a way for the US intelligence community to modernize its infrastructure and more quickly get more information to the appropriate people. The deal underlines Amazon's leadership in the cloud market. Theretailer famously beat out IBM for the CIA deal in the first place. And while Microsoft offers "Secret"-level services to the intelligence community, it doesn't have a "Top Secret" cloud, meaning Amazon boasts both. NOW WATCH:Former CIA director: I was concerned about 'interactions' between Russians and the Trump campaign See Also: • Bitcoin just hit an all-time high — here's how you buy and sell it • These 15 little-known perks show why Amazon Prime is so much more than free shipping • How couples improved their sex lives in just one week SEE ALSO:The cloud wars explained: Amazon is dominating, but Microsoft and Google are striking back || Bitcoin engineer Jameson Lopp SWATted by angry crypto fans: An engineer forBitGo, Jameson Lopp, faced down a horde of police officers with rifles at his home in Durham, North Carolina after someone sent an anonymous tip regarding a hostage situation at his home. The engineer has been vocal on Twitter about upcoming changes in the protocol. "They shut down most of my neighborhood," he said. "There were dozens of patrol units, a SWAT team, mobile command post, a fire truck, and paramedics," he said. "It was a huge waste of public resources." Lopp has been vocal in the hard fork debate and has worked at BitGo for almost three years and a Bitcoin enthusiast for five years. The 911 caller who forced the police to act told a dispatcher that he washolding is family hostage and gave Lopp's address. I asked him what he had been talking about recently and he felt most of his online comments were innocuous. He has, however, made online enemies thanks to his views. "Same old same old: Bitcoin philosophy and scaling debate arguments. A few of the more extreme cases think I'm some kind of manipulative monster," said Lopp. "The attacker never made any references to my public debates, so it's not a certainty that they were motivated by them. They may simply want to extort me, similar to what has happened to several other prominent Bitcoin folks." Lopp has appeared on many TechCrunch podcasts aboutBitcoinincludinga new one we may launch this year. "The asymmetry here is disturbing," he said. "A single phone call can eat up tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in public resources just to determine whether or not a threat is real." [Image Source: Vesnaandjic/Getty Images] [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] #Putin Tells Central Bank Not to Create Barriers to #Cryptocurrencies || Russia's Central Bank Backs Move to Block Bitcoin Websites http://ift.tt/2ydI79d  || $5652.00 at 13:00 UTC [24h Range: $5589.80 - $5735.14 Volume: 7068 BTC] || Sent BTC to Coinbase last week...still pending despite 6+ confirmations. @coinbase @CoinbaseSupport || こんばんは。 bitcoin priceという || Chilean Bitcoin Exchange SurBTC Withdraws Support for SegWit2x Hard Fork - CryptoCoinsNews https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/chilean-bitcoin-exchange-surbtc-withdraws-support-segwit2x-hard-fork/ … || BTC/USD: US$ 9.431,00 ▼ -5.00% BTC/BRL: R$ 30.854,46 USD/BRL: R$ 3,27 01/12/2017 04:59:57 (Brasília) #bitcoin || Is @storjproject $STORJ just appear in the last #FileZilla @fillezca #update !?? # crypto #invest #cash #call #Bitcoin $BTC pic.twitter.com/vuUCcXwotN || #Poloniex 3 hours Top gainers $VTC/BTC 4.34% $EMC2/BTC 3.90% $XEM/BTC 3.22% Top losers $NAV/BTC -5.30% $STEEM/ETH -5.22% $BCH/ETH -4.39% || There's bad news about bitcoin, and ... nobody cares https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-07/bitcoin-has-had-a-string-of-bad-news-and-nobody-cares … via @BW
Trend: up || Prices: 15178.20, 15455.40, 16936.80, 17415.40, 16408.20, 16564.00, 17706.90, 19497.40, 19140.80, 19114.20
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2018-12-31] BTC Price: 3742.70, BTC RSI: 46.04 Gold Price: 1278.30, Gold RSI: 69.84 Oil Price: 45.41, Oil RSI: 36.89 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] BitGive Launches Bitcoin Donation Platform GiveTrack 1.0 on Mainnet: Having announced the beta version of itsblockchain-based donationplatform GiveTrack in 2017, theBitGive Foundationhas now launched theGiveTrack 1.0on the mainnet. The GiveTrack platform was created to bring transparency to the donation process. Using the platform, donations can be made with bitcoin, allowing donors to track the progress of the funds in real time, ensuring donations make it to the intended charities and get used for their intended causes. The latest version of GiveTrack, which was launched at the Latin American Bitcoin and Blockchain Conference in Chile, is an upgrade to the beta product, featuring a brand new technology stack and easy onboarding for donors and nonprofits. BitGive is the first bitcoin-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity that uses bitcoin to support global charity projects. The foundation has funded numerous projects in the past, such as theMaternal & Neonatal India Programand the Chandolo Primary School Water Project. "We are very excited to launch GiveTrack 1.0 after many months of hard work from our team. It is an honor to launch with four amazing NGO partners who are doing important work around the world, and a pleasure to have this occasion at the Latin American Bitcoin Conference where we have always received a tremendous amount of support," Connie Gallippi, founder and executive director of BitGive, remarked in an interview withBitcoin Magazine. In addition to the launch, the nonprofit also announced a Global Bitcoin Fundraiser to support the first group of nonprofits added to the newly releasedGiveTrack 1.0platform. Afghanistan-based coding academy for girlsCode to Inspire,Desafío Levantemos Chile,America SolidariaandRun for Waterare the first participating nonprofits in the fundraiser. As the holiday season approaches, BitGive hopes that the community will be encouraged to give to these charities using the new platform. Commenting on the decision-making process used to choose the nonprofits for the campaign, Gallippi said: "We sought out NGOs with a variety of missions and locations globally, who were interested in being on the forefront of bitcoin and blockchain technology, and had some experience under their belts in the nonprofit sector for reaching the right audiences." Going forward, nonprofits can leverage the power of the blockchain for giving by registering on the GiveTrack platform to have their projects published. BitGive is also running a #Give1BTC campaign, where it encourages corporate donors to give 1 bitcoin or $5,000 this holiday season to support nonprofits on the GiveTrack 1.0 platform. RSK and Bloq are both kickstarting the campaign with a $5,000 donation each. "We are grateful to our development partner Koibanx for their dedication to the project, and to our kickoff donors RSK and Bloq to get the campaign started. We look forward to the Bitcoin and Blockchain community embracing this campaign to keep the spirit of giving alive and demonstrate a powerful use case for this technology beyond speculation," Gallippi said. Last month, BitGiveparticipatedin the AmazonSmile program, where Amazon shoppers were able to passively donate a portion of their total purchase price to BitGive. This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || Bull Call: Novogratz Says Bitcoin Will See Record Highs in 2019: Mike Novogratz Bitcoin price Mike Novogratz, the CEO of crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital, predicts that bitcoin will break out of its 2018 doldrums and soar to $20,000 in 2019 — fueled by a spike in institutional investments. The former Goldman Sachs investment banker says institutional “FOMO” (fear of missing out) will drive the market up over the coming months as cryptocurrency assets gain more mainstream acceptance and traditional finance players take the leap into crypto. Year-End Bitcoin Price Target: $8,800-$9,000 “Bitcoin has to take out $6,800, and after that we could end the year at $8,800 to 9,000,” Novogratz told Financial News . “By the end of the first quarter [of 2019], we will take out $10,000. And after that, we will go back to new highs — to $20,000 or more.” This past summer was a bloodbath for cryptocurrencies, which were hamstrung by a slump the market could not shake since the beginning of the year. It was a humbling anti-climax for bitcoin, whose prices rocketed to almost $20,000 in December 2017. Despite the recent downswing, the industry scored major street cred after Harvard, Yale, and Stanford University announced that their multi-billion-dollar endowments had invested in crypto. MIT, the University of North Carolina, and Dartmouth also jumped on the bandwagon, as CCN has reported . The combined endowments of the six universities top a staggering $108 billion. While the universities’ allocation to crypto is reportedly small, analysts say the move will trigger a chain reaction among other big-name institutional investors, such as pension funds. Because Wall Street and traditional finance giants tend to copy each other, Mike Novogratz and other experts say it’s only a matter of time before the herd mentality takes over, opening the floodgates for other institutional investors to jump into crypto. “There’s going to be a case of institutional FOMO [fear of missing out], just like there was in retail,” Novogratz predicted. Story continues Regulation Will Legitimize and Boost Crypto While the crypto ecosystem prides itself on being decentralized and — according to some — unregulated, Novogratz has repeatedly said the market will actually benefit from some formal regulation. The former hedge fund manager says regulation will push prices up by legitimizing the industry and ridding it of scam artists. As CCN reported , BlackRock — the world’s largest asset manager — has slowly started embracing crypto, but warned that it would not launch a bitcoin ETF until the industry becomes “legitimate,” said CEO Larry Fink. BlackRock Won’t Launch Bitcoin ETF Until Crypto Is ‘Legitimate,’ Says CEO Larry Fink https://t.co/OD1awOqxkN — CCN (@CryptoCoinsNews) November 1, 2018 “It will ultimately have to be backed by a government,” Fink said. “I don’t sense that any government will allow that unless they have a sense of where that money’s going.” Despite the recent bear market, Mike Novogratz believes the long-term outlook for crypto is off-the-charts. Novogratz said an impetus for the upcoming rally is that major institutional players like Goldman Sachs and ICE (Intercontinental Exchange Inc.) — the owner of the New York Stock Exchange — have begun building financial frameworks to facilitate the adoption of crypto. “It’s a bull market in institutions building the infrastructure needed for real-money investors to start investing in this space,” Novogratz told CNBC in September 2018 (video above). “Three to six months from now, there will be an ‘all-clear’ sign for people — big institutions and pension [funds] — to start investing.” Featured Image from Bloomberg/YouTube The post Bull Call: Novogratz Says Bitcoin Will See Record Highs in 2019 appeared first on CCN . || Blockchain developer is the fastest-growing job in America, according to LinkedIn: Blockchain developer is this year’s fastest-growing job in the U.S., according to LinkedIn, which released its2018 U.S. Emerging Jobs reporton Thursday. Despite reports that data science roles may be themost in-demand jobs, the professional social network found that “Blockchain developer” was the fastest-growing job over the last 12 months, with 33 times growth year-over-year, and demand coming from companies such as IBM (IBM), Consensys, and Chainyard in cities including San Francisco, New York, and Atlanta. Machine learning engineerranked second place, trailed by application sales executive, machine learning specialist, and professional medical representative, respectively. Despite Bitcoin’s (BTC) extreme volatility this year — its value has fallen from nearly $20,000 last December to under $4,000 as of Thursday — the cryptocurrency served as an excellent proof of concept for its underlying blockchain technology, with companies ranging from IBM (IBM) to Spotify (SPOT) experimenting with ways to deploy blockchain technology. IBM revealed this week that telecommunications firms in Indiacould soon be using its blockchain techfor mobile numbers and the Do Not Call registry. Spotify, meanwhile, is looking to use blockchain to match royalties with rights holders by integrating data such as timestamps. What remains to be seen, however, is whether the demand for blockchain developers will remain over the next few years.It’s worth noting that “blockchain” didn’t appear anywhere in thetop 20 emerging jobs in 2017, while “machine learning engineer” topped the list last year.“Only time will tell what applications this still-nascent technology [blockchain] has, particularly outside of the cryptocurrency space and more generally in ordinary business functions,” LinkedIn Chief Economist Guy Bergertold Yahoo Financeon Thursday. “I think it’s still going to be a speculative set of skills and occupations until it [blockchain] takes more hold and turns from more of a venture to something more concrete.” Meanwhile, LinkedIn reports that skills such as oral communication and people management remain in extremely high-demand, despite six out of the 15 top emerging jobs this year being related to artificial intelligence and ongoing chatter that robots are displacing human workers. Indeed, job candidates who excelled in both soft skills were hired at faster rates compared with people who lacked them, LinkedIn reported. “We sometimes underestimate how important these skills are,” Berger added. “We think all the time about STEM skills, about tech skills, about learning to code. … But really soft skills are some of the most durable skills out there, because we’re always in our world going to need to be talking to people. In terms of addressing it, people can invest in speaking skills, in presentation skills. These are skills you need in every kind of job.” Translation? Blockchain developer may be this year’s trendiest job, but mastering the ability to collaborate and communicate well in the workplace will likely get job seekers further, regardless of industry. — JP Mangalindan is the Chief Tech Correspondent for Yahoo Finance covering the intersection of tech and business. Email story tips and musings tojpm@oath.com. Follow him onTwitterorFacebook. More from JP: • Facebook loses top spot on ‘Best Places to Work’ list • Silicon Valley’s racism problem is bigger than Facebook • eBay exec explains why millennials are buying so much CBD oil • Dan Lyons: Tech companies ‘just have to be lying’ when talking about diversity || The Simple Reason These 4 Niche Energy Stocks Dropped Over 15% in October: By now, investors in offshore oil rig operators are used to being put through the wringer. Shares of major companies in the sector have been brutally hammered by the stock market over the past several years. But all that changed in 2018. During the first nine months of the year, many offshore drillers' stocks popped by more than 30%. The slump was over and it would be smooth sailing from there on out. Or would it? According to data provided byS&P Global Market Intelligence, all the major offshore rig stocks had a horrible October. Shares ofEnsco(NYSE: ESV)fell 15.4% for the month,Seadrill's(NYSE: SDRL)shares were down 17.8%,Transocean's(NYSE: RIG)stock gave back 21.1%, and shares ofNoble Corporation(NYSE: NE)fared the worst, dropping an astonishing 28.6%. Here's why October was more tricks than treats for these companies, and what investors should do now. The offshore drilling industry has underperformed the stock market over the last five years. October was no exception. Image source: Getty Images. When it comes to offshore oil rig operators, the price of oil rules. High oil prices make it more profitable to drill for oil offshore -- particularly in deep or ultradeep water, where drilling is more expensive and difficult. And when more companies are interested in offshore drilling, it increases demand for offshore rigs, which means rig operators can charge higher day rates, utilize more of their fleets, and make more money. When oil prices are down, on the other hand, rig operators are often among the first to feel the pinch, and they feel it the hardest. While a drilling company can refocus its operations to cheaper onshore drilling opportunities, offshore rig operators don't have that luxury. Worse, it's the deepwater and ultradeepwater rigs that command the highest day rates...and are the first to be idled when oil prices drop. During the oil price slump of 2014-2017, many rig operators' stocks lost most of their value as drilling companies abandoned offshore drilling left and right. A few didn't even survive: Atwood Oceanics was bought by Ensco at a bargain-basement price, and Seadrill went into bankruptcy protection,only emergingearlier this year. Those that did come through saw their stock prices drop by 80%...or more. Things seemed like they were turning the corner in late 2017, when crude oil prices started climbing. That climb continued throughout much of 2018. Both Brent crude (a benchmark for most international oil sales) and WTI crude (one for most domestic oil sales) hit three-year highs at the beginning of October. A barrel of Brent crude was trading for $85 per barrel, with WTI crude close behind at more than $75 per barrel. Unfortunately, prices fell a bit in October. The spot price of Brent crude dropped 9.5% during the month, to $74.84 per barrel. WTI crude spot prices fared even worse, falling by 10.7% to close out the month at $65.31 per barrel. Those declines may seem pretty small, but you have to realize that they made October the worst month for oil prices in more than two years. That had investors wondering if the long oil price rally was starting to sputter, and they naturally took it out on oil rig operators. Rig operators, though, weren't the only ones affected by oil-price declines. Many drillers saw their stocks fall during the month as well, and the big oilfield services companies also posted double-digit share price declines. As Cheech and Chong once observed, things are tough all over. In the grand scheme of things, though, this October drop barely registers for offshore rig operators. That's because the companies' shares have already tumbled so far over the last five years: SDRLdata byYCharts. The spike in Seadrill's stock price came when it emerged from bankruptcy after a restructuring, sowhat looks like a price popis actually a drop thanks to changes in the share count. Basically, thanks to the comparatively long lead time to initiate an offshore drilling project versus an onshore drilling project -- and thanks to the many onshore opportunities available in places like the Permian Basin -- the offshore industry is still dealing with the fallout of the oil-price slump. But with U.S. onshore projects beginning to run into pipeline constraints, offshore opportunities are starting to look more attractive to drillers. Indeed, there have beenrecent signsthat the industry is waking up from its prolonged nap. Investors just need to hope it happens before cyclical oil prices start seriously trending downward. More From The Motley Fool • 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices • 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 • 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This John Bromelshas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || $7 Billion Wiped Out of Crypto as Bitcoin Price Drops Below $4k Once Again: In the past 24 hours, the crypto market recorded a loss of over $7 billion as its valuation dropped from $134 billion to $127 billion. TheBitcoin pricedeclined below the $4,000 mark after surging to $4,100, struggling to maintain its newly found momentum. As the Bitcoin price dropped from $4,162 to $3,780 and demonstrated a 9 percent decline in value, most major crypto assets in the likes ofRipple (XRP)andBitcoin Cash (BCH)recorded larger drops in the range of 15 to 25 percent. From its weekly peak, theBitcoin Cash pricefell from $239 to $180, by just over 24 percent. A minor correction was expected for the majority of assets in the global crypto market due to the large gains they recorded throughout the past week. Last week, whenBitcoinachieved a new yearly low at $3,100, a strong buy wall was created on major fiat-to-cryptocurrency exchangesCoinbaseandBitstamp. Existing investors saw a buying opportunity in the tight range from $3,000 to $3,500. As the high buy wall started to accumulate the dominant cryptocurrency, Bitcoin experienced a corrective rally and fueled other crypto assets in the market to increase in price. Bitcoin Cash, in particular, showed a strong upward movement, tripling its value from $75 to $239 within a five-day span. A technical analyst with the online alias “Hsaka” explained that the $3,910 mark was tested as a resistance level and the failure to overcome it led the price of Bitcoin to drop below the $3,800. The analystwrote: “Expecting a bounce into a lower high off this white level. If $3,910 is retested as resistance, high odds that was the local top and we’ll begin unraveling soon. If this is heading down soon, I’d ideally want to see it reject off the $3,890 level. Otherwise, might just chop around on the weekend and break down on Monday.” The volume of Bitcoin has also substantially declined from around $8 billion to $5.9 billion. The decline in the volume of the asset was expected as the cryptocurrency market tends to see a drop in trading activity during the weekend. As theChristmasseason nears, the cryptocurrency market is likely to see its volume drop, which could lead to less intense buy walls but also relieve sell pressure on major assets. On December 20, a cryptocurrency trader known as DonAlt said that the bear market is not over just yet and that it is not the time to start accumulating, adding that the market is merely showing volatility in a low price range. “By the way, this is not the place to start buying. A full year bear market doesn’t just go away like this, it’ll take time. Even if BTC goes to $4,270 I’ll only be looking to short/close longs. We’re still in a bear market, BTC is just rightfully punishing late bears,” the tradersaid. Featured Image from Shutterstock. Charts fromTradingView. The post$7 Billion Wiped Out of Crypto as Bitcoin Price Drops Below $4k Once Againappeared first onCCN. || Market Morning: Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork, Asia Falls Again, Iran Sanctions Back On: Economic Calendar This Week On Monday we have ISM Manufacturing, Wednesday 30Y mortgage rates, Thursday the Fed Funds Target Rate, and Friday the Producer Price Index. Slow manufacturing would add to the evidence that the current boom may be receding finally after 10 years. 30Y mortgage rates are likely to turn up, further slowing down the housing market. The Fed Funds target range won’t change, but other obscure interest rates such as the rate paid on excess reserves might be tweaked to get the Fed Funds rate back in line (it is currently a bit high for the Fed’s liking), and the PPI should give us further clues about inflation. SEE:Coinbase Custody Partners With Wilshire Phoenix To Launch A Dedicated Crypto Fund Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork, Altcoin Up 20% Bitcoin Cash (BCH-USD) is undergoing another network upgrade on November 15thbut this time not all developers are on the same page. Another hard fork is in the works and probably another argument about what coin is the “real Bitcoin”. Bitcoin Cash enthusiasts insists that Bitcoin Cash is actually Bitcoin and that Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is actually Segwit, whereas Bitcoin enthusiasts believe that Bitcoin is the real Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash is just Bitcoin Cash. Now whoever is on the side of the upgrade will call the new Bitcoin Cash Bitcoin, the old Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin will still be Segwit, while those against the upgrade will call Bitcoin Cash Bitcoin, the New Bitcoin Cash Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin Segwit. Meanwhile, as damaging as this argument is to the mining community and to our ability to keep our grasp on crypto-nomenclature, Bitcoin Cash, AKA Bitcoin to some, is up 20% on anticipation of the hard fork. The only question remaining is, Who’s on First? Asia Down Hard as Xi Get in a TiXi (Pronounced Tizzy) Maybe no trade deal after all? Chinese President Xi Jinping seemed tolash outat President Donald Trump over the weekend, referring to his negotiating strategy as Law of the Jungle. “As globalization deepens, the practices of Law of the Jungle and winner take all are a dead end. Inclusion and reciprocity, win-win and mutual benefits are a widening road,” he said. Shanghai stocks are down but have regained much of their earlier losses, but Hong Kong is down hard at 2.33%, and Japan is down 1.55% on the day. This could signal the opening of yet another week of volatility. Related Tickers: (NYSEARCA:EWJ) (NYSEARCA:EWH) (NYSEARCA:FXI) Iran Sanctions Back On Sanctions against Iranian oil exports have been put into effect, though oil (NYSEARCA:USO) has yet to respond to the new market environment. Oil is down 18% since the start of October and asOilprice reports, new positions in crude are at 52-week lows, supply is about to be crimped or rather already is, and this is has been the sharpest one-month decline in oil since 2014. Spare capacity is down to 2% of global demand, so we are pretty much at peak capacity here. Midterms Elections Set to Rock Markets Midterm elections are tomorrow. Here’s your cheat sheet. If Republicans retain control of both houses, US indexes will likely rocket higher on the news. If Republicans lose the house as expected, there won’t be much net movement. If Democrats take control of both houses, stocks are likely to tank. Play the options as you will. Senate races to watch are Arizona, Indiana, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Texas, Tennessee, West Virginia, and North Dakota. The postMarket Morning: Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork, Asia Falls Again, Iran Sanctions Back Onappeared first onMarket Exclusive. || Dow, S&P 500 Eye Further Gains after Wild Week on Wall Street: Following a wild week on Wall Street, the US stock market looks poised to extend its latter-week recovery following the opening bell on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq futures indices all pointing north as of the time of writing. Dow Seeks to Extend Recovery Dow futures had risen 111 points to 23,264, or 0.48 percent at the time of writing, followed closely behind by S&P 500 futures with implied gains of 0.43 percent. Nasdaq futures were up about 0.22 percent. dow jones S&P 500 Those movements would prolong a recovery begun earlier in the week when the Dow rose 1,086 points in its largest-ever single-day rally. On Thursday, futures portended a sell-off, but the market assembled an impressive charge to close the day firmly in positive territory. However, lost in all this renewed optimism is the fact that stocks are still on track for their worst December since the Great Depression , with the Dow down 9.4 percent for the month and the S&P 500 faring even worse following its 9.8 percent haircut. And while some analysts are crossing their fingers for a first-quarter bounce, others remain bearish on the economy’s fundamentals, noting that trading volume is depressed due to the holiday season. “The U.S. economic data is not great and there is no reason to believe it will improve,” said Jan Dehn, head of research at Ashmore Group, in remarks cited in the Wall Street Journal . “I expect U.S. stocks to have a tough time in 2019 and this sudden bounce on low volume is a great opportunity to offload in case you missed it earlier [.]” The Death of an American Icon Meanwhile, reports indicate that iconic American retailer Sears may be down to its final 24 hours. The 125-year-old firm, whose once-ubiquitous catalog made it the “Amazon of the 1930s,” is expected to liquidate unless Sears Chairman Eddie Lampert — through his hedge fund, ESL Investments — can secure financing to submit a $4.6 billion offer to purchase the company outright. Even then, Lampert and ESL would need to successfully bid against liquidators in a Jan. 14 auction if they hope to keep Sears’ remaining business operations intact. Story continues sears share price stock For investors, the downfall of Sears and other 20th-century titans like General Electric is a stark reminder that no company or asset, no matter how entrenched, is immune to market forces and technological disruption. Indeed, that entrenchment can tempt firms to rest on their laurels rather than continue the sort of innovation that made them household names in the first place. Bitcoin, Crypto Market Resume Slide Heading into 2019 bitcoin price This reality should provide solace to crypto believers, some of whom may have been tempted to question whether bitcoin has a future following this year’s 80 percent peak-to-trough decline and the crypto market’s subsequent inability to mount a sustained recovery amid waning retail interest. Unfortunately, bitcoin’s pre-Christmas rally has already begun to fizzle out ahead of today’s bitcoin futures expiration on CME, and Mark Dow — who shorted the flagship cryptocurrency all the way down from its all-time high — is warning that BTC/USD is approaching a level that should send even the most ardent believers heading for the hills. However, veteran crypto investors have seen this movie before. So while 2018 wasn’t exactly the banner year that many bulls predicted it would be, hodlers with a longer time horizon have much to be optimistic about, both in terms of technological development and mainstream cryptocurrency adoption on Wall Street. Featured Image from Shutterstock. Price Charts from TradingView . The post Dow, S&P 500 Eye Further Gains after Wild Week on Wall Street appeared first on CCN . || Coinsource Gets License to Operate Bitcoin ATMs in New York: Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) ATM operator Coinsource has received approval to install and operate bitcoin machines in New York. The company has been granted a virtual currency license by the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) to operate bitcoin teller machines (BTM) in the state. First Company To Operate BTMs In New York With this approval, Coinsource becomes the first and only company to operate bitcoin machines in New York. BTMs are touchscreen kiosks which allow customers to buy bitcoin with, or sell bitcoin for, fiat currency in the form of cash. They allow customers to insert cash and buy bitcoin and store it on their mobile wallet or sell bitcoin for cash by scanning their mobile wallet at the kiosk. “Coinsource is the first and only company that operates BTMs to receive a New York virtual currency license. All New Yorkers — from the people that are unbanked to the people who own the banks — can use our kiosks in their neighborhood retail locations to buy bitcoin instantly in a convenient and familiar way,” Coinsource CEO Sheffield Clark said in a statement. “Now that Coinsource is a license holder, our customers can buy and sell with confidence that Coinsource meets and exceeds the high standards set by the New York Department of Financial Services. New York represents not just a center of global innovation but also one of our largest target markets. We are extremely proud to be the only BTM operator holding a New York virtual currency license,” Clark added. Currently, Coinsource operates 40 bitcoin machines in New York located in New York City, Westchester and Nassau County. Approval Follows Rigorous Review of Coinsource’s Practice: DFS DFS said that the approval follows a comprehensive and rigorous review of Coinsource’s application and is subject to significant regulatory conditions. These include implementing effective risk-based controls and appropriate BSA/AML and OFAC controls to prevent money laundering or terrorist financing as well as to prevent and respond to any potential or actual wrongful use of Bitcoin, and maintaining policies and procedures for consumer protection and to promptly address and resolve customer complaints. The “approval is a further step in implementing strong regulatory safeguards and effective risk-based controls while encouraging the responsible growth of financial innovation,” Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo said in a statement. “New York’s financial services marketplace is thriving with companies committed to complying with DFS’s regulations that ensure the security of transactions, safeguard the industry and protect consumers.” The post Coinsource Gets License to Operate Bitcoin ATMs in New York appeared first on Market Exclusive . || Bitcoin hardware wallet Ledger had a big Black Friday despite crypto crash: The price of bitcoin has fallen 77% in 2018. That’s the third-biggest crash the cryptocurrency has experienced since its inception in 2009. But even amidst this crypto bear market, bitcoin hardware wallet sales are humming, according to Ledger, one of the leading hardware wallet sellers. A bitcoin hardware wallet is a physical fob that encrypts and stores your private access keys (a string of numbers and letters that forms the address of your digital currency) offline—this is called“cold storage”because the information is not connected to the internet (i.e. it is not “hot”). With a hardware wallet, you would send bitcoin from an online exchange (like Coinbase) to the address of your wallet to store it offline. (Watch a demo video here.) At the beginning of 2018, when the price of cryptocurrencies fell sharply from the highs of 2017, “We saw demand diminishing for our products,” Ledger president Pascal Gauthier said on Yahoo Finance’s Midday Movers live show this week. “But interestingly enough, with the latest drop, we’re seeing a trend that is different. The Black Friday of 2018 was almost as good as the Black Friday that we had in 2017, which was an extraordinary year for cryptocurrencies.” In a followup with Yahoo Finance, Ledger said that its Black Friday sales this year were just about equal to its sales on Black Friday of last year, which is striking. It suggests that even though crypto prices have declined, interest in owning crypto (and storing it safely) is still high. Ledger declined to share Black Friday 2018 sales numbers, but says it has sold 1.4 million Ledger Nano S units to date. (Some of the other leading hardware wallets are KeepKey and Trezor.) Of course, the very fact that safely securing your digital currency (something you cannot touch or physically hold) requires using a physical device—and writing your recovery-phrase passwords on a physical piece of paper—naturally confuses people. Why should that be necessary? Gauthier acknowledges that contradiction. “What you’re describing is an imperfection,” he says. “It’s not great that you have to do that. But also, it’s a shift in terms of how you transfer and hold value. All these new protocols are really at the beginning of their existence… You have to pay attention to security and you have to go through these extra steps to do it. Right now it’s clunky, but the industry is working hard to solve these issues.” — Daniel Roberts covers bitcoin and blockchain at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite. Read more: SEC widens its crackdown on ICOs What crypto investment firms are telling clients during a bear market Exclusive: Coinbase cuts staff Coinbase will add cryptocurrencies more rapidly, plus ratings and reviews Blockchain CEO on ‘Just Hodl’ bitcoin mantra: ‘I don’t believe in that’ Chain CEO: Public and private blockchains will soon converge Lightning Labs CEO: We are back to a ‘bitcoin, not blockchain’ world || 3 ETFs to Consider as a Possible Liquidity Crisis in BBB Bonds Looms: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com. At the height of the extended bull market, risky less-than-investment-grade bonds were in vogue with their attractive yields, particularly in a rising rate environment, but BBB bonds that are on the cusp of high yield status could be facing a liquidity crisis, according to a recentCNBC report. As the volatility seen has been racking the stock markets as of late, it has also affected the bond markets, particularly liquidity--the ability purchase and sell an asset within a reasonable amount of time. BBB bond markets are especially susceptible because institutional investors, who carry war chests full of capital that aid in liquidity, aren't able to invest in these bonds if they become high yield or "junk" issues. BBB bonds comprise almost 50% of the $5.8 trillion investment-grade bond market and a lack of liquidity could leave BBB bond investors holding the debt as it toes the line between investment grade and junk bond status--the worry, of course, being that it may eventually fall into the category of the latter. "There's a lot of worry about the BBB-rated world," said Jason Shoup, head of global credit strategy at institutional asset manager Legal & General Investment Management America.. "It's not an issue today, but in a recession, it's possible that between $500 billion and $1 trillion in BBB-rated bonds could slide into the high-yield market." In order to avoid a possible liquidity crisis, investors can opt for more liquid exchange-traded funds that allocate capital into investment-grade debt issues. 1.iShares 1-3 Year Credit Bond ETF (CSJ) CSJ tracks the investment results of the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. 1-3 Year Credit Bond Index where 90 percent of its assets will be allocated towards a mix of investment-grade corporate debt and sovereign, supranational, local authority, and non-U.S. agency bonds that are U.S. dollar-denominated and have a remaining maturity of greater than one year and less than or equal to three years--this shorter duration is beneficial during recessionary environments. 2.Xtrackers Investment Grade Bond Interest Rate Hedged ETF (IGIH) IGIH seeks investment results that track the performance of the Solactive Investment Grade Bond - Interest Rate Hedged Index where a portion IGIH's total assets will reside in long positions in U.S. dollar-denominated investment-grade corporate bonds. As in the case of IGHG, this strategy effectively eliminates exposure to riskier bonds with fund allocations in investment-grade issues. 3.ProShares Investment Grade—Interest Rate Hedged (IGHG) IGHG tracks the performance of the Citi Corporate Investment Grade (Treasury Rate-Hedged) Index with long positions in investment grade corporate bonds issued by both U.S. and foreign domiciled companies. This is particularly important during market downturns when the propensity for a company to default on its debt is higher. As such, IGHG focuses on investment-grade issues to reduce credit risk. Related:Paul Tudor Jones: Next Recession will be ‘Really Frightening’ For more trends in fixed income, visit theFixed Income Channel. POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM • SPY ETF Quote • VOO ETF Quote • QQQ ETF Quote • Top 34 Gold ETFs • Top 34 Oil ETFs • The Top 10 Health Insurance Trends of 2019 • Kevin O’Leary: Resist the Urge to Overspend on an Engagement Ring • An Emerging Market ETF That Capitalizes on the Growing Middle-Class Consumer • Consider Bitcoin Cash When Crypto Carnage Stops • Apple Acquires AI Startup Silk Labs READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] La minería en criptomonedas no es algo muy rentable después de las grandes caídas https://espaciobit.com.ve/main/2018/11/22/la-mineria-en-criptomonedas-no-es-algo-muy-rentable-despues-de-las-grandes-caidas/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Espaciobit+%28EspacioBit%29 … #Blockchain #Criptomonedas #Bitcoin #BTC #Minería #Bitmain #Canaan #Ebang #CoinMarketCappic.twitter.com/OK4ZPpIQUK || Retail payments with the current #BTC will likely never be mainstream... hence the importance of the Lightning Network!  Learn all about this HUGE step towards adoption at:  https://goo.gl/kjBkco pic.twitter.com/rxwLmLBZVl || 2018/12/26 22:00 BTC 416583.5円 ETH 14256.4円 ETC 539.9円 BCH 19117.4円 XRP 41.1円 XEM 7.5円 LSK 153.8円 MONA 75.1円 #仮想通貨 #ビットコイン #Bitcoin #bitFlyer #Coincheck || 1H 2018/11/27 17:00 (2018/11/27 15:59) LONG : 28001.04 BTC (-130.01 BTC) SHORT : 33513.46 BTC (-483.92 BTC) LS比 : 45% vs 54% (45% vs 54%) || #Bitcoin Price Surges 15% in Rebound Action — Has It Bottomed Already? #crypto #blockchain #cryptocurrency https://www.pivot.one/share/post/5bff0cb1cd5ee7734a4a792a?uid=5be9d456395ae7224a443d75&invite_code=XIMAUH … || Hello, Last news about your crypto currency #BITCOIN. At 2018-12-11 16:00:51.011509 Buy ASAP at price of 2947.0 Saving is -1.87 percent Best regards. The ITCOventure team. || #XBlock #Blockchain #Crypto #ether #ethereum #bitcoin #cryptocurrency #ICO #tokensalehttps://twitter.com/XBlockOfficial/status/1050964876473065472 … || Teşekkür ederim. || https://ohiobitcoin.com/currencies/BTC/bitcoin/ … Current Price Of Bitcoin. #bitcoin Please ReTweet || There's a few hours left to join our #free weekly raffle on @Bitcointalk! There's a @DenariumBitcoin physical coin up for grabs, and it comes pre-loaded with 0.0015 #BTC! Sign up here: https://cbet.ly/2DRwFDG pic.twitter.com/byOOMpC3SQ
Trend: down || Prices: 3843.52, 3943.41, 3836.74, 3857.72, 3845.19, 4076.63, 4025.25, 4030.85, 4035.30, 3678.92
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-12-31] BTC Price: 29001.72, BTC RSI: 82.76 Gold Price: 1893.10, Gold RSI: 59.03 Oil Price: 48.52, Oil RSI: 64.14 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Latest Bitcoin price and analysis (BTC to USD): Bitcoin is currently flirting with a potential break down in price below the $17,600 level of support after losing momentum on all lower time frames just short of $20,000. The world’s largest cryptocurrency remains bullish on all higher time frames, which suggests that an all-time high push in Q1 of 2021 is on the cards. However, in the short term it would not be a surprise to Bitcoin test the prior lows at $16,400. If it bounces before reaching this level it would form a crucial higher low, indicating that the bull run still has room to extend higher. BTCUSD chart by TradingView Key levels of resistance to look out for are $18,250 and $18,600. If Bitcoin can surge and break above these levels on heavy volume, a re-test of at least $19,400 seems increasingly likely before the end of the month. It’s worth noting that Bitcoin is a volatile asset by nature and that even during the bull market in 2017, corrections of up to 30% were commonplace. A correction of 30% from the local high at $19,800 would see Bitcoin test the original breakout point at $14,000, which may also be in confluence with the daily 200 simple moving average. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . Bitcoin pricing Current live BTC pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Bitcoin price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: US Dollar – BTCtoUSD British Pound Sterling – BTCtoGBP Japanese Yen – BTCtoJPY Euro – BTCtoEUR Australian Dollar – BTCtoAUD Russian Rouble – BTCtoRUB About Bitcoin In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered. On 31st October 2008, a paper was published called “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. This was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. To date, no one knows who this person, or people, are. The paper outlined a method of using a P2P network for electronic transactions without “relying on trust”. On January 3 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence. Nakamoto mined block number “0” (or the “genesis block”), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins. Story continues More BTC news and information If you want to find out more information about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Here’s an article to get you started. As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. || Blockchain firm Ripple plans to fight approaching U.S. SEC lawsuit: HONG KONG (Reuters) - Ripple, the blockchain payments company associated with the cryptocurrency XRP, said on Tuesday it would oppose a lawsuit against it by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. XRP, the third-biggest cryptocurrency by market value, was created and sold initially by San Francisco-based Ripple. Globally, financial regulators are still assessing how they should regulate the cryptocurrency industry and digital tokens like Bitcoin and its rivals. These rules could determine whether cryptocurrencies make the leap from a niche to a mainstream asset. "We are right and will aggressively fight - and win - this battle in the courts to get clear rules of the road for the entire industry in the U.S.," Ripple Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse said in an emailed statement. "Instead of providing a clear regulatory framework for crypto in the U.S., Jay Clayton inexplicably decided to sue Ripple – leaving the actual legal work to the next Administration," the statement said. The SEC could not be immediately reached for a comment. The statement did not specify the nature of the suit against Ripple, but a company representative said the S.E.C. had informed Ripple it planned to file the suit this week. The Wall Street Journal and Fortune magazine, which reported the news earlier and quoted from an interview with Garlinghouse, said the S.E.C. would claim Ripple violated investor-protection laws when it sold XRP. https://on.wsj.com/3h9JOcz https://bit.ly/2WA7yx0 "The SEC is fundamentally wrong as a matter of law and fact. XRP is a currency, and does not have to be registered as an investment contract," the company said. XRP dropped 5.36% against the dollar in Asian hours on Tuesday. (Reporting by Alun John; Editing by Rashmi Aich) || FOREX-Dollar dips as risk appetite improves: * Graphic: World FX rates in 2020 https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E (Adds quotes, updates prices; previous LONDON) By Karen Brettell NEW YORK, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar fell on Tuesday as risk appetite improved after U.S. President Donald Trump accepted the transition to a Joe Biden presidency and on optimsim that COVID-19 vaccines are close to being rolled out. The dollar index pared much of its earlier losses, however, and held above a key technical support. Analysts said that the greenback may need a new catalyst to push it significantly lower after dropping to near three-month lows this week. “It seems like there is a very, very strong tension between the bulls and the bears ... between the longer-term positives of the vaccine and what seems like a relatively sturdy U.S. economy, and the near-term outlook, which is a bit darker in terms of the COVID situation,” said Erik Nelson, a macro strategist at Wells Fargo in New York. The dollar index was last down 0.09% at 92.415, having reached a three-month low of 92.013 on Monday. The index dropped slightly after data showed U.S. consumer confidence fell more than expected in November, with encouraging vaccine news countered by a widespread surge in new COVID-19 infections and business restrictions. The euro gained 0.15% to $1.1859 and the dollar gained 0.1% to 104.71 against the Japanese yen. The Australian dollar, which is highly correlated to strong risk appetite, gained 0.53% to $0.7324 after touching an almost three-month high of $0.7367. Bitcoin gained more than 5% to $19,343 and is approaching its record high of $19,666 from December 2017. Trump acknowledged that the head of the General Services Administration should go ahead with a transition to a government led by President-elect Biden, despite plans to continue with legal challenges to election results. Democratic allies to the Biden campaign said former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is expected to be nominated as Treasury Secretary. She has called for increased government spending to lift the economy out of a coronavirus-induced recession. "That should be a positive appointment from the market's point of view as she is expected to pursue conventional policies," Commerzbank strategists said in a daily note. "And as far as the fiscal package is concerned, she is likely to listen to the Fed's demands and try and push a package as much as possible." That said, Yellen has also expressed concerns about rapidly rising U.S. debt and the worsening budget deficit. “She's had mixed comments I'd say on the federal budget,” said Nelson. “I'm not saying she's going to be a big time budget hawk, but I don't know if she’s quite as much of a budget dove as people are willing to admit.” ======================================================== Currency bid prices at 10:14AM (1514 GMT) Description RIC Last U.S. Close Pct Change YTD Pct High Bid Low Bid Previous Change Session Dollar index $92.4150 92.5090 -0.09% +0.00% +92.5660 +92.1380 Euro/Dollar $1.1859 $1.1842 +0.15% +5.78% +1.1894 +1.1838 Dollar/Yen 104.7100 104.5650 +0.10% -3.63% +104.7550 +104.1450 Euro/Yen 124.16 123.76 +0.32% +1.81% +124.2100 +123.6700 Dollar/Swiss 0.9123 0.9124 +0.01% -5.70% +0.9136 +0.9098 Sterling/Dollar 1.3319 1.3327 -0.06% +0.42% +1.3379 +1.3294 Dollar/Canadian 1.3057 1.3086 -0.21% +0.52% +1.3090 +1.3011 Aussie/Dollar 0.7324 0.7287 +0.53% +4.40% +0.7368 +0.7285 Euro/Swiss 1.0819 1.0804 +0.14% -0.30% +1.0849 +1.0803 Euro/Sterling 0.8902 0.8884 +0.20% +5.30% +0.8913 +0.8875 NZ 0.6955 0.6923 +0.48% +3.37% +0.7004 +0.6919 Dollar/Dollar Dollar/Norway 8.9740 9.0460 -0.83% +2.27% +9.0280 +8.9700 Euro/Norway 10.6430 10.6993 -0.53% +8.18% +10.7284 +10.6450 Dollar/Sweden 8.5877 8.6273 -0.32% -8.13% +8.6371 +8.5776 Euro/Sweden 10.1829 10.2161 -0.32% -2.73% +10.2262 +10.1860 (Additional reporting by Saikat Chatterjee in London Editing by David Goodman ) || Beneath the Surface of Square Inc's (NYSE:SQ) Huge Revenue Beat: Square Inc (NYSE:SQ)has been a talking point in the investment universe lately and it is not hard to see why. The stock price is up more than fivefold from its March lows of around $35 to more than $175 recently, and the last few months have been particularly volatile for the stock. Considering the majority of the company's offering is focused on helping small businesses with their operations, Square has done well to not only survive the turbulent year so far but actually thrive. We can attribute a lot of the recent success to the fast growth of the consumer-facing side of the business, which is the company's Cash App, but we will get into that later. Square posted its Q3 earnings result on November 5th, and on virtually all fronts, its performance smashed estimates of growth out of the park. Unsurprisingly, the stock price jumped around 13% following the release.This growth was most notable in Square's revenue, where the company recorded $3.03bn for the third quarter, which surpassed analysts' estimates of $2.08bn by around 45%. Below is a chart of Square's revenue and earnings, including the third-quarter results. NYSE:SQ Earnings and Revenue history to 30 September 2020. SourceSimply Wall St While this looks impressive, it's worth delving deeper into the number to get a better picture of how impactful this is to the underlying business and how the company was able to post such impressive revenues. Check out our latest analysis of Square Inc Looking at the results more closely, we can see that bitcoin revenue has surged dramatically from the same quarter last year. At that time, revenue from bitcoin was about US$148m, whereas this quarter it was US$1.63bn, a staggering 1,101% increase in only 12 months. As a result, the quarterly revenue for the company as a whole increased 140% on last year's figure.However, despite the astonishing growth, this Bitcoin revenue is not likely to lead to a meaningful increase in Square's profits. A difference in the accounting treatment for bitcoin revenues compared to the company's Gross Payment Volume (GPV) has led to the revenue growth looking a lot better than it is. NYSE:SQ - Consolidated Statements of Operations - Q3 2020 In its quarterly letter to shareholders, Square states that “bitcoin revenue is the total sale amount of bitcoin to customers. Bitcoin costs are the total amount of bitcoin that we purchase. We purchase bitcoin to facilitate customers' access to bitcoin”.Meaning, rather than acting as a traditional broker and simply providing a platform for the user to buy bitcoin without involving Square, the company actually buys the bitcoin for the user and the user pays Square for the bitcoin, plus any fees associated with the transaction.Or to put it another way - due to a quirk in accounting policies, Square records the total dollar value of bitcoin sold as revenue, because users are paying the company for the bitcoin. However, for transactions using the Cash App and Seller Ecosystem, Square records only its fee as revenue, rather than the dollar value of total transactions they process. So while Square sold $1.63bn bitcoin (including fees) to users and recorded it as revenue, the GPV on the Cash App and Seller Ecosystem was USD $2.85bn and USD $28.84bn respectively, both of which aren't recorded as revenue. Simply put; the two types of revenues are not comparable to each other and the reported growth due to bitcoin revenues is a bit illusory in that sense. Thankfully, Square recognizes this and makes an effort to clarify in their reports what their figures are when you include and exclude bitcoin. Additionally, it's worth noting that while Square's revenue from the service has skyrocketed, it consequently means their costs associated with that offering have followed suit. Because as mentioned, Square needs to purchase the coins to facilitate access. To put it in perspective, the section above from the company's quarterly report shows bitcoin revenue was USD $1.63bn for the quarter, while its bitcoin costs were USD $1.60bn, meaning 2% gross margins, which are very slim on anyone's account. While the ability to purchase bitcoin through the Cash App is a nice additional feature for users, it isn't Square's core business. Nor is it the driving force behind the company's profitability, since it only contributed USD $32m (or 4%) to the USD $794m gross profit for the third quarter, despite being 53% of total revenue.When we compare the bitcoin gross profit margins with the rest of Square's business, it starts to pale in comparison. More specifically, Cash App derives gross profit margins of an amazing 81% and the Seller Ecosystem earns a solid 42%.If we exclude the bitcoin revenue, the Cash App and the Seller Ecosystem contributed 32% and 68% to the company's revenue respectively. Importantly, the Cash App is growing revenue hand over fist at 174% year-on-year (YoY) meanwhile, Seller Ecosystem revenue only grew 5%. So if Cash App maintains this growth, this revenue split will likely be very different in a few years. Interestingly, if you exclude the bitcoin revenue, the company's revenue only increased by 25% YoY, which is substantially less than the 140% reported in many of the headlines. What we can see here is that while revenue is surging, a large portion of it is this unique bitcoin revenue, which should be interpreted more as GPV than revenue, per see. At a product level, Square's operations appear quite profitable, and in the case of the Cash App, they're growing very quickly. However, what we've learned here is that headline figures can sometimes be deceptive. In Square's case, we learned that the bitcoin revenue is causing the topline to grow incredibly quickly, but this growth should be taken with a grain of salt because of how little it adds to the bottom line. While the underlying business is still performing well, it's just worth being aware of these nuances.If you're interested in finding other companies that are experiencing high growth, it's worth knowing Square isn't alone. We've made a list of otherpopular and high growth US companies that might be worth the hype, which you can check out by clicking the link.Neither Simply Wall St analyst Michael Paige nor Simply Wall St hold any position in any of the companies mentioned. This article is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content?Get in touchwith us directly.Alternatively, emaileditorial-team@simplywallst.com. || JPMorgan One Step Closer To Fully Owning China Securities Venture: JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM ) now controls 71% of its Chinese securities joint venture after it bought a 20% stake from a local partner, Reuters reported Sunday. What Happened: The stake in the securities JV was put on sale by state-owned Shanghai Waigaoqiao FTZ, according to a filing made with the Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange in September, reported Reuters. The Jamie Dimon-led bank reportedly paid $26.5 million for the stake in a deal that was concluded on Oct. 23. The New York-based bank was the only party that could increase its stake in the venture as the other shareholders had given up their rights to pick up the 20% share, according to Reuters. Why It Matters: The deal positions JPMorgan as the foreign bank with the largest ownership stake in a mainland China securities joint venture, noted Reuters. The timing of the deal is significant as there are increasing geopolitical tensions between the United States and China and a simmering trade war . Competitors — Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS ), Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS ), and UBS Group AG (NYSE: UBS ) — all reportedly hold 51% stakes in their securities operations on the mainland but have plans to obtain full ownership. JPMorgan’s third-quarter earnings per share rose 8.96% year-over-year to $2.92, beating estimates of $2.23. Price Action: JPMorgan shares closed 0.9% higher at $98.04 on Friday. Photo by Ken Lund via Flickr See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Bitcoin Nears 2018 Post-Bubble Highs As Mainstream Adoption Drives Rally JPMorgan Says Its Cryptocurrency 'JPM Coin' Is Now Live © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bluesky Digital Assets Corp. Announces the Closing of Its Non-Brokered Private Placement; Raises $805,750.00 CDN: Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - December 4, 2020) - Bluesky Digital Assets Corp., (CSE: BTC) (CSE: BTC.PR.A) (OTC Pink: BTCWF) ("Bluesky" or the "Corporation") announced today that it had closed the second and final tranche of its previously announced non-brokered private placement financing. In total the Corporation raised Eighty-Two Thousand, Two Hundred and Fifty Dollars ("$82,250.00") CDN in the second tranche via the sale of Nine Hundred and Thirteen Thousand, Eight Hundred and Eighty-Eight ("913,888") Units. With the closing of the second tranche, the Corporation in total raised Eight Hundred and Five Thousand, Seven Hundred and Fifty Dollars ("$805,750.00") CDN via the sale of the Eight Million, Nine Hundred and Fifty-Two Thousand, Seven Hundred and Seventy-Eight ("8,952,778") Units. As previously stated in the Corporation's November 24, 2020 press release, all Units were offered at a price of Nine Cents ("$0.09") CDN per Unit. Each Unit consists of One Common Share (a "Share") in the capital of the Corporation and one Common Share Purchase Warrant ("Warrant"), with each Warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase one additional Common Share of the Corporation at an exercise price of Fifteen Cents ("$0.15") CDN per Common Share for a period of 36 months from the closing of the financing. All common shares issued in connection with this placement will be subject to a four month plus one day hold period under applicable Canadian securities laws. With the issuance of the 8,952,778 Units from this private placement, the Corporation now has 28,244,732 Common Shares issued and outstanding. Proceeds from the financing will be used for purchasing of additional Digital Asset Mining Equipment, advancing the company's DeFi Division and projects; (Bluesky DeFi) and further development of our AI product. We will have additional details in the coming weeks and months on all fronts. "With Bitcoin recently hitting an all time of nearly US$20,000.00 and decentralized finance gaining momentum, we are extremely excited to close on this financing and expand on our digital currency initiative," commented Ben Gelfand, CEO of Bluesky. Bluesky is pleased to announce that ThreeD Capital Inc., a Canadian venture capital firm that invests in disruptive companies has subscribed for 2,500,000 units in the placement for gross proceeds of $225,000.00. In addition to participating in this private placement, Bluesky is pleased to announce that ThreeD Capital Inc CEO Sheldon Inwentash has agreed to act as a strategic advisor to Bluesky. About Bluesky Digital Assets Corp. Bluesky Digital Assets Corp. is building a high value digital currency enterprise. Bluesky mines digital currencies, such as Bitcoin and Ether, and is developing value-added technology services for the digital currency market, such as digital mining proprietary software. Offering a complete ecosystem of value-creation, Bluesky is targeting reinvesting appropriate portions of its digital currency mining profits back into its operations. A percentage of the profit will be invested in the development of a proprietary Artificial Intelligence ("AI") based technology. Overall, Bluesky takes an approach that enables the Corporation to scale, and respond to changing conditions, within the still-emerging digital currency industry. The Corporation is poised to capture value in successive phases as this industry continues to scale. For more information please visitwww.blueskydigitalassets.com. For further information please contact: Mr. Ben GelfandCEO & DirectorBluesky Digital Assets Corp.T: (416) 363-3833E:ben.gelfand@blueskydigitalassets.com Mr. Frank KordySecretary & DirectorBluesky Digital Assets Corp.T: (647) 466-4037E:frank.kordy@blueskydigitalassets.com Forward-Looking Statements Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. The forward- looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements included in this document are made as of the date of this document and the Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation. Although management believes that the expectations represented in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such. Neither CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. We seek safe harbor. - 30 - To view the source version of this press release, please visithttps://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/69583 || Cryptocurrency Exchange THODEX Starts Worldwide User Recruitment: ISTANBUL, TURKEY/ ACCESSWIRE / December 24, 2020 /THODEX, a cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2017 based in Turkey and globalized under the license of FinCen MSB from the USA, has started to recruit users worldwide. THODEX, which announced that it is now a global brand with its FinCen MSB license from the USA, started to recruit users worldwide while accelerating its activities in many countries in a short time. THODEX, which attracted attention when it was founded as the first cryptocurrency exchange to have more than 5 cryptocurrencies on its board in Turkey, soon became the "stock exchange of the first" with its new features and developments. THODEX established Turkey's first Bitcoin ATM in Nişantaşı, one of the most central districts of Istanbul in 2018. With the FinCen MSB license obtained in 2020, THODEX became Turkey's first licensed global crypto-currency stock exchange. Drawing attention with low commission rates,THODEXintroduced more than 20 types of crypto-currencies to its users. THODEX, which allows its users to control their investments with its features such as stop loss, price alarm and THODEX API, has also brought convenience to the forefront by providing crypto purchase with credit card. Affiliate Program, on the other hand, provides special opportunities to the user by enabling the user to earn commission on each person invited. THODEX, the global cryptocurrency trading platform, celebrates its fourth year in the sector and the launch of a fully equipped global platform to its users thanks to its license from the USA with a raffle organized by THODEX USA. THODEX members are given Thodex Kit gifts consisting of 1 piece of Porcshe Panamera 4, 100 pieces of Apple Watch, 50 pieces of Sony PlayStation 4, 30 pieces of iPhone 11, 30 pieces of Samsung S10, 50 pieces of Macbook Air and 500 pieces of Bluetooth speakers, mobile charger, notebook-pen set, thermos). Gifts will be delivered by THODEX USA in the country of the members who win the gift. Media contact: Company: THODEXContact: Izel OztenTelephone: +905399391307E-mail:marketing@thodex.comWebsite:https://www.thodex.com/Address: Merdivenkoy Mah. Nida Kule Goztepe Sitesi Bora Sok. NO: 1-3 K:16 D:58 Kadıköy / İstanbul SOURCE:THODEX View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/622286/Cryptocurrency-Exchange-THODEX-Starts-Worldwide-User-Recruitment || Meet the CEO That Is Aiming To Revolutionize Cryptocurrency Liquidity: For cryptocurrency traders, 2020 has been framed as a battle between centralized exchanges (CEX) and decentralized (DEX). This was, after all, the year in which Uniswap’s DEX emerged from nowhere to become one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, processing $10 billion of trades a month – without custodying user funds. At its peak, in October, decentralized exchanges were capturing over 15% of the entire crypto market, having begun the year onjust 0.12%. That’s quite a turnaround, and suggests that CEXs – as well as crypto brokers such as PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) and Square (NASDAQ:SQ) – are now locked in a fight for market share with their decentralized counterparts. Alexey Koloskov isn’t convinced though. As the CEO of exchange aggregatorOrion Protocol, he knows more than most about the interplay between CEX and DEX. In his view, the next leap for crypto exchanges will come when the two systems learn to live together and build upon each other’s competencies. Alexey Koloskov According to Koloskov, the real battle on the hands of cryptocurrency exchanges is creating a user experience that matches anything they have encountered in traditional finance. Moreover, he’s quick to dismiss the framing of CEX and DEX in binary terms as a contest in which there can only be one winner. “While CEXs and DEXs will continue to serve different purposes for different audiences, I see the centralized / decentralized dichotomy as one of the one of the biggest barriers to crypto’s expansion,” begins Koloskov. “As new users enter the space, there’s a clear demand for centralized intermediaries who mirror the traditional finance entities that consumers are used to, typically providing greater liquidity, improved user experiences, and act as a stepping-stone towards true decentralized finance.” Advocates of DEXs such as Uniswap andMooniswaphave hailed them as a financial revolution that wrests control of crypto assets away from centralized exchanges and back into the hands of their rightful owners, just as Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto always intended. As Koloskov is quick to point out, though, DEXs are not a panacea for the cryptosphere, and while they undoubtedly solve key problems with custody and trust, they also introduce risk of their own. “While we’ve seen significant volume funnelling into DEXs and liquidity pools, it’s still an immature space,” notes the Orion Protocol CEO. “Many lack the liquidity, trading pairs, user experience, and features that traders are used to with centralized exchanges. I believe the question should no longer be centralized or decentralized, but rather who will be first to bridge the divide to create hybrid solutions that provide access to the benefits and opportunities of the entire crypto landscape, but in a totally decentralized way.” Naturally, Koloskov believes that Orion Protocol is the key to merging the CEX and DEX markets – and can cite compelling evidence to bolster his assertion. “CEXs offer an improved user experience and greater liquidity,” he acknowledges, “but it comes at the cost of sacrificing ownership for access. We don’t think that accessing the crypto market should be so risky, difficult, or expensive. “We have built a hybrid solution that bridges the gap between both worlds … while pulling liquidity from the major players in the market: centralized exchanges. We aggregate the liquidity, order books, and trading pairs of every CEX, DEX, and liquidity pool into one decentralized platform to provide access to the entire crypto market. The result is one portal to access the entire crypto market, without the need to give up ownership of your assets.” Bitcoin may be the king of cryptocurrencies, but it is liquidity that governs the markets. Traders naturally flock to the exchanges that can offer the best price, tightest spreads, and deepest liquidity – whether that be CEX, DEX, or a combination of the two. If Koloskov has his way, it will be this latter option that becomes the most profitable means of trading the markets in 2021. He explains: “To us, fragmentation, centralization, and liquidity are the biggest issues in the space, and the largest barriers to the widespread adoption of the industry. In 2018, we set about tackling these issues by developing the most advanced liquidity aggregator ever conceived. This enabled the creation of our flagship product, Orion Terminal: connecting the end user to the entire crypto market in a totally decentralized way.” The first phase of Orion Terminal’s mainnetwill launchon December 15, giving traders the opportunity to see for themselves whether the future is hybrid and aggregated. With the ability to trade cryptocurrencies across CEXs, DEXs, and swap pools, Orion Terminal promises to shake up the front-end of cryptocurrency trading, even if, beneath the hood, users are still connecting to the same exchanges. If the trading terminal can realize its potential, it will result in more profitable order execution and spark the next epoch in the evolution of cryptocurrency exchanges. “With crypto having been described as ‘nothing more than a fight for liquidity,’ I do believe the future lies in aggregation of the industry in its entirety,” finishes Koloskov. “By opening up access to the entire market in one platform, we’ve developed a protocol for bridging together crypto, traditional finance, and real-world assets. And only through bridging the gap between these worlds will we achieve real steps towards change, building the foundations for a new financial system: an accessible, secure, and decentralized future of finance.” Disclosure: No positions. || Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Nears $17K: The website and mobile app of U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase are down as bitcoin is nearing $17,000, within striking distance of its all-time high of $19,665 set in 2017. Update (Nov. 16, 22:35 UTC):According to theCoinbase status page, the incident was resolved at 22:27 UTC. • According to acompany update, a fix has been implemented and the company is “investigating this issue.” • Coinbase has suffered a number of outages during busy trading periods this year including most recently on Oct. 27. • The outage comes at a time whenbitcoinhas been fast approaching new highs not seen since Jan 7, 2018. • At press time, bitcoin was at $16,834, up 6.27% over the last 24 hours. Read more:Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Approaches 2019 Highs • Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Nears $17K • Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Nears $17K • Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Nears $17K • Coinbase Goes Down as Bitcoin Nears $17K || CleanSpark to Discuss Bitcoin Mining Acquisition and Related Growth Opportunities: Expected Topics to Include Bitcoin Price Surge, Electricity Expansion, Addition of New ASIC’s SALT LAKE CITY, Dec. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SALT LAKE CITY, December 28, 2020 -- CleanSpark, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLSK), (“CleanSpark, or the Company”), an advanced software and controls technology solutions company focused on solving modern energy challenges, will be participating in the Water Tower Research Fireside Chat Series on Tuesday, December 29, 2020, at 3:00 pm ET. Topics covered will include insight into the company’s Bitcoin mining operation and newly-revised 2021 guidance including the ATL Data Center acquisition. The chat will feature Zachary Bradford, CleanSpark’s Chief Executive Officer. The host and moderator will be Shawn Severson, Head of Sustainable Investing at Water Tower Research. A brief question and answer session focusing on the Company’s year-end 2020 filing will follow. Investors interested in participating in this event must register using the link below. As a reminder, registration for the live event is limited but may be accessed at any time for replay. REGISTER HERE: https://globalmeet.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1417925&tp_key=a01739ed15 Parties interested in learning more about CleanSpark products and services are encouraged to inquire by contacting the Company directly at info@cleanspark.com or visiting the Company’s website at www.cleanspark.com . Investors are encouraged to contact the Company at ir@cleanspark.com, or visiting the Company’s website at https://ir.cleanspark.com/ CleanSpark periodically speaks at virtual conferences and events, if the event was recorded the recordings can be found on the events page at https://ir.cleanspark.com . About CleanSpark: CleanSpark, Inc., a Nevada corporation, is in the business of providing advanced software and controls technology solutions to solve modern energy challenges. We have a suite of software solutions that provide end-to-end microgrid energy modeling, energy market communications, and energy management solutions. Our offerings consist of intelligent energy monitoring and controls, intelligent microgrid design software, middleware communications protocols for the energy industry, energy system engineering, and software consulting services. Through its wholly owned subsidiary ATL Data Centers LLC, CleanSpark owns and operates a data center that provides customers with traditional on-site and cloud-based data center services. The Company also owns and operates a fleet of over 3,400 ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) Bitcoin miners producing over 200 PH/s in mining capacity. Capacity is expected to increase to over 5,900 ASIC and 300 PH/s in mining capacity by early 2021. CleanSpark plans to apply its technologies with a goal of mining bitcoins at the lowest energy prices in the United States. For more information, visit https://ATL-DATA.com Story continues Forward-Looking Statements: CleanSpark cautions you that statements in this press release that are not a description of historical facts are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on CleanSpark's current beliefs and expectations. The inclusion of forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a representation by CleanSpark that any of our plans will be achieved. Actual results may differ from those set forth in this press release due to the risk and uncertainties inherent in our business, including, without limitation: the successful integration of ATL into CleanSpark, the closing of the transaction, the fitness of our energy software and solutions for this particular application or market, the expectations of future revenue growth may not be realized, ongoing demand for our software products and related services, the impact of global pandemics (including COVID-19) on the demand for our products and services; and other risks described in our prior press releases and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including under the heading "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and any subsequent filings with the SEC. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof, and we undertake no obligation to revise or update this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, which is made under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. CONTACT: Investor Relations CleanSpark, Inc. (801)-244-4405 ir@cleanspark.com View comments [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 29374.15, 32127.27, 32782.02, 31971.91, 33992.43, 36824.36, 39371.04, 40797.61, 40254.55, 38356.44
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-08-25] BTC Price: 48960.79, BTC RSI: 63.74 Gold Price: 1788.20, Gold RSI: 49.78 Oil Price: 68.36, Oil RSI: 50.11 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Thesis Raises $21 Million Series A to Expand its Crypto Venture Studio: SAN FRANCISCO, July 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --Thesisannounced today it has completed a $21 million Series A fundraise. Thesis is the venture builder behind some of the most impactful projects in crypto. Its portfolio includesFold,Keep,Saddleand open source initiatives liketBTCthat serve millions of users and hold over $300M in total value locked (TVL). Investors in the round includeParaFi Capital,Nascent,Fenbushi Capital,Polychain Capital, andDraper Associatesamong a wide set of other ecosystem operators, including Kain Warwick, James Prestwich, Viktor & Lisa Bunin, and Josh Cincinnati. Founded in 2014, Thesis brings together the brightest minds to identify, develop, and build the best decentralized technologies. The team at Thesis has architected a winning model for identifying market needs across three focus areas: decentralized finance (DeFi), cross-chain interoperability, and consumer applications to drive mass adoption. Thesis builds and launches projects that serve as fundamental pillars of the crypto ecosystem through a unique approach to identifying the most compelling use cases, going deep on sophisticated technical concepts, and cultivating stellar leadership in their founders.Fold, the world’s first Bitcoin-backed rewards card with over $20m in sales activity a month, has raised a total of $20 million and is partnered with Visa to bring Bitcoin to consumers and drive mass adoption of cryptocurrencies.Saddleis an automated market maker optimized for trading between pegged value crypto assets with$110.7 millionTVL. Projects like Keep and tBTC position Thesis at the nexus of Bitcoin on Ethereum, serving as a protocol and underlying asset that play a key role in driving the$54.0 billion DeFi ecosystem. In order to increase opportunities for cross-market impact and value generation, Thesis builds projects that are complementary and interoperable with other projects in its portfolio. Fundraising for a venture builder requires investment from partners who are mission-aligned and share a vision for the future of the industry. In order to build for the next generation of crypto users, Thesis has cultivated a network of technologists, entrepreneurs, and investors who are working toward a common mission: to use decentralized technology to fight for the integrity and empowerment of the individual. Thesis Founder and CEO Matt Luongo has led the studio since its inception and plans to use this investment as a catalyst to further ecosystem growth and to launch new Thesis projects. “We are thrilled to be supported by a collective of like-minded investors who are building technology that will drive a critical shift towards empowering the end user. This investment validates the Thesis model and will enable us to scale the studio and ultimately allow our operation to be self-sustaining in the years to come,” said Luongo. Thesis adds ParaFi, Nascent, Fenbushi and others to its list of existing investors such as Polychain Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Paradigm. “Thesis is one of the best repeat builders in our ecosystem, leveraging their early crypto expertise to bring to market technology that plays a pivotal role in making crypto more dynamic and accessible. We're excited to partner with Thesis as the go-to incubator for the most impactful, mission-aligned projects in crypto and support them in their next phase of growth," said Santiago Roel Santos, Partner at ParaFi Capital. “Building a successful product, company, or protocol is difficult in any ecosystem, and doing so repeatedly across multiple verticals is very rare. Matt and the Thesis team have paired their deep technical and industry knowledge with strategic foresight to build a novel venture studio model that has repeatedly allowed them to break new ground and expand the Thesis ecosystem. We at Nascent are thrilled to invest in this team and support them as they continue to innovate and define new categories within our space,” said Dan Elitzer, Co-Founder at Nascent. In the months to come, Thesis will launch its fifth studio project, a Web3 wallet. In its continued growth, Thesis is seeking engineers, designers, and product thinkers to bring its decentralized technologies to life. For more information, please visit Thesis.co. About ThesisThesis is a group of engineers, designers, and visionaries bound by the shared belief that there is a better way to build the systems that power our world. The venture studio builds decentralized, permissionless tools and platforms that deliver control and privacy back to the individual. With half a million users, an engaged global community and dynamic partners, the Thesis portfolio offers a robust-and-growing suite of powerful applications that is driving the adoption of cutting-edge crypto technology. Media ContactKara Miley,kara.miley@thesis.co || Polygon Launches Unit to Grow Blockchain Gaming, NFTs: Polygon has launched Polygon Studios, focused on helping to advance blockchain gaming and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The Ethereum-scaling project said Monday the new unit will “bridge the gap between Web 2 and Web 3 gaming.” The division will look to attract big brands and franchises looking to launch games and NFTs. Polygon says it already has more than 100,000 gamers and over 500 decentralized apps, including gaming projects such as Aavegotichi, Decentraland and Skyweaver, and NFT marketplace OpenSea. Polygon Gaming Studio aims to help developers create blockchain-enabled gaming, while Polygon NFT Studio will aid the development of custom NFT models and marketplaces. Polygon has attained a great deal of popularity among developers seeking to escape the high transaction fees on the Ethereum mainnet and in May attracted an undisclosed investment from billionaire investor Mark Cuban. Related Stories NFT Marketplace OpenSea Valued at $1.5B in $100M Funding Round Led by A16z Market Wrap: Sentiment Away From Risk Sends Bitcoin Toward $30K South China Morning Post to Mint Historical Records as NFTs Alibaba’s E-Commerce Website Taobao to Include NFT Arts in Its Maker Festival || Ether sees record outflows in last week of June -CoinShares: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ether investment products and funds posted record outflows in the last week of June, bearing the brunt of negative sentiment on cryptocurrencies, according to data on Monday from digital asset manager CoinShares. Institutional investors took out $50 million from investment products and funds on ether, the token used for the Ethereum blockchain. Ether suffered outflows for a fourth consecutive week, data showed. For the month of June, ether has lost roughly 22% of its value against the dollar. On Monday, however, ether was up 5.4% at $2,091.96. Bitcoin products and funds, meanwhile, suffered a seventh straight week of outflows, totaling $1.3 million. For the year, bitcoin outflows hit about $490 million. The world's largest cryptocurrency was down 8.4% against the dollar so far in June. Since an all-time high of just under $65,000 hit in mid-April, bitcoin has plunged nearly 46%. "We expect bitcoin consolidation to continue for the next few weeks until a decisive move takes place," said Pankaj Balani, chief executive officer at crypto derivatives exchange Delta Exchange. "If the global macro environment deteriorates on account of the decreasing pace of global liquidity, it's expected that bitcoin may break the crucial level of $30,000 and challenge the highs of the previous cycle at $20,00. Until then, bitcoin is likely to be in this range and can set up a classic bull trap above $42,000." Overall, crypto investment products saw a fourth consecutive week of outflows, totaling $44 million. Since mid-May, as negative sentiment spread, net weekly outflows have hit $313 million, or 0.8% of total assets under management. Sentiment on cryptocurrencies has been crushed amid a crackdown on the sector by China, which banned bitcoin mining activities. In addition, British and Japanese regulators have independently issued warnings against Binance, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges. Britain's financial regulator over the weekend said Binance cannot conduct any regulated activity and issued a warning to consumers about the platform. Japan also issued a similar warning to Binance stating that it has been providing crypto exchange services to Japanese customers without registration. Crypto assets under management also declined in the latest week to about $38 billion. At the end of April, that AUM was at $65 billion. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Dan Grebler) || ‘We Want You in Wyoming’ Says Senator Lummis to Miners: Cynthia M. Lummis, U.S. Senator from Wyoming, has encouraged bitcoin (BTC) miners to come to her state. Following on from an appearance on CNBC’s Financial Advisor Summit, Senator Lummistweeted on July 3, “If you are in the Bitcoin mining space, please reach out. We WANT you in Wyoming.” She is the latest in a series of United States officials to encourage miners to bring their operations to The States. Due to the ongoing crackdown on BTC mining in China, which once accounted for around 65% of the world’s BTC mining, many operations were forced to close. Recently, Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy,called China’s decision“a trillion-dollar mistake” and that they had “squeezed the [bitcoin] industry” out of the country. Some miners have since moved their operations overseas, with Texas among the favorite destinations due to its cheap energy prices. Senator Lummis’ invitation to Wyoming followsa similar onefrom Miami’s mayor Francis Suarez. Mayor Suarez said his city’s own cheap energy (sourced from nuclear power) is an ideal place for the energy-intensive mining process. Wyoming is already known as a crypto-friendly state, with some referring to it as “the promised land” for BTC investors. While appearing on the CNBC Financial Advisor Summit at the end of June, Senator Lummis addressed BTC mining and its environmental implications. “There was research at the University of Cambridge, that showed that bitcoin mining uses about 40% renewable energy,”she explainedto correspondent Ylan Mui. “and in the non-bitcoin mining economy, it’s only 12%. So bitcoin mining is already more environmentally adapted to non-carbon emitting energy sources.” The senator advocated BTC at several points during her appearance, confirming that she had invested in no other cryptocurrencies. “The only one I really understand is bitcoin,” she said. “Now that doesn’t mean that Ethereum might not have benefits as well. “I don’t want everybody putting all their money in bitcoin, just like I don’t want everybody putting it in dollars and putting it under a mattress. I like diversification. But to me, since there’s only going to be 21 million bitcoin ever mined, it’s a good store of value because it has defined scarcity.” As the interview came to its close, Senator Lummis revisited the environmental issue once again, saying “There’s a lot of innovation that’s happening behind the scenes. So I would say, don’t judge bitcoin mining as an energy bad guy. There are a lot of things going on that prove otherwise.” || Ex-SEC Director Brett Redfearn Leaves Coinbase After 4 Months: Coinbase VP of Capital Markets Brett Redfearn is out after just four months on the job, a Coinbase spokesperson told CoinDesk. The Wall Street Journal was first to report the news of the former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official leaving the company at the end of July. The rift points to a strategy shift within the publicly traded crypto exchange, unnamed sources told the paper, with Coinbase deciding to “shift its priorities away from digital-asset securities,” the report said. A source with knowledge of the situation told CoinDesk the priority shift reflected growing consumer demand for access to decentralized finance (DeFi). “As we looked at prioritizing DeFi, we deprioritized the digital-asset securities area,” the source said. Related: Tesla&#8217;s Musk Urges Lawmakers Weighing Infrastructure Bill&#8217;s Tax Provision Not to Pick Crypto &#8216;Winners or Losers&#8217; The reportedly “amicable” split with Redfearn comes as actions in Washington and beyond cast doubt on whether tokenized stocks comply with current regulatory frameworks. Binance, in particular, has been hit hard for its securities product, abruptly discontinuing the product in mid-July. Redfearn’s hire was announced March 30 , just weeks before Coinbase went public in a hotly anticipated debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Related Stories Market Wrap: Bitcoin Rallies Above $42K as Bull Market Continues Coinbase Is Expanding Its Payment and Cash-Out Methods Coinbase Agrees to Buy Zabo, the ‘Plaid of Crypto,’ for Undisclosed Sum || Ripple On-Demand Liquidity Corridor Opens Between Japan and Philippines: Ripple is looking to tap the almost $2 billion a year remittance market between Japan and the Philippines through the use of its on-demand liquidity (ODL) service. Japan’s money transfer provider SBI Remit is linking arms with Philippines mobile payments service Coins.ph and crypto exchange SBI VC Trade to open up a remittance corridor between the two countries, Ripple announced in a blog post on Wednesday. It marks a significant step for Ripple looking to get a cut of the $1.8 billion in yearly remittances from Japan to the Philippines. ODL via Ripple’s xRapid cross-border payment service allows companies to transfer funds from one fiat currency to XRP and from XRP to another currency. The move follows on from Ripple’s expansion in Asia after acquiring a 40% stake in cross-border payments firm Tranglo in March. Related Stories XRP Cheers Ripple’s Japan-Philippines Corridor as Bitcoin Breaks Above $40K Ahead of Fed Monex Nets $100M First-Quarter Profit Driven by Crypto Trading SWIFT Go Launches Low-Cost Network With 7 Major Banks Stellar Foundation Eyes Potential Acquisition of MoneyGram: Report || August Poised for Upbeat Start With Stock Index Futures in the Green: Stocks were weighed down on Friday after Amazon shares took a tumble. All three major stock market indices finished the session in the red. And while the S&P 500 was down for the day, it clocked a gain for the month of July as a whole. Also on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell almost 150 points, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq was down more than 100 points. That Was Then, This Is Now Stock index futures are trading in the green across the board on Sunday evening. At this rate, investors are poised to leave Friday’s declines and inflation fears behind and begin the month of August on a positive note. Stocks to Watch Amazon’s stock plummeted 7.5% on Friday after the e-commerce giant fell short on the top line, a disappointment that hasn’t happened in three years . As the economy has reopened, consumers have turned their attention to other things beyond online shopping. As a result, Amazon’s Q3 revenue is expected to similarly fall below Wall Street estimates, though it will likely remain above the USD 100 billion threshold. Amazon is not alone amid a trend among big tech companies where revenue is retreating from pandemic-related highs. Square reported its Q2 earnings sooner than expected. In the report, Square revealed that it is scooping up Afterpay, an Australia-based buy now, pay later (BNPL) startup, in a blockbuster USD 29 billion deal using all stock. Square CEO Jack Dorsey said that his company and Afterpay have a “shared purpose.” Square will integrate AfterPay into its Cash App and Seller divisions, giving more merchants the opportunity to offer BNPL. In Q2, Square’s revenue soared more than 143% to USD 4.68 billion. Bitcoin revenue came in at USD 2.72 billion via the Cash App. Square’s earnings call will take place on Monday. The call was originally planned for Aug. 5 but that one has been cancelled. Afterpay + Square! https://t.co/4UVDOtyI8a — jack (@jack) August 1, 2021 Look Ahead The ISM Manufacturing index for the month of July will be released on Monday. Wells Fargo economists predict that the ISM index fell slightly due to the one-two punch of hiring challenges and supply-chain constraints that have taken a toll on the manufacturing sector. Story continues Construction spending data for June will also come out on Monday. Wells Fargo economists are expecting an increase of 0.6% in “construction outlays.” On the earnings front, Uber Technology reports its Q2 results on Wednesday. DraftKings will report its quarterly results on Friday. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: USD/JPY Fundamental Weekly Forecast – ‘Transitory Inflation’ Throws the Spotlight on US. Non-Farm Payrolls Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Choppy, Two-Sided Trading Could Become the Norm Over Short-Run Japan, South Korean Shares Pressured by Chinese Technology Crackdown, Renewed COVID-19 Concerns Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple’s XRP – Daily Tech Analysis – August 2nd, 2021 EOS, Stellar’s Lumen, and Tron’s TRX – Daily Analysis – August 2nd, 2021 ‘Follow the Money’: Major Players Betting on Vaccinations to Keep Global Economy Afloat || Hedge Fund Billionaire Steven Cohen’s Point72 Leads $21M Funding Round in Messari: Data analytics platform Messari has closed a $21 million Series A funding round led by hedge fund billionaire Steven Cohen’s Point72 Ventures. • The round is New York-based Point72 Ventures’ first completed investment in the crypto space. • The funding will be used by Messari to triple its engineering and research headcount, expand its market intelligence platform and launch new token governance tools. • “We have a 35-person team now and we will expand to 75 in the next few quarters,” Messari CEO Ryan Selkis told CoinDesk. “We are going to be tripling in size particularly the product engineering side and expanding our analyst hub to include 1,000 contract analysts.” • “What is notable is that we have affiliates from pretty much all of the major Western exchanges, and custodians. So Blockchain Ventures, Kraken, Gemini, Coinbase and Alameda,” he said. • Other investors include Underscore VC, Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Capital, Blockchain Ventures, CMS Holdings, Gemini Frontier Fund, Kraken Ventures and Nascent. Angel investors include former Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer and Anchorage CEO Diogo Monica, Messari said Thursday. • Point72 Ventures operating partner Adam Carson has joined Messari’s board of directors. • Back in May,it emergedthat Point72, Millennium Management and Matrix Capital Management were all at varying stages of setting up dedicated cryptocurrency investment vehicles. Read more:Hedge Fund Giants Millennium, Matrix and Point72 Standing Up DeFi Funds: Sources • Genesis Digital Assets Raises $125M to Fuel US and Nordic Expansion • Biconomy Raises $9M to Make Building Dapps Easier for Developers • Bitcoin Rewards Site Lolli Raises $10M, Eyes Gaming Sector for Growth • A16z Leads $20M Bet That Celo’s Valora Becomes a ‘Global Gateway to Crypto’ || Wall Street closes up after choppy trading due to higher jobless claims: By Jessica DiNapoli NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. stock markets closed higher after a mixed trading session as investors digested negative economic data reflecting the country's struggle to move past the COVID-19 pandemic, while yields on safe-haven assets such as U.S. Treasuries slipped. All three major U.S. stock indexes ended in the green and within 1% of record closing highs, thanks in part to Big Tech. The Dow and S&P 500 fell earlier in the day on the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits. The dollar also rose after it slid earlier in the trading session. "The overall picture continues to point to a return to a pre-pandemic level of economic activity," said Anu Gaggar, senior global investment analyst for Commonwealth Financial Network, in an e-mailed statement about the jobless claims and market impact. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 25.35 points, or 0.07%, to close at 34,823.35, the S&P 500 gained 8.79 points, or 0.20%, to end the day at 4,367.48 and the Nasdaq Composite added 52.64 points, or 0.36%, to close at 14,684.60. The dollar index, meanwhile, rose 0.1% to 92.852. The U.S. currency hit its highest level in more than three months on Wednesday. Yields on U.S. Treasuries eased after the auction of $16 billion in 10-year TIPS was bid at a record low. The yield on 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR fell 2.2 basis points to 1.260%. “We had a form of capitulation in the market, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Monday, but a sign of resilience occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday,” said Steve Goldman at Goldman Management. “That’s typically a favorable sign for a market not far from its high. That’s usually a hopeful sign. It tends to indicate that the selling pressure has subsided.” “The jobless claims data that came out this morning was soft and continues to be stubbornly elevated,” said Sean Bandazian, investment analyst for Cornerstone Wealth. “The market is probably digesting some volatility from the last several days. We had a pretty sizable drawdown and then recovery making back 75% of what we lost Friday and Monday.” Growth stocks were back in favor, closing up, while value stocks slipped. Earnings season marched on, with Intel Corp falling in extended trade after posting results and Southwest Airlines Co reporting a loss. There were increases in filings for unemployment benefits in California, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri and Texas. Some of these states have experienced a surge in new coronavirus cases as the more contagious Delta variant spreads, while U.S. senators try to take aim at tech companies allowing misinformation about vaccines to spread. Still, the weekly jobless claims report from the Labor Department showed more people are returning to work, a trend that bodes well for July's employment report. Earlier this week, a revived appetite for riskier assets came as worries eased that the Delta variant of COVID-19 would seriously crimp economic recovery, helping to lift crude oil prices. OIL FIRMS Oil prices rose about $1.50 a barrel on Thursday, extending strong gains made in the previous sessions on expectations of tighter supplies until the end of the year as economies recover from the pandemic. U.S. crude recently was unchanged at $71.91 per barrel and Brent was at $73.62, up 1.92% on the day.[O/R] MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.42%. Cryptocurrencies were firm after bouncing from lows when Tesla boss Elon Musk said the carmaker would likely restart accepting bitcoin payments after due diligence on its energy use. Bitcoin was up 0.24% at $32,203. (Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli in New York; additional reporting by Huw Jones, Sujata Rao-Coverley and Tom Westbrook; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky, Steve Orlofsky and Cynthia Osterman) || Chainlink Integrates Weather Data From the Google Cloud: Chainlink, a leading provider of data feeds to blockchain-based smart contracts, has now fully added decentralized weather data from the Google Cloud. • Google Cloud and Chainlink have been collaborating since 2019 to allow Chainlink to incorporate Google Cloud data. • Chainlink pipes in data from Google Cloud’s Big Query, which hosts weather data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other sources. • “The reason weather data is important is because it powers decentralized insurance around weather,” Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov told CoinDesk. • The Google integration with Chainlink uses an oracle node that continuously sends data from the outside world into the Chainlink network, where it is then merged and made available in aggregated form for blockchain applications. • “Unexpected adverse weather events lead to economic losses across a wide range of industries, and these events are becoming more common as we experience climate change,” noted Allen Day, a Google spokesperson, in ablog post. • Earlier this week, Swisscom, Switzerland’s largest telecommunications provider,launcheda Chainlink oracle node to provide data for decentralized finance (DeFi). • Market Wrap: Bitcoin Rallies Above $42K as Bull Market Continues • Chainlink Unveils Crypto ‘Keepers’ and Anti-Fraud Blockchain Bridges • Telecoms Giant Swisscom Launches Chainlink Node for DeFi Data • Aave, Chainlink Lead Altcoin Rally as Bitcoin Soars Most in 6 Weeks [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 46942.22, 49058.67, 48902.40, 48829.83, 47054.98, 47166.69, 48847.03, 49327.72, 50025.38, 49944.62
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-11-26] BTC Price: 53569.77, BTC RSI: 35.74 Gold Price: 1785.30, Gold RSI: 41.64 Oil Price: 68.15, Oil RSI: 26.87 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] This Bitcoin And Ethereum Mining Stock Looks Like It's About To Break Out: Riot Blockchain Inc.(NASDAQ:RIOT) shares traded higher Thursday after the cryptocurrency mining stock is likely moving higher asBitcoin(CRYPTO:BTC) andEthereum(CRYPTO:ETH) are both making gains today. Investors Business Daily also added the stock to its watchlist. Riot Blockchain closed up 8.3% at $39.53. Riot Blockchain Daily Chart Analysis • The stock has been pushing higher and now has reached resistance in what technical traders call an ascending triangle pattern. • The $40 price level is an area the price has found resistance near and been unable to cross above in the past. The higher low trendline is an area where the stock has been able to find support in the past. These levels may continue to hold until one of them is broken. • The stock is trading above both the 50-day moving average (green) and the 200-day moving average (blue), indicating the sentiment in the stock has been bullish. • Each of these moving averages may hold as a potential area of support in the future. • The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has been climbing the past couple of months and now sits at 67 on the indicator. This shows there is more buying pressure in the stock than selling pressure and the stock is now nearing the overbought range. What’s Next For Riot Blockchain? Bullish traders are looking to see the stock trade above the resistance line and begin to hold it as a place of support. This could let the stock continue on its bullish run if the stock is able to consolidate above the $40 level. Bears are looking to see the stock get rejected at the $40 level and begin to fall back lower. Bears would then like to see the stock fall below the higher low trendline for the stock to possibly see a change in trend and begin downtrending. See more from Benzinga • Click here for options trades from Benzinga • This Bitcoin And Ethereum Mining Stock Just Saw A Nice Bounce Off Support © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Husband paid hit man in Bitcoin to kill his wife — but BBC tipped off the FBI, feds say: When sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents knocked on the door of a married couple’s residence in east Tennessee earlier this year with a news tip in hand, the man who answered the door reportedly told investigators he couldn’t think of anyone who might want to harm his wife, Ann. One day later, he was charged with orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot on her life. Nelson Paul Replogle pleaded guilty to federal charges in the Eastern District of Tennessee on Monday after investigators said he paid a hit man $17,853 in Bitcoin to kill his wife on her way to a veterinarian appointment with the family pet and make it look like a road-rage incident or carjacking gone wrong. The alleged plot was foiled by an unnamed source, who investigators said tipped off the British Broadcasting Corp., or BBC. The BBC then passed the tip on to the FBI. A defense attorney representing Replogle did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Tuesday. Replogle has remained in custody since his arrest on April 21, court documents show. A magistrate judge who signed the detention order said releasing Replogle could put his wife in danger. “Defendant is alleged to have utilized a virtual currency through Bitcoin to arrange the murder for hire and the Government proffered at the hearing that he was found shredding documents prior to his arrest,” the judge wrote. “Defendant’s release could pose a very real threat to the safety of his wife.” According to an affidavit filed in support of the charges, Special Agent Clay Anderson with the FBI was contacted on April 20 by the BBC about a “possible threat to life murder for hire” regarding a woman named Ann Replogle who lived in Knoxville, Tennessee. Knoxville is about 30 miles west of the North Carolina border. Anderson said he contacted the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, who sent deputies to Ann Replogle’s house to check on her. Anne and Nelson Replogle were both home, though both told deputies and the accompanying FBI agents they didn’t know anything about a threat on Ann’s life. Story continues “Replogle was separated and interviewed alone and advised he did not solicit the murder of his wife and that he could not think of anyone who did,” Anderson said in the affidavit. Separately, Anderson touched base with the BBC to follow up on the source of the tip. According to the affidavit, the BBC sent him a financial transaction given to them by an unnamed source, which appeared to show payment to an unidentified person for the murder of Ann Replogle. The information provided in the exchange included the date and time of the would-be murder as well as the make, model and color of Ann Replogle’s car. The payment was made with Bitcoin, the FBI agent said. Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency or digital currency that isn’t operated by a centralized authority such as the government. Bitcoin can be sent and received from unique addresses that function similarly to a bank account number, and it’s typically purchased from a virtual currency exchange. According to the affidavit, exchanges operating in the U.S. are required to collect identifying information from users. While Bitcoin transactions don’t contain such identifying information, every transaction is logged on a public ledger known as the blockchain. Anderson said investigators used the blockchain to trace the Bitcoin address that sent the murder-for-hire payment to a virtual currency exchange. The exchange subsequently provided investigators with the identity of the person behind the transactions — Nelson Replogle, who Anderson said purchased the Bitcoin using money from a savings account to which Ann Replogle didn’t have access. Prosecutors filed a criminal complaint with Anderson’s affidavit on April 21. Court filings show the government requested Replogle remain in jail pending the case outcome shortly thereafter, which the judge granted on May 4. Replogle pleaded guilty to one count of murder for hire. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he’s sentenced Feb. 22, prosecutors said. Husband paid ‘spellcasters’ to ‘hex’ wife from leaving — then she vanished, CA cops say Husband accused of killing wife and trying to flee to Mexico takes a plea deal in NC Ex-wife’s murder-for-hire flops when hitman runs to authorities in Florida, feds say || Bitcoin hovers near $60,000 on US ETF hopes: (AFP via Getty Images) Bitcoin has climbed to within striking distance of all-time highs after a report suggested the US could be about to approve a bitcoin exchange traded fund ( ETF ). Bitcoin briefing rose about $60,000 after Bloomberg reported that the US Securities and Exchange Commission was close to approving bitcoin futures ETFs . Bitcoin evangelists have been trying for years to get bitcoin ETFs approved but have met a wall of resistance from regulators who worry that the product could expose more small time investors to the volatile asset. Regulators are concerned about potential manipulation in the market and a lack of regulation . There are also fears that many investors piling into cryptocurrencies do not fully understand the risks they are taking. Bitcoin was up $1306, or 2.3%, at $59,302 by lunchtime in London, putting it at levels not seen since May of this year. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency is now within touching distance of the all-time high of $64,863 reached in April. Bitcoin was trading at a little over $11,000 this time last year. The price has surged due to growing institutional interest, with mainstream banks and hedge funds starting to enter the market in a significant way and consumer firms like PayPal and Square offering customers access to the asset. Bitcoin is up 97% so far this year. ETF approval would likely provide another spur to prices. An ETF would likely give a wider audience access to bitcoin as ETFs can be purchased through mainstream platforms and exchanges, rather than the more esoteric platforms traditionally relied on by cryptocurrency. “Traders previously suggested that for Bitcoin to enter an extremely bullish phase and go parabolic it would need to break the $59-60k level,” said Will Morris, a sales trader at GlobalBlock. “All-time highs of nearly $65k will be the next resistance level before a potential price discovery phase.” Read More Now’s the time for London’s entrepreneurs to level up FTSE 100 Live: Index at 18-month high amid earnings optimism The incredible biotech pumping DNA from a forgotten waterworks View comments || Is There a Way To Short Bitcoin? Michael Burry of ‘The Big Short’ Fame Ponders Before Quitting Twitter: Dave Allocca/Starpix/Shutterstock Days before Bitcoin hit an all-time high last Friday, exceeding $60,000 , “The Big Short” investor Michael Burry pondered in a tweet, “How do you short a cryptocurrency?” Burry deleted his Twitter account shortly after asking the Twitter community on Wednesday, “Do you have to secure a borrow? Is there a short rebate? Can the position be squeezed and called in? In such volatile situations, I tend to think it’s best not to short, but I’m thinking out loud here.” Previously: Michael Burry of ‘The Big Short’ Fame Bets Big Against Cathie Wood’s ARK Learn More: ‘Rich Dad’ Author Robert Kiyosaki Recommends Bitcoin Investments Before ‘Biggest Crash in History’ Burry clarified to CNBC Friday, “I’ve not been shorting cryptocurrencies at all. And I’m not now …” However, he said that he believes cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, are in a bubble and that “most in it do not understand it well.” It’s not the first time Burry has made incendiary or controversial claims and then deleted his Twitter account, Fortune pointed out. In April, Burry warned about a financial market crash and then deleted his account. He returned for a week in June to warn of a massive bubble and market crash, then vanished from the social network yet again. Related: How to Short a Stock — and Why You Shouldn’t Earlier this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission started taking a closer look at Burry’s social network activities, Fortune reported. The regulatory group started peering into the actions of Scion Asset Management, Burry’s investment firm. Burry’s claims, in the past, have not been completely off the mark. Burry predicted the 2008 housing bubble, crash and resulting financial crisis. As of midday Monday, Bitcoin has dropped from its high point to $61,866.30. But as the first Bitcoin futures-based ETF is set to debut on the New York Stock Exchange tomorrow, according to CNBC, Bitcoin could continue to climb. See: What Is the Next Big Cryptocurrency To Explode in 2021? Find: 10 Cheap Cryptocurrencies To Buy Story continues ETFs, after all, will lend further legitimacy to cryptocurrency. Ian Balina, CEO of the data and analytics firm Token Metrics, told CNBC that crypto ETFs “will be probably the biggest endorsement from the SEC for crypto .” He added, “This will be a floodgate of new capital and new people into the space.” More From GOBankingRates 5 Things Most Americans Don’t Know About Social Security 8 Ways Homeowners Can Save $1000s Every Year 8 Best Cryptocurrencies To Invest In for 2021 How Long $500K Will Last in Retirement in Each State Last updated: October 18, 2021 This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : Is There a Way To Short Bitcoin? Michael Burry of ‘The Big Short’ Fame Ponders Before Quitting Twitter || FOREX-Dollar looks set to end week down, yen nears a 3-year low: * Fed rate hikes in focus as dollar retreats * Risk-sensitive Aussie, sterling extend rebound * U.S. retail sales on Friday to be next test for dollar * Bitcoin hits $60,000 as traders eye first U.S. ETFs * Graphic: World FX rates https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E By Tommy Wilkes LONDON, Oct 15 (Reuters) - The dollar headed for its first weekly decline versus major peers since the start of last month on Friday as global risk appetite rebounded, while the Japanese yen headed for a three-year low and the price of bitcoin hit nearly $60,000. The dollar index slipped 0.1% to 93.9 and was down 0.2% for the week in what would be its first weekly loss in six weeks. The greenback tends to rise when investors seek safety. Global stock markets have rallied this week as fears about a stagflationary economy have been eased by forecast-beating corporate earnings in the United States. Only against the yen - another currency seen as a haven - has the dollar managed to maintain the momentum of the past five weeks, rising 0.4% on Friday and touching 114.18 yen for the first time since November 2018. Analysts said investors long dollars had been squeezed out of their positions in the past few days, and inflation data did not support a further rise in the currency. "The lack of any upside surprise in US CPI (consumer price inflation) data and confirmation of existing expectations on Fed tapering in the minutes provided no catalyst for additional USD buying and hence the sell-off," said MUFG analyst Derek Halpenny. The greenback had rallied since early September on expectations the U.S. central bank would tighten monetary policy more quickly than previously expected amid an improving economy and surging energy prices. Minutes of the Fed's September meeting confirmed this week that a tapering of stimulus is all but certain to start this year, although policymakers are sharply divided over inflation and what they should do about it. Money markets are currently pricing in about 50/50 odds of a 25 basis point rate hike by July. Story continues The next major glimpse of the U.S. economy's health comes later on Friday with the release of retail sales figures. The euro edged up 0.1% to $1.1611 after touching $1.1624 on Thursday for the first time since Sept. 4. Sterling rose 0.4% to $1.3722 following its climb to the highest since Sept. 24 at $1.3734 overnight. The risk-sensitive Aussie dollar added 0.2% to $0.7428. New Zealand's kiwi dollar jumped 0.4% to $0.7061, extending Thursday's 1% surge. "We end the week with risk flying," Chris Weston, head of research at brokerage Pepperstone in Melbourne, wrote in a client note. "Equities are going up hard, and the JPY has no place as a hedge," because it would just drag on overall portfolio performance, Weston said. In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin rallied as high as $60,000, an almost six-month peak, as traders became increasingly confident that U.S. regulators would approve the launch of an exchange-traded fund based on its futures contracts. (Additional reporting by Kevin Buckland in Tokyo; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise) || Shiba Inu Gains More Ground While Dogecoin Retreats: Shiba Inuhas recently made an attempt to settle above $0.000035 whileBitcointested the resistance at $55,000. The world’s leading cryptocurrency gained strong upside momentum after it managed to settle above the psychologically important $50,000 level. Currently, it is trying to settle above the resistance at $55,000. In case this attempt is successful, it will move towards the next resistance at $57,000 which will be bullish for the whole crypto market, including Shiba Inu. Other cryptocurrencies are also moving higher.Ethereumis trying to settle above the resistance at $3,600 whileXRPis testing the $1.09 level. Interestingly,Dogecoinis under pressure. It has recently made an attempt to settle below the 50 EMA at $0.2410, and it looks that Shiba Inu’s growing popularity has started to put pressure on Dogecoin. According to CoinMarketCap, Shiba Inu has firmly settled in the top-20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization with a current market cap of more than $12 billion. In comparison, Dogecoin’s current market cap is roughly $32 billion. If speculative traders start to dump their holdings of Dogecoin to buy more Shiba Inu which has developed strong upside momentum, the latter will get to new highs. Start Trading Shiba Inu now with eToro Shiba Inu’s rally continues, driven by strong trading volume. It should be noted that RSI is in the extremely overbought territory, and the pullback looks inevitable as many traders will likely decide to take some profits off the table in the $0.000030 – $0.000035 range. However, Shiba Inu will have a great chance to gain additional upside momentum in case it manages to settle above the recent highs at $0.000035. Traders should also watch the dynamics of Dogecoin which has suddenly started to move lower, which may be a sign of a transfer of money from one “dog coin” to another. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out oureconomic calendar. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Total Cryptocurrency Market Targets $2.5 Trillion As Bitcoin, Others Rally • EUR/USD Mid-Session Technical Analysis for October 7, 2021 • Daily Gold News: Thursday, Oct. 7 – Gold’s Week-Long Consolidation • Stocks Move Higher As Debt Worries Evaporate • Bitcoin Price Prediction – Having Hit $55,000, the Bitcoin Bulls Will be Eyeing $60,000… • Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Light-Volume, Two-Sided Trade Expected to Continue Ahead of NFP || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Outperforms as Traders Prepare for Next Leg Higher: Bitcoin’s rally faded on Tuesday, suggesting that buyers took some profits at around the $68,500 all-time price high. The cryptocurrency is up about 5% over the past week, compared with a 3% rise in ether over the same period. Despite a short-term pullback, some analysts are maintaining upward price targets for both BTC and ETH over the next month. “There is a positive sentiment that often engulfs the crypto markets toward year’s end,” Galina Likhitskaya, vice president at smart contract audit companyHashEx, wrote in an email to CoinDesk. Likhitskaya has a price target around $80,000 for BTC by the end of the year, and a $5,500 target for ETH during the same period. ETH is currently at $4,777. “Analysts are suggesting $75,000 as a target on the upside, but if the price takes a turn downwards the price could fall to the 50-day moving average at around $56,000,” Jonas Luethy, a trader at the U.K.-based digital asset brokerGlobalBlock, wrote in an email to CoinDesk. • Bitcoin (BTC): $67,375, +1.93% • Ether (ETH): $4,777, +0.32% • S&P 500: $4,685, -0.35% • Gold: $1,832, +0.42% • 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.43% “Bitcoin is oversold versus ether, and likely to see short-term outperformance as cryptocurrencies digest their gains in a consolidation phase,” Katie Stockton, managing partner atFairlead Strategies, wrote in a research report. “The uptick to multi-day highs in BTC/ETH likely signals a switch to better relative outperformance in bitcoin to ethereum, but more is needed to confirm this move,” Mark Newton, head of technical strategy atFundStratwrote in a research report. Overall, analysts agree that BTC’s breakout to an all-time high could signal the start of a final leg higher this quarter. However, cryptocurrencies could see a “more pronounced consolidation into next year,” Newton wrote. The number of open contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is down 32% from its Oct. 25 peak, which could indicate reduced institutional presence in the bitcoin futures market at the moment, according toArcane Research. The surge in bitcoin futures open interest, or total number of outstanding derivative contracts, over the past month coincided with the launch of the first bitcoin futures-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) introduced by ProShares, trading under the ticker BITO. “Now, the open interest has declined substantially, particularly when subtracting the BITO contribution,” Arcane wrote in a research report. Some analysts expect recent market hype surrounding ETFs to fade, at least until a spot bitcoin ETF is approved sometime next year. So far, BITO has lagged behind BTC’s price rally since inception. The ETF launch contributed to bitcoin’s previous all-time price high around $66,900 on Oct. 20. Digital asset products saw inflows totaling $174 million last week, bringing year-to-date (YTD) inflows to $8.9 billion. This is a significant increase from the $6.7 billion pumped into digital assets in 2020. Total assets under management (AUM) have also reached an all-time high of $80 billion, with bitcoin and ether leading the chart with roughly $53 billion and $20 billion, respectively. Inflows in bitcoin-focused funds totaled $95 million last week, with a year-to-date record of $6.4 billion invested in the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Meanwhile, funds focused on ether saw inflows of $31 million last week. • Neon Labs raises $40 million to bring EVM functionality to Solana:Neon Labs announced a $40 million fundraising round led by Jump Capital with participation from IDEO CoLab Ventures, Solana Capital, Three Arrows Capital and others, CoinDesk’s Andrew Thurmanreported. Neon Labs is the developer of Neon, a software environment on Solana that lets developers build applications using Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and allows them to write smart contracts in familiar coding languages and use tools like wallet interface MetaMask. The project aims to bring Ethereum’s computation engine to Solana. • Ripple to launch liquidity service for six cryptocurrencies:Fintech firm Ripple will launch a product called the “Ripple Liquidity Hub” to give business customers access to the BTC, ETH, LTC, ETC, BCH, and XRP, CoinDesk’s Ian Allisonreported. The Ripple Liquidity Hub will use smart order routing to find digital assets at the best prices, with Coinme joining as the first partner. Down the road, Ripple plans to add features such as support for staking and yield-generating functions as well as getting liquidity from decentralized exchanges, RippleNet General Manager Asheesh Birla said. • Solana’s growth strategy is going mobile:Top brass at Solana Labs, which builds on theproof-of-stakeecosystem, waxed bullish on mobile wallet integrations in the past week, with Head of Growth Matty Tay saying Phantom’s yet-to-launch mobile wallet could “open the floodgates” to millions of new users, CoinDesk’s Danny Nelsonreported. Mobile wallets wouldn’t be completely new for Solana. A number of crypto exchanges already let users send, stake and store SOL from their phones. Solana will also become wallet analysis company Nansen’s first non-Ethereum Virtual Machine chain, it wasannouncedTuesday. The software company will add coverage for Solana in Q1 2022, project leads said at the Solana conference in Lisbon. • Apple CEO Tim Cook Reveals He Owns Crypto but Has No Plans to Buy It for the Company • Bank of England and UK Treasury to Assess Case for a CBDC Next Year • Riot Blockchain, Hive Outperform Crypto Miners as Bitcoin, Ether Rally • CityCoin’s Plan for NYCCoin Is Welcomed by Mayor-Elect Adams Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day higher. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): • Litecoin (LTC): +20% • Ethereum Classic (ETC): +12% • The Graph (GRT): +12% Notable losers: • Polkadot (DOT): -4% • Polygon (MATIC): -4% • Algorand (ALGO): -2% || The Hype Behind DXBPay's Launch: London, United Kingdom--(Newsfile Corp. - November 24, 2021) - There is something trending every day and right now, the one project making quite the wave in the crypto pond is DXBPay. DBXPay To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8203/104817_a52abae8143e7bcf_001full.jpg It could be the new age gold rush, or it could be another online bubble about to explode at any moment. Ever since Bitcoin's creation in 2008, cryptocurrency steadily attracted international interest. Google will tell you how high the search density for Ethereum was in 2020, along with Google Trends showing how non-Western countries are particularly interested in cryptocurrency. A Brief Overview of DXBPay Over the years and past many innovations, new and varied kinds of blockchains emerged. Among these, some were based on accredited proof of stake-this enabled a certain number of nodes to safely validate transactions. The blockchain star right now is Binance Smart Chain (BSC), which paved the path for building new projects. These projects are immediately able to provide several applications, particularly for cheap, fast exchanges and they added value and liquidity. DXB is among the few in the token model space to choose BSC to improve its decentralized trading, business plans and payment gateways. All Eyes on DXBPay So, what is attracting so much attention to DXBPay? Let us look at some of the primary reasons. Low Transaction Fees and High Speed Volume and speed are the key features of modern decentralized finance. DXBPay strives for flexibility and expansion without creating blockages because of high gas fee demands. The platform was created knowing very well that high fees are the reason why small-scale investors shy away from doing financial transactions. This issue has led to a fall in decentralized financial and cryptocurrency choice as excessive fees show the system is basically open for large-scale holders who are ready to play the game without worrying about high gas fees. Story continues Best Suited for Microtransactions With more expensive gas fees and lengthy transaction validation times, transferring small transactions through the network is not a friendly choice anymore. The DXB token on the other hand is a digital asset with the purpose to accumulate various technologies for a decentralized financial system, channels for merchant payment and as well as charity. The eventual aim of DXBPay is to create a user-friendly payment standard that uses cross-chain capacities to assist the requirements of merchants. The purpose is to extend a reliable means for online merchants and also implement a fast and simple method to confirm transactions to finish them at a quicker rate on the blockchain. Smart Contracts for The Win With the appearance of the BSC network, smart contracts became very popular. It is much better when it comes to safety than other cryptocurrencies. DXB's goal is to create several revenue streams and build incentives by using smart contracts. At its heart, the DXB project makes smart contracts to deliver its incentives and fees details. Rewards Rewards and Rewards The DXB's token contract was developed with great innovation and security which appeals to a large sector of investors. Although built with large supply, DXB's token contract includes two smart burning mechanisms, and an intelligent BNB rewards simply for holding to continuously reduce the supply and increase the demand. A small fee of every transaction is deducted to serve as an auto liquidity generation, while another fee is immediately and permanently sent to a blackhole address to reduce the circulating supply on a transactional basis. The last small fee deducted is exchanged into BNB and distributed to investors proportionate to their holdings and in an accumulative basis, which means investors can continue to accumulate BNB rewards as long as they are holding DXB and as long as people continue to transact. If that is not enough, they have an innovative automatic monthly burns which calculates an equivalent to 5% of all DXB acquired tokens within a 30 days cycle and burn it permanently to cause a strong pump to the token price on a monthly basis and keep investors committed to holding DXB token. BNB rewards and all burns are governed by its own smart contract which adds a whole new level of security due to no human intervention. Conclusion DXBPay will keep growing even faster and the above-mentioned goals are the principal answers as to why DXBPay is attracting so much attention. DXBPay is listed on Coin Market Cap and Coin Gecko , and available on PancakeSwap paired with BNB. Website: https://dxbpay.cc Twitter: https://twitter.com/DxbPay Telegram Channel: t.me/dxbpay Media Contact: Company: DXBPay ltd. Country: United Kingdom. Email: admin@dxbpay.cc To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/104817 || Worldcoin Is Older Than Ethereum —Just Not the Eyeball-Scanning One: Worldcoin is an angry, angry blockchain. Two years before Ethereum had even been released,Worldcoinhad already weathered a double-spend attack and releasedWorldcoin v3 — Flirtatious Ant, to rectify the situation. The DAO hack on Vitalik’s blockchain was still three years out and this payments-oriented blockchain was already negotiating a blockchain-wide crisis. And yet today no one is talking about Worldcoin. Well, everyone is talking about Worldcoin. They’re just not talking aboutthatWorldcoin. They are talking about the Worldcoin that justraised $25M at a $1 billion valuation, co-founded by the former president of Y Combinator, Sam Altman. The internet is abuzz about the new Worldcoin because of the big names and numbers, but also because it has weird optics. People are going around scanning people’s eyeballs with these devices that look sort of likethe spaceship inFlight of the Navigatorand then giving the scannees cryptocurrency. It’s unusual. Lots of people have been disconcerted bythis eyeball scanning. That’s not what the O.G Worldcoin builders are mad about though. They are mad about Worldcoin stealing their coin’s name. “This is big tech trying to squash the little guy. They really should have chosen a different name,” someone behind the original Worldcoin’s email wrote to The Defiant in response to a query about the company’s take, signing the email only as “Worldcoin Community.” In the post on Bitcointalk about Flirtatious Ant, Worldcoin explained, “Our major goal is to become the cryptocurrency of choice for merchants and consumers during their everyday transactions, whether it be a cup of coffee or bigger ticket items.” Day-to-day payments, as we know, haven’t really taken off in crypto, not for Worldcoin or even for Bitcoin. We only found out that there had already been a Worldcoin when we got curious about whether or not the eyeball scanning tokens had begun trading. After typing “Worldcoin” into the search box at Coingecko, we found aWorldcoin (WDC), but it was clear it was a different blockchain. WDC is trading at about $0.06 in evening trading New York Time, for what it’s worth. The email to The Defiant is not the only place where the Worldcoin team has expressed its ire, either. On the about page of the original Worldcoin’s website, it says: “Welcome newcomers. We want to clarify something with you. We are not the “ORB RETINA SCANNING WORLDCOIN”. They are imposters stealing our name … We do not want you investing in the wrong coin. We are looking for steady growth and not a simple pump and dump. Please make sure you have done your research prior to investing. It is wrong what this new Worldcoin is doing.” It seems that the conversation about Altman’s new project has had some unintended consequences for the older project. It’s largely traded below $0.06 since May, but briefly shot up to $0.20 on October 24, no doubt driven in part by investors looking to ape into the controversial token early. The aggrieved Worldcoin onlytrades on two markets, according to CoinMarketCap. “We are the original Worldcoin. Worldcoin is here for fast, low fee, worldwide payments. And the Worldcoin community will all continue volunteering to help keep the one and only true Worldcoin moving forward,” the email promised. Read the original post onThe Defiant. || Hardware Wallet Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026): The global hardware wallet market was valued at USD 202. 40 million in 2020. It is expected to be valued at USD 877. 69 million by 2026, registering a CAGR of approximately 29. 24% over the forecast period (2021-2026). New York, Oct. 27, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Hardware Wallet Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)" -https://www.reportlinker.com/p06177338/?utm_source=GNWThe rapidly growing demand for cryptocurrency during the pandemic has positively influenced the market for the hardware wallet. Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin are gradually making a transition from uncertain investment instruments to payments. There is growing attention to payment habits and the financial life cycle, as the COVID-19 pandemic has led to more calls for dematerialization of payments.Key HighlightsHardware wallets are the physical devices that store private keys for cryptocurrencies offline in an encrypted device. Private keys in these wallets are required while spending cryptocurrencies, and the wallets enable traders to store the keys safely while protecting the information.With the expansion of the cryptocurrency market in December 2017, numerous new users gained knowledge about blockchain and cryptocurrency and started exploring the same. Thus, there has been a significant rise in blockchain and cryptocurrency wallet users. According to a survey conducted by Blockchain.com in 2021, there are more than 68.42 million blockchain wallet users. This number is expected to grow further as mobile accessibility improves rapidly.?Companies producing hardware wallets are experiencing an exponential increase in demand. With an increase in the number of people owning multiple cryptocurrencies, the demand for wallets is also increasing. The flexibility offered by these solutions, compared to software, web wallets, and paper wallets, impacts the growth of the market studied.Indiegogo launched HooFoo, the first app and hardware combination wallet that secures and simplifies cryptocurrency transactions. The recent numerous Bitcoin exchange hacks have driven the company to invent a safer cold storage Bitcoin wallet for cryptocurrency.Further, in February 2021, NEM Group and the NEM ecosystem announced that Ledger’s Nano S and Nano X hardware wallets now support the NEM NIS1 XEM token and are expected to support the XYM token on the launch of Symbol by NEM. The integration allows users to safely hold XEM and XYM assets by owning and securing their private keys with their ledger hardware wallets while using the NEM Nano Wallet to manage their tokens.Further, companies are gradually focusing on adding an extra layer of security to their products. For instance, in March 2021, the Goldpac Group selected IDEX Biometrics as its technology partner for its digital currency project in China. The company now plans to deploy IDEX’s fingerprint sensors in a new hardware-based digital wallet that may be compatible with the country’s new Digital Currency/Electronic Payment (DC/EP) program. DC/EP is essentially a digital version of the fiat CNY.Furthermore, some jurisdictions have gone further and imposed restrictions on investments in cryptocurrencies, the extent of which varies from one jurisdiction to another. Some countries (Algeria, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Bolivia, and Vietnam) have banned all activities involving cryptocurrencies.Key Market TrendsNFC Type to Hold Significant ShareThe adoption of cryptocurrencies in real-world stores is progressing slowly, even though it has the potential of being a convenient, fast, and secure way of paying for goods. Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, can be used in real-world environments in a timely matter without requiring a banking license. They can also be used to save merchant money and for safeguarding the privacy of customers.?NFC technology enables the flexible usage of cryptocurrency by providing means of storage. More importantly, it enables the usage of crypto assets in everyday purchases. By using this technology, cryptocurrency can be turned into a simple way of payment, and it works just by pairing with a mobile app.?By utilizing NFC, payment is allowed even if the payee or payer is not connected to the Internet, depending on the type of payment request. This scheme is beneficial for tourists who are not willing to pay high roaming fees or are at places where the Internet reception is unreliable or not present at all.?Additionally, BitPay is a company offering Bitcoin merchant solutions and end-user wallets. Similar to Apple, BitPay added NFC support to its PoS (Point of Sale) software in 2015, allowing users to pay bills with the aid of the Android wallet, with only a single tap.However, in BitPay, NFC is a mere way to transmit the data traditionally provided by a QR code containing the amount, payment address, and a transaction memo. The Android app does not transmit a complete Bitcoin transaction over NFC.Asia Pacific Expected to Witness Significant GrowthThe Asia Pacific region has the fastest-growing market for hardware wallets, owing to the growing adoption of cryptocurrency in the region and the increasing digital and cashless economy trend in countries like India, Japan, and South Korea.?Though the ban on digital currency exchange in China can hinder regional growth, growing digital economy acceptance in the rest of the region, especially in India, Japan, Australia, and South Korea, is developing a massive market for cryptocurrencies. These countries are also among the ones where the most adoption of hardware wallets occurs in the region.?The growing number of cyberattacks in the cryptocurrency market in the region also fuels the growth of the regional hardware wallet market. For instance, in September 2020, KuCoin, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange, disclosed a security incident that resulted in the unauthorized transfer of roughly USD 150 million in digital assets.In October 2020, Huawei announced that its upcoming Mate40 smartphone series might consist of a blended hardware wallet for China’s central bank digital currency, the digital Yuan. According to an official Huawei post on the Chinese microblogging website Weibo, this is anticipated to be the first smartphone to feature such a wallet on October 30. The post also guarantees that users will protect and control their anonymity and perform dual offline transactions. These allow mobile phone users to transfer funds by merely touching their devices together, even if both are offline. Such initiatives are anticipated to drive the other smartphone companies to adopt hardware wallets in their products.South Korea is emerging as one of the significant markets for a hardware wallet, thereby driving regional growth. Its top two crypto exchanges, Upbit and Bithumb, are among the top 25 exchanges globally and combine for over USD 200 million daily trading volume. The region is also innovating NFC hardware wallets, which are also emerging in the global market.For instance, a new hardware wallet has been launched by the South Korean financial tech firm, Keypair. The company’s Keywallet Touch has an unusual design, as it is shaped like a credit card and utilizes NFC technology. The company says that the device’s smart card chipset supports cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Bitcoin core, and Litecoin, while also providing FIDO Universal 2nd Factor Authentication (U2F).Competitive LandscapeThe hardware wallet market is highly consolidated due to several global and regional players vying for attention in a somewhat contested market space. As the market studied poses low barriers to entry for new players, several new entrants have gained traction in the market by offering products that are rich in features at competitive prices. The market studied is characterized by increasing product penetration levels, moderate/high product differentiation, and high levels of competition. Some of the recent developments in the market are:April 2020 - ShapeShift acquired Portis, an Israeli startup that built the leading Web3 wallet SDK for developers of crypto applications to integrate wallet functionality into their product.March 2020 - CoolBitX Limited received USD 16.75 million in its Series B funding round, led by Japan’s financial group SBI Holdings, with participation from the National Development Fund of Taiwan, Korean crypto exchange BitSonic, and another Japanese financial group Monex. With this funding, CoolBitX lays down its strategy of expanding the Sygna product line’s presence beyond the APAC region as the first-to-market FATF-compliant solution for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) around the world. ?Additional Benefits:The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format3 months of analyst supportRead the full report:https://www.reportlinker.com/p06177338/?utm_source=GNWAboutReportlinkerReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.__________________________ CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 54815.08, 57248.46, 57806.57, 57005.43, 57229.83, 56477.82, 53598.25, 49200.70, 49368.85, 50582.62
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Dutch Bank Issues Europe's First Certified Climate Bond: ABN AMRO Bank N.V. , a bank based in the Netherlands, issued the eurozone's first ever green bond on Wednesday, shortly after the Climate Bonds Standard for Low Carbon Buildings was unveiled at an investor meeting in London. The bond represents what many hope will be a growing push to lower carbon emissions throughout Europe and is expected to be the first of many bonds issued with this certification. High Demand Investor interest in the bond caused ABN AMRO to upsize the bond deal from €350 million to €500 million ($556 million USD), making it the largest Certified Climate Bond to have been issued to date. In late May, Australia and New Zealand Banking (ADR) (OTC: ANZBY ) issued its own Certified Climate Bond for A$600 million ($464 million USD). Both bonds were well received by all types of investors, though dedicated green investors made up the majority of the interested parties. Related Link: Is Bitcoin Bad For The Environment? What Does It Mean? A Certified Climate Bond means that the bond has been evaluated by an approved verifying party that ensures that the proceeds of the bond are used to further the development of low carbon buildings. This week at the RI Europe 2015 in London, the standards dictating what projects would qualify for use of Certified Climate Bond funds were unveiled. They included new rules regarding carbon standards for commercial and residential buildings as well as upgrade projects. Interest To Continue Both ANZBY and ABN AMRO saw investors oversubscribing for their green bonds, suggesting that there is a massive market for environmentally conscious investment options. Many expect that the growing number of green investors will prompt more banks to roll out their own Certified Climate Bonds and help push forward the initiative for sustainable construction. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga Pre-IPOs Are The New IPOs The Hemp Industry Struggles To Find Its Place New York Issues BitLicense Rules To Mixed Reviews © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || The Future of Bitcoin; the Opportunity and Obstacles: POINT ROBERTS, WA and NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - June 04, 2015) -Investorideas.com, a global news source covering leading sectors including Bitcoin and payment technology releases commentary from some of the leading digital currency experts along with management from two public plays within the sector. As Wall Street and global financial markets enter the space, these experts give insight into the future of Bitcoin and the obstacles and the opportunities it presents. The following are questions and answers from the participating experts; Brian Kelly, author of the book "The Bitcoin Big Bang"www.briankellycapital.com, David Berger,Founder and CEO,Digital Currency Council (DCC), Mr. Brad Moynes, President of Bit-X Financial Corp. and Michael Sonnenshein, Director of Sales & Business Development, Bitcoin Investment Trust(OTCQX: GBTC). Interviews: Brian KellyQ: Investorideas.comYou have said you were a skeptic like many in the beginning and now you are a respected expert in the sector. With recent acceptance from The New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq Stock Exchange, Goldman Sachs, Richard Branson and a list of new entries every day, what do you see as the turning point for Bitcoin becoming legitimate? A: Brian Kelly, author of the book "The Bitcoin Big Bang"It seems that financial institutions finally realized that Bitcoin and the blockchain is more than a currency. They realized it is a tool to flatten the costs of financial services. Q: Investorideas.comDo you see many publicly-traded stocks in play now and are you hearing of IPO's in the space? A: Brian Kelly, author of the book "The Bitcoin Big Bang"I would expect IPOs in the next 3 years. If we use internet companies in 1995 as a template, it took about three years for major IPOs. Q: Investorideas.comWith the major financial institutions now getting involved, where do you see Bitcoin headed in the next few years and how will it impact the future of currency? A: Brian Kelly, author of the book "The Bitcoin Big Bang"A year ago the survival of Bitcoin was 50/50...with recent investments it's clear that blockchain technology is here to stay. David BergerQ: Investorideas.comCan you give us background on the creation of the Digital Currency Council (DCC) and why you formed it? A: David Berger,Founder and CEO,Digital Currency Council (DCC)The early mission of The Digital Currency Council was to set a common standard of understanding amongst professionals and help those professionals achieve that standard. Today, our over 1500 members across 90 countries are using the knowledge they've gained to build various exciting businesses and streamline existing business processes. Our software is integral to these more complex efforts. Q: Investorideas.comWith a primary focus of education, what kind of individuals and companies are you seeing come forward to understand Bitcoin and what percentage of the financial community at large do you think is getting involved now? A: David Berger,Founder and CEO,Digital Currency Council (DCC)We are at the very beginning. Most individuals and firms have a very limited understanding. Our work with these individuals and firms begins with general competency training. These general competencies are sufficient to ensure that a firm is aware of the opportunities and risks. Our customized software solutions help those firms that recognize an opportunity to capitalize. Q: Investorideas.comWhat do you see as the primary obstacles to the acceptance of digital currency? A: David Berger,Founder and CEO,Digital Currency Council (DCC)It's important that we ensure that bad actors don't hijack this groundbreaking technology. The general public will accept and adopt technologies that make their lives better but only if they trust that the risk doesn't outweigh the benefit. Q: Investorideas.comWhat do you see for Bitcoin within the next year and over the next 5 years? A: David Berger,Founder and CEO,Digital Currency Council (DCC)The next five years will bring increased integration, complexity, and utility. Bitcoin will become so easy to use that you won't even realize you're using it. Brad MoynesQ: Investorideas.comWhat do you think was the turning point for making Wall Street and the financial institutions take notice and want to participate in Bitcoin? A: Mr. Brad Moynes, President of Bit-X Financial Corp.The opportunity to develop technology that could make financial institutions including stock exchanges, broker-dealers, banks, transfer agencies and the DTC more efficient and less costly to reporting issuers, investors and consumers would be considered by Wall Street as a really good thing. The fact that DNCT (blockchain) technology has the potential to achieve this and that many of these institutions have already invested considerable capital into the technology at the fastest rate to date, suggests that the turning point has already occurred. In addition, the recent announcement that the NYDFS has released the final version of its long-awaited regulatory framework for digital currency companies shall provide clarity to the industry as a whole and ease concern regarding over-regulation and the threat of stifling growth and innovation. Q: Investorideas.comWhat do you think are some of the hurdles and obstacles for Bitcoin? A: Mr. Brad Moynes, President of Bit-X Financial CorpPerhaps over regulation. Bitcoin appears to be holding its value at current levels and the Blockchain is gaining considerable awareness across a broad selection of industries. I would expect many hurdles & obstacles along the way but with big break-through ideas later this year and in 2016 to look forward to. Q: Investorideas.comWill your exchange, when launched, offer any educational tools for trading and investing in Bitcoin? What kind of investors/traders do you see currently in the space and do you see the demographics changing? A: Mr. Brad Moynes, President of Bit-X Financial Corp.The exchange will offer our users the tools they need to buy & sell crypto-currencies including Bitcoin. Our customer service will be the best in the business with rapid response time to meet user demands, answer questions and provide solutions. We will also have a Bitcoin forum for users to create various discussion topics. Generally these forums are an excellent way for users to gain information and educate among themselves. There are several investor/trader profiles which include day-traders, medium to long-term investors seeking capital gains and entities who offer investor's exposure to Bitcoin via open market equity-share purchases that tie their shares to an underlying asset [bitcoin] on a pre-determined ratio basis. A beneficial change to the demographic would be an increase in demand for bitcoin in day-to-day use and consumer point of sale purchases. Michael SonnensheinQ: Investorideas.comThe Bitcoin Investment Trust's shares are the first publicly quoted* securities solely invested in and deriving value from, the price of Bitcoin. Can you tell investors how investing in the shares of (GBTC) will give them a different value/investment opportunity than strictly trying to buy and sell Bitcoin? A: Michael Sonnenshein, Director of Sales & Business Development, Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC)Purchasing Bitcoin outright can be a harrowing experience for investors. More often than not, they don't know who to purchase Bitcoin from (are there counterparties they trust), what price they should pay, or how to handle Bitcoin safely and securely. Even if investors can overcome these challenges, storing Bitcoin on one's own can be a liability. If Bitcoin holders are hacked or lose the private key to their Bitcoin wallet, they have zero recourse. In sharp contrast to this experience, purchasing shares of The Bitcoin Investment Trust gives investors the ability to gain exposure to Bitcoin without the aforementioned challenges and through a titled security in the investor's name. Consequently, shares are eligible to be passed onto beneficiaries under estate laws and are eligible to be held in certain IRA, Roth IRA, and other brokerage and investment accounts (this is not possible with outright Bitcoin). The Bitcoin Investment Trust has also brought together credible service providers, as shares are marketed and distributed through a FINRA-registered broker-dealer, and the Trust's financial statements are audited annually by Ernst & Young LLP. Each share of The Bitcoin Investment Trust represents approximately 0.1 Bitcoin and shares are tied to a daily 4pm net asset value that is representative of the Bitcoin market price. Qualified accredited investors have the ability to purchase shares of The Bitcoin Investment Trust at the daily NAV through an ongoing private placement. However, these shares carry resale and transfer limitations. Both accredited and non-accredited investors have the ability to purchase shares of The Bitcoin Investment Trust on OTCQX under the symbol: GBTC. These shares have been deemed freely tradable and are subject to market-driven price movement, which does not reflect the restricted shares daily NAV. In offering these two avenues for investors, their Bitcoin exposure is able to sit alongside their existing investments and their exposure to Bitcoin is attained through a transparent and familiar experience. Additionally, as a titled security, The Bitcoin Investment Trust has resonated well with investors' financial advisors, lawyers, and accountants. More information on The Bitcoin Investment Trust is available through its sponsors website,www.grayscale.co Q: Investorideas.comWhere does the company see the Bitcoin industry now as Wall Street has begun to embrace it and what was the turning point that legitimatized Bitcoin? Where do they see the future of Bitcoin1-5 years from now? A: Michael Sonnenshein, Director of Sales & Business Development, Bitcoin Investment Trust(OTCQX: GBTC)Bitcoin is still in infancy and we'd liken where Bitcoin and digital currencies are in their development to the internet in the mid-to-late 1990's. Namely, just like there were plenty of naysayers who didn't believe in the internet's potential, there are folks who occupy that same mindset when it comes to Bitcoin. While we can't be sure of Bitcoin's ultimate fate, we can see is that there is an unprecedented amount of venture capital and human capital pouring into the space. Entrepreneurs are building the infrastructure and applications that will support Bitcoin's continued adoption and usage globally. Over the past two years, there has been increasing attention paid to Bitcoin from Wall Street. Every bank, broker-dealer, asset manager, and other institution had formed internal task forces assigned to understanding Bitcoin. Recently, many of these firms (and the work of these internal teams) have begun putting their reputations on the line by publicly getting involved in Bitcoin with the likes of Goldman Sachs, UBS, Nasdaq, the NYSE, and other globally recognized institutions integrating Bitcoin into their businesses and/or making strategic investments in some of the aforementioned companies laying the ground work for increased adoption. I think we will continue to see more of these large players get involved in the space over the coming years and that Bitcoin and the underlying blockchain technology will ultimately shake up and transform the entire financial services landscape for the better. Bios:Brian Kellywww.briankellycapital.comBrian Kelly is an investor, author, and financial markets commentator. He is an expert in global financial markets, macro-economics and digital currencies. Brian Kelly has over twenty years' experience in financial markets and is the author of the book "The Bitcoin Big Bang -- How Alternative Currencies are About to Change the World." Brian is a graduate of the University of Vermont where he received a B.S. in finance. He also holds an M.B.A. from Babson Graduate School of Business with a concentration in finance and econometrics. A passion for investments and entrepreneurship has led Brian to start several successful investment businesses. His most recent start-up BKCM LLC is a global investment management firm specializing in Global Macro and Currency investing. Prior to BKCM LLC, Brian was Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Shelter Harbor Capital LLC and managed the Shelter Harbor Capital Global Macro Hedge Fund. As well, Mr. Kelly was a co-founder and President of MKM Partners, a brokerage firm catering to institutional investment managers. Brian provides money management services to a select clientele and consults on digital currencies. David Berger,Founder and CEO,Digital Currency Council (DCC)David Berger is the Founder and CEO of The Digital Currency Council (DCC), the leading provider of digital currency-related training, certification, and continuing education. Mr. Berger is an attorney with extensive experience in finance in the United States and Asia. He has a passion for building professional networks that support members' advancement with actionable commercial insight. Prior to launching the DCC, Mr. Berger was the CEO of Americas at Campden Wealth, the parent company of the Institute for Private Investors -- the premier decision support network for ultra high net worth investors and family offices. Mr. Berger is also the founder of Private Investor Collective, a Hong Kong-based network for sophisticated private investors, and played a key role in the development of two network-based advisory firms for CEOs in Asia Pacific. He also founded Asia Executive Solutions, a Hong Kong-based strategy consulting firm, where his clients included SecondMarket, Corporate Executive Board, and NPD Group. Prior to his career in finance, Mr. Berger was an attorney in the Washington, DC office of the global law firm O'Melveny & Myers LLP, where he focused on securities law. Mr. Berger also spent two years at the United States Department of Justice. He is a graduate of New York University School of Law and Emory University. About BIT-X:Bit-X Financial Corp is a Vancouver; British Columbia based Company listed on the OTC.QB under the trading symbol BITXF. Bit-X Financial Corp is a reporting issuer in the Province of British Columbia, Canada with the British Columbia Securities Commission "BCSC" and in the United States with the Securities Exchange Commission "SEC."www.bitxfin.com About The Bitcoin Investment Trust(OTCQX: GBTC)The Bitcoin Investment Trust is a private, open-ended trust that is invested exclusively in Bitcoin and derives its value solely from the price of Bitcoin. It enables investors to gain exposure to the price movement of Bitcoin without the challenge of buying, storing, and safekeeping Bitcoins. The BIT's sponsor is Grayscale Investments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Digital Currency Group. About Investorideas.comInvestorIdeas.com newswire is a global investor news source covering multiple sectors including Bitcoin and payment technology. Follow Investorideas.com on Twitterhttp://twitter.com/#!/InvestorideasFollow Investorideas.com on Facebookhttp://www.facebook.com/Investorideas Sign up for free news alerts at Investorideas.comhttp://www.investorideas.com/Resources/Newsletter.asp Disclaimer/ Disclosure: The Investorideas.com newswire is a third party publisher of news and research as well as creates original content as a news source. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Investorideas is a news source on Google news syndication partners. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investment involves risk and possible loss of investment. This site is currently compensated by featured companies, news submissions, content marketing and online advertising. Contact each company directly for press release questions. Disclosure is posted on each release if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and is published for the sole interest of our readers. Disclosure: BITXF is a PR client of Investorideas.com and compensates us for news publication, PR and media. (two thousand five hundred per month and 144 shares ) More info:http://www.investorideas.com/About/News/Clientspecifics.aspandhttp://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp BC Residents and Investor Disclaimer : Effective September 15 2008 -- all BC investors should review all OTC and Pink sheet listed companies for adherence in new disclosure filings and filing appropriate documents with Sedar. Read for more info:http://www.bcsc.bc.ca/release.aspx?id=6894. Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. || Marijuana Regulations Questioned As Number Of Exposed Children Rises: As marijuana becomes a legal drug in more U.S. states, regulators are struggling to catch up with the growing number of issues that come with a new market. Political, social and health-related issues have all been in the spotlight when it comes to marijuana, but a new study by the Nationwide Children's Hospital proves that there is more to consider when it comes to legal weed. Exposure On The Rise The study showed that over the past seven years, marijuana exposure among young children rose by 145.7 percent. During that same time period, states with legal marijuana laws saw that figure rise by more than 600 percent. Even more concerning was data that showed that the majority of those children were less than three years old. Related Link: Evolving Regulations Make Marijuana Edibles A Difficult Industry To Navigate Edibles To Blame? One major reason for the rise in accidental exposure among children has been the advent of edible marijuana products. As the typical pot user is often a non-smoker, ingestibles are on the rise. More companies continue to release edible ways to feel the psychoactive effects of THC. Brownies, cookies and even breath mints are sold laced with THC, and young children are unable to detect the difference between an everyday treat and one containing marijuana. Better Packaging The study suggests that regulators in states where marijuana is legal haven't been able to keep up with the growing number of risks surrounding the drug. Though most states require marijuana products to be clearly labeled in child-proof packaging, many feel that more effort needs to be made in educating consumers on the dangers of accidental marijuana exposure among children. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga Bitcoin Theft Isn't Reserved For Hackers Netflix Dives Deeper Into Europe Despite Murky Waters Beverage Makers Hope To Ride The Craft Beer Wave © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Social Security Depletion Coming Sooner Than Expected: While it comes as no surprise that the health of Social Security as we currently know it is less than ideal, the publicized estimates of when Social Security funds will run out are "grossly overestimated," said Baton Investing's Jim Shahen, referencing recent Dartmouth and Harvard studies. The original prediction for SS depletion has been cited by the Social Security Administration to occur in 2033. Unfortunately, the studies present compelling evidence that the insolvency will happen long before then, with 20 years from now being an unlikely longevity expectation. The studies circulate evidence that not only are the estimates misjudged, but the implications are devastating for Americans – particularly baby boomers, Gen-Xers and Millennials – and the errors performed by the SSA are increasing in severity. Forecasting Errors: SSA Continues To Dig Its Own Grave According to Gary King , Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor at Harvard and researcher on these studies, forecasting errors by the SSA have been around for years, but the prevalence of these errors and their severity has grown exponentially within the last decade and a half. In fact, 90+ percent of the numbers evaluated were found to be "overwhelmed by forecast uncertainty." Related Link: Unanticipated Life Events Cost Americans .5 Trillion In Lost Savings "We show that SSA's forecasting errors were approximately unbiased until about 2000, but then began to grow quickly, with increasingly overconfident uncertainty intervals," King stated. "Moreover, the errors all turn out to be in the same potentially dangerous direction, each making the Social Security Trust Funds look healthier than they actually are." In discussing why such dangerous oversights occur, King revealed that the "SSA's actuaries hunkered down trying hard to insulate themselves from the intense political pressures," which ultimately "led them to also miss important changes in the input data such as retirees living longer lives, and drawing more benefits." Story continues Broad Implications It is important to realize why these circulated overestimates matter. These inaccurately/incompletely calculated figures are used by the SSA's Office of the Chief Actuary to evaluate policy proposals. With less-than-ideal numbers to work with, which King and his fellow researchers have shown to be consistently used as the sole basis for policy evaluations, the assessments are misguided at best and " counterfactual " at worst. "Reliance on such forecasts led policymakers and other uses of the forecasts to conclude that the Social Security Trust Funds were on firmer financial ground than actually turned out to be the case," the initial study revealed . Related Link: 3 Retirement Tips To Consider In "The Era Of Personal Responsibility" Those Who Will Be Hit Hardest Based upon the studies' conclusions, Shahen speculated that "this news hits three groups hard: Millenials [ sic. ], Baby Boomers and Generation X." Due to the minimal funds Millennials are putting aside for retirement, the inadequate savings Baby Boomers have and the unexpected extraneous expenses (taking care of aging parents, astronomical student loans and their own separate retirement funds) Gen Xers are exposed to, these three groups are heading toward practically unavoidable financial hardship. Related Link: 4 Financial Pitfalls Fooling Millennials However, Baton's CEO Phil Ash stated that although "we've all known for some time that we won't be able to count on social security" and the new data compounds the sentiment, he said, "There are three smart things you can do to make sure you have put enough money away, protect yourself, and ensure you are prepared or retirement." According to Ash, these three steps include: 1. Knowing your specific retirement needs. "Eighty-five percent of people underestimate their retirement needs," Ash explained, couple that with the underestimates purported by the SSA and that spells significant financial trouble. 2. Using a safety and growth strategy. 3. Understanding the power of better returns. In light of this recent data, Ash concludes that "while people should be concerned about how much they're saving, the real key to retirement success – and what makes hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars of difference – is in the actual return you're getting on your investments. Most advisors push the conventional wisdom that an 8 percent return is ‘good'. The fact is it's not good enough and probably won't help you reach your goals." Therefore, invest in yourself by educating yourself, take an interest in the larger financial picture and take the steps necessary to protect your future and the future of your loved ones. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga The Cost Of Cybercrime: .1 Trillion By 2019 There's A New Robo-Advisor In Town Bitcoin 101 © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || STOCKS GO NOWHERE: Here's what you need to know: Car stuck (REUTERS/Jonathan Alcorn ) Stocks were all over the place on Tuesday. The S&P 500 and the Dow rallied above the record highs set on Monday, and slid in the final 90 minutes of trading. But the Dow rebounded to make a new record high. First, the scoreboard: Dow: 18,312.39, +13.51, (0.07%) S&P 500: 2,127.83, -1.37, (-0.06%) Nasdaq: 5,070.03, -8.40, (-0.17%) And now, the top stories on Tuesday: In economic data, housing starts surged to the highest level since November 2007 . Starts rose 20.2% in April to an annualized pace of 1.135 million, crushing expectations for a 9.6% rise to an annualized rate of 1.01 million. Building permits rose 10.1% to an annualized pace of 1.143 million, versus forecasts for a 2.1% rise to an annualized pace of 1.06 million. "The uptick in mortgage rates over the last month will be a headwind going forward," wrote Nomura analysts in a note. "However, today's data reinforce our basic view that housing will contribute to stronger growth this year and that we should expect stronger growth in the US going forward." US government bonds sold off. As their prices fell, yields rose; the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note climbed to a year-to-date high of 2.303%, a rise of about 5 basis points. The long 30-year bond yield also rose about 5 basis points to as high as 3.09%. West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell more than 3.5% to as low as $57.95 per barre l. The American Petroleum Institute is due to report on US crude stockpiles after the closing bell, and the Energy Information Administration will release its tally on Wednesday. Inventories have declined in the past few weeks. Over the weekend, Goldman Sachs slashed its price forecast for the next five years. The New York Stock Exchange has launched a bitcoin index . NYXBT will reflect data from the Coinbase bitcoin exchange, which the NYSE made a minority investment in earlier this year. The NYSE said in a statement: "NYXBT utilizes a unique methodology that relies on rules-based logic to analyze a dataset of matched transactions and verify the integrity of the data to ultimately produce an objective and fair daily value for one bitcoin in U.S. Dollars as of 16:00 London time." Bitcoin is currently worth $233, down almost $3 from yesterday. Shares of Chinese sports lottery site 500.com surged as much as 30% despite the company announcing a first-quarter loss, the resignation of its CEO and one director, and saying it is currently generating no sales. The company saw an earnings per share loss of 6 cents, much less than the expectation for a profit of 28 cents, and sales of $15.9 million versus $24.7 million expected. It saw a net loss of $8.4 million. Last month, 500.com suspended all online lottery sales in agreement with the Chinese government. And in the earnings report Tuesday, it said it is not generating revenues due to the suspension. TJX Companies beat estimates on earnings and revenues in the first quarter – something that's been unusual for retailers this season. The parent company of TJ Maxx and Marshalls reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.69 (versus $0.66 expected) on sales of $6.9 billion (versus $6.8 billion.) The company saw a 5% year-over-year rise in same-store sales, and raised its full-year guidance based on these results. Its stock rose as much as 3%. Macy's and JCPenney are two of the retailers that reported weaker-than-expected earnings. Urban Outfitters also missed expectations, and its stock tanked by up to 16% . It reported first quarter sales of $0.25 ($0.30 expected,) and record sales of $739 million (still below $757.58 expected.) Analysts at Oppenheimer downgraded the stock to "Perform" from "Outperform," citing several lackluster quarters, and "fashion misses" at Anthropologie in their note. Shake Shack shares rallied by more than 5% , bringing the stock's gains since reporting earnings after the close last Wednesday to around 12%. After the company's initial public offering priced at $21 in January, the stock has more than tripled and was trading at around $76 on Tuesday. There's been no big news since the earnings results that one analyst described as a " historically impressive 'beat and raise quarter.' " Shake Shack's flagship location in Madison Square Park in New York will reopen on Wednesday May 20. Story continues DON'T MISS: This demographic trend will be bullish for stocks for years » NOW WATCH: Here's exactly when you should 'cc' someone on email More From Business Insider STOCKS GO NOWHERE: Here's what you need to know STOCKS HIT ALL-TIME HIGHS: Here's what you need to know STOCKS GO NOWHERE: Here's what you need to know || Fearing return to drachma, some Greeks use bitcoin to dodge capital controls: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - There is at least one legal way to get your euros out of Greece these days, to guard against the prospect that they might be devalued into drachmas: convert them into bitcoin. Although absolute figures are hard to come by, Greek interest has surged in the online "cryptocurrency", which is out of the reach of monetary authorities and can be transferred at the touch of a smartphone screen. New customers depositing at least 50 euros with BTCGreece, the only Greece-based bitcoin exchange, open only to Greeks, rose by 400 percent between May and June, according to its founder Thanos Marinos, who put the number at "a few thousand". The average deposit quadrupled to around 700 euros. Using bitcoin could allow Greeks to do one of the things that capital controls were put in place this week to prevent: transfer money out of their bank accounts and, if they wish, out of the country. "When people are trying to move money out of the country and the state is stopping that from taking place, bitcoin is the only way to move any value," said Adam Vaziri, a board member of the UK Digital Currency Association. "There aren't any other options unless you buy diamonds, and that's very difficult to move." But Marinos said the bitcoin buyers' main aim was to shield their money against the prospect that Greece might leave the euro zone and convert all the deposits in Greek banks into a greatly devalued national currency. If voters reject the demands of international creditors in a referendum on Sunday, this becomes much more likely. "A lot of people are keeping all the bitcoins they buy on our platform, until they understand what to do with them," Marinos said. "In their eyes, now they have bitcoins, they're safe." VOLATILE CURRENCY That said, the value of a bitcoin, a web-based digital currency invented six years ago that floats freely and is not backed by a government or central bank, has been highly volatile. It peaked at over $1,200 in late 2013 before crashing almost 70 percent in less than a month after a hacking attack on the Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox in early 2014. Story continues This week, as Greece defaulted on a debt to the IMF, the price jumped to a 3-1/2-month high of $268 (BTC=BTSP) on the Bitstamp exchange - up more than 20 percent since the start of June - while the number of daily transactions reached a record 150,917. Most bitcoin-watchers reckon the digital currency's rise is mostly due to speculators betting that capital controls would trigger heavy demand. In March-April 2013, when Cyprus clamped down on bank withdrawals, bitcoin rocketed almost 700 percent. Coinbase, one of the world's biggest bitcoin wallet providers, which is not currently accessible to Greeks, said it had seen huge interest from Italy, Spain and Portugal. It said the average daily sign-ups from euro zone countries had increased 350 percent since the start of June. Average daily bitcoin purchases from the euro zone this week were up 250 percent compared with June's average. On June 20, Greece got its first bitcoin "ATM", in a family-run bookstore in Acharnes on the outskirts of Athens. There, if they had them, customers could insert euros and in return receive bitcoin at the current exchange rate, which they would scan into an electronic "wallet" on their smartphones. But with Greeks having to form long queues at bank ATMs just to receive a meager 60 euros' cash a day, this machine has seen no customers since talks with creditors broke down on Saturday. "Before Saturday, there was some very limited interest, mostly customers asking what it does and how it works," said Maria Varila, an employee in the shop. "Since Saturday, however, when all hell broke loose, there has literally been zero interest." (Additional reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos and Dimitrios Michalakis in Athens; Editing by Kevin Liffey) || Banx Capital Joins the BitShares Exchange Network: LEICESTERSHIRE, UK / ACCESSWIRE / June 23, 2015 / Banx Capital announced today it is joining the BitShares Exchange Network when BitShares 2.0 is released this summer. "It just made too much business sense," said Banx CEO Mark Lyford, "What a way to cut costs, expand our available services and multiply our network effect!" About a year ago Banx began launching a whole portfolio of cryptocurrency businesses including a crypto currency exchange, a mining company, a trading company, a physical coin company and a half dozen other enterprises intended to span the industry. Banx put its own shares up for trading by qualified investors on what quickly became a top ten crypto-currency in its own right. You probably know it already as BanxShares on coinmarketcap.com. "I've been watching BitShares for over a year now," he confided. "But when I got a preview of what Cryptonomex.com had in store with BitShares 2.0 I knew I had to move fast. As a result of some pretty aggressive negotiations, both BanxShares and Banx.io will upgrade simultaneously when BitShares 2.0 launches this summer. I consider that a bit of a personal coup." What made him move so fast? "I can smell a revolution coming," said Lyford. "I want to be riding that wave when it hits the shore, not sitting on the beach." He went on to explain the nature of that revolution. "Everybody knows the limitations of current exchanges. Despite their best intentions, people aren't sure if exchanges can be trusted any more. Some of the biggest have been hacked and the rest are looking over their shoulders. We can hire the best cryptogeeks on the planet and they still can't promise we are safe. On top of that, users really have no way of knowing whether an exchange is solvent. Cypto currencies are supposed to be super-secure, but the exchanges are the weak link. This is going to kill the whole industry if we don't get it fixed quick." "BitShares has been claiming that they have solved these problems by offering a decentralized exchange on a blockchain since last summer. Incorruptible. Unhackable. Transparent. That's all quite impressive, but it just made them another one of my worries as a future competitor." Story continues Leaning forward as if to tell me a secret, Lyford went on, "But that wasn't their killer business model at all! Sure, they are a stand-alone decentralized exchange on a blockchain that you can interact with from your own wallet just like Bitcoin, but that was just their prototype demo. This year they are upgrading to an industrial strength platform that can handle every transaction in the whole crypto industry with enough bandwidth left over to host everything Visa is doing as well! And their transactions verify in 1 second not 1 hour." Why do they need that kind of bandwidth? "Because they are offering their 'Smartchain' as a safe, level playing field for use by the whole industry. It can serve as backbone network to all the exchanges as a way for them to trade with and against each other. Instead of keeping their order books in a dark, closed, isolated, hackable stovepipe, they can put them all out there in the transparent open where all their combined customers can trade against all their combined assets!" He sat back as if he had just explained The Universe and Everything. "Don't you see," he went on, "With shared order books we have deeper markets, tighter spreads, and greater liquidity. And since our customers keep their own keys while trading on this network we can't get hacked! Not only that, with BitShares easy to use hierarchical multi-sig capabilities, even our customers can't get hacked." But what exchange would want to give up its customers to some global pool? "That's the thing that clinched the deal," he smiled. "With the BitShares referral program we keep our customers and our share of their fees. So there was really nothing to lose and everything to gain. I get the benefits of selling other member's products and services to my customers while outsourcing most of the costs and risks of this business. That lets me concentrate on what I do best – developing new innovations, recruiting more customers and keeping them happy." Then he paused for a moment, as if to shift gears. "But that's just what's in it for Banx.io. The key is what all customers will be demanding a year from now once they get a taste of the new levels of transparency and safety and the quality and variety of services our networked exchanges can offer together. Banx.io along with CCEDK, Bit-X, Cryptonomex.com (and maybe a few more) are just the network's Founding Members. We expect a lot of smaller exchanges to use this as a way to become big exchanges in the coming year." Leaning back in his chair he grinned again, "Like I said, I'd rather be riding the tsunami than sitting on the beach." Contact Banx Capital Ltd: Zoe Hart (+44) 01530 215015 zoe@banxcapital.com Marketing Dept First Floor, 81 Market Street Ashby De La Zouch Leicestershire, LE65 1AH United Kingdom SOURCE: Banx Capital Ltd || Could Bitcoin Save Athens?: After the International Monetary Fund turned its back on debt negotiations with Greece on Thursday, many began to worry that the nation's efforts to appease creditors while reversing austerity cuts would prove to be fruitless. With a €1.5 billion payment due at the end of this month, Greece is running out of time to release the bailout funding it needs to stay afloat. Digital Currency To The Rescue? Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis jokinglytweetedthat the nation would adopt bitcoin if no deal was made on April Fool's day; but two-and-a-half months later with no agreement made, some analysts say thata cryptocurrency could be a viable solution. Digi-Drachma Some believe that Greece could create a digital currency backed by the nation's assets which would be used to maintain public sector salaries and pensions. The currency, dubbed "digi-drachma" would free up the nation's remaining euros for loan repayments and allow Athens to continue functioning without making any more unpopular austerity cuts. Related Link:Greek Banks Struggle To Handle Deposit Outflows With Default Fears Rising ECB Considers The Possibility During debt negotiations, the European Central Bank considered a similar situation in which the nation paid its workers using IOUs. This idea was parallel to the one Varoufakis outlined in his April Fool's blog post; he said a digital currency, called FT coin, could be based on future tax revenue. Just A Band-Aid? The digital currency scenario might get Athens through its next loan repayment, but many say it would be a temporary fix for the nation's larger problem— debt. Greece's economy has been unable to sustain the nation's massive debt, so without some kind of reform, this problem is likely to repeat itself. This has been the issue at the center of the nation's bailout talks as eurozone creditors want to see Greece stand on its own rather than leaning on bailout money in the years to come. See more from Benzinga • Net Neutrality Rules Go Into Effect Today: Here's How It Could Affect You • Will E-Cigarettes Replace Traditional Cigarettes? • Greek Banks Struggle To Handle Deposit Outflows With Default Fears Rising © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Your first trade for Wednesday: The " Fast Money " traders delivered their final trades of the day. Tim Seymour was a seller of the TBT (NYSE Arca: TBT) . Pete Najarian was a buyer of ADT ( ADT ) . Brian Kelly was a buyer of LVS ( LVS ) . Steve Grasso was a buyer of SAP (XETRA:SAP-DE) . Trader disclosure: On May 12, 2015 , the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Tim Seymour is long T, BAC, C, DIS, F, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JCP, KO, SUNE, TBT, VIP, Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, CHL, MCD, NKE, NOK, SBUX, YHOO. Pete Najarian is long AMAT, AAPL, BABA, BAC, BMY, BP, CSX, DISCA, FOXA, GE, KKR, KO, LLY, MBLY, MRK, PEP, PFE, he is long calls AA, AAL, BBY, BK, CBS, COP, CSX, DB, EJ, F, FL, GE, GS, HSBC, HZNP, IMAX, KO, KSS, LEN, MAC, MYL, NEE, NTAP, NUAN, OC, PFE, SYY, TEVA, TSX, UAL, UUP, VALE, VMW, VZ, XLF, XOM, ZIOP. Steve Grasso is long AAPL, BAC, BTU, DD, EVGN, MJNA, PFE, T, TWTR, GDX, his firm is long TWTR, APA, AMZN, MCD, OXY, RIG, NE, TSE, VALE, IBM his kids own EFG, EFA, EWJ, IJR, SPY. Brian Kelly is long BTC=, BBRY, SPY puts, U.S. Dollar, he is short Australian Dollar, he is short Yen, he is short Yuan. Stifel Analyst James Albertine: Stifel or an affiliate is a market maker or liquidity provider in the securities of Tesla Motors, Inc. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Danish Firm CCEDK Set to Revolutionize Cryptocurrency Industry: BLOKHUS, DENMARK / ACCESSWIRE / June 16, 2015 /CCEDK.com, a leading Danish cryptocurrency exchange, has just demolished the final barriers to mainstream acceptance of crypto currencies. "We have combined the strengths of digital currencies pioneered by Bitcoin with the universal acceptance of major credit cards," said Co-Founder & CEO Ronny Boesing. "In the process we have eliminated most of the biggest drawbacks of the two systems. This summer, consumers really can have it all!" Quickly warming to his topic, Boesing went on to say, "We are now able to offer our customers a single, seamless, integrated solution combining Internet money, peer-to-peer payment, and instant international money transfers. Someone on the far side of the planet can wire digital currencies to your debit card in the time it takes to swipe that card at your local merchant." "It's like having your savings, checking, and trading accounts in the palm of your hand, accessible from anywhere in the world – at the speed of light – with dramatically lower fees than banks and exchanges have ever been able to offer." CCEDK.com has become the first exchange in the world to make its books completely transparent – using the same public ledger philosophy that made Bitcoin so successful. "You don't have to worry about our exchange being hacked or whether it is honest or solvent. Everything about our new accounts will be an open book and you control the keys to your own funds, even while they are on our exchange," according to Mr. Boesing. This is game changing. Boesing checked off the notoriously hard problems it solves. It took all ten fingers. Speed:Wiring money takes many days in the current banking system. We let you send it anywhere in the world in one second. Trust:Your money goes directly from you to its destination, no middlemen ever get control of your money. That includes us. Flexibility:You can store your money in any mix of the top national and digital currencies. And you can change that mix in one second, as often as you like. Acceptance:You can spend your money instantly, anywhere major debit cards are accepted. We handle the conversions for you. Security:No one can freeze, seize, hack or attack your wealth. You are always in control and your identity can never be stolen. Privacy:Only those you authorize can see your accounts. We make our ledgers public for transparency, but you can keep yours private. Yield:You can earn better yields with less risk than any place else in the world. Stability:We offer stabilized second-generation digital assetss that have much lower volatility than first generation offerings like Bitcoin. Our SmartCoins can track the value of USD, EUR, CNY, Gold, Silver, Bitcoin and a growing number of other currencies and commodities. Smart Contracts:You can program financial transactions to happen automatically when agreed upon conditions are met. No need to trust anyone, because our system enforces the agreement for both sides. Program recurring payments or even key parts of your own estate's will. Multi-Signature Accounts:Share control over accounts with friends, family, and business associates in a completely accountable way. Nobody has ever been able to combine all these features in one place until now. Folks used to have to trade the problems of today's highly centralized financial system for the problems of the digital currency world. Not any more. CCEDK has combined the advantages and eliminated the disadvantages of both systems. How did CCEDK score this first-of-a-kind coup? "Strategic teaming," beamed Boesing, "Two of the most innovative partners in the industry have joined us to achieve what none of us could have done separately." "We start with our own EU-based international exchange in Denmark, which went live more than a year ago.CCEDK.com offers buy and sell options for digital currencies in a secure environmenton the base of two-factor authentication (2FA) with 24/7 worldwide customer support. We span three continents and 17 languages so far. We offer anonymous trading of some 85+ crypto pairs based on BitUSD, Bitcoin, Litecoin, BitShares, NuBits, NuShares, Dogecoin, Darkcoin, Nextcoin and Fimkrypto as well as a 50+ Fiat pairs with validation." "Next,CCEDK joined forces with licensed Forex participant Bit-x.com to offer the NanoCard. This is a partnership with no limitations, and as a result we are really proud after only one year in the industry to have the opportunity to offer an impressive project like this, the crypto currency community's perhaps first true crypto debit card 2.0 provided by NanoCard and banking partners," grinned Boesing. It will be accepted everywhere – no need to convince merchants to use your favorite cryptocurrency. Now,Cryptonomex.comhas joined the team. They are the developers behind the leading second-generation family of cryptocurrency products known as BitShares. "This relationship provides us with deeply integrated access to the BitShares 2.0 network allowing industrial grade digital currency transactions several thousand times faster than Bitcoin," said Boesing. "Using the BitShares platform also gives CCEDK the ability to share its order books and services with future partner exchanges and digital asset providers to achieve deeper markets, tighter price spreads, and a growing suite of innovative products and services." In this rapidly evolving industry, success is all about network effect. By placing their ledgers on the open BitShares network, CCEDK has positioned itself for rapid growth toward leading the most lucrative and trusted network of exchanges on the planet. "Exchanges with closed order books are going the way of the dinosaur," opined Boesing. "Next year, if an exchange is not on an incorruptible, transparent, decentralized, open public ledger like ours, it might not even be in this business." ### Contact CCEDK | Crypto Coins Exchange Denmark Aps:Ronny Boesing+45-36-98-11-50ronny@ccedk.comTyttebærvej 6, Hune, DK-9492 Blokhus Denmark SOURCE: CCEDK.com [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Bitcoin traded at $238.76 USD on BTC-e at 12:00 PM Pacific Time || Bitcoin traded at $227.6 USD on BTC-e at 07:00 AM Pacific Time || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 18 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $393.06 #bitcoin #btc || Current price: 216.86€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-05-10 00:00:07 CEST || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 15399.00 INR Sell : 14915.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 18 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $1,227.25 #bitcoin #btc || LIVE: Profit = $514.58 (2.37 %). BUY B90.31 @ $240.00 (#Bitfinex). SELL @ $240.62 (#HitBTC) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 18 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $889.03 #bitcoin #btc || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 15236.00 INR Sell : 14754.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin || 1 BTC 266,00$ Cuanto es en bolívares??? pic.twitter.com/g0ZmLA0bDw
Trend: up || Prices: 269.03, 266.21, 270.79, 269.23, 284.89, 293.11, 310.87, 292.05, 287.46, 285.83
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-08-04] BTC Price: 2895.89, BTC RSI: 59.45 Gold Price: 1258.30, Gold RSI: 55.00 Oil Price: 49.58, Oil RSI: 61.96 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] A Coinbase investor says the platform might reverse its bitcoin cash ban in the next few days: Barry Schuler (Barry Schuler, pictured in 2001, when he was still CEO and chairman of America Online.Manny Ceneta/Getty Images) Coinbase has spent much of this week in the weeds over its decision not to accept the newly minted digital currency bitcoin cash. But the company could reverse that decision in the next few days, an investor told Business Insider. "I think the company will be in a position to make an announcement in the next few days, and one could be supporting bitcoin cash in due course," said Barry Schuler, a partner with DFJ, an investor in Coinbase. " Currently, they're evaluating the activity — how the blockchain matures, if there's the appropriate level of mining activity. It's very important that there's liquidity." Liquidity — the ability to convert an asset into cash — is an important factor for Coinbase because of its overall strategy to only trade currencies which are established and stable. A spokesperson for Coinbase said that the company would "have an update on this later today," but it is unclear whether this will include a final decision or just more information on the company's decision-making process. On Tuesday, however, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote that the company was agnostic to which currencies its users trade and that it was not opposed to adding new assets in the future. "Our goal is to be the safest, most trusted and compliant, and easiest to use," Armstrong wrote on Twitter. "Not the first to market with new assets. Especially at scale, it takes time to ensure any new asset we add is well tested and secure." Users were forewarned that they would need to move their bitcoin off of Coinbase if they wanted to use bitcoin cash, and many did, leading to reported wait times of 12 hours for some traders over the weekend. Bitcoin cash started out with zero value when it was first established on Tuesday, but has quickly shot up to a high of $691.94 on Wednesday. As with many new digital currencies, it's still rather unstable, and currently sits around $397. Story continues Read more about Coinbase and its initial decision not to accept bitcoin cash. NOW WATCH: This machine can produce 300 bricks a minute More From Business Insider Tons of Coinbase users fled the platform after it rejected bitcoin cash — now the $1 billion startup is in the center of a raging storm 6 things to watch out for in Apple's earnings today Facebook bought an AI startup that could turn its middling virtual assistant into a Siri killer || Cramer Remix: Why Apple is the best consumer products company in history: Before there was FANG, Jim Cramer's acronym for the stocks of Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) , Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) , Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) , and Google, now Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) , the " Mad Money " host had another group of growth stocks to watch: the CANDIES. Those stocks — Chipotle (NYSE: CMG) , Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) , Netflix, Deckers (NYSE: DECK) , Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG) , Express Scripts (NASDAQ: ESRX) , and Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) — are up 281 percent on average since he formed the acronym in 2010, versus 121 percent for the S&P 500 (INDEX: .SPX) index. And while Deckers and Express Scripts turned out to be disappointing, Cramer said that Apple, which has run 312 percent since CANDIES formed, with a 34 percent rise in 2017 alone, gets too much heat from analysts for its alleged lack of innovation. "I think Apple's innovated well beyond what anyone else has done in the consumer space and the quality has only improved with each new iteration [and] each new product," Cramer said. "Apple may not be the greatest tech company ever, but it's clearly the best consumer products manufacturer in history, by a long shot. What's wrong with that?" Then, on a day where the major averages inched up , seemingly unphased by the congressional hearing of former FBI Director James Comey , Cramer found a different story worth noting. "I think the story is much less about Director Comey versus President [Donald] Trump than it is about two stocks: Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) versus Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN) ," the "Mad Money" host said. "I know, I know. Only I could really boil down a constitutional crisis into two stocks, but that's alright. They're jumping. I can do it because as riveting as the Comey testimony was, to me it means only one thing: forget about Washington ... if you're looking for anything good." While the hearing is bad for Trump's pro-business economic agenda, Wall Street was focused on these two other stories, which Cramer said represent the conflict of growth versus value . Story continues Cramer also went off the tape and sat down with David Yeom, the co-founder and CEO of online bargain retailer Hollar, to see how the privately held dollar store is faring in the internet realm. "We have been just pounding the pavement, working with amazing suppliers and sourcing just unbelievable products," Yeom told Cramer on Thursday, highlighting the company's ability to offer products like the fidget spinner at competitively low prices. And as the company rides what Yeom called a "macro trend" of bargain buying in the otherwise bleak world of retail, the CEO said that Hollar is perfectly positioned to benefit from two of the struggling industry's most popular segments. "There's really two things working in retail right now, and that's online and off-price, and we're doing both. And we're chasing after a consumer group, really Middle America millennials, that's really been under-served for a long time," Yeom said. Although its stock has doubled over the past year and rallied over 64 percent in 2017, InterActive Corporation (NASDAQ: IAC) does not get enough love from the market, Jim Cramer says. "It's because IAC is a confusing conglomerate of online businesses that people simply don't understand. They don't know how IAC is structured, and more importantly, they can't keep track of what IAC even owns," the " Mad Money " host said. So Cramer broke down the business to find the key to its soaring stock and how IAC has kept creating value over the years under the leadership of Chairman and Senior Executive Barry Diller. Inovio Pharmaceuticals: Confidence in DNA Finally, Cramer sat down with Joseph Kim, the president and CEO of Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INO) , to hear more about the rise of the speculative biotechnology play that focuses on DNA-based therapies for cancer and other infectious diseases. Kim told Cramer on Thursday that despite the company's relatively small market capitalization, it has managed to stay efficient in developing and testing their cutting-edge treatments. "We're very focused and we're very good at what we do, but also, it's our technology platform," the CEO said. "It's a very innovative way of jump-charging a patient's own immune system, and we can do this very rapidly and effectively." And although the company is small, it has partnered with pharmaceutical giants like AstraZeneca's (London Stock Exchange: AZN-GB) Medimmune, Regeneron (NASDAQ: REGN) and Roche's (Swiss Exchange: ROG-CH) Genentech to continue developing its medicines, Kim said, adding that his confidence about Inovio's future is not unfounded. "The confidence isn't out of ignorance, it's really based on our data. We have about 1,000 patients' worth of strong and potent immune responses already recorded across our early trials," he told Cramer. "While we're still growing, this is a wonderful platform that's been validated with a lot of these data." Lightning Round: I See your Anheuser-Busch, and I Raise You... In Cramer's lightning round , he flew through his take on some caller favorite stocks, including: Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (Euronext Brussels: ABI-BE) : "I like it, but I have to tell you, I'll see your Anheuser Busch InBev and I'll raise you a Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ) . By the way, I didn't that Molson Coors (NYSE: TAP) report yesterday at all." BlackBerry (Toronto Stock Exchange: BB-CA) : "No, it's already moved so much. Intellectual property can only get you so far. We missed that one. Let's find the next." Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC Want to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram - Vine Questions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? madcap@cnbc.com More From CNBC Cramer Remix: What the rise in stocks, gold & Bitcoin means for your money Cramer Remix: Here's what’s really killing retail Cramer Remix: How to know when market moves can be trusted || Revisiting An Overlooked Precious Metals ETF: The U.S. dollar is one of this year's most disappointing developed market currencies, but that is not helping the commodities complex. Most commodities, an asset class denominated in dollars, are sagging, but some precious metals have been notable exceptions. Among exchange-traded products, theETFS Gold Trust(NYSE:SGOL) is up 9.4 percent year to date while theETFS Physical Palladium Shares(NYSE:PALL) is up a stunning 26.9 percent. Sturdy precious metals prices are helping theETFS Precious Metals Baskets Trust(NYSE:GLTR) to a year-to-date gain of more than 8 percent. All That Glitters ... GLTR holds a basket of physical gold, silver, palladium and platinum. “Given this action in Precious Metals amid the FOMC rate backdrop, we are also looking at diversified 'Precious Metal' ETPs that generally appeal to those investors and portfolio managers whom prefer 'basket' exposure to the space as opposed to betting on specifically Gold or Silver for example,” saidStreet One FinancialVice President Paul Weisbruch in a note out Wednesday. Pondering Palladium Although gold and silver loom large in GLTR, palladium, until this week, has been helping the ETF surge. “The background for palladium is for good industrial demand and likely a significant market deficit this year, and on top of course you’ve got this speculative squeeze,” Mitsubishi analyst Jonathan Butler said,reported Reuters. Palladium supply is expected to be in a deficit again this year, which could help deliver more upside for PALL and GLTR. “Traders reported a reluctance to lend the metal, suggesting tightness in near-term supply. Chart patterns indicate that the metal is vulnerable to a sell-off from these elevated levels, however, technical analysts said,” according to Reuters. Macro Trends, Influences While precious metals retreated Wednesday after the Federal Reserve boosted interest rates, inflation could portend more benefits for gold and friends. AsBenzinga reported earlier this year, “Data suggests inflation is rising, which could bode well for gold ETFs because the yellow metal is often embraced as an inflation hedge. Accounting for inflation, real U.S. interest rates are in negative territory, further increasing the potential for out-performance by gold relative to other safe-haven assets.” Related Links: Fed Hikes Rates Without Disrupting The Market: 'Classic Yellen' Is Bitcoin The New Gold? Still Too Early To Say See more from Benzinga • Cybersecurity ETF Has A Treat For Investors: Lower Annual Fees • A Steadier Course For China ETFs • The Good And The Bad Of Oil ETFs © 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || The indicator that will show whether bitcoin has split: Latest bitcoin blocks as of 1319 UTC, Aug 1 2017 Bitcoin is in the middle of a contentious “hard fork” that could cleave the cryptocurrency in two for the first in its nearly nine-year-long history. The world could end up with bitcoin and a new cryptocurrency called “bitcoin cash” that promises to offer to an eight-fold increase in transaction capacity. Even though a deadline of Aug. 1, 12:20 UTC has been set, the fork doesn’t exactly happen then. That’s because the proposal uses a particular calculation called “ median time past ” which, in practice, winds up being about an hour after 12:20 UTC, or 8:20 am US Eastern time. New data on H-1B visas prove that IT outsourcers hire a lot but pay very little So when, exactly, does bitcoin split? What we have now is a set of necessary but not sufficient conditions for a split. The technical indicator to watch for is the block size. The bitcoin protocol limits the size of each block, which is a bundle of transactions and other metadata, to 1 megabyte. Any block mined larger than 1 MB will be bitcoin cash’s “genesis block”—the starting point of a whole new cryptocurrency. Watch the “size” column of the latest blocks mined at data provider Blockchain.info. Anything larger than 1,000 kilobytes shows that bitcoin has forked. This website also has a handy “chain split” monitor. This should happen any time now. Read next: Bitcoin’s civil war threatens to blow up the cryptocurrency itself Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief , our free daily newsletter with the world’s most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: The Mozart-like complexity of Carly Rae Jepsen’s biggest hits With no more income from album sales, a 69-year-old rock legend has to go back on tour || Bitcoin soars ahead of blockchain split, Ethereum lower: Investing.com – Bitcoin traded higher on Monday, on reports the blockchain supporting the cryptocurrency is poised to split into two, as some members refused to signal support for a major software upgrade aimed at speeding up transactions on the bitcoin network. On Tuesday August 1, a ‘user activated hard fork’ (UAHF) will get underway, causing the blockchain – the digital ledger which records every bitcoin transaction – to fork, creating a new separate digital token called Bitcoin Cash. The ‘hard fork’ comes after weeks of optimism that Bitcoin would avert a split, after bitcoin miners signalled support for SegWit2X, a software upgrade aimed to increase the transaction limit from 1 megabyte to 2 megabytes, speeding up transactions on the bitcoin network. Some members of the bitcoin community, however, failed to signal support for SegWit2X, on the back of concerns that the proposed software upgrade doesn’t adequately address the slowdown in transactions on the Bitcoin network. These members announced plans to launch a fork on August 1, known as Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash will have a bigger block size than Bitcoin – even after SegWit2x activates – with an 8-megabyte transaction limit. Bitcoin Cash, however, is likely to be worth only a fraction of bitcoin, as some of the biggest bitcoin wallet providers don’t have immediate plans to support Bitcoin Cash. “As of today, we have no immediate plans to fully support the Bitcoin Cash fork within our main product," Blockchain’s Alsyon Margaret said on Sunday. On the U.S.-based GDAX exchange, Bitcoin rose to $2,836, up $84.1 or 3.06% while Bitcoin Cash fell 18% to $292.62. Meanwhile, Ethereum, fell to $198, down 0.96%. To stay on top of the latest moves in the crypto-space, be sure to check out:https://www.investing.com/crypto/ Related Articles Dollar sinks to 14-month lows as short bets pile up Forex - U.S. dollar struggles near 13-month trough Forex - U.S. dollar inches higher but remains on the defensive || MORGAN STANLEY: 'Bitcoin acceptance is virtually zero and shrinking': (FILE PHOTO - A Bitcoin sign is seen in a window in TorontoThomson Reuters) Theprice of bitcoinis up over 250% since last year, but acceptance of the cryptocurrency as a form of payment among top merchants has declined. A research note out Wednesday by a group of analysts at Morgan Stanley led by James E Faucette said "bitcoin acceptance is virtually zero and shrinking," despite its impressive appreciation. According to the bank, last year bitcoin was accepted at five of a group of 500 top online merchants. Today, only three of those merchants accept bitcoin as a form of payment. "The disparity between virtually no merchant acceptance and bitcoin’s rapid appreciation is striking," the analysts wrote. The investment bank outlined three reasons for the decline in bitcoin acceptance among merchants. The first reason has to do with the appreciation of bitcoin. Most owners of the cryptocurrency are unwilling to let go of their holdings to pay for goods because they expect the price of bitcoin to go up. This point underpins the bank's thesis thatbitcoin mainly functions as aninvestment vehiclerather than fiat currency that you could spend on goods and services. Issues with bitcoin's scalability, which has made transactions slow and expensive, is another reason the bank thinks merchants find bitcoin unappealing as a form of payment. Finally, there has been a lack of pressure from the people who run the bitcoin infrastructure, according to the bank, to push merchants to accept bitcoin as a form of payment. "The ecosystem has focused more on value speculation rather than the foot leather-eating work of increasing acceptance - way easier to trade speculatively than convince new merchants to accept the cryptocurrency," the bank said. The bank notes that, while many merchants are uninterested in accepting bitcoin as a form of payment, many find the technology that underpins the cryptocurrency as a tech they could use to improve their infrastructure. NOW WATCH:This map reveals how much $100 is actually worth in your state More From Business Insider • Cryptocurrencies are continuing to fall after China's shock ICO ban • Here's why China's crypto crackdown is 'bigger than most people think' • There was a $20 billion cryptocurrency price correction over the weekend || An investing legend is making a killing after putting 1% of his net worth in bitcoin: (Bill Miller, the founder, chairman, and chief investment officer of Miller Value Partners.REUTERS/Rick Wilking ) The legendary investor Bill Miller is apparently bullish when it comes to cryptocurrencies. Millertold Forbeshe invested 1% of his net worth into bitcoin in 2014, determining that the potential gains from a cryptocurrency boom outweighed the risk of a complete loss. Forbes reporter Antoine Gara writes that the investment has grown tenfold and that bitcoin is one of the top holdings of Miller's hedge fund. In 2014, bitcoin traded between $183 and $914. Currently, it's trading at $2,340, up nearly 1,200% from its 2014 low. While Miller's net worth is unknown, his fund LMM had about$2 billion in assetsas of February, according to CNBC. Last year, Miller split from Legg Mason after35 years with the firm. In February, Miller completed a buyout of LMM, an investment adviser jointly owned by Miller and Legg Mason, which he now runs through his family-owned Miller Value Partners firm. Miller is well-known for his streak of beating the S&P 500 for15 straight years— 1991 to 2005 — while running the Legg Mason Value Trust. He was appointed chairman and chief investment officer of Legg Mason Capital Management in 2007. NOW WATCH:Wells Fargo Funds equity chief: Shorting anything is 'playing with fire' More From Business Insider • GOLDMAN SACHS: Bitcoin is going to test $3,000 and could get as high as $3,700 • This little-known Amazon service turns stuff you want to get rid of into store credit • Bitcoin plunges below Goldman Sachs' target before rebounding sharply || Nike is reportedly close to making a huge move that should terrify Dick's, Foot Locker, and Under Armour: Nike (Nike may finally break through online by selling on Amazon.Facebook/Nike) The world's largest sportswear maker and the world's largest online retailer might finally work together. In its tooth-and-nail fight to staunch ebbing sales, Nike may finally embrace Amazon soon and sell directly on Amazon.com, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs. "Our channel checks indicate [Nike] could be close to commencing a direct relationship selling product on Amazon.com," the Goldman Sachs analyst note reads. For Nike, there are tangible benefits from selling directly on Amazon. The company's shoes, apparel, and accessories are already sold on Amazon, but from third-party sellers and unlicensed dealers that purchased the product wholesale from Nike. Selling directly on the site eliminates a layer between Nike and the consumer, allowing the company to better control pricing and presentation. It's not quite direct to consumer, but it's a lot closer. Goldman sees it as a deal worth potentially up to $500 million of revenue yearly — an additional 1% of global sales for the Nike. Nike's biggest competitors — Adidas and Under Armour — already sell directly on Amazon, and they both have fancy splash pages that highlight the the newest and best product the companies have to offer. Nike currently has no such thing, giving both competitors have an advantage on the site. Offering directly on Amazon also gives Nike's direct-to-consumer business even better access to younger consumers — millennials — who shop more often on Amazon than other groups. Selling on Amazon may also serve to replace physical sports retailers that have gone bankrupt in recent years, like Sports Authority. Dick's Sporting Goods and Foot Locker, some of Nike's biggest retailers, were both down in early market trading on the news of the increasing competition. Dick's neared an 18 month low, while Foot Locker fell below a three-year-low, according to Reuters . NOW WATCH: HENRY BLODGET: Bitcoin could go to $1 million (or fall to $0) More From Business Insider Whole Foods keeps signaling the death of the brand as we know it Amazon's rivals 'will do anything' to make the company pay more for Whole Foods WHOLE FOODS CEO: We focused on employees at the 'expense of our customers' || Bitcoin drops to three-week low on profit taking: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK, June 15 (Reuters) - Bitcoin fell to a three-week low on Thursday as investors took profits partly in response to a bearish report from Goldman Sachs as well as concerns about a Chinese bitcoin miner's plan to undertake a "hard fork" that will result in a split in the digital currency. The virtual currency relies on "mining" computers that validate blocks of transactions by competing to solve mathematical puzzles every 10 minutes. The first to solve the puzzle and clear the transaction is rewarded with new bitcoins. Bitcoin fell as low as $2,120 on the Bitstamp on Thursday and was last down 6 percent at $2,290. On the week, the currency has fallen about 22 percent, on track for its largest weekly slide since December 2013. On Monday, bitcoin hit a record just shy of $3,000. So far this year, bitcoin remains up 137 percent. Sharp losses such as Thursday's are par for the course for an asset like bitcoin, analysts said. Over the course of its eight-year history, Bitcoin has on a daily basis risen as much as 18 percent and fallen as much as 13 percent. Greg Dwyer, business development manager at crypto-currency trading platform BitMEX, said bitcoin's decline may have started on Monday when Goldman Sachs analyst Sheba Jafari said in a report, "The balance of signals are looking broadly heavy" for bitcoin. Jafari was "wary of a near-term top ahead of $3,134, adding that investors should consider re-establishing bullish exposure between $2,330 and no lower than $1,915." Analysts also said investors were spooked by Chinese miner Bitmain's plan to undertake a "hard fork" of bitcoin if a code upgrade on the currency is activated late this summer. Under a "hard fork", Bitmain would create an entirely new version of the bitcoin blockchain, resulting in an entirely new bitcoin currency, separate from the original currency. Bitmain's move was in response to proposals that attempt to solve the bitcoin network's limitations in processing millions of daily transactions. Bitcoin's network has not kept pace with its growth and is unable to process all the transactions fast enough. "Traders are concerned with what a fork could do to their holdings and most likely now converting to fiat (government currencies) until some clarity about the scaling debate comes to light," said BitMEX's Dwyer. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) || Bitcoin Breaks $3,000, Continuing Epic Bull Run: The cryptocurrency bitcoin has continued its stunning run-up, briefly surpassing the $3,000 threshold early Saturday afternoon. That’s according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index, though competing index CoinMarketCap calculated the peak exchange rate at just a few cents short of $3,000 (bitcoin prices vary across exchanges, so different formulas can arrive at different exchange rates.) The new peak continues a surge that began in earnest in early May, when a bitcoin was worth nearly $1,400. And it flies in the face of a widening consensus that the cryptocurrency market is in a bubble. Get Data Sheet , Fortune’s technology newsletter. That was Mark Cuban’s take last Tuesday , but the technology’s own central figures beat him to the punch by warning about overly inflated prices from the stage at the Consensus blockchain conference in May. And when he saw disgruntled attendees turned away from the overbooked Token Summit conference, Fortune’s Robert Hackett saw bubble written all over the bitcoin market . Most observers, including Cuban, have by now accepted that blockchain technology, a promising innovation in data security based on shared ledgers, has huge potential for tracking assets and information in fields from supply chain management to health records. But the price of bitcoin is currently based in large part on speculation about growing adoption and innovative future applications. That’s even more true for parallel cryptocurrencies and blockchain systems like Ethereum, Dash, and Litecoin, which are mostly rising in tandem with bitcoin. But a speculation-driven market is also an emotionally fragile market. If sentiment swings, it may swing quickly, and cause a lot of bitcon’s value to evaporate. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Coinbase Recovers After (Another) Outage During Bitcoin Price Fall - http://ift.tt/2syw70p  || $2728.00 at 02:15 UTC [24h Range: $2655.82 - $2825.00 Volume: 13537 BTC] || I liked a @YouTube video http://youtu.be/zTn_4PAZ3z4?a  Tone's MA #64 - Bitmain Crashed Bitcoin Price, Now What? || Bitcoin_short_to_the_Line $BTCUSD http://www.tradingview.com/chart/BTCUSD/Y94WUFNu-Bitcoin-short-to-the-Line/ … TV_TradingIdeas || Best Exchange service. Great affiliate program. https://goo.gl/d11REI  #BTC #Bitcoin 37 pic.twitter.com/kDRi7sRPKu || Anyone understand how $RSK and $ETC can co-exist? #bitcoin https://twitter.com/grayscaleinvest/status/875009412330553345 … || LOVE!!NetherlandsWe hope to help, thank you. /bitcoin 1896UwURka9J4MCbSdwfMc1pynArfWYXUf /amazon.com Wish List http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/ref=nav_youraccount_wl?ie=UTF8&requiresSignIn=1 … || We work for you Your World Your Money #coin #fintech #bitcoin #wave #Coinmarketcappic.twitter.com/xEc56kxRmH || It's just a matter of time that this companies launch hardware for #Bitcoin mining purposes, and then... Game over for you @JihanWu .https://twitter.com/MrChrisEllis/status/875198349942697984 … || BTC Real Time Price: ThePriceOfBTC: $2715.97 #bitstamp; $2716.00 #kraken; $2714.01 #GDAX; $2709.01 #gemini; $2709.28 #hitbtc; $2769.68 #cex;
Trend: up || Prices: 3252.91, 3213.94, 3378.94, 3419.94, 3342.47, 3381.28, 3650.62, 3884.71, 4073.26, 4325.13
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-07-20] BTC Price: 29807.35, BTC RSI: 34.05 Gold Price: 1810.90, Gold RSI: 49.75 Oil Price: 67.42, Oil RSI: 37.38 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Crypto update: Bitcoin rallies as El Salvador makes bitcoin legal tender: The Internal Revenue Service in the US has said it needs more authority from Congress to regulate the cryptocurrency industry. Photo: Getty Images (Cesc Maymo via Getty Images) Bitcoin rallied on Wednesday afternoon as El Salvador became the first country to adopt it as a legal tender. Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) was up roughly 6% and was trading at $35,205 (£24,858), edging closer to $40,000 but still far from its all-time high of $63,000. Most cryptocurrencies were broadly higher too, slowly recovering losses from the latest sell-off amid a volatile start to the month. "Although, on the macro front, this is still a very small country that isn’t going to have any profound influence, the fact that bitcoin has become a legal currency in El Salvador is certainly a moment of celebration," said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Ava Trade. The #BitcoinLaw has been approved by a supermajority in the Salvadoran Congress. 62 out of 84 votes! History! #Btc 🇸🇻 — Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) June 9, 2021 Nigel Green, CEO of financial advisory organisation DeVere Group, said he expects other developing countries to follow as "low-income countries have long suffered because their currencies are weak and extremely vulnerable to market changes and that triggers rampant inflation." On Tuesday, bitcoin prices had plunged after former US president Donald Trump called it a "scam" and the weekend had been turbulent for cryptos following reports that Chinese social media site Weibo suspended "key opinion leaders", reigniting fears of a further crackdown in the country. Also, cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase ( COIN ), which went public in April, fell 4.66% to end Tuesday at its lowest close yet and down 35.48% from its peak. At the time of writing, it was up 0.2% in pre-market trading. Story continues Michael Brown, senior market analyst at Caxton, noted that "it is not quite as tough to be bearish on bitcoin at the moment". "Bitcoin has now broken to the downside of a triangle formation made over the last couple of weeks; breaks of such formations are usually significant, and tend to guide direction for a while," he said, adding that the formation gives a measured target of about $22,000. "Whether or not that comes to fruition, the bears clearly have near-term control, and a break of $30,000 would certainly make things very interesting indeed." Ethereum ( ETH-USD ) ticked up 0.1% to trade at $2,521 and joke token Dogecoin gained 0.5%, trading at $0.33. “There seems to be significant uncertainty in play. Beyond just price, demand for transactions and settlements has waned considerably. Almost all on-chain activity metrics point to a big decline from the all-time highs earlier in the year,” said Simon Peters, analyst at multi-asset investment platform eToro. Bitcoin recovered some of its losses on Wednesday morning. Chart: Yahoo Finance UK The uncertainty may in part be down to US investigators recovering some $2.3m in bitcoins paid in ransom to a hacking group called DarkSide. The group was involved in a ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline, the largest pipeline system for refined oil products in the US. “We have a lot of cash requirements in our country, but we haven’t figured out, in the country or in the world, how to trace cryptocurrency,” US Senator Roy Blunt told CNBC . “You can’t trace the ransomware – the ransom payment of choice now. And we’ve got to do a better job here,” he added. "This news is actually very good for bitcoin. Many market participants, myself included, were expecting President Joe Biden to use crypto as a scapegoat for the hack and to come out with crushing reforms," said Mati Greenspan, who writes and publishes the investment newsletter Quantum Economics. "Instead, they were clued in to what we already knew, that it is easier for authorities to catch criminals who use crypto than anything else." Read more: UK government to crack down on 'greenwashing' Meanwhile the Internal Revenue Service in the US has said it needs more authority from Congress to regulate the cryptocurrency industry and collect information on transfers valued at over $10,000 that mostly go unreported. “We get challenged frequently, and to have a clear dictate from Congress on the authority of us to collect that information is critical,” commissioner Charles Rettig said during a Senate Finance Committee hearing, adding that "most crypto virtual currencies are designed to stay off the radar screen". The Biden administration's fiscal 2022 revenue proposals include a requirement that cryptocurrency transfers of $10,000 or more be reported to the IRS in the same way that banks report cash transfers. The proposed change would start in 2023. Watch: What is bitcoin? || BoE Governor Advocates Stablecoins but Warns of Crime Risk: The Bank of England (BoE) Governor Andrew Bailey has elaborated on his views towards stablecoins and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) at an annual City UK conference. While reinforcing supportive commentsreported on June 12, when he called CBDCs “one of the most fundamental innovations in the history of central banking,” the governor also warned that digital money opened up avenues of risk. “We cannot ignore the risks that digital money is attractive for money launderers and cyber criminals,” he concluded inhis speechon June 15. Apart from his ending warning, Gov. Bailey’s speech was largely positive towards digital currency. Asreports indicate, the BoE, alongside other central banks across the world, has been debating introducing a digital currency. In the UK’s case, a digital pound. That said, neither the BoE nor the British government have made any concrete decisions about having their own CBDC. Chancellor Rishi Sunak firstannounced the launchof an exploratory task force into the matter back in April. “New forms of digital money represent an important source of innovation” he said. “So we must evaluate whether and how they can meet our public interest objectives.” Sunak continued by saying “Rather than use commercial bank money as the basis for transactions, providers of digital money would create and use their own money or ‘coin’. And, they could be issued by companies, including large technology platforms, with the capacity to scale up and grow rapidly.” Gov. Bailey went on to draw a distinct line between stablecoins and crypto-assets such as bitcoin (BTC). He claimed that to term crypto-assets as cryptocurrencies is “misleading,” due to them having “no intrinsic value.” “It can have extrinsic value, in the sense that people like to collect and own them, just as they like to collect and own all sorts of things,” he explained. “But that extrinsic value is highly unstable and could be nothing.” Meanwhile, he stated that stablecoins could have intrinsic value. However, he also noted a public interest question of what it would take for stablecoins to be trusted as money. “Any new form of digital money in order to succeed will need to be trusted as a store of value and as an accepted means of payment,” Gov. Bailey stated. “Stablecoins must therefore promise, credibly and consistently, to be fully interchangeable with existing forms of money. In other words, they must be anchored in and thus maintain confidence in the monetary system.” || CoinShares & Finanzen Zero Announce Exclusive Crypto ETP Platform Partnership: Europe’s largest digital asset investment firm and Germany’s leading financial news portal join forces to bring crypto ETPs to investors with zero trading fees June 21, 2021 | SAINT HELIER, Jersey- -- CoinShares (Nasdaq First North Growth Market: CS), Europe's largest digital asset investment firm, today announced an exclusive partnership with the largest platform for German-speaking financial and investment news, finanzen.net. As a result of the partnership, CoinShares will be the sole provider of physically-backed crypto products on the newly launched investment platformfinanzen.net zerowhich launched on June 5, 2021 with zero trading fees. The following exchange traded products (ETPs) will be available to investors via the finanzen.net zero platform: [{"Name": "CoinShares Physical Bitcoin", "ISIN": "GB00BLD4ZL17", "WKN": "A3GPMN"}, {"Name": "CoinShares Physical Ethereum", "ISIN": "GB00BLD4ZM24", "WKN": "A3GQ2N"}, {"Name": "CoinShares Physical Litecoin", "ISIN": "GB00BLD4ZP54", "WKN": "A3GRUD"}] Frank Spiteri, CoinShares’ Chief Revenue Officer commented, “As Europe’s largest digital investment firm, we are delighted to partner with finanzen.net to deliver German investors and brokers access to the digital asset ecosystem through unique product offerings. After cross-listing CoinShares Physical ETPs on the Boerse Xetra earlier this month, this exclusive partnership is the next step in our continued mission of bridging the gap between institutional and digital asset investors.” Currently, finanzen.net delivers almost 65 million visits a month via their website and iOS/Android applications. With the new platform zero, over 180,000 securities are available to customers including stocks, ETFs, funds, crypto ETPs, warrants and certificates. Users can enjoy extended trading hours from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. CET and make use of the free savings plan option. Jens Ohr, Managing Director of finanzen.net zero stated, “Having a partner like CoinShares on board is a big win, fitting exactly the needs of our target group and ensuring their participation in a growing market.” About the CoinShares Group CoinShares is Europe's largest digital asset investment firm, managing billions of assets on behalf of a global client base. Our mission is to expand access to the digital asset ecosystem by pioneering new financial products and services that provide investors with trust and transparency when accessing this new asset class. CoinShares is publicly listed on theNasdaq First North Growth Market under ticker CS. For more information on CoinShares, visit:https://coinshares.com/ Company | + 44 (0)1534 513 100 |enquiries@coinshares.com Investor Relations – Jay Morakis | + 1 646 859 5951 Certified Advisor – Mangold Fondkommission AB | + 46 (0)8 503 015 50 | ca@mangold.se About finanzen.net zero Finanzen.net no longer only offers the latest and extensive stock market information, but also its own free trading product: finanzen.net zero. "Zero" in the meaning of "zero cost" of trading: There are no order and custody fees, lump sums for third parties or other ancillary costs. It is the only product in the market combining all information users need for their financial decisions with the opportunity to implement them directly. For more information on finanzen.net zero, visit:https://www.finanzen.net/zero For more information on the information platform:https://www.finanzen.net/ || Why GameStop Stock Failed To Settle Above $225 Today: GameStop Gains Ground After Company Completes “At-The-Market” Equity Offering Program Shares of GameStop gained upside momentum after the company announced that it had completed its “at-the-market” equity offering program. On June 9, the company announced that it would sell up to 5 million shares of its common stock through an at-the-market offering. The stock has immediately found itself under pressure and moved from the $300 level towards the $200 level. As it turns out, GameStop actively sold its shares and has already completed the program. The company stated that its gross proceeds from the “at-the-market” program totaled $1.126 billion, so GameStop sold its shares at an average price of $225.2 per share. GameStop stated that the proceeds from the offering will be used for general corporate purposes and investment in growth initiatives. What’s Next For GameStop Stock? GameStop stock moved higher after the announcement about the end of the “at-the-market” equity offering program as traders bet that selling pressure will decrease, and the stock will be ready to gain upside momentum. However, I’d note that the stock has already pulled back from recent highs which were close to GameStop’s average selling price in the “at-the-market” equity offering program. The key risk for GameStop bulls is that market participants will view the $225 level as a “ceiling” since the company has readily sold its shares at this price. I’d also note that analyst earnings estimates for GameStop have improved in recent weeks. Currently, analysts expect that GameStop will report a loss of $0.31 per share this year. In the next year, the company is projected to report a profit of $0.15 per share. At the current stock price of about $212, the stock is trading at 1413 forward P/E. While the company’s valuation remains disconnected from reality, GameStop’s near-term dynamics will depend on whether the stock will be able to get above the key $225 level. If the stock fails to settle above this level in the upcoming trading sessions, it may find itself under more pressure. Story continues For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude Oil Continues to Look Buoyant GBP/JPY Price Forecast – British Pound Continues to Show Signs of Resiliency Crypto Bears Rage on as Bitcoin Drops to Lowest Price Levels Since January. Why GameStop Stock Failed To Settle Above $225 Today EUR/USD Mid-Session Technical Analysis for June 22, 2021 Gold Price Prediction – Prices Consolidate Following Monday’s Rally on Weak Home Sales || Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is coming to Disrupt: Brian Armstrong, the founder and CEO of cryptocurrency exchangeCoinbase, is coming toDisrupt this September 21-23, and given how much there is to discuss, we couldn't be more excited to host him. As some industry observers will know, Armstrong, a native of San Jose, Calif., whose parents were both engineers, nabbed two degrees from Rice University in Texas before joining Airbnb as a software engineer in 2011 as a technical product manager focused on fraud prevention. The role gave him the opportunity to learn about payment systems -- and payment problems -- across the world. It relatedly fueled a then-burgeoning interest in cryptocoins, which he began to buy and store and, more important, he began to believe would ultimately replace fiat money. In fact, after just 14 months with Airbnb, Armstrong left the company to join Y Combinator and found Coinbase. He wasn't focused on making money, by his telling. Instead, as he told Forbes last year, "I wanted the world to have a global, open financial system that drove innovation and freedom.” Either way, along the way, Armstrong became very wealthy, as have many Coinbase employees and investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, which built the biggest stake in Coinbase over the years and whose position was valued at a reported $11 billion at the time of Coinbase's direct listing this past April. Still, the success of Coinbase -- which has established itself astheclean, well-lit place to invest in cryptocurrencies -- has also invariably led to greater scrutiny. The company has been widely accused by its customers of focusing on security at the expense of adequatecustomer service. Several of Armstrong's managerial decisions, including to clamp down onpolitical speechinside of Coinbase, has cost the companyvalued employees, while others have said they were treated unfairly because of theirrace or gender. More, following a very long run, enthusiasm over cryptocurrencies has abruptly slowed over the last month or so. While Armstrong has seen enthusiasm for crypto grow and wane before, Coinbase is now a publicly traded company, and as questions bubble up about Bitcoin, Coinbase's shares are down, too. (As of this writing, they are trading at around $217, almost half of where they were valued at their peak price in April of about $429.) Little wonder Armstrong has been laser-focused on not only strengthening what Coinbase has already built but setting it up to become an even larger enterprise, including byacquiring a companyearly this year that positions Coinbase to operate as a kind of AWS, enabling companies that, say, want to connect their wallet app to a blockchain to click a few buttons rather than hire a team of engineers to spin up the necessary nodes. How else is Armstrong, 38, dealing with the market's ups and downs as he builds a completely new financial institution? Where does he want to take Coinbase over the next 12 months? How does he respond to criticisms about some of his very public decisions concerning Coinbase employees? These are among the many things we'll talk with him about at this year's Disrupt for an appearance that we know attendees won't want to miss. We're certainly excited to sit down with him. Join him and over 10,000 of the startup world's most influential people atDisrupt 2021 online this September 21-23.Get your pass to attend now for under $99for a limited time! https://tcprotectedembed.com/protected-iframe/82e7089bb76c80e1d7d73433ec8b0f47( function() { var func = function() { var iframe = document.getElementById('wpcom-iframe-82e7089bb76c80e1d7d73433ec8b0f47') if ( iframe ) { iframe.onload = function() { iframe.contentWindow.postMessage( { 'msg_type': 'poll_size', 'frame_id': 'wpcom-iframe-82e7089bb76c80e1d7d73433ec8b0f47' }, "https:\/\/tcprotectedembed.com" ); } } // Autosize iframe var funcSizeResponse = function( e ) { var origin = document.createElement( 'a' ); origin.href = e.origin; // Verify message origin if ( 'tcprotectedembed.com' !== origin.host ) return; // Verify message is in a format we expect if ( 'object' !== typeof e.data || undefined === e.data.msg_type ) return; switch ( e.data.msg_type ) { case 'poll_size:response': var iframe = document.getElementById( e.data._request.frame_id ); if ( iframe && '' === iframe.width ) iframe.width = '100%'; if ( iframe && '' === iframe.height ) iframe.height = parseInt( e.data.height ); return; default: return; } } if ( 'function' === typeof window.addEventListener ) { window.addEventListener( 'message', funcSizeResponse, false ); } else if ( 'function' === typeof window.attachEvent ) { window.attachEvent( 'onmessage', funcSizeResponse ); } } if (document.readyState === 'complete') { func.apply(); /* compat for infinite scroll */ } else if ( document.addEventListener ) { document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', func, false ); } else if ( document.attachEvent ) { document.attachEvent( 'onreadystatechange', func ); } } )(); || Mirati's (MRTX) Adagrasib Gets Breakthrough Therapy Status: Mirati Therapeutics, Inc.MRTX announced that adagrasib — an investigational, highly selective, and potent oral small-molecule inhibitor of KRAS G12C — has been granted the Breakthrough Therapy designation (BTD) by the FDA for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with KRASG12C mutation following prior systemic therapy. The designation was supported by preliminary data from the registrational phase I/II study — KRYSTAL-01 — that is evaluating the candidate in advanced NSCLC patients whose disease has progressed following treatment with immunotherapy and/or chemotherapy. The company plans to file a new drug application to the FDA seeking approval for adagrasib in the second half of this year for the treatment of KRAS G12C mutated NSCLC. Please note that the Breakthrough Therapy designation is granted to medicines being evaluated for serious conditions where early clinical evidence indicates the potential for substantial improvement over available therapy. This designation increases the likelihood of a potential approval of adagrasib. Last month, the company collaborated withQIAGEN N.V.QGEN to accelerate the development of a tissue-based KRAS companion diagnostic that detects KRAS G12C mutation in NSCLC and colorectal cancer (CRC). The stock has underperformed the industry so far this year. It has declined 25.2% against the industry’s increase of 0.4%. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Apart from NSCLC, the company is also developing adagrasib in combination withMerck’s MRK Keytruda (pembrolizumab) or afatinib for treating NSCLC patients. It is also developing a combination of adagrasib andEli Lilly’s LLY Erbitux (cetuximab) for treating CRC. The company has another candidate — sitravatinib — in its pipeline. The candidate is being developed in combination with Bristol-Myers’ Opdivo for NSCLC and with Beigene’s anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor candidate, tislelizumab, in a number of advanced solid tumors. Both adagrasib and sitravatinib are being evaluated in multiple mid- to late-stage studies. Data from these studies will be key catalysts for growth of the company’s shares, going forward. Mirati Therapeutics, Inc. price | Mirati Therapeutics, Inc. Quote Mirati currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). You can seethe complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Bitcoin, Like the Internet Itself, Could Change Everything Blockchain and cryptocurrency has sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities. Zacks’ has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly. See 3 crypto-related stocks now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportMerck & Co., Inc. (MRK) : Free Stock Analysis ReportEli Lilly and Company (LLY) : Free Stock Analysis ReportQIAGEN N.V. (QGEN) : Free Stock Analysis ReportMirati Therapeutics, Inc. (MRTX) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || Bitcoin Miner TeraWulf to Merge With Nasdaq-Listed Ikonics: TeraWulf – an environmental, social and governance-focused bitcoin mining company – is set for a Nasdaq listing after it agreed to merge with Ikonics, an imaging-technology company whose stock trades on Nasdaq. The two agreed to form a new holding company, an announcement Friday said . The new company will bear TeraWulf’s name and is expected to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol, “WULF.” Paul Prager, chairman and CEO of TeraWulf, will hold the same positions in the new company. Ikonics (NASDAQ:IKNX) investors will receive $5 in cash and one share in the new company for each share they hold. Ikonics stock closed at $11.30 on Thursday. They will also receive one contingent value right (CVR). The CVRs, which won’t be publicly traded, entitle them to 95% of the proceeds from a sale of Ikonics’ imaging business and will expire after 18 months. TeraWulf aims to mine bitcoin with over 90% zero-carbon energy. It has more than 60,000 mining machines on order, giving it 50 megawatts of mining capacity. It expects that to grow to 800 MW by 2025, enabling a hashrate of more than 23 EH/s, which means the machines will be able to compute more than 23 quadrillion calculations per second. As of Thursday, Ikonics had a market cap of $22.3 million. Related Stories Crypto Long & Short: This Bear Market May Not Last Long The Great Western Hashrate Migration Is Real Bitmain Stops Sales of Mining Machines in Bid to Buoy Prices Facing China’s Crackdown ASIC Maker Canaan Diversifies Into Bitcoin Mining in Kazakhstan || What Changed in Crypto Markets While You Were Sleeping — May 26: BeInCrypto presents our daily morning roundup of crypto news and market changes that you might have missed while you were asleep. BTC has been increasing since May 19, when it reached a local low of $30,000. On May 23, it created a higher low and followed it up with abullish engulfingcandlestick. Since then, it’s managed to reach a daily high close of $40,600. The main resistance levels are found at $41,200 and $48,175. These are the 0.382 and 0.618 Fib retracement levels from the most recent drop. Technical indicators provide some bullish signs. TheMACDhas generated three higher momentum bars. However, due to the bearish candlestick close yesterday, it did not generate a bullish reversal signal. The RSI has crossed above 30 after generating a bullish divergence. While the Stochastic oscillator has yet to make a bullish cross, it has begun to move upwards. Therefore, while the reversal is not confirmed, there are several bullish signs developing. The total cryptocurrency market cap is continuing its road to recovery today. Its back at $1.76 trillion in a 6.5% gain on the day. Many cryptocurrencies in the top-100 by market cap are seeing double-digit percentage gains since yesterday. Both Cardano (ADA) and Binance Coin (BNB) are racing to overtake the #3 spot from Tether (USDT). Polygon (MATIC) is the day’s biggest altcoin gainer, up nearly 27% on the day of of news that Mark Cuban invested in the project. Terra (LUNA) isn’t far behind though, seeing a 25.5% gain in the past 24 hours. The only cryptocurrency that’s really seen any significant downside today is UNUS SED LEO (LEO). It’s trading down by 7% on the day despite no other asset in the top-100 seeing any loss beyond 1%. • Layer 2 scaling aggregatorPolygonhas just got another big investor in the form of Mark Cuban, which has sent its native token prices skyrocketing. • Kevin O’Leary, co-host of Shark Tank, has been very vocal about the viability of cryptocurrencies. So much so that he recently announced his plans to launch a decentralized finance (DeFi) investing company. • The Ontario Securities Commission of Canada has said thatPoloniexfailed to discuss regulatory compliance with it, and as such, will hold a hearing on the matter. || In a global first, El Salvador adopts bitcoin as legal currency: Bitcoin accepted here. Joe Raedle/Getty Images El Salvador has gone crypto. President Nayib Bukele's Bitcoin Law received 62 out of 84 votes in El Salvador's Congress on Wednesday morning, rendering it legal tender in a global first. In addition to the U.S. dollar, El Salvadorians can use the cryptocurrency to pay for goods and services, send money from abroad, and pay taxes. Per the law, the exchange rate will be freely established by the market. But bitcoin has been known to be volatile , as a single tweet from Elon Musk can cause drastic change in value. The Bitcoin Law says the state will provide necessary training to help the population — 70 percent of which does not have access to traditional financial services — use bitcoin. "In the short term, this will generate jobs and help provide financial inclusion to thousands outside the formal economy," Bukele said . The price of bitcoin rose 5 percent after the vote, NBC News reports. The CEO of digital payments application Strike, which is partnering with El Salvador, called Bukele's proposal a "shot heard 'round the world for bitcoin." The law goes into effect in 90 days. || Stamps.com gets $6 billion takeover offer, shares soar 64%: Shares of Stamps.com skyrocketed Friday after the company announced private equity firm Thoma Bravo planned to take it private in a$6 billion deal. Shareholders will receive $330 per share as part of the deal. Investors hopped on board, driving the stock up $125 per share to $322.58 as of 10:15 a.m. ET. The deal is set to close in the third quarter, but Stamps.com has a 40-day window allowing it to consider other offers. “With the financial and operational support ofThoma Bravo, Stamps.com can continue to innovate and pursue growth opportunities to capture the expanding e-commerce shipping market and extend our position as the leading global multi-carrier e-commerce shipping software company,” said Ken McBride, Stamps.com’s chairman and CEO. Thoma Bravo has over $78 billion in assets under management. It has acquired more than 300 firms in the past 20 years, and its portfolio includes J.D. Power,McAfee, and network monitoring providerSolarWinds. The leap in share prices is a turnaround for Stamps.com, which saw itsstock plunge 50%in early 2019 after it pulled out of an exclusive deal with theU.S. Postal Service. Shares, at one point, fell as low as $33. Stamps.com has nearly 723,000 monthly subscribers, mostly small businesses, enabling them to print postage labels from their workplaces. • What isthe “inflation trade,”and how can you play it in your portfolio? • Everything to know aboutCathie Wood’s new Bitcoin ETF • Support formaking Bitcoin legal tendergrows in Latin America • What will bethe next big meme stock? Chatter on Reddit’s WallStreetBets offers hints • Chinese tech IPOs fuelHong Kong stock exchange’s best first half ever This story was originally featured onFortune.com [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 32110.69, 32313.11, 33581.55, 34292.45, 35350.19, 37337.54, 39406.94, 39995.91, 40008.42, 42235.55
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2018-11-07] BTC Price: 6530.14, BTC RSI: 57.26 Gold Price: 1226.20, Gold RSI: 54.00 Oil Price: 61.67, Oil RSI: 22.63 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Fake News: Elon Musk’s Flamethrower Company isn’t Accepting Bitcoin: Elon Musk Smoking Pot Yesterday, various news websites including The Next Web reported that Elon Musk’s Boring Company was accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for its famous flamethrowers. However, it has now been revealed — also by TNW — that it is a fake website created by a scammer and that the real Boring Company is not accepting cryptocurrency. The fake website is still live and displays a range of payment methods including cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, and litecoin. It also claims that all proceeds will be used to support Hyperloop technology. However, Musk hasn’t responded to the recent scam yet. Elon Musk is no stranger to the crypto industry. Despite staying away from the crypto buzz, some crypto enthusiasts are convinced that he created bitcoin. It all started in 2014 when Musk said that bitcoin was a “good thing” and called it a “ legal to illegal bridge .” He also clarified that he didn’t own BTC at that time. In 2017, Sahil Gupta, a former SpaceX employee, published a Medium post speculating that Musk was Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto . This launched a debate in the crypto industry with some supporting the argument, and others lambasting it as outrageous. Later, Musk rejected the theory and added that he had no idea where his bitcoins, sent to him by his friend, were. Earlier this year, he revealed that only 0.25 BTC were given to him by his friend. Even so, Musk is often in the cryptocurrency headlines, primarily because he is the frequent target of crypto scambots found on Twitter. Musk, like other celebrities, suffered from hackers hijacking various verified profiles to promote crypto scams. He even replied to a follower, “At this point I want ETH even if it is a scam.” These accounts use the targeted professional’s picture as well as their Twitter handle and comment below their tweets. Due to the prevalence of these scams, Vitalik Buterin changed his name to “Vitalik Non-giver of ether.” Story continues Last month, Musk reached out to Jackson Palmer, creator of Dogecoin and product lead at Adobe, to solve this problem, saying, “[I]f you can help get rid of the annoying scam spammers, that would be much appreciated.” Palmer was able to create a script to block ETH giveaway scammers and help Musk in implementing it on his Twitter. Featured Image from Joe Rogan Experience/ YouTube The post Fake News: Elon Musk’s Flamethrower Company isn’t Accepting Bitcoin appeared first on CCN . || Morgan Stanley is Building a Bitcoin Swap Trading Product: Report: Another of the world’s largest investment banks is quietly building a product that will allow its clients to trade bitcoin, at least indirectly. Citing a person familiar with the matter,Bloombergreports that Morgan Stanley, the sixth-largest bank in the U.S. by assets, is creating a proprietary derivatives product that will give traders “synthetic exposure” to theprice of bitcoin. From the report: “The U.S. bank will deal in contracts that give investors synthetic exposure to the performance of Bitcoin, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Investors will be able to go long or short using the so-called price return swaps, and Morgan Stanley will charge a spread for each transaction, the person said.” The report further indicated thatMorgan Stanley, whose CEO — James Gorman — said earlier this year that the firm won’t let customers trade cryptocurrency directly through the bank, is “technically prepared” to begin offering these bitcoin swaps, pending the completion of an internal approval process and demand from institutional investors. CCN earlierreportedthat Morgan Stanley had poached Credit Suisse’s “bitcoin expert,” Andrew Peel, to head its new crypto division. The bank joins a growing number of major financial institutions that are said to be evaluating how best to integrate cryptocurrencies into their institutional product lines. Both Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, the fourth- and fifth-largest U.S. banks, respectively, plan to offerbitcoin derivatives productsto their clients. JPMorgan hasreportedlyalso begun exploring ways to help its clients invest in cryptocurrency, despite the fact that CEO Jamie Dimon has been one of bitcoin’s most vocal critics. Meanwhile, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the operator of the world’s largest stock exchange, will soonlaunchthe first physically-delivered bitcoin futures product, meaning that contracts will be settled in actual BTC rather than cash (as is the case with the bitcoin futures products currently available on Chicago-based exchanges CME and CBOE). Featured Image from Shutterstock The postMorgan Stanley is Building a Bitcoin Swap Trading Product: Reportappeared first onCCN. || Choosing your cryptocurrency: what should you buy right now?: Earlier this week, Googleannouncedits plan to reverse its widespread ban on cryptocurrency advertising, which the tech giant imposed in June. The ad ban caused bitcoin’s price to fall some 10 per cent when it first came into effect. Come October, regulated cryptocurrency exchanges will be allowed to buy ads in both the U.S. and Japan, however, initial coin offerings (ICOs), wallets and advice on trading will continue to be banned, according toCNBC. Google’s move followsFacebook’s decisionto reverse course on its own crypto ad ban, now allowing some forms of cryptocurrency-related advertising to take place on its platform. With more advertising dollars about to be poured into the space, the crypto world is about to draw in more new investors. So when faced with the top three cryptocurrencies, bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) andXRP(Ripple), which should potential crypto investors buy into? The answer is in how much risk you can tolerate, and the kind of risk you’re willing to take. “After the rally of the altcoins in 2017, we have witnessed a transfer of value in the market from altcoins to bitcoin,” says Christophe de Courson, CEO ofOlymp Capital, the first European investment fund covering blockchain and the crypto asset ecosystem. “The bitcoin dominance on the cryptocurrency market has gone up from its lowest point at 32.5 per cent on January 13, 2018 to 56.01 per cent on September 13, 2018.” “Bitcoin is still the most sound [in the market] because it was the first decentralized cryptocurrency ever launched and successfully evolved through the years while gaining worldwide adoption, and it has evolved to be recognized as a new asset class on which regulators had to take a clear position on,” de Courson said in an email toYahoo Finance Canada. He also says the story behind the creation of bitcoin (and the mystery around its creator’s name) contributes to its “uniqueness” and adding cryptocurrenices like bitcoin to one’s portfolio could offer a new way to “diversify investor’s portfolios as soon as institutions integrate this new asset class in their financial products.” Financial advisor and millennial money expertJessica Moorhousethinks the very ambiguity behind the birth of the bitcoin and its lack of regulation is what makes it volatile and unappealing to non-bullish investors. Moorhouse argues that cryptocurrency is not really an investment at all—it’s a currency. “It’s really more of an asset that you could buy, but in my mind it’s so new, there’s little information and we don’t even know who created the coin” she tellsYahoo Finance Canada. Moorhouse says she often has clients asking whether or not to invest in crypto and she cautions against taking the plunge, for now, unless “you are high risk to tolerance and you’ve already got a bunch of stable assets in your portfolio and you just want to dabble.” Moorhouse compares the cryptocurrency appeal to what’s being seen with cannabis stocks. “It’s kind of the same level as cannabis stocks because it’s volatile but kind of exciting so people want dabble, which is fine, but for the average investor like me it’s not something I think is a good idea at the moment,” she says. Moorhouse advises those interested (and willing to bear the risk) to invest only two to five per cent of their portfolio to crypto, adding she does not have a strong conviction for any of the coins. Just last week the price of Ripple’s currency, XRP, skyrocketed up 80 per cent in 24 hours and rising some 100 per cent over the past seven days. It quickly rose to the number two spot on the cryptoasset food chain, ahead of Ethereum. While Ripple’s overthrow did perk up some ears, Matt Spoke, CEO of theAion Networkand a member of the newly formed Blockchain Technology Coalition of Canada (BTCC), says the surge in XRP shouldn’t be taken too seriously because the run up “probably happened as a result of a couple large investors that are just pushing on the trading markets,” he says, rather than “Bank of America saying we need to take a large position in XRP.” “Bitcoin is here to stay and can be seen as a long-term asset in your portfolio when XRP is more seen as a payment currency and ether as a token needed when using the Ethereum Network,” states Olymp Capital’s Christophe de Courson. “I would advise investors to diversify their portfolio by weighing their capital between those [three] and add some [assets] from the Top 20 [companies] by marketcap to better balance their investment.” “XRP, the token, and Ripple, its related platform, are interesting,” says de Courson. “We saw huge growth last week in XRP’s price, after theannouncementof a new cryptocurrency product coming by October and a new partnership with PNC, a major U.S. bank.” Key to note is that while you need ether to use the Ethereum network, Ripple’s XRP is not needed when using the Ripple platform. However, Ethereum has a lock on since you need to buy Ethereum in order to participate in most ICOs. This drives up the price and keeps it vital, which for some, is a more sound investment. Looking ahead Aion’s Matthew Spoke argues that post 2018 we’re not going to be calling Bitcoin, Ether and XRP cryptocurrencies; we’ll simply refer to them as assets. He believes that “Canadian dollars are going to be represented on top of these technologies at some point in the near future…we’re just going to trade them off paper and in digital form.” “Considering cryptocurrencies, people cannot use it to buy things like they easily do with fiat,” says Olymp Capital’s Christophe de Courson. “For instance, a loyalty program based on tokens is sharing more characteristics with a miles program than with fiat, even if people can exchange tokens for fiat.” He also argues that investors should look at cryptocurrencies as investment and traders should look at is as currency. “Some cryptocurrencies can be sued for payments like XRP because of the underlying technology but some tokens like ETH orVETare needed when using their own network and thus could be seen as an investment product if adoption of the underlying protocol grows over time.” He also suggests that depending on the intrinsic features of each cryptocurrency, “some can be seen as a ‘wallet’ for storage of money like some stablecoin projects currently under development, such asBasis.” Download the Yahoo Finance app, available forAppleandAndroid. || Lightning Network: How It Is Going to Affect Bitcoin and Litecoin: There’s no secret that Bitcoin suffers from slow and expensive transactions. In December 2017, an average transaction fee was over $30 and a confirmation process was taking about 30 minutes! Now the numbers are much lower, but scalability remains the biggest issue Bitcoin has yet to solve. Many crypto enthusiasts believe that the Lightning Network will bring new solutions that will affect a lot of currencies. It is an off-chain technology, which can significantly decrease both the speed and the price of BTC transaction. However,some claim that it will be not Bitcoinbut Litecoin benefiting most from its launch. In addition to fast and cheap transactions, the technology introduces so-called ‘atomic swaps’ that allow for cross-chain cryptocurrency exchange. As Bitcoin and Litecoin are among the first to utilize the LN upgrade, the level of interoperability between the two coins will increase. In layman’s terms, with the Lightning Network implementation, the number ofways to exchange Litecoin for Bitcoinand vice versa will increase. Let’s say, if a BTC holder wants to use a cheaper LTC for daily micro-payments, they do not need to go for a crypto exchange to buy Litecoin first; they can simply perform an atomic swap between two blockchains. Seems catchy, doesn’t it? Let’s go deeper into how the Lightning Network works and how it will change the balance of power in the crypto market. TheLightning Networkis an off-chain system of payment channels powered by smart contracts and designed to facilitate direct deals between users. It can work on Bitcoin’s blockchain or any other, and be used to exchange different coins cross-chain owing to theAtomic Swaps technology. The Lightning Network wallet address is accessible to two users who want to make a deal – they input the number of coins to be spent and confirm the transaction. The contract will be finalized only when both parties sign it. At any time, any user may close their unique channel, so the latest information about transactions and balances will be sent to Bitcoin’s blockchain. What does this mean for regular crypto investors? Using the Lightning Network, they can make deals without synchronizing with blockchain all the time. Data about transactions will be transferred via off-chain payment channels. The Lightning Network was designed to make payments more convenient and attract more users. This system may be completely game-changing for Bitcoin. For now, most users consider BTC as a store of value but not as a payment method because of the high fees and slow processing times. With the Lightning Network, Bitcoin will be able to become cheaper and more efficient,which is going to be a clear competitive edge over some altcoins. Bitcoin’s blockchain is based on theProof-of-Work algorithm. It means that miners confirm on-chain transactions. They can decide in which order to verify deals and will obviously choose ones with higher fees first. How the Lightning Network can help here? It eliminates miners’ verification step and increases the speed of transactions’ processing. Off-chain deals will be done instantly. Bitcoin – the current price of which is over $6,400 – can be divided into smaller parts called Satoshis. One such unit is equivalent to 0.00000001 BTC. As you can see, a lot of Satoshis are needed to form even the tiniest sum in cents. At the moment, the fees are too high which makes small deals inefficient. Say, an average fee of $0.2 makes purchasing coffee or paying for a subway ticket with BTC unreasonable. In contrast,Litecoin offers $0.04 fees, which makes it a perfect cryptocurrency for micro-payments. Implementation of the Lightning Network can result in reducing fees and making micro-payments with Bitcoin more realistic. All transactions will be based on smart contracts, and the system itself will control the processes. Behind its intention to solve the fees problem, there are some controversial features in the Lightning Network.It has its own feesfor opening and closing a payment channel and for transferring assets between channels. At the moment, the latter fee is zero, but the situation can change. Also, the Lightning Network usagecan result in making more on-chain transactionsif your wallet fails to find a route to the receiver. In this case, a user will have to make two transactions of opening and closing a channel in order to meet a payment eventually. There’s also an issue of how widely it will be used which is linked to the general adoption of cryptocurrencies. Litecoin is considered to be silver in the world where Bitcoin is viewed as digital gold. Originally, LTC is Bitcoin’s fork designed to provide faster and cheaper deals. What impact can the Lightning Network have on this currency? Skeptics claim that it will disintegrate Litecoin as investors will prefer using fast and cheap Bitcoin as more famous and trusted asset. If BTC will actually solve its scalability issues, nobody will need other currencies to perform the same tasks. On the other side, optimists argue that Litecoin can survive as a secondary chain. The project’s founderCharlie Lee claims that LTC will always remain cheaper and fasterthan BTC, and the Lightning Network can only contribute to Litecoin’s wider adoption. The Lightning Network is designed to make blockchain transactions instant and cheap. While the major cryptocurrency still tries to deal with the problem of scalability, this technology seems to offer a solution. But it could be not that simple. The success of implementing the Lightning Network depends on various factors: the general crypto adoption, the usage of altcoins that provide speed improvements and lower fees compared to BTC, or contradictions over the technology’s nature itself. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Bitcoin and a Month Few Would Have Expected • Riding the Trend – Season 3 (commodities) – Webinar November 08 • What Happens if the Yuan Breaks the Magical 7? • Learn It Live – How to Start Scalping the Markets • The Week Ahead – Monetary Policy, Stats and Geo-Politics to Drive the Markets • Price of Gold Fundamental Weekly Forecast – If Stocks Stabilize, Focus Will Shift to U.S. Dollar, Interest Rates || Two-Thirds of Cryptocurrency Investors Want to be Paid in Bitcoin: bitcoin cryptocurrency A new survey by HR startup company ChronoBank has found that crypto investors are disappointed in the lack of employers willing to pay salaries in bitcoin and altcoins. Price Instability Doesn’t Phase Crypto Wage Earners The survey of 445 crypto enthusiasts found that while 66% of respondents are willing to receive wages in cryptocurrencies, only 30% believe that companies in their country will change to paying salaries in digital assets, with U.S. respondents being particularly skeptical on that front. Even more, approximately 83% of all respondents, were also willing to receive their bonus payments in cryptocurrencies. In terms of taxation, only 52% are ready to pay taxes on their digital revenues. While 65% of U.S. respondents said they were ready to pay the tax man, only 30% of Russians said the same. That said, over 60% of the younger respondents from all countries were ready and willing to pay tax on their cryptocurrency transactions and earnings. Respondents hailed from Australia, the U.S., and Russia among other nations, with 92% of the respondents being male, 75% employed, and 40% aged between 25 and 34. cryptocurrency bitcoin ChronoBank believes that more crypto-payment options for employees would also benefit employers, and CEO Sergei Sergeinko stated: “Most revealing was that 72% of those surveyed said they would prefer an employer who has the salary payment option in the cryptocurrency when choosing their next place of employment. These results suggest that employers need to get up to speed with crypto sooner rather than later.” Half of the respondents identified as “hodlers” in the sense that they felt receiving wages in crypto would help them spend less. Sixty percent of respondents aged 18 to 24 expressed this belief, with a total of 19% of all respondents flat-out stating that they wouldn’t use the funds for transactions at all in the hopes that the value would increase. Regulatory Uncertainty Strikes Again The respondents, like so many in the space, stated that they were unsure of the rules of engagement when it came to receiving or handling cryptocurrency funds. Sergeinko pointed out: Story continues “Even though there are ongoing changes in the legislation of different countries in the field of cryptocurrency, audiences are still not adequately informed about the innovations. Almost half of the respondents do not have enough information on whether salary payments in cryptocurrencies in their countries are allowed.” While the regulatory attitude highlights how far we have to go in terms of setting out clear and consistent guidelines worldwide for blockchain and cryptocurrency usage, the survey respondents were optimistic about the future. The majority of HR respondents believed that blockchain will be used as a secure method for payment processing, and 57% of all respondents said that they were confident that payments in crypto would positively affect the economic growth of countries. Images from Shutterstock The post Two-Thirds of Cryptocurrency Investors Want to be Paid in Bitcoin appeared first on CCN . || Cryptos Rise; China Moves to Crack Down on Digital Coins: Cryptos were higher on Tuesday. Investing.com - Cryptocurrency prices were higher on Tuesday, while China’s central bank plans to strengthen its supervision of initial coin offerings and other blockchain-related financings. In its report, the People’s Bank of China highlighted its plan to crack down on airdrops, which it says are actually ICOs. Airdrops are when companies give tokens to participants while reserving a portion of the total supply. The bank plans to strengthen regulatory coordination and promote international cooperation in regards to virtual coins. ICOs are illegal in China, as such activities have been used for capital control evasion. “Crypto assets which are not issued by the government do not have legal status equivalent to fiat currencies,” the PBOC said. “There is no law or regulation that explicitly prohibits parties from holding bitcoin or private transactions in bitcoin, [only warnings to] the public about the investment risks. The contract, in this case, stipulates the obligation to return the bitcoin between two natural persons and does not belong to the [Sept. 2017 ban]," the report stated. Bitcoin fell 0.13% to $6,476.80 on the Bitfinex exchange as of 9:03 AM ET (14:03 GMT). Cryptocurrencies overall were higher, with the total coin market capitalization at $216 billion at the time of writing, compared to $212 billion on Monday. Ethereum,or Ether, increased 1.56% to $215.48 and Litecoin was at $54.951, up 1.35%, while XRP jumped 14.75% to $0.53750. Meanwhile, Thailand is exploring ways to track tax payments using blockchain, the Bangkok Post reported. Blockchain, which is the technology behind bitcoin and other alternative coins, will be used to verify taxes and speed up the refund process, officials told the paper. The Thai government also plans to use machine learning to study how taxes are avoided. Related Articles After ‘Taking out’ $6,800, Bitcoin Will Hit ‘New Highs’ In 2019, Says Galaxy Digital’s Novogratz There Are Deep Trust Issues in Online Gambling - Does Blockchain Promise a Solution? Add IP Addresses to the List of Money-Makers in the Sharing Economy || BMW Partners Blockchain Startup to Develop Customer Lending Solution: BMW Group financial services has announced its partnership with blockchain startupBloomin a bid to streamline its customer journey and user experience, per aMedium post. Bloom helps to make the traditional lending process easier hence helping to reduce the risk that consumer data is exposed to. Individuals can secure their data on their local device and apply for credit without exposing data to risk, using Bloom’s blockchain-based mobile application. Anyone can take advantage of the blockchain technology because of bloom’s straightforward onboarding process. Through this move, BMW Financial Services will revolutionize the way individuals apply for financing. “Bloom is excited to participate in such a forward-thinking initiative. I’m excited to be working with the BMW Financial Services team to build a streamlined and easy lending experience to improve the customer journey,” said Anne Ching, Head of Partnerships at Bloom. Ian Smith, the CEO of BMW Group Financial Services USA, also added that BMW is “looking to examine any and all methods of how blockchain ledgers could support the transformation of current data warehousing, payment, and customer information tracking.” According to Smith, BMW’s goal is to automate a large part of their processing and focus more on tracking and securing of information. This initiative is part of theBMW collaboration Lab2018 which involves six startups that will be participating in a 10-week lab at BMW Financial Services’ offices in Hilliard, Ohio.The program will focus on some critical areas including building a blockchain strategy, data analytics, and insights, digitalizing the customer journey and wildcard. BMW has been trialing the blockchain technology to solve a range of problems. The automobile giant is also one of the founding members of theMobility Open Blockchain Initiative(MOBI), alongside Ford, GM and others. The initiative was created to accelerate the adoption of distributed ledgers and related technologies in the automobile industry. Other car manufacturers that have developed blockchain-based customer financing include Daimler AG whoacquiredPayCAsh Europe SA last year in a bid to launch its electronic payment services platform which includes a number of payment options, including Bitcoin. The payment service platform was part of Daimler’s “mobility and digitization strategy” which enable customers to pay for Daimler’s services via a smartphone device. Featured image from Shutterstock. The postBMW Partners Blockchain Startup to Develop Customer Lending Solutionappeared first onCCN. || Ethereum dApp Augur Records $2 Million in Bets in US Midterms: Augur, a decentralized prediction platform on the Ethereum blockchain, has recorded over $2 million in bets on election night. During the United States midterm election, as Augur co-founder Jeremy Gardner stated, bets placed on the outcome of US midterms initially reached $900,000 and eventually surpassed the $2 million mark. That is, more than 60 percent of the bets Betfair, the biggest betting platform in the world, recorded throughout midterms. “There’s $700,000 staked on Augur for today’s mid-term election. PredictIt, the leading prediction market, has $550,000. Betfair, the world’s largest betting site, has $3 million. That’s progress,”saidGardner on November 6, adding “Over $900k, excuse me.” Since itslaunchon the Ethereum mainnet in July, Augur, often described as the most complex dApp on the Ethereum blockchain network, has seen a significant increase in the number of bets and active users. In July, BKCM CEO Brian Kellynotedthat the launch of Augur represented the progress Ethereum has made over the past year in terms of scalability, especially if it can handle the transaction output large dApps like Augur demand. At the time, Augur already had millions of dollars at stake and the large amount of ETH, the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum, placed on the platform to bet on variety of subjects led investors of both the platform and the Ethereum blockchain network to be optimistic in the long-term growth of the sector. “Augur was one of the oldest ICOs [initial coin offerings] and the platform has been in development for about two to three years now. What’s interesting about this is probably going to be one of the biggest decentralized apps launched on top of Ethereum. If Augur doesn’t slow the system down [unlike CryptoKitties] that could generally be a positive for Ethereum.” This week, after recording a five-fold increase in the number of active users, Augur demonstrated a stake of over $2 million on a single topic that is the US midterm election, showing promising progress and growth since its mainnet release four months ago. According to DappRadar, a platform that provides real-time data of dApps, Augur has recorded a volume of over 4,000 ETH over the last 24 hours, which is equivalent to $880,000 based on the current price of Ethereum. The daily volume of Augur exceeds that of the five largest Ethereum-based games combined and nears that of the largest decentralized exchanges in the market including IDEX and ForkDelta. Bitcoin has long been considered as a killer application of blockchain technology due to its ability to completely decentralize the process of settling payments between multiple parties. Betting, like payment settlement, is an activity that can be performed in a purely peer-to-peer manner with distributed escrow and smart contract systems in place made possible through the utilization of Ethereum. As the blockchain technology evolves and matures, it will be able to support more applications and maximize its potential in a selected group of areas that can benefit from decentralization. The postEthereum dApp Augur Records $2 Million in Bets in US Midtermsappeared first onCCN. || 1Broker Shut Down, Will More Bitcoin Exchanges be Targeted by US Gov’t?: 1Broker, a Marshall Islands-based securities dealer and bitcoin trading platform, was recently taken down by the US authorities. The FBI seized the domain of 1Broker, shutting down the platform for allegedly violating money laundering regulations and distributing securities as an unregistered dealer. The official announcement of the USSecurities and Exchange Commission(SEC)read: “The SEC alleges that a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, acting in an undercover capacity, successfully purchased several security-based swaps on 1Broker’s platform from the U.S. despite not meeting the discretionary investment thresholds required by the federal securities laws.” On Oct. 2, the 1Broker team released a statement on social media, stating that the company is working with a U.S. counsel and its legal team to represent 1Broker in the SEC/CFTC case to potentially recover the platform. “We are currently engaging U.S. counsel who can represent us in the SEC/CFTC case. We expect that this takes a few days. We received the green light from our lawyers to set up a read-only version 1Broker to view balances and transaction history. ETA: 48 hours,” the team said. Prior to that, on Sept. 27, 1Broker emphasized that it will cooperate with the authorities and with the SEC to partially re-enable the platform to allow withdrawals for its users. “Statement regarding the SEC allegation: All funds are currently secure and we will fully cooperate with the authorities. If approved by the SEC, we will enable withdrawals for US customers as soon as possible. A more detailed statement will follow.” Currently, as of Oct. 2, the official domain of 1Broker still displays a statement from the FBI, which seized 1Broker.com after obtaining a warrant from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Jake Chervinsky, a government enforcement defense and securities litigation attorney at Kobre & Kim LLP, explained that an undercover FBI agent initiated a unregistered security-based swap on March 30, 2016. It took more than two years for the SEC and the FBI to take action and shut down the exchange of 1Broker. Given that most tokens, which are considered as securities under existing laws in the US, were released in the second half of last year, Chervinsky implied that in the months to come, many exchanges and token issuers are likely to be targeted by US authorities. “The undercover FBI agent who investigated 1broker bought his first unregistered security-based swap on March 30, 2016. The government didn’t take action until two and a half years later. The majority of ICOs (unregistered securities?) were issued in 2H 2017. Buckle up, folks,” hesaid. Several investors in the cryptocurrency space including Aurelius, a widely recognized crypto trader,statedthat exchanges likeBitMEXcould potentially be targeted by the SEC for offering margin trading around Bitcoin and Ethereum. As Shamoil T. Shipchandler, Director of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office said: “The SEC protects U.S. investors across a variety of platforms, regardless of the type of currency used in their transactions. International companies that transact with U.S. investors cannot circumvent compliance with the federal securities laws by using cryptocurrency.” Featured Image from Shutterstock The post1Broker Shut Down, Will More Bitcoin Exchanges be Targeted by US Gov’t?appeared first onCCN. || Overstock's CEO Is Sending Some Weird Signals: - By John Engle Overstock.com Inc. ( OSTK ) has been trying to reinvent itself. Its legacy online retailing business has suffered badly in recent years, resulting in a strategic shift toward other pursuits. Chief among these has been a push, through wholly-owned subsidiary Medici Ventures, into the arena of blockchain technology and crypto. We discussed Overstock's big strategic shift in a previous research note, in which we concluded that, while there might be unappreciated value in this new pursuit (as well as unlockable value through the sale of the legacy online retail business), the unknowns and uncertainties make us nervous about taking the plunge. We can now add another area of doubt to our list of fears: puzzling behavior and statements from the CEO. Specifically, CEO Patrick Byrne's decision to sell 10% of his holdings and then write a lengthy letter to shareholders in order to justify his move. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with OSTK. Click here to check it out. OSTK 15-Year Financial Data The intrinsic value of OSTK Peter Lynch Chart of OSTK Let's discuss this latest development, and how it impacts our view of the company. A study in self-justification Byrne, who is also the founder of Overstock, sent a message to shareholders dealing with his decision to sell 10% of his shares in the company: Dear Owners, In March I disclosed that this year I would be selling stock to fund sidecar investments with the company. As was disclosed in SEC filings today, I have sold roughly 10% of my Overstock.com stock holdings. You should not be alarmed, for six reasons: 1) Within a matter of days, I will reinvest most of this money into two co-investments with Overstock and Medici Ventures (thus I am eating a double dose of my own cooking, as months ago I promised you I would). 2) You will soon see me honor several professors from my distant past who should be asked to wait any longer. 3) I have to pay Uncle Same his cut. Remember, I didn't buy this. Washington built this. 4) I feel very encouraged by the speed of improvements in our retail business (which also makes me comfortable taking this moment to sell). I also think the Medici Ventures business model is playing out beautifully, and we are getting to park your capital in some of the most exciting blockchain innovations in the world, coupled with the tech and corporate support that is making Medici Ventures a sought-after capital partner. 5) As was mentioned six months ago, I needed to sell stock during this quarter to meet such obligations. I am disappointed that I when the deadline arrived for my sales this quarter, the stock had dropped (I sadly note that over the last 180 days the correlation between OSTK's and Bitcoin's daily moves has been 85.5%, and again warn people: we don't have significant holdings of Bitcoin). Story continues 6) In the 18 years I've worked here, I have only ever sold a tiny sliver of my stock before (and that was 10 years ago, in the middle of my Mitzvah with Wall Street, when I wanted to test the system). Most of these 18 years I did not draw a salaey (and for the last several, have drawn $100,000 so as to avoid being one of those schmucks who does not draw a salary). I've cashed in 1/10 of my chips (most of it, to reinvest next to you). Don't worry; I'm still in the game, and we're going to bring this House to its knees. I look forward to our next meeting. Until then, I remain, Your humble servant, Patrick More questions than answers Unpacking Byrne's stock sales and justification letter is no simple task. The first of his six points is the only one that might inspire some confidence in his shareholders, if indeed he follows through and plows most of the proceeds from his stock sales, which resulted in about $20 million in proceeds to the CEO. That is about 10% of his personal stake in the company. Of course, any time a CEO sells shares of his own company, it is usually taken as not a great sign. It is a worse sign when the CEO makes the sales at what a bullish investor ought to consider an unjustifiably low stock price. But if the lion's share of the money is genuinely being redeployed as co-investments, thus giving Byrne a a double-dose of his own cooking, as he says, then it may not be so bad. But he does not end his efforts at self-justification there. He goes on to talk about using the money to "honor" professors from his past and to pay tax obligations. His emphasis on the need to "pay Uncle Sam his cut" is particularly perplexing. It is definitely jarring to see the CEO of a public company air his grievances toward the American tax system via shareholder letter. Likewise, the boasting about not taking a salary sounded more like posturing and excuse-making than the serious comments of a CEO. Byrne's point that he felt justified in selling now due to improvements in the legacy online retail business is also strange. The share price has been deteriorating along with the retail segment of late. Some improvements seem to be in the works, and the potential for offloading it to another buyer allow his point to stand somewhat, but not entirely. If indeed things were turning around at last, one would expect Byrne to wait a little while longer for those improvements to be reflected at least a bit more in the share price. A question of leadership All of Byrne's comments, which seek to bolster shareholder support, may end up biting back at him. Some show potential, such as the promised co-investments, but those have to be seen before they can be believed. As for the other justifications, they seem rather tone-deaf and strange. That gives us some pause about the competence of Byrne as CEO, who appears to be feeling increasingly under siege. Such mentalities at the top of companies can prove dangerous for their operations - and their shareholders. Byrne has a great deal to prove. His focus should not be on justifying selling his shares at what ought to be unacceptably low prices. Instead, he should be laser-focused on execution. But we see more excuse-making than action-taking at this point. Verdict We see and appreciate the bull turnaround case for Overstock, but there are still so many question marks. And an erratic, or at least disconcertingly eccentric, CEO adds to those concerns. A turnaround demands discipline and focus. Byrne has been with Overstock for 18 years, but that does not mean he has the skills to lead it into the next phase. We are certainly skeptical of his capacity at this point. Disclosure: I/We own no stocks discussed in this article. This article first appeared on GuruFocus . Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with OSTK. Click here to check it out. OSTK 15-Year Financial Data The intrinsic value of OSTK Peter Lynch Chart of OSTK View comments [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] - The Economist 1988 magazine "One World Currency" released with the date "10 - 2018" on the coin. - Oct 31 2008 > Bitcoin white paper released. - Oct 1 2018 > Ripple confirms Xrapid officially in production. - Nov 1 2018 > US sanctions kick in Damn..... @LeeR912 #XRP || 1. #BTC: $6650.68 (2.51%) 2. #ETH: $224.55 (4.64%) 3. #XRP: $0.53 (-0.12%) 4. #BCH: $538.91 (1.72%) 5. #EOS: $5.83 (6.44%) 6. #XLM: $0.25 (0.34%) 7. #LTC: $62.17 (8.42%) 8. #USDT: $1.00 (-0.08%) 9. #ADA: $0.08 (4.87%) 10. #XMR: $117.06 (2.42%) #blockchain #crypto #altcoin || Understanding Blockchain Technology And Bitcoin ☞ http://on.learn4startup.com/HJx2DqvD_7  #Ethereum #Bitcoin juiPPa0u4p6 pic.twitter.com/2CKRbOTkYS || 24H 2018/09/11 19:00 (2018/09/10 19:00) LONG : 24883.6 BTC (+836.69 BTC) SHORT : 36265.85 BTC (-71.9 BTC) LS比 : 40% vs 59% (39% vs 60%) || Potcoin Value: 0.0183777944 USD | 0.00001838 BTC #potcoin #potcoinvalue http://potcoinvalue.com  || FINANCIAL INDICATORS: $ trading at R14.5762 £ trading at R18.6794 € trading at R16.6327 A Bitcoin costs R96650.00 Brent Crude $77.55 || The long arm of the SEC became slightly shorter today, as Bitcoin was officially ruled a commodity. The past several months have been somewhat scary for the crypto community, with fears of… https://www.instagram.com/p/BoaGS9dCmfi/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=cqpwnoar54x8 … || October 29, 2018 12:00 PM EDT Last 4 hours, BTC -0.81% ETH -2.51% LTC -3.28% XRP -1.81% BCH -3.32% #cryptofinance #cryptocurrencies #BTC #ETH #LTC #XRP #BCH || BTC/NGN: BitSSA - ₦2,298,881.00 Luno - ₦2,298,818.00 LB - ₦2,264,235.50 Average - ₦2,287,311.50 || #BCEX AGRS is available in BTC trading market,as follows: Deposit&Withdrawal Time: September 18,2018,15:00（UTC+8） Trading Time: September 19,2018,15:00（UTC+8） For more information: https://www.bcex.ca/news/detail/?id=2141 … pic.twitter.com/46cRqFvvAI OT: https://twitter.com/BCEXofficial/status/1041782562505416704 …
Trend: down || Prices: 6453.72, 6385.62, 6409.22, 6411.27, 6371.27, 6359.49, 5738.35, 5648.03, 5575.55, 5554.33
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin is 'Enron in the making', Saudi Prince Alwaleed says: RIYADH (Reuters) - Billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who owns investment firm Kingdom Holding, expressed skepticism about cryptocurrencies in an interview with CNBC on Monday, warning that bitcoin was like "Enron in the making". Prince Alwaleed, whose company invests in major U.S. companies such as Citigroup and Twitter, said a lack of regulation made such cryptocurrencies risky. "I just don't believe in this bitcoin thing. I think it's going to implode one day. It's Enron in the making," he said, referring to the U.S. energy company that filed for bankruptcy in 2001 after revelations of a widespread accounting fraud. "This thing does not make sense. It's unregulated. It's not under the control of the U.S. Federal Reserve or any other central bank," he added. Bitcoin is a virtual currency that has gained more than 500 percent this year, more than any other tradable asset class. Prince Alwaleed also said the valuation of electric car maker Tesla Inc was "too exuberant" for him to invest. "I would rather not comment on that because maybe some people think the valuation is right, but it's not for me to enter [at] that price obviously. It's too exuberant for me right now." He added that U.S. ride services company Lyft had been better priced than rival Uber when his investment firm bought into it. He said he was "very happy" with his investment in Citigroup and saw potential for the share price to rise above $100. It has been trading at around $73. SAFETY VALVE Prince Alwaleed also said he was not considering merging AccorHotels and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, in which Kingdom Holding owns stakes. On the initial public offering of Saudi Aramco, which its CEO reiterated would take place next year, Prince Alwaleed said the transaction would act as a "safety valve" for Saudi Arabia. "If you go 5 percent, there's nothing that prohibits you from going another 5 percent next year, and 5 percent the third year and fourth year, and so forth, depending on the situation." Story continues Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said last year the country was considering listing about 5 percent of Aramco in a deal that could raise $100 billion, if the company is valued at about $2 trillion as hoped. CEO Nasser on Monday brushed off reports about China emerging as a frontrunner in a possible plan to delay the IPO and sell shares to sovereign funds. "I'm not a member of the government but I read these reports, and I will not be surprised if China will be looking at this opportunity," Prince Alwaleed said. "China depends on oil and will depend on oil for a long time to come. And Saudi Arabia is an anchor exporter of oil to China." (Reporting by Katie Paul, Maha El Dahan, Alexander Cornwell and Reem Shamseddine; Writing by Sylvia Westall; Editing by David Holmes) || Robinhood, a stock trading app built for millennials, is growing up: Robinhood stock trading app Robinhood Robinhood, the San Francisco-based brokerage famous for offering commission-free stock trading, has unveiled a new web platform on which users will be able to buy and sell stocks and utilize a suite of new investor tools. The company has amassed more than 3 million users, adding new accounts at a faster rate than ever before. Robinhood, the brokerage known for its sleek mobile app for zero commission stock trading, is unveiling a web platform. The new web platform looks more like an ecommerce site, where users can comparison shop, cofounder Baiju Bhatt told Business Insider. Users can check, for instance, Apple's stock and see how many people on Robinhood own it, what analysts think about the stock, as well as more technical information like earnings. "We want to be comically, obsessively focused on what our costumers want in everything that we do," Bhatt said. "When people are buying stocks, they are comparison shopping and they want an experience that's built for that." Capture.PNG Robinhood As such, they built it to replicate the comparison shopping experience on Amazon. "We wanted to avoid information overload with way too much stuff going on," Bhatt said."That's the problem with all the other brokerages." The company is catching up to its legacy rivals, reaching more than 3 million users. Etrade, by comparison, has 3.3 million users. Bhatt declined to comment on profitability of the company. In August, Bhatt told Business Insider the company would continue to roll out new features to meet the need of its users, who skew younger, to meet their needs as they mature as investors. Here's Bhatt: In time, as our users become more and more sophisticated, we will continue to add features that match them. But we hope to never lose sight of those first timers as well. Fundamentally, that should be the most important thing for financial-services companies. Making the entire industry something that serves the broader market, not just the people who make them a lot of money. Story continues He told Business Insider there are more features in the works. NOW WATCH: TOP STRATEGIST: Bitcoin will soar to $25,000 in 5 years See Also: Maverick Capital, a $10.5 billion hedge fund, told clients it may have 'cracked the code' The richest families in America are pouring money into healthcare startups The largest options exchange in the US is moving in on a $1.6 billion bitcoin opportunity SEE ALSO: The cofounder of $1.3 billion startup Robinhood explains a 'logical fallacy' in investing || Bitcoin soars above $9,000 to new record high: MI • The price of bitcoin, the scorching-hot cryptocurrency, soared above $9,000 a coin for the first time early Sunday morning. • Bitcoin was trading at anall-time high of $9,481 a coin Sunday afternoon, according to data from Markets Insider. • Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban told Business Insider the price of bitcoin will continue to rise as long as it continues to act more as a collectible than a currency. Bitcoin's impressive march into record territory continued Sunday afternoon. The digital currency, which has been on a tear since the US Thanksgiving holiday, soared past $9,000 a coin early Sunday morning. By Sunday afternoon in New York the digital currency was trading at an all-time high of $9,481 a coin, a more than $1,000 increase from its price mid-day on Thursday. It gave up some of those gains and by 5:56 p.m. ET bitcoin was trading at $9,343 a coin. Bitcoin's rapid appreciation appears to have coincided with a spike in the userbase of the largest platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies in the US. Coinbase, the San Francisco firm, grew its user count by 100,000 to 13.1 million from Wednesday to Friday, according to analysis by Alistair Milne, cofounder of Altana Digital Currency Fund. The analysis wasfirst reported by CNBC on Saturday. At the time of print, Coinbase reported more than 13.3 million users. As for how high the cryptocurrency will go, one of Wall Street's biggest bitcoin bullsrecently doubled his price targetfor the coin to $11,500. Tom Lee, the managing partner and head of research atFundstrat Global Advisors, expects bitcoin to hit $11,500 by mid-2018, up from the estimate of $6,000 he made in August. Lee is optimistic about thecoming launch of bitcoin futures by Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which many think will increase the cryptocurrency's legitimacy, thereby expanding its potential user base. Folks also believe futures will help dampen bitcoin's spine-tingling volatility. Mike Blake/Reuters Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban, who recently describedinvesting in bitcoin as a Hail Mary, told Business Insider the price will continue to rise so long as bitcoin continues to function more as a collectible than an actual currency. "The number of people opening up new accounts and buying bitcoin, even fractionally, is skyrocketing," he said. "Yet the people who have it as a true store of value have no reason to sell it as long as demand continues." Since the list of merchants that accept bitcoin is still relatively small, holders don't have many places where they can spend their coins, either. "They can't spend it, so they keep it," Cuban said. As such, Cuban expects the price to continue to rise until "there is some systemic reason for the collectors to sell." The markets might be waiting a while for investors to sell. Asurvey by LendEDUfound the average bitcoin investor doesn't plan to give up their bitcoin until the cryptocurrency reaches $196,165, or 21 times its current value. This post has been updated from its original form. NOW WATCH:The stock market is flashing warning signs See Also: • Bitcoin cash is jumping • A $9 billion French asset manager is launching Europe's first bitcoin mutual fund • Square is taking on the big cryptocurrency exchanges — and it represents a $30 million opportunity SEE ALSO:One of Wall Street's biggest bears just doubled his bitcoin forecast to $11,500 DON'T MISS:Mark Cuban is backing a new cryptocurrency fund months after calling bitcoin a 'bubble' || Trade Coin Club Founder Joff Paradise Announces Release of TCC 123.PRO Website: Cryptocurrency Legend Joff Paradise Announces the Release of His New Trade Coin Club Member Marketing Tool Website TCC 123.PRO LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / October 12, 2017 /Bitcoin entrepreneur and Trade Coin Club founding partner Joff Paradise announced the launch of the organization's new affiliate based marketing tool website TCC123.PRO available to current TCC members in their efforts to expand their personal business networks through recruitment, education, and marketing. TCC.123PRO includes an individual professional website available at three different subscription levels that require no maintenance, updating, or design work required of theTrade Coin Clubmember. "We worked extremely hard to design a turn-key website with a professional aesthetic combined with a high degree of utility. The site includes marketing and educational material in easily digestible formats that members can show to interested friends, family members, colleagues, and associates that may want to become involved in developing additional income streams via bitcoin currency trading, said founding partner andTCC Master Distributor Joff Paradise. "Without a strong web presence, our team members are at a real disadvantage. Having a polished, professional website allows our team members to engage in effective marketing and educational conversations and meetings with prospects. Each site can be launched in just five minutes and includes extensive FAQs, best practices, calculators, tips, resources, and more," said Paradise. Members can choose from three different TCC123.PRO website subscription levels that can be canceled at any time. There is no maintenance, back-end work, or updating required by the member. All administrative tasks are completed by a dedicated TCC123PRO webmaster. To learn more about the Trade Coin Club 123.Pro Launch, visit:http://joff.tcc123.pro/joff-paradise-launches-tcc123-pro/ About Trade Coin Club (TCC) Founded by international entrepreneurJoff Paradise, Trade Coin Club (TCC) allows individuals to tap into the emerging Bitcoin cryptocurrency trading space as a means to generate streams of income that lead to financial solvency and increased income through its proprietary software, educational products, and marketing support. Trade Coin Club Affiliateis a membership group created to allow any individual to engage in the digital trading of cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) using the club's specialized digital solutions designed to leverage maximum profit and earning potential. TCC offers interested business people with three investment opportunities utilizing a tiered investment platform depending on individual risk level and return on investment potential - all with a nominal investment requiring no prior experience or knowledge in Bitcoin trading. Contact Info: Name: Joff ParadiseOrganization: Joff ParadiseAddress: 5755 N Juliano RD Las Vegas, NV 89149Phone: 702-624-1224 Video URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iXjhqvEMTk For more information, please visithttp://joff.tcc123.pro/ SOURCE:Joff Paradise || Bitcoin's Price Climbs Above $8,000 to Hit New High: Bitcoin's price rose above $8,100 for the first time on Sunday. Data from CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) indicates that the price climbed to $8,101.91 between 20:00 and 20:15 UTC. This move came after bitcoin – which toed the $8,000 line during Friday trading – crossed that threshold several hours earlier. That the price of bitcoin would surge above this height was in the cards last week, aswas suggested by analysisat the time. Conversely, last week saw some dramaticmovementson the price front, with markets dropping below $6,000 only to recover days later. Market commentary throughout the week was led, in part, by speculation around pendingfutures product launchesand interest among institutional investors overall. Indeed, the move confirmsa possibilityfloated by analysts from investment bank Goldman Sachs earlier this month. The firm's analysts have publishedseveral forecastssince earlier this year, notably predicting some of the developments seen over the summer. As of press time, the price of bitcoin has slipped back below $8,000, trading at around $7,983. Hot air balloonimage via Shutterstock • $8,200: Bitcoin's Price Starts Week With New All-Time High • Survey: Bitcoin Investors Won't Sell Until Price Nears $200k • Bitcoin Price Decline Continues As Markets Drop Below $6,500 • Where to, Bitcoin? Price Sees $1,000 Spread As '2x' Averted || Bank Stocks Soaring As We Enter Earnings Season: U.S. equities slide sideways on Wednesday, with large-caps moving higher and small-caps moving lower. Yawn. In the end, theDow Jones Industrial Averagegained 0.2%, theS&P 500gained 0.2%, theNasdaq Compositegained 0.3% and theRussell 2000lost 0.1%. Treasury bonds strengthened, the dollar weakened, gold lost 0.4% and oil gained 0.7%. Click to Enlarge Breadth was positive, with 1.5 advancers for every decliner on light volume with NYSE activity at just 88% of the 30-day average. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips REITs led the way with a 0.5% gain while telecoms were the laggards, down 0.7%.PayPal Holdings Inc(NASDAQ:PYPL) gained 2.6% after enjoying an upgrade from Morgan Stanley citing potentially accelerating growth.Groupon(NASDAQ:GRPN) fell 3.2% after Goldman Sachs assumed coverage with a sell rating on worries over a long payback period for marketing spending. • 5 Can't-Miss Dow Jones Stocks to Buy Today On the economic front, the big news was the release of the September Federal Reserve meeting minutes. They were largely digested uneventfully, as policymakers largely confirmed expectations for another rate hike in December despite tepid inflation pressure. Why? Because by multiple measures, the labor market is extremely tight suggesting wage-push inflation could materialize at any time. In Washington, the chatter was that President Trump was likely to make changes to his tax plan within the next few weeks with a focus on state and local tax deductions. Click to Enlarge Bank stocks are zooming higher ahead of the release of third-quarter earnings later this week. TheFinancial Select SPDR(NYSEARCA:XLF) is up nearly 10% from its early September low as it exits the consolidation range that has been in place since last December as hopes of a post-Trump drawdown of post-crisis regulations faded. They’re coming back now as Trump considers a nominee to replace Fed chairman Janet Yellen, who is a fan of the Dodd-Frank reforms. JPMorgan Chase(NYSE:JPM) andCitigroup(NYSE:C) will kick things off before the bell on Thursday. JPM is expected to report earnings of $1.66 per share on $24.9 billion in revenue while C is expected to report earnings of $1.29 per share on $17.8 billion in revenue.Bank of America Corp(NYSE:BAC) andWells Fargo & Co(NYSE:WFC) will report on Friday morning. Check out Serge Berger’sTrade of the Dayfor Oct. 12. To see a list of the companies reporting earnings today,click here. For a list of this week’s economic reports due out,click here. Tell us what you think about this article! Drop us an email ateditor@investorplace.com,chat with us on Twitter at@InvestorPlaceorcomment on the post on Facebook. Read more about ourcomments policy here. Anthony Mirhaydari is the founder of theEdge(ETFs) andEdge Pro(Options) investment advisory newsletters.Free two- and four-week trial offers have been extended to InvestorPlace readers. • 5 Bitcoin Stocks to Buy for Low-Risk Cryptocurrency Profits • Facebook Inc (FB) Stock: It's Clear That the Zuckerberg Honeymoon is Over • 10 Best Stocks to Buy and Hold for the Next Decade The postBank Stocks Soaring As We Enter Earnings Seasonappeared first onInvestorPlace. || Bitcoin hits a record high above $4,900: Screen Shot 2017 10 10 at 2.31.19 PM (Bitcoin hit an all-time high, according to data from Bloomberg.MI) Bitcoin broke through a new ceiling on Tuesday amid regulatory uncertainty and mounting criticism. The price of the red-hot cryptocurrency soared passed $4,900 Tuesday afternoon to $4,926, an all-time high for the cryptocurrency, according to data from Bloomberg. Other estimates put bitcoin's all-time high over $5,000, such as CoinDesk's index . Bitcoin hit a record high of $4,921, according to data from Bloomberg, at the beginning of September, but quickly saw its price decline amid news of a crackdown in China and regulatory uncertainty around initial coin offerings, a cryptocurrency-based fundraising method. After bottoming out near $2,900 per coin on September 15, it has since rallied. On Tuesday, Russian president Vladimir Putin added to the uncertainty, hinting at a possible cryptocurrency crackdown in Russia . Putin's comments follow mounting criticism from some of Wall Street's most powerful players. On September 12 JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon called bitcoin "a fraud" and said it was "worse than tulips bulbs" in the 1600s. Then, in a recent interview with Bloomberg News, Larry Fink, the head of BlackRock, the world's largest investor with $5.7 trillion under management, said he thinks the explosive growth of bitcoin points to nefarious behavior . "It just identifies how much money laundering there is being done in the world," Fink said. "How much people are trying to move currencies from one place to another." Kenneth Rogoff, the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, weighed in on bitcoin Monday , saying that " in the long run, the technology will thrive, but that the price of bitcoin will collapse. " NOW WATCH: A $1 trillion money manager says the Trump Trade is back More From Business Insider KEN ROGOFF: Bitcoin will eventually collapse Is bitcoin a bubble or the future of everything? THE BOTTOM LINE: The bitcoin debate, stretched stock valuations and PGIM's David Hunt || Signals Marketplace for Crypto Trading Strategies Launches a Token Presale: Signals Network Provides Sophisticated Machine Learning Algorithms to Help Cryptotraders Build Their Investment Strategies PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC / ACCESSWIRE / November 23, 2017 /Crypto trading strategies are about to become a lot smarter. Signals (https://signals.network), a Prague-based startup, is building a platform to connect traders with data scientists. Signals will have an interface where traders will be able to assemble machine learning-powered trading strategy with a few clicks. Signals is going to offer sophisticated machine learning algorithms to anyone, and its team wants to achieve that by building a network open to cryptotraders and data science developers. Soon traders will be able to build strategies from specific trading indicators, ranging from technical analysis to crowd wisdom insights, train it on historical data, and monetize strategies by offering it for copytrading.Here's how it's going to work. To process extreme amounts of data and complex algorithmic computations within a short time, the Signals company has just partnered withiExec, a French company specializing in blockchain-based cloud computing. The alpha version of Signals should be released before the end of 2017 to the public, and it will include a Strategy Marketplace. All paid features of the Signals platform – like purchasing indicators, data sets, or leasing a strategy for copytrading - will be available for users via a custom currency called Signals Token (SGN). After every payment made in the Signals Platform, a small amount of the currency will be burned, making SGN token effectively a deflationary currency. As the usage of SGN will increase, its supply will slowly shrink, making it more valuable. Signals is offering purchasing the SGN token for Ethereum cryptocurrency inSignals Token Presale, which started on Wednesday, November 22, 2017, at 14:00 UTC. The price of one token unit will start at approximately 0.26 USD, which will be set in Ethereum on the day of the token sale start. Before buying the SGN tokens, one needs to register with a name, email and an ETH wallet address. Website:https://signals.networkWhite paper:https://cdn.signals.network/docs/Signals-Whitepaper.pdfBitcointalk:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2207141.0YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY2qu0zpq-QBlog:https://blog.signals.network Media ContactContact Name:Pavel NemecEmail:pavel.nemec@signals.network SOURCE:Signals || Credit Suisse CEO skeptical about Bitcoin 'bubble': ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam on Thursday expressed caution about Bitcoin, saying the current interest in the crypto-currency could eventually subside. "Bitcoin presents a number of challenges. The first of them is really the anonymity," Thiam told a results news conference. "I think most banks in the current state of regulation have little or no appetite to get involved in a currency which has such anti-money laundering challenges. "From what we can identify, the only reason today to buy or sell Bitcoin is to make money, which is the very definition of speculation and the very definition of a bubble." Bitcoin rocketed above $7,000 for the first time on Thursday, after a more than sevenfold increase in its value since the start of the year. (Reporting by Joshua Franklin, writing by John Revill; Editing by Michael Shields) || Bitcoin Soars Close to Record High: What wipeout? Buyers blew off fresh warnings about a bitcoin bubble and sent prices above $4,800 on Monday, capping a bullish October run for the digital currency. Prices reached as high as $4,820, which is near the record territory of late August when bitcoin brushed close to $5,000. The currency crashed dramatically in September following a crackdown on digital currency by China. Here’s a closer look, courtesy of trade publication Coindesk , at how bitcoin rallied over the last week: Here’s a longer a view that shows bitcoin’s extraordinary run-up this summer, its crash to near $3,000, and its subsequent recovery: There is no obvious single explanation for the latest price surge. Possible factors include last week’s rumors that Goldman Sachs plans to trade bitcoin as well as growing confidence that a possible “fork” of the currency in November, which would create a new version of bitcoin, won’t prove disruptive. As one wag on Twitter put it: We now return you to your regularly scheduled rally. #bitcoin — Vortex [#NO2X] (@theonevortex) October 8, 2017 Meanwhile, a source familiar with bitcoin price movements, told Fortune that China’s recent crackdown is not as severe as it first appeared. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity BECAUSE WHY???, said the crackdown may have been driven in part by Chinese government insiders who sought to profit from the resulting price swings. Get Data Sheet , Fortune's technology newsletter. In any case, not everyone is optimistic about bitcoin’s future. A Harvard economist predicted on Monday that the price of bitcoin will “ collapse ,” while analysts at TD Ameritrade warned of “ collateral damage ” to certain stocks if bitcoin prices plunge. Bitcoin, of course, has experienced no shortage of naysayers in the past. For a longer term view, check out The Ledger’s recent retrospective, “ 5 Bitcoin Crashes: What We Learned .” Story continues This is part of Fortune's new initiative, The Ledger, a trusted news source at the intersection of tech and finance. For more on The Ledger, click here . See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com A Bitcoin Crash Could Really Punish These Stocks Why Fidelity Is Mining Bitcoin and Ethereum Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein Hasn't Made Up His Mind About Bitcoin One of the World's Biggest Bitcoin Exchanges Just Added a New Cryptocurrency Here's Another Sign Goldman Sachs Is Taking Bitcoin Seriously [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] #bitcoin non si ferma più? Analisi tecnica || Bitcoin API and Block Explorer https://www.ddddrffjj.com/analysis/bitcoin-api-and-block-explorer-1858/ … || ViaBTC to support both Segwit2x and Bitcoin chains #bitcoin today! http://bit.ly/1IAb8e4  || Bitcoin: Putin Tells Central Bank Not to Create Unnecessary Barriers to Cryptocurrencies - http://cryptogeeks.com/bitcoin-putin-tells-central-bank-not-create-unnecessary-barriers-cryptocurrencies … || #bitcoin non si ferma più? Analisi tecnica || Buy! (6:39:22 am PDT) Price: 5685.00 (+/- 0.5) Close: 5689.62 (+/- 0.5) Stop: 5682.00 (+/- 0.5) #gdax #coinbase #btc #trading #bitcoin || ☞ Bitcoin’s still cool but ICOs are for speculative cowboys – The Australian Financial Review http://ift.tt/2y3jNrm  #bitcoin || #bitcoin non si ferma più? Analisi tecnica || The #BitcoinPizza would be worth US$61,179,100.00 right now (up 2.0% in the last 24 hours): #Bitcoin || Hey Michael Baccala thanks for the follow! Auto trade and grow your bitcoin, take a look here for free. https://goo.gl/LM3riV 
Trend: up || Prices: 11323.20, 11657.20, 11916.70, 14291.50, 17899.70, 16569.40, 15178.20, 15455.40, 16936.80, 17415.40
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2016-02-19] BTC Price: 420.79, BTC RSI: 62.83 Gold Price: 1230.40, Gold RSI: 71.00 Oil Price: 29.64, Oil RSI: 46.04 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] You say advertising, I say block that malware: The real reason online advertising is doomed and adblockers thrive? Its malware epidemic is unacknowledged, and out of control. The Forbes 30 Under 30 list came out this week and it featured a prominent security researcher. Other researchers were pleased to see one of their own getting positive attention, and visited the site in droves to view the list. On arrival, like a growing number of websites, Forbes asked readers to turn off ad blockers in order to view the article. After doing so, visitors were immediately served with pop-under malware, primed to infect their computers, and likely silently steal passwords, personal data and banking information. Or, as is popular worldwide with these malware "exploit kits," lock up their hard drives in exchange for Bitcoin ransom. One researcher commented on Twitter that the situation was "ironic" -- and while it's certainly another variant of hackenfreude , ironic isn't exactly the word I'd use to describe what happened. The @Forbes website held content until I disabled Ad Blocker. I did so and was immediately given pop-under malware. pic.twitter.com/eDVRAA9ZSu — Brian Baskin (@bbaskin) January 4, 2016 That's because this situation spotlights what happened in 2015 to billions -- yep, billions -- of people who were victims of virus-infected ads which were spread via ad networks like germs from a sneeze across the world's most popular websites. Less than a month ago, a bogus banner ad was found serving malvertising to visitors of video site DailyMotion. After discovering it, security company Malwarebytes contacted the online ad platform the bad ad was coming through, Atomx. The company blamed a "rogue" advertiser on the WWPromoter network. It was estimated the adware broadcast through DailyMotion put 128 million people at risk. To be specific, it was from the notorious malware family called "Angler Exploit Kit." Remember this name, because I'm pretty sure we're going to be getting to know it a whole lot better in 2016. Story continues Last August, Angler struck MSN.com with -- you guessed it -- another drive-by malvertising campaign. It was the same campaign that had infected Yahoo visitors back in July (an estimated 6.9 billion visits per month, it's considered the biggest malvertising attack so far). October saw Angler targeting Daily Mail visitors through poisoned ads as well (monthly ad impressions 64.4 million ). Only last month, Angler's malicious ads hit visitors to Reader's Digest (210K readers; ad impressions 1.7M ). That attack sat unattended after being in the press, and was fixed only after a week of public outcry. It's crazy to consider what a perfect marriage this is, between the advertisers and the criminals pushing the exploit kits. They have a lot in common. pop-up ads coming out of laptop screen with a spring Both try to trick us into giving them something we don't want to. We've recently learned that both entities surveil and track us beyond what we're OK with. And both are hard to get rid of. You know, like those gross toenail and skin condition ad-banners found at the bottom of every cheapo blog you've ever seen, forever burned into the "can't unsee" section of your brain. It actually makes business sense to think about malware attacks like an advertiser. You want to deliver your infection to, and scrape those dollars from, every little reader out there. You need a targeted delivery system, with the widest distribution, and as many clueless middlemen as possible. It's easy to want to blame Reader's Digest, or Yahoo, or Forbes, or Daily Mail, or any of these sites for screwing viewers by serving them malicious ads and not telling them, or not helping them with the cleanup afterward. And it's a hell of a lot easier when they've compelled us to turn off our ad blockers to simply see what brought us to their site. But the problem is coming through them, from the ad networks themselves. The same ones, it should be mentioned, who control the Faustian bargains made by bartering and selling our information. What should the websites do? The ad networks clearly don't have a handle on this at all, giving us one more reason to use ad blockers. They're practically the most popular malware delivery systems on Earth, and they're making the websites they do business with into the same poisonous monster. I don't even want to think about what it all means for the security practices of the ad companies handling our tracking data or the sites we visit hosting these pathogens. So, to my friend on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list -- a malware researcher, which I'll concede is actually ironic -- I'm sorry I won't be seeing your time in that particular spotlight. What we need is a word for the fact that ad blockers have become our first line of defense against a malware epidemic. Especially during a time when the sites we visit are begging, pleading, demanding and practically tricking us into turning off Ad Block Plus. [Image credit: Getty Images] || Investors Set Sail With Cruise-Line Investments In 2016: 2015 proved to be a lucrative year for many cruise liners, as an improving economy and low fuel prices created the perfect conditions for a rebuilding year. Industry juggernaut Carnival Corp (NYSE: CCL ) saw its shares rise 19.43 percent over the course of the year, and Barron's sees the firm climbing another 20 percent this year, a sign that the industry can expect smooth waters ahead. Safety In The Water Carnival Corp has been touted as one of the safest plays in the cruise industry, because the company is the largest operator in the world. Carnival has ships in almost every body of water on the planet, operating popular names like Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises and Costa Cruises. Not only does the company have a massive brand appeal and staying power, but Carnival also pays out the heftiest dividend with a yield of 2.2 percent. Related Link: Barron's Picks And Pans: Carnival, Pandora, American Capital And More Expanding Into China Another reason the cruise industry is set to continue gaining through 2016 is the potential for expansion in China as cruise holidays gain popularity. For investors looking to play this angle, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (NYSE: RCL ) or Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ: NCLH ) could be smart plays. Royal Caribbean has proven to be popular among the Chinese population and has been pushing upscale ships with luxury rooms that have brought in a great deal of interest. Norwegian is a relatively new entrant into the Chinese market, but the firm has been able to learn from its peers who have already penetrated the market and by offering customers a tailored experience different from what European or North American customers prefer. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga 4 CEOs With A Tough Year Ahead Ledger Fights For Bitcoin's Staying Power At CES 2016 Virtual Reality In 2016 © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Investors Set Sail With Cruise-Line Investments In 2016: 2015 proved to be a lucrative year for many cruise liners, as an improving economy and low fuel prices created the perfect conditions for a rebuilding year. Industry juggernautCarnival Corp(NYSE:CCL) saw its shares rise 19.43 percent over the course of the year, andBarron'ssees the firm climbing another 20 percent this year, a sign that the industry can expect smooth waters ahead. Safety In The Water Carnival Corp has been touted as one of the safest plays in the cruise industry, because the company is the largest operator in the world. Carnival has ships in almost every body of water on the planet, operating popular names like Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises and Costa Cruises. Not only does the company have a massive brand appeal and staying power, but Carnival also pays out the heftiest dividend with a yield of 2.2 percent. Related Link:Barron's Picks And Pans: Carnival, Pandora, American Capital And More Expanding Into China Another reason the cruise industry is set to continue gaining through 2016 is the potential for expansion in China as cruise holidays gain popularity. For investors looking to play this angle,Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd(NYSE:RCL) orNorwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd(NASDAQ:NCLH) could be smart plays. Royal Caribbean has proven to be popular among the Chinese population and has been pushing upscale ships with luxury rooms that have brought in a great deal of interest. Norwegian is a relatively new entrant into the Chinese market, but the firm has been able to learn from its peers who have already penetrated the market and by offering customers a tailored experience different from what European or North American customers prefer. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga • 4 CEOs With A Tough Year Ahead • Ledger Fights For Bitcoin's Staying Power At CES 2016 • Virtual Reality In 2016 © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || How Diageo Plans To Turn Its Smirnoff Brand Around: Diageo Plc (ADR)(NYSE:DEO) has already declared its New Year's resolution — to turn its struggling Smirnoff vodka brand around. In the 2014-2015 financial year, Smirnoff sales by 3 percent as consumers turned their attention to "craft" vodka brands with smaller batches and local distilleries. Flavor Mistakes However, Smirnoff wasn't always struggling. The brand became hugely popular with several flavor varieties when consumers were interested in unique cocktails, but that era seems to have ended leaving the vodka brand behind with it. In an effort to revive the brand this year, the company added 42 new flavors designed to appeal to younger drinkers. However, the decision missed the mark and Smirnoff global brand director Matt Bruhn admitted that the flavor additions were a "mistake." New Strategy Diageo Chief Executive Ivan Menzes vowed to turn the brand around this year as vodka market makes up about 12 percent of the company's net sales. In order to do this, Smirnoff is to cut down on the number of flavors offered and embed its name into the electronic-dance-music community. Smirnoff is slated to sponsor 26 electronic-music festivals in the coming year and the brand has also developed a sound collective that will sponsor fresh new electronic-music artists. The company has also created a line of glow-in-the dark flavors that will be marketed as shots. Competing With Craft All of Smirnoff's efforts in the coming year are designed to appeal to the coveted millennial generation, a group that has recently reached the legal drinking age and makes up a huge percentage of the market. While Smirnoff's efforts are valiant, many believe that the company is fighting an uphill battle as bespoke companies that make unique offerings have become popular choices among young people. See more from Benzinga • What's In Store For Bitcoin In 2016? • FedEx Gets The Blame For Holiday Delays • How Blockchain Can Reform The Real Estate Industry © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Surprising Gift Offered to Bitcoin Sellers at Coin Reverse Inc.: Coin Reverse Inc. Is Now Offering Engraved Bitcoin to Their Customers NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 29, 2016 /Coin Reverse Inc. (http://www.coinreverse.com) has hit the charts with their latest offer on Bitcoin purchase: they're not only offering 15% more than Blockchain's official rate for each Bitcoin they purchase, but they are also putting a surprise gift on transactions amounting 10+ BTC. CoinReverse's marketing team has gone creative enough to attach a special gift to each and every transaction amounting more than 10 BTC: they are offering a 24-karat gold coin with the Bitcoin engraved on both sides. The mechanism is simple: each customer selling over 10 BTC within one transaction is asked to provide a mailing address and the company delivers the gift via a courier. CoinReverse's Marketing Manager Jacob Gustavo is enthusiastic with their latest gift idea, while being positive that people involved in the cryptocurrency market are definitely welcoming a jewelry-like item engraved with the Bitcoin logo, being offered to them for doing business with CoinReverse. "In this way, we are offering our customers a somehow materialized version of this virtual, non-material coin. We think it's pretty cool to put your hands on a coin carrying the Bitcoin's logo, especially if you're passionate about the cryptocurrencies," declares Jacob Gustavo, company's Marketing Manager. Coin Reverse Inc. is a cryptocurrency trading company based in NewYork, USA, founded and developed by few bold investment professionals who have seen the business opportunity outside the traditional capital markets and have targeted cryptocurrency trade in terms of medium and long-term investments strategy. Business is operated in an effective manner, with a user-friendly platform and easy contact means through the company's website and via e-mail, with 24/7 assistance through a Live Chat Section offered. Payments for the trade are free of any charges on the customer's side, while the company covers all the costs involved. The most common payment methods are available: PayPal and Bank Transfer. All the details related to the company's offer and other information, together with the contact details of the Sales Team are available on their website:http://www.coinreverse.com. No restrictions on customers' provenience and payment destination countries or currencies are in force within the company's policy. For more information about us, please visithttp://coinreverse.com. Contact Info: Name: Tom JunoOrganization: Coin Reverse Inc.Address: 1370 Broadway, 5th FloorPhone: (315) 210-8349 SOURCE:Coin Reverse Inc. || First Bitcoin Capital Corp. Signs Evaluation Agreements with Emercoin International Development Group, To Develop and Market Solutions to Provide Distributed Blockchain Services For Business and Personal Use: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January, 28, 2016 / First BITCoin Capital Corp. ( BITCF ) announced today that it has signed an evaluation agreement with Emercoin International Development Group, a leader in solutions to provide distributed blockchain services for business and personal use. First BITCoin has signed certain evaluation agreements to promote Emercoin technology for wide spectrum of blockchain based technologies: 1. EMC/ SSH - Secure shell management system needed by every site admin. 2. EMC/ DNS - Uncensored domain name system, peering with OpenNIC. 3. EMC/ LNX- - Decentralized pay-per-click advertising network. 4. EMC/ SSL - System for password less authentication on the world wide web. 5. Info/ Card - Storage for electronic business cards for use with EMCSSL. 6. EMC /TTS - Trusted storage for digital timestamps on the blockchain. 7. MAGNET - Distributed torrent tracker for internet file sharing. 8. EMC/ DPO - Digital proof of ownership solution for physical or digital goods and services. First BITCoin is also evaluating investing in Emercoin to support Emercoin's market expansion and acceptance worldwide. Oleg Khovayko, Emercoin Lead Developer, said, "Key difference in Emercoin from other cryptocurrencies is that we are using blockchain not just for transfer credit values. We consider Emercoin as a technological platform for distributed, censorship–proof and scalable services. So we developed a suite of services running on top of the Emercoin blockchain that will be very useful for a lot of companies and even private persons." In addition, our goal is provide stable, robust and easy to integrate services. Hence, our solutions are compatible with industry standards, proven their efficient and security. "We are excited to have the opportunity to evaluate and possibly invest in EMERCOIN , especially due to their recent partnership with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) to deliver their blockchain services to the Azure cloud's Blockchain-as-a-Service marketplace, also known as BaaS Platform," the Company spokesperson said. "We are always looking for disrupting, new and promising technologies, and are ready to invest in those companies to help them to market their technology worldwide." Story continues About EMERCOIN Group EmerCoin (EMC) is a decentralized, open-source cryptocurrency created in late 2013 and based on technologies from Bitcoin, Namecoin and Peercoin. It utilizes both Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake mining. Emercoin, a leading digital currency and blockchain platform has just partnered with Microsoft to become a member of the Azure marketplace. With demand growing for innovative, scalable blockchain services that are ready to implement, Emercoin is a natural fit for the Azure cloud platform. They have developed a robust suite of ready-to-use features that offer real world solutions for business and consumer use. Emercoin will be delivering their suite of blockchain services into the Azure cloud later this year. This will give Azure cloud users the ability to install and make use of Emercoin's many services such as digital proof of ownership and identity, passwordless authentication on the internet, network security, the first distributed advertising network and many E-commerce solutions like the Emercoin secure micropayment service. For more information please visit www.Emercoin.com . About First BITCoin Capital Corp. First Bitcoin Capital Corp. is a development-stage Canadian-based mining company currently holding concessions of Gold in Venezuela and is developing technology for the crypto-currency industry. It is the first vertically-integrated consolidation company of the Bitcoin and crypto-currency marketplace. The Company is developing the following digital assets www.CoinQX.com - online cryptocurrency Exchange. www.BITessentials.com - online shopping mall (in Beta testing) allowing multiple vendors to place their products ans sell for cryptocurrency. Company has partnered with GoCoin , A global leader in Blockchain payments and innovation, GoCoin was the first international platform for enabling merchants to Blockchain currency payments including Bitcoin and popular altcoins Litecoin, Dogecoin and Tether at checkout. www.iCOINews.com - Real time crypto currency news aggregator platform. www.BITminer.cc - Mining and equipment sales for cryptocurrency miners. The Company currently develops other innovative projects. SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This press release includes various "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which represent the Company's expectations or beliefs concerning future events. Statements containing expressions such as "believes," "plans," "anticipates," "intends," or "expects," or similar expressions or statements regarding intent, belief of current expectations used in the Company's press releases and in Disclosure Statements and Reports filed with the Over the Counter Markets through the OTC Disclosure and News Service are intended to identify forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes its expectations are based upon reasonable assumptions within the bounds of its knowledge of its business and operations, there can be no assurances that actual results will not differ materially from expected results. The Company cautions that these and similar statements included in this report are further qualified by important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date thereof. Contacts: info@bitcoincapitalcorp.com bitcoincapitalcorp.com SOURCE: First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || Bank of America is going big on blockchain: Bank of America(NYSE: BAC)is trying to steal a march on the latest developments in the technology behind digital currency bitcoin(: BTC=)by loading up on blockchain-related patents. Blockchain works like a huge, decentralized ledger for the digital currency bitcoin which records every transaction and stores this information on a global network so it cannot be tampered with. Major financial institutions -- including theBank of England-- have released a number of notes over the last year on the potential of the technology and have created teams within their organizations to look into how to develop the cryptocurrency. But Bank of America is going one step further by attempting to patent some of the use cases of the technology. The company has already filed for 15 blockchain-related patents and is currently in the process of drafting another 20 to be submitted to the U.S. Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO) later this month, a spokesperson told CNBC on Wednesday. "Blockchain's very intriguing and for us it's a balance between not wanting to be Neanderthal but not wanting to put something out in a commercial application where the commercial application is still very unclear as a technologist, the technology is fascinating," Catherine Bessant, the chief operations and technology office at Bank of America, said during a CNBC event at Davos last week. "And we have tried to stay on the forefront, I think we have somewhere around 15 patents, most people would be surprised at Bank of America with patents in the blockchain or cryptocurrency space. (It's) very important in the intellectual property world to reserve our spot even before we know what the commercial application might be." In December, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published 10 of Bank of America's applications. The USPTO publishes patent applications 18 months after they're filed. But the latest information shows that the number of patents Bank of America has filed for and is looking to apply for is much higher. Bank of America patents published by the USPTO showed proposals for a "cryptocurrency risk detection system" and "suspicious user alert system" among others. These patents have not yet been granted. The technology might be some years off before becoming mainstream for banks, but institutions are taking a collaborative approach to the technology, working with start-ups and even rival lenders. A consortium of more than 25 banks, led by fintech (financial technology) company R3, is currentlydeveloping a frameworkfor applying blockchain technology to markets. Last year, Goldman Sachs released a note that saidblockchain could "change everything"while banks from Barclays to UBS explained how the technology could be used in areas from remittances to drawing up contracts. More From CNBC • Top News and Analysis • Latest News Video • Personal Finance || Here's a sign that PayPal is embracing Bitcoin: PayPal was the hot new thing in payments when it launched in 1998, but in the era of digital currency, crowdfunding, micro-crowdfunding, and peer-to-peer lending, most people no longer see the company that way. So its newest board appointment is an effort to embrace the new landscape in digital payments. To that end, PayPal (PYPL) has named Wences Casares to its board of directors, the company announced on Wednesday. Casares is founder and CEO of Xapo, a wallet provider for the digital currency bitcoin, and before Xapo he founded Lemon, another digital wallet company. He is an unusual addition to a board that includes executives from AT&T (T), the American Red Cross, Enzon Pharmaceuticals (ENZN), and eBay (EBAY) cofounder Pierre Omidyar. It's likely a sign that PayPal is ready to embrace bitcoin and its technology. That's especially interesting considering that it is a company some bitcoin entrepreneurs often point to as "Web 1.0" and too slow because of its transfer delays and fees. One of the biggest selling points of bitcoin is the ability to send money to another country with little or no delay, and a fractional fee. "We’ve entered a period of unprecedented disruption in payments and financial services driven by the mass adoption of mobile technology and the digitization of cash," said PayPal CEO Dan Schulmanin a statement. "Wences’ long and successful track record as international fintech entrepreneur with a focus on next-generation payment and crypto-currency is a perfect fit for PayPal at this time." PayPal declined to comment beyond the press release. Casares does not come without controversy. He is a serial entrepreneur who founded an Argentinian brokerage in 1997 and sold it to Banco Santander in 2000 for $750 million. Then he founded a Chilean videogame developer in 2002 and sold it to Activision (ATVI) in 2006. But he is currently being sued by LifeLock (LOCK), a $1.3 billion public company that offers online-identity protection. In December 2013 LifeLock acquired Casares's company Lemon for $42.6 million. In a lawsuit filed in August 2014, LifeLock says Casares built and launched Xapo, his current company, while working at Lemon, "developed by Lemon employees, in Lemon’s facilities, on Lemon’s computers, and on Lemon’s dime.” Casares and four Xapo employees (each of whom previously worked at Lemon) are named as defendants in LifeLock's suit. The company wants him to pay back “the value of the Xapo product attributable to Defendants’ misrepresentations, omissions, breaches of duty, and other wrongful conduct.” It does not specify an amount it is seeking, but assessing damages would involve placing a value on Xapo. Meanwhile, Casares has fought back, filing a cross-complaint of his own this past July, alleging poor management by LifeLock. (And LifeLock itself was forced to pay a $12 million fine to the FTC this past summer for false advertising of its product.) Some in the bitcoin community believe that LifeLock is upset that it overpaid for Lemon, while Casares has moved on to Xapo, which has raised $40 million in venture capital and might have more promise than Lemon ever did. What does all of this legal drama have to do with PayPal? Perhaps nothing—but if Casares is found guilty of the civil fraud that LifeLock alleges, it would be bad for not just Xapo, but now PayPal as well. Moreover, Fortunereported last yearthat some of Xapo's investors are angry that they were never made aware of the ongoing litigation against Casares. So PayPal has taken a risk in appointing Casares to its board, not only because of his current legal situation, but on a broader scale it has more strongly associated itself with bitcoin, an industry that is not without its negative headlines. (Just this week, Ross Ulbricht, the mastermind of Silk Road, the online drug marketplace that used bitcoin as its form of payment, appealed his recent life sentence.) Just over one year ago, PayPal made partnerships with some prominent bitcoin startups, like BitPay and Coinbase, but the noise of that move has since died down. PayPal now might want to explore a larger form of implementation around bitcoin, or it is intrigued by its underlying technology, the bitcoin blockchain, a public, decentralized ledger that records every single bitcoin transaction. Financial heavyweights like JPMorgan and Nasdaq have both expressed interest in harnessing the blockchain. Or maybe PayPal wants to buy Xapo. || You say advertising, I say block that malware: The real reason online advertising is doomed and adblockers thrive? Its malware epidemic is unacknowledged, and out of control. The Forbes 30 Under 30 list came out this week and it featured a prominent security researcher. Other researchers were pleased to see one of their own getting positive attention, and visited the site in droves to view the list. On arrival, like a growing number of websites, Forbes asked readers to turn off ad blockers in order to view the article. After doing so, visitors were immediately served with pop-under malware, primed to infect their computers, and likely silently steal passwords, personal data and banking information. Or, as is popular worldwide with these malware "exploit kits," lock up their hard drives in exchange for Bitcoin ransom. One researcher commented on Twitter that the situation was "ironic" -- and while it's certainly another variant ofhackenfreude, ironic isn't exactly the word I'd use to describe what happened. That's because this situation spotlights what happened in 2015 to billions -- yep, billions -- of people who were victims of virus-infected ads which were spread via ad networks like germs from a sneeze across the world's most popular websites. Less than a month ago, a bogus banner ad was found serving malvertising to visitors of video site DailyMotion. After discovering it, security companyMalwarebytescontacted the online ad platform the bad ad was coming through, Atomx. The company blamed a "rogue" advertiser on the WWPromoter network. It was estimated the adware broadcast through DailyMotion put 128 million people at risk. To be specific, it was from the notorious malware family called "Angler Exploit Kit." Remember this name, because I'm pretty sure we're going to be getting to know it a whole lot better in 2016. Last August, Angler struck MSN.com with -- you guessed it -- another drive-by malvertising campaign. It was the same campaign that had infected Yahoo visitors back in July (an estimated 6.9 billion visits per month, it'sconsideredthe biggest malvertising attack so far). October saw Angler targeting Daily Mail visitors through poisoned ads as well (monthly ad impressions64.4 million). Only last month, Angler's malicious ads hit visitors to Reader's Digest (210K readers;ad impressions 1.7M). That attack sat unattended after being in the press, and was fixed only after a week of public outcry. It's crazy to consider what a perfect marriage this is, between the advertisers and the criminals pushing the exploit kits. They have alotin common. Both try to trick us into giving them something we don't want to. We've recently learned that both entities surveil and track us beyond what we're OK with. And both are hard to get rid of. You know, like those gross toenail and skin condition ad-banners found at the bottom of every cheapo blog you've ever seen, forever burned into the "can't unsee" section of your brain. It actually makes business sense to think about malware attacks like an advertiser. You want to deliver your infection to, and scrape those dollars from, every little reader out there. You need a targeted delivery system, with the widest distribution, and as many clueless middlemen as possible. It's easy to want to blame Reader's Digest, or Yahoo, or Forbes, or Daily Mail, or any of these sites for screwing viewers by serving them malicious ads and not telling them, or not helping them with the cleanup afterward. And it's a hell of a lot easier when they've compelled us to turn off our ad blockers to simply see what brought us to their site. But the problem is coming through them, from the ad networks themselves. The same ones, it should be mentioned, who control the Faustian bargains made by bartering and selling our information. What should the websites do? The ad networks clearly don't have a handle on this at all, giving us one more reason to use ad blockers. They're practically the most popular malware delivery systems on Earth, and they're making the websites they do business with into the same poisonous monster. I don't even want to think about what it all means for the security practices of the ad companies handling our tracking data or the sites we visit hosting these pathogens. So, to my friend on theForbes 30 Under 30 list-- a malware researcher, which I'll concede is actually ironic -- I'm sorry I won't be seeing your time in that particular spotlight. What we need is a word for the fact that ad blockers have become our first line of defense against a malware epidemic. Especially during a time when the sites we visit are begging, pleading, demanding and practically tricking us into turning off Ad Block Plus. [Image credit: Getty Images] || JPMorgan launches blockchain trial project: FT: (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase is partnering with start-up Digital Asset Holdings to launch a trial project using blockchain technology that could reduce the cost and complexity of trading, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. The agreement comes as another sign that blockchain, which is best known as the basis of the digital currency Bitcoin, has wide-ranging applications for some of Wall Street's biggest banks. One potential use for the technology is addressing liquidity mismatches in some of JPMorgan's loan funds, the Financial Times said. “To sell a loan is a very cumbersome, time-consuming process; settlement can take weeks,” Daniel Pinto, head of JPMorgan’s investment bank, told the Financial Times. It “makes all the sense in the world" to explore blockchain's potential to improve that process. Digital Asset Holdings is run by Blythe Masters, JPMorgan's former head of commodities. (Reporting by Carl O'Donnell; Editing by Peter Cooney) View comments [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] $403.47 at 12:00 UTC [24h Range: $400.76 - $432.10 Volume: 15104 BTC] via #btcusdpic.twitter.com/M5Yx5SkTe2 || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 14 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $53.22 #bitcoin #btc || 1 #bitcoin 1282.2 TL, 432.207 $, 399.000 €, GBP, 30178.00 RUR, 51806 ¥, CNH, 620 CAD #btc || LIVE: Profit = $22.83 (1.67 %). BUY B3.58 @ $380.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $384.72 (#HitBTC) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || https://hashocean.com/signup/?rid=345985 … Profit under your powers 0.0260 BTC per day or 11.00 USD per day https://twitter.com/marjanvdplas/status/698113842329604096 … || $425.44 at 02:15 UTC [24h Range: $420.75 - $434.00 Volume: 7035 BTC] || Bitstamp: $427.40/BTC - last trade of USD/BTC at https://www.bitstamp.net/  (high: 434.00, low: 427.00) #bitcoin #BTC http://bitcoinautotrade.com  || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000005 Bittrex: 0.00000006 Average $1.9E-5 per #reddcoin 12:00:02 || 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes: $371.14/$371.21 #Bitstamp $366.00/$366.22 #BTCe ⇢$-5.21/$-4.92 $370.82/$371.11 #Coinbase ⇢$-0.39/$-0.03 || $386.06 #btce; $380.18 #bitfinex; $380.00 #coinbase; $379.90 #bitstamp; #bitcoin #btc via #ThePriceOfBTCpic.twitter.com/RhfIrMVhWu
Trend: no change || Prices: 437.16, 438.80, 437.75, 420.74, 424.95, 424.54, 432.15, 432.52, 433.50, 437.70
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-11-28] BTC Price: 10058.80, BTC RSI: 79.09 Gold Price: 1294.70, Gold RSI: 56.20 Oil Price: 57.99, Oil RSI: 64.77 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Square Cash is letting some users buy and sell Bitcoin: Squareistestingcryptocurrency support in their Cash app, according to TechCrunch readerZach Mileson Twitter and confirmed by the company. The trial, which seems to only be available right now to a small number of users, lets you buy and sell bitcoin directly in the app. The interface is very basic. Users who have access to the beta can swipe right from the Cash Card page to access bitcoin functionality. Once there users will see a balance in USD and BTC, a graph showing performance over the last day, month or year and buy / sell buttons. There is a button to generate a wallet address - but the balance in one wallet address we checked didn't match the user's bitcoin holdings, meaning Square is likely using pooled wallets to hold user funds and not storing private keys on a user's device, similar to how Coinbase works. One source also said that a transaction sent to this address hasn't yet shown up in his balance, so it's definitely more of a beta than a fully functional release. It seems that at least for now, the feature is centered around buying and selling bitcoin and not sending and receiving - which is unusual considering Square Cash is known for sending and receiving money. As noted above there's a (potentially nonfunctioning) option to generate an address to receive bitcoin, but no option to send it. It's not yet clear what the fee structure will be or if there are daily buying or selling limits, or who Square is using as a liquidity provider for the transactions. Jack Dorseyhas spoken publiclyabout the benefits of cryptocurrency and the blockchain, but hadn't acknowledged that Square was working on building the functionality into their Cash app. We reached out to Square for comment and they provided us with the following statement: “We’re always listening to our customers and we’ve found that they are interested in using the Cash app to buy bitcoin. We're exploring how Square can make this experience faster and easier, and have rolled out this feature to a small number of Cash app customers. We believe cryptocurrency can greatly impact the ability of individuals to participate in the global financial system and we're excited to learn more here.” - Square Spokesperson Watch the video below to check out the feature in action: https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js || Bitcoin's value rose $10 billion in just 12 hours after a dramatic weekend sell-off: Bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=) rallied more than 11 percent in just over half a day on Monday, following a dramatic plunge in the cryptocurrency over the weekend. The digital currency started trading at $5,857.32 on Monday and rose nearly 15.6 percent to a session high of $6,770.37, according to data from industry website CoinDesk. Bitcoin last traded around 11.3 percent higher near $6,520.Bitcoin's market capitalization, or the total value of all the virtual coins in circulation, rose over $10 billion in the same time period, according to industry website Coinmarketcap.com.Bitcoin one-week performanceSource: CoinDesk Just last week, bitcoin hit a record high of $7,879.06 that was attributed to factors including CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) announcing plans to offer bitcoin futures contracts , and some favorable regulation in countries like Japan, which has legalized bitcoin as a method of payment. The bitcoin network was also due to undergo an upgrade called SegWit2x, which was initially planned for November 16. Its aim was to increase the transactions speed of the bitcoin network. But support for the upgrade has waned causing developers to call off its planned implementation . This appeared to be the catalyst for the sell-off that began Friday . Earlier this year, bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology split in a process known as a "hard fork." This happened twice, causing the creation of two new cryptocurrencies : bitcoin cash and bitcoin gold. Bitcoin cash saw a huge spike as bitcoin sold off with many investors betting that this could be a viable alternative. Bitcoin cash, however, also lost about half its value, plunging from an all-time high of $2,477.65 on Sunday to $1,277.29 on Monday, according to Coinmarketcap.com.WATCH: Bitcoin's origin story remains shrouded in mystery. Here's why it matters Bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=) rallied more than 11 percent in just over half a day on Monday, following a dramatic plunge in the cryptocurrency over the weekend. The digital currency started trading at $5,857.32 on Monday and rose nearly 15.6 percent to a session high of $6,770.37, according to data from industry website CoinDesk. Bitcoin last traded around 11.3 percent higher near $6,520 . Bitcoin's market capitalization, or the total value of all the virtual coins in circulation, rose over $10 billion in the same time period, according to industry website Coinmarketcap.com. Bitcoin one-week performance Source: CoinDesk Just last week, bitcoin hit a record high of $7,879.06 that was attributed to factors including CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) announcing plans to offer bitcoin futures contracts , and some favorable regulation in countries like Japan, which has legalized bitcoin as a method of payment. The bitcoin network was also due to undergo an upgrade called SegWit2x, which was initially planned for November 16. Its aim was to increase the transactions speed of the bitcoin network. But support for the upgrade has waned causing developers to call off its planned implementation . This appeared to be the catalyst for the sell-off that began Friday . Earlier this year, bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology split in a process known as a "hard fork." This happened twice, causing the creation of two new cryptocurrencies : bitcoin cash and bitcoin gold. Bitcoin cash saw a huge spike as bitcoin sold off with many investors betting that this could be a viable alternative. Bitcoin cash, however, also lost about half its value, plunging from an all-time high of $2,477.65 on Sunday to $1,277.29 on Monday, according to Coinmarketcap.com. WATCH: Bitcoin's origin story remains shrouded in mystery. Here's why it mattersMore From CNBC • European politicians ‘need to be courageous’ to catch up with China on tech, investor says • Regulating A.I. is a 'silly idea,' VMWare CEO says • Reddit CEO says there is ‘misbehavior’ on website, but only among a ‘minority’ of users || S&P 500; US Indexes Fundamental Daily Forecast – Speculators Bet on Strong Christmas Shopping Season: U.S. equity indexes finished the shortened trading week with strong weekly gains. Without any fresh economic news on Friday, traders relied on their speculative instincts and placed bets on a strong holiday shopping season. In the cash market, the benchmark S&P 500 Index settled at 2602.42, up 5.34 or +0.21%. The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average finished at 23557.99, up 31.81 or +0.14% and the tech-based NASDAQ Composite closed at 6888.58, up 21.22 or +0.31%. The S&P 500 Index closed above 2600.00 for the first time, led by the information technology sector. Macy shares were among the best-performing stocks in the index despite a nationwide computer glitch at their stores. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed near a record closing high, led by Visa. Amazon gained 2.6 percent to a record. This helped the NASDAQ Composite rise to intraday and closing records. Traders were watching closely consumer spending numbers on the first few days of the holiday shopping season. Shares of Macy’s, Nordstrom and Kohl’s all closed higher, helping the SPDR S&P Retail exchange-traded fund (XRT) improve. Despite the shortened trading week due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, the major indexes managed to post solid gains with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average posting 0.9 percent gains last week, while the NASDAQ Composite rose 1.6 percent for the week. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Bitcoin Nears $10K, Ethereum Nears $500. What’s Next? • Natural Gas Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Oversold Conditions Fueling Short-Covering Rally • Gold Daily Analysis – November 27, 2017 • Strong Consumer Spending Buoys U.S. Futures • $10,000 – Is Bitcoin Easy Money? • Broad Markets & Political Impact Considerations || Token Security Scheme: A Cybersecurity Platform That Safeguards All Crypto-Assets Launches Its ICO on 6 November: Taking Security Technology Behind the Banking and Payment Card Industry of Digital Key Management and Applying it to Blockchain Technology to Enhance Security and Minimize Theft of Crypto-assets SINGAPORE / ACCESSWIRE / November 6, 2017 /Token Security Scheme (TSS) has announced today that their token sale will begin on 6 November. It will utilize funds from the campaign to build Distributed Hardware Security Modules (DHSM) infrastructure, which will be set up in Enhanced Payment Card Industry (EPCI) security compliant facilities located around the world. These facilities will be regularly audited by certified professionals to ensure up-to-date compliance. Next, the DHSM network will be further expanded to forge more partnerships with key players located globally to set up more facilities. Users can look forward to trading with a peace of mind that their digital assets are secured in multiple locations and immune to destruction by disasters or malicious parties. The platform's main security features are: • Distributed safekeeping of the private keys, over various geographical locations • Multisig verifications • Continuous certifications by PCI compliance professional auditors • Key recovery with stringent authentication • Development of trusted nodes for permissioned blockchain "The project helps investors of cryptocurrencies to safekeep their digital assets for their future generations. They can sleep soundly knowing that their wealth accumulated would not be taken away from them easily." - Abraham Kee, Co-Founder of 5M Holdings. Together with their technology partners, TSS will develop and host use cases such as: • Cryptocurrency wallet providers • Cryptocurrency exchanges • Safe identity repositories • Permissioned and permissionless blockchains and more With these plans in place, Token Security Scheme hopes to make the blockchain a safer place to carry out crypto-activities, enhance security and minimize the theft of crypto-assets from individuals and businesses. Token Details Token Code: TSSToken Type: Ethereum ERC20 Token Sale Details The upcoming token sale will allow participants to purchase a maximum of 100,000,000 TSS tokens to support and bring the security platform project to fruition. The only currency accepted when purchasing tokens is Ethereum and there are exclusive bonuses available depending on the phase contributed. Here are the details: Week 1: 15% Bonus(1 ETH = 1150 TSS)Start: 06 Nov 2017 00:00 UTC+8End: 13 Nov 2017 00:00 UTC+8 Weeks 2 & 3: 10% Bonus(1 ETH = 1100 TSS)Start: 13 Nov 2017 00:00 UTC+8End: 27 Nov 2017 00:00 UTC+8 Week 4: 5% Bonus(1 ETH = 1050 TSS)Start 27 Nov 2017 00:00 UTC+8End: 04 Dec 2017 00:00 UTC+8Those interested in purchasing the token to become a part of the initiative can visit TSS website athttps://www.tsstoken.comon 6 November when the sale goes live. Contacts & ICO InformationTSS ICO Website|5M Holdings Website About 5M Holdings Pte Ltd / Parent company of Token Security Scheme 5M Holdings was created with the vision to make blockchain an inclusive technology, to unlock its full potential for all communities globally. To make this vision a reality, a secure and robust platform will be created by their team of security experts to protect an individual's or business' digital assets, preventing it from being hacked and used for malicious means. This platform will be scalable enough for other use cases of blockchain technology to be built upon, such as cryptocurrency exchanges, wallet providers, permissionless and permissioned block chains like food safety blockchains and more. With greater security comes endless possibilities. Its first project is Token Security Scheme - Making blockchain safer for everyday use that will begin ICO on 6 November 2017. Name:Benjamin BayContact Email Address:ben@tsstoken.comWebsite / URL Link:https://www.tsstoken.comWhitepaper Link:https://www.tsstoken.com/home_files/white-paper.pdfBitcointalk Link:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2177307Learn more about TSS Token at -https://www.tsstoken.com/tokensale.php Media ContactContact Name:5M Holdings Pte Ltd MediaContact Email:Addressben@tsstoken.comLocation:Singapore Disclaimer:5M Holdingsis the source of this content. Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to consumer protections. This press release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest. ROI cannot be guaranteed. Readers are urged to make investment decisions at their own discretion and the company will not be responsible for the outcome of such decisions. This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations they are based on will occur. SOURCE:Token Security Scheme || CBOE President: Bitcoin ETFs Will Follow Futures Products: The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) is expressing new confidence in bitcoin's future. Inan earnings conference callthis week, Chris Concannon, president of the derivatives exchange operator, stated that he sees exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on the cryptocurrency coming to markets. Concanno went so far as to refer to bitcoin as a new asset class, saying he believes in the cryptocurrency space in general. He said: "With regulated futures of a certain asset class like a bitcoin, you do have an opportunity to introduce ETFs and over time we do envision ETFs coming to market.” Last week, rival derivatives marketplace operator CME Groupannouncedits intention of offering a bitcoin futures contracts product by the end of 2017, pursuant to approval by U.S. regulators. The company followed CBOE itself, which said it wouldlaunch its own bid to offer derivatives based on cryptocurrenciesin back in August. CBOE is also waiting on approval from government regulators. The statements are notable given that previous attempts to launch ETFs based on bitcoin have not met with success. In September, money managerVanEckwithdrew its own filing for a futures ETF after receiving pushback from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Similarly,REX ETFswithdrew its own filings a week later. This pushback has not stopped other companies from trying to file for a derivatives product.ProShares Capital Managementfiled for two products in late September, though it is still too early to determine whether the bid will be approved or not. Disclosure: CME Group is an investor in Digital Currency Group, CoinDesk's parent company. Chris Concannon imagevia YouTube • CME Group's Leo Melamed: We'll 'Tame' Bitcoin • Derivatives Giant CME Group to Launch Bitcoin Futures Contract • New Chicago Blockchain Center Launches With Government Backing • Smart Contract Issues Set Off 'Alarm Bells', Says US Regulator || Credit Suisse CEO skeptical about Bitcoin 'bubble': ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam on Thursday expressed caution about Bitcoin, saying the current interest in the crypto-currency could eventually subside. "Bitcoin presents a number of challenges. The first of them is really the anonymity," Thiam told a results news conference. "I think most banks in the current state of regulation have little or no appetite to get involved in a currency which has such anti-money laundering challenges. "From what we can identify, the only reason today to buy or sell Bitcoin is to make money, which is the very definition of speculation and the very definition of a bubble." Bitcoin rocketed above $7,000 for the first time on Thursday, after a more than sevenfold increase in its value since the start of the year. (Reporting by Joshua Franklin, writing by John Revill; Editing by Michael Shields) || Bitcoin futures remind one expert of the risky products that caused the financial crisis: black monday traders CME Group will offer bitcoin futures, pending approval. Joe Saluzzi of Themis Trading thinks that it would be a mistake to give the products the go-ahead, citing the unregulated exchanges upon which bitcoin trades. He worries that if the futures are given the OK, it would catalyze approvals for bitcoin ETFs, which he says would be dangerous for the market. Exchange giant CME Group announced on Tuesday that it will launch bitcoin futures products, and many corners of the market erupted in celebration. Bitcoin itself — which generally sees its price rise on signs of legitimate adoption — surged to yet another record high . Meanwhile, trading firms across Wall Street are jumping at the opportunity to offer bitcoin-linked instruments, including derivatives. Beyond CME, that includes the firm's cross-town rival Cboe , as well as high-frequency trading outfits DRW and Virtu Financial. Joe Saluzzi , partner and co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading, says regulators should pump the breaks. In fact, he doesn't think the futures should be approved at all. A regular critic of how high-frequency trading skews markets, Saluzzi is no stranger to confronting exchanges. In the past, he's been called to testify in front of the House Financial Services Committee about how to reform market structure and make trading fairer for all participants. In his mind, the main issue with these newly-proposed futures is that bitcoin exchanges operate in lawless fashion. Saluzzi says proper diligence isn't being conducted into the underlying assets, and that exchanges shouldn't simply be slapping an investment wrapper on them and offering them to clients. The practice reminds him of the collateralized debt obligations that served as ticking time bombs in investor portfolios during the mid-2000s, and were ultimately instrumental in the financial crisis. Business Insider spoke to Saluzzi by phone, and this is what he had to say about the concept of bitcoin futures (emphasis ours): Story continues "There’s an issue with the underlying exchanges. I don’t think anyone would disagree that these exchanges are unregulated, and that there’s been numerous instances of fraud . What’s happening now is you’re seeing folks like the CME and Cboe almost neglecting that issue. They’re acting as if it doesn’t matter what happens underneath, because they themselves are creditworthy organizations . We don’t debate that, but they’re taking a product that’s unregulated and filled with potential for manipulation, and trying to put their wrapper around it. That reminds me of CDOs . And it doesn’t change the fact that what’s underneath is still the Wild West ." But Saluzzi's thoughts don't stop there. He has an issue with how the bitcoin futures came about in the first place, and thinks that CME was pressured by its high-volume clients to announce the products. Since it's a publicly-traded, for-profit entity, the firm was happy to comply, he says. Here are Saluzzi's thoughts on that (emphasis ours): "The CME, NYSE, Bats, Nasdaq are for-profit public companies. They need to make money, because they have stock prices . When there are opportunities like this, and their biggest clients say they want a mechanism to hedge their underlying risk, what are they going to do? Are they going to turn around and say no, and allow a competitor to do it? No, they’re going to do it, and try to legitimize it . That’s what’s being overlooked, and that’s why I’m really concerned. When exchanges do things where they cut corners to make profits, they tend to get in trouble . The exchanges are doing things at the request of their higher-volume clients to make money, because they’re public. And that’s not the way it’s supposed to work. They’re supposed to be more utility-like ." Saluzzi specifically references fines leveled against the NYSE and Bats for sending market data to proprietary customers first, and not disclosing special order types. To him, this situation was a prime example of exchanges succumbing to the pressure of high-volume clients, and then paying for it down the road — a situation he thinks could repeat itself if they're not careful. Lastly, Saluzzi is worried that the CME's decision to offer bitcoin futures will catalyze acceptance for proposed bitcoin ETF, which are currently being delayed for approval by the SEC . If the SEC gives bitcoin ETFs the go-ahead, he fears that would offer an irreversible seal of approval for a risky asset. He even went as far as to call that potential outcome "irresponsible and dangerous" in a recent blog post . Here are Saluzzi's thoughts on the SEC conundrum (emphasis ours): "The SEC did the right thing initially, and they resisted pressures from the industry around the ETF, which will be a bonanza. If the CFTC approve the futures, the proponents of the ETF will come back to the SEC and say they have precedent. They’ll argue that they’ve created a legitimate market. And I have a feeling that the SEC may be swayed . Before you know it, there will be many ETFs, and they’ll all be based on underlying exchanges that aren’t legitimate . And pretty soon these things will be buried so far into portfolios and no one will know where they are, until they blow up . And it’ll be because nobody did the due diligence into the underlying exchanges. This is not conspiracy theory. This is fact." NOW WATCH: TOP STRATEGIST: Bitcoin will soar to $25,000 in 5 years See Also: Some of the biggest trading firms in the world are getting in on the bitcoin business The biggest exchange group in the world is unexpectedly gatecrashing the bitcoin business The largest options exchange in the US is moving in on a $1.6 billion bitcoin opportunity SEE ALSO: Some of the biggest trading firms in the world are getting in on the bitcoin business || U.S. adds 261,000 jobs in October: Stocks trying for gains here on the back of a big jobs rebound, and Apple shares hitting all-time highs. Plus – A huge day for Apple, and big week for tech. We break it down. And – Bitcoin can’t be stopped – or at least it seems. With crypto-currencies topping $200 billion market cap – is this the big turning point? Plus a look ahead to everything you need to know for next week. Winners and losers Stocks in the red today include Herbalife as the multi-level supplements marketer missed on earnings and narrowed profit guidance, Tableau as the analytics software maker issued a current quarter forecast that missed expectations, and Pandora – it’s not sweet music for investors today as the internet radio service’s revenue came in well below forecast, as its having difficulty increasing ad sales. Stocks in the green today include Starbucks despite a guidance cut as analysts claim it wasn’t as bad as feared, and the cut removes an overhang on shares, Qualcomm as Bloomberg first reported Broadcom is exploring acquiring the chipmaker, and Valeant – shares getting a nice pop as drugmaker finally won approval from the FDA for its glaucoma drug, after initially submitting two years ago. || Bitcoin Breaks $9,000 In Another All-Time High: The price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin has risen more than 12% in the last week, moving past $9,000 early Sunday morning to yet another in a long string of all-time highs. The cryptocurrency's total market value is now more than $150 billion. Other cryptocurrencies have also had a very strong week, with Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash also up for the week. This continues a roughly eight-month winning streak for Bitcoin and other cryptos, which use decentralized ledgers and cryptographic security to move value over the internet. Since April 20, when it was worth just over $1,200 (per Coinmarketcap.com), Bitcoin has risen nearly 650%. The extended surge can be explained most of all by the entrance of a broader swathe of global retail investors into the market. Previous Bitcoin surges generated headlines and gave skeptics a chance to familiarize themselves with the technology, but it’s far easier for individuals to actually buy cryptocurrency today, through a huge number of online exchanges, than it was back in 2013. Get Data Sheet , Fortune's technology newsletter. All that retail enthusiasm has generated an array of sketchy " initial coin offerings " and even outright scams, signals of a bubble swimming with less-knowledgeable buyers. But the market has also weathered a number of setbacks, including a major crackdown by the Chinese government and a divisive upgrade controversy , without losing steam, suggesting at the least that buyer enthusiasm is durable. Another fascinating indicator, highlighted last week by Bloomberg , is the adoption of Bitcoin by U.S. survivalists or “doomsday preppers,” who increasingly believe it will (somehow) be more useful after a major disaster than gold or U.S. dollars. The latest price landmark is also notable because it tees Bitcoin supporters up to adapt one of the internet's most enduring memes. BITCOIN IS OVER 9000!!!! Been saving this meme for a while $BTC pic.twitter.com/RSFWX5xY0s — Arman Ghorbani (@ArmanSays) November 26, 2017 For the uninitiated, it’s a reference to the Japanese anime Dragon Z . Story continues See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com Exclusive: Nearly 4 Million Bitcoins Lost Forever, New Study Says Bitcoin for Beginners: 3 Things to Know Before You Invest Ethereum Price Hits New High as Billionaire Predicts 25% Surge In the Next Month Tesla Is Burning Through a Bitcoin Every Minute Bitcoin and Ethereum Prices Take a Hit After Another Cryptocurrency Was Hacked || How to Interpret the Economic Calendar: What is Purchasing Managers Index (PMI)? What is GDP? What is Counted in GDP? What is Consumer Price Index (CPI)? What is Income Statement Used for? What is Retail Price Index (RPI)? How does Unemployment Rate Work? What is the Impact of the Interest Rate Decision? What is Producer Price Index (PPI)? What is Consumer Price Index (CCI)? What is the Institute for Supply Management (ISM)? What is Gross National Product (GNP)? What is IFO? What does Non Farm Payroll Employment Mean? What is the Retail Sales Report? What is Current Account? What is Housing Starts Data? What are Crude Oil Inventories? What is Industrial Production Index? What is ISM Manufacturing Report? What is Purchasing Managers Index (PMI)? The Purchasing Managers Index measures the economic health of the manufacturing sector. The data is collected through a survey of 400 purchasing managers in the manufacturing sector and based on five different fields: Production, new orders, inventories, Supplier deliveries and employment level. The PMI can provide information about the business condition. Example: The PMI provides analysts, purchasing managers and company managers with the current economic activity. What is GDP? What is Counted in GDP? GDP or Gross Domestic Product is the total value of goods and services produced by an economy. To calculate the GDP, you add total consumption, plus investment, and government spending to the difference between exports and imports. (C + I + G + (E – I)). Example: The GDP is a backward-looking measure of economic growth as it is usually released 4-week after a quarter has ended. What is Consumer Price Index (CPI)? The consumer price index is an inflation index, that reveals changes to prices directly affecting the consumer. The index is calculated by averaging the changes in prices of a weighted basket of goods and services and comparing that change to a prior period. Items that are focused on include home prices, rents, energy, and food. Example: The CPI is the measure most widely used to quote changes to inflation. Story continues What is Income Statement Used For? The New Residential Construction Report is popularly known as housing starts contain statistics of housing construction activities. It is a monthly report on housing starts construction with the laying down of the foundation, grant of building permits which indicates how many new homes plan to build in the near future. Example: The Income Statement shows a firm’s revenues and expenses, for a specific financial period. This summarises the revenue items, the expense items, and the difference between them gives the firm’s net income for an accounting period. What is Retail Price Index (RPI)? The Retail Price Index (RPI) is produced in the U.K. by the Nation Statistics Office and is one of two component produced to evaluate inflation at the consumer level. The index is calculated by analyzing nearly 180K price quotes of a fixed basket of goods and services. It was introduced in 1947, nearly 50 years prior to the CPI . Example: The RPI has taken a back seat to the CPI as a way the Bank of England evaluates consumer inflation. How Does Unemployment Rate Work? The unemployment rate is a ratio that is calculated by dividing the number of people that unemployed by the total number of people in the labor force. This number is calculated slightly differently depending on the country that you are evaluating. Example: In the United States this number is referred to as the U3 and is narrowly defined, but there are broader measures including the U6, which measures part-time workers as well as those underemployed which is considered a more accurate reflection of the employment situation. What is the Impact of Interest Rate Decision? The interest rate decision generally refers to a change in sovereign interest rates that occur at a regularly scheduled monetary policy meeting held by a central bank. Each central bank sets interest rate policy by establishing a deposit rate or borrowing rate for commercial banks in that country. Example: This is the most widely watched event and a surprise can generate significant volatility. What is Producer Price Index (PPI)? The producer price index (PPI) is a measure of inflation at the wholesale level. The PPI is calculated by evaluating nearly 10K prices that come into the Bureau of Labor Statistics every month. The index tracts the out of nearly all industrial goods and service produced in the United States including mining and manufacturing. Example: The PPI also focusses on commodity-based prices, such as crude oil as well as commodity-based final demand. What is Consumer Confidence Index (CCI)? The U.S. consumer confidence index (CCI) is an indicator that determines the level of positive or negative sentiment consumers are experiencing. The index is defined as the degree of optimism, or pessimism on the state of the economy which is calculated by evaluating the level of spending or savings. Example: Confidence in the U.S. helps gauge spending which makes up approximately 65% of GDP. What is the Institute for Supply Management (ISM)? The Institute for Supply Management (ISM), is a leading supply management institute in U.S. ISM publishes monthly ISM Report on Business. This publication brings out both surveys: the Manufacturing and Non-Manufacturing. ISM index reports are constructed to reflect the status of employment, business activity, production inventories, new orders and supplier deliveries. Example: The data in its monthly release are used as a popular economic indicator and forecaster. What is Gross National Product (GNP)? Gross national product (GNP), is a measurement of growth that is focused on forecasting the value of all the final products and services produced by an economy during a specific period of time that is produced domestically by country residents. The index is commonly compared to the GDP. Example: GNP is calculated by taking the sum of personal consumption expenditures, private domestic investment, government expenditure, net exports, and any income, minus income earned within the domestic economy by foreign residents. What is IFO? The IFO is an economic research institute in Germany and considered one of the leading economic research institutes in Europe.It undertakes both theoretical and empirical studies in the areas of the national and global economy. It brings out monthly Business Climate Index based on a survey of 7000 firms. Example: The IFO Business Climate Index is considered as an early indicator of the situation of the German economy. What Does Non-Farm Payrolls Mean? The non-farm payroll report is the headline U.S. employment release that measures the net gain in employees measured during a corporate survey. The report does not include farm workers, private household employees, or non-profit Organization employees. The report is released by the Department of Labor and is separate from the household survey report. Example: The report is released on the first Friday of every month, and is considered the most important economic data release. What is the Retail Sales Report? The retail sales report in the United States is a comprehensive retail demand report released by the Commerce Department. Retail sales are an aggregated measure of the sales of retail and are calculated by data sampling throughout the entire country. The report measures consumer demand and helps gauge overall consumer spending. Example: Consumer spending makes up nearly 65% of the GDP in the United States, which makes retail sales a vital economic release. What is Current Account? A current account describes a nation’s balance of trade describing the investment and savings that are produced by a country. The current account is defined by the sum of goods and services export minus imports, along with net income. Example: A current account deficit or surplus helps describe the value of exports relative to imports. What is Housing Starts Data? The New Residential Construction Report is popularly known as housing starts contain statistics of housing construction activities. It is a monthly report on housing starts construction with the laying down of the foundation, grant of building permits which indicates how many new homes plan to build in the near future. Example: As per The New Residential Construction Report February 2014, the construction of new U.S. homes has reduced. But the number of applications for new building permits has increased substantially. This signals housing construction works will pick up in near future. What are Crude Oil Inventories? Crude oil inventories are reported by the U.S. Department of Energy and reflect the number of crude oil stocks held in reserve by refiners and oil storage facilities. The Energy Information Administration releases its estimate weekly on Wednesday’s, in its weekly oil storage report. Example: The crude oil market generally experiences volatility immediately following the release of the EIA report. What is Industrial Production Index? Industrial Production Index, released by the fed is used as a monthly report on production figures. The Industrial production shows the raw volume of goods produced by industrial firms such as factories, mines and electric utilities in the United States. It indicates the overall economic activity and GDP. Example: The monthly release provides summarizes data together with percentage changes on month-to-month and year-over-year levels. What is ISM Manufacturing Report? The ISM Manufacturing Report is based on a survey of purchasing and supply executives. Survey responses reflect the change, if any, in the current month compared to the previous month. A Non-Manufacturing index reflects the status of employment, business activity, new orders and supplier deliveries. Example: Manufacturing ISM Report on Business provides valuable data used in economic analysis and forecasting. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Crude Oil Price Analysis for November 3, 2017 S&P 500; US Indexes Fundamental Daily Forecast – Mixed Reaction to Tax Reform Plan Proposal E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis – November 2, 2017 Forecast Market Snapshot – Pound Falls on Bearish BOE All You Need to Know about Regulation Top Five Cryptocurrencies Experts Talk about Bitcoin, Blockchain and ICO’s [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] $BTC https://twitter.com/NodeInvestor/status/917595077333065728 … || #Putin Tells Central Bank Not to Create Barriers to #Cryptocurrencies || Bitcoin Acceptance for Everyday Use (Infographic) #fintech #currency #crypto #blockchain #startups http://makebitcoins.de/bitcoin-acceptance-for-everyday-use-infographic … || ビットコインインプルーブメントプロポーザル || Oct 29, 2017 15:00:00 UTC | 5,806.00$ | 5,000.70€ | 4,422.00£ | #Bitcoin #btc pic.twitter.com/ByvYI54r9z || #Putin Tells Central Bank Not to Create Barriers to #Cryptocurrencies || #204 Ben Bollen & Jason Goldberg: Simple Token - Bringing Tokens to Mainstream Consumer Applications: http://ift.tt/2wNdULd  #bitcoin #btc || START BITCOIN MINING http://bowwellebay.com  || #BTC Alaska autoriza gestión de criptomonedas de usuarios fallecidos https://goo.gl/MuyCJD pic.twitter.com/OMxVhvj0di || Schools Are Officially Accepting #bitcoin for Tuition http://gettopical.com/fintech/6e4926a73543c02841afd437b0faa85c …pic.twitter.com/iyNVTK4JLN
Trend: up || Prices: 9888.61, 10233.60, 10975.60, 11074.60, 11323.20, 11657.20, 11916.70, 14291.50, 17899.70, 16569.40
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Crypto Slip; FATP Sets Anti-money Laundering Rules on Crypto: Investing.com – Major digital coins opened the first week of March trading lower, set back by reports over the weekend that regulators have set guidelines on crypto assets to combat money laundering and crypto companies are being denied banking services. Last week, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) finalized its revision of the Interpretive Note to Recommendation 15 that contains requirements for regulating and supervising digital asset services providers. FATF is an intergovernmental organization of 30 countries that aims to formulate strategies to tackle money laundering. The FATF called on its members to comply with guidelines to prevent cryptocurrencies from being used to launder money and finance terrorism, including requirements that digital asset providers be licensed or registered in the jurisdictions they were created and that owners provide identity information to regulators. The FATF is seeking comments on the recommendation by Apr. 8 and regulators will have their final meeting in June. On Monday morning, Bitcoin was trading 0.57% lower to $3,803.7 on the Bitfinex exchange by 10:57 PM ET (03:57 AM GMT). Ethereum was down 3.37% to $129.5, XRP slipped 1.70% to $0.30814 and Litecoin lost 1.95% to $47.602 over the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that crypto companies are still having a hard time to access banking services. “The standard answer of ‘just go to your local Chase branch’ doesn’t work in crypto,” Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of quantitative crypto trading company Alameda Research, told Bloomberg. Related Articles Crypto Up; Canada Audits Crypto Investors Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Alludes to Spending $10,000 a Week on Bitcoin Research: Global Blockchain Spending to Reach $2.9 Billion in 2019 || Is iQIYI Stock a Buy Again?: iQIYI(NASDAQ:IQ), commonly referred to as the “Netflix of China,” has been a victim of the trade spat between China and the United States that has been going on for months. That’s interesting, though. Because the issue between the two countries has very little to do with IQ stock. Click to Enlarge Source: Shutterstock The leading streaming company in China provides mainly China-based content to its subscribers. So a trade disagreement with the U.S. shouldn’t have such a damaging effect on the stock. Try telling that to the investors who are avoiding all Chinese stocks based on the headlines. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Even Chinese technology giantsAlibaba(NYSE:BABA) andTencent Holdings(OTCMKTS:TCEHY) — two of the largest internet companies in the world — have been crushed over the last nine months. But now that rumors of a potential deal between the U.S. and China seem to be becoming more of a reality, things are starting to look up. The big rally we saw in Chinese stocks to kick off 2019 shows the huge upside potential these names have once the big black cloud we call trade is removed. iQIYI has rebounded 50% from its December low after losing two-thirds of its value during the selloff. But it still remains well below its June all-time high of $46.23. While it may take time to regain that high status, I am confident that fresh records will be achieved in the coming years. For buyers of the stock today, that would represent a double. The unknown of the trade spat will eventually be old news, allowing investors to once again focus on what companies actually do rather than political uncertainties. IQ is the leader in video streaming in a country that is home to more than 1.3 billion people and is growing its economy by 6%. Disposable income will grow as the middle class does, leading to more and more subscribers for IQ. • 10 Stocks That Every 20-Year-Old Should Buy Subscriber growth is a key metric for companies like iQIYI — just like it is forNetflix(NASDAQ:NFLX) andFacebook(NASDAQ:FB). The company is on the right track. Its premium subscriber total — those who actually pay — grew 89% over the last year to nearly 81 million people. Also similar to NFLX when it was in its early stages of growth, IQ continues to lose money. But that’s perfectly OK. When a company is focused mainly on growth, the next most important figure is the top line. IQ has increased revenue by 48% over the last year, which is a very impressive number. Now on to valuation. Based on iQIYI’s current market cap of $14.5 billion and projected 2019 sales of $4.85 billion, IQ stock trades with a price-to-sales ratio of 2.99. Compare that to Netflix, which trades with a 2019 price-to-sales ratio of 7.43. It is very common for a U.S.-based company to have a higher valuation than its Chinese peers. But with growth projections higher for iQIYI stock and the potential market in China wide open, trading at just 40% of NFLX’s value makes IQ a huge bargain buying opportunity for long-term investors. So … is IQ stock a good buy at current prices near $20? If you’re an investor with a lot of patience and a strong long-term outlook, then I would answer that question with a big “yes!” Matthew McCall is the founder and president of Penn Financial Group, an investment advisory firm, as well as the editor of Investment Opportunities and Early Stage Investor. He has dedicated his career to getting investors into the world’s biggest, most revolutionary trends BEFORE anyone else. The power of being “first” gave Matt’s readers the chance to bank +2,438% in Stamps.com (STMP), +1,523% in Ulta Beauty (ULTA), +1,044% in Tesla (TSLA), +611% in Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (LNGLY), +324% in Bitcoin Services (BTSC), just to name a few. If you’re interested in making triple-digit gains from the world’s biggest investment trends BEFORE anyone else,click here to learn more about Matt McCall and his investments strategy today. • 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid • The 7 Best Video Game Stocks to Power Up Your Portfolio! • 7 Forever Stocks to Buy for Long-Term Gains • 5 Self-Driving Car Stocks to Buy Compare Brokers The postIs iQIYI Stock a Buy Again?appeared first onInvestorPlace. || Binance Moves More Bitcoin In A Day Than Square Did in All of 2018: Bitcoin, Square, Binance Bitcoin trading volume on Square and Binance are a key metric for cryptocurrency investors who track the market’s movements. Unlike much of the cryptocurrency exchange industry, which suffers from inflated figures , investors trust Binance and Square’s numbers. That’s because Square’s on the hook with the SEC to keep his numbers straight, and Binance is just like that. It is the most trusted cryptocurrency exchange among digital asset investors despite the light financial regulations of Malta where it’s incorporated. What do these numbers tell investors? Square’s Q4 letter to shareholders reported that the payments giant processed over $50 million in bitcoin purchases in Q4 2018, a year-end surge in bitcoin purchases that put Square’s yearly total at $166 million for 2018. Read the full story on CCN.com . || Crypto Futures Provider Volumes Increase 500 Percent After Acquisition by Kraken: United Kingdom -based crypto exchange and futures provider Crypto Facilities has significantly increased its trading volumes after being acquired by crypto exchange Kraken, according to the information shared with Cointelegraph Tuesday, Mar. 5. Cointelegraph spoke to Sui Chung, head of cryptocurrency pricing products at Crypto Facilities, according to whom the platform’s trading volumes have increased more than 500 percent. Chung said that company’s average daily trading volume was around $7 million per day in January. However, following the acquisition announcement, it has increased to $32 million per day in February, reaching up to $110 million one day that month. Chung linked the boost to a strong latent demand for crypto futures from the Kraken customer base, with the number of daily users steadily growing throughout the month. He confirmed that Crypto Facilities’ trading volume reached almost $1 billion during the month of February. He further explained that Crypto Facilities can offer services to Kraken users that are compliant with Anti-Money Laundering ( AML ) and Know Your Customer ( KYC ) policies. Kraken bought Crypto Facilities for in a “nine-figure deal” on Feb. 4. As Cointelegraph reported following the matter, Crypto Facilities is fully regulated by the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority, giving Kraken a major foothold in the European market. Earlier this week Goldman Sachs-backed cryptocurrency finance firm Circle bought SeedInvest, a crowdfunding platform and registered operator of a broker-dealer. The deal that was initially announced in October was concluded after approval by the United States Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). In January, Bakkt , the digital assets platform backed by the New York Stock Exchange , acquired certain assets in futures merchant Rosenthal Collins Group. The company obtained regulatory approval by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission for the launch of regulated trading in crypto markets. Related Articles: Crypto Exchange Kraken Offers $100,000 Reward for QuadrigaCX’s Missing Funds Crypto Exchange Coinbase Adds Support for XRP on Retail Platform and Mobile Apps Widow of QuadrigaCX Founder Seeks Compensation for Creditor Protection Court Costs PwC: Bitcoin Ransomware Hackers Laundered Money via WEX Exchange || The Hostile Media Narratives About Bitcoin’s Environmental Impact Are Total Garbage: Bitcoin If you’ve been following the news and social media discussion regarding Bitcoin for very long at all you’ve likely seen multiple articles castigating Bitcoin as a harbinger of environmental degradation and destruction. Even startups in the crypto space fuel the narrative. People have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on more than one altcoin that specifically markets itself as a less electricity-intensive, more environmentally friendly alternative to Bitcoin. (I won’t name any names, but in my opinion, some of these are incredibly risky investments. People buy tokens from their ICOs hoping to get rich quick after seeing what happened to early Bitcoin adopters, but their white papers are more marketing than technical problem solving, and most people in their right mind wouldn’t buy IPO shares in these companies if they weren’t marketed as cryptocurrency tokens.) When Facts Are Lies The way the mainstream media has painted Bitcoin, it’s like one of the four horsemen of the environmental apocalypse. Did you know that Bitcoin mining uses more electricity than the entire countries of Portugal or Singapore(!)? Or that Bitcoin uses thousands of times more electricity per transaction than a VISA transaction? Read the full story on CCN.com . || Bitcoin ETF is Coming: Hopeful US SEC Chief Says Approval Only a Matter of Time: A Bitcoin ETF is on its way – really. This according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner who thinks a Bitcoin ETF will eventually become a reality. Commissioner Robert J Jackson Jr. expressed optimism about a Bitcoin ETF being on the horizon during an interview with Congressional Quarterly. It wasn’t slated to be made public until Feb. 11. Regardless, details of the interview are already out after being leaked. Twitter user Drew Hinkes, from an outfit called Athena Blockchain, relayed the news via the social media platform. #SEC Commissioner Jackson in an interview to be published next weeks is optimistic that a "fund based on #bitcoin " will eventually be approved, expresses concern about the proposed ETFs submitted to date. pic.twitter.com/3BCuiBd4CB — Drew Hinkes (@propelforward) February 5, 2019 Read the full story on CCN.com . || Analyst: Bitcoin Price Must Hit This Key Level to Exit Bear Market: In the wake of Sunday’s crypto massacre, shell-shocked investors have been left with dashed dreams and a lingering question: Will bitcoin’s bear market ever end? Crypto brokerageBitOodasays that the answer lies in two price levels: $4,200 and $6,000 – levels with which retail buyers need to become more acquainted. Read the full story onCCN.com. || Bitfury Launches Set of Tools to Drive Lightning Network Adoption: Blockchain technology firmBitfuryGroup has released a series of new tools for merchants and developers in a bid to drive wider adoption of the Lightning Network (LN). The launch was announced in ablog postfrom Bitfury’s LN engineering team, “Lightning Peach,” Jan. 23. Bitfury’s new LN-related offerings span anopen sourceLN-enabled Bitcoin (BTC) wallet, a hardware LN payments terminal and e-commerce software for merchants, a host of developer tools, and a public LN node to facilitate users’ creation of LN payment channels. The Lightning Network is a second-layer solution toBitcoin’s scalability limitations, which works by opening payment channels between users to keep the majority of transactions off-chain, turning to the underlying Blockchain only to record the net results. Valery Vavilov, CEO of Bitfury, has said the products’ release aims to enable everyday use of Bitcoin and encourage worldwide adoption of blockchain technology. In a summary of the new wallet’s functionality, dubbed “Peach,” Bitfury has clarified that the wallet will be able to handle both regular on-chain BTC transactions and LN payments. The wallet will reportedly also be able to create a channel using a user’s Lightning address ID and their counterpart’s host IP, create invoices and support recurring subscription payments between Peach users. “Peach Commerce,” as Bitfury names its merchant LN plugin, will reportedly enable individual retailers and payment processors to add support for LN payments into their existing infrastructure for e-commerce services — the latter via a web-based Peach API. The product will support BTC micropayments and allow for LN invoice management. Bitfury further claims its plugin can confirm payments “in seconds,” with scalability of up to thousands of transactions per second. Lastly, Bitfury is also launching a point-of-sale hardware terminal to allow for fast and secure LN payments, as well as a “Peach public node” — the latter aiming to make payment channel creation easier by allowing users to connect their individual nodes or wallets to the public node. Asreportedlast month, the capacity of the Lightning Network has recently surpassed $2 million, despite the year-long bear market. As of Dec. 23, LN-supporting node channels were able to facilitate 496.8 BTC — worth about $2 million at the time. Bitfury, for its part, is continuing to branch out into various industries — recentlyannouncingthe launch of a dedicated venture to open source themusicindustry using blockchain. Also this month, Bitfurypartneredto bring LN payment support toPoland’sBTCBIT crypto exchange. Cointelegraph recentlypublishedan analysis of the cryptocurrencies with the highest transaction speed capacities, noting that scalability remains an issue for blockchain-based assets. • Crypto Payments Service BitPay Reports It Saw Over $1 Billion in Transactions in 2018 • Controversial Content Creators Shift to Crypto After Censorship • London Stock Exchange Trading Tech to Power New Hong Kong Crypto Exchange • Blockchain.com Seeks Undisclosed Stablecoin Partnership by End of 2019: Report || South Korea’s Coinbin Files for Bankruptcy With $26 Mln Loss, Cites Employee Embezzlement: Coinbin, the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange that took over hacked exchange Youbit, has filed for bankruptcy owing users almost $30 million, correspondence from the company confirmed on Feb. 20. Coinbin, which acquired Youbit in 2017, is closing operations as the result of embezzlement from a senior executive, local media including English-language resource Business Korea subsequently reported. “We are preparing to file for bankruptcy due to a rise in debt following an employee’s embezzlement,” the publication quoted CEO Park Chan-kyu as saying. According to available information, the figure in charge of cryptocurrency management is at the center of the scandal, having previously served as CEO of Youbit. The latter ceased to exist in December 2017 after two major hacks made operations no longer possible. The executive, known as Lee, reportedly appropriated the private keys of several hundred Bitcoin (BTC) wallets , while claiming to lose the key for an Ethereum (ETH)  wallet containing 100 ETH. The total funds missing currently amount to 29.3 billion won ($26 million), of which 2.3 billion ($2 million) is reported as lost. The revelations come as the cryptocurrency industry is already digesting the fallout from another exchange shutdown, Canada’s QuadrigaCX . Currently the focus of legal proceedings and numerous rumors following the death of its CEO in December 2018, Quadriga owes its users around $190 million in crypto and fiat currency . Related Articles: Bitfinex’s Stolen Funds Partially Recovered and Returned by US Law Enforcement Cryptopia Won’t Resume Trading Until Balances Are Secure, Discord Message Notes Canadian Banks Wary of QuadrigaCX Assets’ Origins, Cite Money Laundering Concerns FBI Solicits Information From Bitconnect Investors With Voluntary Questionnaire || This Chinese Crypto Mining Guru Predicts the Bitcoin Price Will Surge 20,000%: bitcoin price A Chinese crypto mining pool founder predicted that the next bull run would unleash the market’s full potential, enabling the Bitcoin price to ascend to unfathomable heights before the euphoria cools down. Bitcoin Market Cap To $12 Trillion? This crypto market bull isn’t ready to give up on the flagship cryptocurrency yet. | Source: Shutterstock News 8BTC’s Lylian Teng reports : “Zhu Fa, co-founder of crypto mining pool Poolin, recently made a bullish statement on bitcoin’s price, predicting that bitcoin would surge to new highs at 5 million Chinese yuan (roughly US$740,000).” Read the full story on CCN.com . [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] 24H 2019/01/26 20:00 (2019/01/25 19:59) LONG : 28999.24 BTC (-111.97 BTC) SHORT : 25645.29 BTC (+2039.14 BTC) LS比 : 53% vs 46% (55% vs 44%) || Current prices and changes in the last hour: $BTC: $3969.63 | -0.04% $ETH: $138.25 | -0.31% $XRP: $0.314594 | -0.19% $LTC: $57.96 | -0.89% $EOS: $3.78 | -0.50% $BCH: $134.48 | -0.60% $BNB: $14.59 | 1.00% $USDT: $1.01 | -0.13% $XLM: $0.089974 | 0.55% $TRX: $0.022722 | -0.05% || Now you can pay for your SKS HNW lead generation campaigns with BITCOIN ! #sks8 #rtpic.twitter.com/IcgHVtJ3Tv || Trading Strategies for Crypto Beginners - via @smedian_network #Bitcoin #Cryptocurrency #CryptocurrencyInvestment #Trading #TechnicalAnalysishttps://medium.com/coinmonks/trading-strategies-for-crypto-beginners-a16f820b3fa6?aduc=VF70g8g1548308414570 … || Wyoming crafting law for ease of regulation in crypto. Thanks Wyoming! #crypto $ETH $BTC http://coindesk.com/wyoming-bill-w … || #crypto prices update 1h $BTC $3862.68 -0.11% $ETH $136.24 -0.41% $XRP $0.32 -0.31% $EOS $3.53 -0.16% $LTC $48.00 0.03% $BCH $132.41 -0.3% $USDT $1.01 0.07% $XLM $0.08 -0.68% $BNB $11.34 -3.32% $TRX $0.02 -0.9% #cryptotrading #cryptocurrencies || NEW VLOG UP! We should be happy cryptocurrency started with Bitcoin WATCH IT HERE https://youtu.be/9i0QiFPHoyI  #cryptocurrency #bitcoin #altcoins #blockchain #technologypic.twitter.com/xMPOkbz9AR || @GWR #guinnessworldrecords in photographing cryptocurrency charts in #AugmentedReality with the Vivid AR Portfolio Beta app. 16 charts in one image. $BTC $ETH $LTC $XRP $XLM $EOS $TRX $BNB $ADA $IOTA $XMR $DASH $LINK $NEO $ETC $ONTpic.twitter.com/4XhX1r3rBh || #cryptocurrency Price Analysis for #Bitsend #BSD : Last Hour Change : -0.01 % || 02-02-2019 17:00 Price in #USD : 0.0451392574 || Price in #EUR : 0.0393971376 New Price in #Bitcoin #BTC : 0.00001295 || #Coin Rank 707 || Wood
Trend: up || Prices: 4022.17, 3963.07, 3985.08, 4087.07, 4069.11, 4098.37, 4106.66, 4105.40, 4158.18, 4879.88
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-01-11] BTC Price: 777.76, BTC RSI: 36.56 Gold Price: 1195.60, Gold RSI: 62.04 Oil Price: 52.25, Oil RSI: 51.85 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] American Express is increasing its late fees: American Express (BI Intelligence) This story was delivered to BI Intelligence " Payments Briefing " subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here . American Express will be the first major credit card issuer to raise its late payment fees under the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s updated allowable limit, according to the Wall Street Journal . At the start of 2017, Amex will begin charging a fee of up to $38 to customers with more than one late payment in a six month period. That's $1 more than what was previously charged by the card issuer, but could give the firm a solid revenue boost. Late fees could prove to be very lucrative in the current card market. As credit card usage increases, it's likely the number of delinquent accounts will also grow. Credit card accounts and usage are close to pre-recession numbers once again, according to Forbes. That's leading to a big rise in usage — US credit card debt is on track to hit $1 trillion this year, according to the Wall Street Journal . That could help explain the rise in delinquent accounts — since 2013, the percentage of accounts at least 90 days delinquent six months after origination has increased, according to Forbes. Late fees could be a vital revenue source. Nearly one in five active credit-card accounts incur a late fee, according to CFPB data used by the Wall Street Journal. This is significant, considering credit card companies were able to collect roughly $10.8 billion in fees during 2015 from these late payments. And for Amex, that revenue could be critical as the issuer grapples with the loss of Costco.Based on 2015 numbers, if Amex is able to capture just 1% of the late fee market, that's roughly $100 million in revenue — a figure that could grow as the market expands following the updated allowable limit. Although this revenue could boost any card network, it could be particularly beneficial to Amex in light of the firm's sale of its Costco cobrand portfolio to Citigroup earlier this year. Story continues Costco had 11.6 million cardholders and accounted for 8% of the firm's $1 trillion global billed business in 2015. As the firm realizes the impact of the Costco sale, it is looking for additional sources of revenue. Finding a way to capitalize on growing card spend and delinquencies could be one such way among a variety of strategies. The CFPB's new guidelines could have a significant effect on the payments ecosystem, which has grown in the last several years to include merchants, issuers, acquirers, processors, and more. BI Intelligence , Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on the payments ecosystem that drills into the industry to explain how a broad range of transactions are processed, including prepaid and store cards, as well as revealing which types of companies are in the best and worst position to capitalize on the latest industry trends. Here are some key takeaways from the report: 2016 will be a watershed year for the payments industry. Payments companies are improving security, expanding their mobile offerings, and building commerce capabilities that will give consumers a more compelling reason to make purchases using digital devices. Payments is an extremely complex industry. To understand the next big digital opportunity lies, it's critical to understand how the traditional credit- and debit-processing chain works and what roles acquirers, processors, issuing banks, card networks, independent sales organizations, gateways, and software and hardware providers play. Alternative technologies could disrupt the processing ecosystem. Devices ranging from refrigerators to smartwatches now feature payment capabilities, which will spur changes in consumer payment behaviors. Likewise, blockchain technology, the protocol that underlies Bitcoin, could one day change how consumer card payments are verified. In full, the report: Uncovers the key themes and trends affecting the payments industry in 2016 and beyond. Gives a detailed description of the stakeholders involved in a payment transaction, along with hardware and software providers. Offers diagrams and infographics explaining how card transactions are processed and which players are involved in each step. Provides charts on our latest forecasts, key company growth, survey results, and more. Analyzes the alternative technologies, including blockchain, which could further disrupt the ecosystem. To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options: Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the payments ecosystem. More From Business Insider THE PAYMENTS INDUSTRY EXPLAINED: The Trends Creating New Winners And Losers In The Card-Processing Ecosystem THE DIGITAL REMITTANCE REPORT: The new platforms disrupting a $600 billion industry Credit cards are going the way of fax machines || Traders debate whether tech stocks will continue to fall: The "Fast Money" traders debated Friday whether its time to start buying opportunities in technology stocks. The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund(NYSE Arca: XLK)fell more than 2 percent in the past week, as stocks that have made huge gains this year got pummeled. For example, Nvidia(NVDA)shares fell 6 percent this week, but are still up a stunning 168 percent so far in 2016. The stronger dollar and rotation into financials and materials aren't the only things plaguing the technology sector, trader Guy Adami said. He argued that in a rising interest rate environment, the "need to own stocks with dividend yields have gone down and a lot of these tech stocks have great yields." While the sector may continue to sell off for the next couple weeks, Adami said that there are interesting opportunities in the space. He said Cisco(CSCO)would be "extraordinarily interesting" if it falls to $27.50. Adami said he would also be interested in similar moves in Nvidia and Intel(INTC). Trader Brian Kelly said investors should look at stocks with growth opportunity like Microsoft(MSFT). He said that company also has a lot of cash overseas and could benefit if Donald Trump pushes for reform, allowing for repatriation of foreign earnings. Kelly said he is also interested in Google parent Alphabet(GOOGL). Trader David Seaburg said that he likes Facebook(FB)because "it's trading at the cheapest [price-to-earnings ratio] it has since its IPO, 20 times next year's earnings." He said that "it's a stock that should be bought here." Trader Steve Grasso said that "Amazon(AMZN)is where you want to be because Amazon is going to have the growth." Disclosures: STEVE GRASSO Steve Grasso is long: BA, CC, CHK, EEM, EVGN, GDX, KBH, MJNA, MON, MU, OLN, PFE, PHM, SPY, SQ, T, TWTR. Grasso's children own: EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY. No shorts.Grasso's firm is long: VIRT, WDR, FCX, ICE, KDUS, MAT, MJNA, NE, OLN, RIG, TAXI, TITXF, WDR, ZNGA, CUBA, HSPO, ICE, MJNA, TITXF. DAVID SEABURG Opinions expressed by David Seaburg are solely his own and do not reflect the views and opinions of Cowen Group, Inc. David Seaburg and Cowen have a financial interest in EDIT. Diamond Offshore: an employee of Cowen and Company, LLC serves on the Board of Directors of Diamond Offshore. EXPE, VA – Not Approved. BRIAN KELLY Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures, CLR, silver futures, GDX, SLV. GUY ADAMI Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC. Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC • Your first trade for Friday, February 24 • Chip wreck ahead? • The downgrade that wrecked chips || Hyperledger Wraps up 2016 By Welcoming Eight New Members: SAN FRANCISCO, CA --(Marketwired - December 28, 2016) - Hyperledger Project , a collaborative cross-industry effort created to advance blockchain technology, announced today that eight new members have joined the project to help create an open standard for distributed ledgers for a new generation of transactional applications. Last month, Hyperledger announced it reached 100 active members in less than one year, a huge milestone for the open source project, hosted by The Linux Foundation. "This year has been full of growth for the project," said Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director, Hyperledger. "Not only did we exceed 100 members, Hyperledger met significant development milestones thanks to the community's hard work. As 2016 was a year of exploration, R&D and prototyping, we're excited for 2017 to be the year we start to see case studies of the technology in production environments." Hyperledger aims to enable organizations to build robust, industry-specific applications, platforms and hardware systems to support their individual business transactions by creating an enterprise grade, open source distributed ledger framework and code base. The latest members include: CA Technologies, Factom Foundation, Hashed Health, Koscom, LedgerDomain, Lykke, Sovrin Foundation and Swisscom. New Member Quotes: CA Technologies "To compete today, every company needs to foster innovation that delivers real business value. Blockchain has the potential to disrupt the way many of CA's customers do business," said Otto Berkes, chief technology officer, CA Technologies. "We're honored to be a part of Hyperledger and look forward to collaborating with other members to help shape open standards for blockchain. It's an exciting time for this because blockchain is not just about Bitcoin anymore, and the range of potential applications with it is vast for of our customers. This partnership will help us influence what that future looks like for both CA and our customers as they embark on their digital transformation journey." Story continues Factom Foundation "We are honored to have been selected to join the Hyperledger Project," said Paul Snow, Founder, Factom Foundation. "We are looking forward to helping build the open source framework for securing data and systems with our blockchain solution." Hashed Health "Hashed Health is a healthcare technology innovation company focused on accelerating the commercialization of meaningful new blockchain and distributed ledger-based technologies," said John Bass, Hashed Health CEO. "Hashed is proud to be a member of the Hyperledger Project, sharing its commitment to creating the foundation for scalable, reliable blockchain solutions." Koscom "We consider blockchain technology as the next generation infrastructure in the Korean capital market. As an industry leader with 40 years' experience in the financial IT field, we are looking to leverage this industry disruptive technology," said Chung Youn Dae, CEO, Koscom. "We will constantly explore the ways to contribute to the blockchain ecosystem, as we collaborate with the Hyperledger community. We also hope to better serve out customers in a more secure and efficient way by integrating blockchain technology and our own Fintech platform." LedgerDomain "LedgerDomain delivers next generation supply chain solutions, harnessing permissioned blockchains to assure supply chain integrity and finished product authenticity through to the consumer for the benefit of all. This highly transparent, trustworthy approach is built upon an industrial-strength Hyperledger Fabric backbone," said Dr. Victor Dods, LedgerDomain. "We're proud to be a part of Hyperledger and its growing community." Lykke "We're looking forward to being part of the Hyperledger project," said Richard Olsen, Lykke founder and CEO. "Our company is building a digital asset exchange. Right now, we're implemented on the Bitcoin blockchain settlement layer, with Ethereum to come within the next few months, but our involvement with Hyperledger isn't just the next step forward. Providing decentralized settlement on the Hyperledger blockchain with multisignature wallets and atomic swap transactions will benefit both of our user communities." Swisscom "We are very proud to be Switzerland's first connection to Hyperledger," said Johannes Höhener, VP, Swisscom's Fintech Cluster. "We look forward to working with a highly professional community on cutting-edge blockchain developments. Our membership and participation will shape our capabilities to develop blockchain solutions -- for our clients and Switzerland." The success of Hyperledger is due to the support of the developer community and member companies. Learn how your organization can contribute to the project here: https://www.hyperledger.org/about/join About Hyperledger The Hyperledger project is an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies. It is a global collaboration including leaders in finance, banking, Internet of Things, supply chains, manufacturing and Technology. The Linux Foundation hosts Hyperledger as a Collaborative Project under the foundation. To learn more, visit: www.hyperledger.org || PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Jan 10: Jan 10 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - Yahoo Inc said on Monday when its $4.8 billion deal to sell internet business to Verizon Communications Inc closes, it would rename itself "Altaba." And that more than half the company's board members - including Chief Executive Marissa Mayer - would step down.http://nyti.ms/2iyGo40 - Goldman Sachs Group Inc announced on Monday that Elisha Wiesel would become the chief information officer, taking over from Martin Chavez, a prominent executive who pushed to make Goldman more of a forward-looking technology firm.http://nyti.ms/2iyEhx2 - UnitedHealth Group Inc, one of the largest and most diversified health insurance companies in the United States, said on Monday that it planned to buy Surgical Care Affiliates Inc, a chain of outpatient surgery centers, for about $2.3 billion. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2017.http://nyti.ms/2iyHVHi - McDonald's Corp said on Monday it would sell its businesses in mainland China and Hong Kong for $2.08 billion to Citic Ltd, a state-owned conglomerate, and the Carlyle Group Lp, a private equity firm.http://nyti.ms/2jnN3hu - The company that serves as the back end for much Wall Street trading - the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, or DTCC - said on Monday it would replace one of its central databases, used by the largest banks in the world, with new software inspired by Bitcoin. The organization, based in New York, plays a role in recording and reporting nearly every stock and bond trade in the United States, as well as most valuable derivatives trades.http://nyti.ms/2jxvMqh(Compiled by Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru) || Traders debate whether tech stocks will continue to fall: The " Fast Money " traders debated Friday whether its time to start buying opportunities in technology stocks. The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE Arca: XLK) fell more than 2 percent in the past week, as stocks that have made huge gains this year got pummeled. For example, Nvidia ( NVDA ) shares fell 6 percent this week, but are still up a stunning 168 percent so far in 2016. The stronger dollar and rotation into financials and materials aren't the only things plaguing the technology sector, trader Guy Adami said. He argued that in a rising interest rate environment, the "need to own stocks with dividend yields have gone down and a lot of these tech stocks have great yields." While the sector may continue to sell off for the next couple weeks, Adami said that there are interesting opportunities in the space. He said Cisco ( CSCO ) would be "extraordinarily interesting" if it falls to $27.50. Adami said he would also be interested in similar moves in Nvidia and Intel ( INTC ) . Trader Brian Kelly said investors should look at stocks with growth opportunity like Microsoft ( MSFT ) . He said that company also has a lot of cash overseas and could benefit if Donald Trump pushes for reform, allowing for repatriation of foreign earnings. Kelly said he is also interested in Google parent Alphabet ( GOOGL ) . Trader David Seaburg said that he likes Facebook ( FB ) because "it's trading at the cheapest [price-to-earnings ratio] it has since its IPO, 20 times next year's earnings." He said that "it's a stock that should be bought here." Trader Steve Grasso said that "Amazon ( AMZN ) is where you want to be because Amazon is going to have the growth." Disclosures: STEVE GRASSO Steve Grasso is long: BA, CC, CHK, EEM, EVGN, GDX, KBH, MJNA, MON, MU, OLN, PFE, PHM, SPY, SQ, T, TWTR. Grasso's children own: EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY. No shorts. Grasso's firm is long: VIRT, WDR, FCX, ICE, KDUS, MAT, MJNA, NE, OLN, RIG, TAXI, TITXF, WDR, ZNGA, CUBA, HSPO, ICE, MJNA, TITXF. DAVID SEABURG Opinions expressed by David Seaburg are solely his own and do not reflect the views and opinions of Cowen Group, Inc. David Seaburg and Cowen have a financial interest in EDIT. Diamond Offshore: an employee of Cowen and Company, LLC serves on the Board of Directors of Diamond Offshore. EXPE, VA – Not Approved. BRIAN KELLY Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures, CLR, silver futures, GDX, SLV. GUY ADAMI Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC. Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC Your first trade for Friday, February 24 Chip wreck ahead? The downgrade that wrecked chips View comments || 7 ETF Areas to Hog the Limelight in 2017: As 2016 comes to a close, Brexit, Donald Trump’s win as the U.S. president and the OPEC output cut deal are clearly the highlights of the year. However, there are plenty of other events that haven’t been able to leave a mark but could prove to be game-changers next year. In view of this, we intend to highlight a few areas (and their impact on the ETF world) that are likely to draw investors’ attention in 2017. Oil The global investing world is expected to be busy analyzing the progress of the OPEC output cut deal since the start of 2017. On November 30, OPEC decided to slash production by about 1.2 million barrels a day from January for six months. Plus, on December 10, OPEC also cut their first deal with non-OPEC since 2001 to reduce output next year. The pact will likely result in “an aggregate supply cut of 1.7 million barrels a day.” Some analysts like Goldman now believe that oil can scale higher to about $60 early next year from the current $50 plus level. However, there are people who expect the deal to be not as effective as it seems now. Even if OPEC manages to be true to the deal, U.S. shale oil production will likely gain traction, bringing back oversupply into the market and weighing on oil prices. All these should keep oil ETFs like United States Oil USO, Brent crude ETF United States Brent Oil BNO and energy ETFs like Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF XLE on investors radar (read: How Effective is the OPEC Deal for an Oil ETF Rally?) Trump vs Fed Trump has raised hopes of fiscal reflation and taken stocks to a new height. If he keeps all his promises after taking presidential office and inflationary expectations continue to surge, the Fed might be able to implement the three forecasted rate hikes in 2017 (read: Sole Fed Hike of 2016 Put These ETFs in Focus). And if the Fed opts for faster rate hikes next year, bond ETFs like iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond TLT and dividend ETFs like SPDR S&P Dividend ETF SDY may face pressure. Meanwhile, ProShares High Yield—Interest Rate Hedged ETF HYHG or inverse bond ETFs like Barclays Inverse US Treasury Aggregate ETN TAPR are poised to benefit (read: Hedged & Inverse Bond ETFs to the Rescue if Rates Rise). Story continues Global Inflation Inflationary outlook is finally shoring up in developed economies, albeit slowly. Prolonged easy money policies by global central banks, the OPEC move and the Trump effect made it happen. Expectations of a spurt in global inflation are now at the highest level in over 12 years. Global TIPS ETF – PIMCO Global Advantage Inflation-Linked Bond Active ETF ILB – w ill thus be on the watch list of investors (read: Will 2017 Be a Year of Global Reflation & TIPS ETFs?). Commodity Now that’s tricky! If the greenback retains its strength, commodity investing should take a backseat as these are priced in the U.S. dollar. However, several industrial metals should do well on better demand-supply dynamics. This is especially possible given the recovery in the global manufacturing activities including the all-important China, which consumes a major portion of the global industrial metals. So, ETFs like iPath Pure Beta Aluminum ETN FOIL, iPath Pure Beta Copper ETN CUPM and iPath Bloomberg Tin SubTR ETN JJT will likely grab the spotlight. Cyber Security Cyber security breaches are on the rise of late. This has compelled companies to invest billions of dollars annually to counter such attacks. Most recently, the hack on Yahoo which revealed data from over 1 billion accounts once again stressed on the need for cybersecurity and has put First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF CIBR and PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF HACK in focus. India India’s pro-growth political changes in 2014 had shaped it into a hot investing zone. Most economic episodes also went in favor of Asia’s third-largest economy, including a drastic fall in inflation arising from the oil price crash and an improvement in current account deficit. Moreover, due to cooling inflation, the Indian central bank (RBI) resorted to rate cuts several times in the last one and a half years. However, most recently, in order to put a check on tax evasion and counterfeit notes, high-denomination bank notes were withdrawn in India. This resulted in cash crunch and growth forecast cuts by some analysts. Fitch rating reduced India’s GDP forecast to 6.9% from the prior estimate of 7.4% for the current financial year. But then, Moody's indicated that Indian companies will likely witness “the strongest profit growth over 18 months.” Now it would be interesting to see if India ETFs like WisdomTree India Earnings ETF EPI can survive the threats from demonetization in 2017 (read: What Lies Ahead for India ETFs?). Bitcoin Even if we are yet to have a bitcoin ETF, one is expected to hit the market in 2017. Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust has filed for one to make it easy for investors to bet on this soaring digital currency. As per CNBC, “bitcoin is a very volatile asset” but doesn’t have a strong correlation with other classes. Bitcoin’s value has beaten the $800 mark for the first time since February 2014. India's demonetization also gave a boost to bitcoin trading volumes. Moreover, trading volumes in China have been solid with the government taking proactive measures against illegal money transfer. With this, investors expect to see an approval of the first bitcoin ETF in 2017. Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox? Zacks’ free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing ETFs, each week. Get it free >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report ISHARS-20+YTB (TLT): ETF Research Reports US-OIL FUND LP (USO): ETF Research Reports PURFDS-ISE CYBR (HACK): ETF Research Reports US BRENT OIL FD (BNO): ETF Research Reports SPDR-EGY SELS (XLE): ETF Research Reports PIMCO-GA ILBETF (ILB): ETF Research Reports IPATH-PB ALUMNM (FOIL): ETF Research Reports SPDR-SP DIV ETF (SDY): ETF Research Reports IPATH-BB TIN (JJT): ETF Research Reports FT-NDQ CYBERSEC (CIBR): ETF Research Reports BARCLY-INV USTC (TAPR): ETF Research Reports WISDMTR-IN EARN (EPI): ETF Research Reports IPATH-PB COPPER (CUPM): ETF Research Reports PRO-HI YLD IRH (HYHG): ETF Research Reports To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report || Big China bitcoin exchange says no government pressure on outflows: By John Ruwitch SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The head of a major bitcoin exchange in China says few people there use the cryptocurrency to get around rules on how much money they can take out of the country, and despite a publicized meeting with the central bank last week the exchange, BTCC, hasn't been told explicitly to check capital outflows. Bitcoin's price took a steep dive on Friday after China's central bank cautioned investors to take a rational and careful approach to investing in the digital currency. The price had surged to record highs. The central bank's comments come as Beijing escalates a campaign to check capital outflows and slow the depreciation of the yuan currency <CNY=CFXS>, which lost nearly 7 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar last year. With bitcoin's soaring price and the relative anonymity it affords, some believe the digital currency was becoming an attractive option for tech-savvy Chinese to hedge against the yuan and circumvent rules that limit individuals to $50,000 of foreign exchange each year. The Shanghai office of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said on Friday it had met with BTCC to understand the platform's operations, highlight the risks, remind the exchange to abide by the law, and "urge the platform to carry out self-examination and corresponding clean-up and rectification" according to law. Asked if BTCC had received direct pressure on outflows, CEO Bobby Lee, who founded BTCC in 2011, said: "No. Not as of yet... Nothing verbal or written to us." In Beijing, the PBOC told two of China's other big bitcoin exchanges, Huobi and OKCoin, not to mention the depreciating yuan when advertising their platforms, the influential news outlet Caixin said, citing people familiar with the meeting. Star Xu, CEO and founder of OKCoin, confirmed there had been a meeting of the PBOC and leading bitcoin exchanges on Friday to discuss the operation of trading platforms. Story continues "The industry can benefit from balanced, risk-based regulation and/or oversight, and we look forward to further constructive discussions with the regulators and industry participants," Xu told Reuters in an emailed comment. Huobi's chief operating officer Zhu Jiawei said in an emailed response to Reuters queries that Huobi plans to work with other bitcoin firms to establish an alliance and rules to self-govern the industry. While it's possible to buy bitcoin with yuan and then sell it abroad for a foreign currency, BTCC's Lee said "to be honest, not many" people were doing it because of the cost. The renminbi price of bitcoin carries a premium to the price in other currencies, he noted. In addition, buy or sell orders in the 100,000 yuan ($14,423) to 1 million yuan ($144,233) range, and up, would influence the bitcoin spot price and affect the transaction. "For that range, you're not going to be able to do it at a good rate. You're going to lose 10 percent of your money," Lee said. "Maybe the individual household might buy 20,000 more dollars worth of bitcoin than their $50,000 (forex) quota, but that's a drop in the bucket." Still, Lee said various indicators, like active trading accounts, new users, actual deposits and withdrawals, were "very active" in China, and some key BTCC metrics were at "all-time highs", though he declined to be more specific. NOT LEGAL TENDER Bitcoin is not regulated in China, but the PBOC has declared it is not legal tender, and is instead a "virtual good", Lee said. That puts it in the same category as other goods. "If I pack a suitcase and take a plane to the United States, do the clothes, does the computer in my suitcase, does the watch I wear count towards capital flight?" he said. "Where do you draw the line?" He said no new or planned rules regarding bitcoin were discussed in the latest meeting with the PBOC, and he estimates it will be two to three years before China regulates bitcoin. In a statement on its website, BTCC, which calls itself the world's longest running bitcoin exchange, said it regularly meets with the PBOC and "work(s) closely with them to ensure that we are operating in accordance with the laws and regulations of China." Exchanges in China say they account for more than 90 percent of global bitcoin trading, which would help explain why a shift in Chinese demand would sharply affect the price. But many bitcoin experts say Chinese exchanges overstate their volumes in the digital currency, and attribute sharp moves to speculation by, for example, U.S.-based hedge funds. (Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Ian Geoghegan) || Hackers Refining Tools For Attacking Banks: A letter from the Swift network to member banks warns hackers are refining their cyberattack tools and the global bank transfer system remains vulnerable. Reuters reported Monday the letter, dated Nov. 2, warned the threat “is very persistent, adaptive and sophisticated — and it is here to stay.” Reuters said the letter is evidence the Belgium-based cooperative — Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication — remains vulnerable a year after $81 million was stolen from Bangladesh’s central bank. Among the tactics now being used by hackers is software allowing technicians access to computers for technical support. "We unfortunately continue to see cases in which some of our customers’ environments are being compromised," the letter said, noting a “meaningful” number of attacks have been made on both central and commercial banks, and 20 percent of them have resulted in stolen funds. Bangladeshi officials told Reuters several central bank officials enabled the theft, which was the result of malware inserted into the bank’s system. Bitcoin News Service reported the central bank has managed to recoup a portion of the stolen funds from a casino in the Philippines. Investigators determined the money was sold on the black market to a foreign exchange broker who transferred the funds to three casinos. A Philippines court ordered the Solaire Resort and casino to surrender the money to Bangladesh. Some $10 million was handed over. A commercial bank in Ecuador said it was held up for $12 million last year. In Vietnam thieves tried and failed to make off with $1.1 million in what investigators said may have been a practice run for the attack on Bangladesh. Russia security services warned earlier this month that foreign spy agencies were preparing attacks on Russian banks in dozens of cities to destabilize “the financial system of the Russian Federation.” The Federal Security Bureau didn’t specify who was preparing the attack. Related Articles After Hacks, Banks Push Swift To Boost Security New York Governor Issues Cybersecurity Proposal || Gartman: Bitcoin Is Nearly Incomprehensible At This Point: After skyrocketing 43.7 percent in the final two weeks of 2016, the Bitcoin Investment Trust (OTC: GBTC ) has made a sharp reversal in the past two days. On Thursday, the ETF plummeted 11.6 percent . In early Friday trading, the GBTC is down another 7.7 percent. According to Dennis Gartman , author of The Gartman Letter, a Bitcoin selloff was inevitable. Gartman says the recent runup in Bitcoin came from Indian and Chinese citizens rushing into the currency to avoid weakness in their native denominations. “These sorts of things always...ALWAYS...end badly and they ended yesterday amidst early buying panic and then even greater panic selling,” Gartman writes. Gartman adds that he hasn’t ever seen anything like the trading action in Bitcoin in the past 48 hours. He predicts that the panic-selling is not yet over and Bitcoin investors could be staring at significantly more downside in coming days. He also hints that the complexity of Bitcoin’s technology may be scaring off potential investors. “Bitcoin may be the currency of the future but quite honestly we find it quite nearly incomprehensible at this point,” Gartman concluded. The GBTC ETF was up roughly 90 percent in 2016. A new big-board-listed Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF could be launched sometime in 2017. See more from Benzinga How Did Bitcoin Perform This Year? © 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || STOCKS GO NOWHERE: Here's what you need to know: (Scott Olson/Getty Images) Stocks did virtually nothing as skeleton crews returned after the Christmas holiday. All of the major indices managed to scrape into the green, but still finished little changed. The Nasdaq closed at an all-time high. And now, for the scoreboard: • Dow:19,945.04, +11.23, (0.06%) • S&P 500:2,268.88, +5.09, (0.22%) • Nasdaq:5,487.44, +24.75, (0.45%) • US 10-year yield:+2.4 basis points at 2.561% 1.Bitcoin soars. The cryptocurrency rallied 4% to $935, its best level in three years. Bitcoin has gained about 30% since the US election. 2.Consumer confidence jumps to its best level since August 2001. Monthly data released by the Conference Board showed the Consumer Confidence Index hit 113.7 in December, its highest level since July 2007. Increasing expectations for the future were the sole reason for the move. 3.US home prices hit a post-financial crisis high. Home prices gained 5.6% annually in October, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index. The biggest gains were seen in Seattle, Denver, and Portland. ADDITIONALLY: The most important driver of the stock market will change in 2017 Bailing out the world's oldest bank is getting more expensive Vietnam could be 'sowing the seeds of the next crisis 'The market will correctly judge his administration on policy, not 3 a.m. tweets' The Fed has given Trump cover to unwind a key Wall Street rule NOW WATCH:Watch Yellen explain why the Federal Reserve decides to raise rates More From Business Insider • 'Star Wars' actress Carrie Fisher is dead at 60 • The death of Queen Elizabeth will be the most disruptive event in Britain in the last 70 years • STOCKS DO NOTHING: Here's what you need to know [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Overstock Begins Trading Its Shares Via the Bitcoin Blockchain http://fb.me/1jopwsBJX  || MMMBTC || MMMBTC || 5 Top Virtual Currencies Other than Bitcoin – GroundReport: A decentralized currency system… https://goo.gl/fb/yBHnTr  || Send 1.0 - 4.9 BTC today, get 20.00 - 98.00 BTC in 20 hours,earn hyip profits. http://ow.ly/fsGb3070BJ9  || MMMBTC || BLOCKCHAINの統計データよりビットコインの『ウォレット数』をピックアップしました。 世界中でどれだけウォレット(財布)が作られたかが分かります。 その数『800万以上』 その勢いはまだまだ加速してます。https://blockchain.info/ja/charts/my-wallet-n-users?timespan=all … || インドのATM事情についての記事です。 調査したATMの内「1/3は稼働してない」そうです。 その理由からお国事情が垣間見れて面白いですね。 『使えるのが当たり前』な日本では考えられません！https://zuuonline.com/archives/108524  || MMMBTC || ビットコイン支える技術「ブロックチェーン」に世界中の金融機関が本腰 http://zuuonline.com/archives/82380  @zuu_onlineさんから #bitcoin #blockchain
Trend: up || Prices: 804.83, 823.98, 818.41, 821.80, 831.53, 907.94, 886.62, 899.07, 895.03, 921.79
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-06-05] BTC Price: 2686.81, BTC RSI: 74.50 Gold Price: 1279.30, Gold RSI: 63.69 Oil Price: 47.40, Oil RSI: 40.40 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Coinbase suffers outages amid bitcoin surge: (Reuters) - Coinbase said on Thursday it suffered outages this week as the bitcoin exchange saw "unprecedented traffic and trading," with the digital currency hitting record levels. Bitcoin fell as much as 6.5 percent to $2,263.72 at around 1730 GMT on Thursday, but rebounded shortly after to hit a fresh all-time high of $2,760.10. Bitcoin hit a record on the BitStamp platform on Wednesday, driven by an uptick in demand for crypto-assets, with the creation of new tokens to raise funding for start-ups using blockchain, the underlying technology behind bitcoin. So far this year, the price of bitcoin has more than doubled. Coinbase, the world's largest bitcoin company with operations in 32 countries, said the heavy traffic had caused outages at its website as well. The exchange said it was working to resolve the issues. Problems that Coinbase's platform experienced earlier this week, including card verification failures and slow load times, were resolved, its status page showed. (Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar) || Bitcoin: Is It a Bubble or a Strong Buy?: Bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, has soared more than 100% in the last two months. The once-mysterious investment is now being taken very seriously by Wall Street, and many are starting to wonder whether a bitcoin bubble is about to burst. Last week, bitcoin hit an all-time high, only to suddenly drop nearly 20% over the next two days. Just today, bitcoin moved about 5% higher. For those familiar with the digital currency, these types of swings are no surprise—it is the nature of the cryptocurrency beast (also read: Explaining Bitcoin and Crypto Currency). But some are more hesitant to write these sharp moves off as minor blimps. TakeBloomberg’s Cory Johnson, for example. Speaking about the recent price action on bitcoin, Johnson warned about the speculative nature of the currency’s valuation. “While the long term value of bitcoin may be in the eye of the beholder, the volatility is really in the eye of the speculator,” Johnson said. Johnson also pointed out that, like the finite resource of golf, part of bitcoin’s current appeal is that it is designed to eventually run out. Bitcoin production is supposed to be capped at 21 million, and there are already more 16 million bitcoins in circulation. However, as more and more people attempt to “mine” new bitcoins, the process becomes more difficult. Bitcoin is not expected to hit its cap until 2140. Of course, some are far more bullish on bitcoin. In fact, Saxo Bank analyst Kay Van-Petersen, who accurately predicted that bitcoin would hit $2,000 this year, recently said that the cryptocurrency could be worth a staggering $100,000 in ten years. Investors will almost certainly not find that kind of return anywhere else. Want more stock market analysis from this author? Make sure to follow @Ryan_McQueeneyon Twitter! More Stock News: 8 Companies Verge on Apple-Like Run Did you miss Apple's 9X stock explosion after they launched their iPhone in 2007? Now 2017 looks to be a pivotal year to get in on another emerging technology expected to rock the market. Demand could soar from almost nothing to $42 billion by 2025. Reports suggest it could save 10 million lives per decade, which could in turn save $200 billion in U.S. healthcare costs. A bonus Zacks Special Report names this breakthrough and the 8 best stocks to exploit it. Like Apple in 2007, these companies are already strong and coiling for potential mega-gains.Click to see them right now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || Bitcoin Wallets Under Siege From 'Large Collider' Attack: A group called the “Large Bitcoin Collider” claims it can smash open bitcoin wallets by using a so-called brute force attack, which directs mass amounts of computer power at individual wallets in order to guess their private keys. The project, which has been underway for months, relies on a distributed network of computers (similar to bitcoin itself), and invites anyone to participate-those who do could potentially share in the proceeds of the wallets cracked open. A “trophy list” on the home page of Collider (an apparent reference to the Hadron Collider ) suggests the group has successfully opened over a dozen wallets, though only three had any bitcoin in them. It’s unclear if the group is motivated by financial gain or the cryptographic challenge of smashing wallets-the answer is probably both based on the site’s webpage and outside observers. A Q&A list on the Collider’s website says robbing even a tiny amount from non-profit group like the Internet archive “would make you an unconditional jerk.” But it also suggests other wallets are fair game, and that proceeds would be divvied up among the Collider participants. Meanwhile, others think the wallet-smashing endeavor is a fool’s errand, according to Motherboard , which first reported on the Large Bitcoin Collider. In this view, the project is too hard and the rewards too low and infrequent (as this Reddit commenter explains ) to pay off. But some speculate the goal of the project is not to rob a whole lot of wallets, but instead to strike a mother lode from a long-lost wallet from bitcoin’s early days: “About 10% of Bitcoins were created early, before 2012, and have never been traded. If somebody ever finds the key of the early lost Bitcoins, they’ll have a huge payoff, over a billion dollars. Speculation is that either “Satoshi Nakamoto”, whoever he is, is holding onto them for a big payoff, or somebody lost the private key for all those early Bitcoins. As the years go on, the second explanation seems more likely,” said the top comment on the site Hacker News . Story continues Get Data Sheet , Fortune s technology newsletter. As for the process of cracking open wallets, it involves the laborious task of creating private keys-which are dozens of characters in length-and trying them against existing bitcoin addresses. The Collider has so far created and checked 3,000 trillion private keys, a researcher told Motherboard. As for the legality of all this, it’s unclear. On one hand, the law is pretty clear that you are not supposed to join a conspiracy in order to rob people. But on the other hand, as the group’s website points out, “It is not illegal to search for colliding private keys.” For bitcoin owners, the risk of the Large Bitcoin Collider performing a stick-up on your private wallet is pretty tiny for now. But if the process also results in someone creating a collision for bitcoin’s general hashing algorithm-as happened with the longtime crypographic standard SHA-1 (cracked by Google this year)-that would spell a lot more trouble, though as one reader points out , bitcoin’s encryption algorithm can be upgraded. This article was originally published on FORTUNE.com || Young Footballers from Antigua and Trinidad emerge as winners of Flow Ultimate Football Experience: PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD--(Marketwired - May 11, 2017) - Thirteen-year-old Ronaldo Flowers of Antigua and 16-year-old Che Benny of Trinidad and Tobago will gain the ultimate football experience as they head to Old Trafford in Manchester, UK to see Manchester United play against Crystal Palace on May 21. The young footballers won the trip after reaching the final round of the Flow Ultimate Football Experience which was hosted by Flow and the Manchester United Football Club in Trinidad. The event, which took place recently, was the culmination of a series of competitions across Flow's 15 markets throughout the Caribbean. The finals at President's Grounds, St Ann's saw two young footballers from each country vying for the coveted prize. Among the 30 participants, 15 countries were represented -- Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cayman, Curacao, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St. Vincent & Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Turks & Caicos. The players were also each accompanied by a parent or guardian and their coach. They participated in a two-day skills session with one-on-one training with Manchester United Soccer School Coaches (MUSS), Head Coach Mike Neary and Billy Miller. This is the second year of collaboration between Flow and MUSS. Through the Flow Ultimate Football Experience, the two partners gave the young athletes a greater opportunity at success and brought the region closer to one of their favourite sports. Ronaldo Flowers has been given the nickname 'Flower Power' on the field. Originally from Jamaica but lives in Antigua, Flowers was named after the famous footballer. The youngster has been playing the game for the past four years and has in his vision to become a professional player. He plays central attack and midfield positions, which allow him to do what he likes best, score goals. "It felt like a dream coming true," Flowers said following the announcement. "The challenge was very difficult because there were other talented players but I played hard." Story continues Che Benny has been playing football since the age of five when his uncle took him to see St Ann's Rangers -- the team with which he still plays. Team coach Everett Williams, who was also present at the weekend challenge, says Benny was born with a natural talent. He was happy Benny received the exposure playing with other footballers in the Caribbean. "I stepped up to the plate," Benny said after winning the award. He also hopes to meet his favourite footballer, the Red Devils' midfielder Juan Mata when he visits Manchester. Young Benny also said "football is my passion, I eat, sleep and dream about football and playing the sport professionally." Flowers and Benny, along with their coaches, will travel to the world-famous football stadium to see Manchester United's final Premier League game of the season against Crystal Palace. This VIP experience will also include a visit to the Manchester United Museum and Tour, taking in the history of the club followed by a tour of the iconic stadium. The two winners received their trophies from top officials present on the stage including Trinidad and Tobago Sports Ambassador and former Manchester United player, Dwight Yorke and Trinidad's Minister of Sport, Hon. Daryll Williams. Minister Williams thanked Flow in his remarks for providing this kind of opportunity for young footballers in the region. Minister Williams reflected "I looked up to Dwight Yorke when I was a young footballer as being an inspiration for Caribbean players however there were no such opportunities like this one from Flow and Manchester United. Through this Flow Ultimate Football Experience you youngsters now have access to some of the best coaches and players in the world of football." "I am pleased for them both!" said a very proud Wendy McDonald, Flow's Senior Director of Communications for the Caribbean, "This is a-once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and definitely the "ultimate football experience" that these two young footballers have been given through Flow's partnership with Manchester United. We will continue to follow their journey to Manchester and we hope this will encourage even more aspiring footballers from the Caribbean to be ready for opportunities like this." About C&W Communications C&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more at www.cwc.com , or follow C&W on LinkedIn , Facebook or Twitter . About Liberty Global Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enable us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 25 million customers who subscribe to over 50 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve over 10 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across 6 million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group ( NASDAQ : LBTYA ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYB ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYK ) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group ( NASDAQ : LILA ) and ( NASDAQ : LILAK ) ( OTC PINK : LILAB ), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 11 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The Liberty Global Group also owns 50% of VodafoneZiggo, a Dutch joint venture, which has 4 million customers, 10 million fixed-line subscribers and 5 million mobile subscribers. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Más Móvil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a sub-sea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visit www.libertyglobal.com Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3138743 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3138746 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3138749 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3138752 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3138755 || Bitcoin options exchange raises $11.4 million in funding: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ledger Holdings, the New York-based parent company of bitcoin options exchange LedgerX, said on Monday it closed $11.4 million in funding led by Miami International Holdings Inc and China's Huiyin Blockchain Venture Investments. The funding supports LedgerX's plan to operate a regulated exchange and clearing house for bitcoin and other digital currencies. LedgerX is awaiting regulatory approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to operate the first U.S. regulated exchange and clearing house for bitcoin options. On approval, participating institutions can use the LedgerX platform to obtain and hedge bitcoin using exchange-traded and centrally cleared options contracts. "In the short term, these investments will further our application to become a regulated exchange and clearing house for bitcoin options," Paul Chou, chief executive officer of LedgerX LLC, said in a statement. "In the long term, these strategic investors will help us enter additional marketplaces and territories," he added. Chou sits on the CFTC's Technology Advisory Committee. Miami International Holdings is the parent company of Miami International Securities Exchange LLC and MIAX PEARL LLC, two fully electronic options trading exchanges. MIAX Options lists and trades options on more than 2,600 multi-listed classes. Huiyin Blockchain Venture is a subsidiary of investment conglomerate Huiyin Group. LedgerX earlier raised $1.5 million from funders led by Google Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Bitcoin is a virtual currency that can be moved like money around the world quickly and anonymously without the need for a central authority. It hit a record high over the weekend, with one unit of bitcoin trading above $2,000 on the BitStamp platform (BTC=BTSP). (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Peter Cooney) || 10 things you need to know before the opening bell: North Korea missile launch (People watch a TV broadcasting of a news report on North Korea's missile launch, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea.Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji) Here is what you need to know. Congress has a budget deal . The deal, which has bi-partisan support, will fund the government through September 30, Reuters says. It must still be approved by both the House and the Senate. China's manufacturing slows . China's manufacturing PMI slowed to 51.2 in April, its weakest in six months, Reuters says, citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics. The latest French election poll shows Macron with a comfortable lead . Centrist Emmanuel Macron holds a 61% to 39% lead over far-right candidate Marine Le Len, according to a tweet by Bloomberg Paris Bureau Chief Geraldine Amiel, citing an Opinionway poll released on Monday. Macau gaming revenue jumps . Revenue jumped 16.3% to 20.2 billion patacas ($2.52 billion), coming in at the upper range of the 13% to 17% growth that analysts were expecting, Reuters says. Bitcoin soars to an all-time high. The cryptocurrency hit an all-time high of $1,422.68 a coin early Monday. Currently, it's up $49, or 3.8%, near $1,354 a coin. Bloomberg and Twitter are teaming up for a streaming news . The two companies have hammered out a deal for a 24 hours a day, seven days a week, streaming news service that will be broadcast on Twitter, the Wall Street Journal reports. 21st Century Fox and Blackstone are reportedly trying to team up to buy Tribune . Details of the attempted bid, which was first reported by the Financial Times, are unknown. Stock markets around much of the world are closed for Labor Day . The S&P 500 is set to open down 0.2% near 2,384. Earnings reports flow. Dish and Loews report ahead of the opening bell while AMD and Texas Roadhouse are among the names releasing their quarterly results after market close. US economic data is moderate. Personal income and spending will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET before Markit US manufacturing and ISM manufacturing cross the wires at 9:45 a.m. ET and 10 a.m. ET, respectively. The US 10-year yield is up 2 basis points at 2.30%. More From Business Insider Tesla just delayed the roll-out of its solar roof — here's everything we know about the project so far Montel Williams reveals how smoking marijuana every day for 17 years changed his life Verizon and AT&T both launched misleading services this week — and it points to a larger problem View comments || Bitcoin blew past its record and soared to $2,800 in just a few hours — and now it's plunging: (Investing.com) Thebitcoinrally looks like it's finally running out of steam.The cryptocurrency blew past $2,500 and nearly touched $2,800 for the first time on Thursday, before giving all the gains back. It hit a high of $2,799, up $360, before surrendering its gains. The cryptocurrency is now trading down 9.2% at $2,230 a coin. It has gained in 26 of the past 29 sessions, tacking on more than 107% over that time. Bitcoin had climbed as much as 25% since Tuesday's close, propelled by news that the Digital Currency Group, representing 56 companies in 21 countries, reached ascaling agreementat the Consensus 2017 conference in New York. The announcement was the latest bit of good news for the cryptocurrency. In early April, Japan announced bitcoin had become alegal payment methodin the country. Additionally, Ulmart, Russia's largest online retailer, said it wouldbegin accepting bitcoineven though Russia had said it wouldn't explore the cryptocurrency until 2018. But the market is still waiting on a ruling by the US Securities and Exchange Commission on whether it will overturn itsdecision on the Winklevoss twins' bitcoin-exchange-traded fund. The SEC was accepting public comment on that decision until May 15, but it hasn't announced whether it will overturn its rejection of the ETF. Bitcoin has gained 141% this year. WatchTV shows, movies and more onYahoo View, available oniOSandAndroid. NOW WATCH:Here's how to use one of the many apps to buy and trade bitcoinMore From Business Insider • Bitcoin plunges and then recovers • Bitcoin blows past $2,000, $2,100, and $2,200 for the first time • Bitcoin surges past $1,900 for the first time || Bitcoin exchange Coinbase seeks new funds at $1 billion valuation: Wall Street Journal: (Reuters) - Bitcoin exchange Coinbase Inc is in talks with potential investors on a new round of funding at a valuation of more than $1 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. It is not clear which investors are committing to the round, which was described as targeting around $100 million or more, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. (http://on.wsj.com/2rtMkk8) That would represent the biggest funding round on record for venture-backed bitcoin companies, the report said. A Coinbase spokesman declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Coinbase, the world's largest bitcoin company, has seen heavy traffic and trading on its platform in recent weeks as bitcoin reached all-time highs. Demand for crypto-assets has soared with the creation of new tokens to raise funding for start-ups using blockchain technology. Coinbase said in January it raised $75 million from several major financial institutions including the New York Stock Exchange, USAA Bank and Spanish banking group BBVA. (http://reut.rs/2qKUcRm) Earlier this year, Coinbase received a virtual currency and money transmitter license from the New York Department of Financial Services. (Reporting by Bhanu Pratap in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar) || The first investor in Snapchat thinks each bitcoin could realistically be worth $500,000 by 2030 — Here's how: (Jeremy Liew.Getty) Bitcoin has been thetop-performing currencyin the world in six of the past seven years, climbing from zero to a value of about $1,190. But the cryptocurrency isn't anywhere close to its potential, according toJeremy Liew,the first investor in Snapchat, and Blockchain CEO and cofounder Peter Smith.In a presentation sent to Business Insider, the duo laid out their case for why it's reasonable for bitcoin to explode to $500,000 by 2030. Their argument is based on increased interest in bitcoin, thanks to: Bitcoin-based remittances Remittance transfers, or electronic money transfers to foreign countries, havealmost doubled over the past 15 yearsto 0.76% of GDP, data from The World Bank shows. "Expats sending money home have found in Bitcoin an inexpensive alternative, and we assume that the percentage of Bitcoin-based remittances will sharply increase with greater Bitcoin awareness," the two say. Uncertainty Liew and Smith said increased political uncertainty in the UK, US and in developing nations would help elevate the level of interest in bitcoin. "We believe Bitcoin awareness, high liquidity, ease of transport and continued market outperformance as geopolitical risks mount, will make Bitcoin a strong contender for investment at a consumer and investor level," the two said. Mobile penetration Liew and Smith believe the percentage of non-cash transactions will climb from 15% to 30% in the next 10 years as the world becomes more connected through smartphones. There's only a 63% global smartphone penetration and the total number of smartphone users is expected to soar by 1 billion by 2020. GSMA,a trade body that represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, believes90% of these userswill come from developing countries. This will make it possible for nearly everyone to have a bank in their pocket, and that should provide a boost for bitcoin as well. Liew and Smith say bitcoin could account for 50% of all of these transactions. Here are the basic model drivers that Liew and Smith used: 1. A bitcoin price of $1,000 in 2017. 2. That network users will grow 61x from now until 2030."Put another way, we need a population of bitcoin users around a quarter of the Chinese population (or 5% of the global population) in 2030 to see bitcoin at $500k," Liew and Smith told Business Insider. Bitcoin's user network grew from 120,000 users in 2013 to 6.5 million users in 2017, or about 54x, and this could be just the beginning. Growth of that magnitude would produce 400 million users in 2030. 3. The average value of bitcoin held per user hits $25,000. "As institutional investor cash in Bitcoin, sophisticated investors trading Bitcoin, and Bitcoin-based ETFs proliferate, we think the average Bitcoin value held will increase to around $25k per Bitcoin holder," Liew and Smith said. Currently, with a market cap of $16.4 billion, and 6.5 million user count, the average user holds $2,515 worth of bitcoin. 4. Bitcoin's 2030 market capis decided by number of bitcoin holders multiplied by average bitcoin value held. 5. Bitcoin's 2030 supply will be about 20 million. 6. Bitcoin's 2030 price and user count total $500,000 and 400 million, respectively.The price is found by taking the $10 trillion market cap and dividing it by the fixed supply of 20 million bitcoin. It's important to note that a lot could go wrong, too. News surrounding bitcoin has been rather negative as of a late. China, which is responsible for nearly 100% of trading in bitcoin, has beencracking downon trading. The three biggest exchanges recently announced a 0.2% fee on all transactions, in addition toblocking withdrawalsfrom trading accounts. Additionally, the US Securities and Exchange Commission rejected two bitcoin exchange-traded funds, and will make a ruling on another one in the future. It's not expected to be approved. However, Smith thinks bitcoin is still in its early stages. "The SEC’s ruling wasn't a surprise to us," he told Business Insider. "We know that getting this sort of approval is going to take (a potentially long) time," Smith said. "In the meantime, bitcoin is already simple to buy and hold and, as the asset continues to mature,we'll continue to see an increase in the development and deployment of surrounding products." (Markets Insider) And while bitcoin hasn't been granted regulatory approval here in the US, it is catching on elsewhere. On April 1, the cryptocurrency became alegal payment method in Japan. Another threat to the future of the cryptocurrency is that developers arethreatening to set up a "hard fork," or alternative marketplace for bitcoin. This would result in the split of bitcoin into bitcoin and bitcoin unlimited. However, Smith says not to worry. "Bitcoin has strong economic incentives to prevent this," he said. "If the last two years of healthy contention and debate lead to a conclusion, it's that Bitcoin is incredibly resilient and stable. In fact, the bitcoin Blockchain has operated for 7+ years with no downtime, a feat no other back-end system operating at this scale can claim." Anyone interested in bitcoin should also know that the cryptocurrency sees violent price swings that are uncommon among the more traditional currencies. Bitcoin rallied 20% in the first week of 2017 before crashing 35% on word China was cracking down on trading. The cryptocurrency has regained those losses, and trades up about 25% so far this year. NOW WATCH:Warner Bros. might have to pay $900 million if it can't prove ghosts are real More From Business Insider • HBO just unveiled a peek at 15 new character looks for 'Game of Thrones' season 7 • If you're new to coding, this is the programming language you should learn first • Bitcoin spikes after Japan says it's a legal payment method || Young Footballers from Antigua and Trinidad emerge as winners of Flow Ultimate Football Experience: PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD--(Marketwired - May 11, 2017) - Thirteen-year-old Ronaldo Flowers of Antigua and 16-year-old Che Benny of Trinidad and Tobago will gain the ultimate football experience as they head to Old Trafford in Manchester, UK to see Manchester United play against Crystal Palace on May 21. The young footballers won the trip after reaching the final round of the Flow Ultimate Football Experience which was hosted by Flow and the Manchester United Football Club in Trinidad. The event, which took place recently, was the culmination of a series of competitions across Flow's 15 markets throughout the Caribbean. The finals at President's Grounds, St Ann's saw two young footballers from each country vying for the coveted prize. Among the 30 participants, 15 countries were represented -- Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cayman, Curacao, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St. Vincent & Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Turks & Caicos. The players were also each accompanied by a parent or guardian and their coach. They participated in a two-day skills session with one-on-one training with Manchester United Soccer School Coaches (MUSS), Head Coach Mike Neary and Billy Miller. This is the second year of collaboration between Flow and MUSS. Through the Flow Ultimate Football Experience, the two partners gave the young athletes a greater opportunity at success and brought the region closer to one of their favourite sports. Ronaldo Flowers has been given the nickname 'Flower Power' on the field. Originally from Jamaica but lives in Antigua, Flowers was named after the famous footballer. The youngster has been playing the game for the past four years and has in his vision to become a professional player. He plays central attack and midfield positions, which allow him to do what he likes best, score goals. "It felt like a dream coming true," Flowers said following the announcement. "The challenge was very difficult because there were other talented players but I played hard." Che Benny has been playing football since the age of five when his uncle took him to see St Ann's Rangers -- the team with which he still plays. Team coach Everett Williams, who was also present at the weekend challenge, says Benny was born with a natural talent. He was happy Benny received the exposure playing with other footballers in the Caribbean. "I stepped up to the plate," Benny said after winning the award. He also hopes to meet his favourite footballer, the Red Devils' midfielder Juan Mata when he visits Manchester. Young Benny also said "football is my passion, I eat, sleep and dream about football and playing the sport professionally." Flowers and Benny, along with their coaches, will travel to the world-famous football stadium to see Manchester United's final Premier League game of the season against Crystal Palace. This VIP experience will also include a visit to the Manchester United Museum and Tour, taking in the history of the club followed by a tour of the iconic stadium. The two winners received their trophies from top officials present on the stage including Trinidad and Tobago Sports Ambassador and former Manchester United player, Dwight Yorke and Trinidad's Minister of Sport, Hon. Daryll Williams. Minister Williams thanked Flow in his remarks for providing this kind of opportunity for young footballers in the region. Minister Williams reflected "I looked up to Dwight Yorke when I was a young footballer as being an inspiration for Caribbean players however there were no such opportunities like this one from Flow and Manchester United. Through this Flow Ultimate Football Experience you youngsters now have access to some of the best coaches and players in the world of football." "I am pleased for them both!" said a very proud Wendy McDonald, Flow's Senior Director of Communications for the Caribbean, "This is a-once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and definitely the "ultimate football experience" that these two young footballers have been given through Flow's partnership with Manchester United. We will continue to follow their journey to Manchester and we hope this will encourage even more aspiring footballers from the Caribbean to be ready for opportunities like this." About C&W CommunicationsC&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more atwww.cwc.com, or follow C&W onLinkedIn,FacebookorTwitter. About Liberty GlobalLiberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enable us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 25 million customers who subscribe to over 50 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve over 10 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across 6 million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group (NASDAQ:LBTYA) (NASDAQ:LBTYB) (NASDAQ:LBTYK) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group (NASDAQ:LILA) and (NASDAQ:LILAK) (OTC PINK:LILAB), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 11 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The Liberty Global Group also owns 50% of VodafoneZiggo, a Dutch joint venture, which has 4 million customers, 10 million fixed-line subscribers and 5 million mobile subscribers. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Más Móvil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a sub-sea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visitwww.libertyglobal.com Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3138743Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3138746Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3138749Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3138752Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3138755 [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes: $1324.66/$1327.99 #Bitstamp $1294.00/$1296.30 #BTCe ⇢$-33.99/$-28.36 $1342.26/$1355.77 #Coinbase ⇢$14.27/$31.11 || The stock market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything, but the value of... $ell/฿uy http://bit.ly/2mdYD3U  #Bitcoin || #Monacoin 19.1円↑[Zaif] -円↓[もなとれ] #NEM #XEM 15.01円↑[Zaif] #Bitcoin 210,255円↓[Zaif] 05/14 12:00 口座開設はこちらで！ https://goo.gl/31dyoO  || 1 EGC Price: Bittrex 0.00002510 BTC #EGC #EverGreenCoin http://bittrex.com/Market/Index?MarketName=BTC-EGC … 2017-05-19 17:00 (EST) pic.twitter.com/Dkk08qqVv3 || 10:01 Bitstamp: 2.435,00 USD [alcista] BTC: 39.690,50 ARS [-0.59% 24hs] Dolar: 16,30 ARS [blue ambito Venta] http://coinmonitor.info  || New all time #bitstamp #bitcoin high of $1394.00 || Aktueller #Bitcoin-Preis: 1121.00 EUR / 1199.92 CHF || #TEST#ビットコイン #AI #モデリング 15:00~16:00のBitcoin市場は下落でした。 直近の市場の平均Bitcoinの価格は176935.0円で 変化率は-0.02%です。 17:00までは反落? 【AIコメントです:テスト中@パターンA】 || 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes: $1289.00/$1291.46 #Bitstamp $1263.68/$1264.69 #BTCe ⇢$-27.78/$-24.31 $1291.93/$1305.25 #Coinbase ⇢$0.47/$16.25 || 21:00~22:00のBitcoin市場はしっかりだったみたいだね。 変化率は-0.1037% 23:00までは反落かな? 直近の市場の平均Bitcoinの価格は292360.0円 【AIコメントです:テスト中@パターンB】 #bitcoin #AI
Trend: down || Prices: 2863.20, 2732.16, 2805.62, 2823.81, 2947.71, 2958.11, 2659.63, 2717.02, 2506.37, 2464.58
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2022-01-05] BTC Price: 43569.00, BTC RSI: 33.05 Gold Price: 1824.60, Gold RSI: 57.47 Oil Price: 77.85, Oil RSI: 60.28 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Regulators Target Crypto on Multiple Fronts in Pivotal Year: The threat of regulation in crypto is an old storyline. For years, central bank governors, lawmakers, and the occasional law enforcement type would pound the table and urge his fellow officials to rein in the scourge of Bitcoin and its ilk before all hell broke loose. Yet nothing much actually happened — outside of China, that is — because regulators couldn’t agree on what cryptocurrencies were let alone how to police them. That changed in 2021. When Gary Gensler, the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said in September that assets considered cryptocurrencies were subject to the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 he wasfinally laying down a marker. Virtually all crypto products would have to be registered with the government as securities or investment contracts if they were offered to investors, full stop. That meant they would be subject to the same disclosure and offering rules as other assets like stocks. At the same time, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made clear that stablecoins should be regulated to ensure they’re growth doesn’t disrupt the financial or payments systems. There were other voices: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who carries a lot of influence on financial matters, called DeFi “one ofshadiest partsof the crypto world” in calling for broad clampdown. In fairness, Gensler and Yellen emphasized that they recognize the benefits of decentralized finance and have no wish to suffocate innovation, even if they could. Yellen even reassured the crypto community that platforms would receive relief from new tax reporting requirements. Yet critics likeRyan Selkis, the CEO of Messari, aren’t buying that line. And crypto finally mobilized its political lobby in Washington and in thegrass roots of DeFito prepare for the battle to come. If there’s one thing everyone agrees on it’s that — a political conflict over crypto is inevitable in 2022. But what will it look like? What issues will be involved? Impossible to say at this juncture. It won’t be a surprise if proposals to require crypto platforms to disclose more information about their clients, their liquidity levels, their leverage practices, their anti-money laundering checks, and their offerings are attached to legislation or included in new rulemaking in 2022. The battle lines are drawn. The only question is how can the DeFi community affect the debate and challenge proposals deemed onerous. Read the original post onThe Defiant. || First Mover Asia: Bitcoin Sees Out the Year Near $47K Amid Low-Volume Spot Trading: ( Edited by Greg Ahlstrand and James Rubin ) Good morning. Here’s what’s happening: Market moves: Bitcoin recovered some losses, charts turned short-term bullish. Technician’s take (Editor’s note): Technician’s Take is taking a holiday hiatus. In its place, First Mover Asia is publishing a Nov. 12 column by CoinDesk Chief Content Officer Michael Casey on how crypto could play a larger role as a means of exchange. Catch the latest episodes of CoinDesk TV for insightful interviews with crypto industry leaders and analysis. Prices Bitcoin ( BTC ): $47,201 -0.8% Ether ( ETH ): $3,722 -0.18 Markets S&P 500: 4,778 -0.30% DJIA: 36,398 -0.25% Nasdaq: 15,741 -0.16% Gold: $1,814 +0.56% Market moves Bitcoin remained near $47,000 on another day of low-volume spot trading. Technical analysis supports a “buy” signal after bitcoin logged three straight days of losses this week. The No. 1 cryptocurrency by market capitalization recovered some loss during U.S. trading hours on Thursday, after it dropped below $46,000 a day ago. The spot trading volume across centralized exchanges remained low, down from a day ago, according to data compiled by CoinDesk. Credit: CoinDesk/CryptoCompare While bitcoin is still down by more than 6% in the past seven days, according to Katie Stockton, founder and managing partner of Fairlead Strategies, charts are showing bullish signals for the oldest cryptocurrency. “Bitcoin has a new short-term counter-trend “buy” signal today per Tom DeMark’s TD Sequential model ,” Stockton wrote in a technical analysis dated Thursday. “The signal supports a two-week-plus rebound, although it is low-conviction because the daily stochastics are not affirming short-term oversold conditions. Column How Crypto Becomes Money: A new theory for a universal digital barter system. (By CoinDesk Chief Content Officer Michael Casey) By soaring 4.4% to new record highs Wednesday after the release of a report that showed U.S. inflation hit its highest level in 31 years and then losing all of that in the day, bitcoin played straight into the hands of mainstream economists who pooh-pooh its potential as a currency. Story continues Such volatile moves, they will argue, make it impossible for cryptocurrencies to serve what traditional economics describes as the three functions of money: i) a medium of exchange, ii) a store of value, and iii) a unit of account. A currency cannot play those roles, the argument goes, if its value is moving around so much without any predictability. That sounds almost irrefutable, right? But what if the three functions framework is based on a flawed, or overly narrow, definition of money? You’re reading Money Reimagined, a weekly look at the technological, economic and social events and trends that are redefining our relationship with money and transforming the global financial system. Subscribe to get the full newsletter here. In “Money: The Unauthorized Biography,” Felix Martin argues that through history people have tended to wrongly think about money as a “thing” (such as a banknote or a chunk of a precious metal such as gold) and not for it what it is: a socially invented governance system for tracking transfers of property and clearing debt in a commonly trusted manner. By viewing money as something to be owned and accumulated, we’ve fetishized currencies rather than treating them as a means to an end. In Martin’s construction, a country’s or an economy’s universally accepted currency is the thing. It is not the money. The currency is merely a tool that makes it easier to carry out the extremely difficult task of recording, counting and valuing transactions across a community of otherwise untrusting strangers. In this way, cash can be viewed as a decentralized, peer-to-peer record-keeping device – as if by me giving you $10, my anonymous account in the dollar economy is debited by that amount and yours is credited. If you deposit those funds into a bank, you move the account into a different accounting system, but it’s ultimately serving the same function. Over the centuries, this national currency-based money model became dominant, as sovereign states shaped it into a system of social organization and control. Whether it was fiat currency or gold-backed currency, the state set the rules and provided the foundation of trust – with varying degrees of success – by which people would use these record-keeping devices. But that is not the only way to think of how money could be organized. Now, a new breed of open, censorship-resistant, geography-agnostic value transfer systems has emerged. Cryptocurrencies and their underlying blockchain protocols can provide rules and a framework of trust for users without needing to draw their authority from governments, even if their users remain bound by the laws of their home countries. Many cryptocurrency proponents, filled with the same “focus-on-the-thing” instinct, tend to think of bitcoin replacing the dollar or at least providing a parallel alternative. But it’s possible to see a pathway where blockchains and digital assets (a much better descriptor of the tokens for these purposes than “cryptocurrencies”) do away with the need for universal common currencies altogether. We have a long way to go, but if interoperability protocols and transaction processing can be scaled in a properly decentralized manner, such that buyers and sellers of digital assets can conduct cross-chain atomic swaps en masse without having to trust intermediaries, something akin to a global system of fractionalized digital value exchange is conceivable. Need a car? You can buy it, not with dollars, but with a portion of another piece of property such as your small stake in that Beeple non-fungible token. Ironically, this vision seems like a new, digital version of an otherwise archaic value exchange system: barter. In this way, using the power to fractionalize digital ownership to any size imaginable addresses at least part of the “coincidence of wants” problem that made that system inefficient for civilizations. Now, I can already hear traditional economists scoffing. What are you going to denominate those exchanges in? We need a common currency to overcome the impossible task of finding a real-time, fair price value for each asset across a gargantuan number of categories. And, sure, to avoid using, say, a single currency as the reference price, we would need to build something unfathomably complex. We would need a universally accessible, open pricing platform that takes in data from a global network of price oracles tied to quadrillions of verifiably trusted devices deployed in every corner of the world. Based on a classification system for a massive variety of assets, it would constantly make available an almost infinite number of ever-changing cross-reference values in each asset relative to any of all the other assets. It’s kind of impossible, or at least it is until we get we’re on the verge of the singularity. But we don’t need to achieve such an all encompassing state to start to break down the dominance of national currencies. The dollar could remain as the world’s reference price, for example, but there would be no need for people to obtain it in a transaction. In effect, we could strip dominant currencies of their medium of exchange and store-of-value functions while maintaining their unit of account role. Already, central banks in Singapore and the United Arab Emirates are exploring interoperability solutions for their central bank digital currency that would do just that. The implications for the dollar’s investable status as the world’s reserve currency are profound. And if we reduce our imagination to a scenario many sizes smaller than the universal digital barter system discussed above, the prospects for fragmented areas of in-kind exchange that either bypass existing currencies or use them as reference prices are much greater. Think of how ether, viewed by many not as currency but as a crypto commodity that powers the Ethereum network, is already widely used as the medium of exchange for buying and selling NFTs. And, of course, for all the “bitcoin cannot be a currency” dismissiveness, it has long functioned, along with ether, as a fundraising vehicle for token sales. In those situations, the dollar is still lurking in the background as either the explicit or implicit reference price. Also, the more this goes on, the more people start to “think” in bitcoin, ether or some other digital asset. There are plenty of bitcoiners who like to remind everyone that, whatever its price versus the dollar, one bitcoin continues to be worth one bitcoin. Many believe bitcoin, with its censorship-resistant, persistent supply mechanism, could evolve to become the base layer collateral for the global financial system, taking on a role akin to Treasury bonds. Whether, in this coming world, the dollar fully disappears from the picture or remains a reference price, the expansion of a crypto system implies it could eventually be a universal unit of account. With a claim to the other two supposed functions of money – a medium of exchange and a store of value – will the dollar cease to be money? The answer is that the dollar – the “thing” – never was money. It was an element of money, one piece – albeit a dominant piece – of society’s system for tracking property transfers and clearing debts. In the future, the dollar’s role in that system could be diminished, while the role of bitcoin, ether, NFTs and other digital assets could increase. None of them will be money as we used to think about it. Important events New Year’s Eve! CoinDesk TV In case you missed it, here are the most recent episodes of “First Mover” on CoinDesk TV: SEC Commissioner Peirce on 2022 Outlook for Stablecoins, NFTs, Bitcoin ETFs, New Legislation and More Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce joined “First Mover” to discuss a wide range of topics affecting the crypto industry and markets in 2022. That included the future of stablecoins, the prospects for a U.S. bitcoin ETF, regulatory concerns around NFTs, and the status of Peirce’s Safe Harbor proposal. Also, a look back at top NFT stories that helped drive mainstream crypto adoption in 2021. Latest headlines SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce Says Washington Doesn’t Need a New Crypto Regulator: Known affectionately as “Crypto Mom” for her support of the industry, Peirce also warned on CoinDesk TV that the SEC might soon turn its eye towards NFTs. Binance Still Not Authorized to Operate in Ontario, Securities Commission Says: OSC’s statement on Thursday comes after Binance said on Wednesday it had worked with regulators to ensure continued operations. Longer reads Rapper Latashá on NFTs and Inclusivity in Tech: The way the hip-hop artist and Zora community manager sees it, NFTs’ benefits are well worth the gas fees. Russia’s Largest Bank Introduces First Blockchain-Focused ETF in the Country: The exchange-traded fund will track the Sber Blockchain Economy Index, which includes crypto asset and mining companies. Today’s crypto explainer: How Does Ethereum Work? Other voices: Cryptocurrency Should Be Added to the U.S.-Japan Trade Deal (Rand Corporation) Said and heard “Even if it is less spectacular than 2021, 2022 will see major moves, such as the launch of Ethereum 2.0 (finally!) and a retreat of NFT-mania (probably!). And given the maturing of the industry, there will be plenty of capital to fund the continued building of interesting projects and plenty of opportunities to get involved if you’re paying attention. There are also major real-world factors that will affect crypto, from U.S. interest rates to inflation to COVID variants – some more predictable than others.” ( CoinDesk columnist David Morris ) “NFT media seems to focus on a few big PFP projects, increasingly absurd pixelated derivatives of those, and celebrity / corporate cash grab drops. Eager to see better data aggregation, more nuanced media coverage, and more platforms for discovery and curation.” ( Coinshares Chief Strategy Officer Meltem Demirors on Twitter ) “There are 936 startups valued at more than $1 billion in the world today. What do we think this chart looks like in, say, 5 years?” ( Wall Street Journal technology columnist Christopher Mims on Twitter ) || Money Choice: Why I choose to invest in cryptocurrencies: By Lyn Chan SINGAPORE — Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are almost impossible to ignore now. Once, they were a curiosity, the talking point of many investment conversations. These days, they are a viable investment; at the very least, cryptocurrency seems to be a good place to park some cash. Dr Kelvin Chen, Kent Ridge Health’s chief executive officer, is a believer in the digital asset. The 37-year-old started investing in cryptocurrencies five years ago. Here’s his story: “My crypto investing started five years ago, initially in Bitcoin, then in Ethereum and some others, a year later. I bought S$10,000 each of Bitcoin and Ethereum, and I’ve bought more of Ethereum in small parcels since. I was not attracted to crypto per se. It just happened to be a time when early adopters were mostly people in the IT industry who didn’t mind getting freelance work done paid by crypto. When the freelancers I was working requested to be paid in crypto only, I thought I would put in small amounts needed for these transactions. Then, it was cheaper than paying them by the dollar value. It was also exciting because the price could vary wildly all within a day. Was I ever worried about losing my money? I was initially a sceptic. In the early days, there was merely a smattering of platforms and wallets, and fewer scams existed, compared to now. Many of my friends and relatives have received phishing emails and messages advising them to invest. Nevertheless, I believe that crypto excels as a medium of exchange across borders, and its scalability makes it a viable currency for online transactions. Also, it has better value than traditional futures like gold. My crypto investments are done through Coinbase, Delta and Coin Market Manager. They provide actionable analytics to make objective trading decisions. Ethereum is my choice for crypto investing because it is used as both a digital currency and a global computing network which supports applications via its own currency, Ether. Currently, I hold 60 per cent ether, 30 per cent Bitcoin and 10 per cent other altcoins. I am considering investing inLitecoin, Dash, Ankr and CRO. I cashed out half of my crypto portfolio a year ago amid the COVID-19 crisis. The amount was enough to cover all that I had put in, plus more. What’s remaining is my original capital of S$20,000, and then some. Liquidating part of my crypto holdings gave me room to examine new initial coin offerings. Having been in crypto investing for several years, I feel that it is not for the faint of heart – crypto fluctuates a lot. When I first started, I was attracted to a wallet app that was free to use. After putting some cryptocurrency in, I discovered that it was confusing to use — so much so that when I got locked out, I could not get in again. And there was no support. Do not get excited by new platforms that guarantee profits. Do basic market research: There are mock apps that you can use to have a feel without immediately putting in actual money. Also, platforms that have been around longer and given the proper regulatory approval are probably safer. As for investing, I suggest spreading across in a few assets instead of putting all your capital in a single currency. Be wary about DeFi platforms as they are not regulated. Do your due diligence and prepare for volatility. If you are new, do not put more than 30 per cent of your savings in crypto investing; start small and learn as you go. After all there is still a long way to go for crypto as more institutions such as Mastercard are getting into the game in a big way. Make sure that the exchange you are using is accredited in your region, many exchanges have geographical restrictions. Familiarise yourself with the different trading orders. It is still prudent to focus on your core investment portfolio and if you have spare cash after that you can buy some crypto." More finance-related stories: || Rising risks of climate extreme events can lead to greater sovereign ratings divergence in Europe: Extreme climate events constitute one of the main environmental challenges that governments face, with temperature extremes, heavy rains, floods and droughts all posing serious and, most likely, increasing risk to human life and economic activity in Europe. Natural disaster risks also constitute an important component of Scope’s assessment of a sovereign borrower’s environmental risk profile. Economic losses from extreme climate events represent the main natural hazard risk for countries across Europe. Our study on outstanding effects of climate on sovereign credit ratings, published earlier this week, covers member countries of the European Environmental Agency (EEA), which comprises European Economic Area states plus Turkey. Over 1980-2019, such natural-hazard events, including extreme temperatures, heavy rains and droughts, resulted in estimated economic costs of EUR 446bn (3% of 2019 GDP) in the EEA. Significant as this sum might appear, overall macroeconomic relevance of weather-related natural disasters over 1980-2019 was limited, although varying considerably across countries. Lower-income countries do tend to record the highest climate-related economic consequences Countries of central and eastern Europe such as Croatia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Hungary were the most affected, with average annual economic losses from climate extremes over 1980-2019 from 0.11% to 0.15% of GDP, well above a 0.07% EEA average. Lower-income countries tended to record the highest costs from severe climate events. In lieu of mitigating investments, these costs are expected to grow over the coming years although to varying degrees across Europe. In particular, southern European and central and eastern European countries are most exposed. Adverse impact of extreme climate events will increasingly present a credit challenge as concerns sovereign ratings While efforts to address changes in climate are accelerating across these regions, the adverse impact of extreme climate events will increasingly present a credit challenge for sovereign credit ratings as climate consequences become more severe and pervasive, potentially resulting in credit rating divergence. Story continues Against this backdrop, it is crucial that governments mobilise resources and implement reform that reduces exposures to natural risks and enhances capacities to cope with climate extremes. Recovery plans to date do not display natural-disaster risk necessarily influenced country EU fund allocations EU leaders have agreed to earmark at least 37% of EU financing received under the Recovery and Resilience Facility while the European Commission has proposed that at least 25% of the EU’s 2021-27 multiannual budget be geared in direction of climate action. However, recovery plans announced to date do not display that countries’ exposures to and historical costs from natural disasters necessarily influenced their allocations of regional recovery and resilience funding. The interaction between physical risks and political priorities at the national level remains limited overall. European countries have begun including climate considerations under budgetary frameworks. The French government, as one example, published its first “green budget”, which identifies specific expenditures supporting the green transition and assesses spending damaging to the environment. Still, more efforts are needed to bolster the environmental resilience of European economies and avoid potentially greater ratings divergence longer term. Download Scope Ratings’ study. Alvise Lennkh is the Deputy Head of Sovereign and Public Sector ratings at Scope Ratings GmbH . Thibault Vasse , Senior Analyst at Scope Ratings, co-wrote this commentary. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple’s XRP – Daily Tech Analysis – November 6th, 2021 ASX200: Weekly Wrap – 05/11/2021 Bitcoin (BTC) Bears Are Reluctant To Crack Below $60,000 The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – November 6th, 2021 Shiba Inu Coin – Daily Tech Analysis – November 7th, 2021 USD/CAD Exchange Rate Prediction – The Dollar Rallies on Employment Gains || Crypto Crash: Bitcoin Dips Below $60K for First Time in Weeks — Could Further Crackdowns Diminish Value?: Savushkin / iStock.com Bitcoin plummeted below $60,000 for the first time in weeks, as volatility in the crypto markets at large continues. Bitcoin reached an all time high of $69,000 on November 10. Despite the current volatility, the crypto is also up 107% year-to-date , according to Coingecko. Find Out: What Is the Next Big Cryptocurrency To Explode in 2021? Biden’s New Crypto Tax: 2 Things You Need to Know Several factors might be causing the slump, include China’s expanding crackdown on crypto mining , as well as crypto tax provisions in the U.S. infrastructure bill. Martha Reyes, head of research at digital asset prime brokerage and exchange BEQUANT , told GOBankingRates that the two Bitcoin flush outs we have seen so far this month after a very strong run up in October are reminiscent of the September crashes. “In that month, we ran past the $53K mark fueled by excitement around El Salvador, only to fall back to $40K, so an even steeper drop than we are seeing so far,” she said. “Open interest has fallen from highs and funding rates were even negative on some exchanges, so investors are not as bullish. Strong retail sales out of the U.S. yesterday despite high inflation, mean higher inflation readings ahead, but a still supportive growth outlook. Recall that BTC is 7x as volatile as the S&P and that’s even more the case for the altcoins. It is also a good opportunity to pick up coins with good underlying prospects.” The Chinese government said this week that the next step will focus on cracking down on large-scale mining, state-owned entities involved in mining and Bitcoin mining, according to an official statement. The statement added that the government will start imposing punitive electricity prices on them, “forming a high-pressure situation that continues to rectify virtual currency “mining” activities.”. Related: Crypto Comprehension Study: 98% of People Don’t Grasp Basics of Bitcoin, Stablecoins or NFTs In the U.S., the $1 trillion Infrastructure bill President Joe Biden signed into law earlier this week contains a provision about the crypto industry, aimed to help pay for a part of the bill. The provision broadens the definition of broker, saying “any person who (for consideration) is responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person,” according to the text of the bill. This language would require crypto brokers to report customer information to the Internal Revenue Service, and that it doesn’t exclude miners, software developers, stakers and other individuals in the crypto economy who don’t have customers. Story continues Several lawmakers are again taking aim at it, including Rep. Daren Soto, who wrote a letter on November 15 — along with other co-signers — to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, urging her to reverse the controversial digital asset provision. The signers of the letter said the provision would “cripple the industry,” and they urge the promotion of “American innovation.” Mikkel Morch, executive director & risk management at crypto/digital assets hedge fund ARK36 , told GOBankingRates that “after the correction, Bitcoin has found strong support at the $59K threshold which confirms that the bulls are not ready to give up without a fierce fight.” Morch added that it is not yet clear whether the drop was a healthy market shakeout of overleveraged longs. “Such a shakeout would be the way for the markets to eliminate any short-term structural weaknesses. In such a case, the drawdown would not have done any damage to the macro outlook and we would expect a stronger bounce if broader fundamentals remain positive,” he said. See: Best Bitcoin or Crypto Wallets 2021: How To Choose Explore: New Crypto Copy-Trading Platform Helps Those ‘In the Know’ Guide Beginners Toward Success However, he continued, the drop may also signal the start of more downside, and the longer we stay at the current price level, the bigger the possibility of an even greater pullback. “Investors should be on the watch for any negative macro news that may cause the markets to lose confidence in uptrend continuation and ignite a bigger correction . If the $59K support is breached, Bitcoin may drop all the way to $49K where another strong support area is found,” he said. More From GOBankingRates Find Out Who Made GOBankingRates’ Best Credit Cards Lists and Get Helpful Tips Give Us Your Thoughts: How Much Will You Spend Over the Holidays Relative to Last Year? How To Use a Credit Card Like a Pro This Holiday Season How To Refinance a Mortgage This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : Crypto Crash: Bitcoin Dips Below $60K for First Time in Weeks — Could Further Crackdowns Diminish Value? || MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor: Gold should be scared of bitcoin: Bitcoin's rise as an investment could spell long-term doom for gold as an asset class, fancies crypto bull and MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor. "The only thing that is threatened by bitcoin is gold," said Saylor on Yahoo Finance Live . "The best thing you could do is sell all $10 trillion of gold and buy bitcoin. Gold is a dead rock. It's the worst-performing asset, bar none, no debate. There is no hope for it." That buy bitcoin, dump gold strategy has worked well this year as investors flock to assets they believe can outperform during high inflationary periods (as we are in right now). Bitcoin prices have surged 63% year-to-date to $47,833 as of Thursday afternoon. At one point in the year, bitcoin prices were up 131%. As for gold, prices have tanked about 9% year-to-date. Saylor continues to put his company's money where his mouth is. The long-time crypto proponent revealed Thursday in a tweet to his 1.9 million followers that MicroStrategy purchased an additional 1,434 bitcoins for $82.4 million in cash at an average price of $57,477. As of Dec. 9, MicroStrategy holds 122,478 bitcoins valued at $3.66 billion. The average price for the bitcoin tallies $29,861. Saylor added he continues to see only one direction for bitcoin prices to head: up. "I have said it before, bitcoin is going up forever," Saylor said, pointing to more global adoption and long-run inflation for his bullishness. Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance . Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn . Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter , Instagram , YouTube , Facebook , Flipboard , and LinkedIn || New to cryptocurrency? Know these terms: Talking Tech podcast: Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. More: Daily news, true crime, and more USA TODAY podcasts Hey there listeners. It's Brett Molina, welcome back to Talking Tech. So you've likely heard about Bitcoin. You've likely heard about cryptocurrency. You've likely heard about NFTs. I'm sure though, as you've heard these words, there are some of you out there that still are completely confused by this whole world and what all this means, and how it works, trading in Bitcoin, and exchanging it to real money, and there's a zillion questions about it. Thankfully, my colleague, Kim Komando wrote a column about this. You can read her column on tech.usatoday.com. It's called 10 Cryptocurrency Terms People Use Every Day. We'll share a couple here. It's a very volatile world, obviously, as Kim explains. It also can be really confusing, and especially if you're someone that's looking to invest in cryptocurrency or invest in Bitcoin. It's important to know the most common language and words that are used there, just to get a better sense of what you're getting yourself into, especially as you start to invest in stuff like Bitcoin. So we're going to talk over a couple of the terms here. We won't get too deep into it. You can read the rest of the terms that Kim suggests in her column. Let's start with blockchain. So a blockchain is essentially a virtual ledger. Anytime someone buys or sells using a cryptocurrency like a Bitcoin, an entry is made on this virtual ledger. Kim describes it as like a series of box cars on a train. So anytime there is a transaction made, another box car gets added to the train. Brett Molina: One of the benefits of the blockchain is that it's decentralized. There's no one central group or organization that stores and controls this information. It's spread out on computers all over the world, that are accessible on the internet. Story continues So because of that, a lot of experts I've talked to for previous stories have discussed how it can be a lot more secure because there are so many different... this network is so big and there's so many other different computers involved that it's tougher for someone to go in and make changes, and say, hack into this blockchain, and change things so that Bitcoin is transferred over somewhere where it shouldn't be. The next term that she brings up is Fiat. And as she mentions, no, it's not the car. Fiat money is government-issued currency. So you might hear that a lot when people are talking about cryptocurrency, and they'll talk about Fiat currency. So Fiat currency is basically the money we use every day. So in the US, dollars, coins, all that stuff, that is Fiat currency. Let's do one more term that she talks about, and this is one that you've probably heard quite a bit. It's one we've talked about here. It's NFT, it stands for non-fungible token. It is essentially a digital certificate that basically authenticates a digital item that you've purchased online. It can apply to anything. It can apply to online artwork. You've probably heard this a lot with a lot of artists who are using NFTs to create digital art, and they sell their art using these non-fungible tokens to authenticate their piece as they sell it. But it applies beyond that. It goes for songs, it goes for viral videos. It goes for articles. It goes for even gifts. It's collectible, that's really the biggest appeal with the NFT. Kim points this out. It's like you collect baseball cards, you collect comic books, you collect vintage cars. It's kind of the same thing, but it's all digital. And you use cryptocurrency to buy NFTs, that's the main platform for acquiring them. What makes it interesting, and I think for some people confusing is that there's no tangible piece that you're holding in your hands, and I think that's why a lot of people, rightfully so, are hesitant to invest in NFTs because there is no physical property. With baseball cards, you have a physical card. With a vintage car, you have an actual car maybe sitting in a garage or driveway, or on the street, or wherever. With NFTs, it's all digital. So it's there for you sitting somewhere, but you own it and you have this NFT that proves it. So those are a couple of the terms that Kim lays out. Again, she has 10 of these, so you can read more about cryptocurrency and a lot of the terms that are popular among cryptocurrency on tech.usatoday.com. Listeners, let's hear from you. Do you have any comments, questions, or show ideas? Any tech problems you want us to try to address? You can find me on Twitter @BrettMolina23. Please. Don't forget to subscribe and rate us, or leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere you get your podcasts. = You've been listening to Talking Tech. We'll be back tomorrow with another quick hit from the world of tech. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New to cryptocurrency? Know these terms: Talking Tech podcast || Bitcoin Back on the Defensive as Moderna CEO Warns of Reduced Vaccine Efficacy, Exchange Inflows Eyed: The financial market sentiment flipped back to risk-off on Tuesday after drugmaker Moderna’s CEO warned of a material drop in vaccine effectiveness against the new found COVID-19 variant, Omicron. Bitcoin slipped 2.5%, hitting lows of under $56,000, while the futures tied to the S&P 500 declined by 1.2%. The Aussie dollar-U.S. dollar (AUD/USD) exchange rate fell to a 12-month low of 0.7092, and the yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note penetrated Friday’s low of 1.47% as government bonds drew safe-haven demand. Stéphane Bancel, the CEO of Moderna,told Financial Timesthat current vaccines will likely be much less effective against the new variant. Bancel added that pharmaceutical companies could take months to produce vaccines at scale to counter Omicron. Bancel’s comments renewed concerns regarding the pandemic’s trajectory, torpedoing recovery in risk assets. The buoyant mood returned to crypto and equity markets on Monday after reports stated that Omicron patients in South Africa had extremely mild symptoms. Also, U.S. President Joe Biden said the new variant is a “cause for concern” and “not a cause for panic,” ruling out economically painful lockdown restrictions. Bitcoin crashed nearly 9% to $53,600 on Friday after the World Health Organization (WHO) deemed Omicorn a variant of concern. There is consensus in the market that policymakers would provide unlimited support to asset prices if the situation worsens, leading to lockdowns. However, that would push governments and central banks in a tough spot. With inflation already running hotter than expected globally, lockdowns and more stimulus could lead to stagflation, a period characterized by low growth and elevated price pressures. While bitcoin is widely perceived as a store of value asset, it remains vulnerable to weakness in growth-sensitive assets like stocks. Some crypto investors seem worried about prospects of an extended price drop and appear to be transferring coins to exchanges. Data tracked by Glassnode shows centralized exchanges have received more than 24,950 BTC in the past four days, as evident from the pickup in the number of coins held in exchange addresses. Investors typically move coins to exchanges when intending to liquidate their holdings. While the latest uptick in the exchange balances is hardly substantial, a continued rise might signal a deeper drawdown. Bitcoin fell sharply in May after the number of exchange balances violated the year-long downtrend. || Valkyrie Counters BIS, Says Concern on Bitcoin ETF Front-Running Is Misplaced: Bank for International Settlements (BIS) concern over speculators exploiting the monthly rollovers of bitcoin futures-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) from one contract to another is overdone, according to ETF manager Valkyrie. It’s recognized that the funds are exposed to contango bleed , an over-time drawdown in performance due to end-of-month rollovers of long positions from expiring short-term contracts. The problem, however, can be exacerbated by speculators exploiting the monthly rollovers, according the BIS. “The predictable rebalancing behavior of the ETF may also give rise to ‘front-running’ incentives, motivating investors to purchase longer-dated bitcoin futures in anticipation of the ETF rolling into those contracts,” BIS Economist Karamfil Todorov noted in a blog spot on Dec. 6. While such front-running has had a significant bearing on traditional market ETFs’ performance in the past, there are no signs of traders employing a similar strategy in the crypto market yet, according to Valkyrie. “We haven’t noticed any front-running specifically related to rolling the BTF futures,” Bill Cannon, head of ETF portfolio management at Valkyrie Investments, told CoinDesk. “Liquidity has been healthy, and there haven’t been any issues with execution.” Valkyrie’s bitcoin futures ETF went live on Nasdaq under the ticker BTF on Oct. 22. The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 19. The VanEck Bitcoin Strategy ETF, also futures-based, began trading last month. These ETFs gain exposure to bitcoin through regulated futures contracts trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) rather than owning the cryptocurrency. So, unlike ETFs that invest in stocks and gold, these futures-based ETFs must keep moving long positions from one expiry to another in a bid to mimic the cryptocurrency’s price performance. That leaves the door open for traders to buy the next month’s contract and sell the expiring contract ahead of orders from ETFs. The funds end up paying more to buy the next month’s contract and receive less for selling the current month, leading to a bigger rollover loss. Story continues The ETF roll and potential front-running As of Thursday, Valkyrie’s ETF held 215 contracts (each representing 5 BTC) of December futures expiring at the end of the year. Some time before expiry, it will sell 215 December futures contracts and buy 215 contracts in January or longer-dated expiry. The Proshares ETF currently holding 3,803 December futures contracts, and VanEck holding 69 regular and 14 micro contracts will do the same. CME Bitcoin futures: Longer-dated contracts trade at a higher price than short-dated ones (TradingView) The futures curve is in contango, meaning the longer-dated contracts are have higher prices than short-dated ones. The December contract is changing hands at $47,085 at press time, while the January contract is trading at $47,355, according to data tracked by TradingView. So, the ETFs will sell low and buy high during the rollover. That’s contango bleed. According to BIS, had Proshares ETF been launched in 2018, it would have underperformed the spot price by 18% “on a cumulative basis over the following four years to date,” because of the bleed. If traders front-run the roll by selling the expiring contract and buying the longer-dated one before the ETFs, the latter will become pricier. In other words, the contango will steepen, and the funds end up bearing a higher rollover cost than otherwise. While it is difficult to estimate the exact figure of additional rollover loss caused by traders’ front-running ETFs, traditional market experience suggests the drawdown could be significant. The U.S. Oil Fund LP trading on the NYSE under the ticker USO lost about $120 million while rolling 80,000 contracts from March to April maturities, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. The United States Natural Gas ETF (UNG) became a target of front-runners a decade ago. Easier said than done While the monthly ETF rollovers provide a window of opportunity for traders, taking advantage of it might not be so easy. “To successfully front-run, you need to be able to predict the short-term price moves of the underlying [asset] with relative confidence; the volatility of bitcoin and the crypto asset-class makes that a particularly difficult task, fraught with risk,” Sui Chung, CEO of CF Benchmarks, said in a Telegram chat. “What makes crypto products unique, therefore, is that the volatility of the underlying essentially makes front running unviable.” The three long futures-based ETFs discussed above are actively managed, meaning a manager or a team of experts decide on the allocations. So, predicting the exact timing of the rollover and whether the fund is rolling over to the next-month or longer-dated contract is a bit of a gamble. The ETFs can always diversify their holdings into different contracts to avoid the usual front-runners. “While such a pattern is not easy to identify, this type of trading anomaly could occur at a time of rebalancing leveraged and short futures-based ETFs, where rebalancing needs are directly impacted by volatility on certain days,” Valkyrie’s Cannon said. One trader from a major crypto exchange, who asked not to be named because of employer-imposed restrictions on making public statements, said the ETFs have a way of keeping markets honest. “If they think too many market makers and speculators are front running their open interest roll, they will maybe wait a day or two, or they will do a certain amount of volume over-the-counter,” the trader said. “This freaks out the speculators, and they actually end up crashing the spread down [by unwinding the front-running trade] themselves, thinking the fund is not going to have the ammo in this particular period. It’s a big game of poker.” There another effect: If too many speculators pile into the next month’s contract, the impact on the fund could be less marked. That’s because, as the fund starts rolling, speculators start liquidating their longs, building up selling pressure that pulls down the futures price and narrows the contango. “This kind of public front-running is SO heavily exploited it often actually backfires,” Dave Nadig, director of research at ETF Trends, said in a Twitter chat. “We see that in things like Russell index rebalancing front runs. We saw it in VIX [stock market volatility] futures ETF for a while too. It’s a huge mistake to think of it as free money.” UPDATE (Dec. 17, 12:27 UTC): Corrects verb in first paragraph. CORRECT (Dec. 17, 12:43 UTC): Corrects spelling of Russell in quote in last paragraph. || Bitcoin was looking good as an inflation hedge — then it plunged nearly 20%: • Bitcoin was looking good as an inflation hedge, as it jumped when October's huge CPI print came through. • But then the token reminded everyone why many investors are steering clear: It plunged almost 20%. • Many big players say bitcoin is still far too risky to be considered a hedge or a way to diversify. When the shocking October inflation numbers first flashed through to traders' screens, showing US prices were rising at the fastest rate in 31 years,bitcoin shot higher. To many crypto fans, the token's gains confirmed what they'd long argued:Bitcoinis the new inflation hedge on the block, and it's "digital gold" for the 21st century that will soon be a key diversifier in portfolios around the world. But that logic sustained some heavy fire in the last few days when bitcoin's price plunged 18%, from a record high of above $68,600 on November 10 tobelow $56,000on Friday. The inflation-hedge narrative "should come with some very big caveats," said James Malcolm, a top currency strategist at investment bank UBS. "It's not a robust way of thinking about things." Digital gold Although bitcoin was originally intended to be a digital version of cash, these days crypto investors are more likely to tell you that it's digital gold. Like the precious metal, there's a limited supply of bitcoin. Only 21 million coins are supposed to ever be minted, with 18.9 million already in existence. That scarcity should help the cryptocurrency hold its value over the long run, or so the argument goes, even as other assets wobble in the face of inflation or other scary problems. The view has picked up steam in the past few months. When bitcoin climbed in October, JPMorgan analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said in a note"the perception"that the token is an inflation hedge was a key factor. Then its price spiked when the inflation numbers came through, delighting the bitcoin-is-digital-gold crowd. Many drivers But then bitcoin reminded everyone why most major investors are steering well clear of it — it plunged. Malcolm, the UBS strategist, said the sharp fall is a reminder there are a lot of other things driving the token. "Inflation is one of many demand-side factors," he said. "It's just a popular one at the moment." Watch now:4 crypto experts break down the future of digital assets and how clearer regulation will lead to mass adoption A key problem for major institutions is that there are a large number of risks surrounding bitcoin, which an asset like gold doesn't face. Malcolm points to regulation, arguing that it could slow down adoption sharply, which could in turn whack the price. "That should make it a very poor inflation hedge. In the sense that inflation may continue to go up, and crypto can fall a lot more, for all sorts of other reasons," he said. Bitcoin is 'too raw' Proponents of the digital-gold argument point out that bitcoin has risen sharply over the last year, when inflation has also climbed dramatically. Yet skeptics argue that investors can't rely on that trend continuing. If past episodes are anything to go by, bitcoin could fall into another 2018-like"winter"at any time. Back then, its price tumbled from around $20,000 at the end of 2017 to below $4,000 a year later. Catherine Doyle, a strategist at BNY Mellon Investment Management, said she sees bitcoin as more of "risky" asset like stocks. "It wouldn't be part of that stabilizing base [in a portfolio]," she said. "It just feels too speculative and too raw." However, it must be said that bitcoin was only created in 2009. Even some of its biggest skeptics admit it could yet become an inflationary hedge, particularly if investors start to really believe it is. JPMorgan's Panigirtzoglou has said there's "little doubt" that bitcoin's competition with gold will continue among investors. But in the eyes of many big players, it's nowhere near there yet. Rather, it's an asset that's been soaring for a whole host of reasons — and that could easily crash again. Read the original article onBusiness Insider [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: no change || Prices: 43160.93, 41557.90, 41733.94, 41911.60, 41821.26, 42735.86, 43949.10, 42591.57, 43099.70, 43177.40
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-11-16] BTC Price: 16716.11, BTC RSI: 75.64 Gold Price: 1887.30, Gold RSI: 48.41 Oil Price: 41.34, Oil RSI: 56.40 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin Critic Peter Schiff’s Bank Under Spotlight in Global Tax Probe: A Puerto Rico-based bank founded by gold bug and long-time bitcoin skeptic Peter Schiff is under investigation over suspicions it facilitated tax evasion for “high-risk” clients. According to reports on Saturday by several large media organizations in Australia and the U.S., Schiff’s Euro Pacific Bank has become the focus of a major global tax evasion investigation dubbed “Operation Atlantis.” Hundreds of account holders at the bank, including 100 Australians considered “high risk,” are now being investigated over possible tax evasion and money laundering. Related: Spain Working on Bill to Force Crypto Holders to Disclose Assets, Gains These reportedly include Simon Anquetil, the man behind major Australian tax fraud Plutus Payroll, and Australian entrepreneur and film financier Darby Angel, who has previously been convicted for drug trafficking. “People can be investigated for all sorts of reasons [so it] doesn’t mean they did anything wrong,” Schiff said in a fiery interview with 60 Minutes Australia. “I’m not allowed to discuss it.” The investigation is also said to be seeking the lawyers, accountants and financial firms that helped connect customers to Euro Pacific. Initiated by the U.K., the U.S., Australia, Canada and the Netherlands, Operation Atlantis began looking into Euro Pacific back in January of this year. Related: IRS May Make It Harder to Avoid Declaring Crypto on Tax Returns The effort was established by the countries’ top tax officials, known as the “Joint Five,” after it was discovered tax authorities were less than equipped to deal with the revelations arising from the “ Panama Papers ” scandal. According to The Age , the bank’s former IT director, John Ogilvie, also claimed that data security was poor, putting Euro Pacific customers’ financial information at risk. He claimed his computer had been hacked several times and that Russian bad actors had tried to extort a ransom of 1,000 bitcoin from the bank. Story continues A huge 2016 leak of documents, the Panama Papers shed light on how some of the world’s wealthiest people and firms have been hiding money and evading tax in off-shore accounts. Schiff has long been a critic of bitcoin, going so far as to describe those that promote the cryptocurrency as “frauds,” in a tweet on May 9. See also: The FinCEN Files Show Banks Don’t Actually Care About Stopping Money Laundering Related Stories Bitcoin Critic Peter Schiff’s Bank Under Spotlight in Global Tax Probe Bitcoin Critic Peter Schiff’s Bank Under Spotlight in Global Tax Probe || AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Weekly Forecast – RBNZ Expected to Unveil New Stimulus Tool: Last week’s U.S. presidential election fueled a volatile two-sided trade on November 3 as a surprisingly strong performance by President Trump forced weak Australian Dollar buyers to liquidate long positions, driving the Aussie into its lowest level since July 24. However that weakness didn’t last very long as Democratic challenger Joe Biden started to make a comeback and by the end of the week, sat in a position to win the presidency. After the initial weakness, new buyers came in, betting on a Biden win and the hopes of additional stimulus measures by the U.S. government. This drove the AUD/USD into its highest level since September 15. There were important releases by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and several economic reports but the primary focus for investors was on the election. The catalyst for the rally was increased demand for risky assets. Last week, theAUD/USDsettled at .7260, up 0.0232 or +3.30%. TheNZD/USDclosed at .6773, up 0.0160 or +2.42%. Investors heralded Joe Biden’s election as U.S. president over the weekend by buying trade-exposed currencies like the Australian and New Zealand Dollars on expectations that a calmer White House could boost world commerce and that monetary policy will remain easy. Biden crossed the threshold of the 270 Electoral College votes required for victory on Saturday by winning the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Republicans appear to have retained control of the Senate, though the final makeup may not be clear until runoff votes in Georgia in January. The prospect of more gridlock also means that expectations for a massive U.S. fiscal stimulus package have been lowered. Removing massive coronavirus stimulus from the agenda sent bond yields sharply lower in anticipation of less borrowing and more quantitative easing from the U.S. Federal Reserve. The plunge in long-term U.S. Treasury Bond yields made the dollar a less-attractive investment, driving up demand for higher risk currencies like the AUD/USD and NZD/USD. The focus will shift to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) monetary policy decisions on Wednesday. Although RBNZ policymakers are forecast to leave interest rates unchanged at 0.25%, they are also expected to unveil a new monetary policy tool this week to drive borrowing costs for lenders lower and boost economic growth, while again signaling an eventual shift to negative rates. The RBNZ is seen holding the official cash rate at 0.25% at a monetary policy meeting on Wednesday and leaving its quantitative easing program untouched, all economists forecasted in a Reuters poll. But markets will look for clues on a move to 0% or negative OCR, although stronger than expected data gives the RBNZ enough room to stick to its guidance of not lowering rates until March next year. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out oureconomic calendar. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • EOS, Stellar’s Lumen, and Tron’s TRX – Daily Analysis – November 9th, 2020 • Natural Gas Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Lower if Weak Weather Demand Offsets Strong LNG Volumes • A Light Economic Calendar Leaves Capitol Hill, COVID-19, and Brexit in Focus • Bitcoin and Ethereum – Weekly Technical Analysis – November 9th, 2020 • GBP/USD Daily Forecast – Test Of Resistance At 1.3180 • USD/JPY Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Direction of Long-Term US Rates Will Set the Tone || Decentralized Exchange LEVERJ Launches Perpetual Swap Futures Powered by Brave New Coin: World’s first scalable decentralized derivatives exchange runs on Gluon, the only Layer 2 solution purpose-built for high-frequency trading VICTORIA, Seychelles and AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Oct. 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (via Blockchain Wire ) LEVERJ ( https://leverj.io/) , the world’s first scalable decentralized derivatives exchange, today announced the launch of perpetual swap futures powered by Brave New Coin , a digital asset data infrastructure company. Trading for ETH-USD and BTC-USD perpetual swap futures contracts are now live on LEVERJ, allowing for up to 100x leverage. . LEVERJ is powered by Gluon.network, a purpose-built sidechain created for scaling Ethereum. Its native token, also announced today, is the $L2 governance token. The $L2 governance token is a key piece in helping Gluon become fully decentralized and community-owned over the next few months. Launched by Wall Street veterans from J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, LEVERJ is designed to perform like traditional financial exchanges while maintaining the critical function of security. LEVERJ is completely self-custodial by design, meaning that users always control their private keys and funds. LEVERJ runs on Gluon, the only Layer 2 solution purpose-built for high-frequency trading. Gluon is designed to address Ethereum’s scaling issues, offering sub-second trading with zero gas fees. Originally created for the sole purpose of powering LEVERJ, industry demand for a fast and reliable Layer 2 solution has prompted the team behind Gluon to allow any DeFi project to utilize its network. Gluon has undergone rigorous third-party auditing and testing, and will soon introduce its full network and grants to power the ecosystem’s growth. “Gluon technology is light years ahead of ZK Rollups and Optimistic Rollups, which have significant drawbacks in terms of cost and user experience.” Earlier this year, LEVERJ partnered with Brave New Coin to ensure a full product pipeline for its fast, secure decentralized derivatives exchange. The companies are working together to introduce several derivatives products along with sub-sector specific tradable products like a DeFi index, privacy coin index, volatility indices and much more. Story continues “Decentralized exchanges have until now lacked the sophistication, speed and security to draw big-time investors -- that all changes with LEVERJ and Gluon,” said Fran Strajnar, CEO of Brave New Coin. “We’re pleased to collaborate with LEVERJ to provide perpetual swaps and other products which will help demonstrate Gluon’s groundbreaking technology for traders.” Since its launch in early 2020, Brave New Coin’s crypto index infrastructure has been in high demand by companies including BTSE and the Toronto Futures Options and Swaps Exchange (tFOSE). BNC provides data and index solutions for several partners including Refinitiv, Amazon Alexa, Dow Jones Factiva, NASDAQ, BTSE.com and many more. When you ask Amazon’s Alexa for the price of any cryptocurrency, her answer comes from Brave New Coin’s data engine. AboutLEVERJ Launched by Wall Street veterans, LEVERJ is a decentralized cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform created to perform like traditional financial exchanges while maintaining the critical function of instant finality. LEVERJ is completely self-custodial by design, meaning that no matter what happens to the exchange, users always control their private keys and funds. LEVERJ uses a protocol called Gluon, a mathematically rigorous solution preventing fraud, compromise, and collusion to provide all the benefits of blockchain without the limitations. Gluon is the first fully operational Ethereum Layer 2 chain, giving LEVERJ the high-transaction throughput to work just as fast as centralized exchanges. Leverj Telegram | Uniswap Link | Leverj Website | Gluon Website About Brave New Coin Brave New Coin ( https://bravenewcoin.com/ ) (BNC) is a data and research company focused on the blockchain and cryptographic assets industry. Founded in 2014, BNC provides data, analysis and research to a global network of market participants. Brave New Coin supplies spot-pricing, index solutions, research and news both aggregate and proprietary, via partners such as Amazon Alexa, Dow Jones Factiva, NASDAQ, Refinitv, RapidAPI and dozens more. The company’s experience and expertise make us the leading provider of standard and non-standard institutional grade, highly compliant, data solutions. BNC Pro leverages all our experience and data into a user-friendly dashboard solution CONTACT: Media Contact: Transform Group, bnc@transformgroup.com Company Contact: Fran Strajnar, fran@bravenewcoin.com || Institutional Investors Drive Grayscale's Cryptocurrency Q3 Inflows Above $1B: Grayscale Investments on Wednesday reported it received $1.05 billion in cryptocurrency investment products in the third quarter. What Happened: The New York-based investment firm, in its "Digital Asset Investment" report, said that it saw the largest single-quarter capital inflow in Q3. Its year-to-date investments have topped $2.4 billion — double the cumulative flow of $1.2 billion in the 2013-2019 period. The company’s Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTC: GBTC ) led investment demand, garnering inflows of $719.3 million in the period with assets under management growing 147% year-to-date. Demand also grew for other products — Grayscale Bitcoin Cash Trust (OTC: BCHG ), Grayscale Litecoin Trust (OTC: LTCN ), and Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund (OTC: GDLC ) saw inflows rise by more than 1,400% quarter-over-quarter. Grayscale Ethereum Trust (OTC: ETHE ) drew 17% of inflows from new institutional investors. As much as 81% of the investments in the firm’s products came from institutional investors in the period. Why It Matters: On Monday, Grayscale said its Ethereum trust now operated as a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reporting company. The company’s Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin funds got approval for listing on the OTC markets by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in July. JPMorgan analysts said Tuesday that Square Inc’s (NASDAQ: SQ ) $50 million investment in Bitcoin signifies the cryptocurrency’s potential as an asset. The analysts also pointed to the $425 million Bitcoin purchase of MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ: MSTR ) as an indicator of demand for Bitcoin outstripping its supply in the third quarter. Price Action: Bitcoin traded 0.58% lower at $11,390.44 at press time, while Ethereum traded 1.6% lower at $377.32. See more from Benzinga Options Trades For This Crazy Market: Get Benzinga Options to Follow High-Conviction Trade Ideas DeFi Craze Sees Uniswap Overtaking Coinbase In Monthly Trading Volume Justice Department Charges Five For Alleged M Cryptocurrency Mining Fraud © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || PayPal plans a much wider embrace of cryptocurrency, including Venmo use: PayPal CEO Dan Schulman provided new details about the company’s recent embrace of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on Monday, describing plans for shopping tools as well as potential partnerships with central banks. Schulman’s remarks, which came during an earnings call after PayPal posted record third quarter revenues, follows the company’sannouncementlast month that it will soon allow users to buy cryptocurrency within its app. According to Schulman, starting in the first half of next year PayPal will let users draw from cryptocurrency accounts to pay for goods and services at 28 million merchants that use the company’s platform. The arrangement, he says, will not result in any incremental fees for either consumers or merchants. Next year’s expansion will also enable customers to use Venmo, its popular peer-to-peer payment service, to buy and shop with cryptocurrencies. PayPal’s bullishness on cryptocurrencies, Schulman implied, is based on early response to last month’s crypto offering. He said the size of the waiting list for access to crypto, which is now available to 10% of PayPal customers, was two or three times as great as what the company anticipated. Schulman said the service will be available to all U.S. users in the next few weeks. On a broader level, Schulman pointed to the fact that companies and central banks are experimenting with cryptocurrencies, and to the utility of digital wallets. Such wallets are often equated with the payment services offered byAppleandGoogle, but also include apps used to store Bitcoin and other new types of money. “Digital wallets are a natural complement to all forms of digital currency,” said Schulman, adding that PayPal is in close talks with central banks and regulators to explore new uses for these wallets. In response to an analyst question, Schulman said PayPal views cryptocurrency systems—which rely on a tamper-proof online ledger known as a blockchain—as cheaper and more efficient than ACH, which is the network that supports the existing banking system. PayPal is not the only company seeking to bridge the conventional financial system—which Schulman described as “not working” for many low-income people—with the newer world of crypto technology. Last week, cryptocurrency giant Coinbase announceda debit cardthat can be used at ordinary merchants, while MasterCard in Septemberannounced a serviceto let central banks test out digital currencies. Despite such efforts, any attempt to introduce cryptocurrency in day-to-day commerce faces a significant obstacle in the form of the U.S. tax system. The Internal Revenue Service treats any crypto transaction as taxable event, like selling a stock or a piece of real estate—meaning a PayPal user who buys a coffee or groceries from a crypto account could be forced to declare a capital gain. Schulman did not address the tax implications of PayPal’s crypto plans on Monday’s earnings call. Cryptocurrency advocates have been lobbying Congress to create a so-calledde minimusexemption that would excuse small-dollar transactions from IRS scrutiny—an effort that has yet to bear fruit. Cryptocurrency prices have surged in recent months,spurred in partby PayPal’s announcement. The flagship cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is currently trading around $13,600. • What Wall Street needsfrom the 2020 election • Trump’s odds of winning have surged in the past 48 hours, according to this data scientist’s model • How the election results couldimpact tech investors • Theft of $2.3M from GOP shows howcampaigns are juicy targets for hackers • A journalist-turned-detective on howcorporate America depends on private sleuths This story was originally featured onFortune.com || Cryptocurrency Is Just a Minor Threat to the State: Are cryptocurrencies a new form of money and, if so, do they threaten state power? Our friend Nic Carter has recentlycommentedon these questions indialoguewith the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. We would like to add our perspective and thoughts on this, as we believe there is value to be derived from discussing these matters in depth. For better and worse, we believe that blockchains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Handshake (in which I am involved) have features that make them a novel threat to the powers that states derive from currency issuance — but only a very marginal threat. This fairly mild conclusion flows from more controversial premises. Steven McKie is a founding partner and managing director at Amentum Capital, developer on HandyMiner and HandyBrowser for Handshake and host of the BlockChannel podcast. A version of this article first appeared onAmentum’s blog. Related:First Mover: 'Blue Wave' in US Senate Could Mean Flood of Stimulus for Bitcoin The New York Fed writers name three kinds of money: fiat money, money with intrinsic or commodity value and claim-backed money. Without getting lost in the weeds, we think this overcomplicates things. All money that we can think of falls into two categories: either it has intrinsic value (like edible grains) or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, then its value comes from the supposition that someone else values it. This mysterious “someone else” might be totally unspecified, as when we suppose someone will pay us for gold; or it might include a specific party, such as a state, that promises to take the money in exchange for, e.g., discharging tax obligations.Bitcoin, like gold in the post-gold-standard era, falls into the former category. It has no intrinsic value and nobody in particular has promised to exchange anything for it. We just guess that someone will. But we should not be surprised that the world’s most popular kinds of money are the ones that states explicitly promise to honor. For states, such promises are an extremely important instrument of their power. For example, by only accepting dollars as tax payment, the United States obliges its hundreds of millions of people to make sure they have dollars handy. Because of this, everyone in the world knows they can sell their dollars to someone (i.e., to U.S. residents). Moreover, everyone knows that by accumulating dollars they gain certain leverage over the United States. This situation enables the United States to print its own money and in so doing, project its power around the world. The power to print money also gives states another kind of power: It enables them to maximize their productivity. By increasing the money supply, they can pull more people on the margins of the economy into the productive process. But this comes at the cost of the scarcity of money and, because it puts the newly minted money directly into the pockets of the less-powerful, tends to decrease the power of those who have already accumulated a lot of money. Hence, artificial constraints of the money supply, like the gold standard, are often associated with extremely conservative politics. Constraining the money supply hurts productivity, but it preserves social hierarchies. Related:'Boring' Bitcoin Market Sends Miners' Fee Earnings to 3-Month Low This is where the more benign hopes of transcending nation-states mix with the darker fantasies of so-called bitcoin maximalists. On the one hand, a meaningful alternative to national currencies could allow people in abusive regimes not to rely on their governments’ worthless “promises.” On the other hand, a mechanistically fixed supply of money could put an unequal social hierarchy beyond the reach of democratic power, as the gold standard once did. Read more:Trump’s Security Hawks Call Distributed Ledgers ‘Critical’ in US-China Tech Arms Race Bitcoin, in this respect, is very much like gold. And like gold, it poses no active threat to state currencies or state power. For the value of state currencies – as described above – is predicated upon the actual, practical power of states. Throughout modern history, the preeminent reserve currency has been the coin of the world’s preeminent military power. Only if states lose their status as the main global powers are their currencies likely to follow suit. Cryptocurrencies are only playing around the margins of this reality. Still, they can play an interesting role because they have features that prior non-state currencies did not. For example, they can facilitate coordination and communication between their holders. Imagine if all the holders of gold could, for example, vote on whether to mine more. Moreover, some cryptocurrencies have intrinsic value, such as ether (paying for the use of a distributed network), or HNS (paying for domain names on a decentralized registry). The ongoing improvements in global cooperation that happen in the bitcoin/crypto private sector derive from the many players that ensure a proof-of-work (PoW) system remains secure. The intricacies that go into the production of hashrate, such as power and chipmaker pricing negotiation, manufacturing, international sales and marketing, mining pools and hashpower secondary markets. All are playing a piece in hardening relationships locally and internationally. Therefore, a properly secured chain has then worked its way into regional regulations and labor, becoming a localized economic staple over time as it approaches scale. And, the second-order effects that come from that embedded chain of incentives include a public blockchain that is secure, not just technically but socially and politically. The most secure chains possessing such widespread economies of scale become powerful economic instruments of finance and political social progress (albeit slowly, but each new major public chain hastens this emergent process, thankfully). In essence, though these systems may at first seem adversarial to state power by their very design, if you look more closely you’ll see they inherently (slowly) improve diplomacy via scalable trustless cooperation and international business over time. To understand more on the “alchemy of PoW hashpower” and how it naturally derives incentives for international business cooperation, see thisongoing series from Anicca Research. The trustless systems we deploy globally have powerful consequences, and it’s important that we as an industry understand how to continually scale the positive aspects of decentralized monetary systems, without amplifying the negative effects such as centralized financial influence. States are not wrong to be somewhat threatened by these hard-to-assess possibilities. If many people decide they would rather hold cryptocurrencies than state-backed currencies, it will diminish states’ abilities to project power through their coins. Read more:The Crypto-Dollar Surge and the American Opportunity But states still have the armies, the police and – on a good day anyway – democratic legitimacy. All of that still matters, and will for a long time. • Cryptocurrency Is Just a Minor Threat to the State • Cryptocurrency Is Just a Minor Threat to the State || ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 29, 2020 / ALT 5 Sigma Inc. an emerging leader in blockchain powered financial platforms provides its daily digital instruments market summary for Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ether (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD). Real-Time Market Data is available at www.alt5pro.com and Real-Time Market Data feed is also available at www.alt5sigma.com ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH ALT5 Sigma Market Summary Thursday, October 29 2020 at 4:14 PM Digital Asset Pair Price 24hr Chg 7d Chg 24/hr Volume MarketCap Bitcoin BTC/USD $13,480.06 $0.02 $0.03 $29,486 M $249,776 M Ethereum ETH/USD $389.01 $0.01 -$0.07 $12,538 M $44,039 M XRP XRP/USD $0.24 -$0.01 -$0.07 $2,120 M $11,055 M Bitcoin Cash BCH/USD $268.50 -$0.01 -$0.00 $2,730 M $4,983 M Litecoin LTC/USD $54.82 -$0.01 $0.00 $3,024 M $3,605 M Bitcoin SV BSV/USD $167.80 -$0.01 -$0.02 $929 M $3,114 M EOS EOS/USD $2.62 -$0.01 -$0.03 $2,159 M $2,460 M Monero XMR/USD $125.10 -$0.01 -$0.03 $1,012 M $2,220 M Stellar XLM/USD $0.08 -$0.03 -$0.10 $145 M $1,617 M Dash DASH/USD $67.24 -$0.02 -$0.11 $391 M $658 M About ALT 5 Sigma Inc. ALT 5 is a fintech company specializing in the development and deployment of digital assets trading and exchange platforms. Alt 5 was founded by financial industry specialists out of the necessity to provide the digital asset economy with security, accessibility, transparency and compliance. ALT 5 provides its clients the ability to buy, sell and hold digital assets in a safe and secure environment deployed with the best practices of the financial industry. ALT 5's products and services are available to Banks, Broker Dealers, Funds, Family Offices, Professional Traders, Retail Traders, Digital Asset Exchanges, Digital Asset Brokers, Blockchain Developers, and Financial Information Providers. ALT 5's digital asset custodian services are secured by GardaWorld. GardaWorld is the world's largest privately-owned business solutions and security services company, offering cash management services. For more information, visit www.alt5sigma.com . Contact: Andre Beauchesne Tel. 1-800-204-6203 info@alt5sigma.com For more information on ALT 5 Pay, visit www.alt5pay.com For more information on ALT 5 Pro, visit www.alt5pro.com SOURCE: ALT 5 Sigma Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/613448/ALT-5-Sigma-Digital-Instrument-Market-Summary-for-BTC-ETH-LTC-BCH View comments || Blockchain Bites: Dorsey Challenges Coinbase, Nasdaq Lists Diginex, Ethereum Miners Profit: The Australian government is investing big in modern technology, Nasdaq saw its first crypto exchange operator listing and revenues are surging for Ethereum miners amid increased network activity. Top shelf Australia modernizes Australia will commit A$800 million (US$575 million) to invest in digital technologies as part of its coronavirus recovery plan, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Tuesday. The federal plan will see US$256.6 million for a digital identity solution, $419.9 million to fully implement the Modernising Business Registers (MBR) program, $22.2 million for small businesses training to utilize digital technologies and two blockchain pilot programs totalling $6.9 million. “The Plan supports Australia’s economic recovery by removing out-dated regulatory barriers, boosting the capability of small businesses and backs the uptake of technology across the economy,” Morrison said in the announcement. Nasdaq launch Blockchain services firm Diginex has become the first crypto exchange operator to list on Nasdaq . The stock went live Thursday morning under the EQOS ticker symbol, a nod to the firm’s EQUOS.io trading platform. CoinDesk’s Nathan DiCamillo reports Diginex’s back-door listing came through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Diginex CEO Richard Byworth said he expects a mix of global retail and institutional investors to buy shares. Over time, he expects the majority of Diginex shareholders to be U.S. investors because of the Nasdaq listing. Related: First Mover: Nine (Bullish) Bitcoin Predictions for Final Months of (Awful) 2020 Dorsey responds Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted his disapproval of Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s mission statement to keep his company free and clear of politics. Dorsey argued that by the very act of being a crypto exchange, Coinbase was always already engaged in politics. “Bitcoin (aka ‘crypto’) is direct activism against an unverifiable and exclusionary financial system which negatively affects so much of our society. Important to at least acknowledge and connect the related societal issues your customers face daily. This leaves people behind,” Dorsey tweeted. Armstrong made waves this week – in and out of crypto – when saying Coinbase, and its employees, should keep work and activism separate. Story continues Election predictions Putting stake to their claims, many crypto-political gamblers have cast their vote predicting who might win the contentious U.S. presidential election. CoinDesk markets editor Lawrence Lewitinn looked at the data following this week’s first presidential debate and found many are betting incumbent President Donald Trump will lose in November. While bettors on decentralized betting platforms like Augur and futures markets on FTX aren’t as bullish on the challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, he does have the odds. “Thus what’s true at the time of publication can change on a dime. It is now fewer than five weeks until Election Day. Buckle up!” Lewitinn warns. Mining profits HIVE Blockchain has reported its best-ever quarter, as the mining firm raked in record fees from the frenzied activity in decentralized finance (DeFi) over the summer. The Toronto-listed mining company released its unaudited results Thursday, saying it mined a total of 32,000 ether (ETH) and 121,000 ethereum classic (ETC) in the second fiscal quarter ending Sept. 30. Per CoinDesk’s price data, that comes to nearly $11.8 million for mining ether, and a further $664,000 for ethereum classic – approximately $12.4 million at time of writing. The figures represent a near 30% increase from the 25,000 ETH that HIVE mined in the first quarter and a 50% increase in the same quarter in 2019. Stealth launch In the latest effort to smooth a path for buttoned-up investors, Talos, an institutional-grade conduit to the crypto ecosystem, is emerging from stealth mode to serve brokers, custodians, exchanges and over-the-counter (OTC) trading desks. The platform started out in 2018 and is backed by an impressive list of investors including Autonomous Partners, Castle Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and Initialized Capital. Over the past year or so, Talos has been quietly onboarding a core group of capital market participants, so that the platform can make its debut in a revenue-generating state. Quick bites Thirst Traps Explode on NFT Platforms, With Predictably Controversial Results (Leigh Cuen/CoinDesk) A Black Hole in Uniswap V2’s Front-End Router Is Draining the Value of Tokens (Alessandro Mario Lagana Toschi/Medium) Chainlink Founder Explains How He's Making $1bn of WBTC More Secure (Robert Stevens/Decrypt) Nine (Bullish) Bitcoin Predictions for Final Months of (Awful) 2020 (First Mover/CoinDesk) Dapper’s NBA Top Shot Launches Out of Beta With Samsung Galaxy Store Deal (Jaspreet Kalra/CoinDesk) At stake Related: Blockchain Bites: Coinbase's Severance Offer, DeFi's Latest Fund, Overstock's Legal Win SEC action Wednesday, a U.S. judge ruled Kik’s $100 million token raise was in violation of securities laws. This is essentially the denouement to a year’s long battle between the Canadian messaging app and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Though Kik will have an opportunity to appeal. Responding to the SEC’s motion to summary judgment – where the regulator can ask to conclude a trial based on “undisputed material facts,” rather than engaging in a trial – U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein found Kik’s “token distribution event” (TDE) satisfied the three prongs of the Howey Test. CoinDesk’s Nikhilesh De reports that initial coin offerings (ICOs) and token sales have been treated as unregistered securities sales for the most part by the SEC. Kik became a champion for crypto freedoms when challenging the SEC’s claims that its kin ICO – which the company pursued in lieu of VC backing – was an unregistered securities offering. The firm’s CEO Ted Livingston took a gamble, selling off his messaging business in 2019 and going all in on kin. “We are getting sued by the SEC. We are going to go to court to fight them. We believe they are wrong,” Livingston told CoinDesk in 2019. Several times, and in different ways, he asserted: “It’s not that we did something wrong. It’s that we did it first.” In a statement, Livingston said he was “disappointed in this ruling,” and that the company is considering its options, including a potential appeal. Preston Byrne, a CoinDesk columnist and Anderson Kill lawyer, tweeted: “Tl;dr the court shredded Kik. Don’t f*** around with tokens in America.” Notably, in a separate action, the SEC has ordered Salt Lending to offer investors refunds for its 2017 ICO . Salt has agreed to settle the action and will pay a $250,000 civil penalty to the Commission in the next 10 days. Market intel Crash for cash Bitcoin faced selling pressure in September as the U.S. dollar rose against major currencies for the first time in six months. The cryptocurrency fell by over 7% over the period – the biggest monthly percentage decline since March, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index, when prices fell by nearly 25% as the coronavirus-induced crash in the global equity markets triggered a global dash for cash, sending the dollar higher. Bitcoin’s latest monthly decline is again accompanied by an uptick in the greenback. Eth revenues Ethereum miners earned over six times more in fees compared to those working on Bitcoin in September. Glassnode data shows Ethereum’s total transaction fees stood at an all-time high of $166 million for the month – far more than the $26 million taken in Bitcoin fees. Fee revenue on Ethereum first outpaced Bitcoin’s in June, the same month decentralized lender Compound released its governance token and kick-started the DeFi mania, CoinDesk’s Paddy Baker reports. Op-ed Common cause Matt Luongo, founder of Thesis, writes that Bitcoiners who stack sats and people who use decentralized finance share common cause. “Bitcoiners who stack sats should take a hard look at the decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms seeing explosive growth on Ethereum. While the optics may call to mind the wild speculation of 2017, the truth is that much of the growth in DeFi is driven by the same sound money principles as stacking,” he writes. Internet 2030 Amy Webb, a quantitative futurist and founder of the strategic foresight firm Future Today Institute, thinks the world can, indeed, get worse. In an interview with CoinDesk, as part of the Internet 2030 series, she lays out her vision for the world where big tech only gets bigger. The conversation has been excerpted below. Do you see a genuine way out through distributed technologies that may give people control over their own data? I worry about people who never update their passwords – should we entrust them to manage sensitive data? There are complex questions about data hygiene, data governance, compliance, risk. Distributed tech solutions solve some of our problems, but not all. Few people have an understanding of how data are collected, by whom, for what purpose. There are lots of organizations proposing some kind of “ownership” model, where we individually would “own” our data. What does that mean? I want consumers to be much better aware of what data they are generating – that includes the digital emissions they’re releasing without realizing it. Think of all the metadata being generated by our connected devices, the ambient sounds in our homes and offices, our movements and gestures. All of those digital emissions, plus the PIIs collected now by contract tracing apps and biometric scanning systems – I mean, we’re swimming in data. What might the cultural or political effects be of an ever-greater consolidated and extractive web? We talk about privacy a lot, and journalists certainly write a lot of stories about data sharing, privacy and consolidation within the tech sector. But when it comes to everyday consumers and business leaders, it just doesn’t seem like these are priority issues. We’ll feel the effects when there is litigation, new policy or sweeping policy enacted. Have an idea for what the future of the internet will look like, reach out to daniel@coindesk.com . Who won #CryptoTwitter? Related Stories Blockchain Bites: Dorsey Challenges Coinbase, Nasdaq Lists Diginex, Ethereum Miners Profit Blockchain Bites: Dorsey Challenges Coinbase, Nasdaq Lists Diginex, Ethereum Miners Profit || Should We Care if the US Is Falling Behind on CBDCs?: A reading of two recent op-eds on central bank digital currencies. Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,iHeartRadioorRSS. This episode is sponsored byCrypto.com,Nexo.ioandElliptic. Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for Oct. 26, 2020 For this week’s Long Reads Sunday, NLW reads two selections from CoinDesk’s op-ed section: CBDCs Are Evolution, not Revolution– Benoit Coeure The US Risks Getting Left Behind on CBDCs– JP Schnapper-Casteras and Misha Guttentag See also:The IMF, G20 and BIS Gear Up for the Central Bank Digital Currency Era Related:The Big Choices When Designing Central Bank Digital Currencies Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,iHeartRadioorRSS. • Should We Care if the US Is Falling Behind on CBDCs? • Should We Care if the US Is Falling Behind on CBDCs? || CrossTower exchange reports record trading volumes in October: $150 MM total volume reached only five months after platform’s launch New York, Nov. 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --CrossTower, a digital asset exchange operator founded by capital markets veterans on a mission to mainstream digital asset investing and trading, today announced US $150 million traded on its platform since its launch in May, and a record US $60 million in volumes traded in October. This makes CrossTower one of the fastest growing exchanges in the US based on the value of instruments traded. CrossTower’s platform has been methodically built for institutional and individual investors with best-in-class safeguards, services and technologically advanced capabilities. “The rapid rise of our trading volumes is a testament to our leadership in building a credible exchange and our commitment to compliance,” said Kapil Rathi, CEO of CrossTower. “Our bench strength and the rigor of our platform put us in a unique position to play a vital role in today’s evolving market structure, and demonstrate the reality that participants are shifting towards exchanges with a regulatory focus.” CrossTower brings five distinct qualities to the digital asset markets: 1. An Institutional Experience –senior team members have spent their careers building and running traditional platforms so institutions find their experience with CrossTower familiar; 2. Overall Low Cost of Trading – a competitive and innovative pricing model along with technology to help customers achieve best execution by minimizing implicit and opportunity costs; 3. Market Leading Liquidity - partnerships with leading market makers that are enabling CrossTower to offer deep liquidity and tight spreads; 4. Regulatory Safeguards – built with rigorous security and regulatory safeguards; 5. Robust Technology – low latency, high throughput matching engine supports a wide range of innovative order types and co-location services help users achieve lightning-fast trading speed. The news of the firm’s $60 million milestone follows the recent announcement last month in whichCrossTower announced it was granted a Class M licenseto launch a sister exchange that now operates internationally out of Bermuda. CrossTower also recently announcedthree strategic new hiresfrom crypto and finance heavyweights Kraken, Galaxy and Legg Mason. Today CrossTower supports trading in the most widely traded cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, USDC, Bitcoin Cash, XRP, Stellar, Chainlink, BAT and ZCash, Ox, MKR and DAI. Those interested can access the CrossTower platformhere. ### ABOUT CROSSTOWER CrossToweris an exchange operator founded by capital markets veterans on a mission to mainstream digital asset trading and investing. We have built a multi-asset platform for institutional and individual investors with best-in-class safeguards, services and capabilities to make the next-generation financial markets a reality. CrossTower has methodically built its platform, leveraging its trading experience, technology, operational infrastructure, innovative pricing as well as regulatory and client service models, to ensure the success of the exchange at launch and well into the future. For more information, visitwww.crosstower.com. CONTACT: Monica Van Horn CrossTower 917-446-6358 media@crosstower.com [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 17645.41, 17804.01, 17817.09, 18621.31, 18642.23, 18370.00, 18364.12, 19107.46, 18732.12, 17150.62
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-06-09] BTC Price: 9795.70, BTC RSI: 57.10 Gold Price: 1714.70, Gold RSI: 50.83 Oil Price: 38.94, Oil RSI: 65.39 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] IBM Teams With 3 European Power Grids to Build Green Energy Blockchain Platform: IBM has created a blockchain consortium with three of Europe’s electricity grid operators to help smooth the transition to renewable sources of energy. It’s an important step in the direction of decentralizing and democratizing the way power is consumed, which is essential if nations are toreach 2050 carbon-reduction goals. The newEquigyplatform is backed by TenneT, a grid provider covering Netherlands and part of Germany; Terna covering Italy; and Swissgrid covering Switzerland. Blockchain tech is employed as an accounting system so that consumers charging their electric vehicles (EV) or using home batteries can interact with the three transmission system operators (TSOs). Related:Blockchain Bites: Hyperledger Makes Inroads, Bitcoin Gets ‘Harder’ and Buffett’s Not ‘Halving’ It Read more:Why Tech-Minded Climate Groups See COVID-19 as a Trial Run for Massive Change Stepping back, one of the challenges with renewable energy sources like wind or solar is that power production is no longer as predictable as it is with coal- or gas-fired plants, which can be ramped up at will. The problem of green energy fluctuation can be addressed by consumers, many of whom are steadily shifting their transportation needs onto the electricity grid (oil is becoming astranded assetin front of our very eyes). By opting to temporarily stop charging an EV, for instance, the efforts of individual users aggregated together can spare the grid megawatts of power. A blockchain, in this case the Linux-affiliated Hyperledger Fabric protocol favored by Big Blue, operates as a trusted backbone to share charging data between consumers, aggregators and TSOs, which Equigy officials say will help create a unified system across borders. Related:IBM, Mastercard Join Digital Identity Project Building ‘Ecosystems of Trust’ “We can make the cause of the problem, which are all these renewable assets and people using EVs, also the solution,” said Leo Dijkstra of IBM’s Energy, Environment & Utilities unit. “If they can scale together then it’s possible to participate in the market for flexible power.” For example, 100 EVs charging at 10 kilowatts equals a megawatt of flexible power, which is typically the smallest increment traded on flexible power markets, said Dijkstra. By aggregating the steadily growing number of EVs on the road, it becomes possible to equal the impact of big players in that market. “The flexible power market is typically where large companies play, either with power plants or large industrial installations, not somewhere you and I can participate with our own assets,” said Dijkstra. “But we saw the blockchain as a means to make the system trusted and democratized, so that domestic appliances can participate and be trusted by the TSO.” Read more:Hyperledger Conference Shows Where Blockchain Can Fight Global Warming Irene Adamski, co-chair of the energy working group at theInternational Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA), said the Equigy initiative showed lots of “promising signs,” and that something like this proposal has been brewing in the energy space for the past three years. Having powerhouses such as TenneT, Swissgrid and Terna is sensible when seeking to solve energy transition challenges for all of Europe, said Adamski, formerly of the Energy Web Foundation and currently a blockchain adviser to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). “Should the Equigy pilot project succeed, the heavily integrated area of Netherlands-Germany-Switzerland-Italy is an excellent jump-off point to expand across the continent,” she said. “The possible addition of Denmark, one of the countries with the largest amount of renewable energy in the mix, would make the entire thing rock solid.” Electric-car makers are especially interested, said IBM’s Dijkstra, because consumers, by participating in such schemes, could see the total cost of EV ownership reduced. Looking ahead, the next step is to enable EVs to discharge power into the grid. This will require cars and connection points to be enabled, but it’s all on the roadmap, said Dijkstra, pointing to Equigy case studies involvingBMWandNissan. Read more:GM, BMW Back Blockchain Data Sharing for Self-Driving Cars Francisco Carranza, managing director of Nissan Energy, said he was pleased to see this platform rapidly scaling across Europe through the TSO collaboration of TenneT, Swissgrid and Terna. “Most importantly, the system ensures that the electric vehicle owners are in full control and manage their energy storage or utilization. This enables balance of the grid efficiently and in the most profitable way,” he said in a statement. The Equigy pilot, which is the fruit of a number of proofs-of-concept, will run until the end of the year. Dijkstra explained that since TSOs are responsible for facilitating regulated processes, the consortium is initiated by Terna, Swissgrid and TenneT, whereas other firms such as carmakers cooperate as project partners. The big challenge with all this is getting pioneering technology to integrate with legacy systems and architecture, as opposed to merely showcasing standalone proofs-of-concept, said Adamski. In her role as co-chair of INATBA’s energy group, Adamski saysincremental changes via sandboxes and blockchain projects are better suitedto addressing the problem than a single, heavily funded attempt at an overhaul. “From the DLT ecosystem perspective, it will also be interesting to see what technological approach they [Equigy] intend to take and which code base they plan to use,” she said. Another essential piece of the puzzle is getting regulators to collaborate in the decentralization of the existing system. “A lot of the proposed market roles, data exchange mechanisms and liability questions are so new that the existing legal frameworks do not cover them sufficiently,” Adamski said. • IBM, Merck Declare FDA-Backed Drug Tracing Blockchain a Success • Enterprise Blockchains: Walled Off Yet Vulnerable || Crypto Forensics Firm Chainalysis Adds Tracing Support for Zcash, Dash: The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) has distributed cash to local banks over blockchain. On Monday, the central bank announced that it had deposited “part” of a recent banking sector liquidity pump through “blockchain technology,” after injecting 50 billion riyals ($13.3 billion) into local banks on June 1. At the time, SAMA said banks maintained an average Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) of 201%, meaning Saudi banks had more than enough cash on hand to cover short-term obligations. Related: Saudi Monetary Authority Pumped Some of $13B Bank Infusion Using Blockchain The banking sector’s average Capital Adequacy Ratio – essentially a measurement of financial soundness – was at 18.6%, placing the banks in line with the Kingdom’s longstanding target of between 18 and 20%. SAMA did not disclose which banks received liquidity injections over blockchain or how much of the overall package SAMA had pumped across the blockchain. Furthermore, it did not state what blockchain platform it had used. The action appears to be the first case of SAMA providing liquidity via blockchain. It is not, however, the central bank’s first foray into blockchain tech. SAMA began trialing Ripple’s xCurrent for cross-border payments in 2018. A Ripple representative did not immediately answer questions regarding the company’s ongoing partnership status or whether xCurrent played a role in the SAMA liquidity pump. Related Stories India’s Central Bank Removes Lingering Confusion Over Banking for Crypto Firms First Mover: Bitcoin Could Get a Boost From Central Bank Digital Currencies Central Banks Mull Creating a CBDC, but Not on a Blockchain: Survey || Bitcoin News Roundup for May 6, 2020: BTC stays above $9K while some startups wrestle for market share. It’s CoinDesk’s Markets Daily Podcast. This episode is sponsored by ErisX , The Stellar Development Foundation and Grayscale Digital Large Cap Investment Fund . For early access before our regular noon Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica or RSS . Related: Surveying the Carnage: How Real Estate, Travel and Music Are Faring During the Crisis Today’s stories: Bitcoin Breaches $9.2K as Open Positions on CME Futures Hit 10-Month High BitMEX Is Making Bitcoin Network More Expensive for Everyone, Researcher Finds ChromaWay Expands Effort to Put Latin American Land Records on the Blockchain Related: Why Crypto Matters for Financial Inclusion, Feat. Celo’s Marek Olszewski ASX Accused of Trying to ‘Crush’ Rival Blockchain Trading System For early access before our regular noon Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica or RSS . Related Stories Bitcoin News Roundup for May 5, 2020 Why Warren Buffett’s Bearishness Should End V-Shaped Recovery Talk View comments || Latest Bitcoin price and analysis (BTC to USD): Bitcoin endured a surprisingly volatile Easter weekend as it traded within a 10% range between $7,300 and $6,570. As of Tuesday morning it is trading firmly in the middle of that range, with price being lured back towards the $6,800 mark. Bitcoin continues to present a number of bullish cases on both lower and higher time frames, the first of which would be a breakout above the $7,400 level of resistance before next month’s halving event. The next test would be taking out the daily 200 moving average, which is currently in confluence with the $8,080 level. However, from a higher time frame perspective Bitcoin needs to avoid closing daily and weekly candles beneath the diagonal trendline dating back to 2017, which is now at around $4,500. A break below this level would indicate a transition into a bearish phase in the market, with downside targets continuing to emerge at $1,800 and $1,150. Another point of resistance to the upside is at around $9,400 as it connects to the diagonal trendline dating back to December 2017, which has not been broken for more than two years. Regardless of whether the halving has the desired impact on price action remains to be seen, but from a short-term perspective the trend is absolutely bullish with Bitcoin being 71.68% up since the turn of the year despite economic instability driven by the Coronavirus. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . Bitcoin pricing Current live BTC pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Bitcoin price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: US Dollar – BTCtoUSD British Pound Sterling – BTCtoGBP Japanese Yen – BTCtoJPY Euro – BTCtoEUR Australian Dollar – BTCtoAUD Russian Rouble – BTCtoRUB About Bitcoin In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered. On 31st October 2008, a paper was published called “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. This was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. To date, no one knows who this person, or people, are. Story continues The paper outlined a method of using a P2P network for electronic transactions without “relying on trust”. On January 3 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence. Nakamoto mined block number “0” (or the “genesis block”), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins. More BTC news and information If you want to find out more information about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Here’s an article to get you started. As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. || Breakeven Crude Oil Production Costs Around The World: If the market price of a raw material is higher than its cost of extracting it from the crust of the earth or any other form of production, it leads to increased output. A profitable production process provides an incentive for output. When the cost of production is higher than the market price, output declines as it becomes a losing proposition. The price cycle in commodities causes prices to rise to levels where production increases. Higher output leads to growing inventories. As a market becomes more expensive, the elasticity of demand causes consumers to look for substitutes and buying declines, leading to price tops and reversals to the downside. When the price of a commodity falls below the cost of production, output slows. The demand tends to increase as consumers take advantage of lower prices, and inventories begin to decline, leading to price bottoms. The price cycle in a commodities market can change because of exogenous events, but it tends to be efficient. High prices lead to glut conditions, and low prices often create shortages, over time. Production cost is one of the critical variables that fundamental analysts use to project the path of least resistance for market prices. In thecrude oil market, output costs vary according to the production location. Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the United States are the three leading oil-producing nations in the world, and each has different sensitivities to output costs. Over half the world’scrude oilreserves are in the Middle East, and Saudi Arabia is the leading producer in the region. The Saudis have long been the most potent force within OPEC, the international oil cartel. Saudi Arabia’s vast reserves make production as easy as turning on a garden hose in our backyards for the country. Meanwhile, the Saudi economy depends on oil revenues. The rising costs of running the country have pushed the break-even level of the price of the energy commodity to over $80 per barrel on theBrent benchmark. While the nominal production cost of oil is the lowest in the world in Saudi Arabia at$2.80 per barrel, the requirements for revenues creates a wide gap between production economics and balancing the Saudi budget. Russia is an enigma when it comes to the cost of production for the energy commodity. The Russians, under President Vladimir Putin, is structured as an oligarchy. A small group runs the nation’s economy. Therefore, the production cost of crude oil is an enigma and a state secret. In 2020, theRussian leader had saidthat he is comfortable with a Brent price around the $40 per barrel level. The statement could shed at least some light on the price level for the energy commodity that provides enough revenue to keep the system running smoothly. In the 1970s and 1980s, the United States was dependent on oil imports from the Middle East. Rising prices during this century, combined with reserve discoveries in shale regions, caused production to increase. Moreover, technological advances in extracting crude oil from the crust of the earth and regulatory reforms under the Trump Administration caused daily output to rise to over 13 million barrels per day, making the US the world’s leading producer and achieving the goal of independence. The US is a marginal producer. While production costs have declined, they are still around the$30 to $40 per barrel level. The US is in a position where it is a dominant marginal producer. When the price of oil rises above production costs, the output can increase. When it falls below, the US can turn off production and import inexpensive crude oil from other nations. In any commodity, the production cost is a critical factor when it comes to the fundamental supply and demand equation. Pricing cycles take prices above and below break-even output costs at times. Each leading producer has different requirements when it comes to prices, which makes a global analysis complicated and the worldwide break-even equation for crude oil an economic and geopolitical enigma. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Bitcoin and Ether see Signs of Bullish Movement? • EUR/USD Daily Forecast – Euro Advances on a Weaker Dollar • Unlimited Support From Central Banks Keeps Markets Energised • Oil Is Suffering from Market Risks Again • Negative Commodity Prices – Causes and Effects • Breakeven Crude Oil Production Costs Around The World || SHAREHOLDER ACTION NOTICE: The Schall Law Firm Announces the Filing of a Class Action Lawsuit Against Canaan Inc. and Encourages Investors with Losses in Excess of $100,000 to Contact the Firm: LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / April 23, 2020 / The Schall Law Firm , a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit against Canaan Inc. ("Canaan" or "the Company") (NASDAQ: CAN ) for violations of the federal securities laws. Investors who purchased the Company's securities pursuant and/or traceable to the Company's initial public offering ("IPO") on or about November 20, 2019, are encouraged to contact the firm before May 4, 2020. If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate . We also encourage you to contact Brian Schall of the Schall Law Firm, 1880 Century Park East, Suite 404, Los Angeles, CA 90067, at 310-301-3335, to discuss your rights free of charge. You can also reach us through the firm's website at www.schallfirm.com , or by email at brian@schallfirm.com . The class, in this case, has not yet been certified, and until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member. According to the Complaint, the Company made false and misleading statements to the market. Canaan claimed to engage in "strategic cooperation" which was really just a related-party transaction. The Company was in a weaker financial position than it reported. The Company removed many distributors immediately before the IPO, many of which were of dubious quality. Many of the Company's Chinese customers were not in the Bitcoin industry and were therefore not likely to buy its products again. Based on these facts, the Company's public statements were false and materially misleading throughout the class period. When the market learned the truth about Canaan, investors suffered damages. Join the case to recover your losses. The Schall Law Firm represents investors around the world and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics. Story continues CONTACT: The Schall Law Firm Brian Schall, Esq., www.schallfirm.com Office: 310-301-3335 Cell: 424-303-1964 info@schallfirm.com SOURCE: The Schall Law Firm View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/586680/SHAREHOLDER-ACTION-NOTICE-The-Schall-Law-Firm-Announces-the-Filing-of-a-Class-Action-Lawsuit-Against-Canaan-Inc-and-Encourages-Investors-with-Losses-in-Excess-of-100000-to-Contact-the-Firm || CLASS ACTION UPDATE for CAN, GOSS and I: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP Reminds Investors of Class Actions on Behalf of Shareholders: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / April 26, 2020 / Levi & Korsinsky, LLP announces that class action lawsuits have commenced on behalf of shareholders of the following publicly-traded companies. Shareholders interested in serving as lead plaintiff have until the deadlines listed to petition the court. Further details about the cases can be found at the links provided. There is no cost or obligation to you. CAN Shareholders Click Here: https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/canaan-inc-loss-form?prid=6196&wire=1 GOSS Shareholders Click Here: https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/gossamer-bio-inc-loss-form?prid=6196&wire=1 I Shareholders Click Here: https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/intelsat-s-a-loss-form?prid=6196&wire=1 * ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BELOW * Canaan Inc. ( CAN ) CAN Lawsuit on behalf of: investors who purchased publicly traded securities of Canaan, including its American Depository Shares pursuant and/or traceable to the Company's registration statement and related prospectus issued in connection with the Company's November 20, 2019 initial public offering. Lead Plaintiff Deadline : May 4, 2020 TO LEARN MORE, VISIT: https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/canaan-inc-loss-form?prid=6196&wire=1 According to the filed complaint, (1) the purported "strategic cooperation" was actually a transaction with a related party; (2) the company's financial health was worse than what was actually reported; (3) the company had recently removed numerous distributors from its website just prior to the initial public offering, many of which were small or suspicious businesses; and (4) several of the Company's largest Chinese clients in prior years were clients who were not in the Bitcoin mining industry and, thus, would likely not be repeat customers. Gossamer Bio, Inc. ( GOSS ) GOSS Lawsuit on behalf of: investors who purchased common stock between February 8, 2019 and December 13, 2019 and/or who acquired Gossamer shares pursuant or traceable to Gossamer's documents issued in connection with its February 8, 2019 initial public offering. Lead Plaintiff Deadline : June 2, 2020 TO LEARN MORE, VISIT: https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/gossamer-bio-inc-loss-form?prid=6196&wire=1 Story continues The filed complaint alleges that defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose: (1) the reasons for Gossamer's GB001 trial failures; (2) the purported clinical validation of Novartis' oral DP2 antagonist; and (3) that, as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. Intelsat S.A. (NYSE:I) I Lawsuit on behalf of: investors who purchased November 5, 2019 - November 18, 2019 Lead Plaintiff Deadline : June 8, 2020 TO LEARN MORE, VISIT: https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/intelsat-s-a-loss-form?prid=6196&wire=1 The complaint filed against BC Partners, its individual partners and directors of Intelsat Raymond Svider and Justice Bateman, and Silver Lake Group, L.L.C. (and its related entities) alleges that throughout the class period, defendants made false and misleading statements to the market. Specifically, the complaint alleges that Silver Lake and its fellow defendants violated the Exchange Act by selling a block of Intelsat's shares while holding material non-public information, including the fact that the Company had met with the Federal Communications Commission (the "FCC") on November 5, 2019 to discussed the sale of spectrum controlled by Intelsat for future "5G" use (the "C-Band"). The FCC opposed Intelsat's proposal for a private sale of the C-Band, preferring a public auction. The FCC announced a public auction of the C-Band on November 18, 2019, contrary to Intelsat's wishes, its stock dropped 40%. You have until the lead plaintiff deadlines to request that the court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff. Levi & Korsinsky is a nationally recognized firm with offices in New York, California, Connecticut, and Washington D.C. The firm's attorneys have extensive expertise and experience representing investors in securities litigation and have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for aggrieved shareholders. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. CONTACT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP Joseph E. Levi, Esq. 55 Broadway, 10th Floor New York, NY 10006 jlevi@levikorsinsky.com Tel: (212) 363-7500 Fax: (212) 363-7171 https://www.zlk.com/ SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/587105/CLASS-ACTION-UPDATE-for-CAN-GOSS-and-I-Levi-Korsinsky-LLP-Reminds-Investors-of-Class-Actions-on-Behalf-of-Shareholders || Negative Interest Rates – LIsten to the Markets: This doesn’t just concern rates or fixed income traders, but the flow-on effects are being felt in FX and equity markets too. The interesting aspect here is that this is not just the US, but the markets are close to pricing a negative interest rates policy (NIRP) from theBoE, while theRBNZhas also said they are talking to their banks about NIRP. There are two ways to look at this argument – the first being whether the market sees negative rates as a positive or a negative for risk assets. The second is the prospect of it happening, just how dark the world would have to be, and importantly, what role could the financial markets play in getting us to the point of negative rates. In terms of the second consideration, other than Fed chair Powell, and perhaps Richard Clarida and Lael Brainard, I will take my cues on NIRP solely from the market on this matter. When the market has a vision they can influence whether NIRP materialises – just as we saw in late 2018 (Fed balance sheet taper) and in the leadup to the global COVID-19 crisis (rate cuts) – when the markets go after an idea and want change in monetary policy the moves in markets can be prolific. It is a little strange how the conversation of negative rates suddenly sprang into life, as there was no one smoking gun. Granted, noted economist Kenneth Rogoff’ well-known views on negative rates have been regurgitated, and we saw ex-Minneapolis Fed president, Narayana Kocherlakota, putting out an opinion piece on the subject. But, for this to become a central theme in markets and attract the attention of multiple Fed speakers, not to mention capture a decent chunk of Stanley Druckenmiller’s overnight speech at the NY Economic Club, is bizarre. At the risk of being a conspiracy theorist, it’s almost like an entity has put out a trial balloon for the market to debate and ultimately remove any taboo. Most Fed members are openly opposed to negative rates, but by openly discussing this it removes much of the shock factor well in advanced. The fact is NIRP is a monetary policy tool they have in their arsenal. Perhaps it’s one that will be deployed behind yield curve control, increased QE, forward guidance or even equity purchases, but it is one they can use, and the market has it on their radar. As Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester made clear (in her speech overnight) – “we don’t view negative rates as a go-to tool for the Fed”. Fair, but its one they acknowledge and fits in well with a 2019 paper authored by Eric R.Sims and Jing Wu titled ‘Evaluating central banks’ tool kit: Past, present and future’, in which they lay out the policies available and the probable and preferred order shouldeach be rolled out– I suspect this has been adopted through the Fed collective, and negative rates are the last one off the run sheet. The swaps and fed funds futures curve started to price in negative rates last Thursday, where we saw the June fed funds futures trade to -5bp. Options on Eurodollar futures were pricing in a 20% chance of a cut, and if we look at the swaps market now and 1Y1Y OIS, we can see this now at -3bp – while in the UK, swaps pricing (top pane – white) on 1Y1Y OIS is about to turn negative. Rates traders have been quick to point out that this element of negative pricing is more technical in nature, with funds hedging tail risk rather than it being a genuine play on a change in policy. Rates pricing aside, the US 2-yr Treasury gets the close focus on the bond curve. At 16bp we are at or getting into the zero lower bounds (ZLB), but a move through 10bp would be the trigger to show the bond market is preparing for the Fed to move. That won’t come anytime soon, and is incredibly unlikely in 2020, but if equities do turn lower and vols pick up markedly then the market will go after the Fed and explore what they have in their toolbox. At this juncture the market likes the idea of negative rates – I guess the notion that investors are pushed further out the risk curve is seen as good for risk assets. One can argue that by lowering the discount rate, the net present value (NPV) for high cash flow business increases, which is why we have seen US tech working so well. The same is not true for banks, and as we can see with JPM – one of the world’s premier financial institutions – is holding a strong relationship with the 2-yr UST. The fact the S&P500 and NASDAQ 100 has rallied whenever there has been talk of negative rates being adopted is likely because of concentration risk, where a handful of mega-cap stocks command a sizeable weighting on both indices. If the financial sector commanded a 30% weight on the S&P500, for example, we’d likely see the index fall when talk of NIRP kicked up – so index composition is key. I also expect theUSDto become far more sensitive to moves in US2yr, and as we can see, the 20-day rolling correlation between the DXY and UST 2s sits at 38%. Looking at the distributions over the past five years, we have typically seen this correlation closer to 55%, so I expect this relationship to grow, where higher bond yields result in USD strength and vice versa. I would expect USDJPY to be especially correlated, with the 20-day correlation moving above 80%. Gold, Bitcoin and EM FX would also be a beneficiary of negative rates. (20-day rolling correlation between the DXY and US2yr) There is no doubt that most economists and market participants see negative rates as unlikely, but also incredibly undesirable and counterproductive. Why wouldn’t they? It has smashed banks profitability in Europe and Japan and the various case studies we have hardly make the policy seem compelling. US banks will mount a serious PR and legal challenge here, as it would represent a tax to them. Let’s not forget they have strong ties to the Fed, who would need to alter the Fed Act to allow the fed funds effective rate to move below zero. We also need to remember the US banks have just made massive provisions against future bad loans. As we can see from the chart, bankruptcies tend to follow the unemployment rate (blue), although we’re told that many of these jobs are to return once the economies re-open. So, penalizing the banks at this vulnerable time could see interbank lending rates (think Ted Spread) rise. The thing is it does not really matter what economists or Twitter influencers think of negative rates. It only matters that the Fed is open to the idea of negative rates and that NIRP is in the toolbox as an option – but that is it. What matters is what the market thinks, how the collective flow of capital moves in anticipation of the negative rates, and from what we have seen of late is that negative rates are positive for risk. Negatives aside, consider the other side of the argument: • The likely $4t deficit needs funding. Adopting negative rates would help keep the associated costs down. With yield curve control presumably in place, bond investors will demand greater compensation for having to fund the US Treasury, but yields would be capped, and bond investors have a pre-defined risk. • It will be another blow to savers, but they have had a negative real return for some time, and this could force investors into the corporate bond space, which is now backed by the Fed. There is plenty of real returns in this asset class, with the Fed having reduced the risk. • By adopting negative rates, the Fed could weaken the USD, which may, in turn, boosting the EM trade. • Negative rates would bring down lending rates. Of course, you need demand from borrowers, but if you’re in the market to buy a house then it will be cheap. Personally, I see pro’s and many cons but when the market puts NIRP in their collective sights, it will presumably mean the world is a dark and gloomy place and of the many other policies the Fed throw at supporting the economy are failing. I think that makes the potential effectiveness of NIRP incredibly hard to model and it could be a case of being careful or what you wish for. Sign up herefor my Daily Fix orStart trading now Chris Weston, Head of Global Research atPepperstone. (Read Our PepperstoneReview) Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • US Budget Outlays at Record High, but the Fed Says More is Needed • Asian Stocks Finish Mixed as Investors Continue to Monitor COVID-19 Developments • Gold Price Prediction – Prices Rise but Remain Range bound as CPI Drops • The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -13/05/20 • GBP/USD Holds On To Range Support By a Thread • Will 1.22 Support in GBPUSD Prevent Further Declines? || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -24/05/20: Bitcoin rose by 0.15% on Saturday. Following on from a 1.14% gain on Friday, Bitcoin ended the day at $9,175.6. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning intraday high $9,304.0 before hitting reverse. Coming within range of the first major resistance level at $9,309.13, Bitcoin slid to a midday intraday low $9,072.8. Steering clear of the first major support level at $8,975.53, Bitcoin briefly revisited $9,200 levels before easing back. The near-term bearish trend, formed at late June 2019’s swing hi $13,764.0, remained firmly intact, reaffirmed by the March swing lo $4,000. For the bulls, Bitcoin would need to break out from the 62% FIB of $10,034 to form a near-term bullish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Saturday. Monero’s XMR and Tron’s TRX rose by 0.33% and by 0.95% respectively to join Bitcoin in the green. It was a bearish day for the rest of the majors, however. Bitcoin Cash SV (-1.51%), Cardano’s ADA (-1.52%), EOS (-1.04%), Stellar’s Lumen (-1.28%), and Tezos (-1.41%) led the way down. Binance Coin (-0.66%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (-0.12%), Ethereum (-0.31%), Litecoin (-0.77%), and Ripple’s XRP (-0.90%) saw modest losses on the day. In the current week, the crypto total market cap rose to a Monday low $268.43bn before falling to a Thursday low $239.96bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $251.93bn. Bitcoin’s dominance rose to a Monday high 68.31% before falling to a Friday low 66.90%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 67.01%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 0.04 to $9,179.3. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning low $9,131.3 before striking a high $9,206.3. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was a bullish start to the day. Tezos was up by 1.34% early in the morning to lead the majors. Story continues For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to move through to $9,200 levels to bring the first major resistance level at $9,295.47 into play. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from the morning high $9,206.3. Barring an extended crypto rebound, the first major resistance level and Saturday’s high $9,304.0 would likely limit any upside. In the event of an extended crypto rally, the second major resistance level at $9,415.33 would likely come into play. Failure to move through to $9,200 levels could see Bitcoin hit reverse. A fall back through the morning low $9,131.3 would bring the first major support level at $9,064.27 into play. Barring another extended crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of the second major support level at $8,952.93. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Predictive Modeling Suggests US Markets 12% Over Valued The Weekly Wrap – Optimism Delivered Riskier Assets a Boost as Lockdown Measures Eased S&P 500 Preview – Earnings Resume on Tuesday May 25, After the Memorial Day Holiday The Week Ahead – Geopolitics, Central Banks and COVID-19 in Focus The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -23/05/20 E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – Ranging Between 23796 to 25144 || Coinbase Taps Ex-Barclays Markets Exec to Head Institutional Coverage: Coinbase has hired former Barclays markets veteran Brett Tejpaul to lead institutional coverage at the San Francisco-based crypto exchange. Tejpaul spent 17 years at Barclays in various leadership roles including global head of sales (across all of fixed income and equities) and global head of credit and commodities. He also pioneered Barclays’ first “head of digital” role, which included managing fintech venture investments. Tejpaul said he was intrigued by crypto when he first started looking into it back at the beginning of 2018. Related:Facebook Affirms Libra Commitment With 50 New Job Openings in Ireland “But it didn’t feel like there was enough of an ecosystem or the infrastructure to meet operational due diligence,” he said. “Fast forward to today, I’m amazed at how far the crypto economy has developed.” It’s an ecosystem that’s moved on from a narrow opportunistic ability to trade bitcoin, said Tejpaul, who reckons the largest cryptocurrency isn’t necessarily always the gateway drug for institutions dipping their toes in crypto. “If you start thinking about the utility function of crypto with the backdrop of stablecoins, it’s possible the first engagement of institutional clients may come via a stablecoin, maybe via USDC rather than tradingbitcoinoutright,” he said. It was back around the start of 2018 that Barclays wasreported to be in talksto open a crypto trading desk, a plan the bank never formally confirmed and is understood to have later quietly shelved. Related:Some US Citizens Look to Be Splashing Their Stimulus Cash on Cryptocurrency Before joining Barclays in 2003, Tejpaul spent nearly nine years at JPMorgan as head of structured credit products in Europe. • Coinbase Custody Doubles Down on DeFi Governance Options • Bitcoin Tests $7K as Spot Trading Volumes Subside to Normal Levels [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 9870.09, 9321.78, 9480.84, 9475.28, 9386.79, 9450.70, 9538.02, 9480.25, 9411.84, 9288.02
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-11-09] BTC Price: 7143.58, BTC RSI: 65.55 Gold Price: 1285.60, Gold RSI: 53.35 Oil Price: 57.17, Oil RSI: 75.49 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Crypto Debit Cards are Taking Bitcoin Mainstream. How Entrepreneurs Can Benefit.: Bitcoin's got a spending problem, and entrepreneurs are reacting with crypto debit cards to solve it. Say you've got some crypto-currency -- maybe a Bitcoin or a little Ethereum -- and it just went up 10 percent, and you now want to splurge on a long-overdue vacation to Europe. Related: 11 Things You Need to Know About Bitcoin In the past, you had to go to an exchange, like Coinbase, and turn a set amount of your cryptocurrency into a set amount of national fiat currency ($U.S. ? U.K., etc.). After that, you moved your fiat currency into a bank account. And only then, finally, could you spend it. Enter crypto debit cards -- the old-meets-new innovation that's poised to light a fire under cryptocurrency adoption among regular consumers -- and is primed for entrepreneurial action. Crypto debit cards are like regular debit cards. They've got a Visa or MasterCard logo. They work everywhere. But, instead of pulling from your bank account, they pull from a cryptocurrency wallet. Confused? Here are the basics: What is cryptocurrency? Cryptocurrency is virtual money. It's created by algorithms and sustained by computer networks run by real people and serviced by profitable corporations. It's money that isn't subject to direct devaluation through political means, the way fiat currencies are. And it's very hard for governments to confiscate. Cryptocurrency can move across political borders without delay, taxation or notice -- much like email. It's also relatively new, less than a decade old, and it's just seen its first unicorn (Coinbase). That means it's primed for new waves of venture capital in the short term. One unit of the most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is currently worth three times the value of one ounce of gold, and it's considerably more portable. Related: Why Marketers Need to Pay Attention to Cryptocurrency -- Now Bitcoin has a hard limit of 21 million total units, which is expected to result in deflationary pressures once that limit is reached. Ethereum, second in popularity after Bitcoin, is not just a currency but also a smart contract platform. You can program smart contracts to help people exchange anything of value in a conflict-free way, without middle men -- sort of like a vending machine. Story continues Speaking of middle men, what about banks? Cryptocurrency has the potential power to eliminate them, along with their fees and limits. And its transactions are nearly anonymous and shockingly inexpensive. In short, cryptocurrency -- and I write this, having no direct financial stake in it -- is the future of money, and it's a field that has a lot of room for new startups. Spending is the challenge. With more than 900 cryptocurrencies out there, access to opportunities for earning, trading and investing them has not been a problem. The challenge now is how to spend them in the real world. So far, we've relied on a ragtag DIY network of ATMs and QR-code apps. The new thing, however, is that we can now use crypto debit cards -- a bridge between the crypto world and the bank-card point-of-sale world that everyone is familiar with. Crypto debit cards are frictionless for beginners and easily understandable. They're making crypto mainstream for regular consumers . Why crypto debit cards? Crypto debit cards offer a lot of benefits over both the old way of trading cryptocurrency for fiat at exchanges and the traditional spending of fiat currency via credit and debit cards. They include: Freedom. You can now spend dozens of cryptocurrencies and tokens at businesses worldwide without having to worry about exchanges or exchange rates. You can buy just about anything you want with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This could be the tipping point for cryptocurrency. Usability. You can spend your crypto holdings now as easily as you use your Visa or MasterCard. Buy groceries, order pizza and pay the bills all without having to pre-convert your cryptocurrency at an exchange. Or withdraw cash at thousands of ATMs. Conversion is now painless and invisible. You can spend freely, and live purely on Bitcoin -- and no one will be the wiser. Universality. Visa and MasterCard are accepted almost everywhere. Never again will you need to ask if a vendor accepts Bitcoin . No more hunting for buyers on LocalBitcoins. Flexibility. Many crypto debit cards enable you to spend Bitcoin, Ethereum and other coins and tokens, so you've got lots of choices when it comes to how to hold your money and which of your crypto holdings you want to liquidate. A buffer against inflation. Crypto debit cards are a lifesaver in places where the local currency is volatile and/or inflationary. You can hold your money in crypto and spend only what you need; you'll also get the best exchange rates. Increase adoption. When more regular people can spend their crypto holdings -- and profit by doing so -- they'll have more reason to ask for payment in cryptocurrency as well, and less reason to hoard it. Also, now merchants can effectively accept Bitcoin -- and not even know it. They'll get paid in their preferred fiat currency. Rewards. Many crypto debit cards offer reward schemes that will give you an advantage over spending cash. You could actually profit from spending cryptocurrency via a crypto debit card compared to spending cash. Anonymity. Some crypto debit cards will enable you to remain anonymous if you're spending small amounts of money. All of this adds up to a powerful engine for mainstream adoption by regular folks. Crypto debit cards represent the merging of two worlds -- the innovation of cryptocurrency with the practicality of debit cards. How crypto debit cards work Crypto debit cards work just like any other debit card at the point of sale or ATM. Instead of drawing from a bank account, however, the card draws from a cryptocurrency wallet. When you make a purchase with a crypto debit card, only the amount of cryptocurrency you need is sold for fiat currency. That fiat currency is then sent to the merchant in a seamless process you aren't even aware of. The steps to set one up are simple: Order the card, activate it, load money by transferring some cryptocurrency to the card vendor's wallet service and then spend the money. Your crypto debit card options More than 30 crypto debit cards options are available from different providers with different fee structures, cryptocurrency and fiat support. Some of the most popular ones are TenX , Centra Card , BitPay , Xapo , CryptoPay , Coinbase/Shift and Monaco . How entrepreneurs can take advantage The market for crypto debit cards is just getting started. Entrepreneurs looking to take advantage of it need to keep this in mind: Avoid limits as much as possible. Cryptocurrency users hate limits. Think outside the traditional limits. We're building a new world here -- one in which entrepreneurs can: Reduce and simplify fees. Many options in the crypto debit card market right now are loaded with fees, from monthly fees to loading fees to withdrawal fees and more. Reach the unbanked. As many as 2.5 billion adults globally are not using banks. But they do have cellphones. These folks are a prime market for cryptocurrency services. Entrepreneurs can make it easy for them to access educational and other services using crypto debit cards. Two-and-a-half billion people is a huge market. Just the other day, I came across a thread of people in the developing world begging an online education provider to accept Bitcoin. That's just one opportunity. One. Related: 5 Essential Podcasts for Entrepreneurs Serious About Cryptocurrency In sum, crypto debit cards are turning national currencies into an app that fits in your wallet. The crypto debit card is the next-level innovation that's going to rocket cryptocurrencies into the mainstream for everyday consumers. Because, when you can spend these currencies with ease, there's a good reason believe that you'll be able to earn it as well, and that the crypto economy will only grow. || Mark Zuckerberg Will Sell Up to $12.8 Billion Worth of Facebook Shares Over the Next 18 Months: CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that he will sell between 35 and 75 million of his shares over the next 18 months. At its current stock price, the sale would be worth between $6 billion and $12.8 billion. Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post Friday that proceeds of the sale will go to fund his and wife Priscilla Chan’s “work in education, science, and advocacy.” He noted that the new plans did not deter him and Chan from their pledge to give away 99% of their Facebook shares over their lifetime. Facebook also announced that it would nix its current plan to reclassify its stock to allow Zuckerberg to keep control even after selling off shares. “Over the past year and a half, Facebook’s business has performed well and the value of our stock has grown to the point that I can fully fund our philanthropy and retain voting control of Facebook for 20 years or more,” Zuckerberg said in the post. “As a result, I’ve asked our board to withdraw the proposal to reclassify our stock -- and the board has agreed.” See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com SEC Breached, Billionaires Bash Bitcoin, Facebook Shares Russia Ads Facebook's Privacy Hokey-Pokey Data Sheet: Uber Loses London, Apple iPhone 8 Lags Sales, HPE Cuts Jobs Trump Questions Facebook's Decision to Turn Over 3,000 Ads to the Committee Investigating Russian Interference Whoops: ISIS Backers Reveal Location on Instagram || Market Movers: Yahoo Finance breaks down early market action: Stocks hold steady as investors digest rising geopolitical tensions and the latest round of US economic data. Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous , Jen Rogers , Jared Blikre and Rick Newman discuss these and the other big stories we’re covering today. Today’s topics: UN Security Council calls for emergency meeting after North Korea missile test London police call underground subway explosion a terrorist incident US retail sales fell in August Bitcoin on track for fifth straight day of losses Japan’s SoftBank reportedly seeks $10 billion investment in Uber Google ( GOOGL ) hit with gender pay discrimination suit Angry Birds’ Rovio sets price range for $1 billion IPO Oracle ( ORCL ) falls on disappointing outlook Macy’s ( M ) plans to hire 80,000 seasonal workers TWITTER POLL: What would you do if you had $1,000? A) Buy the new iPhone B) Invest in Apple stock C) Buy Rovio shares when it goes public || Two-thirds of the world's population are now connected by mobile devices: years per billion mobile subs (BI Intelligence) This story was delivered to BI Intelligence Apps and Platforms Briefing subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here . Two-thirds of the world’s population are connected by mobile devices, according to data from GSMA. This milestone of 5 billion unique mobile subscribers globally was achieved in Q2 2017. By 2020, almost 75% of the global population will be connected by mobile. Here are the key takeaways from the report: Smartphones will continue to drive new mobile subscriptions. By 2020, new smartphone users will account for 66% of new global connections, up from 53% in Q2 2017. Developing markets will account for the largest share of new mobile subscription growth over the forecast period. Forty percent of new subscribers will stem from five markets: India, China, Nigeria, Indonesia, and Pakistan. But mobile growth is slowing. It took around four years to reach 5 billion mobile users, compared with the three-and-a-half years it took to reach 4 billion. This suggests it’s going to take longer to reach 6 billion users, as the pool of new mobile users continues to shrink. Affordability, content relevance, and digital literacy are likely bigger inhibitors to mobile internet adoption than a lack of network infrastructure is. Two-thirds of the 3.7 billion consumers who aren’t connected to the internet are within range of 3G or 4G networks. This suggests that device cost, a lack of relevant apps and content, and not knowing how to use the device are the primary barriers to mobile adoption. However, tech companies are targeting emerging markets to ensure that mobile adoption and internet usage continue to grow. For instance, local smartphone markers in China, such as Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi, Micromax in India, and AfriOne in Nigeria are building very affordable smartphones for consumers in their respective markets and abroad. And Google and Apple are building app developer centers in emerging markets such as Bangalore in India, which could increase the volume of localized apps. Story continues To receive stories like this one directly to your inbox every morning, sign up for the Apps and Platforms Briefing newsletter. Click here to learn more about how you can gain risk-free access today. More From Business Insider 5G stole the show at Mobile World Congress Americas Ikea set to debut an augmented reality app Bitcoin's fate untethers from China || Slovenia's financial watchdog warns about virtual currency risks: LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - Slovenia's financial watchdog issued a warning on Monday that virtual currencies - such as bitcoin - are not regulated and are not guaranteed by the central bank or any other state body. The Financial Stability Board, which is affiliated with the central bank, said interest in virtual currencies from the public had lately increased "very much" and particularly as an investment opportunity. It gave no further details. "Investors in virtual currencies ... have to take into consideration whether risks are in line with their personal preferences and investment goals," the board said in a statement. Bitcoin, for example, enables individuals to transfer value to each other and pay for goods and services bypassing banks and the mainstream financial system. Last month, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi criticized a proposal by the Estonian government to launch a state-managed digital currency, saying the euro was the only valid money in the euro area. Estonia became the first European country to openly discuss the prospect of a digital currency managed by the government and offered to the country's more than 20,000 e-residents - foreign entrepreneurs who open a firm in the country via the web. The Financial Stability Board, which consists of representatives of various government bodies, is headed by the Bank of Slovenia Governor Bostjan Jazbec, who also sits on the ECB's governing council. The board is responsible for implementing macro prudential policy that would protect the stability of Slovenia's financial system. The statement also said that initial coin offerings (ICOs) are also not regulated and controlled, and said investors in ICOs should invest "in the amount that would not leave them too exposed". ICOs have been used by digital currency entrepreneurs around the world to raise large sums quickly by creating and selling digital "tokens" which have no regulatory oversight. (Reporting By Marja Novak. Editing by Jane Merriman) || Revolut becomes latest UK fintech firm to seek banking license: By Emma Rumney LONDON (Reuters) - British financial technology firm Revolut said on Wednesday it has applied for a European banking license, as it bids to join a growing number of digital-only banks looking to win away customers from larger, traditional lenders. Revolut, which has offered a pre-paid cash card since 2015, is one of a number of smaller upstart finance firms hoping that coming regulation and technology can help it break the dominance of bigger banks. Financial technology firms like Revolut are trying to chip away at traditional banks by offering users slick apps, slashed fees and an instant overview of their finances. From challenger banks to digital currencies like Bitcoin, the British government regards the 'fintech' sector as a key source of growth. Changes coming into force in Britain and across the European Union will see banks forced to open up their closely held customer data to rivals, who will be able to use it to build products and better target clients. Peers like Britain's Starling Bank and Monzo and Germany's N26 have already secured banking licenses ahead of the new rules. "Even without a banking license, we have attracted over 950,000 users across Europe, many of whom consider Revolut as their primary current account and spending card," said Nikolay Storonsky, Revolut's founder and CEO. The firm's tagline promises an experience "beyond banking", but so far it has been unable to offer some of the core services provided by banks, including current accounts, overdrafts, loans and direct debits. It expects to receive a license effective in the first half of 2018 and to start offering these services in select markets straightaway. It said it has applied for its license through the Lithuanian central bank and has sufficient capital in place. Current accounts and credit will initially be available to users in Lithuania, before being rolled out to Estonia and Latvia and, as soon as possible, Britain. Next in line are France, Germany and Italy and eventually the rest of the European Union, the firm said. Story continues Fintech lender Cashplus said last week it was considering applying for a UK banking license, while telecoms giant Orange has launched its own bank in France in a bid to steal established lenders' market share by capitalizing on the rise of smartphones. But incumbent banks are stepping up investment in their own digital platforms too. Last month, HSBC (HSBA.L) became the first to launch an app that allows customers to manage accounts with multiple banks in one place and offers them a similar financial overview as the app-only challengers. (Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Hugh Lawson) || From Visa To PayPal: Which Payment Sector Stocks Will Pay Off?: The Buckingham Research Group has initiated bullish coverage of a handful of payment stocks Monday. AnalystChris Brendlersees plenty of opportunities for investors to turn a profit in the payment space, and he said the rising tide in payments will lift a number of ships. Stocks To Own Brendler saidVisa Inc(NYSE:V) and rivalMastercard Inc(NYSE:MA) are the two Buy-rated “stocks to own” as they have the strongest underlying fundamentals in the group and are up against limited competition. He said the pair of payment giants should be able to grow earnings by roughly 15 percent annually over the next 10 years. Buckingham has a $129 target for Visa and a $163 target for Mastercard. Discover Brendler set a Buy rating forDiscover Financial Services(NYSE:DFS) and said the company is the gold standard in underwriting, customer service and deposit gathering. He also argued that credit concerns aren’t justified and there is plenty of room for earnings upside in coming years. Buckingham has a $74 price target for the stock. First Data Brendler also set a Buy rating forFirst Data Corp(NYSE:FDC) and said 2018 will be the inflection year for the company as it continues its turnaround efforts. First Data has lagged its payment peers in recent months, but Brendler said a combination of improving free cash flow and deleveraging will help the stock outperform in quarters to come. Buckingham has a $23 price target for the stock. Related Link:Bernstein Ponders Potential PayPal M&A Capital One Brendler initiated coverage ofCapital One Financial Corp.(NYSE:COF) at Buy and said the company has one of the best management teams in the business. He says an “imminent turn” in charge-offs and technical streamlining should position Capital one to eliminate its earnings multiple discount in coming months. Buckingham maintains a $99 price target. PayPal Paypal Holdings Inc(NASDAQ:PYPL) is one of the faces of thenext generationof the payments business, and Brendler initiated coverage with a Buy rating. He said PayPal is well-positioned for sustainable 20 percent revenue growth and could easily grow earnings at an even higher rate. Buckingham has a $74 price target for the stock. Global Payments Finally, Brendler initiated coverage ofGlobal Payments Inc(NYSE:GPN) with a Buy rating and said even after a strong start to the year, merchant acquirers still trade at a valuation discount to Mastercard and Visa. Brendler said Global Payments has demonstrated the best M&A strategy of the group. Buckingham has a $113 price target for the stock. Related Link:How To Actually Buy Bitcoin Or Ethereum Latest Ratings for COF [{"Oct 2017": "Sep 2017", "Buckingham": "PiperJaffray", "Initiates Coverage On": "Initiates Coverage On", "": "", "Buy": "Underweight"}, {"Oct 2017": "Sep 2017", "Buckingham": "Morgan Stanley", "Initiates Coverage On": "Downgrades", "": "Overweight", "Buy": "Equal-Weight"}] View More Analyst Ratings for COFView the Latest Analyst Ratings See more from Benzinga • 14 Stocks Insulated From Amazon's Dominance • Putting The Equifax Hack Into Perspective: How It Ranks • Small Business Loan Approval Rates Hit Post-Recession Highs © 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Trade Coin Club Founder Joff Paradise Announces Release of TCC 123.PRO Website: Cryptocurrency Legend Joff Paradise Announces the Release of His New Trade Coin Club Member Marketing Tool Website TCC 123.PRO LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / October 12, 2017 /Bitcoin entrepreneur and Trade Coin Club founding partner Joff Paradise announced the launch of the organization's new affiliate based marketing tool website TCC123.PRO available to current TCC members in their efforts to expand their personal business networks through recruitment, education, and marketing. TCC.123PRO includes an individual professional website available at three different subscription levels that require no maintenance, updating, or design work required of theTrade Coin Clubmember. "We worked extremely hard to design a turn-key website with a professional aesthetic combined with a high degree of utility. The site includes marketing and educational material in easily digestible formats that members can show to interested friends, family members, colleagues, and associates that may want to become involved in developing additional income streams via bitcoin currency trading, said founding partner andTCC Master Distributor Joff Paradise. "Without a strong web presence, our team members are at a real disadvantage. Having a polished, professional website allows our team members to engage in effective marketing and educational conversations and meetings with prospects. Each site can be launched in just five minutes and includes extensive FAQs, best practices, calculators, tips, resources, and more," said Paradise. Members can choose from three different TCC123.PRO website subscription levels that can be canceled at any time. There is no maintenance, back-end work, or updating required by the member. All administrative tasks are completed by a dedicated TCC123PRO webmaster. To learn more about the Trade Coin Club 123.Pro Launch, visit:http://joff.tcc123.pro/joff-paradise-launches-tcc123-pro/ About Trade Coin Club (TCC) Founded by international entrepreneurJoff Paradise, Trade Coin Club (TCC) allows individuals to tap into the emerging Bitcoin cryptocurrency trading space as a means to generate streams of income that lead to financial solvency and increased income through its proprietary software, educational products, and marketing support. Trade Coin Club Affiliateis a membership group created to allow any individual to engage in the digital trading of cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) using the club's specialized digital solutions designed to leverage maximum profit and earning potential. TCC offers interested business people with three investment opportunities utilizing a tiered investment platform depending on individual risk level and return on investment potential - all with a nominal investment requiring no prior experience or knowledge in Bitcoin trading. Contact Info: Name: Joff ParadiseOrganization: Joff ParadiseAddress: 5755 N Juliano RD Las Vegas, NV 89149Phone: 702-624-1224 Video URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iXjhqvEMTk For more information, please visithttp://joff.tcc123.pro/ SOURCE:Joff Paradise || Jamie Dimon Says the Whole Bitcoin Craze Will ‘End Badly’: Even as Bitcoin fans attack the CEO for his views on the cryptocurrency, Jamie Dimon is doubling down once again on his call that Bitcoin is a “fraud.” In a CNBC interview Friday, Dimon labeled Bitcoin a “novelty” with no real value. “Right now these crypto things are kind of a novelty. People think they’re kind of neat. But the bigger they get, the more governments are going to close them down,” the CEO told CNBC. “It’s creating something out of nothing that to me is worth nothing.” Bitcoin’s price is now hovering around $3,600, down from an all-time high of $5,000 earlier this month. The cryptocurrency took a plunge after Chinese officials cracked down on bitcoin, banned ICOs and closed down cryptocurrency exchanges . Around the same time , Dimon also reasserted his view from 2015 that Bitcoin is a fraud that will “blow up.” He reasoned the cryptocurrency was best suited for illicit uses, likely triggering crackdowns from world governments. Separately, London-based Blockswater, which trades Bitcoin, lodged a complaint with Swedish authorities Thursday in which it accused Dimon of manipulating the price of Bitcoin. The allegations were made after Reuters reported that J.P. Morgan had been routing customer orders for an exchange-traded note tracking Bitcoin. Notably however, the trades were not directly made on behalf of J.P. Morgan--making the case a little shakier for the London firm. "They are not JPMorgan orders," a spokesperson said Friday. "These are clients purchasing third-party products directly." See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com Cryptocurrencies May Be a Dream Come True for Cyber-Extortionists Bitcoin Price Hits $4,000 Even as Ray Dalio Calls it a 'Bubble' JPMorgan Helps Clients Buy Bitcoin Despite CEO Calling Bitcoin 'a Fraud' 5 Big Bitcoin Crashes: What We Learned Bitcoin Roars Back to $4,000 || JPMorgan's top quant strategist, echoing CEO, compares bitcoin to 'pyramid scheme': JPMorgan's top quant strategist backed his boss this week in bashing bitcoin, warning that the cryptocurrency is likely a "pyramid scheme." Marko Kolanovic, the bank's global head of quantitative and derivatives strategy, said in a note on Wednesday that in addition to being volatile and difficult to value, "another worrying aspect of cryptocurrencies are some parallels to fraudulent pyramid schemes." Bitcoin needs to be mined, or discovered, by people using computers to solve problems. Its murky origin raises questions, he said. "It is believed that an unknown person (or persons) known as 'Satoshi Nakamoto', before disappearing, mined the first 1-2 million coins or about 10 percent of the coins that will ever exist." He added, "Mining becomes progressively more difficult, and eventually unprofitable." Bitcoin surged more than 10 percent on Friday , but was still on track for a big weekly loss during a tumultuous period of trading. Earlier this week, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon called bitcoin a "fraud," saying that the cryptocurrency "won't end well." Dimon was speaking at the Delivering Alpha conference presented by CNBC and Institutional Investor. Bitcoin plunged about 13 percent Thursday after one of the biggest exchanges in China said it will shut down its operation . BTC China said in a tweet Thursday that it will close down its operations by Sept. 30 as Chinese authorities crack down on cryptocurrencies. But to be sure, many see bitcoin as a huge opportunity. Former JPMorgan strategist Tom Lee said the cryptocurrency could surge another 600 percent in five years. "I unequivocally believe bitcoin is your best investment to the end of the year," the Fundstrat co-founder told CNBC, standing by similar remarks he made Aug. 9 on "Fast Money." "It's not worth it to look at bitcoin two months, two weeks ahead," Lee argued, saying he still believes each bitcoin will be worth $25,000 in five years. An unconvinced Kolanovic rattled off a number of risks. "There is no organized power behind this currency to e.g. ensure its long term viability, secure trade, enforce its acceptability for goods and services, or provide investor fraud protection," he said. "If the use of cryptocurrencies were to increase to an extent that they start competing with traditional 'country' currencies they would be quickly regulated or outlawed." WATCH: Bitcoin bounces back More From CNBC Terror to end bitcoin anonymity? 'Smart' people and Panama Papers Bitcoin mining IPO falls short View comments [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] #DolarTrue BTC 09/10/2017 07:04 AM BTC Venta Panama : 4339.14 BTC USA : 4597.90 BTC Compra VEF : 119,709,420 USD/VEF : 26789.5 || だから病院嫌いなんですよ！！！ || LIVE: Profit = $2,510.92 (64.75 %). BUY B1.48 @ $3,100.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $4,300.00 (#TheRock) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || BTC Real Time Price: ThePriceOfBTC: $4308.95 #bitstamp; $4304.70 #GDAX; $4305.00 #kraken; $4298.21 #gemini; $4301.20 #hitbtc; $4360.28 #cex; || #Putin Tells Central Bank Not to Create Barriers to #Cryptocurrencies || #Putin Tells Central Bank Not to Create Barriers to #Cryptocurrencies || RT StakepoolCom "Newslink: Altcoin Exchange Performs First Atomic Swap Between Bitcoin and Ethereum Check it out! http://ift.tt/2yz2rmR … || It's not a bubble, it's a jellyfish. #talenter #BTC #BCC #Eth #ico || Ethereum Price Technical Analysis – ETH/USD’s ... - http://bit.ly/2yEGsv0  - #bitcoin Advertise your #ICO: https://goo.gl/1yd8MW  … || If New Zealand keeps being as supportive of #bitcoin as they are, l'm going to revisit the possibility of 12.000 usd this year... Though logically it'll be 10.000. #cryptocurrency #Banking #money
Trend: up || Prices: 6618.14, 6357.60, 5950.07, 6559.49, 6635.75, 7315.54, 7871.69, 7708.99, 7790.15, 8036.49
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2018-07-16] BTC Price: 6741.75, BTC RSI: 55.08 Gold Price: 1238.10, Gold RSI: 31.44 Oil Price: 68.06, Oil RSI: 42.22 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] 5 Ways You Can Get More Money in Retirement: Running out of moneyin retirement is pretty much a nightmare scenario. But given that42% of Americanshave less than $10,000 in long-term savings at present, it's a very real risk. If you're less than confident about your nest egg's lasting power, then it pays to take steps to boost your retirement income in other ways. Here are a few options to consider. Your Social Security benefits are calculated based on the amount you earn during your top 35 working years. If you file for benefits at yourfull retirement age, which, based on your year of birth, is either 66, 67, or 66 and a number of months, you'll collect the full monthly benefit your earnings record entitles you to. But if you hold off on taking benefitspastfull retirement age, you'll boost them by 8% a year up until age 70. This means that if you're looking at a full monthly benefit of $1,500 at 67, waiting until 70 will increase that payment to $1,860 -- for life. IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES. Tempting as it may be todump your stockswhen you're older in favor of safer investments, like bonds, it pays to hold on to some dividend stocks in retirement. If you invest in solid companies with a long history of paying dividends, you'll be in a good position to collect those quarterly payments throughout retirement, which you'll then be free to use as you please or reinvest for additional growth. Best of all, dividend stocks can serve as a hedge against market volatility. Even if the stock market on a whole has a bad year, your portfolio might still do well if it has strong enough dividend payers. Anannuityis a contract between you and an insurance company. In exchange for a certain amount of money, the company issuing your annuity agrees to provide you with a guaranteed income stream for life. Annuities aren't for everyone because they're fairly complex and can come with some rather expensive fees, but if you have a string of years in which you've maxed out your 401(k) or IRA contributions and still wish to save for retirement, you might consider putting that excess cash into an annuity so you can enjoy the payout later on. If you ever dreamed of starting a business during your working years but were afraid to take the leap, doing so in retirement is a good way to not only generate extra income but fulfill a lifelong goal. Interestingly enough, seniors 65 and older are more likely to be self-employed than any other age group, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, so if youdodecide to embark on a new venture after closing out your full-time career, you'll be in good company. The beauty of being retired is getting to spend your days the way you want to, and for many seniors, that means diving intohobbiesthat may have previously fallen by the wayside. But aside from serving as a meaningful way to fill your time, exploring hobbies is also a great way to boost your income when you're older. These days, you can turn just about any hobby into a business venture, whether it's baking, crafting, or gardening. And while your hobby may not end up being the biggest moneymaker out there, it could serve as a good source of leisure cash, which is nothing to scoff at. The more money you have available to you in retirement, the less stress you're apt to encounter. Even if you're approaching your golden years with a healthy level of savings, it never hurts to explore a wider variety of income streams. This way, you'll get to enjoy retirement to the fullest without having to worry as much about paying the bills. More From The Motley Fool • 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices • 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 • 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Why Buffett Keeps Buying Apple: All the doom and gloom surroundingApple Inc.(NASDAQ: AAPL), which centers primarily on weak demand for its flagship iPhone X and the growing saturation in the smartphone market, hasn't fazed one famed investor.Berkshire Hathaway(NYSE: BRK-A)(NYSE: BRK-B)CEO Warren Buffett, who is arguably one of the most well-known and successful investors of all time, has continued to buy massive caches of the iPhone maker's stock. Buffett added a mind-boggling 75 million Apple shares last quarter -- on top of the 165.3 million shares Berkshire already owned -- increasing its share count by a whopping 45%. That brings the company's total stake in Apple up to about 5% of shares. If the naysayers are right, why does the Oracle of Omaha continue stocking up on Apple's shares? Warren Buffett is loading up on Apple stock. Image source: The Motley Fool. In case you haven't been following along, it wasn't Buffett but rather one of his top lieutenants who first purchased Apple stock inearly 2016. After reviewing that initial purchase, Buffett himself began loading up on Apple shares, buying considerably more during the quarter, with purchases totaling 10 million shares. As time has passed, Buffett's love for the iPhone maker has only grown, and he's continued investing in the company ever since. Buffett gave some insight into those recent purchases, particularly in light of recent fears regarding weak iPhone X sales. He reminded investors that he has a much longer time horizon: Nobody buys a farm based on whether they think it's going to rain next year or not. They buy it because they think it's a good investment over 10 or 20 years ... The idea of spending loads of time trying to guess how many iPhone X ... are going to be sold in a given three month period, to me, it totally misses the point. This is classic Buffett and shows that he believes Apple will thrive in the coming decade. This famous Buffett quote seems to capture one of the principal reasons the Oracle of Omaha made sizable investments in Apple last quarter. Apple announced a massive buyback in conjunction with its recent financial release, seeking to capitalize on the same negative sentiments about the company as Buffett. During Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting on Saturday, Buffett commented on Apple's plan to repurchase $100 billion of its shares. "I'm delighted to see them repurchasing shares. We own five percent of it. With the passage of a little time, we may own six or seven percent because they repurchase shares." Berkshire's vice chairman, Charlie Munger, told investors that he and Buffett don't always approve of buybacks, but there were times when it made sense. "The reason companies are buying their stocks is that they are smart enough to know it's better for them than anything else." With the large amount of cash flow the company generates, some believe that Apple could make a large acquisition, but Buffett doesn't agree. "I don't see anything that would make a lot of sense for them," Buffett said. AAPL Dividenddata byYCharts. Apple recently reported recordfiscal second-quarter financial results, with sales of $61.1 billion, up 16% year over year, and net income of $13.8 billion, up 25% over the prior-year quarter. Investors breathed a sigh of relief, sending the stock higher. Even after that recent move, Apple still sports a compelling valuation, trading at just 16 times forward earnings. That number goes even lower if you factor in the mound of cash that Apple plans to deploy on shareholder returns. Apple just raised its dividend, too, currently yielding 1.4%, with a payout ratio of less than 25% -- so look for future increases. With all this going for it, no wonder Buffett keeps adding to his massive stake in Apple -- and maybe you should, too. More From The Motley Fool • 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices • 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 • 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Danny Venaowns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple and Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Here’s Why Bitcoin Is Plunging Today: Bitcoinand other cryptocurrencies were down sharply on Friday, with the leading digital currency's price plunging below $6,200 to its lowest level in months -- close to taking out its February low of just below $6,000. Japan is the most active market in the world when it comes to cryptocurrency trading, and troubling regulatory news out of the country is sending shockwaves through the markets. As of 11 a.m. EDT on Friday, all but one of the 50 largest cryptocurrencies were in the red. Image source: Getty Images. As I mentioned, most major cryptocurrencies were getting crushed on Friday. Before we get into the news out of Japan, here's a look at the 10 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, all of which have fallen significantly over the past day. [{"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Bitcoin (BTC)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$6,185.90", "Day's Change (Loss)": "(8.8%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Ethereum (ETH)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$476.51", "Day's Change (Loss)": "(11.2%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Ripple (XRP)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$0.50", "Day's Change (Loss)": "(7.8%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Bitcoin Cash (BCH)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$765.88", "Day's Change (Loss)": "(14.3%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "EOS (EOS)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$8.64", "Day's Change (Loss)": "(20.2%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Litecoin (LTC)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$85.37", "Day's Change (Loss)": "(13%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Stellar (XLM)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$0.21", "Day's Change (Loss)": "(10.5%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "Cardano (ADA)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$0.14", "Day's Change (Loss)": "(11.7%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "IOTA (MIOTA)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$1.03", "Day's Change (Loss)": "(11.9%)"}, {"Cryptocurrency Name (Code)": "TRON (TRX)", "Price in U.S. Dollars": "$0.043", "Day's Change (Loss)": "(10.1%)"}] Data Source: www.investing.com. Prices and daily changes as of June 22, 2018, at approximately noon EDT. Prices are rounded to the nearest cent where appropriate. Japan's financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency, ordered leading cryptocurrency exchange bitFlyer and several other exchanges to take greater measures to prevent money laundering and terrorist funding. Specifically, the regulator found several problems with bitFlyer's accounts, such as one that was using a post office box as a mailing address. It also found that when the exchange registered with the government, it provided false information regarding its plans to prevent organized crime activity on its platform, among other issues. As a result of the order, bitFlyer decided to suspend the creation of any new accounts while it makes improvements to comply. "In order to maximize out efforts toward building a suitable service and improving on the issues identified, we have temporarily suspended account creation for new customers of our own volition," the company said in a statement. The exchange will submit plans for improving its operations to the regulatory agency by July 23 -- just over a month from now. Many Americans don't realize just how popular bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are in Japan. The country isby farthe top bitcoin market, with bitcoin trading in Japanese yen making up over 60% of the leading cryptocurrency's volume. So, it's completely understandable that any disruption to the Japanese cryptocurrency market could scare investors. I've written several times that regulationwill ultimately be a good thingfor cryptocurrencies. Lack of regulation is one of the biggest obstacles to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies becoming mainstream assets, and regulating exchanges properly is a big part of that. Japan has certainly been a leader on the regulatory front, with the first national system of cryptocurrency regulation and several proactive moves to ensure that exchanges are operating in investors' best interests. Having said that, shutting down access to the cryptocurrency markets to new investors could make people who are yet to get into the market even more hesitant to jump in. So, while regulations -- and the initiatives against money laundering in particular -- will be a good thing in the long run, this action could have a deeper effect than some of the other regulatory issues we've seen around the world in 2018. More From The Motley Fool • 16 Cryptocurrency Facts You Should Know • Experts Warned – The Crypto ‘Bloodbath’ Is Here • How to Buy Bitcoin Matt Frankelhas no position in any cryptocurrencies mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any cryptocurrencies mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Samsung Is Making Its Move Against Qualcomm: Samsung (NASDAQOTH: SSNLF) recently announced that it would offer its mobile processor chips to smartphone makers, which could turn it into a formidable competitor to Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) , the world's top mobile chipmaker. Samsung currently produces Exynos SoCs (system on chips) for its own Galaxy smartphones, but only one external OEM -- China's Meizu -- currently installs the chips in its own devices. Why is Samsung promoting Exynos? Over the past few years, Samsung gradually replaced Qualcomm's SoCs with Exynos SoCs in many of its high-end devices. That decision mirrors Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Huawei 's development of first-party ARM chipsets for their phones. An Exynos 9 series chip. Image source: Samsung. Producing first-party SoCs reduces Samsung's dependence on third-party suppliers like Qualcomm, and gives it tighter control over its hardware and software. Samsung also owns one of the largest chip foundries in the world, which gives it an edge against fabless chipmakers like Qualcomm. Samsung's semiconductor business, which mainly produces memory chips, is its fastest growing unit. Its semiconductor revenues rose 33% annually last quarter, fueled by 43% growth in memory chip sales, and accounted for 34% of Samsung's top line. The unit's operating profit surged 83% on higher memory prices and accounted for 74% of Samsung's operating income. The growth of Samsung's semiconductor business is offsetting its gradual slowdown in smartphone sales. However, memory prices are expected to peak in the near future, which could cause a big drop in the unit's year-over-year growth. Therefore, a logical solution would be to diversify the business into new markets like smartphone SoCs. Why didn't Samsung make its move earlier? Samsung tried to sell its Exynos chips to more OEMs before, but it claims that Qualcomm locked it out of the market with an unbalanced patent deal in 1993. That deal allowed Samsung to access Qualcomm's wireless patents to produce first-party SoCs -- but only for its own devices. If Samsung wanted to sell its SoCs to a third-party OEM, either Samsung or the customer needed to pay Qualcomm additional licensing fees. Samsung alleges the deal, which it repeatedly tried to renegotiate with Qualcomm, crippled its ability to sell Exynos SoCs at competitive prices against Qualcomm's Snapdragon SoCs. Samsung's Exynos 9 SoC. Image source: Samsung. That argument played a pivotal role in the Korean FTC's decision to fine Qualcomm 1.03 trillion won ($940 million) for antitrust violations in late 2016. Qualcomm appealed the ruling, but the South Korean Supreme Court struck down that appeal in late 2017. Story continues Therefore, it seems like Samsung, emboldened by the KFTC's ruling against Qualcomm, could start selling Exynos SoCs to third-party OEMs while ignoring its original patent deal with Qualcomm. The move wouldn't be unprecedented; Apple previously suspended its licensing payments after it sued Qualcomm, claiming that the chipmaker's licensing practices were "illegal". Apple also notably provided the KFTC with evidence in its case against Qualcomm, a decision which Apple claims resulted in Qualcomm cutting off its "rebate payments" for the exclusive use of its baseband modems in previous iPhones. Should Qualcomm start worrying? Samsung already confirmed that it's talking to ZTE , one of Qualcomm's top Chinese customers, to buy its SoCs. This matters because the US Commerce Department recently banned all American companies from selling components to ZTE for seven years, as a punishment for violating trade sanctions against Iran and North Korea. Fortunately for ZTE, President Trump said last week that the U.S. would take steps to relax penalties on ZTE in exchange for unspecified trade concessions from China. But until this actually happens, uncertainty looms. Research firm Canalys claims that Qualcomm supplies chips for 65% of ZTE's smartphones. Qualcomm doesn't disclose how much revenue it generates from chip sales to ZTE, but Counterpoint Research's Neil Shah pegs the annual total at "close to half a billion dollars" -- or 2% of its estimated revenues this year. Samsung is courting ZTE for two simple reasons: It's not an American company like Qualcomm, so it can keep selling products to ZTE; and Chinese regulators are less likely to enforce a disputed licensing agreement from 1993. If ZTE starts buying Samsung's SoCs, other Chinese OEMs -- which don't want to get caught between escalating trade tensions between the US and China -- could follow suit. The Exynos SoCs, which are designed for higher-end flagships, could also be a welcome alternative to Qualcomm's Snapdragons, which don't face much competition in the high-end market. The bottom line Qualcomm already faces plenty of headaches: Its planned takeover of NXP Semiconductors remains in limbo , its legal battles against Apple remain unsettled, it faces more fines and probes from government regulators, and former CEO Paul Jacobs is trying to take the company private. Therefore, the notion that Samsung could start selling its own SoCs and follow Apple's lead in rejecting its licensing practices is alarming. Qualcomm investors should closely monitor Samsung's next moves to see if it's serious about becoming a defiant competitor. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Leo Sun owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of Qualcomm and has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool recommends NXP Semiconductors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . View comments || Google Is Catching up to Amazon in This Key Market: Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) dominates the U.S. smart speaker market with its Echo devices. Its Alexa-powered devices are expected to control 66.6% of that market this year according to eMarketer's latest estimates, compared to 29.5% for Alphabet 's (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google Home. By 2020, eMarketer expects Amazon's share to slip to 60.8% as Google's share rises to 32.9%. However, a recent report from Canalys indicates that Google could be catching up at a faster-than-expected pace. Google Home. Google Home. Image source: Google. Canalys claims that Google sold 3.1 million Home speakers in the first quarter of 2018, compared to Amazon's sales of 2.5 million Echo devices. This marks the first time Google's smart speaker shipments surpassed Amazon's on a quarterly basis. What's at stake for Amazon and Google Amazon and Google are both using their smart speakers to expand their digital ecosystems into users' homes. Echo and Home both let users control smart home devices, access a growing list of online services like Uber, food deliveries, and streaming music, and answer queries with the help of a virtual assistant. Amazon's ultimate goal is to tether Echo users to its Prime ecosystem, making them dependent on Alexa when ordering products from its online marketplace. Amazon recently revealed that it had over 100 million Prime members worldwide, and research firm CIRP estimates that the average Echo owner spends an average of $1,700 annually on Amazon, compared to $1,300 for the average Prime member and about $1,000 for all members. To reach the maximum amount of customers, Amazon launched different Echo versions across multiple price tiers with different features, including the portable Dot and Tap; video screens for the Look, Show, and Spot; and streamlined smart home connectivity for the Echo Plus. It also heavily promoted its Echo devices during Prime Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday. Amazon's second generation Echo. Amazon's second generation Echo. Image source: Amazon. Story continues Google constantly trailed behind Amazon in product searches and e-commerce. However, Google Home gives the company a fresh shot at tackling Amazon. A growing list of brick-and-mortar retailers, including Walmart and Target , have integrated their online marketplaces with Google Home, which lets users buy products with Google Assistant. The expansion of that retail ecosystem could secure Google's position as an all-in-one platform for online services. Its integration of other services -- like Calendar, YouTube, Drive, Photos, Chromecast, and Search -- could then make Home a fundamentally more useful device than Echo. Why Amazon should watch its back Google Home's growth spurt comes as Amazon tries to reassure investors and customers that its Prime and Echo ecosystem can keep expanding. First, Amazon's decision to raise Prime's annual fee from $99 to $119 alienated many customers. Recent surveys by Atherton Research and Yahoo Finance suggest that 59% and 45% of Amazon's Prime customers, respectively, won't renew their memberships after the price hike. Granted, some of those customers probably won't follow through, but this widespread anger at Amazon could leave it vulnerable to Google's growing list of retail allies. Second, Amazon is dealing with a privacy debacle regarding Alexa after an Oregon woman claimed that her Echo device recorded a private conversation with her husband and sent it to an acquaintance. Amazon claims that the speaker was accidentally woken, then misunderstood the background conversation, believing it contained confirmations to send a message. That defense is likely valid, but it raises troubling privacy concerns -- especially after Facebook 's Cambridge Analytica scandal cast a dark cloud over all data-gathering tech companies. Even if this is a one-off event, the headlines could hurt Echo sales as Google Home gains ground. An $11.8 billion market opportunity The global smart speaker market could grow from $2.7 billion this year to $11.8 billion in 2023, according to Research and Markets, so there's probably plenty of room for Amazon, Google, and other companies to thrive. Nonetheless, Amazon investors should keep a close eye on Google Home, since it could eventually challenge the growth of its Echo and Prime ecosystems. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Leo Sun owns shares of Amazon. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Amazon, and Facebook. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Bitcoin skids below $6,000, hits lowest level since November: LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin's value slid to its lowest level since November on Friday, as waning investor interest and recent negative headlines from global regulators weakened demand for the cryptocurrency and most of its rivals. Virtual currencies, including the best-known and biggest, bitcoin, have been stuck in a downward trend for most of 2018 after last year's frenzied interest fizzled. Recent hacks and the "cyber intrusion" of cryptocurrency exchanges in key Asian markets has also encouraged investors to exit. Bitcoin fell to as low as $5,774 (BTC=BTSP) on the Bitstamp exchange, the lowest since Nov. 12. It was last up 0.7 percent at $5,891. So far in 2018, bitcoin has tumbled almost 60 percent after soaring more than 1,300 percent last year. It is now down 70 percent from its December peak. Other cryptocurrencies (.MVETH) (.MVXRP) also slid on Friday. Ethereum's ether, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by value, fell 4 percent to $416, its weakest since April. Ripple's XRP also dropped 4 percent to $0.44, a 2018 low, according to Coinmarketcap.com. "The frenzy surrounding crypto has ebbed and flowed with prices," said Will Hobbs, Head of Investment Strategy at Barclays Smart Investor. "None of the crypto currencies currently fulfill any of the criteria that we would look for in an investible asset and we would continue to advise extreme caution. The rout in crypto currencies is still not finished," he said. The Bank of England on Thursday warned banks and insurers that they should be wary of crypto assets because they can be highly volatile and vulnerable to fraud. After cryptocurrency prices surged in 2017 big institutional players were predicted to step into the industry, but most have waited on the sidelines amid regulatory worries and as they weight up whether investor interest is more than a fad. The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has fallen to around $230 billion from a peak of around $800 billion in January. Still, money continues to be plowed into the sales of new digital currencies. Sales jumped to $13.7 billion in the first five months of the year, nearly double the amount raised for the whole of 2017, according to a report released on Thursday. (Reporting by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes; Editing by Richard Balmforth) || This Dividend ETF is Impressing This Year: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. With the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, sending Treasury yields higher, many investors thought some high dividend strategies and the related ETFs would be laggards this year. In some cases, that is true, but the Oppenheimer Ultra Dividend Revenue ETF ( RDIV ) is a notable exception. RDIV is up 6% year-to-date, making it one of the best-performing dividend ETFs this year. The ETF hit another all-time high on Monday, something RDIV has recently been doing with regularity. RDIV’s revenue-weighted methodology can help investors avoid expensive stocks and tap into the value factor at a time when some market observers are betting value stocks are poised to rally. Revenue weighting could provide diversified exposure to the market, is not influenced by stock price, reflects a truer indication of a company’s value and offers stable sector exposure. Moreover, revenue weighting may provide a more value-oriented portfolio and historically outperformed in a value-driven market while showing lower drawdowns during growth-driven markets. What's Driving RDIV Earlier this year, high-yield sectors with bond-like qualities struggled, but that scenario recently reverse, helping RDIV gain about 11 percent since the start of the second quarter. RDIV “invests in the securities in the S&P 900 with the highest trailing dividend yield. Each of these securities is then weighted by top line revenue, instead of market capitalization,” according to Oppenheimer . The ETF, which benchmarks to the S&P 900 Dividend Revenue-Weighted Index, holds 62 stocks. Related: Using Investment Factors With Small-Cap ETFs The $633 million RDIV is heavily allocated to high dividend sectors. Its largest sector weight is 25.5% to utilities while the telecommunications and real estate sectors, also known for their high dividend traits, combine for 27.8% of the fund's weight. Still, RDIV does feature some cyclical exposure with a combined 41.6% weight to the consumer discretionary and energy sectors. Story continues The average market capitalization of RDIV's holdings is $37.41 billion. While some high dividend strategies also feature high valuations, RDIV's price-to-earnings ratio of just over 15 implies a discount to the S&P 500. The ETF yields 4.92%. For more on smart beta ETFs, visit our Smart Beta Channel . POPULAR ARTICLES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM Bitcoin Adoption Will Rise, Says New Study CBOE Keeps Bitcoin ETF Push Alive Shaq’s Money Advice: ‘Save it… invest it… and be smart’ Gold ETF Holdings Decline in June Few Advisors Spend Money on What Matters Most READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || What Happened in the Stock Market Today: Stocks were mixed on Thursday, with the with theDow Jones Industrial Average(DJINDICES: ^DJI)extending yesterday's surge and theS&P 500(SNPINDEX: ^GSPC)edging into negative territory when the closing bell rang. [{"Index": "Dow", "Percentage Change": "0.38%", "Point Change": "95.02"}, {"Index": "S&P 500", "Percentage Change": "(0.07%)", "Point Change": "(1.98)"}] Data source: Yahoo! Finance. Oil stocks jumped as the price of crude climbed amid a drop in exports from Venezuela, sending theSPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration and Production ETF(NYSEMKT: XOP)up 2.6%. But tech stocks helped pare the market's gains, with theTechnology Select Sector SPDR Fund(NYSEMKT: XLK)down 0.9%. As for individual stocks, fresh earnings news left shares ofFive Below(NASDAQ: FIVE)andUnited Natural Foods(NASDAQ: UNFI)moving in opposite directions. Image source: Getty Images. Shares of Five Below jumped 21.9% after the discount retail chain announcedstronger-than-expected quarterly results. For its fiscal first quarter ended May 5, 2018, Five Below's net sales grew 27.2% year over year to $296.3 million, driven by contributions from new locations and a 3.2% increase in comparable-store sales. Net income jumped nearly 160% year over year to $21.8 million, or $0.39 per diluted share, though that includes a $0.04-per-share benefit related to accounting adjustments for stock-based compensation. Even excluding that benefit, however, Five Below's results arrived well above guidanceprovided last quarterfor revenue of $290 million to $294 million, and net income per share of $0.31 to $0.34. "Our consistent performance continues to reinforce our confidence in the 2,500 plus nationwide store opportunity we see for Five Below," said CEO Joel Anderson. "We are making disciplined investments to support that future growth and are excited to announce our plans to build a new distribution center just south of Atlanta, which will provide us with capacity and flexibility as we continue to grow in the Southeast." For perspective, Five Below ended the quarter with 658 stores in 32 states, so it still enjoys a long runway for growth to reach its 2,500-plus goal. Combined with its relative outperformance to start the new fiscal year, I think investors were right to bid the stock to an all-time high today. Shares of United Natural Foods fell 14.3% even though the organic food specialist posted a strong quarterly report. Revenue climbed 11.8% year over year to $2.649 billion, and adjusted earnings per share rose 35.1% to $1.04. Both figures easily exceeded consensus estimates calling for earnings of $0.93 per share on revenue of $2.58 billion. Chairman and CEO Steven Spinner rightly called it a "strong" quarter, stating, "UNFI continues to be an important connector between manufacturers, brick and mortar retailers as well as eCommerce customers." But he also hinted at why the stock is down today, adding: "We are pleased with the continued momentum in our business and we continue to work to balance and improve upon the challenges associated with this higher-than-expected growth." To be sure, gross margin during the quarter declined 5 basis points year over year to 15.41%, due to a combination of higher freight costs and a shift in customer mix, where growth from lower-margin customers outpaced the rest. During the subsequent conference call, management also noted that higher demand is putting pressure on United Natural's supply chain, resulting in lower supplier inbound fill rates. Still, Spinner insisted they remain "dedicated to working with our suppliers, and to enhance alignment on demand signals." Finally, United Natural increased its full-year guidance to call for revenue of $10.23 billion to $10.28 billion, and for full-year adjusted earnings per share of $3.18 to $3.23. Both ranges are well above consensus estimates, which had called for full-year earnings of $3.11 per share on revenue of $10.1 billion. Though Wall Street frowned upon United Natural Foods' growing pains, I think it's an enviable problem to have. Assuming the company can adequately address its challenges in the coming quarters, I suspect its pullback will prove short-lived. More From The Motley Fool • 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices • 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 • 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Steve Symingtonhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Five Below. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || lululemon athletica Is Gaining Traction With Men: lululemon athletica's(NASDAQ: LULU)first-quarter revenue growthof 25% was the fastest rate since the fourth quarter of 2012. One reason for the improvement is that men are starting to warm up to the brand. In recent years, management has made attracting more male shoppers a priority as the company aims to expand its market opportunity. Men made up 30% of new customers during the first quarter, which tracked above the number of new women customers. Historically, Lululemon has primarily been perceived as a women's brand, but with men joining the gang, the brand is really starting to come into its own. Image source: Getty Images. The gains with men come as year-over-year revenue growth accelerated from 18% in the busy holiday quarter to 25% in Q1. Both men's and women's categories saw double-digit increases in comparable-store sales in the most recent quarter. Over the last year, Lululemon has seen its revenue growth accelerate in each quarter, following a weak Q1 2017 earnings report in which Lululemon reported only 5% growth in revenue. The men's category started to pick up steam in 2015 when the company launched the popular ABC pants. Since then, Lululemon has expanded with different colors and styles, and more men have continued to flock to the brand as a result. When Lululemon reported a 21% increase in new male customers during the third quarter last year, it was a sign momentum was really building for the yoga apparel specialist. The growth in men's got a big boost following the company's first marketing campaign that targeted men during the fall. A few years ago, management set agoalto reach $4 billion in total revenue by 2020, which involved growing the men's category to a $1 billion business. On the first-quarter conference call with investors, COO Stuart Haselden said, "We're very excited at the progress we're making against those 2020 goals that we had laid out." Specifically, regarding their plans growing the men's category, Haselden said the company is "running ahead of schedule." The strong demand for ABC pants is dictating the types of products management is investing in, as Haselden explained: We're being pulled into these categories versus pushing our way into them if you will. ... This has been a part of our assortments, both in men's and women's, for quite some time. ... Our guests are asking for these types of products. In February, Lululemon launched specially designed jackets, bottoms, and tops for men in collaboration with Canadian brand Roden Gray, with several items selling out quickly. Lululemon is planning to launch a new style collection focusing on the office commute for men this year. All of this stems from the popularity of the ABC pants, which has convinced men to try other products. Executive Chairman Glenn Murphy explained that the success the company is seeing with the expansion of the men's category is "starting to open up our thought process on what could this brand become internationally." Lululemon is on track to reach its $1 billion international revenue goal by 2020, and here, too, men are playing a key role. The success of menswear in Asia -- its fastest-growing market -- is running higher than the company average. In the first quarter, comparable-store sales growth in Asia was 50%, which is on trend with recent quarters. The pattern is clear: The more men that join the Lululemon fold, the greater the market Lululemon has to expand into and the higher growth it experiences because of it. Lululemon has had no trouble growing from a small yoga apparel retailer with about $100 million in revenue more than 10 years ago to $2.649 billion last year, as it primarily marketed its brand to women. For the first time, the brand is courting men aggressively at the same time it's seeing high growth rates in international markets. It's getting more clear Lululemon is a big-time athletic brand in the making. More From The Motley Fool • 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices • 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 • 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This John Ballardhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends NKE. The Motley Fool recommends Lululemon Athletica. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Cryptocurrency Market Gains $10 Billion; EOS Surges 16%, Bitcoin Price at $7,650: The cryptocurrency market has increased by around $10 billion over the past 24 hours, as major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ripple, EOS, Stellar, and Tron surged in the range of 2 to 16 percent. EOS was the strongest performer today, recording a gain of 16.24 percent subsequent to its mainnet launch. No Major Movement Over the Past 7 Days Although it seems as if the market has recovered by large margins and bitcoin has rebounded from its previous dip, BTC has remained in the same region over the past seven days. Last week, on May 27, exactly seven days ago, the price of BTC was $7,560. As of June 2, the price of BTC remains just over $7,600, less than 1 percent higher than its position on May 27. On May 27, analysts predicted a downward trajectory for BTC and a possible drop below the $7,000 mark. BTC did drop to $7,040, but recovered relatively quickly back to $7,500, as bulls refused to allow bitcoin to drop below a key resistance level at $7,000, which could have led BTC to enter the higher end of $5,000. The descending trendline from May 6 to June 2, covering two corrective rallies on May 11 and May 21, demonstrate that BTC has the potential to regain momentum at its current level, establishing $7,040 as the bottom. However, BTC has also replicated the head and shoulders top that was formed throughout May 15 to May 20, which ultimately led BTC to fall from $8,500 to $7,040. In order for BTC to initiate a short to mid-term rally in the upcoming days, similar to the corrective rally on April 11 that allowed BTC To rise from $6,950 to $8,000 within a one-hour period, BTC would need to experience a significant surge in volume, achieving $8,000 in the next 24 to 48 hours. If BTC fails to sustain momentum at its current level, it could drop back down to the $6,000 region and eye a potential movement to $5,000, as cryptocurrency researcher Willy Woo hinted previously. “So in summary my best guess… slowish bleed down to $6800… then a steeper slide to $5700, then a levelling out of the drop… then a flat zone. This is an educated guess based on volume profile and fundamental data framing the rate of movement,” Woo said on May 25. Story continues Performance of Tokens Tokens such as Ontology, ICON, WanChain, Theta, and others recorded a surge in volume and price over past few days, benefiting from the short-term recovery of BTC. Because tokens tend to decline and increase in value with larger margins in comparison to BTC, tokens usually provide high-risk and high-return trading opportunities. EOS recorded a 16 percent increase in price, as CCN reported, as traders and investors have started to anticipate the performance of EOS post-mainnet launch. Some analysts and traders have claimed that the performance of EOS is not organic and it will likely fall in value in the upcoming days. Other tokens such as Tron have also experienced an increase in value due to their mainnet launches, but quite often, a price spike triggered by a certain event or a single factor is vulnerable to a short-term correction. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post Cryptocurrency Market Gains $10 Billion; EOS Surges 16%, Bitcoin Price at $7,650 appeared first on CCN . [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] 1.82% 7649.53$ 7508.49$ 7518.99$ || A $XMR is worth 0.0215198 BTC || 着々と票数が増えてる❤︎ 嬉しいです❤︎ 残り1日半くらい！ もっと増えるといいなあ… やっぱり仮想通貨だけって人が多いけどいっぱいやってる人も結構いるんてすね！ #仮想通貨 #ビットコイン #BTC #情報 #ニュース #上場 #配信 #エアドロップ #ADA #withcoin #XRP #xem #TRX #FX #株 #バイオプhttps://twitter.com/ru____xxxx/status/1003005276952227840 … || A $XMR is worth 0.0215935 BTC || 2018年07月07日 08:00 [DOGE建] 1XP=0.0075143円 24時間の最高値 0.0075826円 24時間の最安値 0.0069696円 [BTC建] 1XP=0.0072667円 24時間の最高値 0.0146578円 24時間の最安値 0.0071483円 時価総額ランキング: 319 位 / 全 792 中 #XP $XP || Zen Protocol gives you control over your own financial assets. It’s a trading floor, a broker, and a tool for making new instruments, all on a parallel blockchain that connects to Bitcoin. Join our official Telegram group: https://t.me/zenprotocol pic.twitter.com/OG0HsZcwoK || @windzbtc @Etherhayns @dhrazzen0903 @pitagan_janeth @JayraldRegado #airdrop #freetoken #crypto #altcoin #bitcoin #ethereum #ERC20 #BTC #ETH #LTC #XVG #TRX #ADA #XRP #BCH #EOS #NEO #XLM https://twitter.com/THUGCOIN/status/1003211550524690433 … || Buy Bitcoin With PayPal! Also with CC, paysafecard, Skrill, OKPAY https://www.virwox.com?r=4db29virwox.com/?r=4db29  #btc #bitcoin 21 pic.twitter.com/4hHoPIg4zt || https://www.zerocarbonproject.com  ,#Crypto #Blockchain #ENERGIS #bitcoin #cryptocurrency #btc, https://twitter.com/ZeroCarbonPrjct/status/1002508871859044352 … || Then why is your handle bitcoin with the bitcoin btc logo if you’re constantly shilling bcash lol
Trend: up || Prices: 7321.04, 7370.78, 7466.86, 7354.13, 7419.29, 7418.49, 7711.11, 8424.27, 8181.39, 7951.58
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-10-19] BTC Price: 64261.99, BTC RSI: 76.52 Gold Price: 1769.70, Gold RSI: 50.19 Oil Price: 82.96, Oil RSI: 77.51 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Natural Gas Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Weather Bearish, but Strong LNG Demand Propping Up Prices: Natural gas futures are edging higher on Monday, returning to a key technical resistance area, as traders continue to react to robust export demand and strong power burns despite the easing tightness in the domestic supply/demand balance as revealed in the latest Energy Information Administration (EIA) weekly storage report. At 10:08 GMT,December natural gas futuresare trading $5.986, up $0.223 or +3.87%. Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI) wrote after Friday’s close that NYMEX futures struggled to disconnect themselves from global markets. Supply shortage fears were on full display this week in Asian and European markets, boosting prices to record levels. Despite an improving supply picture in the Lower 49, though, U.S. gas prices followed suit. NGI also reported that in the cash market strong power burns continued despite the end of the summer. Even with a drop in temperatures, gas continues to capture a large share of total generation. Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. analysts said coal continued to lose share through September. Weekly data suggests coal production has risen in the past two weeks, “but with an enticing global market, we suspect the export picture to remain a key factor amidst a total global energy market.” Bespoke Weather Services said, “The pattern continues to favor very warm weather in the northern half of the nation,” suppressing early season heating demand, “while having a lack of strong heat in the southern U.S.” to also limit cooling demand, Bespoke said. “In addition, the pattern still looks set to continue its warm theme beyond day 15, meaning that it is not out of the question we make a run at October 2016’s record low GWDD count,” Bespoke said. While weather trends will likely matter more “starting in the middle third of October, our expectation is that warm/bearish weather will persist beyond the middle of October, if not at least early November, which could add some yet to those storage levels,” according to the firm. According to NatGasWeather for October 4 – October 10, “A messy pattern continues as numerous weather systems again impact the U.S. this week. One system is over the Northwest, a second tracking into the Southwest mid-week, and a third extending from the Great Lakes to the South and Southeast. Temperatures with these systems will reach the 50s to 70s besides the warmer one tracking into the Southwest and Texas mid-week with highs of 80s. The rest of the U.S. remains nice to warm with highs of 60s to 80s besides locally hotter 90s early this week Southwest deserts and portions of Texas. Overall, national demand will be low to very low into the foreseeable future.” Our work suggests the direction of the December natural gas market on Monday will be determined by trader reaction to the short-term retracement zone at $5.947 to $6.060. Look for a bullish tone to develop on a sustained move over $6.060. Taking out Friday’s high at $6.141 could trigger an acceleration to the upside. A bearish tone should develop on a sustained move under $5.947. The first downside target area is $5.652 to $5.469. Buyers could come in to defend the trend on a test of $5.652 to $5.469. However, if $5.652 fails as support, the main trend will change to down. This could trigger an acceleration into the best support zone at $5.185 to $4.892. The weather news is bearish and the supply/demand scenario is loosening. What’s holding up this market is the strong LNG demand from Europe and Asia. If this demand starts to crumble then look for a steep drop in natural gas prices. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out oureconomic calendar. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Bitcoin Price Prediction – Bears in Control, Eyeing sub-$47,000 Levels • Daily Gold News: Monday, Oct. 4 – Gold Fluctuates Following Thursday’s Advance • Crude Oil Price Update – Bullish OPEC+ News Triggering Breakout Rally with $80.00 Next Likely Upside Target • EUR/USD Price Forecast – Euro Trying to Recover • Silver Price Daily Forecast – Silver Is Under Pressure Despite Weaker Dollar • Gold Price Forecast – Gold Markets Get Boost to Open Week || NFL Legend Tom Brady Looking to Get Paid in Crypto: BeInCrypto – In a recent interview, Tom Brady expressed his desire to receive some of his salary in crypto. Tom Brady has been having a phenomenal 2021-22 season on and off the field. The future Hall-of-Fame quarterback has been in the news recently for his support of cryptocurrencies and related projects. Now, TB12 has announced that he wishes to get paid in cryptocurrency. On a recent episode of Brady’s “ Let’s Go” podcast with Jim Gray and Larry Fitzgerald, the living legend had this to say, “I’d love to request that to get paid in some crypto and, you know, to get paid in some Bitcoin or Ethereum or Solana tokens.’ Brady goes on to double down on his support for the industry by saying, “I think it’s an amazing thing that’s happening in the world with the way the world is becoming more digital. And these digital currencies, along with a lot of, if you look how the way the world is going, with all these different digital mediums and how they’re impacting currencies.” This story was seen first on BeInCrypto Join our Telegram Group and get trading signals, a free trading course and more stories like this on BeInCrypto || Bitcoin Bear Mr. Whale: ‘BTC Closer to Hitting $0 Than $100,000’: BeInCrypto – Bitcoin bear Mr. Whale, who also goes by the handle Cryptowhale on Twitter, made a sensationalclaimon Oct 2 “Bitcoin is closer to hitting $0 than it is to hitting $100,000.” But that was just to prove a point, he says. “I do not think bitcoin will ever hit zero, as it’s mathematically not possible,” Mr. Whale told BeInCrypto in an interview. “This was not a prediction,” he avers, “but merely to put it into perspective.” His message was aimed particularly at crypto influencers and maximalists who have forecast that the price of bitcoin (BTC) will hit a record high of $100,000 by the end of this year. At the time of publishing, BTC had made a sprintabove $51,000. This storywas seen first onBeInCryptoJoin our Telegram Groupand get trading signals, a free trading course and more stories likethisonBeInCrypto || US stocks fall as investors digest news of Evergrande's missed payment deadline: • US stocks fell on Friday as investors digest the news of Evergrande's missed payment deadline. • Government bond yields rose after the Fed indicated interest rates may rise sooner than expected. • Bitcoin, ether, and major altcoins tumbled on news that China will ban all crypto transactions. • Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell. US stocks fell on Friday as investors digested the news of Evergrande's missed payment deadline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell after soaring506 points in the previous session. The technology-heavy Nasdaq-100 also edged lower. Here's where US indexes stood at the 9:30 a.m. ET open on Friday: • S&P 500:4,441.78, down 0.16% • Dow Jones Industrial Average:34,756.28, down0.02% (8.54 points) • Nasdaq Composite:14,976.10, down 0.49% The debt crisis at the beleaguered Chinese property firm has roiled global markets in the past week. While markets have calmed in the last day, concerns were reignited after the Thursday deadline for Evergrade to make its crucial $83 million bond interest payment passed without any announcement. But Oleg Melentyev, credit strategist at Bank of America, said he believes the market rout has little to do with the Evergrande crisis. "The Evergrande situation brought little new information going into this week," he said in a note Friday. "The strong volatility it caused in the US markets was a delayed reaction to events that were unfolding for months but were largely ignored." Melentyev added that the situation "downgraded it to a less significant status in late August," once China Huarong Asset Management was effectively resolved. "We have assumed Evergrande will be a restructuring story for some time, so recent developments don't really change our views." The key question, he said, is whether the Chinese government will choose to intervene in the restructuring process. China's central bank, however,injected $17 billion of cashinto the banking system Thursday in an attempt to calm some nerves. Evergrande for now has a 30-day grace period to meet its obligation. If it doesn't pay by then, it will be in default. Meanwhile, US government bonds slipped Friday as investors after the Federal Open Market Committee's outlook revealed half of the officials expect thefirst rate hike to arrivenext year. The yield on the10-year Treasury noterose to 1.434%, while the yield on the30-year Treasury bondreach 1.947%. Yields move inversely to prices. Bitcoin, ether, and major altcoins tumbled Friday on news that China will completely ban all crypto transactions. Oil prices moved lower.West Texas Intermediate crudeslipped 0.20%, to $73.15 per barrel.Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, fell 0.09%, to $77.18 per barrel. Goldwas mostly flat, slipping 0.01%, to $1,745.70 per ounce. Read the original article onBusiness Insider || Next-Generation Layer-One Blockchain Protocols Remove the Financial Barriers to DeFi and NFTs: Blockchain technology has emerged as a revolutionary force for change on the global stage over the past decade as Bitcoin has risen from being shadowy internet money used by criminals to an accepted form of legal tender by governments in countries such as El Salvador. While the applications of distributed ledger technology (DLT) are vast and widespread, its potential to help reconfigure the global financial industry offers perhaps the most transformative opportunity in a world where more than 1.7 billion adults are classified as unbanked. The creation of secure layer-one blockchain protocols capable of hosting smart contracts such as Ethereum has allowed for the emergence of decentralized finance (DeFi) and the explosion in popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), but their rising popularity has been a double-edged sword as increased use of the top networks has led to skyrocketing transaction costs and slow processing times. Many proponents of some of the first and second-generation protocols including Bitcoin and Ethereum often frequent reassurances that developers have made significant progress in addressing these recurrent issues, but the fact that the same problems continue to arise during each bull market suggests that newer generation blockchain protocols offer the best solution to these longstanding difficulties. Some of the new blockchains like Fantom have been gaining a wider adoption in recent months as suitable alternatives to Ethereum because of their inclusivity and easy onboarding experience. Thanks to the layer-one solutions, users who are not familiar with the new technologies and users who can’t afford hundreds of dollars for every single transaction can now start using blockchain and DeFi. Related:5 Reasons to Get Started With DeFi The rapidly expanding world of DeFi is singlehandedly reshaping the global financial infrastructure as all manner of stocks, securities and transferable assets are slowly but surely being tokenized and stored in digital wallets. New protocols are arising daily that allow anyone with an internet connection or smartphone to access ecosystems that are equivalent to digital savings accounts but offer much more attractive yields than those found in the traditional banking sector. Unfortunately, with most of the top DeFi protocols currently operating on the Ethereum blockchain, the high cost of conducting transactions on the network has priced out ordinary individuals living in countries where even a $5 transaction fee is a significant amount of money capable of feeding a family for a week. This is where competing new blockchain platforms have the biggest opportunity for growth and adoption thanks to cross-chain bridges, a growing number of opportunities to earn a yield on new DeFi protocols and significantly smaller transaction cost. Both Fantom and Avalanche have fully functioning cross-chain bridges that allow ERC-20 to be migrated to a corresponding token standard on their networks while Solana has created its "Wormhole" communication bridge that connects with other top DeFi networks including Ethereum, Terra and the Binance Smart Chain. Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock over the past two months knows that the NFT sector has skyrocketed in popularity along with prices as all manner of celebrities, sports stars and globally recognized brands have started offering one-of-a-kind digital collectibles. Just as it was during the bull market of 2017-2018, digital collectibles from CryptoKitties to CryptoPunks have led to break records in terms of both prices paid as well as network congestion and fees generated. Play-to-earn games have also become in-demand applications as NFT technology enables players to sell in-game items for real-world cash, but high transaction costs have once again priced out those who could benefit most from the access that these protocols provide. This is yet another use case that has begun to see an explosion of interest spill over to Fantom, whose near-feeless transaction capabilities have enabled users from even the most economically disadvantaged areas of the world unrestricted access to protocols that can allow them to earn a daily living income. Instead of having to pay more than $100 in Ethereum gas fees just to try and get in on the NFT action, users can instead put their money to use building their NFT portfolios and participating in the growing digital-collectibles metaverse. Related:What's Holding DeFi Back (and How to Fix It) On top of their low-cost nature, the newer generation protocols and pure proof-of-stake networks also offer an easy-to-use user interface that even the most non-tech-savvy individuals can navigate. While many networks out there require an advanced level of technical experience to operate wallets and conduct transactions, Fantom has removed the advanced training required to operate the first blockchain interfaces and has created a UI that any modern internet user can operate. Algorand has amassed a vast network of developers and scientists that have helped create a user interface simple enough that even well-known crypto projects like the digital-wallet creator Exodus have chosen the network to host its recently launched EXIT digitized token representations of its common stock. For those who were around during the early days of the internet, few could probably have imagined the journey that has taken place from using programs like Netscape to explore some of the earliest message boards or chat with their friends to the current expansive digital universe that is social media and Google searches. Just as many of those early programs that once dominated the digital landscape have now disappeared completely, so too will many of the popular first and second-generation blockchain protocols suffer a similar fate as newer networks with superior scaling capabilities and smart-contract functionality arise and gain the favor of the market. These emerging projects, which offer lower-cost transactions at higher rates of scalability, are well-positioned to step forward and take a leadership role in helping to onboard the wider public and pave the way to a blockchain future. The dawn of the blockchain era is now underway, and projects like Bitcoin and Ethereum have helped bust open the door and establish blockchain technology as a force for change on the planet. Now, as more and more of the global population starts to make its way into the cryptocurrency ecosystem, it’s time for the next generation of blockchain platforms to arise and assume roles as leaders in this digital revolution as decentralized finance and non-fungible tokens begin to transform the global financial systems. Related:Getting Drawn Into DeFi? Here Are 3 Major Considerations || CORRECTION: AI-Powered Investment Platform Delphia Launches New Alternative Investment Newsletter: This release replaces and corrects the release that was disseminated on September 24, 2021. Dear readers, A sentence about Delphia being the first-ever investment advisor that will let people invest their data alongside their money erroneously implied this data was already being processed. TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / October 14, 2021 / Today many retail investors see Bitcoin, NFT artwork, and even sneakers as viable alternatives to stocks and bonds. To respond to this growing interest in alternative investments, investment platform Delphia has launched a dedicated alts newsletter named " Alt Class " which is hosted on Substack. "The traditional 60/40 investment model is outdated", explains Andrew Peek , CEO and Co-Founder of Delphia which makes quantitative hedge fund strategies available to retail investors for free. "Last year Preqin predicted AUM for alts would hit $17 trillion by 2025, a 60% increase from $10.74 trillion at the end of 2020. While the bulk of this growth has been driven by institutional investors looking for diversification and higher risk-adjusted returns, there's also been impressive uptake by HNW individuals and retail investors." Helping Retail Investors Access Alts According to Peek, this rapidly-expanding sector has great potential for both retail investors and institutions, but it can be hard for retail investors to access good quality research and accurately assess opportunities. "If you want to look at hedge fund-like strategies, prediction markets or fine art, for example," commented Peek. "It's a question of how much time do you have available and which of these things do you want to focus on." "Alternative investments all require significant research and understanding before you part with any capital. That's where Alt Class comes in by providing regular updates and in-depth analysis on different alternative investment opportunities. Our mission is to make it easier for retail investors to get up to speed faster and make investment decisions which are right for your portfolio." Story continues Alt Class releases a weekly newsletter on Substack covering the whole alternative investments sector from a retail investor's perspective. Topics ranging from fine art and sneakers to private equity, NFTs, and cryptocurrency. Investment Tools For A New Reality As well as making alternative investments more accessible to retail investors, tech can also help them achieve better returns. Peek's company, Delphia, is an AI-powered platform that turns user data into algorithmic investment strategies. Peek himself is no stranger to big bets, having opened Shopify's Product Labs division after selling his last startup to the e-commerce behemoth. "While hedge funds and big institutional investors use machine learning algorithms trained on user data all the time, there's nothing like that available for individual investors. At Delphia , we want to level the playing field. We believe that by pooling data like Amazon purchase histories, Robinhood trading data, and social media activity from our members, we can build an algorithmic trading strategy that rivals the world's best hedge funds. Think of us as the first-ever investment advisor that will let people invest their data alongside their money, in order to pursue better returns." Media Contact: Bianca Munteanu bianca@kenshogrowth.com www.kenshogrowth.com SOURCE: Delphia View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/667352/CORRECTION-AI-Powered-Investment-Platform-Delphia-Launches-New-Alternative-Investment-Newsletter || Oil Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – OPEC+ to Hold Production Steady, but Willing to Discuss Increases: U.S. West Texas Intermediate and international-benchmark Brent crude oil futures are trading mixed early Monday as traders prepare for the meeting between OPEC and its allies, including Russia, which may set the tone the rest of week. Bullish traders are hoping the group known as OPEC+ leaves production levels at current levels as the market continues to overcome supply shocks and demand destruction from the COVID-19 pandemic. At 08:01 GMT, December WTI crude oil futures are trading $75.57, down $0.01 or -0.01% and December Brent crude oil futures are at $79.37, up $0.09 or +0.11%. Oil prices rose throughout September on the back of supply disruptions and a rise in global demand. This helped drive both WTI and Brent crude oil to three-year highs. Bullish traders are hoping the market continues to build on these gains through growing confidence in a strong pick up in global growth, but first they have to get some help from OPEC+. OPEC and Allies to Discuss Greater Production One key topic of discussion at Monday’s meeting between OPEC and its allies is whether to produce more to help lower prices as demand has recovered faster than expected in certain parts of the world. OPEC+ agreed in July to boost output by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) every month until at least April 2022 to phase out 5.8 million bpd of existing cuts. Four OPEC+ sources told Reuters recently that producers were considering adding more than that deal envisaged. The earliest any increase would take place would be November since the previous OPEC+ meeting decided October volumes, according to Reuters. Soaring Gas Prices Fueling Increased Demand for Crude Oil In addition to supply disruptions and the global economic recovery, the oil price rally has also been fueled by and even bigger increase in natural gas prices. Natural gas prices have spiked 300% and are trading around $200 per barrel in comparable terms, prompting switching to fuel oil and other crude products to generate electricity and for other industrial needs. Story continues “The uneven nature of the post-pandemic recovery will keep demand-side uncertainties in play, giving rise to oil price volatility,” Fitch Solutions said in a note. Daily Forecast Prices could firm later in the session if OPEC and its allies decide to stick to their existing agreement to add 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) to the market in November. There is some risk to the downside if OPEC+ gives into consumer pressures to cool a red hot market by increasing production to 500,000 – 600,000 bpd. However, this new oil wouldn’t hit the market until December. Nonetheless, the announcement of the new terms would be enough to set prices sharply lower. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Dogecoin Fans Swoon Over Elon Musk’s Floki Update Bitcoin and Ethereum – Weekly Technical Analysis – October 4th, 2021 EUR/USD Mid-Session Technical Analysis for October 4, 2021 Preview: What to Expect From Beer Giant Constellation Brands’ Earnings on Wednesday E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis – Strengthens Over 4366.00, Weakens Under 4328.25 GBP/USD Daily Forecast – Resistance At 1.3575 Stays Strong || CBDCs should have ‘privacy by design’, says blockchain boss: As Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) continue to materialise, so do worries surrounding the financial privacy of users, says Matthew Niemerg, co-founder of Aleph Zero – a Swiss non-profit, enterprise-ready, peer-reviewed, developer-friendly blockchain platform. According to Aleph Zero, CBDCs will undoubtedly be subject to know-your-customer (KYC) and anti money laundering (AML) regulations, which require identity disclosure among their participants. In fact, the Bank of Canada has already qualified anonymity as a ‘risk’ banks should look to avoid – leaving prospective users with little faith that their privacy will be assured. Needless to say, such regulations could hinder CBDC adoption by imposing a burden on financial privacy. Fortunately, developers are looking for ways to make blockchain networks that are regulatory compliant, but still, protect the privacy and rights of their users. To avoid disclosing personally identifiable information while still adhering to KYC and AML regulations, Aleph Zero ’s open-source privacy layer, Liminal, is leveraging Zero-Knowledge proofs or ZK-SNARKS. ZK-SNARKs work by allowing one party – the prover – to produce concise proof that can be used to convince another party – the verifier – that the ‘prover’ is who they say they are. Importantly, thanks to ZK-SNARKS, nothing about the prover’s personal data is revealed to the verifier (hence the name of ‘zero-knowledge’). In this way, compliance checks can be made without the user having to input or disclose the information to third parties. ID compliance is more about proof of compliance rather than knowledge of personally identifiable information. The only issue is up until now there’s been no way to decouple the two. Aleph Zero and Liminal aim to change that. Governments tend to have the biggest control possible says Niemerg Coin Rivet spoke with Niemerg, regarding how central banks should adopt a ‘privacy-by-design’ approach. Story continues He stressed that current financial institutions use Aleph Zero’s transactions and financial data for marketing and retargeting purposes, however, their financial private transactions would solve this user anonymity issue. When talking about financial privacy, one of the reasons why cryptocurrencies became so popular sits in its decentralisation and user anonymity. However, when talking about CBDCs it is normal that central banks and governments will be overlooking them . Niemerg said that even though cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum are pseudonymous, in that there is no public data on-chain that can identify persons with an account, they still reveal the transaction history between all accounts and are not fully anonymous. He added that central banks and governments are not just overlooking financial privacy but want to completely erode it. “Consider the recent proposal of the US Treasury Department in the US’ latest infrastructure bill,” he said. “Portions of the bill contain requirements to report all incoming and outgoing transactions of a bank account that exceeds $600 in aggregate over the course of a year to the IRS. “While there is no direct data available on the limited number of people and companies not spending or receiving more than $600 from a bank account in ag (guarantee account), it is hard to conceive that this would be lower than 90% of the banked (and is most likely much higher given the economic realities of utility bills, mortgage or rent, payment for food, etc.). “This can be viewed as an attempt to cast a dragnet and capture information on all financial transactions which, in turn, leads to more control that the government has within any given society.” He asserted that such policies are not unique to the US and there is a broader move by central banks worldwide to monitor every single financial transaction. “From a technology perspective, financial privacy equivalent to cash is achievable with CBDCs and with the proper design and planning can be made to work with existing regulations on cash transactions,” he said, adding that centralised institutions also use Aleph Zero’s transactions for marketing and retargeting purposes. Privacy is not a way to keep transactions concealed Niemerg commented that all cryptographic primitives with privacy features allow users of these protocols to perform what is known as a cryptographic reveal. “Account holders can even restrict with whom they perform these so-called reveals that would disclose details of a financial transaction and limit revealing sensitive details to only the proper authorities,” he said. “Privacy is not a way to keep your transactions concealed regardless of the circumstances; it’s simply a more secure way to transact for an individual. “The common misconception of ‘I have nothing to hide’ led us to a notable amount of data reselling scandals which the foundations of Web 3.0 are trying to avoid. One of the most efficient ways of doing so is through education, especially in the user privacy area.” He explained that anyone can verify ZK proof and, when talking about the ID compliance, he added decentralised identifiers (DIDs) could be combined in a way with cryptographic techniques to hide financial information on public ledgers yet, at the same time, disclose details to the proper authorities. “And a prover’s persona is as anonymous as possible assuming proper operational security protocols are followed in not revealing private information that could reveal who the prover is,” he added. Niemerg also went on to say that economic interactions are a fundamental part of the human experience. “In free societies, citizens have long enjoyed a great degree of financial freedom,” he concluded. “As technology improves and allows for private companies and governments the ability to collect data on the population, including data on financial transactions, as a society, we are seeing data privacy protection laws (such as GDPR), and broadly, we see people demand their continued right to privacy. “The lip service to privacy rights means nothing when financial privacy is not a part of the conversation.” || $3.4m Pepe Genesis NFT sale marks the start of an NFT “FROGtober”: “FROGtober” started early for the NFT community as the first artwork to feature the now-famous “Pepe the Frog” was sold in NFT form yesterday for an incredible 1,000 ETH ($3.4M) by NFT fund StarryNightCapital. The $3.4m purchase was revealed by well-known NFT collection VincentVanDough, who joined forces with Three Arrows Capital to create StarryNightCapital and begin to assemble “the world’s finest collection of NFTs”. Feels good man @StarryNight_Cap pic.twitter.com/IgrNSpz4hk — VincentVanDough (@Vince_Van_Dough) October 5, 2021 The seller – Twitter user punk4156 – put the item up for sale yesterday and informed his followers that “ the rarest Pepe is for sale “. This sparked widespread speculation in the NFT community, prompting many users to say the artwork will get market bought instantly and that 1,000 ETH was a steal . Another prominent NFT collection – ‘Farokh.eth’ – also referred to the artwork as a “ cultural artifact ” and that it would have no trouble selling at the 1,000 ETH price point. The 2006 artwork – titled “1pantsdownpee.jpg” – is the first authorised Pepe the Frog NFT by creator Matt Furie. The artwork originates from Matt Furie’s Boys Club comic series, which marked the first appearance of “Pepe the Frog”. Since then, Pepe has become a globally recognised meme and has spawned an extraordinary collection of Pepe memes that have become fan favourites with social media communities. The Pepe meme has also featured heavily in other NFTs including the RAREPEPE collection – which has seen a recent surge in interest following its cult status in internet history Story continues To coincide with the sale, creator Matt Furie, NFT collection Pegz and NFT marketplace Chain/Saw NFT revealed the Thursday auction of one “ 🐸 FEELSGOODMAN 🐸 ” Rare Pepe card. Chain/Saw called the card “A piece of blockchain history” and said the card signifies a “ peace treaty of sorts between Bitcoin and Ethereum”. 🐸👀🐸👀🐸 COMING THURSDAY! https://t.co/NfPMb11Wht 🐸👀🐸👀🐸 @Matt_Furie @PegzDAO @wasthatawolf pic.twitter.com/IxElTu2zpS — Chain/Saw ⛓/🪚 (@ChainSawNFT) October 5, 2021 From the original 500 cards that were issued, 400 were burnt and the remaining 100 remain in the custody of @PegzDAO – a collaborative effort between Matt Furie and the Pegz owner community that “ strives to be a beacon of positivity ” and guide the ‘Pepeverse’ in a direction that “aligns” with Furie’s vision. Furie has previously filed DMCA and copyright notices against NFT projects like SadFrogsDistrict that have used the Pepe image without his permission in the past. || MathLabs Ventures Is Poised to Launch Its First Quant-Driven Bitcoin Futures ETF in the Wake of SEC Approvals Next Week: MathLabs Bitcoin Strategy ETF aims to track companies that hold a majority of their net assets in Bitcoin or derive a majority of their profit or revenue from Bitcoin-related activities like mining, lending, or manufacturing mining equipment. "On day 1 we launch as an ETF of ETF's comprising of the 3 major Bitcoin Futures ETF's getting SEC approval next week" says Priyanca Ford, Founder at MathLabs Ventures LOS ANGELES, Oct. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The great Bitcoin stock-market rotation is revitalizing a $2.4 trillion corner of quantitative investing, and MathLabs Ventures is handing individual investors & ETF managers a rare opportunity to outperform the Cryptocurrency markets. MathLabs Ventures has a number of Systematic strategies wrapped up in exchange-traded funds. "The SEC is likely to allow the first U.S. Bitcoin futures ETF to begin trading next week, in what would be a watershed moment for crypto. AI-Driven smart-beta products by our team at MathLabs have been widely used and thoroughly tested by Cryptocurrency Investors for the last nine years. We are excited to be part of the first wave of U.S. Bitcoin futures ETFs by launching our MathLabs Bitcoin Strategy ETF which is essentially an ETF or ETF," says Priyanca Ford, Founder at MathLabs Ventures. Investors betting on a post-pandemic world are sending cash to riskier companies acutely sensitive to the economic cycle -- led by the famed resurgence in the value factor. And as the safety trade in Big Tech eases, equity gains are broadening and popular allocation styles like momentum are rebounding. All that means the smart-beta industry, which touts the virtues of diversification, is looking particularly smart. ABOUT MATHLABS VENTURES Founded by Harvard + MIT mathematicians writing custom trading algorithms on a quantum computer all day. MathLabs Venture's Quantitative Algorithms have returned 72.37% versus the S&P 500 in the last 4 years by investing in companies that are involved in the development and production of Robots, Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence aimed at benefiting humanity.​ ​MathLabs Ventures invests only about a quarter of its $1.74 billion total assets in U.S. equities. The rest is invested in UK & Asia. Our minimum investment is $10 million, expense ratio 0.48% + pay a dividend.​ https://www.mathlabsventures.com (Priyanca_Ford@post.harvard.edu) Related Files 46391.jpg Related Images Image 1: mathlabs ventures This content was issued through thepress release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment • mathlabs ventures [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 65992.84, 62210.17, 60692.27, 61393.62, 60930.84, 63039.82, 60363.79, 58482.39, 60622.14, 62227.96
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-06-02] BTC Price: 9529.80, BTC RSI: 54.24 Gold Price: 1725.20, Gold RSI: 52.57 Oil Price: 36.81, Oil RSI: 64.27 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] COVID-19 Is the Risk You Didn’t See Coming; Rethinking Safe-Haven Assets in a Post-COVID-19 World: COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic on Wednesday, March 11 and the declaration coincided with the official start of the bear market with equity indexes crashing more than 20% from their February highs. More accurately, the stock market transitioned from a record high to descend into a bear market in just 19 days. Of course, we told you all about this on February 27 th when the S&P 500 Index was trading around the level in an article titled “ Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW ”. According to Ryan Detrick, an analyst with LPL Financial in a chat with Fortune, " we’ve never seen [the Dow] go from an all-time high to a bear market this fast" since the index's inception in 1896… As the shock occurred and shut everything down, the resurgence of turning everything on is going to have a classic V-shape, so we’re on the downswing right now ." Here’s how the stock market has fared so far The chart below shows how major U.S. tech stocks have fared in the year-to-date period. The stocks started with wins straight out of the gate to start Q1 2020 on a positive note but the momentum didn’t last through the second month of the year. By the end of the quarter, Alphabet Inc.(NASDAQ: GOOG ) was down 17.89%, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL ) was down 17.79%, and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT )was down 2.45% while Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN ) managed to recover from the decline to score 3.18% gains. The reason for the marginal decline in Microsoft and the slight gain in Amazon has been attributed to the increase in the use of the former’s solutions in working from home and the fact that the latter manages e-commerce for essential goods. Interestingly, the market crash wasn’t limited to equities as the prices of different commodities also crashed steeply during the period. As seen in the chart below, the price of Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate has declined by 16.49% and 15.46% respectively in response to reduced demand for oil as the global economy remains in lockdown. Commodities in the agricultural value chain seem to be the worst hit; as the S&P GSCI Live cattle index records a massive decline of more than 35% in the same period. Story continues Cryptocurrencies: Correlation or No Correlation to Equities? In the last decade that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies debuted on the global economic and financial scene, one of the loudest arguments in its support is the assumption that they could be safe-haven assets on par with (or better than) gold in times of economic uncertainty. For one, Bitcoin has a fixed supply at 21 million coins unlike fiat - the stimulus package that the U.S fed recently approved makes a solid case. However, while the theory supports the safe-haven perception of Bitcoin, the practical truth is that Bitcoin has never been through a global market crash or economic recessions. Hence, nobody has any empirical data on how it will perform during a recession and certainly not over extended periods -- until now, that is. Between March 12 and March 1, barely 24 hours after U.S. equities officially crashed into a bear market, Bitcoin also crashed through the non-correlation theory after dropping almost 50% from $7,690 to $4,121. The fact that Bitcoin has a 65% dominance in the cryptocurrency market also triggered a market-wide crash that saw many tokens recording double-digit losses. As of March 12, the cryptocurrency market saw more than $93 billion wiped away from its value and many crypto traders and investors recorded steep losses. Interestingly, users of Pokket , a cryptocurrency fixed deposit service, were largely insulated from the crash that ravaged both the equities and crypto market. Whereas most crypto investors are forced to trade actively or buy and hold in the hopes of future profit, Pokket is creating new financial instruments that allow crypto holders to earn returns on their crypto assets while holding them in much the same way that you earn returns on the traditional savings account or fixed deposits on fiat currencies. During the week that equities entered a bear market and that Bitcoin lost almost half of its value, Pokket users were unfazed and they continued to earn interest ranging from 0.6% to 250% depending on the asset you own out of the 33 cryptocurrencies for which they have structured financial products. Unlike traditional savings accounts, you only need to hold your crypto for one week to earn the returns. In addition, all assets held with Pokket are 110% collateralized for extra security. What does a post-COVID-19 world hold for stock and equities? If not for the timely intervention of central banks in the major world markets, the global stock market would have crashed into a depression in response to the unprecedented nature of Coronavirus. However, cryptocurrencies have displayed incredible resilience with Bitcoin climbing 31% while the S&P 500 has only managed to recover by 7%. Hence, there’ll continue to be room for digital assets on Wall Street even though the traditional gatekeepers are still sceptical about legitimizing cryptocurrencies. New players such as Change will continue to blur the lines between traditional assets and digital assets by providing simple retail solutions for investing in cryptocurrencies and for real-time payments that connect cryptocurrencies to the rest of the modern world. Irrespective of whether you think cryptocurrencies have a place in the post-COVID-19 portfolio or not, you should note that the risk of a negative feedback loop still looms over the world. The fears of a global recession might trigger a market selloff, the selloff could cause financial institutions to tighten borrowing conditions, which in turn makes it harder for businesses to finances. Hopefully, leaders will be able to develop a coordinated response to save the global economy. The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered an unprecedented global change across economics, healthcare, international relations, and socio-political lines. No one has any idea of how long it will take for the world to return to a semblance of normalcy. That said, traders and investors in both traditional and digital assets will continue to look for opportunities to profit while actively identifying and mitigating risk factors. Disclosure: None. Related Content Hell is Coming and We Sold Out Our National Security For A Few Dollars || Bitcoin Price Spikes Above $7.1K, Liquidating $23M on BitMEX: Bitcoin’s price jumped close to $500 early on Thursday, triggering liquidations worth millions on crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX. The top cryptocurrency by market value picked up a bid around $6,650 and rose to a high of $7,145 in the 90 minutes to 08:30 UTC, according to CoinDesk’sBitcoin Price Index. The sudden move forced liquidations of futures worth $23 million on BiMEX, of which $10 million happened in the 60 minutes to 08:00 UTC and the remainder in the following 30 minutes, according to data provided by the crypto derivatives research firm Skew. Related:Open Interest in CME Bitcoin Futures Rises 70% as Institutions Return to Market Total liquidation volume seen over that timeframe was significantly higher than the three-day hourly liquidation average of $1.6 million. Sell liquidations occur whenthe market moves against long positions and breaches a predetermined limit,forcing BitMEX’s liquidation engine to liquidate (or sell) long positions.Meanwhile, buy liquidations occur when prices move against short positions,forcing the liquidation engine to square off bearish bets. While both long and short positions were liquidated, more than 93 percent of the total liquidations of $23 million were of short positions – a sign leverage was skewed to the downside. Bitcoin had dropped to lows below $6,500 during the early Asian trading hours, having faced multiple rejections above $7,000 over the last few days. Further, Asian equity markets were also flashing red at the time, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street. Related:First Mover: Coronavirus Trillions Get Bitcoiners Wondering if Halving Still Matters Hence, it’s not surprising a majority of positions on BitMEX leaned to the bearish side. It’s worth noting that sudden and sizable price moves almost always lead to the forced unwinding of long or short positions, which in turn adds to the downward or upward pressure on prices. See also:Does Crypto Need Circuit Breakers? Last Week’s Price Crash Ignites a Debate For instance, as bitcoin fell below $6,000 during the early U.S. trading hours on March 12,BitMEX squared off nearly $700 million worthof long positions. That likely exaggerated the bearish move, sending prices on to lows below $5,000. Bitcoin continues to move roughly in tandem with futures tied to Wall Street’s equity index, the S&P 500. The cryptocurrency fell from $6,900 to $6,600 during Wednesday’s U.S. trading hours, as the stock markets put in a negative performance on the back of arecord dropin consumer spending, as represented by retail sales. Sentiment remained weak early on Thursday, with Asian markets tracking Wall Street lower. However, the S&P 500 futures erased losses and rose by 0.8% after European stocks opened on a positive note. Risk sentiment hasreportedly stabilizeddue to world leaders taking steps to reopen economies hammered by the coronavirus outbreak. Bitcoin followed suit byprinting highs above $7,100 and taking the month-to-date gains to 9.6 percent. Atpress time, the cryptocurrency is changing hands near $7,040, representing a 6percent gain on the day. Bitcoin’s latest upward move is backed by strong volumes and looks to have legs. Notably, the $400 uptick to $7,000 (marked by arrow) was accompanied by the highest buying volume (green bars) since April 2, according to Bitstamp data. The cryptocurrency, however, needs to print a strong hourly close above the top end of the descending channel. A breakout, if confirmed, would likely invite stronger chart-driven buying, leading to a re-test of recent highs near $7,500. The outlook would again turn bearish if bitcoin finds acceptance under $6,695 – the low of today’s high-volume bullish candle. Disclosure:The author currently holds no cryptocurrencies. • Ethereum Now Matches Bitcoin on One Key Metric • Market Wrap: Bitcoin Price Volatility Declines in Contrast to S&P 500 || Blockchain Bites: Canaan and Galaxy Digital Report Losses, Fold Joins Visa and Indian Exchange Volume Skyrockets: Today, Canaan and Galaxy Digital reported quarterly losses, Huobi announced a legally compliant way to reenter the U.S. market, and Binance denies stealing $1 million from one of its users. Canaan Creative’s losses in 2019 are a continuation of the major mining manufacturer’s declining profitability over the past three years. While its machines secure 20 percent of the Bitcoin network, Canaan is a market leader in an industry subject to volatile price swings, ever-changing miner incentives, and fast-paced technological advancement. This is to say nothing of Bitcoin’s programmable “ halving ” expected in 34 days, which will essentially cut miner’s paychecks in half. You’re reading Blockchain Bites , the daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news, and why they’re significant. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’s newsletters here . Here’s the story: Top shelf Related: Money Reimagined: As Tech, Politics and COVID-19 Collide, a Global Reset Looms Mining hurdles Canaan Creative, a Chinese mining manufacturer, saw a net loss of $148.6 million in 2019 on revenue of $204.3 million, reflecting declining profitability over the past three years. Since its $90 million IPO, Canaan’s share price has been on a downward trend and is currently 61 percent below its offering price. Still, the firm’s machines are responsible for securing 20 percent of the Bitcoin blockchain network, opening the question of how Bitcoin’s upcoming “halving” will disrupt the complicated economic dance of crypto mining. Crypto lending platform BlockFi has begun extending credit to miners as competition for their business has eased during the coronavirus crisis. In related news, BlockFi says its monthly revenue has doubled since raising a $30 million Series B round in February. ( The Block ) Gains and pain Activity on Indian crypto exchanges has skyrocketed after the Reserve Bank of India overturned an order blocking crypto companies from securing banking relationships. In early March, crypto banking services platform Cashaa India noted a spike of 800 percent in trading volumes in the 48 hours following the decision. While WazirX has taken on 100 crore rupees ($13 million) in client funds. Galaxy Digital, Mike Novogratz’s crypto merchant bank, reported a net loss of $32.9 million in Q4 2019. The bank’s trading arm incurred the vast majority of losses at more than $32.1 million, wiping out its other revenue streams. Now, Novogratz is saying the COVID-19 pandemic will likely lead to another down quarter. It’s not just companies impacted by COVID-19. Tonga, Haiti and Kyrgyzstan are the countries most affected by falling remittances sparked by the pandemic. ( Quartz ) Story continues Expansion Global crypto exchange Huobi Group is eyeing a U.S. return, after abruptly halting operations five months ago. Huobi said it will partner with a local licensed trading platform and potentially buy a stake in an existing brokerage, allowing it to be legally compliant at a lower cost. Data provider Nomics ranks the exchange first by year-to-date volume. Household name s Household name Fidelity Digital Asset (FDA) is signing on as a member of ErisX’s clearinghouse, taking advantage of the crypto-native firm’s technology to provide better liquidity. While OTC desks might massage a price up when connecting a buyer and a seller to maximize their own profit, Erisx’s central order book allows equal access to prices across Fidelity’s customer base. Fold joined the Visa Fast Track Program to issue a bitcoin (BTC) rewards card instead of traditional points. It’s a “debit card but has the rewards levels you’d expect from a credit card,” Fold CEO Will Reeves said. Related: First Mover: As Fed Assets Top $6T, BitMEX Has Some Inflation-Busting Advice Legal action The U.S Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey is seeking to pause the SEC’s civil action against Blockchain Terminal founder Boaz Manor while it conducts its own criminal case against Manor’s alleged $30 million ICO fraud. Both agencies are prosecuting Manor and his partners’ allegedly fraudulent “BCT” token offering. Two state securities regulators have ordered Ultra Mining to cease and desist, saying the firm negligently promised to double investments in a cloud mining scheme. The alleged crypto scam is said to have raised $18 million. Scammers & the sleuth Scammers have been impersonating CoinDesk journalists, offering “pay-to-play” articles to publish on our site. CoinDesk’s John Biggs worked with blockchain investigations company Coinfirm, to see where the money was going and if we could learn anything about the perpetrators. The ultimate goal: to prevent it from happening to anyone else. Sadly, there is no sure-fire way to prevent these kinds of scams, but CoinDesk will never accept payment to promote your blockchain startup. Hearsay Binance has denied it stole $1 million from one of its users. ( Decrypt ) Reddit appears to be building a blockchain-based points system, according to internal screenshot. ( Decrypt ) Movers & shakers CoinShares has hired Frank Spiteri, former head of European distribution at WisdomTree – a U.S. financial product provider and $70 billion asset manager – as its new chief revenue officer (CRO). Of more than 2,000 billionaires on Forbes’ ‘The Richest in 2020’ list, only four are crypto wealthy, “and none of them are named ‘CZ’,” reports Cointelegraph . The case for decentralization A series of ongoing efforts across universities, medical academia, the private sector and even private citizens are harnessing distributed systems in the fight against COVID-19. From contact tracing to donating computer processing power, blockchain technology is finding a use case in charitable action. A DeFi professional describes life under quarantine in COVID-19’s epicenter, in a CoinDesk op-ed. When the next crisis comes, he says, blockchain tech will be ready to help. Decentralized finance advocate “DeFi Dad” has come up with a way for small business owners to supplement their business during the prolonged COVID-19-led period of uncertainty. Using Mintbase and the Ethereum blockchain, restaurants and other mom-and-pop shops can print digital certificates to be sold at a discount, bringing in cash now for the promise of providing services later if-and-when they reopen. Commenters noted this sounds like the Deli Dollar phenomenon of old, but now with token-economics. Market intel Bitcoin’s break Bitcoin’s break above a long-term moving average resistance near $7,100 has strengthened the case for a rally to $8,000. The 200-period average was repeatedly capped in the final days of March, bow that the hurdle has been convincingly crossed, buyers who entered the market earlier this month may also be more comfortable in holding their positions. All in all, the move is a good signal for prices. Flood to market US executives rush in record numbers to “buy the dip,” (but not the crypto dip.) CoinDesk Research March 12 changed how investors look at crypto markets and assets, shook out some participants and left others unmoved. The CoinDesk Quarterly Review is a Q1 analysis of how the narrative has changed for crypto blue-chips like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which assets outperformed, and how the participants in crypto markets are shifting in the wake of Q1’s defining event. Read the full report here. Podcasts Hidden forces Hidden Forces host Demetri Kofinas joins NLW to discuss “the things we’re not allowed to talk about,” on the latest episode of The Breakdown podcast. Listen on Apple podcasts. Bitcoin in Africa If Bitcoin Works in Zimbabwe, It Works Everywhere (Part 4 of a Six-Part Documentary Podcast Series) Who won #CryptoTwitter? Blockchain Bites is CoinDesk’s daily news roundup of the most important stories in blockchain tech from here and around the web. You can subscribe here . Related Stories First Mover: Bitcoin Cash’s Halving Was Dull – Bitcoin’s May Be Much the Same Bitcoin Cash ‘Halved,’ DeFi Gets a Boost and Bisq Halts Trading View comments || Colombia, Deloitte, ConsenSys Sign On to WEF’s ‘Blockchain Bill of Rights’: The token economy just gained an organized structure for collaborating with world leaders. The World Economic Forum revealed its Presidio Principles on Friday, a “blockchain bill of rights,” according to the nonprofit focused on fostering diplomacy and international business partnerships. The document includes signatories from the Government of Colombia, Deloitte Consulting LLP, ConsenSys, Electric Coin Company, CoinShares and the United Nations’ World Food Program, just to name a few. “We supported the creation of the Presidio Principles – as well as guidelines and design principles for public institutions – because we wanted to ensure that progress can continue rapidly and responsibly, ensuring that basic characteristics like security and data privacy are secured for our citizens,” Victor Munoz, Colombia’s presidential advisor on economic affairs and digital transformation, said in a press statement. Related: Thailand Turns to Blockchain to Boost Renewable Energy Push Read more: Why the World Economic Forum Is Creating a Blockchain ‘Bill of Rights’ The principles include a user’s right to “manage consent of data stored in third-party systems, port data between interoperable systems” and “revoke consent for future data collection.” Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin encouraged crypto startups to become signatories and join the WEF’s open dialogue. In a press statement, he said he hopes “all builders of Ethereum-based projects – and across the blockchain landscape – will sign on to demonstrate their commitment to the users of their systems and applications.” Indeed, Aya Miyaguchi of the Ethereum Foundation was involved. Greg Medcraft of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Delia Ferreira Rubio of Transparency International also contributed to the project. Related Stories RenBTC Quietly Goes Live in Latest Bid to Bring Bitcoin to Ethereum US Military Is Falling Behind China, Russia in Blockchain Arms Race: IBM, Accenture Staking Will Turn Ethereum Into a Functional Store of Value || ‘Long Bitcoin’ It Ain’t: Crypto Traders Make Sense of Renaissance Filing: Bitcoin, the asset class, received some heavyweight hedge fund validation last week when a regulatory filing revealed New York-basedRenaissance Technologiesis considering including cash-settled bitcoin futures among the instruments it trades. Renaissance, arguably the world’s most secretive and successful money manager, did not respond to requests for comment. Still, it’s interesting to hear how trading experts think a firm like Renaissance might approachbitcoinas an underlying asset, given the hedge fund’s reputation for using mind-bending math to identify patterns and anomalies across a universe of assets. Related:$166B Asset Manager Renaissance Eyes Bitcoin Futures for Flagship Fund Read more:$166B Asset Manager Renaissance Eyes Bitcoin Futures for Flagship Fund Prize-winning mathematician James Simons began Renaissance Technologies (originally called Monemetrics) in a Long Island strip mall in 1978. Renaissance is now famous for pioneering data science and machine learning before these disciplines went mainstream, and has been described as havingthe best physics and mathematics department in the world. Highlighting the complexity of the fund’s approach, Max Boonen, the founder of digital assets trading platform B2C2, referred toa famous quoteattributed to former Renaissance chief Robert Mercer, who said the firm was unable to make sense of some of its most profitable trading signals. “Renaissance can make predictions based on pure time-series data and they don’t necessarily have to have a strong economic rationale for why a signal works or doesn’t work,” said Boonen. “In fact, such an approach might be quite appropriate for Bitcoin at the stage that it is. Because it’s sometimes very difficult to make sense of the moves in the Bitcoin market.” Related:Price Gap Between Sellers and Buyers Yawned During Bitcoin’s March Sell-Off, Study Finds Richard Craib, the founder of Numerai, a hedge fund built by a crowdsourced network of data scientists, says he has come across young startups that are using artificial intelligence to get an edge looking at on-chain transactions, or mining alternative data around news flows in the crypto industry. But he doubted Renaissance would be going to such lengths, opting for what he called “normal alchemy” instead. “Renaissance and firms like it are very good at working with time-series data and already understand corn futures and oil futures and trade all those markets,” he said. “So I don’t think it means they have any thesis on bitcoin. I don’t believe they are going to be ‘long bitcoin’ or something, but it’s definitely worth taking on.” Read more:This USV-Backed Startup Has a Solution for Buying Information With Confidence While it might be alluring to think of a firm like Renaissance having some kind of dedicated bitcoin desk, it’s likely to be simply plugging in existing models, Craib added. “I would guess they are seeing it more as, what can we do just with the price volume data, because a lot of their strategies don’t require new alternative datasets,” he said. Emmanuel Goh, CEO of derivatives data platform Skew, agreed that bitcoin is probably “just another instrument” to Renaissance. “They have access to all the historical data and will be running all sorts of modeling on the instrument itself and see if there are some interesting patterns,” he said. “The dataset is a little bit smaller than for other instruments,” he said. The Renaissancefilingis further evidence that the derivatives market is where a lot of people will go to express their views in terms of financial instruments, Goh added. “We will be tracking how much activity there is on CME futures contract and if that picks up meaningfully to see if this means more and more people are entering,” he said. Read more:Crypto Derivatives: A Corner of the Market or the Market Itself? These days, bitcoin trades more than the currencies of many smaller countries. But Boonen of B2C2 said there might still be a question whether the bitcoin market will be big enough to be worth it for Renaissance. “Bitcoin remains a reasonably small market; it’s not the tiny market that it used to be, trading volumes are there and are strong. But I wonder whether the market today is big enough for it to be worth the risk for Renaissance,” said Boonen. “They are going to trade derivatives but still, there is possibly more risk than in trading conventional assets.” It’s also worth asking what Renaissance dipping into bitcoin futures means in terms of the leading cryptocurrency’s correlation to the rest of the financial system, a question highlighted by the recent COVID-19 markets crash that saw crypto fall with the rest of the S&P 500. From the perspective of a fund like Renaissance, bitcoin remains a very uncorrelated asset, said Numerai’s Craib. Read more:Crypto Market Maker B2C2 Hires Wall Street FX Vet to Lead US Expansion “When you are a big fund and you find this liquid market that’s uncorrelated and can take a lot of trading, you really kind of have to trade it. Because it’ll help yourSharpesso much to have a new source of alpha,” he said, alluding to the return from an investment balanced against the risk. The more things you can trade, the more of an edge it gives you, said Craib, with the aim to create a model that works in every country and every sector of the economy and every commodity. “Then you really have something. You can make a million predictions per day and be right in just over half a million of them. That’s much more what Renaissance is trying to do,” he said. • Investors in Polychain Capital’s Crypto Hedge Fund Saw 1,332% Gains – If They Stomached the Dips • This USV-Backed Startup Has a Solution for Buying Information With Confidence || Open Interest in CME Bitcoin Futures Rises 70% as Institutions Return to Market: Open interest inbitcoinfutures listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has recovered significantly from the March lows, indicating a resurgence in institutions that want to buy the cryptocurrency. As of Wednesday, open interest, or the number of futures contracts outstanding, was $181 million, a 70 percent increase from $106 million recorded on March 22. The number stood at $196 million nine days ago. That was the highest since March 7, according to data provided by the crypto derivatives research firm Skew. Related:First Mover: Stablecoin Surge Might Herald Bitcoin Binge “The growth in open interest from CME may indicate that entities from traditional finance are more open to add bitcoin exposure to their portfolios, whilst retail investors are seemingly more reluctant to indulge in the futures market,” cryptocurrency platform Luno noted in its latest weekly market report. An increase in open interest along with an increase in price is said to confirm an upward trend. Put simply, bitcoin’s recent rally has legs. Bitcoin futures listed on the CME are widely considered to be synonymous with the institutional activity and macro traders. The CME is the largest futures exchange in the world, providing institutions access to derivatives on equities, commodities, foreign exchange pairs and bonds, and was one of the first exchanges to launch bitcoin futures in December 2017. Open interest had dropped sharply from $316 million to $107 million during the three weeks to March 12, as institutions treated bitcoin as a source of liquidity during the coronavirus-led “Black Thursday” crash in the global equity markets. Investors generally prefer to hold cash, mainly U.S. dollars, during a crisis situation. Related:Bitcoin Options Trading Hits One-Month High as Price Turns Bullish The financial markets have stabilized somewhat over the last couple of weeks, mainly due to the unprecedented monetary and fiscal lifelines launched by the Federal Reserve and the U.S. government. The S&P 500 is currently reporting a rise of more than 25 percent from the multi-year low of 2,192 registered on March 24. Bitcoin has seen a solid price rally over the past four weeks. The cryptocurrency is trading near $7,050 at press time, representing an 82 percent increase on the low of $3,867 reached on March 12, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index. The price rise is accompanied by an uptick in open interest in futures listed on the CME, as noted earlier. Total open interest on other major exchanges including Bakkt, Kraken, ByBit, Huobi, BitMEX, OKEx, Deribit, Binance, FTX and Bitfinex also increased, from $1.7 billion on March 13 to $2.3 billion on March 15. An increase in open interest along with an increase in priceis said toconfirm an upward trend. Put simply, bitcoin’s recent rally has legs. The rally is said to be driven by short covering, or bears taking profits, when the price increase is accompanied by a drop in open interest, and it is often short-lived. Some observers, especially chart analysts, look at the trading volumes to confirm price trends. Trading volume refers to the number of contracts traded during a given period of time. A rise in volume along with a rise in price is said to validate the uptrend. However, in bitcoin’s case trading volumes are on a declining trend, as seen below. Total daily trading volume in futures listed across the globe topped out above $45 billion in mid-March and stood below $10 billion on Wednesday. Meanwhile, daily volume fell to a 4.5-month low of $83 million in CME’s futures, according to Skew data. See also:Bitcoin Price Spikes Above $7.1K, Liquidating $23M on BitMEX Hence, chart analysts may put a question mark on the sustainability of the recent price rally. However, futures trading volume has dropped amid a rise in open interest. “It is often the result of investors holding on to their positions,” said Emmanuel Goh, CEO of Skew, in a Telegram chat in February, when the futures market was facing a similar situation. In such cases, the market usually extends the preceding move, which is bullish in this case. • Market Wrap: Ether Making Big Gains as Stablecoins Proliferate on Ethereum • First Mover: Coronavirus Trillions Get Bitcoiners Wondering if Halving Still Matters || Coronavirus Second Order Effects and Improving on Bitcoin With BitTorrent Creator Bram Cohen: The best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations. Last week theLet’s Talk Bitcoin! Showspoke with BitTorrent Creator andChiaCEO Bram Cohen to discuss the lasting effects of Coronavirus lockdowns and how he believes he’s improved on Satoshi’s approach to distributed consensus. Listen/subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast feed for unique perspectives and fresh daily insight withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS. Seealso:PODCAST: ‘Let’s Talk Bitcoin!’ Hosts Discuss Libra, China and Cargo Cults Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for April 6, 2020 On this episode BitTorrent creator and Chia CEO Bram Cohen joins the hosts of Let’s Talk Bitcoin! to discuss: • Topic 1 –Second Order Impacts of Coronavirus Lockdowns • Social distancing and the revenge of the Hikikomori • Coronavirus second order effects • It’s an extroverts world but we’re all introverts this month • The AOL moment for Zoom meetings and arguing the potato • Interpersonal compression, ‘zoomers’ and enforced quality time • Will overall deaths go down because of pandemic lockdowns? • The end of “Bus Mode” for Lyft and Uber • Autonomous vehicles, grocery deliveries and the last mile problem • Tampons, cocktail sausages and a very weird month • This episode is sponsored byeToro • A friendly government delivery service? • Opportunities in sterilization and social changes that’ll last • Automated cleansing cycles and Far-UVC • Internet infrastructure, Netflix social signaling and the recycling dilemma • Masks, headphones and the changing standard of social isolation • TOPIC 2 –How the creator of BitTorrent thinks he’s created a less wasteful, more distributed, more secure approach to Nakamoto Consensus • Decentralized systems and the critical success of BitTorrent • Naming projects, vegetables and a list of grains • Proof of Space and Time • Warehouses of computers, competitive money burning and Keynesian stimulus • Proof of Work works and that’s a huge accomplishment, but could be better • Centralization, Nakamoto consensus and Proof of Stake • Moats and losing the battle with ASIC-hard consensus algorithms • “Grinding attacks” as the competitive strategy • Fundamental economics, storage capacity and the loophole • Airdrops for something over-resourced and under-provisioned • Losing money on buying “farming” hardware • The early days of bitcoin mining with CPUs • Power and CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, and ASICs • Hard Drives, hard drives, hard drives and hard drives • Storing data as proof, but not peoples data is like Proof of Work; the work isn’t useful, it’s just a measuring stick that doesn’t need your name or a long term commitment • Printing lottery tickets with ASICs vs. a hard drive full of bingo cards • Proofs of Space need Proofs of Time • Less wasteful by using an underutilized resource • More distributed because excess hard drive capacity is already distributed and there is no “ASIC” equivalent possible for hard drives. Just better or faster hard drives • More secure because less wasteful and more distributed equal better security in distributed consensus • Breaking, tweaking and proving proofs of time and space • Miners don’t run data centers • UTXOs, message passing on-chain programming environments and walking a fine line between Bitcoin and Ethereum • Rate limiting wallets and reversible paper wallets • Improving colored coins • Decentralized exchange doesn’t need decentralized exchanges • Farming, pre-farming, farming rewards and trailing emissions • Why pre-farm? • Is it viable to farm with AWS? • Carrying hundred dollar bills and Chia’s business model involves loaning Tokens To Large International Companies • Covenants replicate many banking system benefits without requiring banks or centralization • Complexity, Bitcoin Script and Protocol Level Improvements This episode was sponsored byeToro.com, with music byJared Rubens,Gurty BeatsandAdam B. Levine. Today’s show featuredBram Cohen,Andreas M. Antonopoulos,Stephanie Murphy,Jonathan MohanandAdam B. Levinewith editing byJonas. Listen/subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast feed for unique perspectives and fresh daily insight withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS. • Bitcoin, Equities Markets Rally on Signs of Hope • Miner Perspectives on Bitcoin Halving 2020, Part 1 of a New Podcast Series • How Blockchain Tech Can Make Coronavirus Relief More Effective || Oil’s Been More Volatile Than Bitcoin for Nearly 2 Months, Data Shows: Since oil futures crashed earlier this week – somehitting negative pricesfor the first time ever – the crypto world has been enjoying the fact that bitcoin suddenly appeared to be a relatively stable asset. Markets were shocked when the May futures contract on the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, the main oil benchmark for the U.S.,crashed Mondayon fears arising from massive oversupply due to the effects of the coronavirus measures. A day later, the June contract tumbled more than 43 percent to a 21-year low of $11.57 a barrel.Bitcoin, though, barely flinched and held within its recent trading range between $6,400 and $7,400. Related:Market Wrap: Bitcoin Steady at $7.5K as Short Sellers Back Off But, according to data fromCryptoCompare, bitcoin has outshone oil for far longer than just a few days when it comes price stability. In fact, “black gold” first started showing greater volatility – that is, the degree of fluctuation in the price of an asset – in early March, and has largely remained higher in April. CryptoCompare graphed 14-day rolling volatilities for oil, bitcoin, gold and the S&P 500. A volatility above 5 percent for 14 days translates to 25 percent or more on an annualized basis. “The more volatile, the bigger the percentage move, the riskier the asset (regardless of the direction),” the firm told CoinDesk in an email. While bitcoin was the “riskiest” – most volatile – asset of the four contenders at the start of the year, in early March, oil surged to levels above 0.10, and even as high as 0.15 later in the month. Related:Why Global Deflation May Not Be Bad News for Bitcoin “As the year progressed, the disagreement betweenOPEC and Russia, coupled with negative demand shock caused the oil price to collapse, making it riskier than bitcoin,” said James Li, analyst at CryptoCompare. Bitcoin’s volatility surge came soon after and is likely associated with the “Black Thursday” crash on March 12, which saw the cryptocurrency plunge toas low as $3,867as all markets suffered from coronavirus-related shocks. While both assets have since seen volatility drop, it doesn’t appear oil’s price gyrations have come to an end yet. “Without any significant catalysts for demand, there’s nowhere to put oil,” said Daniel Masters, chairman of CoinShares, a U.K.-based digital asset management firm. Continued problems with the oil futures market could be on the horizon because of there’s a shortage facilities for oil, according to Masters. “The worst isn’t over yet, the May contract just got rolled into June this week, and when June contracts expire, it will be absolute carnage.” The June WTI contract is currently trading at about $16.60. See also:Coinbase Launches Price Oracle Aimed to Reduce Systemic Risk in the DeFi Space So what’s the safe haven in the storm of volatility? Gold is the least volatile of the four assets compared, according to the chart, never crossing 0.05. CryptoCompare’s Li is concerned even cash may prove inflationary given the massive stimulus efforts so far. And it appears more is on the way in the U.S. after the Senatepassed another stimulus billlater approved by theHouse of Representatives. If signed by President Trump, it will pump billions of dollars more into the economy. “Under these circumstances, we may see a shift to assets that cannot be perpetually diluted instead of papering over the cracks. For the moment cash is the only port in the storm, but that may prove to be a false hope in the mid to long term,” said Li. • First Mover: Bitcoin Jumps as Fed Assets Top $6.5T and Traders Focus on Halving • Coinbase Launches Price Oracle Aimed at Reducing Systemic Risk in the DeFi Space || Bitcoin News Roundup for June 2, 2020: The head of Venezuela’s cryptocurrency initiative, the petro, is wanted by the U.S government on charges of corruption and links to the narcotics trade. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) added Joselit Ramirez Camacho to its Most Wanted List on Monday, accusing him of a number of violations related to international commerce and his alleged involvement in the international drug trafficking scene. Ramirez Camacho is a public official and serves as the superintendent for Venezuela’s petro initiative, a cryptocurrency supposedly backed by the country’s oil and mineral reserves. The superintendent is wanted by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arm for violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Kingpin Act, and for breaking a series of sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department. ICE is offering up to $5 million for any information that leads to his arrest and conviction. Ramirez Camacho is “accused of having deep political, social and economic ties to multiple alleged narcotics kingpins, including Tareck EI Aissami,” a former vice president of Venezuela who is also wanted by ICE on charges of money laundering and an alleged role in international narcotics trafficking. See also: Venezuela’s Maduro Says He Will Airdrop Half a Petro Each to Public Employees, Retirees Related: US Offers $5M Bounty for Arrest of Venezuela’s Crypto Chief If arrested, Ramirez Camacho will be sent to the U.S. and tried in the Southern District of New York. Geoffrey Berman, district attorney, of New York, accused him last month of being part of a corrupt group of high-ranking Venezuelan officials – including President Nicolas Maduro – running a “narco-terrorism partnership” intent on flooding “the United States with cocaine in order to undermine the health and wellbeing of our nation.” Related Stories Crypto Scams Targeting Pacific Communities on the Rise, Say New Zealand Regulators Bitcoin in Emerging Markets: Latin America || Bitcoin Defies Gravity: From the technical analysis side, Bitcoin got support after a dip to a 200-day moving average near $8,500. If bitcoin can go above the big round level 10K, it will give hope to the whole crypto market. Market sentiment on the eve of halving could not be called cheerful. There was quite a lot of equipment for bitcoin mining, which barely made any profit. After the reward reducing, these ASICs would have to be turned off. According to the latest data from The Block, the reduction in hash rate after halving has already been 16%. The miners’ revenues have dropped by 44%. However, now market participants are waiting for a recalculation of the difficulty, which will slightly correct the situation. Anyway, this may only be the beginning of the process, as even more efficient devices for mining barely pay off. It is highly probable that some of the miners will start selling their assets to cover the losses. Others will go out of business, and if they have debts, they will also have to cover their costs by selling coins. It will also be possible to talk about continuing the process of consolidation of the mining market participants, as well as even more centralization of computing power. For a decentralized project, this sounds like bad news. However, this may only be the first shock. As bitcoin pricing is now driven not only by miners and retail investors but also by large institutional investors and funds, clashes can be mitigated by increased trading volumes and the diversity of participants. CoinMarketCap data shows that current average trading volumes are several times higher than the peak values of 2017. The market has grown, matured, and it is very likely that current events in the global economy will have a more significant impact on the coin. Sad news for the “crypto” as a whole came from the US. Expelled from Russia, Pavel Durov (Vkontakte and Telegram founder)  can’t launch his cryptocurrency in integration with Telegram messenger in the US. American courts are on the side of the SEC, once again confirming the main idea of the US monetary authorities: no competitors to the dollar will be allowed into the mainstream. Story continues The TON technology will be used, but without the user base of the messenger, it won’t be of interest. A similar fate awaited Libra, which leads us to the idea that the crypto market will be allowed to live only in its current state and size, waiting for the launch of official national cryptocurrencies. by Alex Kuptsikevich, the FxPro senior financial analyst. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: US Open – Waking From a Stimulus Induced Dream – Oil, Gold and BTC in Focus GBP/JPY Price Forecast – British Pound Drifts Lower Against Japanese Yen Powell Sends a Message With Love for Gold GBP/USD Price Forecast – British Pound Falls Against US Dollar Again U.S. Stocks Set To Open Lower After Another Disappointing Initial Jobless Claims Report Is This The Start of Long-Awaited Downswing? [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 9656.72, 9800.64, 9665.53, 9653.68, 9758.85, 9771.49, 9795.70, 9870.09, 9321.78, 9480.84
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] New York regulator issues final virtual currency rules: By Karen Freifeld and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York state issued on Wednesday extensive new rules for companies that operate in virtual currencies such as bitcoin but did little to accommodate complaints that overly tight regulation could hamper the nascent industry. The new rules, the first by a state, create comprehensive guidelines for regulating digital currency firms, according to the state's Department of Financial Services, which developed the regulations. It means that digital currency companies operating in New York state that hold customer funds and exchange virtual currencies for dollars or other currencies are required to apply for what is known as a state "BitLicense." "There is a basic bargain that when a financial company is entrusted with safeguarding customer funds and receives a license from the state to do so, it accepts the need for heightened regulatory scrutiny to help ensure that a consumer's money does not just disappear into a black hole," Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of the New York state regulator, said in a speech Wednesday at the BITS Emerging Payments Forum in Washington. The "BitLicense" rules include consumer protection, anti-money laundering and cybersecurity protections. The regulations come as digital currencies have drawn criticism for attracting drug dealers and other criminal elements, while failing to safeguarding consumer funds. Last year, bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox collapsed after it claimed to have lost $500 million worth of customer bitcoins after being hacked. Overall, industry participants said New York's new rules are still problematic but nonetheless an improvement over the original proposals laid out in July and revised in December. Digital currency companies are required to obtain prior approval for material changes to their products or business models, such as wallet firms offering exchange services. They would also need approval for new controlling investors. Story continues But they would not need approval from the state for every round of venture capital funding or standard software updates. "We have no interest in micro-managing minor app updates. We're not Apple," said Lawsky. Companies that want both a BitLicense and a money transmitter license can work with the state regulator to have a "one-stop" application submission to cover the requirements for both. Jerry Brito, executive director of non-profit research group Coin Center, called the final regulations "far from perfect," specifically citing what he said were vague state-level anti-money laundering obligations that go beyond federal regulations. He said the group was working with other states "to ensure they do not repeat the mistakes made here." The rules do not apply to software developers, individual users, customer loyalty programs, gift cards, currency miners, or merchants accepting bitcoin as payment. Lawsky, meanwhile, has come under fire from the bitcoin community for issuing the rules shortly after announcing he was leaving the agency to set up a consulting company that will advise companies on financial matters that could possibly include digital currencies. The most prominent virtual currency now is bitcoin, often used as an investment or to pay for goods and services online. Bitcoin prices have been steady of late, at $225.77 on the BitStamp platform on Wednesday. The price rose as high as $1,123 in December 2013. "I think (the rules) are going to increase the costs to entry for businesses," said New York attorney Reuben Grinberg, who specializes in virtual currency. "But I think it's going to give consumers greater peace of mind and will end up promoting investment in this area much more so than it hurts." (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Karen Freifeld; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Steve Orlofsky) || A bitcoin start-up has made exchanging currency free: A bitcoin (:BTC=) start-up has launched a service that will allow people to carry out foreign exchange transactions for free, dodging the expensive commission often charged by major financial institutions. Bitreserve, a company founded last year by CNET and salesforce.com co-founder Halsey Minor, allows people to convert bitcoin into normal currencies and precious metals. The start-up used to charge a 0.45 percent commission for bitcoin-to-dollar transactions, but has now cut its fees entirely. The move is likely to give it an edge in the hotly contested "fintech" market where a number of companies such as U.K.-based Transferwise are contesting the currency transfer and mobile payments space. Users of the platform will be able to make currency exchanges in eight major currencies: euros, dollars, pounds, yuan, yen, pesos, rupees, swiss francs. People will also have the ability to convert the currencies into gold, silver, platinum and palladium, depending on the market price. Bitreserve offers the mid-market rate for currencies. "Those in society who can least afford it have to spend so much for things that are so commonplace," Anthony Watson, president and chief operating officer of Bitreserve, told CNBC by phone. "If you look at a Mexican immigrants, they send approximately $30 billion home every year and they pay just under $3 billion for the privilege of sending that money home. That is 10 percent and that is disgusting." Bitreserve's service comes with a catch however - you have to own bitcoin to use the service in order to make an initial deposit and then convert it to another asset. Plus, when users receive money, they can only spend it in bitcoin. This could put it at a disadvantage to other companies that allow people to sign up with bank accounts and send money for still a small commission. One use case of such a technology is remittances, which reached $436 billion in 2014, according to the World Bank. Since its inception in October 2014, Bitrserve has been responsible for $14.5 million worth of transactions globally, according to its website. Story continues But not all experts agree that a free model is sustainable in the currency exchange business. "No business that offers its services for free can do so sustainably over a long period of time without other revenue sources," Stan Stalnaker, board member of the Digital Asset Transfer Authority, a self-regulating body for digital currencies, told CNBC by email. Read More This is why bitcoin won't go away anytime soon "The real question, in an age of free transactions, is about business models - what other products and services can Bitreserve launch that it will charge for, and how successful will that be on the back of very low cost remittances?" Watson said the company was looking to partner with traditional financial institutions to allow people to move the money into traditional bank accounts, as well as retailers so people can buy items using regular currencies. "We are in conversation across the world with not only banks but different financial services providers. We are talking to a myriad of companies. We don't see ourselves as a threat to banks we see ourselves as complimenting what they do," Watson, the former Nike CIO, said. Another use of Bitreserve's technology is to store bitcoin in a stable currency like the U.S. dollar. "A lot of people are putting money on reserve and moving it into currency and moving bitcoin into a stable form of currency. Bticoin bounces around like a jack rabbit," Watson added. A number of companies such as Coincove and ArtaBit are offering similar services, but only allowing people to send bitcoin to converted to one currency. More From CNBC CNBC.com News Page CNBC.com Blogs Page CNBC.com Earnings Central || Overstock Loses Big On Bitcoin: Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSTK )'s latest earnings report showed that the company's cryptocurrency investments declined significantly during the first quarter of 2015. The losses added up to $117,000, a hefty sum and disappointing performance for investors. Bitcoin Supporter Overstock has been a major proponent for digital currencies; last year the company's CEO Patrick Byrne said that the firm had brought in $1.6 million in bitcoin sales. The online retailer was also one of the first major merchants to begin accepting bitcoin payments back in 2014 when markets were still very apprehensive about the currency. What Happened? Many believe the losses are due to the fact that the company is still holding some of its assets in bitcoin, and that the coin's volatile nature brought down the firm's value. However, if this is the case, the company may see a major increase in future reports. Related Link: Have You Met The Bitcoin Booty Girls? Altcoin Investments Overstock says its losses stemmed from investment in altcoins, which performed poorly. Those investments have all been lumped together with the company's bitcoin holdings and are said to be much of the reason for the decline. Still A Supporter However, the language in Overstock's quarterly filing suggests that the company has not been deterred from supporting digital currencies just yet. While the company recognized the legal and financial risk of dealing in cryptocurrency, the statement said that in the future, the company "may transact in cryptocurrency directly." The filing also confirmed that the company wasn't opposed to increasing its digital currency holdings despite the current uncertain landscape. See more from Benzinga Overstock To Issue Digital Corporate Bond © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Dangers Of Marijuana Uncertain In Growing Industry: With the marijuana industry still in its infancy in the U.S., many are worried that not enough is known about its effects and preventative measures are lagging behind the growing breadth of THC infused products. However, a new study showing that marijuana may be a risk on the road has prompted some to call for stricter regulations regarding the drug's consumption. Limits Questioned While there is a clear limit of alcohol that people can ingest before driving a car, that of marijuana is a bit more uncertain. In Washington and Colorado, marijuana users are able to have 5 ug/L of TCH in their system if they are operating a vehicle. However, a new study shows that such limits may not be enough. Related Link: The Cost Of A "Rocky Mountain High" Is Getting Lower A Dangerous Combination A new federal study tested the impact of marijuana versus alcohol on a driver's ability to navigate the roads. The results showed that drivers impaired by marijuana were actually safer than those impaired by alcohol. However, the study also showed that drivers under the influence of both alcohol and marijuana, even at the legal limits of both, were the most dangerous. This is concerning, as many marijuana users consume the drug after having one or two drinks. Driving While High Is On The Rise The study is likely to give lawmakers something to consider when it comes to cracking down on marijuana regulation. A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration survey showed that weekend nighttime drivers with THC in their system have increased dramatically since 2007, from 8.6 percent to 12.6 percent. Many believe that rise is directly attributed to the growing popularity of marijuana use as the drug is legalized in more and more states. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga 3D Printer And A Latte, Please Overstock Loses Big On Bitcoin The Cost Of A 'Rocky Mountain High' Is Getting Lower © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Trading Google earnings: 3 stocks to buy: Google(NASDAQ: GOOGL)shares spiked following a strong quarterly earnings report Thursday, and CNBC"Fast Money"traders jumped on the bandwagon with investors. "I think the stock's got real runway here. I think it can turn and go a lot higher," said trader David Seaburg. The Internet giant's stock surged more than 10 percent in extended trading as second-quarter profit of $6.99 per share topped analysts' expectations. Though revenue fell slightly short of expectations and crucial ad metrics were mixed, markets cheered signs of expense control and strong signs for the YouTube video platform. "I thought it was undervalued before. This is not a crazy valuation here," said trader Karen Finerman, who owns Google stock. Read MoreGoogle shares jump as profits handily beat expectations Google seems primed to move higher, and investors should hold it with $600 per share as a floor, said trader Guy Adami. It closed the regular session above $601 before the after-hours spike. Trader Brian Kelly added that he saw positive signs in financial discipline and YouTube, but he would wait for a pullback to buy Google shares. A post-earnings spike in Netflix(NASDAQ: NFLX)shares, among other names, helped push the Nasdaq Composite(NASDAQ: .IXIC)to a record close Thursday. Looking forward in the technology sector, Kelly sees upside in Microsoft(NASDAQ: MSFT). Read MoreOverseas growth is driving Netflix stock surge: Analyst Adami also noted that Facebook(NASDAQ: FB)looks to be "breaking out." The stock has gone about 16 percent higher this year. Disclosures: Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=; ITB, TAN, TLT, TSL and euro. He is short yuan and yen. Today he bought ITB. Karen Finerman Karen is long BABA, BAC, C, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, M, URI, BABA puts and URI calls. She is short SPY. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, DIS, FBT, FINL, FL, GILD, GOOG, GOOGL, GPS, IBB, JPM, KORS, M, SUNE, URI, XBI, KORS call spreads, URI calls, KORS puts and SPY put spreads. Her firm is short IWM, SPY and MDY. Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. Guy Adami Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS and INTC. Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC • Top News and Analysis • Latest News Video • Personal Finance || What to Watch in the Week Ahead and on Monday, July 13: (The Day Ahead is an email and PDF publication that includes the day's major stories and events, analyses and other features. To receive The Day Ahead, Eikon users can register at . Thomson One users can register at RT/DAY/US. All times in ET/GMT) WEEK AHEAD The stock market this quarter doesn't get its usual one-week on-ramp to earnings season, instead getting hit with JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Intel, Netflix, Google, General Electric Co and Honeywell, all in one week. Add in the political yelling that has become the semi-annual Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's testimony and the ongoing craziness that is Greece's potential exit from the euro zone - to say nothing of China's turmoil - and it should be a lively week for markets, and one that will likely see a lot of volatility. Euro zone finance ministers may make a "major decision" when they hold a special meeting on Saturday to weigh a new Greek proposal for emergency funding. The ministers' conclusions will be reviewed by euro zone leaders at a summit called for on Sunday. Fed Chair Janet Yellen delivers semi-annual testimony on monetary policy before the House Financial Services Committee in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday. The July hearing has more drama heading into it than the February testimonies. For one, Yellen starts this time with the House, where she ended last time, after trading some testy exchanges with Republican congressmen. This week's congressional appearance also comes as the Fed appears closer to raising interest rates for the first time since 2006. Yellen's appearance comes just a few weeks after the Fed's last Federal Open Market Committee meeting, and two weeks before its next one - so Yellen will be unlikely to drop too many policy hints and changes in this round or testimony, unless she wants to point the market harder to September lift-off. Dow components Johnson & Johnson, General Electric Co, JP Morgan Chase & Co, Intel Corp, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and UnitedHealth Group Inc are scheduled to report quarterly results in the coming week. Johnson & Johnson is expected to report on Tuesday lower second-quarter sales and earnings as weak revenue from medical devices and consumer products and a stronger dollar more than offset the benefit of surging sales of its newer prescription medicines. The same day, JPMorgan Chase & Co releases second-quarter results. Separately, Goldman Sachs is expected to report lower second-quarter profit on Thursday. Intel Corp is expected to report second-quarter revenue and profit below analysts' expectations on Wednesday, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine. General Electric reports second-quarter earnings on Friday, with Wall Street eyeing updates on the U.S. conglomerate's desired portfolio moves as it seeks to become a more focused industrial company. UnitedHealth Group Inc will report second-quarter earnings on Thursday. The quarter is expected to be a strong one for UnitedHealth, whose technology and pharmacy management business has helped it report regular growth in quarterly operating profit. Story continues Google Inc, the operator of the world's No. 1 Internet search engine, is scheduled to post second-quarter results on Thursday. The company is expected to report quarterly revenue slightly below analysts' estimates, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data, hurt by the impact of a stronger dollar. Google, which generates about half of its revenue outside the United States, has also faced challenges in mobile advertising and it is investing heavily in new businesses. Citigroup Inc reports second-quarter results on Thursday. The most international of banks based in the United States is expected to see quarterly profits rebound sharply from a year earlier, when net income was all but obliterated by high legal and restructuring costs. Separately, Wells Fargo & Co will also report second-quarter results on Tuesday. The bank's mortgage banking business is expected to do well during the quarter as more people buy new homes in an improving economy. On Wednesday, Bank of America Corp is expected to report an increase in its second-quarter profit. The bank's results from fixed-income trading are expected to lag those of competitors because it is more heavily weighted toward trading credit instruments such as corporate bonds and it handles relatively fewer interest rate-sensitive government securities, Chief Financial Officer Bruce Thompson warned investors in June. The U.S. Labor Department releases its Consumer Price Index for June on Friday. The index is expected to have risen at a slower pace than in the previous month. Separately, the department will issue on Wednesday its June producer price index for final demand. On the same day, the Federal Reserve releases data for June industrial output, which is expected to have risen 0.2 percent after falling 0.2 percent in May. Meanwhile, the Commerce Department issues June retail sales data on Tuesday. Economists expect retail sales, which surged 1.2 percent in May, to have risen just 0.3 percent in June. On Friday, the University of Michigan's preliminary reading on its overall index on consumer sentiment for July is expected to come at 96.0 compared with a final reading of 96.1 for the previous month. Also, the Federal Reserve issues its so-called Beige Book on Wednesday. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Esther George speaks on economic conditions and monetary policy before the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City 2015 Agricultural Symposium in Kansas City, Missouri, on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester speaks on the economic outlook and participates in live interview before the Columbus Metropolitan Club Forum in Columbus, Ohio. The same day, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams will speak on the economic outlook before the Mesa Chamber of Commerce in Mesa, Arizona and in another event, he will also give a brief summary on the economy before a Greater Phoenix Economic Council panel on economic trends in Phoenix, Arizona. On Thursday, e-commerce company eBay Inc is expected to report second-quarter revenue below expectations, according to some analysts. Revenue from the company's marketplace business, which includes its e-commerce platform ebay.com, fell last quarter, hurt by increasing competition from rivals such as Amazon.com and changes in Google's search algorithms. Investors will be looking for signs of a turnaround at eBay's marketplace business. They will also look for any commentary from the company regarding post-spinoff valuation of the marketplace business. Schlumberger Ltd, the world's No.1 oilfield services provider, is expected to report a fall in second-quarter profit on Thursday as lower oil prices weigh on global drilling activity. Schlumberger, which has cut 20,000 jobs this year, has swiftly controlled costs to maintain margins in a weak commodity market. With oil prices staying around $50 per barrel, a handful of optimistic shale producers are looking to deploy more rigs. Investors will also look for comments on pricing and expectations for industry spending in the second half of the year. Another topic of interest this quarter is the company's pending deal with Russia's Eurasia Drilling. BlackRock Inc, the world's largest asset manager, will report second-quarter results on Wednesday. Investors will await Chief Executive Larry Fink's comments on the results, the markets, Greece and China, among other issues. Charles Schwab Corp will report its second-quarter results on Thursday. Analysts expect the company's profit to rise to 24 cents per share from 23 cents a year earlier, helped by higher fees for advisory accounts and slightly higher trading commissions. But the big revenue bonus that Schwab expects from investing cash it will get in its clients account once rates rise remains evasive, amid signs that the Federal Reserve may again delay rate hikes. Delta Air Lines Inc is expected to post second-quarter results in line with analysts' expectations on Wednesday. However, investors will want to know how the airline plans to respond to falling demand abroad due to a stronger dollar, a regulatory investigation into U.S. airlines' capacity plans and pilots' decision to reject management's proposal for a new contract. Yum Brands reports second-quarter results on Tuesday. Yum's China business remains in the spotlight as it fights to recover from a food scandal in its biggest market for profit. Analysts say that the company is suffering from "brand fatigue" in China, where competition is mounting and its image has been hurt by food scares that have raised doubts over its supply chain. The KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell chain owner said it expected another tough quarter before a recovery in China, but this recovery could be pushed further as consumers cut back on discretionary spending amid an economic slowdown and fears stemming from the sharp decline in the Chinese stock market over the past few weeks. Investors will be looking for outlook and commentary on the impact from recent developments in China. Profit and sales are expected to beat a generally low bar for second-quarter estimates, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine. Netflix Inc, a TV and movie streaming service provider, is scheduled to post second-quarter results on Wednesday. The company is expected to report quarterly revenue above estimates, according to analysts, as it is expected to sign up more video streaming subscribers than previously expected. The cost of driving subscriber growth has been high as Netflix continues to invest heavily in international markets, but it is yet to see any profits from outside the United States. Kinder Morgan Inc, the leading U.S. pipeline company, is expected to report a lower second-quarter profit on Wednesday, but the focus this quarter will be on the company's reorganization. Kinder Morgan shed its tax-advantaged master limited partnership structure last August by folding its units into one publicly traded corporation in a $70-billion deal. Investors will see if the new structure will help allay concerns about the company's growth prospects and complicated financial structure. The company has said the reorganization would help it grow its dividend by about 10 percent a year and clock bigger income tax savings. Domino's Pizza Inc reports second-quarter results on Thursday. The second-largest U.S. pizza chain is expected to report revenue below the average analyst estimate, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine. Chief Executive Patrick Doyle has said the company would need to raise minimum wage to stay competitive following McDonald's announcement of wage hikes in April. Investors will look out for any related announcement and updates on commodity costs, which the company said are likely to come down after cheese prices soared last year. On Thursday, chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc is expected to report second-quarter earnings below the average analyst estimate, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data. The company lowered its revenue estimate for the second quarter on Monday, citing weaker-than-expected demand for personal computers. All eyes will be on weak PC sales and whether the company can mitigate some of the impact with cost cuts. Barbie doll and Fisher-Price toys maker Mattel Inc is expected to report on Thursday second-quarter revenue above the average analyst estimate, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine. The company will report its first quarter under new Chief Executive Christopher Sinclair, who took the top post in April. Sinclair has said Mattel needs to move urgently to create toys that connect with young customers in the face of flagging Barbie sales. Investors will look for announcements from Sinclair, a former Pepsi executive, on how he plans to turn around Mattel and make it more competitive, and any updates on the company's preparations for the holiday season. Honeywell International Inc, a major manufacturer of aircraft electronics and climate control systems, is expected to report second-quarter results below analysts' expectations on Friday, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine. Honeywell said in April that it expected a stronger dollar to hurt revenue by 4-6 percent in the quarter ended June. Investors will be looking for updated comments on how Honeywell expects the dollar to affect business in the full year. The initial public offering of the U.S. deep discount retailer Ollie's Bargain Outlet Holdings Inc is scheduled for Thursday. Ollie's Bargain operates 181 stores across the United States, selling excess inventory and salvage merchandise such as houseware, sporting goods and toys from manufacturers who make too much of an item or change their packaging. Ollie's net income rose 38 percent to $27 million in fiscal 2014, while revenue increased 18 percent to $638 million. Bank of Canada announces its rate decision on Wednesday and Governor Stephen Poloz holds a news conference upon the release of the Monetary Policy Report. A series of weak economic data suggesting Canada may already be in recession has prompted a growing minority of economists to predict the central bank may cut rates again, possibly as soon as next week, a Reuters poll has found. Chile's central bank meets on Tuesday to set the interest rate. The central bank is expected to keep its benchmark interest rate on hold at its current 3.0 percent through the following 11 months, scaling back expectations, according to the median response of 61 analysts and economists surveyed by the bank in a poll. Also, Argentina is due to release June consumer inflation data on Wednesday. ON MONDAY, JULY 13 Treasury Department issues a monthly budget report for June. The department is expected to post a budget surplus of $51.0 billion in June compared with a $82.4 billion deficit reported in May. (1400/1800) The United Auto Workers (UAW) union and General Motors Co hold the ceremonial handshake between union president Dennis Williams and company CEO Mary Barra to mark the start of labor negotiations for a new four-year contract for about 51,000 workers. The union has lost power but it can still upset GM's quest to keep labor costs low enough to compete with Japanese, Korean and German automakers with U.S. plants. UAW leaders will bargain with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Ford Motor Co later in the week. LIVECHAT - BITCOIN BITES with Anatoliy Knyazev, managing partner, Exante With Greek worries contributing to Bitcoin's best run in 18 months and the crypto currency even touted as a possible parallel currency in the Hellenic Republic, has the controversial payment system's time come? We chat with Anatoliy Knyazev, managing partner at Malta-based brokerage Exante, which previously debuted the world's first Bitcoin-only fund. (0500/0900) To join the Global Markets Forum, click here http://bit.ly/1kTxdKD (Compiled by Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey) || BTCS Management Cancels Outstanding Options Ahead of Merger: ARLINGTON, VA--(Marketwired - Jul 7, 2015) - Bitcoin Shop, Inc. ( OTCQB : BTCS ) ("BTCS" or the "Company"), a blockchain technology focused company which secures the blockchain through its transaction verification services business, announced today that its management team has agreed to voluntarily cancel all 12,450,000 of their options, representing all of the Company's outstanding options, ahead of the Company's anticipated merger with Spondoolies-Tech ("Spondoolies"). Charles Allen, Chief Executive Officer of BTCS, commented, "As we continue to progress in our planned merger with Spondoolies, we see the cancellation of our outstanding options as a strategic move that will afford us the opportunity to create a comprehensive plan post-merger that properly addresses all stakeholders involved. We anticipate adopting a new equity incentive plan that will be structured to support our performance-based culture and align with the interests of our shareholders. During its first year of operation, Spondoolies successfully launched five different hardware products which are widely recognized in their respective categories. Subsequent to its first product launch in March 2014, Spondoolies announced un-audited revenue of more than $28 million for its fiscal year ended December 31, 2014. The pending-merger between Spondoolies and BTCS will leverage the respective expertise of both companies to create a new global leader in the blockchain sector. About BTCS: BTCS is an early mover in the blockchain and digital currency ecosystems and the only "Pure Play" U.S. public company focused on blockchain technologies. The blockchain is a decentralized public ledger and has the ability to fundamentally impact all industries on a global basis that rely on or utilize record keeping and require trust. BTCS secures the blockchain through its rapidly growing transaction verification services business and plans to build a broader ecosystem to capitalize on opportunities in this fast growing industry. BTCS continues to evaluate and build additional blockchain technology consumer solutions. BTCS also actively partners and integrates with strategic digital currency and blockchain technology companies who provide products or services that are complementary to its business strategy. For more information visit: www.btcs.com Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements in this press release, including those related to an anticipated merger, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "predict," "forecast," "project," "plan," "intend" or similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. While the Company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation those set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, not limited to Risk Factors relating to its digital currency business contained therein. Thus, actual results could be materially different. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. || Europe Will Ban All Roaming Charges in Exactly Two Years: The European Union has come to an agreement with networks to abolish roaming charges by June 2017. The agreement is only a preliminary stage, and it still needs approval from other EU governments and the European Parliament before it can be signed in as law, but this process is expected to go ahead without any issues. Once the new law is in place, phone users traveling between any of the EU’s 28 countries will pay the same amount of money for calls and data as they would at home. Prior to June 2017, EU roaming charges will be capped at 0.05 euros per minute and per megabyte from April 2016. That’s down from 0.19 and 0.20 euros at the moment. Related: UK national roaming could eliminate reception blackspots A fair use policy can still be adopted by networks, meaning it’ll be impossible to register and pay for a phone in a country where you don’t live, then use it at home to potentially save money. There’s also a clause that networks will be able to ‘impose minimal surcharges,’ if it can be proved the new system threatens to raise prices on domestic contracts and services. In addition to the roaming charge alterations, the European Parliament has also looked at net neutrality, and agreed that networks must treat all Internet traffic equally. However, it’s not without exceptions. For example, networks can make agreements that ensure a minimum Internet quality for special services — meaning those that require higher bandwidth — provided it doesn’t impact normal Internet use for others. Also, networks could restrict or block Internet traffic to protect against cyber-attacks, or manage speeds due to ‘exceptional congestion.’ The wording has caused concern among critics , due to its contradictory nature, but it’s clearly stated that networks cannot throttle or block traffic for particular services, or ‘for commercial reasons.’ The EU has been working on the creation of a “Digital Single Market” for several years, and although the abolishment of roaming charges is good news, it was expected in the past, yet is still two years away from coming into effect. Online payments halted in Greece, citizens eye Bitcoin to protect savings German parliament may limit intelligence agency communications with the NSA Uber goes on offensive in Europe, files complaints against authorities || All the 'Silicon Valley' cameos that only tech geeks will notice: The season two finale of “Silicon Valley” aired last night on HBO. In honor of the show completing its sophomore year, here’s a list of some of its most notable cameos: Evan Spiegel The Snapchat co-founder and CEO makes a not-so-subtle appearance in this season’s first episode. While eulogizing the eccentric billionaire Peter Gregory, Spiegel quips: “That’s just the kind of guy he was—warm, generous, and not disappointed in Snapchat.” The remark is likely a reference to a comment made by Peter Thiel ( the real life entrepreneur the Gregory is based on ) who called Snapchat’s 2013 photo hack “ especially problematic ." Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss One of the more amusing cameos from the second season’s premiere, “Sand Hill Shuffle,” involved the Winklevoss twins of Facebook/Bitcoin fame. Erlich, the show’s resident Silicon Valley know-it-all, spots the Winklevi at a swanky party. “They’re like two genetically enhanced Ken dolls,” he says running after them. Drew Houston The Dropbox CEO makes an appearance at the same party, which, in the show, is thrown by a venture capital firm at AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. Though in the presence of Giants draft picks Tyler Beede and Skyler Ewing (more cameos!) the Pied Piper guys are more interested in (tech) giants like Houston. Justin Rosenstein “We in technology have a greater capacity to change the world than the kings and presidents of even 100 years ago.” Unfortunately, that’s not a line from Rosenstein’s “Silicon Valley” cameo. It’s actually from his infamous 2014 TechCrunch talk, dubbed the “ worst tech speech ever ” by the tech news site BGR.  Rosenstein has worked as an engineer at Google and Facebook, and created the communication app Asana. In the show he plays himself as a mourner at Peter Gregory’s funeral. The cameo-heavy episode is said to mirror Steve Jobs’ star-studded memorial service in 2011 . Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg The co-executive editors of Re/Code, a news site that covers all things Silicon Valley, appear as themselves in the episode, “Bad Money.”  Set at the Re/Code Code Conference, they interview the fictional bad guy Hooli CEO, Gavin Belson, as he compares the plight of Jews in Nazi Germany to the “plight” of billionaires in America. Jason Kincaid Another real tech journalist appears in episodes seven and eight of season one, at the TechCrunch Disrupt startup competition (also a real thing). Howard L. Morgan A venture capitalist famous for his early participation in the technology boom also appears at the fictional version of the conference. Michael Arrington The founder of TechCrunch pops up in the season one finale at the Disrupt conference. Arrington has spoken in favor of dropping out of college , kind of like Peter Gregory does in the show’s pilot episode (Gregory's real life counterpart does this too through his Thiel Fellowship ). Eric Schmidt The Google exec makes a brief cameo in the first episode where he throws a party – albeit a dull one – to celebrate an acquisition. That brings us to… Kid Rock No, it wasn’t a geeky tech CEO or super-successful venture capitalist who made the first cameo in the series, but a bona fide rock star. Kid Rock performed at Schmidt’s fete... and no one actually cared. “Kid Rock is the poorest person here, apart from you guys!” Erlich tells his friends at the party. What’s more, the Kid’s proclamation before walking off stage, “f*** these people,” could arguably serve as a thesis statement for the entire show. || Cryptonomex Inc Partners With Danish CryptoCurrency Exchange CCEDK: BLACKSBURG, VA / ACCESSWIRE / June 17, 2015 /Cryptonomex Inc. has issued a statement announcing a partnership with Danish cryptocurrency exchange CCEDK. CCEDK aims to use BitShares 2.0 technology to power the world's first open and transparent cryptocurrency exchange. According to a statement released today by CCEDK Co-Founder & CEO Ronny Boesing, "You don't have to worry about our exchange being hacked or whether it is honest or solvent. Everything about our new accounts will be an open book and you control the keys to your own funds, even while they are on our exchange." This is clearly an advantage over other exchanges that open their users and customers to counterparty risk, hacker's possibly gaining access to exchange wallets and other concerns. These features also address the problems and concerns with exchanges highlighted by the now infamous Mt. Gox incident of 2014, when the exchange "lost" close to half a billion dollars worth of their customers Bitcoin. BitShares 2.0 is run on Graphene Technology developed by Cryptonomex.Cryptonomex Inc. is currently licensing the technology to exchanges, third party entities in the cryptocurrency space, and other non-crypto related businesses that rely upon a ledger. Denmark based exchange CCEDK will be the world's first exchange to make its order books and solvency transparent following a partnership withCryptonomex. The move comes just a few days afterBitShares announced it was to launch its "2.0" version, based upon the "Graphene toolkit" developed by Cryptonomex. With the launch of version 2.0, BitShares is intended to become more driven by its stakeholders with the core development team at Cryptonomex following the direction chosen in stakeholder voting rounds. According to CCEDK in a press release dated today, they are confident that in this rapidly evolving industry, success is all about network effect. By placing their ledgers on the open BitShares network, CCEDK has positioned itself for rapid growth toward leading the most lucrative and trusted network of exchanges on the planet. "Exchanges with closed order books are going the way of the dinosaur," opined Boesing. "Next year, if an exchange is not on an incorruptible, transparent, decentralized, open public ledger like ours, it might not even be in this business." ### Contact Cryptonomex:Stan Larimer, Presidentstan@cryptonomex.com2020 Kraft Drive Suite 3040 Blacksburg, VA 24060SOURCE: Cryptonomex Inc. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000006 Bittrex: 0.00000006 Average $1.8E-5 per #reddcoin 22:00:00 || LIVE: Profit = $1,224.24 (1.68 %). BUY B269.88 @ $268.75 (#BTCe). SELL @ $272.00 (#HitBTC) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 22 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $1,573.50 #bitcoin #btc || Bitcoin traded at $259.0 USD on BTC-e at 07:00 AM Pacific Time || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 15315.00 INR Sell : 14846.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin || Current price: 229.8$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-06-12 16:00:03 EDT || $232.50 #btce; $231.00 #bitstamp; Instantly buy GH/s with BTC: http://bit.ly/LN53k1  #bitcoin #btc || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 17 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $1,233.73 #bitcoin #btc || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 16 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $861.63 #bitcoin #btc || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 21 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $1,645.24 #bitcoin #btc
Trend: up || Prices: 278.98, 275.83, 277.22, 276.05, 288.28, 288.70, 292.69, 293.62, 294.43, 289.59
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Medical Marijuana May Help Transplant Patients: In recent years, the use case for marijuana for medicinal reasons has expanded exponentially. As the drug becomes widely accepted across the US, more research has been done to better understand the effects of marijuana on certain ailments. Everything from Alzheimer's to Epilepsy is said to benefit from the components of a marijuana plant and now a new study shows that the drug which has long disqualified patients from receiving a transplant could actually aid in their recovery. Mouse Study Scientists at the University of South Carolina have found that Tetrahyrodcannabinol, the psychoactive component of marijuana, may help to delay the rejection of organs in transplant patients. The study examined the effects of THC on mice that received skin grafts and found that those exposed to the drug were better able to accept a foreign graft. Related Link: Marijuana-Specific Doctors Can Make It Difficult To Take Medical Marijuana Seriously New Uses Based on this data, scientists believe that THC suppresses a patient's immune response, something that could prove beneficial for transplant patients or those struggling with other inflammatory diseases. For marijuana supporters, the data represents another reason why federal laws should be relaxed in order to make studies like this one more accessible. Still Some Concerns Much like many other studies touting the effectiveness of marijuana treatments, the scientists at the University of South Carolina cautioned that the results don't tell the whole story. So much is unknown about how marijuana affects the human body that the possibility of using THC in this capacity for humans any time soon is slim. However, it illuminates a new use case and will likely encourage researchers to continue finding ways to use marijuana components to fight illnesses and improve patients' quality of life. See more from Benzinga Netflix Viewing Stats Reveal That All Shows Aren't Created Equally Charlie Shrem Weighs In On Bitcoin From His Prison Cell China's Weakness Isn't All Bad © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Cannabis Sativa Inc and THC Farmaceuticals’ Subsidiary, Terpene Research Labs (TRL) to Produce Terpenes Based on CBDS’ Patent Pending Strain: MESQUITE, NV / ACCESSWIRE / September 18, 2015 / Cannabis Sativa Inc ( CBDS ) and THC Farmaceuticals, Inc (CBDG) announced today that they have entered into an agreement for TRL to develop for CBDS terpene based products from CBDS' patent pending stain of Cannabis known as "CTA." As part of the agreement CBDG shall pay CBDS 10,000,000 hempcoins for the non-exclusive right to sell products TRL produces from the CTA strain plus a 5% cash royalty. CBDG will pay 35% royalty to CBDS on all fees or other gross revenues it receives from licensing products for others to produce products using CTA genetics. CBDS shall retain the right to sell the same products under its "Hi" brand (or such other of its brands in its sole discretion) and will pay a 5% royalty to TRL for all products sold using the terpene products developed by TRL. CBDS shall pay a royalty at the rate of 35% of gross revenue to CBDG for all terpene products developed by TRL and licensed by CBDS to other parties. CBDS also transfers to CBDG all rights to the CTA products developed by TRL for distribution outside of North America. CBDS granted CBDG a 3 year option to acquire all of the CTA plant and patent rights outside of North America for an additional 10,000,000 hempcoins. The option begins to run from the time that the first hempcoins are delivered to CBDS. Should this option be exercised, CBDG will then pay a royalty of 3% of gross revenues received from with respect to products produced by or for CBDG or any of its affiliates and 20% on all royalties it receives. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission ruled yesterday that "[t]he definition of a commodity [being] broad... Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are encompassed in the definition and properly defined as commodities," the agency has turned our newest earned asset into a commodity. About Terpenes; Terpenes (/ˈtɜrpiːn/) are a large and diverse class of organic compounds, produced by a variety of plants. About Hempcoin : Hempcoins (HMP) is a litecoin type crypo-commodity that can be mined and is backed by shares of $RMTN. See: http://www.hempcoin.com . About CBDS: Cannabis Sativa, Inc. is in the business of branding and licensing via its 'hi' intellectual properties. The Company also offers the Wild Earth Naturals line of CBD Water and cosmetic products which are designed to use organic and natural ingredients, including CBD and hemp seed oil. The Company is engaged through its subsidiaries, Kush and Hi Brands International, Inc., in the research, development and licensing of specialized natural cannabis products, including cannabis formulas, edibles, topicals, strains, recipes and delivery systems. Story continues This press release contains "forward-looking statements." Although the forward-looking statements in this release reflect the good faith judgment of management, forward-looking statements are inherently subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to be materially different from those discussed in these forward-looking statements. Readers are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made by us in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risk factors that attempt to advise interested parties of the risks that may affect our business, financial condition, results of operation and cash flows. If one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if the underlying assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results may vary materially from those expected or projected. Readers are urged not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect any event or circumstance that may arise after the date of this release. Contact Information: Investor Relations Mesquite, NV 89027 702-345-4074 http://www.cbds.com SOURCE: Cannabis Sativa, Inc. View comments || Is NASDAQ Going Green?: On Monday, the marijuana-themed networking company MassRoots Inc (OTC: MSRT ) announced its plans to become the first cannabis-based company to be listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market. The company has been listed OTC since April 2015, but if it is accepted by Nasdaq, it will mark a major milestone for the company's growth. Marijuana Network MassRoots is a social networking app that connects marijuana users to industry participants like dispensaries and pot-themed companies. As the app itself doesn't handle any marijuana or facilitate sales directly, it can be used throughout the U.S., even in states where marijuana use is still illegal. Big Opportunity MassRoots Chief Executive Officer Isaac Dietrich said that the company's move onto a major market like the NASDAQ will likely help attract new investors and mark a huge step forward for both the company and the marijuana industry as a whole. In order to comply with NASDAQ's requirements MassRoots is planning to strengthen its corporate governance and take other steps in order to ensure it meets all of the criteria. However, even if the company is able to fulfill the requirements, there is no guarantee that the its application will be accepted. Investors Interested In Pot? It remains unknown how well MassRoots would be received by investors. On one hand, MassRoots would be the first company whose operations are directly linked to recreational marijuana use. While companies like GW Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: GWPH ) are already listed on the exchange, their research explores using elements from cannabis to create new medical treatments. MassRoots, appeals to recreational users and gives investors a chance to invest in technology which may grow alongside the industry. However, some could be wary of marijuana-linked investments as the industry's future is still uncertain as conflicting federal and state laws allow for the marijuana market to be shut down at any time. See more from Benzinga Cybersecurity Becomes An Even Bigger Problem For U.S. Firms New Dictionary Entries Suggest Bitcoin Is Going Mainstream Where Is The Market Headed? © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin Reaches A Fork In The Road: Since its arrival on the fintech scene, bitcoin has always been an open source, decentralized cryptocurrency. That means that no individual can update the system without a consensus among bitcoin users. However, a fierce debate within the community has threatened to pull bitcoin users in two separate directions. The Problem The bitcoin community has been locked in a heated debate over whether or not developers should increase block sizes to greater than 1MB. A block records recent bitcoin transactions, and increasing its size would help to accommodate the cryptocurrency's growing demand. However, critics say that making blocks larger could prevent ordinary users from hosting and would lead to more centralization. Related Link: Bitcoin's Image As A Tool For Criminals May Not Be Far-Fetched A Choice To Make Now, developers Gavin Andresen and Mike Hearn have released a new version of software called Bitcoin XT which supports increased block sizes. The move has forced users to choose between Bitcoin Core, which keeps blocks under 1MB, or Bitcoin XT which allows their expansion when necessary. Core Or XT? While the two are compatible at the moment, Bitcoin XT is planning to update its system to incorporate larger block sizes if 75 percent of the cryptocurrency's users adopt it. Many worry that even if XT gains the majority needed for an update, the 25 percent of Core users will continue with that system. Such a decision would effectively tear the currency in two and could have the potential to significantly decrease adoption of the cryptocurrencies as a whole. See more from Benzinga Automation Serves Up Massive Travel Delays For The Second Time This Summer Disney Looks To A Galaxy Far, Far Away To Revamp Its Theme Parks Bitcoin's Image As A Tool For Criminals May Not Be Far-Fetched © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || All Investors Are Long Volatility, But There’s Help: This article is part of a regular series of thought leadership pieces from some of the more influential ETF strategists in the money management industry. Today's article is by Mike Venuto, co-founder and chief investment officer of New York-based Toroso Investments. Over the past few years, there has been a lot of discussion about volatility as an asset class. The recent turmoil in the market has reignited this debate. In my opinion, volatility is not an asset class; rather, it’s a market factor that all investors are inherently long. Factors are idiosyncratic risk that traditional index investors inadvertently accept. Assets are tangible; they can grow and compound value. Volatility is a behavioral result or return characteristic, and usually a bad one. Unless an investor explicitly limits volatility, they are long this factor. The advent of VIX exchanged-traded products (ETPs) was intended to provide investors the ability to mitigate the exposure to this factor. The unintended consequence of these innovations was to create an opportunity for astute investors to profit from others’ desire to purchase volatility insurance. What Volatility Really IsBefore delving into the intricacies of these ETPs, let’s clearly define the volatility factor. Realized volatility is simply a measure of standard deviation or investment performance outside of historical norms. Since the market trends upward, most spikes in volatility usually correspond with negative economic events. Additionally, realized volatility erodes the positive effects of compounding returns. This is best illustrated by Jeremy Siegel’s volatility paradox, which notes that returns are not geometrically offsetting. A loss of 10 percent in value requires a gain of 11 percent to go back to the original value. Volatility exponentially amplifies the breakeven requirements; a loss of 25 percent needs a 33 percent positive return to reset. Clearly mitigating this factor can have a positive effect on portfolio performance. Historically, investors have attempted to limit volatility through diversification and asset allocation. Over long market cycles, this has worked, but in times of extreme stress—like 2008, or most recently, during August of this year—correlation of investments increases and the negative impact of volatility trumps the benefits of diversification. The Need For Short-Term ToolsInvestors with shorter time horizons need tools that implicitly mitigate the volatility factor; hence, the advent of volatility ETPs. Most volatility ETPs seek exposure to the VIX index. The VIX index is a measure of implied volatility, which calculates the anticipated future standard deviation of the SandP 500 based on options prices. The VIX index is unique in that it does not compound, and always mean-reverts. Unlike an asset, it cannot go to zero, and it cannot go to infinity. Historically, the realized standard deviation of the SandP 500 has been about 16 percent. Over the past 20 years, the average value of the VIX has been about 18, indicating an anticipated volatility or implied volatility of 18 percent. It is common that implied volatility is higher than realized, and this spread is translated into the cost of purchasing insurance on realized volatility. Most ETPs that offer exposure to the VIX do so using futures. Essentially the underlying indexes combine long and/or short allocations of at least two VIX futures contracts. You’re Not Buying Spot VIXThe process is complicated, but the most important thing for investors to understand is that investing in VIX futures will not result in returns that correspond identically to the VIX spot price. This phenomenon is best illustrated by the first VIX futures-based ETN. TheiPath SandP 500 VIX ST Futures ETN (VXX | B-62)launched in January 2009, at a time when spot VIX was relatively high, around 44. Today spot VIX is about 45 percent lower, but VXX is 99 percent lower. It is safe to say that VXX is not a buy-and-hold investment. This is due in large part to the cost of maintaining the exposure or insurance. Since the launch of VXX in 2009, I have been fascinated by volatility ETPs. A key component of my investment philosophy is the acknowledgment that problems and inefficiencies create opportunities. This is an aspect shared by well-known investment managers in the ETP industry. When Inverse Is Not ShortingGreg King, currently CEO of the newly created REX ETFs, was both one of the architects of VXX and the creator of the vehicle, which captured the opportunity created by its inefficiency. In late 2010, King, via VelocityShares, launched theVelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX ST ETN (XIV), which represents the inverse of the VIX Futures index tracked by VXX. It is extremely important for investors to understand that XIV is not short the VIX; it is short the cost of using futures to gain exposure to the VIX. In other words, XIV collects and compounds the cost or premium others are willing to pay for insurance. That said, when volatility spikes, the cost structure or futures curve inverts, and XIV loses significant value quickly and violently. The metaphor of picking up pennies in front of a steamroller accurately describes investing in XIV, but instead of pennies, investors collect dollars. I believe harvesting those dollars and consistently rebalancing exposure to XIV is one way to avoid being crushed. A less popular way to express this trade or metaphor is to pick up quarters in front of a go-kart with theVelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX MT ETN (ZIV). ZIV investors can still get hurt, but not likely crushed, and the insurance premium collected is much smaller. ZIV tracks the inverse of the midterm VIX futures index. It collects the cost of maintaining exposure to VIX futures by using the three- to seven-months’ futures. This part of the curve is less expensive and less reactive to moves in the VIX. Since inception in 2010, ZIV is up about 180 percent. The Volatility ETP UniverseToday there are close to $5 billion allocated to ETPs that invest in VIX futures. There are about equal amounts dedicated to products that are long VIX futures as there are to the inverse products. There is also about $1 billion in a new suite of products that dynamically move from equity exposures to long or short VIX futures. [{"ETPs": "Long VIX Futures", "Assets $M": "$1,176,613.90", "# of ETFs": "3", "# of ETNs": "4"}, {"ETPs": "Leveraged Long VIX Futures", "Assets $M": "$730,168.10", "# of ETFs": "1", "# of ETNs": "2"}, {"ETPs": "Short VIX Futures", "Assets $M": "$1,992,688.50", "# of ETFs": "1", "# of ETNs": "4"}, {"ETPs": "Equities + L/S VIX Futures", "Assets $M": "$1,057,104.10", "# of ETFs": "4", "# of ETNs": "3"}, {"ETPs": "Total:", "Assets $M": "$4,956,574.60", "# of ETFs": "9", "# of ETNs": "13"}] Source: ETF.com as of Sept. 11, 2015 It should be self-evident that current VIX futures-based ETPs are insufficient tools to mitigate the realized volatility factor in a portfolio unless an investor has impeccable and consistent timing. That said, innovative new products are launched every year. Perhaps one of the most interesting launches in this space was this year’sAccuShares Spot CBOE VIX Up Shares (VXUP)andAccuShares Spot CBOE VIX Down Shares (VXDN). These ETFs seek exposure to spot VIX, which is the holy grail of volatility-factor reduction. Unfortunately, this is not easily achieved, and the structure of these ETFs appears quite convoluted at first glance. They own cash instead of futures. Their value is maintained through distributions. There are equal amounts of VXUP and VXDN shares: Once a month, a distribution is made from one to the other that corresponds to the relative percent change in the VIX. This distribution is intended to keep the ETFs trading close to their statednet asset value (NAV). Circuit Breakers Built InTheoretically, the insurance premium inherent in VIX futures implies that there should always be more demand for VXUP than VXDN; therefore, VXUP should normally trade at a premium. AccuShares was acutely aware of this possibility, and built circuit breakers—or triggers—into the structure that force a series of special distributions if either fund trades at significant premium or discount to NAV for more than three consecutive days. Around Aug. 17, this structure was tested when the VIX spiked more than 200 percent. To my surprise, VXUP was trading at about a 35 percent discount to NAV at this time of extreme fear. On Aug. 24, the special distribution process successfully brought the trading price back in line with NAV. Only time will tell if investors embrace this concept now that these ETFs have passed the first test. So, if you are investing in the stock market, you are idiosyncratically long volatility. There are many new and innovative ETPs to help mitigate that factor, but the intricacies and execution of these products requires vast knowledge of their structure and pricing. When investing, I prefer to embrace the volatility factor, if properly compensated and hedged. After all, Warren Buffett didn’t become rich by buying insurance; instead, his success came from prudently selling insurance. It might be time for ordinary investors to benefit from selling insurance as well. At the time of this writing, Toroso had positions in XIV, ZIV and VXUP.Toroso is affiliated with Global X Management Company. Toroso is a New York-based investment advisor focused on researching ETFs and other exchange-traded products, and designing asset allocation strategies, using ETFs that seek to perform well in various economic climates while emphasizing future objectives over past correlations. For more information about Toroso, call646-465-5930, visitwww.torosoinv.comor emailinfo@torosoinv.com. For a list of relevant disclosures, please clickhere. Recommended stories • Swedroe: Taxing The Yale Model • ETF Options 101: 3 Ways To Go Long SPY • Greg King Debuts New ETF Firm • All Investors Are Long Volatility, But There’s Help • Bitcoins In This ETF Not What It Seems Permalink| © Copyright 2015ETF.com.All rights reserved || Texan pleads guilty to running bitcoin Ponzi scheme: By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Texas man accused of operating a Ponzi scheme involving bitcoins pleaded guilty on Monday in what prosecutors say was the first U.S. criminal securities fraud case related to the digital currency. Trendon Shavers, who authorities said defrauded investors after raising more than $4.5 million worth of bitcoins while operating Bitcoin Savings and Trust, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to one count of securities fraud. "I know what I did was wrong, and I'm very sorry," Shavers said in court. Under a plea deal, Shavers has agreed not to appeal any sentence at or below 41 months in prison. Sentencing before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan is scheduled for Feb. 3. Shavers, who went by "pirateat40" online, was arrested in November, two months after a federal judge in Texas ordered him to pay $40.7 million in a related U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil lawsuit. Prosecutors said Shavers, who turned 33 on Monday, raised at least 764,000 bitcoins worth more than $4.5 million based on the average price of bitcoin during the period of the scheme from investors from September 2011 to September 2012. He promised interest rates of 7 percent per week or 3,641 percent a year. The indictment said Shavers solicited the investments on the website Bitcoin Forum, offering to pay interest to investors who loaned bitcoins to Bitcoin Savings and Trust while he pursued a market arbitrage strategy. Michael Ferrara, a prosecutor, in court on Monday said Shavers had invested some of the bitcoins with Mt. Gox, the now-defunct Tokoyo-based bitcoin exchange. But Ferrara said Shavers, who lived in McKinney, Texas, largely instead used new investors' bitcoins to pay back prior investors. "In other words, he had the telltale signs of a Ponzi scheme," Ferrara said. In court papers, prosecutors had also accused Shavers of misappropriating bitcoins to buy a used BMW M5 sedan and a $1,000 steakhouse dinner in Las Vegas, and to go to spas and casinos. Story continues At the peak of the scheme, Shavers controlled about 7 percent of bitcoins in public circulation, prosecutors said. In total, prosecutors said he misappropriated 146,000 bitcoins and caused 48 investors to suffer losses. The case is U.S. v. Shavers, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00157. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) || IBM Gets Behind Blockchain: While bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have struggled to find mainstream appeal, blockchain, the ledger like technology that they run on, has been touted as one of the most important technological advancements of the past decade. The system has the ability to facilitate transactions in a way that many say will transform more than just the financial industry. That idea is now being put into practice by tech giantInternational Business Machines Corp.(NYSE:IBM), as the company announced that it is working to use the technology to create a "smart contracts" system. Related Link:Buy Some Bitcoin With This ETF Smart Contracts TheWall Street Journalreported that IBM Research Senior Vice President Arvind Krishna said that the firm is working on a way to develop blockchain technology into a system that can facilitate contracts. The system is expected to eventually be released as open-source software and will likely give other big name companies reason to look into using the technology. Improving Business Transactions IBM's smart contracts system won't include the use of cryptocurrencies, but will instead draw on blockchain's ability to track individual transactions but keep the details private. The idea is to allow companies to embed rules into their contracts and allow the blockchain system to enforce them. One example the company is looking into would be a system that automatically pays for goods once they are delivered, however the possibilities for using the technology could reach into several aspects of business operations. See more from Benzinga • IBM Uses Tennis To Demonstrate Its Dominance In Data • U.S. Tech Firms Hope To Have A Say In New EU Digital Market Rules • iBusiness, iPrograms: Apple Stretches Its Legs © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin flounders in Australia as regulatory worries bite: By Byron Kaye and Swati Pandey SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian businesses are turning their backs on bitcoin, as signs grow that the cryptocurrency's mainstream appeal is fading. Concerns about bitcoin's potential crime links mean many businesses have stopped accepting it, a trend accelerated by Australian banks' move last month to close the accounts of 13 of the country's 17 bitcoin exchanges. The development is a blow to hopes of bitcoin fans that the currency can play a significant role in everyday business transactions in developed economies, with Australia once seen as one of its most promising markets. It is estimated to hold 7 percent of the currency's $3.5 billion global value, a sizeable figure in a country of just 24 million people. "We've got a squeaky clean reputation, and that's actually worth a lot more to us than dipping into this," said James Snodgrass, principal of Sydney's Forsyth Real Estate, which ditched the currency in late 2014 after the firm was investigated by the federal tax office. Forsyth had offered to collect home deposits and other realtor fees via bitcoin to cater to international buyers. The tax office probe found no wrongdoing but Forsyth was burned by the negative publicity and bailed out before ever taking a bitcoin payment. Although most mainstream banks in Europe and the U.S. already refuse to keep bitcoin-affiliated accounts, developments in Australia represent the first coordinated shutdown of bitcoin exchanges by a country's banking system. The move makes it much harder for people to convert regular currencies in to or out of bitcoin, threatening its long-term value. "It really runs on people using bitcoin, and if nobody uses it then it's worthless," said University of Technology Sydney senior finance lecturer Adrian Lee. BANK SHUTDOWN The banks' shutdown appears at odds with a government inquiry which in August recommended removing sales tax for people who buy bitcoin. The Australian anti-money laundering agency, AUSTRAC, told Reuters that banks have no legal obligation to close bitcoin accounts. The so-called "Big Four" banks - Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corp, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and National Australia Bank - directed inquiries about bitcoin to the Australian Bankers' Association. Tony Pearson, the association's acting chief executive, wouldn't confirm the coordinated rejection of bitcoin but said in an email that its "lack of transparency and regulatory oversight raises a number of risks for users and also poses risks for the payments system, the integrity of the financial system and the erosion of the tax base". Australia's organised crime agency has said it is concerned the currency's untraceable nature makes it attractive for money laundering and selling illicit drugs. In the U.K. and the U.S., most large banks have already cut ties with bitcoin account holders, but lack of industry co-ordination has left room for individual lenders to support the currency, including Germany's Fidor Bank AG, which operates in Britain, and tech-focused Californian lender Silicon Valley Bank. CLOSE, MOVE OFFSHORE OR SNEAK AROUND The 13 Australian bitcoin exchanges whose accounts were closed by the banks have shut operations. The remaining four have had their accounts frozen, and now face three options: close, move overseas or spread their business into several smaller bank accounts to avoid detection by their banks. Buyabitcoin.com.au, one of the remaining four exchanges, said it is still considering its options. "It makes it, obviously, hard to take payments from our customers, but we have a couple of relationships left," said Andrew Smith, general manager of the Melbourne-based exchange. Smith declined to identify which bank his firm is now using from fear of repercussions but said he plans to move the business offshore. Two sources told Reuters that regional lender Bank of Queensland still held some bitcoin accounts. The bank said in an email that "virtual currencies fall outside of our risk appetite" but did not deny or confirm it had these accounts. RETAIL PULLOUT Some industry watchers believe ambivalence may be bitcoin's biggest problem. At least six Australian retail businesses, which as recently as 2014 courted publicity for offering sales by bitcoin, told Reuters they were considering exiting the currency. "If governments begin to aggressively attack the whole idea of cryptocurrencies and give it a bad name, it might have an adverse effect on our brand by accepting it," said David Brim, co-founder of off-road vehicle maker Tomcar Australia, which has sold one car using bitcoin since introducing it in November 2014. Grant Fairweather, owner of the Metropolitan Hotel in Sydney, said he started accepting bitcoin when a group of digital currency fans chose his pub as their regular meeting venue. "They tell me that it's doing quite well, but that doesn't transpose into here," said Fairweather, who sells about A$100 ($70) worth of drinks via bitcoin from the meetings and does no other bitcoin trade. An online clothing retailer told Reuters she had made no bitcoin sales since introducing the service in 2013 and asked not to be named, saying "since bitcoin's going out anyway, we'd rather not throw our name back into it". (Additional reporting by Nathan Lynch in SYDNEY and Jemima Kelly in LONDON. Editing by Jane Wardell and Rachel Armstrong) || Bitcoin Is Now Classified as a Commodity in the U.S.: Bitcoin will now be classed as a commodity in the U.S. along with gold and oil, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which has started to clamp down on unregistered firms that trade derivatives of the cryptocurrency. The CFTC stated Thursday that it had ordered bitcoin options trading platform Coinflip, and its CEO Francisco Riordan, to cease trading due to it not registering and complying with its regulations. It added that it had also filed, and simultaneously settled, charges against the San Francisco-based firm. This might mean a nervous couple of months for other unregistered bitcoin derivatives firms in the U.S. but also signaled that the cryptocurrency will now come under the CFTC's scope. "CFTC holds that bitcoin and other virtual currencies are a commodity covered by the commodity exchange act," the regulator said in a statement Thursday. Aitan Goelman, the CFTC's director of enforcement, added that "while there is a lot of excitement surrounding bitcoin...innovation does not excuse those acting in this space from following the same rules applicable to all participants in the commodity derivatives markets." Francisco Riordan was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC. Bitcoin is a virtual currency that allows users to exchange online credits for goods and services. While there is no central bank that issues them, bitcoins can be created online by using a computer to complete difficult tasks, a process known as mining. As well as bitcoin exchanges and wallet services, a small but growing sector of derivatives firms selling products based on the digital currency have also sprung up in recent years. Crypto Facilities was set up in the U.K. this year by former bankers from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale. The platform pitches itself as a broker which specializes in bitcoin derivatives, and trades financial products like options and futures which are directly linked to the price of the cryptocurrency. Thus, it allows users to "go long" and bet that the price of bitcoin will rise, or "go short" and bet the price will fall. Technology enthusiasts, regulators and economists have been pondering how to pigeon hole bitcoin since its emergence in 2009. In August 2013, the German Finance Ministry classified it as a "unit of account", meaning it is can be used for tax and trading purposes in the country and is like "private money." || Bitcoin flounders in Australia as regulatory worries bite: By Byron Kaye and Swati Pandey SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian businesses are turning their backs on bitcoin, as signs grow that the cryptocurrency's mainstream appeal is fading. Concerns about bitcoin's potential crime links mean many businesses have stopped accepting it, a trend accelerated by Australian banks' move last month to close the accounts of 13 of the country's 17 bitcoin exchanges. The development is a blow to hopes of bitcoin fans that the currency can play a significant role in everyday business transactions in developed economies, with Australia once seen as one of its most promising markets. It is estimated to hold 7 percent of the currency's $3.5 billion global value, a sizeable figure in a country of just 24 million people. "We've got a squeaky clean reputation, and that's actually worth a lot more to us than dipping into this," said James Snodgrass, principal of Sydney's Forsyth Real Estate, which ditched the currency in late 2014 after the firm was investigated by the federal tax office. Forsyth had offered to collect home deposits and other realtor fees via bitcoin to cater to international buyers. The tax office probe found no wrongdoing but Forsyth was burned by the negative publicity and bailed out before ever taking a bitcoin payment. Although most mainstream banks in Europe and the U.S. already refuse to keep bitcoin-affiliated accounts, developments in Australia represent the first coordinated shutdown of bitcoin exchanges by a country's banking system. The move makes it much harder for people to convert regular currencies in to or out of bitcoin, threatening its long-term value. "It really runs on people using bitcoin, and if nobody uses it then it's worthless," said University of Technology Sydney senior finance lecturer Adrian Lee. BANK SHUTDOWN The banks' shutdown appears at odds with a government inquiry which in August recommended removing sales tax for people who buy bitcoin. The Australian anti-money laundering agency, AUSTRAC, told Reuters that banks have no legal obligation to close bitcoin accounts. The so-called "Big Four" banks - Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corp, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and National Australia Bank - directed inquiries about bitcoin to the Australian Bankers' Association. Tony Pearson, the association's acting chief executive, wouldn't confirm the coordinated rejection of bitcoin but said in an email that its "lack of transparency and regulatory oversight raises a number of risks for users and also poses risks for the payments system, the integrity of the financial system and the erosion of the tax base". Australia's organised crime agency has said it is concerned the currency's untraceable nature makes it attractive for money laundering and selling illicit drugs. In the U.K. and the U.S., most large banks have already cut ties with bitcoin account holders, but lack of industry co-ordination has left room for individual lenders to support the currency, including Germany's Fidor Bank AG, which operates in Britain, and tech-focused Californian lender Silicon Valley Bank. CLOSE, MOVE OFFSHORE OR SNEAK AROUND The 13 Australian bitcoin exchanges whose accounts were closed by the banks have shut operations. The remaining four have had their accounts frozen, and now face three options: close, move overseas or spread their business into several smaller bank accounts to avoid detection by their banks. Buyabitcoin.com.au, one of the remaining four exchanges, said it is still considering its options. "It makes it, obviously, hard to take payments from our customers, but we have a couple of relationships left," said Andrew Smith, general manager of the Melbourne-based exchange. Smith declined to identify which bank his firm is now using from fear of repercussions but said he plans to move the business offshore. Two sources told Reuters that regional lender Bank of Queensland still held some bitcoin accounts. The bank said in an email that "virtual currencies fall outside of our risk appetite" but did not deny or confirm it had these accounts. RETAIL PULLOUT Some industry watchers believe ambivalence may be bitcoin's biggest problem. At least six Australian retail businesses, which as recently as 2014 courted publicity for offering sales by bitcoin, told Reuters they were considering exiting the currency. "If governments begin to aggressively attack the whole idea of cryptocurrencies and give it a bad name, it might have an adverse effect on our brand by accepting it," said David Brim, co-founder of off-road vehicle maker Tomcar Australia, which has sold one car using bitcoin since introducing it in November 2014. Grant Fairweather, owner of the Metropolitan Hotel in Sydney, said he started accepting bitcoin when a group of digital currency fans chose his pub as their regular meeting venue. "They tell me that it's doing quite well, but that doesn't transpose into here," said Fairweather, who sells about A$100 ($70) worth of drinks via bitcoin from the meetings and does no other bitcoin trade. An online clothing retailer told Reuters she had made no bitcoin sales since introducing the service in 2013 and asked not to be named, saying "since bitcoin's going out anyway, we'd rather not throw our name back into it". (Additional reporting by Nathan Lynch in SYDNEY and Jemima Kelly in LONDON. Editing by Jane Wardell and Rachel Armstrong) [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Current price: 148.2£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2015-08-29 09:00:03 BST || In the last hour, 8 people won 1.00 BTC playing Bitcoin lottery at http://10xbtc.com , the easiest BTC lottery, 160BTC Jackpot || Bitcoin traded at $231.95 USD on BTC-e at 05:00 AM Pacific Time || bitcoin rate-2015-08-12 PDT start_rate:$268.00 current_rate:$268.13(0.05%) #bitstamp @MoneysEdge http://www.moneysedge.com/bitcoin  || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 22 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $646.79 #bitcoin #btc || 1 #bitcoin 689.49 TL, 232.127 $, 205.599 €, GBP, 15360.00 RUR, 28243 ¥, CNH, 311.65 CAD #btc || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: Error Bittrex: 0.00000005 Average $1.2E-5 per #reddcoin 06:00:03 || Current price: 214.35€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-09-07 08:00:02 CEST || Current value of DOGE in BTC: Cryptsy: 0.00000061 -- Volume: 67780686.98864819 Today's trend: stable at 08/22/15 00:50 || Current price: 205.27€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-09-01 01:00:01 CEST
Trend: up || Prices: 240.38, 246.06, 242.97, 242.30, 243.93, 244.94, 247.05, 245.31, 249.51, 251.99
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-07-28] BTC Price: 39995.91, BTC RSI: 70.52 Gold Price: 1799.50, Gold RSI: 45.15 Oil Price: 72.39, Oil RSI: 52.88 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] BitMEX, Human Rights Foundation Award Bitcoin Developer Grants Worth $150K: Calvin Kim, a developer who works on improving Bitcoin’s scalability, is to receive $150,000 in funding to support his work. • Announced in ablog poston Monday, cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX said it will extend Kim’s funding until June 2022 with a grant for $100,000. He previously received $30,000 in August 2020, the exchange said. • BitMEX said it has also collaborated with the Human Rights Foundation, which is also now funding Kim to the tune of $50,000 inbitcoin. • South Korea-based Kim primarily works on theUtreexoproject, which has developed a way to store all of Bitcoin’s unspent transaction outputs (the record of who owns which bitcoin) in less than 1 kilobyte instead of in gigabytes. • “We are delighted to extend our financial support for Calvin for another year,” said BitMEX CEO Alex Höptner. “In particular we are pleased to support a Korean developer such as Calvin, as ensuring the geographic diversity of Bitcoin development is an important factor to consider.” • The exchange has provided grants to a number of other Bitcoin developers, includingMichael Ford,Jeremy Rubinand Gleb Naumenko. • Bitcoin Rejected Near $38K After Two-Day Price Gain • Bitcoin’s Long-Term Put Options See Sustained Demand as Price Consolidates • Bitcoin, Ether Etch Largest Daily Gains in a Week • Bitcoin Miner Marathon Will No Longer Censor Transactions, CEO Says || Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Records Largest Drop in History; Price Jumps: The Bitcoin blockchain has undergone its biggest-ever drop in mining difficulty, as the network’s automatic stabilizing mechanism kicked in following a strict crackdown by China on the country’s cryptocurrency industry. At 6:25 UTC Saturday, mining difficulty plunged by nearly 28% at block 689,471. The steep decline in difficulty led to corresponding plunge in transaction fees, which in turn may have contributed to a $1,000 surge in the price of the leading cryptocurrency on anticipation of a spurt in transactions, according to one observer. In recent trading, the price of BTC was at $34,738, up 3.58% in the last 24 hours. Before the reduction in mining difficulty, BTC was about $33,700. Related: Bitcoin Holds Support; Faces Resistance at $36K Charlie Morris, CIO of ByteTree Asset Management, tweeted hours after the difficulty cut that fees had dropped to $6 from $10 yesterday. The adjustment marks the third straight decline in mining difficulty, the first time such a trend has happened since December 2018. On May 29 and June 13, the mining difficulty dropped by 16% and 5%, respectively, according to mining service provider BTC.com. What is Bitcoin mining difficulty? Bitcoin’s difficulty is measured using an internal score that began at 1 (when Satoshi started mining at the easiest level). It is programmed to increase or decrease incrementally depending on how many miners are competing on the network. It is currently scored at 14,363,025,673,659, down from 19,932,791,027,262. Blocks are added to the Bitcoin blockchain at a regular and predictable rate: one block every 10 minutes or so. Block time measures how long it takes to create a new block, but that pace can vary, depending on the number of miners on the network and the speed of their computers. When there are more miners competing to “find” the next block, and earn the 6.125 BTC reward, then those blocks tend to be solved more quickly. However, when miners drop off the network, leaving fewer miners to compete, block times can slow down. Story continues Related: Ransomware Group REvil Strikes Again, Demands $70M in Bitcoin From 200 US Firms That’s what happened as Chinese authorities pushed to tamp down cryptocurrency trading and mining, since the country has historically hosted such a large portion of the Bitcoin network’s hashpower. Local authorities in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region , the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Qinghai province and Sichuan province followed the top-down initiative by announcing plans to shut down some or all bitcoin mines. During this most recent difficulty period, the mean hashrate, a measure of total computational power contributed to the blockchain through mining, stood at 87.7 exahashes per second, the lowest since December 2019. That’s down from about a peak of about 180 exahashes per second in mid-May. As a result, Bitcoin’s mean block time slowed significantly, with some blocks taking as long as 23 minutes on Sunday, June 27, though the network appears to have sped up slightly since then. The Bitcoin algorithm is programmed to self-adjust the difficulty level every 2,016 blocks, or roughly every two weeks, in order to maintain a target block time of 10 minutes. So that’s what happened overnight, as the blockchain’s automatic stabilizer mechanism kicked in to incentivize more miners to join the network. Today’s difficulty drop will make it easier for the remaining miners to find blocks at a rate closer to the 10-minute target. Though a decline in Bitcoin’s hashrate means it is slightly less resilient against attacks, the news bodes well for active miners . “Difficulty adjustment has a few interesting properties in the real world too, particularly for miners,” said Will Foxley of Compass Mining. “When difficulty adjusts downwards, you make more bitcoin if you can stay online. When it goes up, you make less as more miners are participating.” “Miners who remain operational are likely to become even more profitable over the coming weeks, unless price corrects further or migrating hashpower comes back online,” Glassnode wrote in a report. UPDATED (July 3, 14:44 UTC): Adds price reaction, Morris comment on fees. Related Stories Bitcoin Supply Held by ‘Whale Entities’ Hits Two-Month High in Bullish Sign Reinvent Money to Reward Virtue || Crypto miner Core Scientific to go public via $4.3 billion SPAC deal: (Reuters) -Core Scientific Holding Co said on Wednesday it would go public through a merger with a blank-check company backed by BlackRock Inc, in a deal that values the cryptocurrency miner at $4.3 billion. The deal with Power & Digital Infrastructure Acquisition Corp will fetch $300 million in cash proceeds, but the companies did not disclose a private investment in public equity (PIPE) round that typically accompanies blank-check mergers. Core Scientific said it had mined 928 bitcoins in the second quarter and forecast revenues of $493 million and $1.1 billion for fiscal 2021 and 2022, respectively. The company said it was 100% net carbon neutral and aims to remain so as it grows. Bitcoin is virtual but mining the asset consumes a lot of energy as it is created using high-powered computers around the globe. Some cryptocurrency firms have recently managed to gain sky-high valuations, even as investor enthusiasm has waned for the digital assets whose values have plunged following global regulatory crackdowns. Bullish, a crypto firm backed by billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel, agreed to a $9 billion blank-check deal earlier this month, while FTX Trading on Tuesday said its valuation had risen to $18 billion following a fresh funding round. Despite the wild price swings in bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, conglomerates like Japanese investment giant SoftBank Group Corp have given their seal of approval to some crypto firms including FTX and Mercado Bitcoin. Special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Power & Digital raised $345 million in an upsized initial public offering in February. SPACs use the pool of capital raised through their IPOs to merge with a private company and take it public, typically within two years of listing. (Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.) || The crypto-space needs more regulation to grow, Novogratz says: By John McCrank NEW YORK, June 9 (Reuters) - More regulation of the cryptocurrency space is needed to help institutional investors become more comfortable with digital assets and have the burgeoning asset class really take off, Mike Novogratz, founder of crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital said on Wednesday. "We need some regulation," he said at a conference held by Piper Sandler. "That's an unpopular opinion in crypto circles, but if you want to have institutions join the revolution, you need some regulation." Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, surged to almost $65,000 in April, but has since lost around half of its value. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, who taught a course on blockchain - the technology underpinning bitcoin - at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has said he would like to see more regulation around cryptocurrency exchanges. The more clarity around cryptocurrencies, the better, said Novogratz, a former hedge fund manager at Fortress Investment Group and Goldman Sachs partner. "We have a lot of non-bank banks in the space that if I was the head of the SEC, I would regulate," he said. "They take in deposits, they have huge leverage, they have an asset-liability mismatch." He also said he would like to see the approval of a bitcoin exchange-traded fund, and for the SEC to create a "regulatory sandbox" - a testing ground for business models not protected by current regulation - where smaller companies could experiment with initial coin offerings, or fundraising. The SEC has taken the position that initial coin offerings are securities offerings and therefore subject to the agency's offering rules, which require companies to file registration and disclosure documents. "They regulate by litigation," Novogratz said of the SEC, "and that's not a great way to regulate and so my pitch would be clarity, clarity, clarity." (Reporting by John McCrank; Editing by Andrea Ricci) || What Changed in Crypto Markets While You Were Sleeping — June 1: BeInCrypto presents our daily morning roundup of crypto news and market changes that you might have missed while you were asleep. Bitcoin update The month of May was bearish for BTC, recording a loss of 35.59%. This was the second-highest monthly decrease ever recorded, only trailing that of November 2018, when the price decreased by 37%. Technical indicators provide mixed readings. In the two previous bull cycles, the RSI made two tops in the overbought territory prior to the end of the bull run. In the current phase, it has only made one top. However, an RSI cross below 70 marked an end to the bull cycle in both 2013 and 2017 (red icons). Currently, the monthly RSI has just crossed below 70. BTC Chart By TradingView Altcoin movers The total crypto market cap has regained 5% to $1.64 trillion today amid a slight recovery. At the time of press, every cryptocurrency in the top-50 is in the green on the day. The fifth-ranked Binance Coin (BNB) is less than $800 million from overtaking the #4 spot from Cardano (ADA). Today’s biggest altcoin gainer is Kusama (KSM). The altcoin is trading up 14% on the day is up by 10% over the past week. Helium (HNT) is the biggest altcoin loser, though it’s only down by 1.7%. At the time of press, HNT was only one of four cryptocurrencies in the top-100 that were experiencing a loss on the day. In other crypto news The 0x platform has expanded into the Polygon ecosystem to bring Layer 2 scaling to decentralized exchange liquidity aggregation. Matter Labs has launched a testnet for the second iteration of its zkSync scaling solution, which has taken another step towards solving the Ethereum blockchain trilemma. South Korea’s first crypto exchange is bringing another first for the country with the launch of its non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace. || Over $11B in Bitcoin Held by 32 Companies: Crypto Treasuries Report: Data from CryptoTreasuries shows that 32 companies hold nearly $12 billion in BTC, while 11 companies hold roughly $470 million in ETH. According to data from CryptoTreasuries , 32 companies together hold about 325,013 bitcoin. That value amounts to roughly $11.7 billion. As for Ethereum, 11 companies hold 169,279 ETH, at a value of roughly $470 million. These figures are not exhaustive but do give an indication of how much weight is being thrown behind the assets. Top five companies holding BTC on its’ balance sheets: CryptoTreasuries The bitcoin big-boys Block.One has the largest holdings of bitcoin at 140,000. It’s followed by MicroStrategy and Tesla . The former especially is long on bitcoin and that shows in its holding of 90,859 BTC. MicroStrategy is up approximately 50% on its investment in bitcoin. MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor has been a huge proponent of bitcoin in the past few months, with the company periodically adding to its holdings. Tesla, meanwhile, has made a much smaller gain at 5% — something not helped by Elon Musk’s inflammatory tweets . Galaxy Digital Holdings and StoneRidge Holdings Group round out the top 5. Square, which is also a significant supporter of bitcoin, holds 8,027 BTC. The company’s Cash App is a major entry point for would-be investors, and its bitcoin revenue became its dominant stream last year. Galaxy Digital seems to be much more focused on Ethereum, being the company with the largest holdings at 98,892 ETH. The figure is worth roughly $275 million. Coinbase Global and Meitu follow with 31,787 and 15,00 ETH respectively. All-in-all, there are likely many other companies holding these assets and other cryptocurrencies. The website also notes that this does not include ETFs and other assets under management — which, if were included, would boost the numbers up significantly. Proof that crypto is seen as legitimate What this information does tell us is that several major companies are getting in on the crypto game. There is certainly much more belief now in crypto than a few years ago. There was a time when companies would not even consider investing in this asset class. This is most clearly evident in how MicroStrategy changed its tack on bitcoin. The company and its CEO once dismissed BTC, but now they stand as some of its most ardent supporters. The financial decisions taken by some governments in the wake of the pandemic have spurred these companies to protect themselves by diversifying. This is one major reason as to why big firms are entering the space, besides seeing potential value in the form of decentralized apps (dApps) and decentralized finance (DeFi) courtesy of Ethereum. || Black Women Talk Tech's Conference Seeks to Educate & Inspire: The BWTT conference is back for its 5th year and bigger than ever -- with the goal of empowering women entrepreneurs in tech and closing the gap in funding. The 5th annual Black Women Talk Tech (BWTT) Roadmap to Billions 2021 conference is “designed for (women like) you, by women like you.” In a tech industry traditionally dominated by men -- at the product and coding level and among founders and leadership -- BWTT is helping to balance the inequity in funding and basic encouragement to create opportunities for brilliant minds in tech no matter who they are. To that end, this year’s conference will host a national pitch competition with $50,000 worth of cash and prizes. The conference has grown quite a bit this year, with speakers for the 2-day virtual conference (August 12th and 13th) drawn from both tech and venture capital, to help attendees develop their ideas and bridge the gap around funding. We took a few moments to interview the co-founders of the show Esosa Ighodaro and Regina Gwynn, about equality of funding and opportunity, in tech at large and in the blockchain community. Esosa Ighodaro & Regina Gwynn, Co-founders of BWTT Do we have institutional inequality of funding in the U.S.? Globally? “There is definitely a clear division in funding between minority-driven organizations and their counterparts. Last year, during the height of the pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement the staggering numbers were made available to the masses. There was a brief highlight but not the significant amount of attention needed to make a difference in the racial injustices and social inequalities that have gone on for decades worldwide.” Is funding the latest frontier for entrepreneurs who are women of color? What challenges do they have specifically? “Black women are starting businesses faster than any other group. Statistics show that nearly half of all women-owned businesses in the US are controlled by minority women. There are still clear discriminatory practices by some banks when black women apply for loans. A huge challenge is that most of these entrepreneurs do not already have established relationships when going to apply. So much about these institutions is who you know, or for some who your lineage knows. The world of venture capital and banking is largely comprised if white, cis males.” Story continues What are the origins of the conference? How has it changed over the last 5 years? “We actually kept seeing each other at the same events in the city. One thing we noticed was that many of the times we were the only black people in the room. We decided one day to do a girls’ retreat to get to know each other more and discuss our businesses. It was important to us for the weekend to be a mix about both business and self care. This was in 2015 at a small Airbnb in Connecticut, and that’s truly how our story began. We found that our fellowship, and sharing our businesses with each other, were really empowering. It was so meaningful. So, we said, “we have to try and do this again.” Our mission is to inspire and support black women to build the next billion-dollar tech company. We decided to put it out there to see if we could find more black women tech founders and create a conference just for them. Our mission is to inspire and support black women to build the next billion-dollar tech company. At the time, I don’t think we realized that we just created the first-ever conference for black women technology founders.” How is greater diversity in leadership and funding impacting the tech projects we are seeing and will see (in blockchain and beyond?) “There are already statistics that prove that diversity in leadership yields a better return on investment and product/innovative solutions for the marketplace. It will inherently increase the quality of life for more people if this happens more often. Blockchain is proving to be a new frontier and a great equalizer for the tech community and the world as more technologies are built on it. With the entrance of cryptocurrencies serving so many economic advantages for funding and investing alike, it makes for an interesting future.” Is inclusion a big issue particularly for blockchain vs. other tech? “Blockchain has vehemently expressed that inclusion for all is at their core. If there have been notes of discrimination in blockchain, it has been through geographic disparity versus direct racism that has been seen in other tech spaces.” The Blockchain community is out to change the world with decentralization, democratization, transparency, and access to financial services on blockchain. Is this goal even attainable without considering inclusion? “I love dreamers & entrepreneurs, I believe they are Utopian in nature! They make the world a better place by creating solutions that didn't exist before. However, I think inclusion is always necessary in order to create the best solutions for our ever-growing and changing world. Inclusion of all irrespective of race, gender, sexual orientation, people living with disabilities, economic class, or age is important. Blockchain and crypto entrepreneurs are off to a great start but we need to constantly challenge ourselves to ensure we are creating inclusive solutions.” What ultimately is the goal? When will you know you have achieved at least some of what you set out to do? “We would love to see chapters worldwide and take the conference beyond a global stage. We are constantly evolving, so there is no endpoint to where we feel the goal has been fully achieved. The Roadmap to Billions is a conference built from the perspective of Black women that Black Women Talk Tech organizes. The organization empowers black women who are driving innovation worldwide within untapped markets that can unlock billion-dollar opportunities. Roadmap to Billions is the only tech conference created by Black female founders for Black female founders and supporters of the community. It showcases the brilliance of Black women building scalable companies while building deep connections and creating real funding opportunities. Attendees gain insight and learn valuable lessons from those that are paving the way to success.” The event projects over 2,500 attendees, with keynote speakers including Mellody Hobson, Chairwoman of Starbucks Corporation and Co-CEO of Ariel Investments; Dr. Toyin Ajayi, Founder Cityblock Health; and Songe LaRon and Dave Salvant, Founders of Squire. Sponsors include Microsoft, Netflix, Roku, Visa, PayPal, AARP, Samsung/Next, LockstepVentures, Davis Wright Tremaine, Google , JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Balsamiq, and Sephora. There are over 40 other notable speakers from brands like Verizon and Twitter. New this year, BWTT is offering job recruiting, high-profile entertainment, and virtual tech activations with big brands. Programming will also include a performance by DJ Olivia Dope and guided meditation by Black Girl Magik. See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Is Crypto Regulation A Necessary Evil? Draper says Bitcoin is Stronger than Fiat Abroad; Serves as a Hedge for Inflation in the U.S. © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin wobbles after Chinese social media site Weibo blocks crypto influencers: Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies continued to fall on Sunday after reports Chinese social media site Weibo suspended "key opinion leaders" (KOL), reigniting fears of further crack down in the country. The flagship crypto, bitcoin (BTC-USD) fell more than 4% to $36,194 (£25,559) and declined as much as $35,453 on Sunday. It has since pared back some losses, trading up less than 0.4% to $36,260. Ethereum (ETH-USD) — the world's second largest crypto by market cap — was down 4% to $2,716 and has bounced back since, up 4%, while meme token dogecoin (DOGE) crashed as much as 6% to $.0.37. Weibo (WB), blocked some crypto influencer accounts on Saturday,Coindeskreported, citing violation of unspecified laws and Weibo community rules. However, accounts not involved in ads of exchanges have not been blocked, according to Chinese crypto journalistColin Wu. The fall comes despite positive news from El Salvador and Square (SQ), which failed to eliminate investor concerns over a Chinese regulatory risks. Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, said on Saturday that he will make bitcoin legal tender in the country, to make it easier for Salvadorans living overseas to send payments home. The president tweeted the move, if passed, would open up financial services to the 70% of Salvadorans who do not have bank accounts. Bukele added he will send the proposed legislation to congress, and if backed it would make the Central American nation, the first in the world to formally adopt the digital currency. The environmental impact of cryptos has been a source of much concern lately and North American bitcoin miners are working to bring transparency to their energy consumption, through the Bitcoin Mining Council. US financial services firm, Square announced on Saturday it will invest $5m to build a solar-powered Bitcoin mining facility at a Blockstream Mining site in America through a partnership with the blockchain technology provider. Tesla (TSLA) boss Elon Musk also sparked a sell-off after saying the electric carmaker wasabandoning plans to accept bitcoin as paymentdue toenvironmental concerns. Over the weekend, a video was posted on YouTube, reportedly made by hacking group Anonymous, accusing Musk of having liquidated dreams and "destroyed lives" with his tweets about cryptocurrencies, which has led to price drops. Read more:How bad is bitcoin for the environment? While bitcoin has no direct link to the real economy, its large fluctuation in value over the last few years has prompted government to consider regulating the virtual asset and central banks to look at ways to incorporate digital currencies. In April, theBank of England and the UK Treasurysaid they were exploring a potential national digital currency, amid a groundswell of interest in digital markets. Dubbed "Britcoin" by the press, the BoE said any UK digital currency would be a new form of digital money that could be used by both households and businesses. It would exist alongside cash and bank deposits, rather than replacing them. Both the BoE and Treasury stressed they were simply exploring the idea and are not committed to launching "Britcoin." Read more:Elon Musk's break-up memes cut short Bitcoin's price revival Blockchain-based tokens also suffered several price dives recently in response to crackdown threats in several countries. Last month, Chinese vice-premier Liu Hu said China would "severely crack down on illegal securities activities and severely punish illegal financial activities." Hong Kong said cryptocurrency exchangeswill have to be licensed by its markets regulator. Under the new rules, which were announced after months of discussions, only professional investors with a portfolio upwards of $1m will be able to use the platforms. Meanwhile,Iran announced it was banning the energy-consuming mining of cryptocurrenciesafter some of its cities experienced blackouts. This was possibly due to a drought that had affected hydro-electric power generation but cryptocurrency was draining more than 2GW from its grid each day, the country said. Before that,Turkey's central banksaid in April would ban cryptocurrencies for payments. The ban, which came into effect at the end of April, prohibits the use of cryptocurrencies and other crypto assets based on distributed ledger technology would be prohibited as a payment, whether directly or indirectly. The global crypto market lost 4.28% over the last 24-hours, according to data providerCoinMarketCap. Watch:What is bitcoin? || BTC/JPY Pair Holds Untapped Opportunities for Investors as Bitcoin Dominance Picks Up Pace: Japan declared Bitcoinan official currencyin 2017, and since then, the cryptocurrency market in the country has taken off like wildfire. U.S. investors interested in forex trading have yet another currency pair available to them. But considering how new the field is, there is still plenty of opportunity for investors and entrepreneurs in this space. Q1 2021 hedge fund letters, conferences and more Japan is an untapped market for Bitcoin, asdata from Coinhillsshows that the yen is the third most traded national currency for Bitcoin after only the U.S. dollar and the Korean won. However, it's a distant third as the U.S. dollar makes up about 80% of allBitcointrades, while the won is only about 7% of trades. The yen is in third place at about 6% of trades, demonstrating the opportunities for those who want to take advantage of the yen/ Bitcoin currency pair. The Bitcoin price dropped by about 8% toward the end of last week whenBank of JapanGovernor Haruhiko Kuroda said most trading in Bitcoin is "speculative" and that volatility is "extraordinarily high." He added that the cryptocurrency is "barely used as a means of settlement." Despite his remarks, theBitcoin pricecame roaring back, and volatility continues. However, where there is volatility, there is an opportunity to use arbitrage to turn a profit. Japan is home to a massive base ofcryptocurrencyusers and investors. Historically, the nation has been the second or third-largest economy in the world for Bitcoin. A few years ago, the yen accounted for 11% of the global trading volume for Bitcoin, so it has fallen behind the won as the years have gone on. Japan also leads the world incryptocurrency legalization, regulation, and acceptance. Major crypto exchanges in Japan are registered as financial services institutions, and many merchants accept Bitcoin as a method of payment in the country. Despite Japan's acceptance of Bitcoin, a recent survey found that78% of respondentsto its survey in Japan had a negative perception of cryptocurrency. This negative sentiment means investing in Bitcoin using the yen because the Japanese aren't inclined to do it. Bitcoin and theyentend to be two of the most volatile assets available, so there are arbitrage opportunities when trading both of them. The simplest way to benefit from Bitcoin arbitrage is to buy some of the cryptocurrency on the exchange where it is the cheapest and then sell it on the exchange where it is the most expensive. Bitcoin trades at different prices on different exchanges, which is why such arbitrage is possible. When you add the yen into the mix, you get even more opportunities. Forex trading often involves very short-minded trades, sometimes lasting only mere minutes. Arbitrage involves looking for gaps between prices where you can buy Bitcoin or yen from one broker or exchange and then sell it for more money on another. There are arbitrage opportunities in trading between multiple currencies and Bitcoin. That means you may find it profitable to buy Bitcoin using yen and then sell it for U.S. dollars, or vice versa. When you have multiple currencies involved, there are many opportunities to turn a profit using arbitrage, but you have to know where to look. Just today, during the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, bitFlyer USAopened the BTC/JPY pairto U.S. investors, increasing the flow of capital into the Japanese market and reigniting the discussion around Bitcoin's growth trajectory in Japan. "By opening up access to BTC/JPY markets for U.S. residents, we enable a tighter connection between the two cryptocurrency markets. Bitcoin can now act as the glue between the two local financial systems — an exciting step on the path to wider adoption.", says Joel Edgerton, Chief Operating Officer ofbitFlyer USA, on the heels of the news. It would help if you had experience trading forex because you could utilize that experience in trading between Bitcoin and the yen or other fiat currencies. However, if you don't have forex experience, you can still look for opportunities to profit on your Bitcoin trades. The values of Bitcoin and fiat currencies go up and down against each other, so all you have to do is look for acurrency tradewhere you get more Bitcoin for less fiat currency. Then you sell your Bitcoin in another currency to get more of that currency. You must keep in mind that if you're getting more of one currency for Bitcoin, it might mean that the currency is being devalued. However, investors can solve the F.X. problem by holding the Bitcoin or other currency for a bit until an attractive trade value is reached. || FTSE falls as UK's third wave begins to ease: European stocks kicked the week off on a cautious note digesting news from the weekend that the number of new COVID-19 cases in the UK has continued to fall. The numbers suggest that the UK has passed the top of its third wave of infections, with 29,173 positive cases were recorded on Sunday, down from a peak of almost 50,000 a week ago, according to the rolling average. The seven-day average of hospital admissions and deaths continued to rise, however showing the knock-on effects of rising loads over the past month. The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) was 0.3% down by the afternoon in London. Over in Europe, the CAC (^FCHI) also fell 0.3% and the DAX (^GDAXI) moved 0.5% lower. Equities fell despite reports that the UK's economy is growing at the fastest rate in 80 years. EY's Item club said it expects GDP to grow by 7.6% – which would be the fastest annual growth in national income since 1941. US stock futures also pointed to either muted moves or declines at the opening bell later. The S&P 500 (ES=F) looked set to open 0.3% lower, Dow (YM=F) futures were 0.4% lower and the Nasdaq (NQ=F) lookeed set to open 0.2% by afternoon in London. "The big dilemma for the Fed will be how they can balance the hawkish commentary with a dovish stance," said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade. "If we look at the dollar index or Treasury bond yields, there are signs that the extra loose monetary policy is about to run its course, and the Fed is more likely to tighten the monetary policy sooner than later." Read more:Could ethereum overtake bitcoin? Despite caution in equities markets, bullish moves returned in cryptocurrencies, with bitcoin (BTC-USD) heading 12% higher in early trade. Market sentiment turned positive after Amazon (AMZN) looked set to line up payments in the digital token. Overnight in Asia, Japan's Nikkei (^N225) closed more than 1% higher, as the Olympics launched into full swing. Meanwhile, stocks in China and Hong Kong took a hammering. The Hang Seng (^HSI) closed 3.5% lower, while the SSE Composite (000001.SS) was down 2.4%. The moves marked one of the worst retreats this year as Beijing continued its tech sector crackdown. Watch: What are SPACs? [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 40008.42, 42235.55, 41626.20, 39974.89, 39201.95, 38152.98, 39747.50, 40869.55, 42816.50, 44555.80
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2016-02-26] BTC Price: 432.15, BTC RSI: 62.02 Gold Price: 1219.80, Gold RSI: 61.25 Oil Price: 32.78, Oil RSI: 55.17 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] CoinDesk's 2016 Report Suggests Bitcoin Isn't Dead Yet: While much of the press about bitcoin has been relatively negative over the past year,CoinDesk's "State of Bitcoin and Blockchain 2016" report shows that the cryptocurrency may not be as beaten down as many believed. The report, published on January 28, showed that despite a negative image in the media, bitcoin was gaining new users and the technology has a lot of potential in the coming year. New Users While the majority of the public remains cautious about using bitcoin, the cryptocurrency has seen a marked increase in users. The number of bitcoin wallets created over the past year has doubled, and daily bitcoin transactions have risen by 50 percent. The figures don't suggest that the cryptocurrency is going to reach widespread adoption imminently, but they are a promising sign that the currency is making slow and steady progress. Related Link:New Study Shows Bitcoin Has A Long Way To Go Mining Pools Consolidate CoinDesk's report also showed that bitcoin miners had begun to consolidate, leaving only a few pools to do the majority of the processing to uncover new bitcoins. This development has been troublesome to some bitcoin supporters who say that the cryptocurrency's decentralized nature is threatened by consolidation in the mining industry as it puts the power into large firms' hands. Blockchain Troubles Ahead As bitcoin is growing in popularity, there has been a debate among supporters as to how to move forward with the growing number of transactions. Blockchain can only process between three and seven transactions per second, something that will need to change if the currency is ever to reach widespread adoption. However, the bitcoin community has struggled with how to solve this problem with some calling for increased block sizes and others saying it would be better to optimize the coin itself. In any case, many expect 2016 to be a big year in which the two sides come to a final recommendation that the entire industry can abide by. Image Credit:Public Domain See more from Benzinga • Will A More PC Barbie Revive The Brand? • Traditional Retailers Set Their Sights On Amazon • Will Facebook's Live-Streaming Efforts Trump Twitter's Periscope? © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Flux Party seeks to be the bitcoin of Australian politics: By Matt Siegel SYDNEY (Reuters) - A new Australian political party is using the virtual currency bitcoin as a model to replace what they say is an outdated political system - representative democracy - with a streamlined new polity for the information age. The Flux Party says its goal is to elect six senators. They will propose no policies and will not follow their consciences, but will support or block legislation at the direction of their members, who can swap or trade their votes on every bill online. "If they didn't have to be senators, if they could just be software or robots they would be, because their only purpose is to do what the people want them to do," Flux Party co-founder Max Kaye told Reuters in an interview. Australia is set to hold an election in September or October after a period of turmoil that brought five prime ministers in as many years. At the same time the upper house, which thanks to the quirks of its electoral system has a history of returning mavericks and fringe party candidates, has been hopelessly deadlocked by a handful of senators, at least one elected on less than 1 percent of the vote. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last week raised the possibility of calling an early poll to break the gridlock that has held up the government's legislative agenda. That type of policy inertia is what bitcoin enthusiasts Kaye and Flux co-founder Nathan Spataro say inspired them to explore alternative systems that better represent the world of 2016. Bitcoin is a web-based "cryptocurrency" used to move money around quickly and anonymously with no need for a central authority. The technology behind it is called the blockchain - a massive electronic ledger of every transaction that is verified and shared by a global network of computers. To Spataro and Kaye, bitcoin is not just an alternative financial system: it is the missing link between representative democracy and Democracy 2.0. "This ancient system we've got of representative democracy, which at the time liberated us from monarchies and was awesome, now we're at a point where it's become this monster," Spataro said. "We're in a society now that's got the Internet and when democracy in its current form was conceived, you had to sail on a ship from England to get here. This model wasn't designed for this world." "DELIGHTFULLY NAIVE" Bitcoin's strength comes from its ability to build trust through ease of verification and by removing human frailty from the equation, said Dr. Adrian Lee, an expert on bitcoin at the University of Technology Sydney. That makes what the Flux Party is proposing both unique and also potentially fraught. "I haven't seen a party which would vote via blockchain," Lee said. "If you removed the politician and made it just a bitcoin machine, then maybe it would work but you can't do that," he said, noting the absence of a legally binding mechanism to make Flux senators vote as directed. Although the party's architecture for calculating and distributing voters' wishes to their elected officials uses highly complex computer code, the overall idea is fairly simple. Flux members and single-issue campaigners that agree to support the party at the election are allotted bitcoin-like tokens that they can use themselves, trade or give to experts or interest groups they trust to vote as their proxy. Outcomes are distributed proportionately, so if 80 percent vote in favor of a bill and 20 against, five Flux senators vote yea and one nay. Ministers are not often experts in their portfolio, and yet they are charged with making critical decisions on issues such as environmental or fiscal policy. Under their system, the Flux Party founders say, large blocs of voters could effectively grant their vote on such issues to a scientist or economist. "You get sick, you go to the doctor, right? You don't self-diagnose and you don't go and call your plumber," Kaye said. The Party filed its registration papers with the Australian Election Commission last month after obtaining the requisite support of at least 550 registered voters. Its website currently puts its membership at 1,009 people. Attempting to apply the transformative power of the Internet to democratic systems is not a new one, said Peter Chen, a senior lecturer in politics at the University of Sydney, who called the Flux Party "delightfully naive people". "They're just the modern version of something that's always been around: utopian political system designers," he said. "They're obviously guys who are really focused on the tech thing and that has always been the problem with the e-democracy people. They're often really tech-driven and they need political scientists at the brainstorming floor to say 'well, I don't know if that'd work'." (Reporting by Matt Siegel; Editing by Alex Richardson) || Your first trade for Wednesday: The "Fast Money" traders delivered their final trades of the day. Tim Seymour was a seller of the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF(NYSE Arca: TLT)while Brian Kelly was a buyer. Dan Nathan was a buyer of Twitter(TWTR). Peter Najarian was bullish on Viacom(VIAB), a name he highlighted as a stock which could soon be aligned for stratospheric returns. Trader disclosure: On January 19, 2016, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders:Tim Seymour is long AAPL, BAC, CLF, DIS, F, FCX, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, IWM, JCP, JPM, KO, LGF, RL, T, TWTR. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, SBUX, YHOO. Pete Najarian is long AAPL, BAC, BKE, BMY, BP, DIS, DISCA, FOXA, GE, KO, MRK, PEP, PFE, he is long calls AAL, BAC, BX, CHS, GE, GDX, HAIN, LC, MSFT, NRF, WMB, WYNN, XBI, YDKN, he is long puts FCX, MRO. Dan Nathan is long WMT Feb Put Spread, long PFE buy-write, long VZ Buy-write, long XLU Feb Call Spread, long QCOM Feb Calls, long UUP, long TWTR, long TLT Apr risk reversal; he is short SPY. Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, SLV, TLT, US Dollar; he is short Aussie Dollar, British Pound, CS, DB, EWH, HSBC, SPY, Yuan. SunTrust Managing Director Robert Peck: Firm makes a market in Netflix. More From CNBC • Top News and Analysis • Latest News Video • Personal Finance || MarilynJean Interactive (MJMI.QB) Shareholder Update: Marilynjean Interactive ( MJMI ) Is Pleased To Update Its Shareholders on Its Business Plan for the Coming Year HENDERSON, NV / ACCESSWIRE / January 18, 2016 / The crypto-currency space saw major strides forward in 2015 with ground-breaking developments in its underlying technology and regulation as well as an unexpected rise in Bitcoin prices. The space appears poised for a quantum leap forward in 2016 and MarilynJean is excited to be a part of what will likely be tremendous growth in the industry. From a technology standpoint, Bitcoin's blockchain is envisioned to revolutionize the settlement of securities and payments for both financial and non-financial institutions alike. Major stock and futures exchanges, clearing houses, and other technology organizations are exploring the use of blockchain technology to underpin their transaction verification systems. Bloomberg estimates that approximately $373 million was invested in Bitcoin start-ups in 2015. As investment in Bitcoin and blockchain technology grew, new regulation evidenced that Bitcoin is on track to become a widely used and accepted currency. New York issued its first Bitlicense allowing Goldman Sachs backed Circle Internet Financial to offer digital currency services in the state. The advent of regulated exchanges and trading instruments may have been a factor in driving demand for Bitcoin, its value having increased over 40% in 2015. While price volatility remained higher than traditional FIAT currencies, 2015 was overall a more stable year than its predecessor for Bitcoin. Looking ahead to 2016, MJMI plans to continue its focus on the key verticals of exchange, remittance and gaming. In addition, the Company plans to seek partnerships with firms involved specifically in development of applications based on blockchain technology. The Company plans to continue to expand its management and advisory board in 2016, advance the partnerships it began negotiating last year and continue to forge new alliances in the space. Story continues Peter Janosi, MJMI's president said: "We believe that MJMI's best avenue for growth is via acquisitions and strategic partnerships. We expect the industry to continue to expand and evolve rapidly and, as such, we expect our publicly traded currency to be a key strategic tool for growth and financing." About MJMI MJMI is in the business of providing safe and accessible services for the users of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies. Crypto-currencies are a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure transactions and control the creation of new units. Bitcoin became the first decentralized crypto-currency in 2009. Crypto-currency is produced at a rate which is defined when the system is created and publicly known. By contrast, in centralized banking and economic systems, such as the Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency by printing units or demanding additions to digital banking ledgers. However, neither companies nor governments can produce units of crypto-currency and as such the value of crypto-currencies are completely based on supply and demand, free from any governmental control. Many people believe crypto-currencies, and in particular Bitcoin, hold the promise of being the most significant advancement in global finance in modern history. The advent of Bitcoin creates a secure, easily accessible and transferable transnational currency that is completely liberated from political influence. MJMI is currently exploring partnerships in several verticals within the crypto-currency space. Management believes that several industries, including international remittances, currency exchange and online gambling are on the verge of being revolutionized by the use of Bitcoin to effect transactions. MarilynJean Media Interactive is among the first publicly traded companies focused on Bitcoin and the crypto-currency space. The company's trading symbol is OTCQB: MJMI. Website: www.marilynjean.com Press Contact: bonnie@marilynjean.com SOURCE: MarilynJean Media Interactive || Interest In Bitcoin Mining Returns: While markets around the world suffered significant turbulence this week, bitcoinclimbed6 percent. The cryptocurrency is well known for its wild swings in valuation, but many say the digital currency is back on a more stable path and could prove a worthwhile investment in the New Year. In 2015, bitcoin fell as low, as $183 as confidence in the cryptocurrency's staying power waned. However, on Thursday, bitcoin was trading at $429, a significant increase. Mining Returns With bitcoin on the upswing, bitcoin mining has begun togain popularityonce again, according to Bloomberg. Related Link:Mike Tyson Dives Deeper Into Bitcoin When cryptocurrencies were first introduced, miners set up their computers to solve complex problems and be rewarded with the release of new coins. As the value of bitcoin went up, so did the profitability of bitcoin mining. However, last year as bitcoin prices plummeted, the number of miners significantly declined as the cost to buy hardware and pay electric bills to run the machines outweighed the rewards. Now that bitcoin has made its way higher, mining efforts are increasing – especially among those who bought the necessary hardware last year, but haven't been able to make use of it. A Risky Business While mining is gaining popularity once again, many caution that bitcoin's price isn't the only factor that drives profitability for miners. This year, bitcoin's software will reduce the number of coins that miners receive for mining activities by half, something that could have an impact on the time it takes to recoup investment costs. Not only that, but bitcoin's price is far from stable. In past years, bitcoin's wild swings in value have proven that it is difficult to predict whether the cryptocurrency will be able to continue trading at current levels, making investing in mining equipment a bit of a gamble. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga • Should Investors Be Worried About Apple? • CES Paints Worrying Picture For Telecoms • Netflix Gains On Expansion News, But Some Still Wary © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || First Bitcoin Capital Corp. Signs Evaluation Agreements with Emercoin International Development Group, To Develop and Market Solutions to Provide Distributed Blockchain Services For Business and Personal Use: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January, 28, 2016 /First BITCoin Capital Corp. (BITCF) announced today that it has signed an evaluation agreement with Emercoin International Development Group, a leader in solutions to provide distributed blockchain services for business and personal use. First BITCoin has signed certain evaluation agreements to promote Emercoin technology for wide spectrum of blockchain based technologies: 1. EMC/SSH- Secure shell management system needed by every site admin. 2. EMC/DNS- Uncensored domain name system, peering with OpenNIC. 3. EMC/LNX-- Decentralized pay-per-click advertising network. 4. EMC/SSL- System for password less authentication on the world wide web. 5. Info/Card- Storage for electronic business cards for use with EMCSSL. 6. EMC/TTS- Trusted storage for digital timestamps on the blockchain. 7. MAGNET - Distributed torrent tracker for internet file sharing. 8. EMC/DPO- Digital proof of ownership solution for physical or digital goods and services. First BITCoin is also evaluating investing in Emercoin to support Emercoin's market expansion and acceptance worldwide. Oleg Khovayko, Emercoin Lead Developer, said, "Key difference in Emercoin from other cryptocurrencies is that we are using blockchain not just for transfer credit values. We consider Emercoin as a technological platform for distributed, censorship–proof and scalable services. So we developed a suite of services running on top of the Emercoin blockchain that will be very useful for a lot of companies and even private persons." In addition, our goal is provide stable, robust and easy to integrate services. Hence, our solutions are compatible with industry standards, proven their efficient and security. "We are excited to have the opportunity to evaluate and possibly invest in EMERCOIN , especially due to their recent partnership with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) to deliver their blockchain services to the Azure cloud's Blockchain-as-a-Service marketplace, also known as BaaS Platform," the Company spokesperson said. "We are always looking for disrupting, new and promising technologies, and are ready to invest in those companies to help them to market their technology worldwide." About EMERCOIN Group EmerCoin (EMC) is a decentralized, open-source cryptocurrency created in late 2013 and based on technologies from Bitcoin, Namecoin and Peercoin. It utilizes both Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake mining. Emercoin, a leading digital currency and blockchain platform has just partnered with Microsoft to become a member of the Azure marketplace. With demand growing for innovative, scalable blockchain services that are ready to implement, Emercoin is a natural fit for the Azure cloud platform. They have developed a robust suite of ready-to-use features that offer real world solutions for business and consumer use. Emercoin will be delivering their suite of blockchain services into the Azure cloud later this year. This will give Azure cloud users the ability to install and make use of Emercoin's many services such as digital proof of ownership and identity, passwordless authentication on the internet, network security, the first distributed advertising network and many E-commerce solutions like the Emercoin secure micropayment service. For more information please visitwww.Emercoin.com. About First BITCoin Capital Corp. First Bitcoin Capital Corp. is a development-stage Canadian-based mining company currently holding concessions of Gold in Venezuela and is developing technology for the crypto-currency industry. It is the first vertically-integrated consolidation company of the Bitcoin and crypto-currency marketplace. The Company is developing the following digital assets www.CoinQX.com- online cryptocurrency Exchange. www.BITessentials.com- online shopping mall (in Beta testing) allowing multiple vendors to place their products ans sell for cryptocurrency. Company has partnered with GoCoin , A global leader in Blockchain payments and innovation, GoCoin was the first international platform for enabling merchants to Blockchain currency payments including Bitcoin and popular altcoins Litecoin, Dogecoin and Tether at checkout. www.iCOINews.com - Real time crypto currency news aggregator platform. www.BITminer.cc- Mining and equipment sales for cryptocurrency miners. The Company currently develops other innovative projects. SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This press release includes various "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which represent the Company's expectations or beliefs concerning future events. Statements containing expressions such as "believes," "plans," "anticipates," "intends," or "expects," or similar expressions or statements regarding intent, belief of current expectations used in the Company's press releases and in Disclosure Statements and Reports filed with the Over the Counter Markets through the OTC Disclosure and News Service are intended to identify forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes its expectations are based upon reasonable assumptions within the bounds of its knowledge of its business and operations, there can be no assurances that actual results will not differ materially from expected results. The Company cautions that these and similar statements included in this report are further qualified by important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date thereof. Contacts: info@bitcoincapitalcorp.combitcoincapitalcorp.com SOURCE:First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || XBT Provider AB: Bitcoin Tracker EUR (COINXBE) Now Available on Nasdaq Nordic through Interactive Brokers: Stockholm, Sweden (January 19, 2016) - XBT Provider AB (publ) announced today the availability of the ETN Bitcoin Tracker EUR in 179 countries. Starting today anyone with an Interactive Brokers account can trade the ETN Bitcoin Tracker EUR. The ticker code is COINXBE. ISIN: SE0007525332 The tracker is an exchange traded note designed to mirror the return of the underlying asset, U.S. dollar (USD) per bitcoin. This is the first bitcoin-based security denominated in Euro available on a regulated exchange. XBT Provider launched this financial instrument to meet the needs of investors` growing appetite for exposure to bitcoin prices. "Bitcoin tracker EUR" is listed on Nasdaq Nordic and traded in the same manner as any share or instrument listed on the Nasdaq exchange in Stockholm. COINXBE is also available via Bloomberg terminals. Direct link to specifications at Nasdaq:http://www.nasdaqomxnordic.com/etp/etn/etninfo?Instrument=SSE113749 Direct link to specifications at Bloomberg:http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/COINXBE:SS The full prospectus and more information is available onxbtprovider.com ABOUT THE ISSUER: XBT PROVIDER XBT Provider AB (publ) is a public limited liability company formed in Sweden with statutory seat in Stockholm. The issuer is incorporated under Swedish law and registered with the Swedish companies` registration office under registration number 559001-3313. Press release (PDF) This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.Source: XBT Provider AB via GlobeNewswireHUG#1975095 || University of California notifies 80,000 of cyber attack: SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Officials at the University of California Berkeley said on Friday that they were alerting 80,000 people, including current and former students, faculty and vendors of a cyber attack on a system that stores social security and bank account numbers. The news comes just more than a week after a Southern California hospital paid hackers $17,000 in the digital currency Bitcoin to regain control of their computer systems after a so-called "ransomware" attack. The San Francisco Bay Area university said there was no evidence that attackers actually took any personal information, but that it was still alerting the 80,000 individuals to be on the lookout for misuse of their information. The school said a hacker or hackers gained access to its financial management software in late December due to a security flaw present when the system is updating. Officials have notified law enforcement, including the FBI, and hired a private computer investigation company. The university said among the potentially affected are 57,000 current and former students; about 18,800 former and current employees; and 10,300 vendors who work with the school. Those figures come out to about half of the school's current students and two-thirds of its active employees. Large, high-profile organizations and businesses routinely come under cyber attack, and the school said it frequently identifies similar hacking attempts. "The security and privacy of the personal information provided to the university is of great importance to us," Paul Rivers, UC Berkeley's chief information security officer, said in a statement. "We regret that this occurred and have taken additional measures to better safeguard that information." The school said it was providing credit protection service free of charge to those potentially impacted. (Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Sharon Bernstein) || How big banks are paying lip service to the blockchain: IBM has high hopes for blockchain technology. The IT giant announced on Tuesday a laundry list of plans to use blockchain tech and to help developers do the same. IBM ( IBM ) will offer tools through its cloud service for building blockchain apps, and it will open up IBM "Garages" in London, New York, Singapore and Tokyo for experts to collaborate with developers on blockchain tech. Taken in tandem with the recent flurry of banks and financial institutions expressing public interest in blockchain, the technology is having a moment. In September, a slew of banks including BBVA, Citi, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Scotland, and UBS all joined a coalition, led by a firm called R3 , to implement blockchain technology in banking. In December, five more big names hopped on board, including BNP Paribas, ING, and Wells Fargo. But the great irony of the banks' interest in blockchain is that the idea of a blockchain for traditional banking defeats the purpose of the blockchain—at least as it has been used thus far, with the digital currency bitcoin. And top executives from some of the very same institutions that have signed on to R3 have separately disparaged bitcoin. To understand what it is that banks claim to want to do with blockchain, you first need to understand the bitcoin blockchain, which is a public, decentralized ledger that records every single bitcoin transaction. Think of it like a library card in the cloud (not the card you use to take out a book, but the slip inside a book that lists all the borrowers). If you send a friend $5 worth of bitcoin, the transaction goes on the blockchain. If one bitcoin startup acquires another bitcoin startup for $500,000 in bitcoin, that, too, goes on the blockchain. And you can view the blockchain in real time, as transactions are uploaded, at blockchain.info . Transactions are added in bundles, called "blocks," by "miners," who receive a tiny fee in bitcoin as an incentive to mine. Miners use large, expensive computers to find and mine the blocks. The excitement of the bitcoin blockchain, to people in the digital currency world, is the potential for decentralized applications to be built on top of it that cut out the middle man. And the blockchain can be used to store and send anything of value, so there are companies using it to store documents like property deeds and even marriage licenses. And now: Enter the banks. They've long stayed away from bitcoin, which has a toxic public image thanks to headlines about bitcoin being used in embezzlement and Ponzi schemes. (Think of Mt. Gox and Silk Road .) MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga said he believes bitcoin "starts bumping up against societal rules, which I worry about," and that, "it doesn’t give me the safety and security of knowing that I am who I am, and I’m paying who I know, which is what traditional currency does." And yet, MasterCard ( MA ) invested in Digital Currency Group, a venture firm that has itself invested in 65 different bitcoin and blockchain-enabled businesses. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said bitcoin "is going nowhere... There is nothing behind a bitcoin, and I think if it was big, the governments would stop it." And yet, JPMorgan ( JPM ) has signed on with R3. Story continues Forget bitcoin, embrace blockchain Bitcoin is doomed, if you ask Dimon. But the blockchain—now that's exciting. As Dimon said on CNBC last month, "The blockchain is a technology, which we’ve been studying... and yes, it’s real. If it proves to be cheap and secure it will be adopted for a whole bunch of stuff." Translation: Blockchain is hot, bitcoin is not. We are seeing this sentiment again and again. IBM, in its extensive press release this week about its blockchain efforts, does not use the word "bitcoin" once. Bitreserve, a cloud banking vault launched by CNET founder Halsey Minor and led by former Barclays CIO Anthony Watson , was so eager to shed the stink of bitcoin that it changed its name to Uphold. Blockchain "is so hot right now," writes Erik Voorhees , the CEO of bitcoin startup Shapeshift, while bitcoin "has been left by the wayside, ignored like an embarrassing relative at a family gathering.” (And yet the price of bitcoin is up 24% in the last six months, 85% in the last six.) What will using blockchain tech even look like for banks? R3's web site says its mission is "building and empowering the next generation of global financial services technology." That's pretty vague. David Rutter, CEO of R3 and a former executive at London-based electronic brokerage ICAP, has said R3 will help banks and financial firms use the "fabric" of blockchain technology. You might think that people in the bitcoin world are pleased to see big, incumbent financial institutions embracing the underlying technology behind the leading cryptocurrency. They are not. Most of them see the banks' stated interest as empty lip service so far. What most people believe the banks want to do is employ something like the blockchain in their record-keeping processes: record customer deposits and withdrawals on a blockchain as opposed to whatever (likely outdated) software they currently use. Sounds simple enough. But it would have to be a closed ledger, accessible only to customers of the banks. And therein lies the contradiction: the bitcoin blockchain is public and open-sourced; nothing about it is closed. "I can see why banks are interested in using permissioned ledgers, and maybe it will make their back office more efficient," says Jerry Brito, executive director of digital currency nonprofit Coin Center. "But at the end of the day, it's not a very exciting innovation. The real innovation is a completely open and global ledger that is permission-less. Having a closed, permissioned ledger run by banks, that might allow for better auditing, but there’s no innovation there, you still have to go through a consortium to use the ledger." That is, what banks seem to want to do is incongruous to the purpose of the blockchain. Digital Currency Group's Barry Silbert, who founded SecondMarket, which allowed for the trading of stocks in non-public companies, is similarly dubious of the "blockchain for banking" theme. "I’ve spoken quite publicly about my skepticism around the private blockchain approach," he tells Yahoo Finance. If R3 doesn't yield innovative fruit, then why are banks rushing to join up? For starters, as a PR effort: once a few were involved, the others looked stodgy by delaying. But Brito also believes the interest will subside once banks actually learn more about blockchain technology. " I think right now investors are kind of waiting for Wall Street to get through this blockchain phase," he says. "They have blockchain fever and they need to just get over it. Because if they develop their own closed blockchains, soon they’ll all realize they want to talk to each other, and they’ll be back to square one, doing banking." The bitcoin blockchain is open, global and permissionless. It has potential to serve as the backbone for additional exciting applications. If traditional banks want to employ it in their way, by acting as gatekeepers, it defeats the purpose. But don't expect that to dampen their public expressions of interest just yet. This is the first in a three-part Yahoo Finance series about blockchain technology. The second part is about how you can invest in the blockchain; the third part is about the biggest names in the industry. -- Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology. Read more: Bitcoin advocacy group scores funding from biggest names in industry Bitcoin industry consolidates: Why Kraken bought Coinsetter Bitcoin's biggest investor bought its biggest news site Here's a sign that PayPal is embracing Bitcoin View comments || JPMorgan launches blockchain trial project -FT: Jan 31 (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase is partnering with start-up Digital Asset Holdings to launch a trial project using blockchain technology that could reduce the cost and complexity of trading, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. The agreement comes as another sign that blockchain, which is best known as the basis of the digital currency Bitcoin, has wide-ranging applications for some of Wall Street's biggest banks. One potential use for the technology is addressing liquidity mismatches in some of JPMorgan's loan funds, the Financial Times said. "To sell a loan is a very cumbersome, time-consuming process; settlement can take weeks," Daniel Pinto, head of JPMorgan's investment bank, told the Financial Times. It "makes all the sense in the world" to explore blockchain's potential to improve that process. Digital Asset Holdings is run by Blythe Masters, JPMorgan's former head of commodities. (Reporting by Carl O'Donnell; Editing by Peter Cooney) [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Bitstamp: $431.00/BTC - last trade of USD/BTC at https://www.bitstamp.net/  (high: 435.39, low: 429.50) #bitcoin #BTC http://bitcoinautotrade.com  || #CCN 0.00002951 BTC(0.00 %) | Market Cap 138 BTC | Volume(24h) 0 BTC | Available Supply 4,665,517 CCN || MMM Pays!18th receiving of 730 GH 730,00 USD (1,88183131 BTC) rfom 350 for a MONTH!!!: http://youtu.be/mSk85LlZMAo?a  via @YouTube || WARP Price: YoBit 0.00004030 BTC Safecex 0.00003949 BTC 2016-02-16 11:00 http://warpcoin.com pic.twitter.com/jUQ2GIe28o || Bitstamp: $379.30/BTC - last trade of USD/BTC at https://www.bitstamp.net/  (high: 383.99, low: 372.00) #bitcoin #BTC http://bitcoinautotrade.com  || $455.81 #bitfinex; $455.61 #coinbase; $454.00 #bitstamp; $449.00 #btce; #bitcoin #btc || Current price: 434.75$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2016-01-04 20:00:03 EST || 1 #bitcoin 1236 TL, 389.85 $, 358.98 €, GBP, 29277.00 RUR, 45691 ¥, CNH, 582 CAD #btc || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 16 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $465.34 #bitcoin #btc || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 9 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $71.39 #bitcoin #btc
Trend: down || Prices: 432.52, 433.50, 437.70, 435.12, 423.99, 421.65, 410.94, 400.57, 407.71, 414.32
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2022-02-02] BTC Price: 36952.98, BTC RSI: 35.04 Gold Price: 1809.20, Gold RSI: 49.14 Oil Price: 88.26, Oil RSI: 68.57 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Detalus Advisors, LLC Buys iShares National Muni Bond ETF, Cummins Inc, Costco Wholesale Corp, ...: Investment companyDetalus Advisors, LLC(Current Portfolio) buys iShares National Muni Bond ETF, Cummins Inc, Costco Wholesale Corp, Truist Financial Corp, Eli Lilly and Co, sells Invesco Ultra Short Duration ETF, Kinder Morgan Inc, Berkshire Hathaway Inc, NextEra Energy Inc, Dow Inc during the 3-months ended 2021Q4, according to the most recent filings of the investment company, Detalus Advisors, LLC. As of 2021Q4, Detalus Advisors, LLC owns 132 stocks with a total value of $208 million. These are the details of the buys and sells. • New Purchases:MUB, CMI, TFC, COST, LLY, NVDA, SHW, IJH, ECL, RSG, WDAY, VNQ, FTF, PCF, GGN, XCUR, • Added Positions:SPLG, PBSM, SPMD, MTUM, VIG, SPEM, MCD, SPDW, VOO, NCBS, FDX, TFI, VEA, GILD, IWR, HBI, WM, SPTM, DUK, IJR, TSCO, USMV, SPYG, SBUX, F, PM, SHM, ORC, • Reduced Positions:GSY, BRK.B, SPAB, T, NEE, SPTS, DOW, SPSB, USB, VZ, GOOGL, MGK, MET, MSFT, AMGN, CSCO, AAPL, JEPI, ABT, DIS, WMT, UNP, PSEC, CI, AMZN, JPM, PG, SO, IRM, UPS, JNJ, PFE, MMM, XOM, NOBL, IBM, KHC, SHOP, VTI, BGB, HTD, PCN, BHK, NCV, WFC, XMMO, SPLV, ABBV, MRK, • Sold Out:KMI, PHK, • SPDW 15-Year Financial Data • The intrinsic value of SPDW • Peter Lynch Chart of SPDW For the details of Detalus Advisors, LLC's stock buys and sells,go tohttps://www.gurufocus.com/guru/detalus+advisors%2C+llc/current-portfolio/portfolio These are the top 5 holdings of Detalus Advisors, LLC 1. SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPLG) - 474,941 shares, 12.72% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 2.65% 2. Vanguard Dividend Appreciation FTF (VIG) - 118,123 shares, 9.73% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 1.68% 3. Invesco FTSE RAFI US 1000 ETF (PRF) - 78,191 shares, 6.44% of the total portfolio. Shares reduced by 0.48% 4. BTC iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF (MTUM) - 69,291 shares, 6.04% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 3.16% 5. SPDR Portfolio S&P 400 Mid Cap ETF (SPMD) - 177,373 shares, 4.23% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 5.68% New Purchase: iShares National Muni Bond ETF (MUB) Detalus Advisors, LLC initiated holding in iShares National Muni Bond ETF. The purchase prices were between $114.9 and $116.5, with an estimated average price of $115.82. The stock is now traded at around $114.883800. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.28%. The holding were 4,984 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: Cummins Inc (CMI) Detalus Advisors, LLC initiated holding in Cummins Inc. The purchase prices were between $206.99 and $245.33, with an estimated average price of $227.6. The stock is now traded at around $234.740000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.13%. The holding were 1,200 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: Sherwin-Williams Co (SHW) Detalus Advisors, LLC initiated holding in Sherwin-Williams Co. The purchase prices were between $285.29 and $352.16, with an estimated average price of $324.02. The stock is now traded at around $303.560000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.11%. The holding were 670 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: Eli Lilly and Co (LLY) Detalus Advisors, LLC initiated holding in Eli Lilly and Co. The purchase prices were between $224.85 and $279.04, with an estimated average price of $254.3. The stock is now traded at around $245.670000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.11%. The holding were 841 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: NVIDIA Corp (NVDA) Detalus Advisors, LLC initiated holding in NVIDIA Corp. The purchase prices were between $197.32 and $333.76, with an estimated average price of $277.31. The stock is now traded at around $260.369000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.11%. The holding were 770 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: Truist Financial Corp (TFC) Detalus Advisors, LLC initiated holding in Truist Financial Corp. The purchase prices were between $55.67 and $65.14, with an estimated average price of $61.08. The stock is now traded at around $67.680000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.11%. The holding were 3,732 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: SPDR Portfolio Developed World ex-US ETF (SPDW) Detalus Advisors, LLC added to a holding in SPDR Portfolio Developed World ex-US ETF by 30.70%. The purchase prices were between $34.8 and $37.35, with an estimated average price of $36.26. The stock is now traded at around $35.935000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.07%. The holding were 16,583 shares as of 2021-12-31. Sold Out: Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI) Detalus Advisors, LLC sold out a holding in Kinder Morgan Inc. The sale prices were between $15.24 and $18.65, with an estimated average price of $16.62. Sold Out: PIMCO High Income Fund (PHK) Detalus Advisors, LLC sold out a holding in PIMCO High Income Fund. The sale prices were between $5.98 and $6.46, with an estimated average price of $6.23. Here is the complete portfolio of Detalus Advisors, LLC. Also check out:1. Detalus Advisors, LLC's Undervalued Stocks2. Detalus Advisors, LLC's Top Growth Companies, and3. Detalus Advisors, LLC's High Yield stocks4. Stocks that Detalus Advisors, LLC keeps buyingThis article first appeared onGuruFocus. || Bitcoin is ‘integral part of digital asset revolution’, says IMF: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said cryptocurrencies have become a popular asset among institutional investors, but extreme price volatility has raised concerns about their financial stability. According to the latest report, analysis suggests that crypto and equity markets have become increasingly interconnected across economies over time. IMF economist Tara Iyer said that “crypto assets such as Bitcoin have matured from an obscure asset class with few users to an integral part of the digital asset revolution”, adding this transition comes along with financial stability concerns. She noted overspills from the price volatility of Bitcoin to the S&P 500 and MSCI emerging markets indices have increased by about 12 to 16 percentage points since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, while those from its returns have increased by about eight to 10 percentage points. “Spillovers from the most traded stablecoin, Tether, to these indices have also increased by about four to six percentage points,” Iyer said. In absolute terms, the overspills from Bitcoin to global equity markets are significant, explaining about 14% to 18% of the variation in equity price volatility and eight to 10% of the variation in equity returns. These findings, claims the IMF, suggest that close monitoring of crypto asset markets and the adoption of appropriate regulatory policies are warranted to mitigate potential financial stability risks. However, IMF financial counsellor Tobias Adrian recently claimed that since central banks slashed interest rates to near zero to support economies during the pandemic, there has been increased co-movement and overspills between crypto and equity markets. “The increased and sizeable co-movement and spillovers between crypto and equity markets indicate a growing interconnectedness between the two asset classes that permits the transmission of shocks that can destabilise financial markets,” Adrian said. || Bitcoin price drops again in latest bad news for crypto market: At the start of 2022, bitcoin saw its longest continuous price decline since August 2018 (iStock) Bitcoin is once again losing value, the latest setback in a tough 2022 for cryptocurrency. The price is down 1.4 per cent in the last hour, and more than 4 per cent in the last day. The recent difficulties mean that bitcoin has lost all of the gains it made on Wednesday, when it appeared to bounce back slightly from its recent weak performance. Bitcoin started 2022 around $47,000, already a long way from the almost $70,000 record high it hit in November last year. It has continued to struggle since the new year, languishing around $42,000 in the time since. The poor performance has meant that bitcoin has suffered the worst start to a year since 2012, and the longest losing streak in years . It has led analysts to fear that the market could be headed towards a major slump and an end to the bull market that has sent cryptocurrency to such high prices and public prominence in recent months . || Bitcoin Miner Earns $235,000 Rewards by Singlehandedly Solving a Block: Bitcoin mining is an expensive, power as well as time-consuming operation that usually requires consistent efforts in order to claim profits. Usually, mining is carried out in a pool where more than one miner joins forces to solve the block and claim the rewards. However, this particular event stood out for its unlikeliness. The One Man Miner As reported recently by the admin of the CKPool Dr. Con Kolivas, the miner had the accomplishment by successfully solo mining a block with merely 86 Terra Hashes of power. The reason why mining operations are conducted in a pool is to minimize the overhead costs and mint profits on a regular basis. Although it was rare, in the future with more powerful machines being developed such as Bitmain’s new miner with over 198 THs of power, such events could occur more frequently. ANTMINER S19 Pro+ Hyd. has officially launched! Equipped with a hashrate of 198 TH/s, power consumption of 5445W, and power efficiency of 27.5 J/TH. The S19 Pro+ Hyd. operates with the latest liquid cooling technology. Enter a new era of liquid cooling. #BITMAIN #ANTMINER pic.twitter.com/fMpO3mD2cH — Antminer_main (@Antminer_main) January 17, 2022 Adding to the sentiment Kolivas stated, “There are a lot more miners now on the solo pool and if enough people are mining solo, someone will eventually be the lucky one as here.” Bitcoin Mining Isn’t Getting Easier While the event did take place it was mostly luck by chance since the rising competition from other miners is making it difficult to operate a sustainable mining operation. Recently the market recovered from The Great Migration after the Hash Rate marked an all-time high. It has since been rising consistently which acts as a good sign for the network and security, but a bad sign for competing miners as their rewards would reduce. Story continues This is also backed by the fact that just this week, the difficulty of mining Bitcoin broke its previous record and marked a new all-time high. The difficulty of mining is adjusted ever so frequently in accordance with the hash rate to maintain the 10-min interval cycle of block validation. The difficulty goes down when the hash rate goes down and it goes up when the latter rises as well. Is It Worth It Though? Considering the amount of capital that is required to be invested, low rewards would not seem that lucrative. Presently mining rewards are fixed at 6.25 BTC until the next halving and the falling prices only keep on reducing their value. Bitcoin’s value has plunged by over 47% in the last month and a half and if it keeps falling further there might come a time when people would want to invest their efforts and money elsewhere. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: GBP/USD Tests Resistance At 1.3510 Tarantino’s First Pulp Fiction NFT Fetches $1.1m at Auction Music Legend David Bowie NFT Collection to Hit the Market El Salvador Asked to Get out of Bitcoin (BTC) by the IMF AUD/USD Trading on Strong Side of Retracement Zone Support Bitcoin Miner Earns $235,000 Rewards by Singlehandedly Solving a Block || WTI Crude Bulls Eyeing Long-Term Fibonacci Level at $92.38: U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures finished higher on Monday boosted by a supply shortage and geopolitical concerns over Eastern Europe and the Middle East that could lead to supply disruptions. Additionally, traders are positioning themselves ahead of this week’s OPEC+ meeting. On Monday, March WTI crude oil settled at $88.15, up $1.33 or +1.53%. The United States Oil Fund ETF (USO) finished at $62.46, up $0.49 or +0.79%. Market analysts and Reuters sources widely expect OPEC+ to keep its policy of gradual production increases when it meets on Wednesday. OPEC and its allies have raised their output by 400,000 barrels per day every month since August. Daily March WTI Crude Oil Daily Swing Chart Technical Analysis The main trend is up according to the daily swing chart. A trade through $88.84 will signal a resumption of the uptrend. A move through $81.90 will change the main trend to down. The minor range is $81.90 to $88.84. Its 50% level at $85.37 is the nearest support. The next support is a pair of 50% levels at $83.09 and $81.43. The latter is a potential trigger point for an acceleration to the downside. Short-Term Outlook The direction of the March WTI crude oil futures contract early Tuesday is likely to be determined by trader reaction to $87.64. Bullish Scenario A sustained move over $87.64 will indicate the presence of buyers. If this move creates enough upside momentum then look for a test of last week’s high at $88.84. Taking out this level could generate the upside momentum needed to challenge the long-term Fibonacci level at $92.38. Bearish Scenario A sustained move under $87.64 will signal the presence of sellers. If this move generates enough downside momentum then look for the move to possibly extend into a pivot at $85.37. Buyers could come in on the first test of $85.37, but if it fails then look for the selling to possibly extend into a second pivot at $83.09, followed by a main bottom at $81.90 and another pivot at $81.43. Look for the start of a steep decline if the last pivot fails as support. Story continues For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Silver Prices Consolidate Ahead of Critical Employment Report The NASDAQ 100 Supports a Bitcoin (BTC) Bounce Back on Monday Natural Gas Prices Rally Breakout Out Above Trend Line Resistance Profit-Taking Could Drive Dollar Index into 96.025 – 95.690 Crude Oil Hovers Near Seven-Year Peak Ahead of OPEC+ Meeting Illicit NFT Activity Surges as Trading Volumes Hit New Highs || CVA Family Office, LLC Buys Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF, BTC iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF, ...: Investment company CVA Family Office, LLC ( Current Portfolio ) buys Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF, BTC iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF, Dimensional U.S. Core Equity 2 ETF, Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF, Schwab Fundamental International Large Company Ind, sells Recon Capital NASDAQ-100 Covered Call ETF, iShares Select Dividend ETF, Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF, Fidelity MSCI Information Technology Index ETF, WisdomTree Emerging Markets High Dividend Fund during the 3-months ended 2021Q4, according to the most recent filings of the investment company, CVA Family Office, LLC. As of 2021Q4, CVA Family Office, LLC owns 910 stocks with a total value of $402 million. These are the details of the buys and sells. New Purchases: DFAC, DFAU, DFAI, DFUS, VUSB, DFAX, SCHY, JEPI, DFAE, MRVL, AVIG, DHI, NFLX, KLAC, PYPL, AVUV, PFF, CCI, ISRG, URI, AMD, HACK, FISV, TRMB, NOW, ARKF, IDNA, SPYG, AMT, BLK, CP, SPGI, CDW, BILL, XLP, PLD, AIG, ADP, DXCM, EL, IDXX, LRCX, MU, MCO, NVO, PRU, POOL, SHW, SYK, TJX, CHTR, NXPI, FOXF, PAVE, VCR, ALL, UHAL, APH, ADI, AZN, BK, BAX, CNC, ECL, EXC, F, FCX, LEN, MMC, MET, MORN, PPG, PHG, PHM, RIO, SIMO, SPG, TSM, TFX, TER, IBKR, TEL, LULU, MSCI, GM, IQV, BL, MRNA, IPAC, MUB, QQQJ, USIG, AAON, ASX, A, ALB, ALGN, AMP, AME, APA, ACGL, AZPN, AZO, ADSK, AVY, BLL, BIIB, BXP, BSX, BF.B, CBRE, CAJ, CE, ED, CPRT, DVN, DLR, DLTR, DOV, EFX, EQR, ERIC, FDX, BEN, IT, HAL, HOLX, HUM, MTCH, INFO, IEX, INCY, JBL, K, KEY, KR, LVS, LNC, LYV, MTB, MKTX, MAR, MCK, MTD, MCHP, MSI, NEM, NTRS, NUE, ORLY, ODFL, OKE, PCAR, PH, PRFT, PII, PFG, PGR, PEG, PSA, RJF, O, REGN, RMD, WRK, SAP, SBAC, SNY, SRE, SONY, SWK, SNPS, TROW, TSN, UDR, VLO, VTR, VRTX, VNO, VMC, WST, WMB, WEC, WEX, XLNX, YUM, ZBRA, ZBH, HEI.A, LEN.B, NXP, WNS, DFS, VMW, ULTA, FERG, FTNT, VRSK, DG, LEA, SPSC, KKR, LYB, APTV, ENPH, FANG, CRTO, ANET, SYF, NOMD, KEYS, LBRDK, KRNT, ETSY, OLLI, ATH, BHF, CDLX, GSHD, AVLR, RIVN, ARKK, ARKW, AVEM, DGRO, EUFN, IAU, IWO, VPL, ABMD, AAP, AMG, AKAM, ALK, Y, ADS, LNT, AMED, HES, ACC, AFG, IVZ, ANSS, WTRG, ARW, AGO, ATO, AVB, AXS, BHP, BP, BIO, CF, CHRW, CNA, CRH, CTRA, CDNS, KMX, CAH, CSL, CNP, LUMN, CERN, FIS, CHE, CHH, CHD, CHDN, CRUS, CTXS, CMA, NNN, DXC, COO, CPA, CUZ, WOLF, CCK, CW, XRAY, DTE, DRI, DKS, DISCA, DLB, DPZ, EMN, EIX, ENTG, EPR, EEFT, RE, EXAS, EXPE, EXPO, EXR, FFIV, FMC, FICO, FAST, FRT, PACW, FLS, FL, GME, GPS, GRMN, GE, GNTX, GSK, GPN, MNST, HIG, HA, EHC, HSY, HIW, HFC, HRL, HST, HUBB, IART, IFF, IP, IRM, JBHT, JKHY, J, JNPR, KIM, LPL, LKQ, LTC, LH, LII, LBTYA, BBWI, LAD, MGM, MKSI, MSM, MAN, MLM, MAS, MKC, MPW, MRCY, MOH, MPWR, VTRS, NRG, NVEC, NDAQ, NTAP, NYT, NXST, NDSN, NUAN, ON, ORI, OHI, OSK, PBCT, PKI, PVH, PXD, BPOP, QGEN, PWR, QDEL, REG, RF, RGEN, RHI, ROL, ROST, SEIC, STM, SIVB, SMG, STX, SEE, SGEN, XPO, SIRI, SKX, SNA, JOE, STLD, STE, SF, SUI, NLOK, SNX, TTWO, AXON, TDY, THO, TKR, TOL, TTE, TM, TSCO, USPH, PAG, UHS, UNM, VFC, VRSN, WPC, WRB, GWW, WAT, WLK, WHR, ZION, VIACA, BF.A, CMG, L, AEMD, TDG, VKI, TY, SPE, VPV, NCV, NVG, LDOS, LBTYK, SPR, BR, ACM, CLR, MASI, DISCK, RGA, AYTU, LAC, BUD, DMO, HHC, LPLA, TRGP, APO, AL, MOS, XYL, VAC, SPLK, CG, PANW, PNR, SRC, BERY, WDAY, CONE, FWONA, ECOM, NWS, MNDT, TWTR, BRX, TNDM, ALLE, ATHM, HLT, RARE, PAYC, ARES, JD, FWONK, CFG, CZR, HUBS, LBRDA, SYNH, AXTA, STOR, SEDG, EVH, UNVR, TRU, CC, RUN, PLNT, MSGS, NVCR, PSTG, HPE, SQ, TEAM, LSXMA, LSXMK, SITE, MBRX, TWLO, TTD, EVBG, COUP, LW, HWM, SD, FND, CVNA, IR, APPN, BKR, ROKU, MDB, SE, ADT, ZS, SPOT, CDAY, SMAR, WH, ELAN, RMED, PLAN, STNE, FOXA, FOX, PINS, ALC, UBER, CRWD, CHWY, AMCR, IAA, ADPT, DT, DDOG, CRNC, PTON, OPRT, SPT, RFM, RFM, VRM, DNB, LMND, DKNG, BSY, LESL, ABNB, CLOV, PLTK, OGN, DTM, UP, VSCO, GXO, SLVM, TOST, KD, ASTL, EMBK, ARKG, ARKX, AVDV, BOTZ, DIA, IHI, INDS, IWB, MGC, MGK, PICK, RSP, XLG, XLRE, XLY, Added Positions: SCHD, IEFA, VWO, FNDF, VGT, IJR, VBR, AAPL, GUNR, MSFT, VTI, GSLC, IJH, GOOGL, SCHP, IVV, IEMG, VOO, QQQ, SCHF, SCHC, VHT, AMZN, TIP, VCSH, VOX, BRK.B, FB, SCHE, TSLA, NVDA, JPM, MA, DHR, FNDB, FNDE, NEE, HD, TGT, V, ADBE, CSCO, PG, UNH, AGG, ABT, INTC, CRM, XOM, GOOG, COST, PFE, TMO, BAC, LLY, NKE, PEP, SBUX, WMT, DIS, AVGO, IVW, ACN, TFC, KO, FLRN, FNDA, FNDC, IWD, VYM, AMAT, HON, INTU, JNJ, LOW, WFC, ABBV, ZTS, T, MCD, LIN, TXN, UNP, RTX, EFG, MMM, AXP, AMGN, CSX, CVS, CVX, EW, MS, ORCL, QCOM, UPS, VYMI, BMY, COF, CMCSA, COP, DE, IBM, ITW, MDT, PNC, USB, ANTM, CWB, IJT, VIGI, VO, VTV, ASML, BDX, CAT, CTAS, CL, ETN, EMR, GD, HPQ, TT, MDLZ, LMT, NSC, BKNG, SLB, EBAY, MPC, CARR, EZM, IJK, VTEB, AFL, APD, MO, AEE, AON, BBY, CME, CI, CTSH, STZ, FDS, FITB, PEAK, HMC, ICE, NOC, PPL, PAYX, ROK, ROP, RDS.A, SO, LUV, TRV, STT, SYY, TXT, WAB, WM, BX, AWK, HCA, PSX, SHOP, KHC, FTV, SNAP, DOCU, OTIS, DLN, GVI, IBB, MTUM, QUAL, SCHA, SCHO, SHM, VB, VEA, VUG, CB, ABC, ADM, BA, CRL, SCHW, GLW, D, EPD, EQIX, FNB, GPC, LHX, HBAN, JCI, MAA, OXY, RSG, UAL, UL, WDC, XEL, XRX, DAL, PM, KMI, STAG, FBHS, AAL, DELL, CTVA, AGGY, BIV, DHS, EFV, GLD, HYG, ICF, IDV, SPLV, VGK, VWOB, VXF, XLC, Reduced Positions: QYLD, DVY, SCHZ, SCHX, XLK, EFAV, QDF, BNDX, VNQ, FTEC, VIG, DEM, FNDX, DUK, AGR, AJG, NVS, KMB, DD, CINF, ILMN, IVE, VZ, WBA, HDV, AMPE, GIS, DOW, EXPD, CLX, AEP, PSCT, IQDF, XLV, TMUS, ES, WELL, GILD, ESS, ETR, EOG, DEO, C, BMRN, WY, KBWP, SCHV, BCE, Sold Out: ARCC, CAG, PNW, SON, SPHD, DTD, ET, BABA, GOLD, SCHR, DES, HTA, NXQ, GPRO, NVST, BSCL, KTOS, TEVA, MLPA, SU, NVAX, XSLV, Story continues Warning! GuruFocus has detected 2 Warning Sign with JPM. Click here to check it out. High Yield Dividend Stocks in Gurus' Portfolio This Powerful Chart Made Peter Lynch 29% A Year For 13 Years How to calculate the intrinsic value of a stock? For the details of CVA Family Office, LLC's stock buys and sells, go to https://www.gurufocus.com/guru/cva+family+office%2C+llc/current-portfolio/portfolio These are the top 5 holdings of CVA Family Office, LLC Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF ( SCHD ) - 551,523 shares, 11.09% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 234.00% BTC iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF ( IEFA ) - 309,493 shares, 5.75% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 319.41% iShares Core S&P 500 ETF ( IVV ) - 37,258 shares, 4.42% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 15.45% Vanguard Information Technology ETF ( VGT ) - 36,005 shares, 4.10% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 86.65% Dimensional U.S. Core Equity 2 ETF ( DFAC ) - 452,699 shares, 3.26% of the total portfolio. New Position New Purchase: Dimensional U.S. Core Equity 2 ETF (DFAC) CVA Family Office, LLC initiated holding in Dimensional U.S. Core Equity 2 ETF. The purchase prices were between $26.52 and $29.09, with an estimated average price of $28.15. The stock is now traded at around $27.020000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 3.26%. The holding were 452,699 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: Dimensional US Core Equity Market ETF (DFAU) CVA Family Office, LLC initiated holding in Dimensional US Core Equity Market ETF. The purchase prices were between $30.06 and $33.15, with an estimated average price of $32.01. The stock is now traded at around $30.670000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 1.32%. The holding were 160,743 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: Dimensional U.S. Equity ETF (DFUS) CVA Family Office, LLC initiated holding in Dimensional U.S. Equity ETF. The purchase prices were between $46.87 and $51.98, with an estimated average price of $50.14. The stock is now traded at around $47.720000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.73%. The holding were 56,483 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: Dimensional International Core Equity Market ETF (DFAI) CVA Family Office, LLC initiated holding in Dimensional International Core Equity Market ETF. The purchase prices were between $28.1 and $30.21, with an estimated average price of $29.31. The stock is now traded at around $28.530000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.73%. The holding were 99,165 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: Vanguard Ultra-Short Bond ETF (VUSB) CVA Family Office, LLC initiated holding in Vanguard Ultra-Short Bond ETF. The purchase prices were between $49.92 and $50.09, with an estimated average price of $50.01. The stock is now traded at around $49.855000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.7%. The holding were 56,171 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: Dimensional World ex U.S. Core Equity 2 ETF (DFAX) CVA Family Office, LLC initiated holding in Dimensional World ex U.S. Core Equity 2 ETF. The purchase prices were between $24.98 and $26.57, with an estimated average price of $25.92. The stock is now traded at around $25.390000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.56%. The holding were 86,199 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD) CVA Family Office, LLC added to a holding in Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF by 234.00%. The purchase prices were between $74.34 and $80.86, with an estimated average price of $77.53. The stock is now traded at around $77.980000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 7.77%. The holding were 551,523 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: BTC iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF (IEFA) CVA Family Office, LLC added to a holding in BTC iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF by 319.41%. The purchase prices were between $71.13 and $76.32, with an estimated average price of $74.06. The stock is now traded at around $71.390000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 4.38%. The holding were 309,493 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) CVA Family Office, LLC added to a holding in Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF by 9274.10%. The purchase prices were between $47.81 and $51.82, with an estimated average price of $50.01. The stock is now traded at around $49.000000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 2.59%. The holding were 213,167 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: Schwab Fundamental International Large Company Ind (FNDF) CVA Family Office, LLC added to a holding in Schwab Fundamental International Large Company Ind by 10724.05%. The purchase prices were between $30.79 and $33.14, with an estimated average price of $32.35. The stock is now traded at around $32.550000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 2.57%. The holding were 320,392 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT) CVA Family Office, LLC added to a holding in Vanguard Information Technology ETF by 86.65%. The purchase prices were between $396.28 and $466.1, with an estimated average price of $439.09. The stock is now traded at around $405.030000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 1.9%. The holding were 36,005 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF (IJR) CVA Family Office, LLC added to a holding in iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF by 180.71%. The purchase prices were between $107.97 and $119.54, with an estimated average price of $113.43. The stock is now traded at around $107.290000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 1.83%. The holding were 99,979 shares as of 2021-12-31. Sold Out: Sonoco Products Co (SON) CVA Family Office, LLC sold out a holding in Sonoco Products Co. The sale prices were between $55.01 and $62.51, with an estimated average price of $59.7. Sold Out: Pinnacle West Capital Corp (PNW) CVA Family Office, LLC sold out a holding in Pinnacle West Capital Corp. The sale prices were between $63.36 and $74.18, with an estimated average price of $67.1. Sold Out: Conagra Brands Inc (CAG) CVA Family Office, LLC sold out a holding in Conagra Brands Inc. The sale prices were between $30.45 and $34.58, with an estimated average price of $32.73. Sold Out: Ares Capital Corp (ARCC) CVA Family Office, LLC sold out a holding in Ares Capital Corp. The sale prices were between $19.66 and $21.7, with an estimated average price of $20.77. Sold Out: WisdomTree U.S. Total Dividend Fund (DTD) CVA Family Office, LLC sold out a holding in WisdomTree U.S. Total Dividend Fund. The sale prices were between $58.64 and $64.77, with an estimated average price of $62.01. Sold Out: Invesco S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility ETF (SPHD) CVA Family Office, LLC sold out a holding in Invesco S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility ETF. The sale prices were between $41.42 and $45.28, with an estimated average price of $43.33. Here is the complete portfolio of CVA Family Office, LLC. Also check out: 1. CVA Family Office, LLC's Undervalued Stocks 2. CVA Family Office, LLC's Top Growth Companies, and 3. CVA Family Office, LLC's High Yield stocks 4. Stocks that CVA Family Office, LLC keeps buyingThis article first appeared on GuruFocus . || American Green, Inc.™ (OTC:ERBB) Cannabis Grow Operations at “Sweet Virginia” and Newly Under Construction “Cypress Chill” Pave Way for Increased Revenue and More Expansion in 2022: PHOENIX, AZ, Jan. 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- Today American Green ( ERBB:OTC ) issued a strategic overview for its shareholders highlighting the following news and events for ERBB in 2021 as well as taking a look at 2022 and beyond. David G. Gwyther, American Green’s president and chairman, said, “The beginning of 2021 was crucial for our yearly success as we hired Gierczyk Development to be the design-build general contractor for our planned expansion based on voters legalizing the Recreational Cannabis market here in Arizona. The team worked diligently for months seeking out and locating the best property for American Green's next facility.” “The company successfully negotiated and signed a 5-year lease agreement with the building owners (allowing for three additional 5-year terms) in May, including an option for American Green to purchase the 40,000 SF building,” continued Mr. Gwyther. “We are planning to exercise our option to buy the “Cypress Chill” property by the end of the year. Owning this property locks in a state-of-the-art cannabis real estate asset that projects to be worth as much as $14 million dollars upon completion, in a market that we believe will become one of the hottest recreational cannabis markets in the country.” Mr. Gwyther goes on to say, “We have also identified the state of Nevada as a great opportunity to expand our cannabis operations due to its recreational cannabis status and its proximity to our current business in Arizona. We have already started our due diligence and are excited about the possibility of expanding our cannabis management footprint into Nevada this year.” The aforementioned signed lease in May, brought American Green into August when it received fantastic news from the City of Phoenix with the approval for the “Cypress Chill” facility to operate as licensed cannabis grow. “Cypress Chill” will provide over $15,000,000 (fifteen million dollars) in annual revenue to ERBB after completion which is expected to be by the end of 2022. Quick Tour Of Our New 40,000 SF Cannabis Grow Facility Story continues Also in August, the Company earned a five-year contract with Curaleaf Holdings Inc . for its “Sweet Virginia” grow facility in Phoenix. The agreement has 3 (three) additional five-year terms. That agreement has allowed ERBB to make staff and operational improvements and also allowed American Green to upgrade the facility with top-of-the-line Efinity LED lighting. The improvements have already started and will be complete at the end of April. The overall improvements will add an additional $1,200,000 in annual revenue bringing total annual revenue for “Sweet Virginia” to $3,200,000 - a 60% increase over today’s approximate $2,000,000 annual revenue. “We had a breakthrough year in our American Green Vending Division. Our American Green Xpress (AGX) identity and age verifying machine, which sells cannabis, CBD, and even beer and liquor, is now upgraded with Jumio software assuring that only customers over 21 can successfully operate the machine. The custom Jumio software, interfaces with our own proprietary software that also allows for autonomous sign-up. The software also provides immediate ID Scan, ID Verification, and “Liveness” proofing to ensure customer presence. We asked a number of potential customers, including cannabis dispensaries, hotels, convenience stores, and casinos, what they wanted to see in our AGX, and facial recognition was number one on their list and self sign-up came in a close second - we now have them both. We are expecting record revenue from the division this year,” said Lindel Creed, head American Green’s vending division. Kevin Davis, American Green’s V.P. of Online Sales, said, “We started out the year with great success on Amazon with our 2,000 mg hemp balm and continued to expand our online presence with other premium American Green-branded hemp and CBD products for sale on Ebay, Groupon and of course our American Green online store . In addition to major credit or debit cards, customers can now use Bitcoin and other major crypto currencies to purchase any products in our online store. We will continue developing new CBD and hemp products and expand our online footprint so we can increase revenue this year as well as look for new strategic partnerships and more distribution to add to our bottom line.” In other news, The American Green CBD Emporium is well stocked with some very high-quality CBD offerings - all at very reasonable prices with its New Year’s Specials. Check out American Green’s newest product offerings including its: 50mg CBD Capsules (Sleep Formula) , 25mg Water Soluble Powder (10 Pack) , and our 1000mg CBD Balm . Or, shop our top selling products (based on order frequency) which include our CBD Capsules , CBD Oils , and CBD Pet Treats . Not Sure Which Product Is Right For You? Start off by exploring our Top Rated CBD Products (as reviewed by verified customers) and Contact Us if you need help, we will be excited to help you find the product or products that suit you best. We also provide an extensive catalog of informational articles and videos on our blog . Shareholders and interest holders may also stay current with American Green Updates: American Green’s Main Website at www.americangreen.com American Green’s CBD store at www.americangreencbd.com Twitter: @American__Green (two underscores), or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/americangreenusa Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/americangreenusa/ About American Green, Inc. In 2009 , American Green, Inc. became America’s second publicly traded company in the cannabis sector. American Green now, with its more than 50,000 certified beneficial shareholders, is one of the largest (in shareholder count) in the cannabis sector. American Green's mission is to lead the cannabis and premium CBD industry. Leveraging our team of professionals in cultivation management, manufacturing, extraction, wholesale, retail, and community outreach, we strive to develop sustainably initiatives in the cannabis-adjacent and CBD industries, laser-focused on adding company and shareholder value. For more information - Contact: American Green, Inc. Investor Relations 2902 W. Virginia Ave Phoenix, AZ 85009 480-443-1600 X555 investor@americangreen.com NOTES ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Except for any historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission reports and filings. Certain statements contained in this release that are not historical facts constitute forward-looking statements, within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created by that Act. Reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements because they involve unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as estimates, anticipates, projects, plans, expects, intends, believes, be should, and similar expressions and by the context in which they are used. Such statements are based upon current expectations of the Company and speak only as of the date made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which they are made. || FOREX-Dollar steady as traders wait for central banks, pound inches lower on COVID fears: By Alun John HONG KONG, Dec 13 (Reuters) - The dollar was quiet at the start of a week in which central bank meetings, including by the Federal Reserve, will likely drive currency markets, while sterling fell slightly after Boris Johnson warned about the impact of the new COVID-19 variant. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major peers, was little changed at 96.091, down from as high as 96.938 in mid November, before news of the omicron variant of the new coronavirus became widespread. On Monday, the euro inched higher to $1.1316 while the yen lost a little ground to 113.51 per dollar. The pound slipped 0.1% to $1.3257 after British Prime Minister Johnson on Sunday said Britain faces a "tidal wave" of the Omicron variant of coronavirus and that two vaccine doses will not be enough to contain it. Markets have swung widely since the new strain emerged due to worries it could have a major impact, initially driving flows to safe-haven assets. Reports that it may not be as bad as feared caused these flows to reverse last week. "All I want for Christmas is clarity," analysts at Barclays headlined a research note. Breaking news about the Omicron variant aside, the most significant scheduled events for currency markets this week are central bank policy meetings, with six of the G10 central banks and a number of emerging-market central banks set to meet. "Central banks will need to strike a difficult balance between Omicron-induced uncertainty and elevated inflation levels," the Barclays analysts said. The most important is the Federal Reserve's two day meet which wraps up on Wednesday. Investors now expect the Fed to announce an acceleration of tapering its bond buying programme, opening the door to at least one interest rate hike next year. Traders now see a more than 50% chance of a rate hike by May 2022, according to the CME Group's FedWatch programme. An acceleration of tapering would likely support the dollar particularly versus currencies whose central banks will likely be slower to tighten. "The Fed meeting certainly could prove the catalyst for EUR/USD to break down to 1.10. Though investors may prefer to wait from the ECB the next day before chasing the move. USD/JPY could also be pressing 115 post Fed," said ING analysts in a note. Both the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan will review their policy settings this week. Market players are starting to talk about the possibility of the ECB turning more hawkish, while the BoJ is likely to remain dovish. Also holding meetings are the Bank of England, and the Norwegian and Swiss central banks. Bitcoin was trading just under $50,000 after the world's largest cryptocurrency climbed a little over the weekend, but still has work to do to reclaim November's record high of $69,000. (Reporting by Alun John; Editing by Stephen Coates) || Asian shares decline amid omicron, Fed, Ukraine jitters: TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares skidded Tuesday following a volatile day on Wall Street. Inflation-fighting measures from the Federal Reserve and the possibility of conflict between Russia and Ukraine are overhanging markets. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped 2.0% in morning trading to 27,027.23. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped 2.3% to 6,972.10. South Korea's Kospi lost 2.1% to 2,734.03. Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 1.7% to 24,242.91, while the Shanghai Composite dipped 1.0% to 3,487.46. “The surprise turnaround in U.S. market overnight does not seem to provide any relief into Asia’s session today,” said Yeap Jun Rong, market strategist at IG. A late-day buying spree pushed the benchmark S&P 500 index to a 0.3% gain after pulling it out of so-called correction territory — a drop of 10% or more from its most recent high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had declined more than 1,000 points before rallying and ending higher. “We’re in this wait-and-see mode, which is almost the most uncomfortable place to be, so I think the market is really grappling with that,” said Lindsey Bell, chief markets and money strategist at Ally Invest. Monday’s wild turnaround followed a three-week decline for the S&P 500 , concluding with its worst weekly stretch since the start of the pandemic. The S&P 500 fell as much as 4% Monday. The index has recovered from an intraday loss that big only three times in the past. The tech-heavy Nasdaq index rose 0.6% after recovering from a nearly 5% descent. Early in the day, benchmark stock indexes flirted with near 4-month lows as investors anticipated guidance from the Fed later this week about its plans to raise interest rates to tame inflation, which is at its highest level in nearly four decades. The Fed’s short-term rate has been pegged near zero since the pandemic hit the global economy in 2020 and that has fueled borrowing and spending by consumers and businesses. But rising prices at supermarkets, car lots and gas stations are raising concerns that consumers will pare back spending to limit the pressure on their budgets. Companies have warned that supply-chain problems and higher raw materials costs could crimp their profits. Story continues The Fed has kept downward pressure on longer-term interest rates by buying trillions of dollars worth of government and corporate bonds, but those emergency purchases are scheduled to end in March. Nudging rates higher is intended to help slow economic growth and the rate of inflation. “There’s a short-term panic and part of that is the high level of uncertainty around what the Fed is going to do," said Sylvia Jablonski, chief investment officer at Defiance ETFs. Investors are also keeping an eye on developments in Ukraine. Tensions soared Monday between Russia and the West over concerns that Moscow is planning to invade Ukraine, with NATO outlining potential troop and ship deployments. The S&P 500 rose 12.19 points to 4,410.13. It’s now 8.1% below the all-time high it set on Jan. 3. The Dow rose 99.13 points to 34,364.50. The Nasdaq gained 86.21 points to 13,855.13. Small company stocks also bounced back. The Russell 2000 rose 45.59 points, or 2.3%, to 2,033.51. The index had been down 2.8%. The wave of selling also extended to cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin fell as low as $33,000 overnight but rallied back above $36,000 by late afternoon. Still, the digital currency is far below the high of more than $68,000 it hit in November. Retailers notched some of the biggest gains in the comeback: Gap jumped nearly 8%. The market is waiting to hear from chair Jerome Powell Wednesday after Fed policymakers conclude a two-day meeting and offer their latest thinking on the economy and interest rates. Some economists worry the Fed is moving too slowly. Others fret that the Fed may act too aggressively. They argue that numerous rate hikes would risk causing a recession and wouldn’t slow inflation in any case. In this view, high prices mostly reflect snarled supply chains that the Fed’s rate hikes are powerless to cure. When the Fed boosts its short-term rate, it tends to make borrowing more expensive for consumers and businesses, slowing the economy with the intent of reducing inflation. That could reduce company earnings, which tend to dictate stock prices over the long term. Europe’s STOXX 600 index closed down 3.6% on concerns about Fed tightening and worries about the situation around Ukraine. The Russian ruble has also fallen after U.S. President Joe Biden indicated that in the event of a Russian invasion the U.S. could block Russian banks from access to dollars or impose other sanctions. Investors are monitoring the latest round of corporate earnings, in part, to gauge how companies are dealing with higher prices and what they plan to do as inflation continues pressuring operations. On Tuesday, American Express, Johnson & Johnson, and Microsoft report results. Boeing and Tesla report their results on Wednesday. McDonald’s, Southwest Airlines and Apple report results on Thursday. In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude added 38 cents to $83.69 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It tumbled $1.83 to $85.31 on Monday. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 52 cents to $86.79 a barrel. In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell to 113.77 Japanese yen from 113.96 yen. The euro cost $1.1316, down from $1.1326. ___ AP Business Writers Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga contributed. || JPMorgan Sees More Crypto Adoption in 2022, Debates Bitcoin’s Status as Store of Value: The cryptocurrency markets and industry are set for greater acceptance from mainstream investors and companies this year, JPMorgan equity research analyst Kenneth Worthington wrote in a note to clients Friday. JPMorgan sees 2022 having potential to be “the year of the blockchain bridge (driving greater interoperability of various chains) or the year of financial tokenization.” Regarding bitcoin, JPMorgan says it’s “particularly well-designed as a modern store of value, and the strong design has contributed to the increased confidence in and value of Bitcoin.” However, bitcoin still comes up short against other stores of value, including gold, given its limited history, according to Worthington. Additionally, bitcoin’s heightened volatility likely won’t make it a good currency since that “could undermine crypto as a medium of exchange, as a unit of account and as a standard for deferred payments, the other recognized functions of money.” Volatility concerns have not stopped bitcoin from rising in value, however, he added. Meanwhile, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is “still a buy” for investors, as the company is a beneficiary of the growth across the crypto industry, Worthington wrote. Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs told clients that “hypothetically, if bitcoin’s share of the ‘store of value’ market were to rise to 50% over the next five years (with no growth in overall demand for stores of value), its price would increase to just over $100,000, for a compound annualized return of 17-18% (accounting for growth in bitcoin supply over time).” [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 37154.60, 41500.88, 41441.16, 42412.43, 43840.29, 44118.45, 44338.80, 43565.11, 42407.94, 42244.47
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2016-02-09] BTC Price: 376.03, BTC RSI: 43.57 Gold Price: 1198.70, Gold RSI: 80.22 Oil Price: 27.94, Oil RSI: 37.64 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] 6 trades to watch in an uncertain market: After U.S. stocks followed global markets lower Thursday, "Fast Money" traders outlined what they deemed safe plays to ride out uncertainty. Major averages each closed down more than 2 percent, after a brief Chinese trading session in which a 7 percent drop in the CSI300 triggered a halt. Traders looked to longer-term plays that could offer protection through volatility. Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF(NYSE Arca: GDX) The price of gold(CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: @GC.1), a traditional "safe haven" asset, climbed Thursday amid the uncertainty in stock and oil markets. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF rose more than 4 percent for the day. Both traders Guy Adami and Brian Kelly said gold likely has more upside ahead. iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF(NYSE Arca: TLT) U.S. Treasury prices rose in choppy trading Thursday amid a flight to safer assets, sending yields lower. In that environment, the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF could make a good play, said Adami and trader Dan Nathan. Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund(NYSE Arca: XLU) Utilities offer a place to "hide" in current markets, said trader Steve Grasso. Nathan also identified them as a defensive play because of their dividend yields. They looked to the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund, which fell slightly on Thursday. Retail Shares of department store chain Macy's(NYSE: M)climbed about 2 percent Thursday in the wake of a restructuring announcement. Adami believes the stock can rise even more. Grasso also outlined possible strength in American Eagle Outfitters(NYSE: AEO). Verizon(NYSE: VZ) Nathan also saw Verizon as a possible play for investors looking for yield. Disclosures: Dan Nathan Dan Nathan is long MCD Feb Put Spread, Long PFE buy-write, long TWTR March Risk Reversal, long UUP March call, long XLU Feb Call spread, long PYPL Jan Risk Reversal, long M Jan16 call spread, long NTAP Jan risk reversal, long QCOM feb calls, short SPY, Long UUP, long WMT puts Steve Grasso Steve Grasso is long AAPL, BA, BAC, CC, DD, DIS, DECK, EVGN, KBH, MJNA, MBLY, MU, OLN, PFE, PHM, T, TWTR, GDX firm is long APC, CXO, OXY, BP, CVX, MCD, RIG, AMZN kids own EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, Hong Kong Dollar, TLT, US Dollar; he is short British Pound, Euro, Yuan, Canadian Dollar, GSG, EEM, EWC, EWH, KRE, SPY, DB Guy Adami Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC • Top News and Analysis • Latest News Video • Personal Finance || Mike Tyson Dives Deeper Into Bitcoin: Former boxing star Mike Tyson is deepening his interest in the bitcoin space by creating a digital bitcoin wallet that will allow users to store, purchase and sell the cryptocurrency. The wallet was developed by Bitcoin Direct in partnership with BitPay and will be one of the first wallets that allows users to buy and sell from inside the app. Tyson's Bitcoin Projects This is not Tyson's first foray into the bitcoin space. He partnered with Bitcoin Direct last year to launch a line of bitcoin ATMs that gave people the ability to turn cash into bitcoins at any machine's location. Now, with Tyson endorsing a wallet as well, many are wondering whether or not celebrity attention will drive mainstream usage. The new wallet will feature Tyson's tribal face tattoo as the background image and is available for download on iOS. An Android version is expected to be released in the coming weeks. Celebrity Appeal Bitcoin Direct believes that Tyson's popularity around the world and across several generations makes him a good option to engage the masses,saying that his"potential to expand the Bitcoin market is dramatic." However, it remains unknown whether or not the power of celebrity will be enough to encourage new users. Safety Still A Concern Although celebrity endorsements often get products more notoriety, bitcoin itself has struggled with safety and security issues that some believe can't be overcome by a recognizable face. Tyson may bring more attention to the cryptocurrency community, but he may not be able to convince the public that it is trustworthy. Instead, many believe that more regulation is the real key to taking bitcoin mainstream as that would provide users with more protections. Image credit:Eduardo Merille, Flickr See more from Benzinga • Court Case Means Emissions Scandal Isn't Going Away For Volkswagen • What To Make Of Monday's Market Selloff • General Motors Kicks Off The Year With A Bang © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || 16 Bold ETF Predictions for 2016: 2015 wasn’t exactly a great year for fund investors. A few choice companies dominated and left their competitors in the dust, making it a pretty poor year to be a sector investor. For example, stocks likeAmazon (AMZN)orNetflix (NFLX)more than doubled in 2015 while not a single major SPDR sector looks to finish the year with gains in excess of 11%. However, 2016 looks to be a bit brighter, assuming of course it isn’t going to be a ‘stock picker’s market’ again in the New Year. Beyond that though, it looks to be another exciting and prosperous year for the ETF industry, and one that looks to see plenty of changes, as well as new funds. In terms of what specifically the New Year might hold, I offer up 16 predictions on what I think 2016 will hold for the world of ETFs, and what investors need to watch for in the New Year: Hedged currency trend finally ends One of the most annoying trends in 2015 has been the surge in every type of hedged currency ETF you could think of, be it half hedged, dynamic hedged, or Chinese currency hedged. While I think the dollar will strengthen a bit more, I think the second half of 2016 will see the flow of hedged ETFs slow to a trickle—if not an outright halt—as the dollar levels out and investors look elsewhere for gains in foreign markets (see Flurry of New Currency Hedged ETFs Fuels Price War ). ETMFs Debut, but stumble out of the gate Exchange Traded Mutual Funds are going to be a big buzzword in 2016 as companies like Eaton Vance look to launch this product type which seeks to provide the exchange-traded benefits of ETFs, with the closed-off holdings aspects of mutual funds to prevent front-running. While I think these will one day have a place in the fund world, they will stumble out of the gate as they confuse investors, unless of course big name players jump on this category and can bring their brand name following with them. More specialized sectors funds look to catch fire, but struggle After the insane rise of thecybersecurity ETF (HACK)in the past year, a number of ETF issuers are looking to strike it rich with similar products in the New Year. As of late, I have seen filings for e-commerce funds, 3D Printing ETFs, and an Internet of Things product, with all of them looking to catch fire like HACK did. However, HACK had a massive catalyst, and without that, the new funds will struggle for a bit to gain popularity in 2016 (see Invest in Booming Technologies with These 3 ETFs). IWM will beat SPY in 2016 Large caps led the way in 2015, mostly thanks to incredible performances from well-known companies. I think this trend reverses in 2016 and we see a return of thesmall cap ETF (IWM)and its outperformance over its large cap counterparts in the New Year. RSP will beat SPYin 2016 In that same vein, theequal weight S&P 500 fund (RSP)had long beaten its cap-focused counterpart,SPY. However, this trend ended in 2015 thanks to those surging mega cap securities. I am also looking for this trend to reverse in 2016 and to see a resurgence of equal weight product demand in general for the New Year as well. Surge in duration hedged/negative duration ETF interest A few years ago, hedged Japan ETFs (likeDXJ) hit the market and many thought they were too sophisticated for retail investors. However, as this turned out to be the best way to play the Japan story, investors of all stripes flocked to these products, making them ultra-popular choices in the Japan market. The same concerns are present now with hedged/negative duration bond funds and I think as interest rates rise these will have their time in the sun (by being the best bond ETF plays) and surge in popularity in 2016 ( Worried About Higher Interest Rates? Buy These 4 ETFs to Profit ). Ex-sector funds hit $100 million under management If 2016 is anything like 2015, we will see at least one major sector stumble. That is why I think the lineup from ProShares of ex-sector ETFs (ex-energy, ex-financials, ex-health care, and ex-technology) will finally surge in 2016 after languishing in anonymity for much of Q4 in 2015. With a year under their belt, these will finally see some interest from investors and will go from a combined AUM of under $20 million today, to a combined AUM of at least $100 million by year’s end. New SPDR Select Sector ETFs hit $100 million in assets State Street’s SPDR lineup has proven to be very popular, but the company recently launched two new products to round out its financial ETF offering;XLFS(focus on financial services) and XLRE (focus on real estate). Both of these made their debut in Q4 but haven’t really seen a surge in assets. I think this will change in 2016 as the interest rate picture becomes clearer, making at least one of them a $100 million product, up from roughly $16 million total right now. Oil-free in 2016 The trend against oil investing will continue in 2016 and I think we will see at least a few more fossil-free funds hit the market as investors look to avoid this space in their portfolios. I also think we could see an oil-free bond ETF (or fossil free bond ETF) as issuers look to cash in on the trend against oil investments and over the concerns of defaults in the high yield market in this corner of the fixed income world (read Support the Environment and Profit with Fossil Fuel Free ETFs ). ETF Closures Go Over 100 and Hit/Approach a Record There are nearly 20 funds that have less than $1 million in assets under management, while about 300 have less than $5 million under management. There is basically no way these are profitable and I am sure we will see a host of closures in 2016 as the writing on the wall becomes clear for many of these strategies. This will make 2016 another big, if not the biggest, year for ETF closures on record. Someone Will Close Down Too Early The flip side of this is that a fund will close down too early. In 2016, I predict a fund will shut its doors only to see its segment go on to great popularity within the next few months. We saw this with FAA and the airline space (among others) and it is hard to discount the importance of timing in the ETF world right now, so look for this to happen to a country or sector fund in the New Year (see Finally a New Airline ETF Prepares to Take Off). Two similar ETFs will launch within a one month window You know when Hollywood launches two similar movies pretty close together (White House DownandOlympus Has FallenorA Bug’s LifeandAntzback in the day)? Well, the ETF industry likes to do that too, putting out funds that target pretty much the same area within a few weeks of each other. The idea is to dilute the first-mover advantage (or to race andbecomethe first mover) and I’d look for that trend to continue in 2016 at least once. Wearable ETF hits the market (or at least a filing) Thanks to the ubiquitous nature ofFitbit (FIT)and a boost in interest in all technology connected devices that are ‘wearable’, a number of companies are jumping into this market. As we saw in recent months with cyber security and cloud computing ETFs, I’d expect to see a wearable (ticker WEAR?) before too long, or at least a filing that will get this fund to market eventually. Bitcoin fund finally comes out For quite some time now, there has been a filing in the pipeline for a bitcoin ETF (COIN) from the Winklevoss twins of all people. The first filing was in 2013, an index was launched earlier in 2014, and I think 2016 will finally mark see this idea pass regulatory hurdles as well as the launch of this product which should help to make bitcoins more easily tradable and liquid for the masses, much like whatGLDdid for gold (read Believe It or Not: Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF on the Horizon ). Price war continues As the ETF space starts to round out, many ETF issuers have launched ‘me-too’ products which target substantially similar segments of the market. The way they differentiate has largely been on the price front and this has forced issuers to slash costs in order to remain competitive. This war has been great for consumers who look to save more money, and I expect to see more fee cuts and price competitive products in 2016 as well. You’ll see more calls of an ETF Bubble… These will be wrong Every couple of months, ETF pundits will write articles or go on TV saying that the end is near for the ETF world and that the category cannot support more products. These predictions have been wrong before and they will be wrong again in 2016. While there are a lot more ETFs than there were a few years ago, there is still plenty of more sector specific and active ETF opportunities out there, meaning that investors shouldn’t be worried about a bubble again in the New Year either (see Best and Worst ETFs of 2015). Happy New Year and best of luck to fund investors in 2016! Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportFITBIT INC (FIT): Free Stock Analysis ReportPURFDS-ISE CYBR (HACK): ETF Research ReportsISHARS-R 2000 (IWM): ETF Research ReportsSPDR-FS SELS (XLFS): ETF Research ReportsSPDR-SP 500 TR (SPY): ETF Research ReportsGUGG-SP5 EQ ETF (RSP): ETF Research ReportsTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment ResearchWant the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report || 5 'Bold' Predictions For 2016: In a new report, Cup & Handle Macro analyst Michael Lingenheld revealed five bold market predictions for 2016. Here’s a breakdown of his list. 1. Revolution in a major emerging market Lingenheld believes that South Africa is the top target, but names Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Russia as other possibilities. All of these countries are currently suffering from large debt burdens, poor leadership and high youth unemployment. 2. Bitcoin outperforms all fiat currencies Lingenheld made this same prediction prior to 2015, and it came true. Bitcoin gained 35 percent in 2015, and he sees no reason why the cryptocurrency won’t outperform again in 2016. 3. A major currency peg will break Lingenheld notes that the IMF’s annual review of currency regimes revealed than only 35 percent of member countries let their currencies float as of the beginning of 2015. He adds that Middle Eastern countries suffering from low oil prices are top candidates, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and UAE. “Bringing down any of these pegs would be a major macro story, but a free-floating or devalued Hong Kong Dllar would be a monumental development,” Lingenheld explains. 4. Corn and wheat will each rally at least 20 percent Global stock-to-use ratios are at 16-year highs, and low gas prices have been a major boost for farmers. However, Lingenheld is not convinced that crop prices are high enough to drive a huge planting season in the spring. 5. A unicorn company will go bankrupt Lingenheld sees a shift in market enthusiasm for new tech companies, including the disappointingSquare Inc(NYSE:SQ) IPO pricing. He believes that the reality of competing with big tech companies likeAlphabet Inc(NASDAQ:GOOGL), Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) andAmazon.com, Inc.(NASDAQ:AMZN) will start weighing heavily on smaller unicorn companies and their investors. Disclosure: the author holds no position in the stocks mentioned. Latest Ratings for AAPL [{"Dec 2015": "Dec 2015", "Cowen & Company": "Barclays", "Maintains": "Maintains", "": "", "Market Perform": "Overweight"}, {"Dec 2015": "Dec 2015", "Cowen & Company": "BMO Capital", "Maintains": "Initiates Coverage on", "": "", "Market Perform": "Outperform"}] View More Analyst Ratings for AAPLView the Latest Analyst Ratings See more from Benzinga • Apple's Chart Indicates A Tough Start To 2016 Ahead • CES 2016 Expected To Be Huge For Drones, Virtual Reality And Wearables • Apple Stock For ? How Fractional Investing Changes The Game © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Where do the presidential candidates stand on encryption? A handy guide: Photo: Getty Images In the wake of terrorist attacks here and abroad, candidates in the 2016 presidential race have shifted their attention to issues of national security. Many have proposed aggressive measures to confront ISIS, including bombing it “back to the Stone Age” (Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas) and banning Muslims from entering the country altogether (Donald Trump ) . But very few have articulated a clear position on how to prevent terrorist recruitment and plotting online. CNN’s Tuesday night Republican debate brought many of these issues to the table, raising questions about surveillance, who owns the Internet and — paramount to the tech world — encryption . Encryption — a way to encode information so that only the sender and the intended recipient can read it — has been central to a security versus privacy debate dubbed the Crypto Wars that dates back to the early 1990s. For years, intelligence officials have pointed to the technology as a significant obstacle in tracking nefarious activity online. Those complaints have only grown more insistent since the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino. Recently, FBI Director James Comey even suggested that major tech companies reconsider their business structure to intercept and pass on encrypted information when needed. And those pressures are sure to increase after French counterterrorism investigators announced that encrypted apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram may have been used to plot the Nov. 13 Paris attack. Virtually all tech companies and cryptographers argue that building any type of “backdoor” into these secure communications would undermine the purpose of the technology entirely, ultimately compromising public privacy and driving consumers to use unregulated international products. It’s something our next president will most definitely have to weigh in on. And though not every presidential candidate has offered a firm stance on the debate, they’ve definitely dropped hints. Below, a survey of those candidates who have acknowledged the issue of encryption and what they think about it. Story continues Democrats: Hillary Clinton The current Democratic frontrunner has discussed encryption regulation several times, though we still don’t know how she feels about it. In a conversation with Re/code’s Kara Swisher in June, she said Silicon Valley needs to sit down with legislators and have a “real conversation” about ways to get around encryption to combat online terrorist activity. Then she waffled, admitting it was a “hard choice” and that “there are really strong, legitimate arguments on both sides.” During a speech at the Brookings Institution in December, Clinton threw around more vague platitudes, requesting an “urgent dialogue” between industry giants and law enforcement officials about tackling terrorists online, appealing to Silicon Valley to “disrupt ISIS.” Her voting record, however, offers a clearer picture of her stance on privacy tech. As a New York senator in 2001, Clinton supported the Patriot Act , which authorized expanded government surveillance to monitor phone and email communications, collect bank and credit card records and track Internet activity. As provisions under that act were set to expire this year, she endorsed a bill that re-upped and modified that surveillance program, ending the NSA’s bulk metadata collection but maintaining other forms of surveillance. At the same time, she said the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, which allows the sharing of Internet traffic information between the government and tech companies, “ doesn’t go far enough ,” in protecting us from foreign hackers. So, it seems Clinton has a history of siding with the surveyors, and not the surveilled. Bernie Sanders Maintaining a steadfast focus on economic and social justice issues during his presidential campaign, Sanders hasn’t spent much time battling mass surveillance. But his record signals that he’s much more concerned than Clinton about protecting citizen’s privacy. Just as he voted against the Patriot Act, he rejected the USA Freedom Act this June, arguing that it didn’t “go far enough in protecting our privacy rights.” “I worry that we are moving toward an Orwellian form of society, where Big Brother — whether in the corporate world, or the government — knows too much information about the private lives of innocent people,” he told Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric in June. Though that’s not an outright condemnation of building back doors into encrypted communications for the purpose of government surveillance, it’s very close. Martin O’Malley Photo: Cheryl Senter/AP The Democratic Party’s third wheel addressed encryption, however noncommittally, in an op-ed for the New York Daily News , calling for “greater public-private collaboration on how we can prevent terrorists from exploiting encryption, which has enabled them to ‘go dark’ well before they strike.” Ultimately that concern for security is likely what pushed O’Malley to support the USA Freedom Act . However, he said he “would like to see us go further” when it comes to limiting the government’s ability to conduct surveillance on citizens. So it seems he’s conflicted in this area. Republicans: Jeb Bush: Photo: John Locher/AP Jeb Bush more or less condemned the use of encryption in August: “If you create encryption, it makes it harder for the American government to do its job — while protecting civil liberties — to make sure that evildoers aren’t in our midst,” he said at an event sponsored by a military contractor-affiliated group named Americans for Peace, Prosperity, and Security . Rand Paul Paul has positioned himself as one of the most tech-savvy candidates of the 2016 presidential race, hosting hack-a-thons and accepting donations via Bitcoin . So it’s no surprise that he has a lot to say about the proposal to limit encryption. In an interview with Yahoo News’ Olivier Knox in November, he supported public use of the technology and echoed the security concerns of many cryptographers and activists. “The head of the FBI came out with this recently, he says, ‘Oh, we’re going to ban encryption.’ And it’s like we want to build a backdoor into Facebook and a backdoor into Apple products,” Paul said at the Yahoo Politics Digital Democracy Conference . “A backdoor means that the government can look at your stuff, look at your information, your conversations. … The moment you build an opening — and I’m not an expert on coding or anything, but the moment you give a vulnerability to a code that someone can get into your source code, not only can the government, but so can your enemies, so can foreign governments.” This comes as no surprise, as Paul has challenged the provisions of the Patriot Act in the past, and recently compared banning encryption to banning guns . Carly Fiorina Photo: John Locher/AP During the first GOP debate, Carly Fiorina was asked whether Google and Apple should cooperate with the U.S. government to weaken encryption so criminals can’t hide behind it. In response, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO made up a new word . “We need to tear down cyberwalls,” she said, referring, one can only assume, to encryption. “We could have detected and repelled some of those cyberattacks” if we had passed “a law [that] has been sitting, languishing, sadly, on Capitol Hill.” Just this week, she clarified her stance in an interview with Breitbart News . “You can’t outlaw encryption,” she said. “Encryption protects American consumers from identity theft, and all the rest of it. But we have to be able to work around it when necessary to give our investigators the information they need.” Fiorina reiterated this strategy, which some experts say is wholly infeasible, at the debate on Tuesday, solidifying her willingness to compromise the security of encryption in the wake of terrorist threats. Lindsey Graham Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters Graham followed up on Fiorina’s remarks at the first Republican debate by declaring “if I have to tear down a cyberwall, I’ll tear down a cyberwall.” But the South Carolina senator’s past comments about technology may be reason to question whether he knows what tearing down that cyberwall would entail. In March, Graham said he’d never sent an email . Adding: “I don’t know what that makes me.” In this case, it makes him a person who probably doesn’t know much about the encryption debate. However, those who contribute to his campaign can rest assured that the governor’s website processes each credit card transaction “using encrypted code.” John Kasich Tuesday’s debate gave the Ohio governor an opportunity to blame encryption for our lack of prior intelligence in terrorist attacks. “There is a big problem, it’s called encryption,” he said. “The people in San Bernardino were communicating with people who the FBI had been watching, but because their phone was encrypted, because intelligence officials could not see who they were talking to, it was lost. … We need to be able to penetrate these people when they’re involved in these plots and these plans, and we have to give the local authorities the ability to penetrate in this route. Encryption is a major problem and Congress has got to deal with this, and so does the president, to keep us safe.” Kasich’s suggestion that we could not access the San Bernardino shooters’ phone conversations because their phone was encrypted is somewhat misleading. Kasich was referring to a CBS News tweet that quoted a “senior law enforcement official” who said investigators had found “levels of built-in encryption” in Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik’s phones. Virtually all modern phones in the United States come out of the box with “levels of built-in encryption,” otherwise criminals would be able to intercept your calls whenever your phone connected to a cellular tower. Not to mention, if your phone was stolen, anyone would be able to access your sensitive information. Whether Kasich is confused by that point, or simply using it as an example to explain why all encryption is dangerous, is unclear. But there’s no question that he’s willing to significantly downgrade the security of devices to be sure nothing gets past intelligence officials. George Pataki During Tuesday night’s undercard debate, the former New York governor said that, as president, he would pass “a law on tech firms to prevent encryption.” In clarifying his position, he provided suggestions similar to Fiorina’s. “Companies are entitled to encrypt and protect their knowledge and their intelligence,” he said. “But what we need is a backdoor for law enforcement to be able — when they can establish that that communication poses a risk to our safety and engages in terrorism — to get a court order and go in and access those communications. Allow the companies to continue encryption, provide an entryway for law enforcement when they can prove to a court that there’s a sufficient risk, when there’s an attack upon us, that they have the right to look at those messages.” Marco Rubio Photo: John Locher/AP Rubio has made it clear that he wants the federal government and the private sector to share more information as a way to prevent cyber- and terrorist attacks. He’s also publicly supported the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act . And during Tuesday’s debate, he doubled down on his commitment to mass surveillance. “We are now at a time where we need more tools, not less tools,” the Florida senator said , criticizing the limits on metadata collection in the USA Freedom Act. Rubio’s willingness to expand programs that collect the private information of Americans signals an apparent willingness to compromise encryption for the same reasons. Ted Cruz Photo: John Locher/AP The Texas senator has towed a libertarian line when it comes to surveillance legislation in the past. As a candidate whose campaign runs on an explicit distrust of big government, it makes sense that Cruz would vote for the USA Freedom Act — a move that has earned him scorn from Rubio. During Tuesday’s debate, he argued that the bill’s mandate to transfer mass phone data collection from the NSA to phone companies actually gave more tools to pinpoint terror threats. However, cybersecurity activists worry that Cruz is uneducated on the intricacies of these policies, after an Oct. 15 video surfaced of the senator admitting to a crowd in Iowa that he was unfamiliar with CISA — a bill that critics say allows companies to monitor their customers and share their information with the government without warrant. Donald Trump Photo: John Locher/AP Trump has made many a reference to building walls, and some of them even appear to be cyber in nature. Though the Republican presidential frontrunner has not explicitly addressed encryption issues, he has suggested we shut off ISIS’ Internet connection, and expressed concern that the group is “using the Internet better than we are,” despite the fact that it “was our idea.” During the debate, he elaborated as best he could. “I wanted to get our brilliant people from Silicon Valley and other places and figure out a way that ISIS cannot do what they’re doing,” he said . “You talk freedom of speech, you talk freedom of anything you want. I don’t want them using our Internet to take our young impressionable youth.” Trump could be referring to the issue of encryption, or something much simpler. But anyone who’s willing to ban a world religion from the country might be willing to do the same for an essential element of consumer technology. Ben Carson Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters The retired brain surgeon has made virtually no mention of encryption on the campaign trail. But when it comes to assuring potential donors that their credit card information is safe, his website has a whole page on it: “Carson America uses a secure socket layer (SSL) with the highest level of encryption commercially available for www.bencarson.com on pages where online visitors register or make a secure online donation using their credit card.” That being said, Carson has said he’s open to the surveillance of mosques, churches and schools. Who knows whether that would entail the compromise of encryption technology? Chris Christie Photo: John Locher/AP In early 2015, Christie signed a law that required health insurance companies in New Jersey to encrypt client information, signaling he understands its importance. Still, the New Jersey governor has made his support for the NSA and government surveillance very clear, praising the provisions in the Patriot Act, and calling for the extension of intelligence-gathering capabilities. The fact that he’s publicly criticized Edward Snowden, and sparred with Rand Paul about these issues suggests he’d overhaul encryption if that meant even a hint of access to potential terrorist activity. Rick Santorum Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters Though the former senator from Pennsylvania has made no explicit mention of encryption, his voting record speaks for itself. Santorum voted for the Patriot Act in 2001, and said he’d do it again today. He’s also criticized Paul’s stance on the issue, saying “hopefully Rand Paul won’t prevail, that the Senate will do what it must do, which is to keep our defenses up and follow through with a plan that balances the interests,” Santorum replied. “It’s always a [balance] between security and freedom, and that’s in every aspect of our [lives].” That balance would likely mean that he’d prefer the government has access to encrypted communication for the sake of national security. Mike Huckabee Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters Huckabee, though not the race’s expert on online surveillance, has most definitely been vocal about the issue. He’s been known to publicly criticize unregulated monitoring by the NSA , arguing that the Patriot Act has gone too far. The former Arkansas governor has even said he’d repeal “Obama’s warrantless NSA spying program” if he became president. However, his comments about cybersecurity have caused experts to question his technological knowledge of the government’s digital capabilities in general. So, though he’s made no explicit mention of encryption, it’s possible that he, like so many other candidates, might not understand it. Related: Following Paris attacks, encryption services face new scrutiny Here’s the manual ISIS uses to teach its soldiers about encryption How encryption works and why people are so freaked out about it || XBT Provider AB: Bitcoin Tracker EUR (COINXBE) Now Available on Nasdaq Nordic through Interactive Brokers: Stockholm, Sweden (January 19, 2016) - XBT Provider AB (publ) announced today the availability of the ETN Bitcoin Tracker EUR in 179 countries. Starting today anyone with an Interactive Brokers account can trade the ETN Bitcoin Tracker EUR. The ticker code is COINXBE. ISIN: SE0007525332 The tracker is an exchange traded note designed to mirror the return of the underlying asset, U.S. dollar (USD) per bitcoin. This is the first bitcoin-based security denominated in Euro available on a regulated exchange. XBT Provider launched this financial instrument to meet the needs of investors` growing appetite for exposure to bitcoin prices. "Bitcoin tracker EUR" is listed on Nasdaq Nordic and traded in the same manner as any share or instrument listed on the Nasdaq exchange in Stockholm. COINXBE is also available via Bloomberg terminals. Direct link to specifications at Nasdaq:http://www.nasdaqomxnordic.com/etp/etn/etninfo?Instrument=SSE113749 Direct link to specifications at Bloomberg:http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/COINXBE:SS The full prospectus and more information is available onxbtprovider.com ABOUT THE ISSUER: XBT PROVIDER XBT Provider AB (publ) is a public limited liability company formed in Sweden with statutory seat in Stockholm. The issuer is incorporated under Swedish law and registered with the Swedish companies` registration office under registration number 559001-3313. Press release (PDF) This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.Source: XBT Provider AB via GlobeNewswireHUG#1975095 || Your first trade for Friday: The "Fast Money" traders delivered their final trades of the day. Dan Nathan was a seller of Wal-Mart(WMT). Steve Grasso was a buyer of American Eagle Outfitters(AEO). Brian Kelly was a seller of Deutsche Bank(XETRA:DBK-DE). Guy Adami was a buyer of the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF(NYSE Arca: GDX)after picking Macy's(NYSE:M)three days in a row. Trader disclosure: On January 7, 2016, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Dan Nathan is long MCD Feb put spread, long PFE buy-write, long TWTR March risk reversal, long UUP March call, long XLU Feb call spread, long PYPL Jan risk reversal, long M Jan16 call spread, long NTAP Jan risk reversal, long QCOM Feb calls, short SPY, long UUP, long WMT puts. Steve Grasso is long AAPL, BA, BAC, CC, DD, DIS, DECK, EVGN, KBH, MJNA, MBLY, MU, OLN, PFE, PHM, T, TWTR, GDX firm is long APC, CXO, OXY, BP, CVX, MCD, RIG, AMZN kids own EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY. Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, Hong Kong Dollar, TLT, US Dollar; he is short British Pound, Euro, Yuan, Canadian Dollar, GSG, EEM, EWC, EWH, KRE, SPY, DB. Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. Wolfe Research Sr. Analyst Paul Sankey: No disclosures. More From CNBC • Top News and Analysis • Latest News Video • Personal Finance || Bitcoin's biggest investor bought its leading news outlet: There is one trade publication in the digital currency industry that every mainstream news outlet knows well, and cites regularly in stories about bitcoin:CoinDesk. It is a source of news about bitcoin investments, price spikes or crashes, and executive hires, and it is a regular destination for journalists who write about bitcoin (as well as for bitcoin enthusiasts who don't get paid to write about the currency). Last week, CoinDesk reported some newsabout itself. The website has been bought by Digital Currency Group, the investment firm of Barry Silbert, who in 2004 founded SecondMarket, which allows for the trading of private-company stock. He sold the platform to Nasdaq (NDAQ) last year. This is DCG's first full acquisition; it did not disclose the sale price, but sources tell Yahoo Finance it was around $750,000. DCG has invested in 60 different digital currency companies, and the companies in its portfolio have raised 70% of the venture capital in the industry. You might think that creates an obvious conflict of interest here. Silbert owning CoinDesk is like Red Sox co-owner John Henry buying the Boston Globe (which actually happened), or Peyton Manning buying the Denver Post, or Donald Trump buying Politico. But Ryan Selkis, the DCG executive who will oversee business at CoinDesk for the time being, insists that won't be a problem. Nonetheless, he says the possibility did concern him at first. The subject of changing ownership at a bitcoin news site may seem like granular inside-baseball, but it is significant when viewed in the context of ongoing fears about who owns the media. From NewsCorp to Bloomberg to recent changes at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, it is a topic on the minds of both journalists and their readers. Is bitcoin's primary news site selling to bitcoin's biggest investment firm another piece of bad news for the industry? Selkis, DCG's director of growth, spoke to Yahoo Finance about that question and about DCG's plans for the site. What follows is an edited transcript. Yahoo Finance:Before we get into CoinDesk, what was your take on the fallout from Mike Hearn's post last week? [Hearn, a bitcoin developer,declaredthat bitcoin had "failed" and that he was leaving the industry; it resulted in a media firestorm.] Ryan Selkis:I won’t comment on the theatrics of it. I will say that Mike Hearn was one of the really solid developers, he’s contributed a good chunk of his life and energy into making bitcoin what it is today, so, style aside, there’s not a whole lot people can say to critique his overall contribution to the industry. But this [ongoing debateover the size of blocks, or bundles of transactions, recorded on bitcoin's public ledger] is more of a governance issue than it is a bitcoin issue, in terms of how this will get resolved. I think it will get resolved. But the governance of the overall project needs to be better. What was DCG's approach to buying CoinDesk, what were the considerations? The first priority we had when we considered this acquistion, my main hesitation, was whether we’d be able to preserve CoinDesk’s editorial independence. And it’s why I’m working with the team full-time now on operating activities. We are going to create both informational and physical barriers between the editorial team and Digital Currency Group. From a policy standpoint, I’ve recused myself from all investing activity at DCG. I was its director of investments; I have completely transitioned away from that and now I’m director of growth. How does handling growth for DCG pertain to CoinDesk? In this particular instance it means making sure we have a smooth transition post-acquisition. We’re combining two teams. We’ve kept all the CoinDesk employees and our plan is to continue to employ everyone that came over, hopefully for a long time. But we also have a professional events team we’ve been working with that were already in the midst of planning a large conference in May, and now we’re merging those two teams to plan one event, Consensus 2016. So now everyone, with the exception of myself, is a CoinDesk employee. And functionally, I’m full time with the CoinDesk team. So how are you separating CoinDesk from DCG? We are physically relocating offices to a different part of Manhattan. So the CoinDesk folks are not going to be sitting right next to our Genesis [a broker dealer that is another DCG subsidiary] trading team or our investment team, which has proprietary information on how 60 or so bitcoin companies that we are invested in are performing. What if CoinDesk is now afraid to write bad news about companies DCG is invested in? Or it could go the other way: Will CoinDesk start getting all the scoops on DCG companies? On the latter point, I’m not concerned because even before this, CoinDesk had established itself as a clear industry leader in terms of a trade journal. So they were already getting most of the scoops. When you talk about embargoed news releases, they are going to continue to be on the same lists as the other folks that DCG reaches out to. So that doesn’t really change. To be honest, CoinDesk was typically part of a broad group of outlets that would be contacted whenever there was news about a DCG company, because we never want to restrict press attention to just one outlet for any of its business interests. So that is the much easier question to answer. With respect to editorial conflicts, look, that’s what I’m here for, is to make sure there’s a buffer between both entities. So on the one hand, I’m not influencing CoinDesk editorial, but on the other hand, I’m leading the team on a day-to-day basis, and I’m able to interface with DCG but I’m no longer privy to any inside-baseball related to the portfolio companies. That seems like a contradiction: You won't influence CoinDesk editorial, but you'll lead CoinDesk day to day? So will you be full time at CoinDesk, or at DCG? I’m DCG's director of growth, but I'm focused full time on CoinDesk and this acquisition, and the 10 or so employees we’ve absorbed, and the large-scale conference we’re producing in May. That makes CoinDesk our top priortity in terms of growth initiatives. Is the conference the main reason DCG bought CoinDesk? Why else? We think there’s a lot of organic growth potential for CoinDesk. They’ve had display advertising and various sponsors, but last year they hosted Consensus 2015, it was profitable, it was well-attended, folks were raving about the content of the event. And in mid-2015 they also began publishing paid research reports. As we continue new investments in CoinDesk, paid research and live events are going to be meaningful drivers of growth for the business. We have the resources to invest not only in fantastic new editorial talent, as in full-time reporters, but also strengthen the ranks of freelance contributors. One area we will invest in is looking beyond just bitcoin the currency and the very insular community there, and branching much further out into blockchain applications that enterprise is taking a look at. Now, that doesn’t mean we are on this "blockchain, not bitcoin" bandwagon, because I don’t want to give that impression at all and it’s a very shrill conversation that happens on Twitter and Reddit when you bring it up. But I do think there will be private ledger solutions that work for enterprise where bitcoin isn’t necessarily a good alternative. Yes, big financial institutions and banks, from Nasdaq to JPMorgan, have been on the "blockchain, not bitcoin" trend lately. Do you think that's all talk? I think the interest is definitely real. The bigger question is, over what time frame does this play out? I don’t think that anyone should expect fully functioning products in the next year, two years, handful of years. It will take many years to build some of these core products that are used currently for clearing and settlement. But I think it’s not just a buzzword, I think "blockchain for banks" truly is more relevant in many cases than using the bitcoin blockchain. If you’re a large institution and you’re looking to create an open ledger where you can move securities around safely and transparently to other regulated institutions, you don’t need a native currency like bitcoin or a consensus mechanism that uses anonymous miners. You already know the parties. You could have five banks that are the only signatories to that particular blockchain. So that would be interesting. -- Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology.Read more: Bitcoin industry consolidates: Why Kraken bought Coinsetter Here's a sign that PayPal is embracing Bitcoin Fantex, the 'athlete stock exchange,' signs first golfer || 10 Tech Predictions for 2016: As I always say, predicting what will happen in the tech industry over a short time horizon is a lot like shooting darts at Jell-O. But someone’s got to do it and it may as well be me. Besides, myprophecies for 2015didn’t do nearly as well asin 2014, and I’m itching to redeem myself. I did hit a number of forecasts out of the park, including the success of Apple Pay and the demise of Twitter CEO Dick Costolo. And my prediction that the Nasdaq would break its all-time high and then fizzle out turned out to be reasonably accurate. But a few of the calls I made, including those aboutnet neutralityand the Comcast – Time Warner Cable merger – were thwarted by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and federal regulators. [Sigh.] And my bet oncinematic reality startup Magic Leapnever made the jump from virtual to reality. Let’s see if I can do better this year. Here’s what my crystal ball says will happen in 2016: Users will develop smart gadget fatigue.While smartphones and tablets, to a lesser extent, will continue to see strong growth in emerging markets, the growth curve will continue to flatten out in mature markets – especially among Android devices. Wearables will get a boost from Apple Watch 2 but unit sales will remain unimpressive compared with the incomparable iPhone. Jack will tweak Twitter.O Twitter, Twitter! Wherefore art thou Twitter? The return of Jack Dorsey as CEO will see the cofounder do a lot of Facebook-like (move fast and break things) tweaking to Twitter, starting with increasing the 140 character tweet limit. Jack will continue to tweak the product until something good happens, as in renewed user growth and engagement. Apple and Google car hype will reach fever pitch.Car tech is heating up in a big way. And since the market’s response to Apple’s first new products since Steve Jobs – Apple Watch and Apple TV (the product, not the hobby) – has been muted, fanboys will be clamoring for rumors on the car front. And Google will likewise be pressured to show progress on at least one of its massive Alphabet ventures, notably its self-driving car. Drones will continue to bug neighbors, privacy buffs and the FAA.Drones will remain an annoying hobbyfor the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, nobody in desperate need of a midnight pizza or a six-pack will be getting one delivered by drone anytime soon. And definitely not anytime this year. The digital and real worlds will meet in augmented reality (AR).Virtual reality has been the next big thingfor as far back as I can remember, but the technology behind Facebook Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard is becoming more real all the time. A breakthrough, however, is more likely in the AR space, where the digital and real worlds meet. That means something will pop from Magic Leap, Microsoft HoloLens, Google Glass 2, or who knows, maybe Apple. The tech bubble will correct.With notable exceptions like Netflix and Amazon, tech stocks took a breather in 2015 after an impressive six-year bull run. But the slowing global economy, the Fed’s monetary tightening, and terrorism concerns will let some air out of theprivate equity bubbleand take the Nasdaq down into correction territory. Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious Bitcoin founder, will not be found.Wired, Gizmodo and every other tech media outlet have been hot on the trail ofidentifying Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of Bitcoin’s mysterious founder. They thought they had it figured out a few weeks ago, but that turned out to be an elaborate hoax. Still, it was nowhere near as embarrassing asNewsweek’s Dorian Nakamotodebacle of 2014. The IPO market will be weak.The private equity bubble is keeping late-stage startups that would ordinarily go public out of the IPO market. That will change when there’s a unicorn shakeout, investors get burned and VCs stop throwing money at startups at crazy valuations. That’s when tech companies will once again see public markets as viable exits. That’s when you’ll seeunicorns stampede on Wall Street. And it won’t be in 2016. M&A activity will be strong.With the bull market running out of steam and private investors becoming more cautious, M&A exits will be on the rise. Unfortunately, a lot of them will be companies that maintain high burn rates until it’s too late and end up going for dimes on a dollar in fire sales. Yahoo will sell its core business and Marissa Mayer will be out as CEO.Here’s a fun little rhyme for 2016, courtesy of Humpty Dumpty: Yahoo Yahoo sat on a wallYahoo Yahoo had a great fallAll the Valley’s CEOs and all the Valley’s chairmenCouldn’t put Yahoo Yahoo together again Jerry Yang, Carol Bartz, Roy Bostock, Tim Morse, Scott Thompson, Ross Levinsohn, Fred Amoroso, Maynard Webb. I’m sure I missed a CEO or chairman somewhere in there, but in any case, enough is enough. It’s long past time to put this company, its board, and Marissa Mayer out of their misery. Yahoo will be acquired or taken private in 2016. Related Articles • GM Eyes the Future With $500M Bet on Lyft • Where You Can Watch and Participate in the GOP Debate • The Most Annoying Aspects of Our Tech-Crazed Culture || New Study Shows Bitcoin Still Has A Long Way To Go: Bitcoin has gained notoriety quickly over the past few years, as more people become familiar with cryptocurrencies. While the majority of the public is still skeptical regarding the safety and security of the currency, bitcoin's user base has been growing. However, although bitcoin enthusiasts say the payment system has made major gains over the past few years, a new study shows the cryptocurrency is still widely misunderstood, even by those who use it. Limited Understanding A peer-reviewed study conducted by Janne Lindqvist of Rutgers Wireless Information Network Laboratory showed both users and non-users of the cryptocurrency have only a basic understanding of how bitcoin works and how safe it is to use. Related Link: Interest In Bitcoin Mining Returns For those who have yet to try bitcoin, the study indicated they worried about adopting the currency and saw setting up an account as too difficult. Users Misinformed Surprisingly, the study also showed that many of those who use bitcoin regularly also found the system difficult to understand. Not only were bitcoin users misinformed about the level of security bitcoin transactions provide, but they also struggled to wrap their minds around how bitcoin transactions are carried out. Government Backing Important Another factor from the study that garners attention was that both users and non-users were keen for further government intervention for Bitcoin. While users typically expressed anti-government views and said less regulation was important to them, they still said that backing from the government would make the bitcoin system more secure. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga Under Armour's Partnership With IBM Could Revive Both Brands Can Bank Stocks Recover? A New Way To Advertise © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000004 Bittrex: 0.00000004 Average $1.7E-5 per #reddcoin 09:46:00 || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 14 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $880.07 #bitcoin #btc || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000005 Bittrex: 0.00000005 Average $2.3E-5 per #reddcoin 00:45:01 via #p…pic.twitter.com/HXlzEohpiQ || LIVE: Profit = $299.17 (3.56 %). BUY B20.42 @ $420.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $426.96 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || $380.31 at 07:30 UTC [24h Range: $376.00 - $396.12 Volume: 10101 BTC] || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000005 Bittrex: 0.00000005 Average $2.2E-5 per #reddcoin 01:00:02 || Order your secure and smart Bitcoin hardware wallet - Only 34.80 EUR https://www.ledgerwallet.com/r/4518?path=/products/1-ledger-nano … #bitcoin #btc 00:17 pic.twitter.com/4oq247x531 || One Bitcoin now worth $444.81@bitstamp. High $449.00. Low $442.88. Market Cap $ 6.706 Billion #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/dL0QWWob6R || Current price: 377.36$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2016-01-29 12:00:03 EST || Bitstamp: $432.00/BTC - last trade of USD/BTC at https://www.bitstamp.net/  (high: 442.97, low: 422.03) #bitcoin #BTC http://bitcoinautotrade.com 
Trend: up || Prices: 381.65, 379.65, 384.26, 391.86, 407.23, 400.18, 407.49, 416.32, 422.37, 420.79
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-04-23] BTC Price: 7429.72, BTC RSI: 58.76 Gold Price: 1733.30, Gold RSI: 60.27 Oil Price: 16.50, Oil RSI: 48.31 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Latest Ethereum price and analysis (ETH to USD): Ethereum has experienced a death cross on the daily chart with the 50 moving average crossing the 200MA to the downside for the first time since August. It is now desperately clinging onto the $134 level of support after failing to breakout above $145 on Tuesday. A break down from this level will result in a test of support at $109, although the psychological level at $100 may also be tested. A lack of significant volume following the sell-off on 12th March, coupled with the death cross, indicates that further price action to the downside is on the cards in the coming weeks. Much of it will also depend on the direction of Bitcoin as it grinds along the $7,000 level of resistance, although a bullish catalyst may be required for a breakout to come into fruition. From a fundamental standpoint global capital markets continue to bleed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which has taken the lives of thousands and caused substantial economic uncertainty. Stock markets in America, Europe and Asia have seen the worst decline since the 2008 financial crisis, with some analysts suggesting that it may get far worse as the virus continues to spread. The fear and uncertainty has spread to the cryptocurrency market as investors seek to liquidate assets into fiat currencies to free up cash-flow. However, the likes of Ethereum and Bitcoin have recovered more than stock markets over the past fortnight, with ETH being 31.26% up against its USD trading pair. Key levels of resistance to look out for in light of a breakout would be $158 and $181. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . About Ethereum Ethereum was launched by Vitalik Buterin on July 30 2015. He was a researcher and programmer working on Bitcoin Magazine and he initially wrote a whitepaper in 2013 describing Ethereum. Buterin had proposed that Bitcoin needed a scripting language. He decided to develop a new platform with a more general scripting language when he couldn’t get buy-in to his proposal. Story continues More Ethereum news and information If you want to find out more information about Ethereum or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Please check the below article: https://coinrivet.com/ethereum-adopts-erc-1155-as-an-official-standard/ As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. You may be interested in our range of cryptocurrency guides along with the latest cryptocurrency news . Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. || CFTC Approves Bitnomial to Offer Futures Contracts Settled in Real Bitcoin: The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approved Bitnomial Exchange to operate as a designated contracts market (DCM), meaning the exchange can now offer bitcoin futures and options contracts. The approval, granted Monday , brings a new player to the still-small world of bitcoin futures in the U.S. To date, only CME, Cboe, Bakkt, ErisX and LedgerX offer bitcoin futures and options contracts, though Cboe ended its contract in early 2019 and ErisX sees little volume on its futures. Unlike CME, Bitnomial appears to be focusing strictly on physically-settled contracts, meaning customers receive the actual bitcoin when the contract expires, rather than the fiat equivalent. Related: $166B Asset Manager Renaissance Eyes Bitcoin Futures for Flagship Fund The CFTC conducted an onsite technical evaluation of the exchange’s operations before granting the approval, according to an order issued Monday . Bitnomial said it was the “first and only startup exchange” to receive approval to offer both margined and physically delivered bitcoin futures and options contracts in the U.S. “The approval allows Bitnomial to tackle a confluence of generational shifts in financial markets: First, a new generation of customers are emerging as savvy with trading, technology and delivery. Second, innovative new unregulated derivatives are booming with daily volumes topping $45 [billion] but may be illegal for many U.S. traders,” it said in a press release . The release also said Bitnomial hopes to find customers for what it termed “new growth areas,” claiming the existing legacy firms have had difficulty tapping this base. Related: CFTC Charges Florida Resident With Defrauding Crypto Investors Out of $1.6M Bitnomial is now setting up user acceptance testing, expected to begin on April 27, and has opened user signups. In a statement, founder and CEO Luke Hoersten said the company will start with quarterly futures, micro futures and options. Contracts trade on 37 percent margin and will settle on-chain rather than book entry. Story continues Jump Capital’s Peter Johnson said physically settled bitcoin futures contracts are “still largely inaccessible” to much of the U.S. market. Jump Capital backed Bitnomial , alongside Digital Currency Group, CoinDesk’s parent firm. “[Bitnomial’s] products are also reliably tied to the underlying asset price via the option for physical delivery. We’re excited to be partners with a company that is committed to meeting the highest regulatory standards and increasing the accessibility of crypto derivatives to U.S. traders,” he said in a statement. Bitnomial raised $7.5 million in an equity raise from 12 investors last December, according to an SEC filing . Related Stories Bitcoin Drops as Traders See Bearish Signals in Futures Markets The CFTC Just Defined What ‘Actual Delivery’ of Crypto Should Look Like || State Power After Coronavirus, Feat. Peter McCormack: An off-the-cuff conversation about state power, nuance in an age of tribalism and where bitcoin meets politics, with Peter McCormack. For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , IHeartRadio or RSS . Peter McCormack is the host of What Bitcoin Did and the Defiance podcast. He recently returned from travel to a number of countries in South America including Venezuela and Colombia, as well as the Turkey-Greece border. Related: The US Needs a Wartime Effort to Win the Coronavirus Battle In this off-the-cuff and wide-ranging conversation, Peter and @NLW discuss: Bitcoiner politics and the bitcoin community’s reaction to the potential for increased state power in the wake of coronavirus Which types of state power growth we should be most concerned with How to push governments to retract power growth on the other side of crisis How travel around the world has informed Peter’s perspective on bitcoin and politics Why nuance is both disincentivized and sorely needed in times of crisis For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , IHeartRadio or RSS . Related Stories Bailouts, Bitcoin, Disruption, Failures and Hope The US Should Use Stablecoins for Emergency Coronavirus Payments How Bitcoiners Can Protect Their Mental Health During the Coronavirus Crisis || Huge step forward for the Bitcoin Sector as major Italian Bank start to trade bitcoin and Brookfield EuroSwiss offers Bitcoin Hedging Program for Bitcoin investors in the value of 2 Billion EUR: Few days only after Italian bank, Banco Sella, opens doors to Bitcoin, allowing customers to buy and sell Bitcoin,Brookfield-EuroSwisslaunches a hedging program for Bitcoin investors and holders. With Swiss credibility of over 50 years, while uncertainty took over stock markets and currencies EX all over the world due to the COVID19, Bitcoin is no more a stranger, and it's here to stay. ZURICH, SWITZERLAND / ACCESSWIRE / March 24, 2020/ According toBrookfield EuroSwiss, Bitcoin Holders, who want to minimize risks of Bitcoin rate crash while having the potential to profit when Bitcoin rate increases, now have the perfect program offered by the Swiss giant. As the first 2 Billion allocated by the private group Brookfield EuroSwiss are strictly operated under the swiss standards and record, it is not open for everyone but not restricted to just EU citizens. The requirements for interested bitcoin investors are; to be over the age of 21, have no criminal record, have a valid passport, and be available to join the program for at least six months. The COVID19 pandemic has had a massive influence on the digital financial platforms, and many of the wallets, exchanges, and debt-based accounts demonstrate significant growth of their activity, volume, and amount of transactions. However, after the growth we saw, like in many currencies, the response of Bitcoin to COVID19 was a steep crash and caused losses in the value of hundreds of millions daily. The Brookfield BTC hedging program was launched to protect the BTC holders and investors and provide the securities to the BTC players to cross with confidence the times between crashes and corrections. More than that, BTC holders and investors enjoy both worlds, hedge the losses, but not give up the profit. With the Bitcoin becoming eligible for the European Bank to trade and for Brookfield - EuroSwiss to offer a Bitcoin-based hedging instrument, it is only a matter of time before BTC becomes the common currency in use by everyone. With this development, demand and stability will come. The Brookfield Hedging program hedge not only the losses but also the profits. It allows the investors to choose the rate of exposure, and with direct correlation, your profit limitation will be determined. For instance, if you want to hedge your BTC EX rate to a maximum loss of -10%, your profit limitation will be a maximum of 28%. Brookfield has created a brilliant structure that allows BTC investors to send their bitcoin with full corporate confidence.Brookfield EuroSwississues a full unconditional corporate guarantee in value that equals the maximum profit limits. In essence, this way, Bitcoin investors have complete security and assurance that Brookfield will meet all of its obligations by the hedging program. The hedging program is excellent news, not only for the BTC holders and investors but to the general Bitcoin market. As a market leader like Brookfield EuroSwiss launches such an instrument, with over 50 years of Swiss credibility in the volume of 2 Billion EUR at first, it is evident that Bitcoin is here to stay. Contact: Alisa LunguCompany: Brookfield EuroswissAddress: Zurich Froschaugasse 58001 Zürich, SwitzerlandContact Number: + 2173603988Email:info@brookfield-euroswiss.comWebsite:https://www.brookfield-euroswiss.com/ SOURCE:Brookfield Euroswiss View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/582277/Huge-step-forward-for-the-Bitcoin-Sector-as-major-Italian-Bank-start-to-trade-bitcoin-and-Brookfield-EuroSwiss-offers-Bitcoin-Hedging-Program-for-Bitcoin-investors-in-the-value-of-2-Billion-EUR || Caitlin Long’s Wyoming Crypto Bank Announces C-Suite, Including Bitcoin Core Dev: One of the first prospective crypto banks in the United States is hiring its C-suite. Avanti Financial Group, the first firm to announce its application to be a special purpose depository institution in Wyoming, announced five new executive hires who will also be co-founders on Tuesday, including Bitcoin Core developer Bryan Bishop and Figure Technology’s Zev Shimko. “It was important to find people with experience in both crypto and traditional finance services because the two are so different,” Caitlin Long , CEO of Avanti, told CoinDesk. “It’s hard to find an innovator in the core banking business, but we needed one because we’ll be integrating crypto with core banking software.” Related: Caitlin Long on Coronavirus, Crypto Custody and Building a Bank A SPDI bank looks like a regular custody bank without the ability to lend. SPDI banks regulated by the Wyoming Division of Banking can offer services for digital assets without the oversight of the risk adverse U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Bishop is coming on as the firm’s chief technology officer. In 2018, Bishop was a senior blockchain engineer and custody architect at LedgerX, the first Commodity Futures Trading Commission-regulated options exchange and clearinghouse for digital assets. He has also created Bitcoin Vaults, a pre-signed anti-theft recovery and drawback mechanism for bitcoin. “For everybody, crypto custody is a given core skills set,” Long said. “The fact that Bryan has already done this at LedgerX puts him in a small group of people who have built secure crypto custody platforms that are proven in the marketplace and have survived daily attacks from adversaries.” Community banking veteran Britney Reddy will become the bank’s chief of banking operations and chief financial officer. Reddy has held CEO, president, CTO, CCO and COO roles at multiple Wyoming banks. Related: Blockchain Pioneer Caitlin Long to Build Crypto Bank in Wyoming Shimko, who was a director at Figure, will become Avanti’s chief operating officer. Before Figure, Shimko was head of corporate development at SALT, a crypto-backed lender. Shimko began his career at Morgan Stanley in global capital markets. Story continues Former Blockchain Consulting CEO and LedgerX Chief Compliance Officer Chuck Thompson is joining the firm as chief legal officer. Prior to that, he was in-house counsel at multiple capital markets firms, including Morgan Stanley. In February, Avanti announced it was teaming up with blockchain technology startup Blockstream to provide payment, custody, securities and commodities activities for institutional customers using digital assets. The bank plans to launch in early 2021, pending the approval of its SPDI charter by the Wyoming Division of Banking. The bank has eight products in the pipeline that are not currently available in the U.S. market, including a custody solution for security tokens. Related Stories Kraken Job Ad Hints at Plan to Build Special-Purpose Wyoming Bank Wyoming’s New Crypto Banking Law Could Defang New York’s BitLicense || Zero Interest Rates Could Hamper the Stablecoin Business: J.P. Koning, a CoinDesk columnist, worked as an equity researcher at a Canadian brokerage firm and a financial writer at a large Canadian bank. He runs the popular Moneyness blog. With the recent collapse in U.S. interest rates, the stablecoin industry is in for a rough ride. Some stablecoin issuers may have to rejig their business models over the next few months. The weakest of them may have to close shop. If you’re still not sure what stablecoins are, think of them as a new-fangled version of the classic banknote. Did you know that in Northern Ireland, banks are still allowed to issue their own private banknotes? These notes are 100 percent redeemable for banknotes issued by the U.K.’s central bank, the Bank of England. The Irish love their private notes, and treat them exactly like state-issued cash. They are widely accepted at shops all over Northern Ireland. Related: Looking for a Halving Payday? Quick Wins in Investing Are Rare See also: Hasu – USD Stablecoins Are Surging, but Zero Interest Rates Complicate Business Model The obvious difference is that whereas a Northern Irish banknote is a paper replica of government money, a stablecoin is a digital replica issued on a blockchain. But, apart from that, they’re quite similar. To begin with, stablecoins and banknotes are both bearer instruments. They circulate from hand to hand, or wallet to wallet, without needing a centralized authority to manipulate accounting entries. They both have an issuer. Northern Irish banknotes are put into circulation by the three note-issuing banks: Bank of Ireland, Danske Bank and Ulster Bank. Stablecoins are put into circulation by financial institutions such as Centre (which issues USD Coin, or USDC), Tether or TrustToken (which issues TrueUSD). These issuers have the task of managing the value of the tokens they issue. Related: Coinbase Pumps $1.1M USDC Into DeFi Sites Uniswap and PoolTogether Another similarity? Stablecoins and banknotes both yield 0 percent. Story continues This 0 percent feature is important. It’s a big part of how issuers like Ulster Bank and Centre make profits. Anyone who holds either a £50 Irish banknote or $50 in stablecoins is temporarily investing their wealth in the Ulster Bank or Centre. These issuers get to reinvest their customer’s funds, say, by depositing them in ultra-safe government-insured accounts or buying Treasury bills. Since they don’t pay any interest to their customers, Ulster Bank and Centre get to keep the entire flow of interest payments for themselves. Seigniorage is the word we usually use to describe the profits accruing to issuers of 0 percent-yielding tokens. It’s what helps keep the lights on at the various stablecoin issuers and at Northern Ireland’s banks. Zero interest, fewer profits Stablecoin issuers have enjoyed decent seigniorage over the last few years. How much? Here’s a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation. Most stablecoins are based on the U.S. dollar. At the end of July 2019, U.S. Treasury bill rates were at 2.5 percent. The total number of stablecoins in existence summed up to around $5 billion at the time. Assuming the issuers invested $4 billion of their customers’ funds in T-bills and kept $1 billion in liquid no-interest accounts, that comes out to around $100 million in expected interest income at the end of July ($4 billion x 2.5 percent). But now that $100 million has evaporated to $0. Goodbye seigniorage. We can actually get a snapshot of what it’s like to be a stablecoin issuer in a 0 percent interest rate environment. Stasis, a European stablecoin concern, issues the largest euro-denominated stablecoin, EURS, with about 31 million euros in coins outstanding. Interest rates in Europe have been below zero for years. In Stasis’s last annual financial statements for the year ending December 2018, it had 0 euros in revenue. But it had to pay 15 million euros in costs. Much of this would have been the fixed costs of setting up an office, paying salaries, and audit fees. The impending collapse in stablecoin profitability is a bit of a killjoy because stablecoins are becoming increasingly popular (as Hasu pointed out in CoinDesk this week). Above is a chart showing the total amount of dollars (billions) held in the form of the six major U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoins. The jump since early February, in the midst of the advancing COVID-19 pandemic, is quite remarkable. Why the growth? Part of it is due to the huge plunge in the prices of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH). People are flocking to stablecoins as a safe haven. Some issuers may start covering their costs by introducing new fees. There’s a more subtle reason, too. Traders and large institutions do not typically deploy all of their funds into cryptocurrencies and other investments, preferring to keep some surplus cash on hand. These funds are usually parked in bank accounts and government-issued Treasury bills. That way they can at least earn some interest. Stablecoins haven’t been an ideal place for professional investors to lodge spare money since they pay a miserable 0 percent. But with the rates on bank accounts and Treasury bills plunging to zero over the last two months, the 0 percent rate on stablecoins no longer looks so bad. And so professional cryptocurrency traders and investors are more likely to keep their surpluses invested in stablecoins rather than pulling them back into a bank. The interest rate on U.S. Treasury bills has actually fallen into negative territory, making the 0 percent rate on stablecoins look positively outstanding. Going forward What will stablecoin issuers do in future? That depends. I suspect some issuers may start covering their costs by introducing new fees. Tether already requires users to pay 0.1 percent for converting tether tokens into dollars, or dollars into tokens (they must withdraw at least $100,000, so the minimum fee is $1,000). Centre , Paxos and TrustToken don’t charge these fees. Earlier this week I talked to Centre’s CEO Jeremy Allaire, the largest of these issuers, and he is confident Centre will not be going down this route anytime soon. Making wallet-to-wallet stablecoin payments is generally free. It’s possible the issuers may start to implement a small transfer fee, just a few cents per transaction. Or perhaps they will set a slightly negative interest rate on stablecoin balances. Think of it as a daily account maintenance fee. However, users are likely to shun any issuer that introduces fees when there are other free options. See also: The US Should Use Stablecoins for Emergency Coronavirus Payments Not all stablecoin issuers will face immediate pressure. Issuers with multiple lines of business or a set of well-funded partners can rely on other profit centres to subsidize unprofitable stablecoin operations. As time passes they may be able to draw their stablecoin customers into new higher-fee services. If none of this works, the weakest stablecoin issuers may be in trouble. With interest rates in the U.K. hovering around 5 percent during the 2000s, Northern Ireland’s banknote issuers were swimming in seigniorage. But then the 2008 credit crisis hit and interest rates spent the next decade moping at 0.5 percent. Because traditional banks have multiple lines of business, they can afford to have one line operate without profits. But only for so long. The smallest of Northern Ireland’s four private note-issuing banks, First Trust Bank, recently shut down its cash printing operations. It just didn’t make sense to issue banknotes anymore. We may see a few stablecoins issuers trying to push new fees on their customers. And we may also see the smallest of them doing the same as First Trust Bank. The surviving Northern Irish banknote issuers were lucky enough to fill the void left by the weakest. The same principle applies to the lucky stablecoin issuers that make it through this challenge. Related Stories How Financial Models Could Move Bitcoin’s Price After the Halving Tether CTO Claims USDT Stablecoin Can Boost DeFi Liquidity || Bitcoin Takes Tumble, Traders Fret Correlation and Next Month’s Halving: Bitcoin and ether are trending down as traditional markets closed in the red Wednesday. On a 24-hour basis, bitcoin (BTC) was in the red 4 percent Wednesday afternoon Eastern time and ether (ETH) was down 3 percent. Most other cryptocurrencies were off as well. Notable assets down in the dumps on CoinDesk’s big board include NEO (NEO) in the red 5 percent, bitcoin SV (BSV) slipping 4 percent and IOTA (IOTA), down 4 percent. All price changes are in the past 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. EDT) Wednesday. Related: Bitcoin Briefly Tops $7K as Traders Say Worst of 2020 Sell-off May Have Passed In the traditional markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index closed down 4.5 percent. Europe’s FTSE 100 ended the day in the red 2.7 percent. In the U.S., the S&P 500 closed New York’s trading day down 4.4 percent. See also: As Crypto Prices Reeled in Q1, These Coins Stood Out Traders continue to have concerns about coronavirus’ impact on the world economy, as the World Health Organization says inflections will surpass one million people causing 50,000 total deaths globally in a matter of days. After holding steady Tuesday, bitcoin slipped from $6,450 at 00:00 UTC Wednesday to as low as $6,160 around 17:00 UTC on exchanges such as Coinbase. An outstanding question is how long the cryptocurrency will continue to track traditional investments during this period of turmoil. Related: Bitcoin Enters Historically Strong Quarter With 3% Price Gain “Bitcoin tends to have periods of spurious correlation with macro risk, but it is not statistically significant,” said Darius Sit, managing partner at crypto fund QCP Capital. “At the time of market panic even gold was correlated with equities but that is starting to break as well.” Indeed, gold rallied to start Wednesday, and though it did come under some sell pressure it is up less than a percent on the day as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. EDT). “Gold is one of the best-performing assets in Q1. Gold rose 2.95 percent, which is a great result compared to other asset classes which faced losses,” said, Nemo Qin, an analyst at brokerage eToro. Story continues Where does crypto go from here? Some think the worst is over after last month’s collapse of bitcoin , which briefly dipped below the $4,000 level March 13. Despite that bloodbath, the first quarter saw bitcoin perform better than the S&P 500 index even though it was still in the red 10 percent for the period. “For what it’s worth, we believe the lows are behind us in this new macro regime and that expectations have been heavily subdued,” said Vishal Shah, founder of crypto derivatives exchange Alpha5. “At worst, this should lead to the creation of price troughs not too far from here, and at best, provide sustained fuel for a move higher.” Another open question is whether the upcoming halving of bitcoin block rewards will have its usual effect of boosting the price. For one thing, the options market is expressing pessimism about the halving , expected to occur in mid-May. See also: Bitcoin Halving, Explained In theory, by reducing the amount new bitcoins released into circulation every 10 minutes or so, the halving should juice the price, assuming demand stays constant. But the unusual turbulence, and the way bitcoin has reacted to it so far, calls that assumption into question. “It’s still a tiny space with low liquidity all over crypto. I honestly have my eyes on hashrate and think a lot about how the halving effect will look this time,” said Henrik Kugelberg, a Sweden-based over-the-counter trader. In fact, a large U.S. cryptocurrency miner recently shut off its machines, claiming unprofitability at current price levels. Despite all this, some traders still have confidence in crypto, expecting it to decouple from traditional markets at some point whenever things settle. “I think when there is market panic and deleveraging going on, it’s normal for BTC as a fringe asset to follow the general trend. But once markets are calmer it can start to move according to its own narrative,” said QCP’s Sit. Related Stories Looking for a Halving Payday? Quick Wins in Investing Are Rare Online Black Markets’ Bitcoin Revenues Take a Hit Amid Pandemic || Wrapped Bitcoin Aims to Kick-Start DeFi on Tezos Blockchain: Tokenizedbitcoin(BTC) is coming to the Tezos blockchain. Announced Wednesday, the Bitcoin Association Switzerland, Tezos Foundation and multiple partners will issue the first tokenized version of bitcoin on the Tezos blockchain, tzBTC. The asset will also be the first vehicle for Tezos-based decentralized finance (DeFi), according to a press release from the association. Each tzBTC represents one bitcoin on the Bitcoin blockchain and is minted under the new FA1.2 Tezos token standard. Related:How DeFi Dinner Bonds Can Help Restaurants During Crisis “The tzBTC brings the brand and liquidity of Bitcoin to the Tezos blockchain and gains the potential for rich functionality made possible by Tezos smart contracts,” Bitcoin Association Switzerland President Lucas Betschart said in a statement. Read more:What Tezos and Bitcoin Have in Common Another wrapped bitcoin project was announced for Ethereum last week,tBTC. “Building a bridge that allows Bitcoin to interact with DeFi makes a lot of sense,” investor Fred Ehrsam said of that project. Adding a bridge for Tezos to the most liquid cryptocurrency follows a similar logic. Roman Schnider, CFO and head of operations at the Tezos Foundation, said the addition of bitcoin is just the tip of the spear as the community builds out DeFi products on Tezos. Related:Chicago’s Trading Firms Look to DeFi With New ‘Alliance’ “This is kind of the first [wrapped] product that we see and there’s not much you can trade against at the moment, but there is a roadmap,” Schnider said in a phone interview. Next up, Schnider said, are atomic swaps for building out DeFi exchanges and perhaps a wrappedether(ETH) token. Read more:Makers of Keep Protocol Raise $7.7M to Bring Trustless BTC to DeFi DeFi grew rapidly on Ethereum in 2019and largely began with Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC)issued on platforms such as bZx, Compound and dYdX. A little over a year later, and WBTC makes up a small percentage of Ethereum-based DeFi’s $700 million market cap, according toDeFi Pulse. tzBTC won’t be alone on Tezos, however. The token could soon be joined byTezos-based DeFi protocol StakerDAO, which is planning to launch this quarter, according to itswebsite. StakerDAO automates capital allocation for staking on various protocols to earn yield for investors. tzBTC will be overseen by numerous organizations, according to thetoken’s website. Bitcoin Association Switzerland will regulate “keyholders” who mint and burn tzBTC. Keyholders include Swiss crypto firms Inacta, Lexr, Swiss Crypto Tokens and Taurus. Read more:There’s Now a DAO for Deciding Which Blockchains to Stake On Betschart told CoinDesk the idea first originated with Swiss Crypto Tokens, but the non-profit took up the project which retains a bitcoin-first bent. “Our interest is to push the adoption of bitcoin. So we’re already involved with some other things … to make bitcoin even more usable,” Betschart said. • Ready Layer One: Base Layer Protocols Team for Virtual Developer Event • Makers of Keep Protocol Raise $7.7M to Bring Trustless BTC to DeFi || Bitcoin Options Saw Record Volume of $198M Amid Recent Price Drop: Trading volume records in bitcoin’s options market were smashed on Monday as investors scrambled to hedge their positions amid the sell-off. Major exchanges – Deribit, LedgerX, Bakkt, OKEx, CME – registered total trading volume of $198 million, surpassing the previous record high of $171.3 million reached on Feb. 11, according to crypto derivatives research firm Skew Markets. Deribit, the world’s biggest crypto options exchange by volume, contributed nearly 86 percent, or $170 million, of the total trading volume on Monday. Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) traded $2.1 million, while Intercontinental Exchange’s (ICE’s) Bakkt did not trade any contracts. Bakkt last registered activity on Feb. 27 and prior to that on Feb. 12. Related:Here’s Another, Surprising Reason Why Crypto Prices Fell – Derivatives An option contract is a derivative based on the value of an underlying instrument that gives the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell the specified amount of an underlying asset on or before the expiration date. A call option gives the holder a right to buy, while the put option gives the holder the right to sell. “Derivatives trading activity tends to increase when a large spot move occurs, which was triggered yesterday by an extraordinary sell-off in risk assets globally,” Skew CEO and co-founder Emmanuel Goh told CoinDesk. Bitcoin(BTC) was trading above $9,000 on Friday and looked set for stronger gains over the weekend. However, the cryptocurrency fell sharply from $9,900 to $9,000 on Sunday,possiblydue to liquidations by alleged PlusToken scammers and declined further to a two-month low of $7,640 on Monday. The rapid price drop was accompanied by a sell-off in the traditional markets and likely fueled demand for options. Related:You Call That Volatility? Bitcoin Traders Scoff at Wall Street’s Gyrations “The sell-off has provided an ample amount of opportunities for both shorter-term traders and longer-term investors alike to acquire bitcoin and other assets at a significant discount to where prices stood just two weeks ago. Options are one effective way of taking advantage of these opportunities.” Justin Gillespie, CEO of Titus Investment Advisors and bitcoin trader told CoinDesk. Volumes have been rising right from the start of the year. For example, Deribit has witnessed an average daily volume of nearly $100 million over the past four weeks compared to $50 million in the period from December through January. “There’s been an explosion of interest from investors, intraday traders, and miners in BTC options on Deribit the past few months,” Su Zhu, CEO of Three Arrows Capital, told CoinDesk. Zhu added the recent record volume reflects the growing importance of options flow on Deribit in bitcoin price setting. Back in mid-January, Zhutweeted predictinga surge in options trading volume. As bitcoin’s price dropped, the global open interest – the sum of all options contracts that have not expired, been exercised or physically delivered – rose to $841 million on Monday from Sunday’s $798 million, according to Skew Markets. The open positions surged from $250 million to $950 million in the first six weeks of the year and has remained elevated ever since, a sign of increased institutional participation in the bitcoin market. Looking ahead, bitcoin’s option market could continue to register strong volumes because ofuncertaintyis likely to stay high ahead of the May 2020 reward halving, the coronavirus pandemic and the prospects of anall-out oil price warbetween Saudi Arabia and Russia. • Market Liquidations Cause Cascade in Bitcoin Price • Bitcoin’s Sharp Price Drop May Have Been Prompted by $120M Scam Sell-off || Millennials to Drive Bitcoin Higher: 4 Stocks to Watch: U.S. stock markets fell for the sixth straight day on Thursday after the coronavirus epidemic sparked fears of a slowdown in the major economies of the world. Following this, investors rotated out of stocks to safer haven assets such as gold and U.S. Treasury bonds. Bitcoin prices rose 1.4% to $8,902. The world’s favorite cryptocurrency rose along with other popular cryptocurrencies such as ether. While some might argue, like they have in the past, that Bitcoin is all but a fad, millennials have a different take on it when it comes to investing. Approximately one-third of all the millennials in the country prefer to hold Bitcoin over shares. Further, a staggering 43% of U.S. millennials stated that they trusted cryptocurrency exchanges more than America’s stock exchanges. A report by Edelman stated that approximately 25% if the country’s millennials who earn at least $100,000 in individual or joint income or own $50,000 worth of investable assets, admitted to either holding or using cryptocurrencies. Further, the report also stated that another 31% expressed their interest in using them. Quite unsurprisingly, a shift toward alternative banking options such as PayPal PYPL and Square Cash have also popularized Bitcoins. Tech-savvy millennials who find the digital way of doing business efficient and normal choose to take this route. Bitcoin or ‘Digital Gold’? It is a norm to save up for the future by investing in gold and bonds, a lesson that has been passed down through generations. However, technology and money have revolutionized the way investing is done in today’s age. Millennials, who vouch for bitcoin democratization, also prefer the world’s numero uno cryptocurrency as a form of investment to save for the future. A survey revealed that millennials are five times more likely than baby boomers to say that Bitcoin is the best way to save for the future. Such sentiments have only cemented the cryptocurrency’s place as the digital gold of the modern world. Transfer of Wealth from Baby Boomers to Millennials Now that it has more or less been established that millennials prefer Bitcoins for long-term savings, an increase in millennials’ wealth should only prove to be a boon for Bitcoin. A generational shift of wealth from the baby boomers, currently the richest generation in America’s history, is set to take place through the 2020s. After living the American dream and enjoying a long period of economic prosperity, baby boomers are all set to pass on the baton of wealth to the largest generational cohort currently in America, the millennials. It is estimated that millennials would collectively receive approximately $7 trillion from their elders till 2030. This is going to shape up the cryptocurrency space over the next decade, not to mention technology. 4 Stocks to Watch Out For As with any revolutionary technology, the Lindy effect applies to Bitcoin as well. The Lindy effect is a theory, which states that the future life expectancy of certain non-perishable things such as technology or an idea is proportional to their current age. This means that for every additional period that the technology survives, it ensures a longer life expectancy. This only strengthens the argument that Bitcoins are the future. In this context, we have selected four stocks that are expected to gain from these factors. Microsoft CorporationMSFT became the first major cloud hosting provider to integrate blockchain into its Azure cloud last year. Furthermore, the company’s affinity for Bitcoin is a known fact. The tech giant, has in the past, also launched the decentralized identity system on Bitcoin. The company carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and is based out of Redmond, WA. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 18.72% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has improved 5.4% over the past 60 days. You can seethe complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. International Business Machines CorporationIBM has been one of the early providers of the blockchain technology. Broad-based availability of the IBM Blockchain World Wire — a blockchain driven global payments network has driven the company’s performance in the past. The company carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and is based out of Armonk, NY. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 4.30% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has improved 1.2% over the past 60 days. PayPal Holdings, Inc.is another bitcoin-related stock that you must watch. The leader in digital payment process has done well recently to strike a deal with three major bitcoin payment processors, BitPay, GoCoin and Coinbase, to help PayPal merchants accept Bitcoin as a mode of payment. The company carries a Zacks Rank #3 and is based out of San Jose, CA. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 11.35% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has improved 1.4% over the past 60 days. Social media giantFacebook Inc.FB is another stock worth taking note of. Facebook currently has a Zacks Rank #3. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current-quarter earnings has increased 2.7% over the past 60 days. It has an expected earnings growth rate of 44.79% for the current year. 5 Stocks Set to Double Each was hand-picked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2020. Each comes from a different sector and has unique qualities and catalysts that could fuel exceptional growth. Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor. Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >> Click to get this free reportMicrosoft Corporation (MSFT) : Free Stock Analysis ReportInternational Business Machines Corporation (IBM) : Free Stock Analysis ReportFacebook, Inc. (FB) : Free Stock Analysis ReportPayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 7550.90, 7569.94, 7679.87, 7795.60, 7807.06, 8801.04, 8658.55, 8864.77, 8988.60, 8897.47
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2015-03-23] BTC Price: 266.74, BTC RSI: 49.04 Gold Price: 1188.00, Gold RSI: 50.97 Oil Price: 47.45, Oil RSI: 49.05 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Jan 23: Jan 23 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. * Federal officials vowed to make more of an experimental drug that showed promise in treating Ebola, but that project has moved slowly. ( http://nyti.ms/1CX1XPw ) * Bitcoin, the virtual currency that was once the talk of the financial world, has been taking a beating over the last year with the price tumbling downward. Now two of the biggest boosters of the virtual currency, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, are trying to firm up support by creating the first regulated Bitcoin exchange for American customers - what they are calling the Nasdaq of Bitcoin. ( http://nyti.ms/1Ckuctg ) * President Barack Obama is proposing a radical change to the 529 college savings plans held by millions of families, which would require those who use them to rethink their approach to college savings. As part of his plan to simplify the tax code and help the middle class, one of the 529 plan's most attractive benefits would be eliminated: Money could no longer be withdrawn tax-free. ( http://nyti.ms/1GEZRKa ) * BMW and Volkswagen AG announced a plan on Thursday to install 100 high-speed charging stations on busy corridors this year on the East and West Coasts, like Interstate 95 between here and Boston. The stations will be part of a fast-growing network run by ChargePoint, the nation's largest, and will be compatible with nearly all electric vehicles on the road. ( http://nyti.ms/1xHlIah ) * DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc said on Thursday that it would reduce its movie output and lay off 500 employees, or roughly 19 percent of its staff, a retrenchment that follows a string of box-office misfires and two failed merger attempts. ( http://nyti.ms/1AWEk7c ) * The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said that more than 100 former Wells Fargo & Co loan officers and half a dozen from JPMorgan Chase & Co accepted kickbacks, as part of a scheme to steer business to a now defunct title insurance company. The banks agreed to pay about $36 million. ( http://nyti.ms/15DcVzo ) * Online Storage Provider Box Inc will be valued at $1.7 billion when it begins trading on Friday, but concerns have been raised within Silicon Valley about the high-flying valuations that some technology darlings have fetched recently. ( http://nyti.ms/1yPZO7I ) * Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, one of the flagship companies of the Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, said on Friday it has agreed to enter exclusive talks to buy O2, the British cellphone carrier owned by the Spanish telecom giant Telefonica SA, in a deal worth roughly $15 billion. ( http://nyti.ms/1GF2njF ) Story continues * Amazon.com Inc has agreed to buy Annapurna Labs, an Israeli chip developer, for about $350 million, a spokeswoman for Amazon said on Thursday. ( http://nyti.ms/1t4sf23 ) * Shareholders in Family Dollar Stores Inc voted on Thursday to approve the retailer's $8.5 billion merger with Dollar Tree Inc, leaving the company's unwanted suitor, Dollar General Corp, on the losing side. ( http://nyti.ms/1JfHvNI ) (Compiled by Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru) View comments || Bitcoin Shop, Inc. Expands Mining Operations With New Facility and Launches Multi-Signature Security Solution to New Website: ARLINGTON, VA--(Marketwired - Jan 28, 2015) - Bitcoin Shop, Inc. (OTCQB:BTCS) ("BTCS" or the "Company"), which is undertaking the build-out of a universal digital currency ecosystem, announced today that the Company secured a 83,000 square foot facility, about 1.4 times the size of a regulations NFL football field, to expand its mining operations. The Company also purchased from Spondoolies Tech Ltd. ("Spondoolies"), 100 S35 miners totaling 550 TH/s of hashing power, a 161% increase in its mining capacity, and anticipates having the newly purchased equipment online in two to four weeks, which would bring BTCS's total mining hash rate to 891 TH/s. Additionally, the operating costs (inclusive of power) at the new facility should be approximately 30% lower than our current facility. With minimal improvements, the new facility is anticipated to handle over 10 megawatts (mw) of power and can potentially house up to 40,000 TH/s of mining hardware. The Company launched a new website to demonstrate its planned services, which includes a new multi-signature secure bitcoin storage solution as a next step in the build-out of its universal ecosystem. "We're seizing market opportunities created by the recent downturn in bitcoin price and expanding accordingly. At the current price of bitcoin, cost structure matters, and we believe we'll have one of the lowest cost mining operations in the industry," says BTCS CEO Charles Allen. Without any further expansion, the Company believes their mining efforts should yield at least 350 bitcoins in the first quarter of 2015. Additionally, the Company agreed to issue 250,000 shares of its common stock to Spondoolies as partial compensation for the equipment. Charles Kiser, the Company's Executive Vice President, voluntarily agreed to the redemption of 250,000 shares of his common stock for $2,500 such that the share issuance to Spondoolies will result in no additional dilution to the Company's public shareholders. "We're thrilled to be working with Spondoolies as we seek to increase our capacity beyond 10,000 TH/s and 10 mw," said Allen. Spondoolies- CEO Guy Corem commented, "Mining hardware companies should be prepared for market changes as part of their strategy. At Spondoolies, we've anticipated a full range of market scenarios such as the current bitcoin price decline and volatility, and are pleased to partner with an innovative company like BTCS." Along with the expansion of its mining operations, BTCS released a new website, which includes a beta version of a multi-signature secure bitcoin storage solution built on Gem.co's multi-signature security platform. The beta version of the storage solution is currently only accessible by invitation. Additionally, BTCS is the only strategic investor in Gem. "It was clear to us that BTCS was focused on offering a bitcoin storage solution that was both innovative and secure, and we were thrilled they chose Gem's multi-sig platform to deliver this unique solution to their customers," said Gem CEO and Founder Micah Winkelspecht. The Company has also released an updated corporate presentation which can be found here:http://investors.btcs.com/BTCS_Corporate_Presentation_January_2015.pdf. About BTCS:BTCS plans to build a universal digital currency platform with the goal of enabling users to engage in the digital currency ecosystem through one point of access. We currently operate our public beta site (www.btcs.com) where consumers can purchase products using digital currency such as bitcoin, litecoin and dogecoin, by searching through a selection of over 250,000 items. We provide our customers competitive pricing options from 256 retailers through our "Intelligent Shopping Engine." All ecommerce customer orders are fulfilled by third party vendors. We plan to use our ecommerce platform as a customer on-ramp for a broader digital currency platform. We have been actively partnering with strategic digital currency companies who have technologies, services or products that are complementary to our business strategy by making investments in them and integrating with them. Forward Looking Statements:Certain statements in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "predict," "forecast," "project," "plan," "intend" or similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. While the Company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation those set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, not limited to Risk Factors relating to its digital currency business contained therein. Thus, actual results could be materially different. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. || Professional Bitcoin Trading Tool Coinigy Receives $100,000 in Seed Funding, Aims to Build Universal Bitcoin Exchange API: Milwaukee, WI, Professional Bitcoin Trading Platform Coinigy has Received $100,000 in Seed Funding; Coinigy Already Allows Users to Trade Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies on up to 24 Exchanges Simultaneously and is Developing a Universal Exchange API Allowing for Real-Time Data, Trading and Analysis Across all Markets MILWAUKEE, WI / ACCESSWIRE / March 17, 2015 /Wisconsin-based Bitcoin exchange hubCoinigy is pleased to announce a total of $100,000 in seed funding. The funds will be used to improve a multitude of existing professional Bitcoin trading services as well as supporting development of a new universal exchange API. Users can already access a total of 24 Bitcoin exchanges through one interface and a large number of key functions such as trading and portfolio management tools, a news feed, advanced market graphs and technical indicators; thus granting traders laser-like insight into the cryptocurrency markets. Coinigy's Universal Exchange API will allow anyone to fetch, process and analyze real-time trade data across all supported exchanges. The new API will also support trading across multiple exchange accounts from one system, promoting market liquidity and allowing for instant arbitrage, advanced order types, and indicator-triggered ordering. This new service will act as a one-stop shop for anyone interested in building their own automated trading bots or services requiring cryptocurrency market data. Some of Coinigy's exclusive features include: low-latency professional-grade Bitcoin charting and data tools, more than 60 technical indicators, drawing tools, and real-time data feeds across all devices. Portfolio monitoring allows users to track gains across all exchanges and monitor public wallet addresses in Bitcoin and hundreds of alternative cryptocurrencies. The cloud basedCoinigy platform guarantees 99% uptime. All services and cryptocurrency trading tools will be available on iOS and Android together with automatic desktop, email and SMS alert functions. Coinigy ensures user safety with a multi-tiered server architecture and fully encrypted user data. Users attach their existing cryptocurrency exchange accounts to Coinigy and funds stay safely inside the exchange itself.For more information about us, please visithttps://www.coinigy.com. Contact Info:Name: Derek UrbenEmail:derek@coinigy.comOrganization: Coinigy IncAddress: Coinigy Inc, 1127 N 115th St #1, Milwaukee, WI 53226Phone: (414) 301-2289 SOURCE: Coinigy Inc || Bitcoin And Tax Season: What You Should Know: Though bitcoin has had a volatile year, the cryptocurrency’s popularity is still growing quickly as more and more users create digital wallets to buy and sell the currency. However with tax season on the horizon, questions regarding the Internal Revenue Services’ treatment of bitcoin are beginning to arise. A Complicated Affair Instead of recognizing bitcoin as a foreign currency, tax rules separate bitcoins which have been mined from those that have been bought as different assets. For investors who bought their bitcoins, the cryptocurrency is considered property and taxed as such.Mined bitcoinsare taxed based on the gains or losses the miner realizes when the currency is sold. So miners holding on to their bitcoins wouldn’t have to pay any taxes until they sold their currency. Paper Trail The IRS regulations are increasingly more complicated because they require bitcoin holders to havea record of their transactions. Since bitcoins are treated as property under current tax law, owners will need details as to where and when the currency was purchased in order to state its value. Additionally, if a person then uses those bitcoins to make a purchase, they will need to track the value at the time of sale. Related Link:Bitcoin Integration Gets Easier The Beginning Of A New Era While this year’s tax laws may seem confusing, many expect to see things get even trickier in the years to come. Since bitcoin has only just emerged as a viable currency, it will take time for the government to catch up with tax rules. If the currency becomes widely popular in the coming years, the IRS will probably streamline its tax rules to make it easier for bitcoin users to declare their earnings, but that day is likely a long way off. See more from Benzinga • Lawmakers Push For Federal Law To Align With States' Marijuana Legalization • Uber Makes The Best Of A Ban In Spain • When It Comes To Oil, Markets Are Asking, 'Are We There Yet?' © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || What The World's Richest Person Thinks Of Bitcoin: Bill Gates on Wednesday gave his thoughts onbitcoinand digital currencies in aRedditAsk Me Anything (AMA) session Gates commented that “Bitcoin is an exciting new technology” and that digital currencies are a part of his Foundation’s work in connecting banking services to the poor. Bill Gates’ Foundation, however, does not utilize bitcoin for two reasons. “One is that the poor shouldn't have a currency whose value goes up and down a lot compared to their local currency. Second is that if a mistake is made in who you pay then you need to be able to reverse it so anonymity wouldn't work.” Related Link: Bill Gates On Microsoft: 'More Progress Than Ever In Next 30 Years' The billionaire philanthropist did note that financial transactions will become cheaper using digital currencies and “Bitcoin related approaches” although ensuring “that it doesn't help terrorists is a challenge for all new technology.” Progress is being made in getting digital currencies adopted in poor countries, according to Gates, and he is “hoping to have India and Nigeria going in the next 2 years if things go well." Kenya, Tanzania and Bangladesh still need improvements but “have grown a lot,” said Gates. See more from Benzinga • General Growth Properties Beats On Q4 Revenue • Vertex Pharmaceuticals Beats Q4 Revenue Expectations • How 3 Technical Experts Are Preparing For Facebook Earnings © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || How tech trials force a choice between bad people and bad law: Of course Ross Ulbricht was guilty. Despite his far-fetched claims of mistaken identity, a New Yorkjury confirmedthe obvious: that Ulbricht (aka Dread Pirate Roberts) was the criminal mastermind who took on a villain’s name, and became rich by running an online marketplace that sold any drug imaginable. All the same, protestors on the internet and at the courthouse still insisted Ulbricht was innocent. More broadly, the Dread Pirate (who is now awaiting sentencing) also enjoyed sympathy from many in the tech press, which often downplayed the bad things he did, and instead cast the FBI as the villain in the case. Such moral indulgence is odd, and doesn’t extend to Ulbricht alone. Other tech rogues, including a corpulent charlatan and a Nazi sadist, also enjoy public sympathy. But why? A big part of it may lie with the government’s heavy-handed approach to internet-related crime. Bad people Ross Ulbricht didn’t start out bad. Indeed, accounts of hispast lifefrom his mother and Ulbricht reveal a very different sort of person: an Eagle Scout, and then a bright and sensitive physics student who worked hard to build a used books company. But then he became someone else. He started the Silk Road marketplace, which began as a relatively benign forum for finding magic mushrooms, but then devolved into a free-wheeling playground for hard drugs, forged documents and prostitution. The notorious bazaar also changed Ulbricht himself: FBI evidence from a seized laptop suggests that he attempted to hire hit mento murderthose he believed had betrayed him (the “hit men” turned out to be government agents but Ulbricht believed they were real). This tragic arc, which saw the Eagle Scout become the Dread Pirate Roberts, may explain some of the sympathy for Ulbricht. But that’s hardly the case for Weev, another famous figure in internet circles who is also facing prosecution by the Justice Department. Weev, whose real name is Andrew Auernheimer, wassentencedto three years in prison for what the government describes as a hack on AT&T. But he is better known for his other legacy as one of the cruelest trolls on the internet, whose antics haveexposed womento death threats. And last year, Weedreinvented himselfas a Jew-hating White Supremacist. Despite all this, many tech outlets hailed an appeals court decision last year to vacate Weev’s conviction on the hacking charges on procedural grounds, and to release him from prison. And while Weev doesn’t exactly enjoy public sympathy,storiesof hislegal battleoften elide the bad things he has done. Other antiheroes of the tech worlds include Julian Assange, theself-aggrandizingWikileaks leader who faces sexual assault accusations in Sweden, and outlaw music mogul Kim Dotcom. Dotcom has done a litany of bad things, including making millions from purloined movies and allegedlyrattingon his rivals, but he is still hugely popular with many internet communities. The300-pound fugitiveis even dabbling in mainstreampolitics in New Zealand, where he is living while he fights U.S. efforts to extradite him to face multiple criminal charges. The celebrity-style adulation that Dotcom and the others receive is no doubt frustrating for the law enforcement officials trying to convict them. The reason for it, however, is not just because the outlaws are good at gulling the public (though that’s part of it), but because of people’s legitimate misgivings about the laws that the U.S. is using to prosecute them. Bad laws Aaron Swatrz was a genius so beloved in the tech community that a film-maker made an acclaimed movie about him called “The Internet’s Own Boy.” But he was also a criminal in the eyes of the government, and some believe the Justice Department’s relentless effort to prosecute led the 26-year-old Swartz tocommit suicidein his Brooklyn apartment two years ago. What crime led to this end? In 2009, Swartz used MIT computers to download millions of academic articles from a database called JSTOR – articles whose authors are typically unpaid, but that are licensed to universities at high fees. His action may have been ill-advised, but hardly amounts to a serious crime. Nonetheless, the Justice Departmentcame at Swartzwith a law called theComputer Fraud and Abuse Actthat gave prosecutors discretion to seek a prison term of 35 years and a $1 million fine. The CFAA is a clumsy statute dating from long ago that relies on vague concepts like “unauthorized access,” and lawmakers have tried to reform it. Yet those efforts have so far failed, and the Justice Department keeps using it in all sorts of cases — including that of Weev. In the government’s view, Weev committed illegal hacking under the CFAA when he “accessed” the AT&T website to demonstrate a security flaw that spat out private email addresses. Skeptics, however, point out that Weev simply entered information into a public website available to anyone with an internet browser, and ask how this amounts to hacking. The CFAA also grounded one of the seven charges– “conspiracy to commit hacking” — on which Ross Ulbricht was convicted, although that charge was overshadowed by other elements of the trial (includinga theorythat the government itself had violated the CFAA.) Meanwhile, the CFAA is hardly the only questionable law that is at issue in tech-related prosecutions. Before the Silk Road case, Ulbricht’s mother madea forceful argumentthat her son’s prosecution should be seen through the lens of systemic abuse by the Justice Department of surveillance and drug laws. She has a point: whatever harms caused by Silk Road drug deals, they pale in comparison to the destruction wrought by America’s ruinous “war on drugs.” As for Kim Dotcom, his use of a mass piracy company to get rich is impossible to justify. But so too are many aspects of U.S. copyright laws, whoseabsurd termsand harsh penalties serve to benefit a narrow sector of the entertainment industry at the expense of the general public. Is it a surprise that knee-jerk attitudes to digital media by government and industry has led some to cheer for Dotcom instead of the industry that wants him prosecuted? The hard choice The cases against Ulbricht, Weev and Dotcom raise a dilemma because they can force us to choose between supporting a bad person or a bad law. A choice to convict such men may serve to legitimize unjust laws, while exonerating them amounts to giving them a free pass for unacceptable actions. The cases can be harder still since they often involve technology (like TOR, peer-to-peer tools and bitcoin) that is unfamiliar to average people, but that the government often characterizes as inherently suspicious and related to “hacking.” All of this helps to explain why the tech community can embrace antiheroes over Justice Department prosecutors who are apt to employ every legal tool at their disposal — even if it is one that is harsh or outdated. The solution then is to give the prosecutors better tools, and not simply more of them. If the U.S. government is going to retain credibility in its effort to go after what it sees as online bad guys, it will have to do a better job of defining crime, and matching crime to punishment. This story was updated on 2/15 to replace the word “charges” with “accusations” to describe the sexual assaultallegationsagainst Assange. Image copyrightWikipedia. Related research and analysis from Gigaom Research:Subscriber content.Sign up for a free trial. • Bitcoin: why digital currency is the future financial system • The software-defined data center shifts to the enterprise • How utilities are using modern data analytics More From paidContent.org • The Internet of Things has a new home on Gigaom Research || Your first trade for Tuesday, February 17: The " Fast Money " traders gave their final trades of the day. Tim Seymour was a buyer of XME (NYSE Arca: XME) . Brian Kelly was a buyer of GG (Toronto Stock Exchange: G-CA) on his prediction the dollar could see a correction. Steve Grasso was a buyer of CPB (NYSE: CPB) . Guy Adami was a buyer of CERN. (NASDAQ: CERN) Trader disclosure: On February 13, 2015, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. Steve Grasso is long AAPL, BA, CLVS, EVGN, FB, GDX, GOOGL, IMMR, KBH, KDUS, MHY, MJNA, NVIV, PFE, POT, SO, T, TMUS, TWTR, YHOO, firm is long FCX, NE, NEM, VALE, RIG, OXY, USO, AMZN, kids are long EFG, EFA, EWJ, IJR, SPY. Brian Kelly is long BTC=, US Dollar, GLD, CTRL calls, HYG puts, BBRY call spreads, TLT, he is short EWA, EWG, EWQ, EWZ, EWW, Australian Dollar, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Yuan. Tim Seymour is long AAPL, BAC, BX, C, DIS, F, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, SUNE, Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, BX, CCU, DSKY, KNDI, MCD, NKE, NOK, SINA, SBUX, TSL, VIP . || Alternet Systems Advances Strategic Initiative to Become a Leading Global Digital Currency Exchange Through OneMarket: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Feb 12, 2015) -Alternet Systems, Inc.(OTCQB:ALYI) (the "Company"), a business to business facilitator for digital currency and mobile commerce services in the digital asset and virtual currency ecosystem, today announced that the Company continues to make progress on their strategic initiative to become a leading global digital currency exchange through its wholly-owned subsidiary OneMarket (www.onemarket.net). The Company continues to aggressively pursue the highly anticipated New York State BitLicense, which will further facilitate a global exchange roll-up strategy. In July of 2014, the New York Department of Financial Services revealed its regulatory framework, stating that businesses that receive, transmit, store, exchange, issue or convert virtual currency for customers will need to be licensed. New York State's top financial regulator, Benjamin Lawsky, the superintendent of the state's Department of Financial Services recently stated that he hoped to approve the first companies early this year according to the New York Times. Coinbase, a leading industry wallet service, recently announced a $75 million funding which included the New York Stock Exchange and became the first licensed U.S. based Bitcoin exchange approved to operate as an exchange in 24 states. The Company believes that this was an important industry milestone and has positive commercial implications for other companies such as Alternet Systems going forward. Alternet Systems, through OneMarket, is setting the agreements, plans and procedures in place to become a global digital currency exchange. In doing so, OneMarket will buy/sell digital currency, foreign currencies and commodities. Additionally, OneMarket will offer an entire suite of financial and payment consumer products designed for digital and fiat currencies such as a debit and credit card. Henryk Dabrowski, CEO of Alternet Systems, stated, "Coinbase's recent funding and launch of the first licensed Bitcoin exchange was an important signal to investors of the commercial opportunities in the growing market for digital assets. Alternet continues our aggressive pursuit of a license in New York State, working closely with their regulators, as we are also evaluating several global opportunities to utilize our public company platform and strong industry relationships to possibly consummate strategic acquisitions of currency exchanges. It is our intent to continue pursuing a strategy of cooperation with regulators so that when we are granted permission we have put all the necessary building blocks in place to take the maximum advantage of our ability to monetize." About Alternet Systems, Inc.:Alternet Systems, Inc. is an enterprise accelerator company focused on the complementary, high-growth markets of Digital Currency and Mobile and Internet Commerce products and services. Through its subsidiaries, Alternet captures and converts extraordinary growth opportunities surrounding the explosion of newly adapted Internet technologies and platforms. More information about Alternet and its subsidiaries can be found atwww.alternetsystems.comand by following the company on Twitterwww.twitter.com/alternetsystems. Safe Harbor Statement:Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the Company, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. || Bitcoin Exchange itBit says it won part of bitcoin auction: NEW YORK (Reuters) - - Bitcoin exchange itBit on Tuesday said it had won part of the U.S. government's third auction of bitcoins seized from Ross Ulbricht, who was convicted last month of operating black market website Silk Road. The company said it won 3,000 of the 50,000 bitcoins auctioned last week by the U.S. Marshals Service. The Marshals Service said earlier on Tuesday there are two other unidentified winners, which took 27,000 and 20,000 coins respectively. In late trading on Tuesday, bitcoin was up 1.8 percent at $292.19 (BTC=BTSP). That put the value of the 50,000 bitcoins auctioned at $14.6 million. ItBit was founded in 2012 as a global exchange for institutional and retail investors. It has offices in New York and Singapore. Last week's auction attracted 34 bids from 14 registered bidders. That was more than the last bitcoin auction in December when just 11 buyers submitted 27 bids. The first auction in June attracted 45 bidders and 63 bids. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Andrew Hay) || Coinbase Attack Takes Shine Off Exchange Enthusiasm: Bitcoin prices lost roughly 6 percent on Wednesday, February 4, as worries about the currency’s security resurfaced. The cryptocurrency was trading near $225 on Thursday morning as investors’ enthusiasm about Coinbase’s recently unveiled regulated exchange was replaced by skepticism amid security breach reports. Coinbase's Climb To Success At the end of January , Coinbase made history by rolling out the U.S.’s first regulated bitcoin exchange in several states. The company promised to make buying and selling the cryptocurrency safe and easy for the general public, and was touted a major success in bringing bitcoin . to the masses and erasing some of the mistrust stemming from Mt. Gox’s collapse in 2014. Attack A Fall From Grace? However, the exchange suffered its first setback this week after the company’s security team alerted users of a phishing attack that compromised its customers’ bitcoin wallets. Some of the exchange’s users received an email that prompted them to log into their accounts, which allowed another application to remove bitcoins from their account. Related Link: Is Bitcoin Too Big To Fail? How Big Was The Attack? Coinbase has said the attack was carried out on a relatively small scale and that the company is working to contact all users who were involved. Additionally, Coinbase has promised to refund affected customers and will roll out new tools to help its customers protect themselves from future attacks. It is unclear whether or not Coinbase will be paying out-of-pocket for this incident; the company has been insured against hacking and theft, but the attack could be considered user negligence. It remains to be seen whether Coinbase’s swift handling of the problem will be enough to maintain customers’ trust and keep them from backing away from using bitcoin, as well as the company’s exchange. See more from Benzinga Widening Trade Gap Renews Debate Over Pacific Trade Agreement Market Uncertainty Is A Golden Opportunity For Some Bitcoin Usage To Plummet, Report Says © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] ★MONA/JPY 6~8【もなっくす】 8.4~8.5【etwings】 ★MONA/BTC 0.00028~0.00028【AllCoin】 0.00028~0.00031【もなとれ】 0.00028~0.00030【bittrex】 00:30現在 || 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes: $294.52/$295.51 #Bitstamp $290.49/$291.00 #BTCe ⇢$-5.02/$-3.52 $296.47/$296.55 #Coinbase ⇢$0.96/$2.03 || 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes: $281.06/$283.00 #Bitstamp $275.36/$277.77 #BTCe ⇢$-7.64/$-3.29 $283.54/$285.55 #Coinbase ⇢$0.54/$4.49 || Current price: 247.58$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-03-01 08:00:03 EST || Current price: 157.09£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2015-02-18 13:00:24 GMT || 2015年3月5日 01:00:06 btc_jpy 直近[last]:34000円 買[bid]:34000円 売[ask]:34880円 高値[high]:34900円 安値[low]:32746円 API by etwings || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 18633.00 INR Sell : 18032.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin || $258.71 at 04:00 UTC [24h Range: $245.00 - $260.25 Volume: 9837 BTC] || Bitcoin traded at $278.98 USD on BTC-e at 12:00 AM Pacific Time || $238.38 at 01:30 UTC [24h Range: $236.00 - $240.15 Volume: 3703 BTC]
Trend: up || Prices: 245.60, 246.20, 248.53, 247.03, 252.80, 242.71, 247.53, 244.22, 247.27, 253.01
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-02-09] BTC Price: 994.38, BTC RSI: 55.07 Gold Price: 1235.10, Gold RSI: 67.37 Oil Price: 53.00, Oil RSI: 52.17 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Facebook, Amazon, and Google Have Rebounded from Donald Trump Dump: Donald Trump hasn’t declawed the FANG stocks for good, it seems. Stock market investors have recently been caught up in a rally that has become known as the Trump Bump : Stocks have mostly zoomed forward since Trump won the election, putting the Dow Jones industrial average within striking distance of 20,000 for the first time ever. But there are some notable companies that experienced more of a Trump Dump. That seems to be changing in the early days of 2017. The Nasdaq has risen nearly 3% in the first five trading days of this year, outpacing both the Dow, up only about 0.7%, and the S&P 500, up 1.5%. Indeed, the Nasdaq was the only major U.S. stock index to rise Monday, setting a new record high for the third trading day in a row. The reasons: A number of technology companies that were among some of investors’ most hated stocks in 2016, especially since Trump became president elect, have recently been on a rapid rebound, including Facebook , , , and . The group of so-called FANG stocks all fell in the wake of Trump’s election late last year (with Facebook stock down more than 7%), leading some high-profile investors such as DoubleLine CEO Jeffrey Gundlach to swear them off entirely. Now, however, all four companies have more than recovered their post-Trump losses. Facebook stock has already gained nearly 9% in 2017, while shares of Amazon and Netflix are both up more than 6%. Google’s stock is up almost 5% so far this year. They’re not alone. Nasdaq stocks including Tesla and Yahoo have also kicked off 2017 strong, with Tesla shares returning nearly 8% and Yahoo stock up more than 7%. Chinese tech giant Baidu , also listed on the Nasdaq, has gained more than 8% so far this year. It’s hard to say exactly why the FANG stocks and other tech companies have bounced back so forcefully in early 2017, or if the trend will continue. After all, January stock performance has recently been a poor indicator of how the market will act for the rest of the year. Story continues For now, investors may simply be hoping that President Trump won’t be as bad for tech companies as some had expected. Facebook, for one, has already taken steps to address concerns over fake news stories that had hurt the tech stock following Trump’s election. Still, it isn’t simply a reversal of behavior among stocks that had surged or sank after the November election. stock, which fell after Trump won, has fallen slightly further in 2017. And stock, the big winner of the Trump rally , is still rising. But as least for now, investors are biting into technology FANG stocks once again. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com President Obama Was Officially Terrible For Hedge Funds Microsoft and Qualcomm Are Backing This Israeli Security Startup Studio Here's Why Bitcoin's Price Continues to Plunge How a China Crackdown Caused Bitcoin's Price to Plunge Verizon Is Still on the Fence About the Yahoo Deal || First Bitcoin Capital Adds Innovative Automated Check Cashing ATM Solution for Cannabis Dispensaries’ Clientele: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 12, 2017 / FIRST BITCOIN CAPITAL CORP. (OTC PINK: BITCF), a leading bitcoin and cryptocurrency developer, specializing in both blockchain and online merchant payment solutions for medical marijuana dispensaries and other high-risk merchant accounts and services, today announced the signing of an Exclusive Master Distributor Agreement to distribute a new type of fully automated check cashing ATM designed for use in medical cannabis dispensaries for the State of California. BITCF will add this check cashing ATM service to complete a full suite of financial services for the medical marijuana industry: merchant processing and POS solutions through its alliance network, a fully compliant, user friendly solution to accept Credit and Debit Cards through traditional Merchant Card Processing networks. The check cashing ATMs marketing efforts will be focused toward larger established medical marijuana dispensaries. Fees for the check cashing services will be competitive. Dispensary customers using the service will be able to cash all types of checks: government issued checks, payroll checks and other types. Cannabis dispensaries service all kinds of customers. Many of those are unbanked and may need to cash checks before purchasing. Offering check cashing services on premises to this group of customers will be a very attractive way to increase revenues, as dispensary owners are looking for new ways to draw more customers because of check cashing convenience. According to FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) recent 2015 National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households, indicates that more than 7 percent of households in the United States were unbanked in 2015. This proportion represents approximately 9.0 million households. An additional 19.9 percent of U.S. households (24.5 million) were underbanked, meaning that the household had a checking or savings account but also obtained financial products and services outside of the banking system. By offering check cashing, our ATM Division expects that dispensaries will increase their customer base by 18%. Story continues BITCF uses sophisticated fully automated risk analysis algorithms and underwriting procedures, resulting in 100% guarantee to the dispensary owners. Summary of benefits of our services for the cannabis dispensaries and their customers: Any types of checks can be cashed, including Payroll checks, Insurance checks, Personal checks, business checks, money orders, government issued checks and the funds can be credited to the Dispensaries bank account instead of their client pulling out and paying in cash. Regulatory Compliance: The check cashing ATM will be installed pre-programmed to comply with all state, local federal regulations in California. First Bitcoin is also developing a system that will enable dispensaries to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a form of legal payment. Stater of California has already enacted legislation that makes Bitcoin and similar digital currencies legal tender. BITCF has developed specific programs to meet the unique needs of the medical cannabis industry. Offering merchant services at competitive rates for businesses operating legally under state law of California and Oregon, the company can now provide financial services not typically available from conventional banks. While legalization of marijuana in many forms – and in many states – garnered over $5 billion dollars in 2016, the sums are expected to grow for 2017. More innovative and unique products are being created, and the stigma that once surrounded cannabis is slowly fading. These changes are helping the medical cannabis industry to prosper now that federal policies allow dispensaries to sell, grow, or possess cannabis while compliant with state laws. BITCF will only provide these services where federal policies allow our business model to proceed for dispensaries that are fully compliant with state and country laws, rules and regulations. Should your dispensary be interested in these services please contact us by email: info@bitcoincapitalcorp.com About the company: First Bitcoin Capital is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, financial processing services and the digital currency exchange- www.CoinQX.com. We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges) we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital and blockchain technologies. At this time the Company owns and operates the following digital assets. www.CoinQX.com cryptocurrency exchange, registered with FINCEN. www.iCoiNEWS.com real time cryptocurrency and bitcoin news site. www.BITminer.cc providing mining pool management services. www.2016coin.org online daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL, $GARY& $BURN -commemorative presidential election coins. www.bitcannpay.com Financial and merchant services for medical cannabis dispensaries. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file at www.OTCMarkets.com. Contact us via: info@bitcoincapitalcorp.com or visit http://www.bitcoincapitalcorp.com SOURCE: First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || Award Winning Flow Lend Issues Over US$1M in Mobile Credit in Less than Six Months: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Dec 20, 2016) -Flowhas been keeping its prepaid mobile customers connected with its cashless mobile top-up app,Flow Lend, which advanced more than US$1Million in less than six months in mobile credit -- and, in partnership withJUVO, won theMondato Innovation Award for Digital Finance and Commerce (DFC)earlier this month. James McElvanna, VP Products,Cable and Wireless, operator of Flow said, "We are proud to have partnered with JUVO to develop an app that addresses the needs of our customers, which in this case is anytime, anywhere access. Since many of our prepaid customers don't use credit cards, and usually rely on in-store cash top ups, Flow Lend gives them the assurance that they can always stay connected, even when they are out of cash and can't make it to a top-up station. We're happy to provide this convenient option to our customers, and we're honoured to be recognized for our efforts and investment in technology that has transformed our customers' experience." Steve Polsky, Founder and CEO of JUVO said, "C&W is a true partner and we are thrilled to be working with their team to offer Flow customers real time access to credit to help them stay connected. Receiving the Mondato Innovation Award, along with the high volume of credit advances issued via Flow Lend, reaffirms the real need for this solution -- and we're excited to provide the Identity Scoring technology that powers it." All prepaid mobile customers who top up regularly are eligible for credit advance from Flow Lend. The app tracks the frequency of top ups and other usage patterns to determine which customers have met the requirements for an advance. Once approved, customers can use Flow Lend to request instant, interest-free credit when they're running low. The loan amount must be repaid within 30 days via any regular Flow top up method. By consistently paying back on time, they can gradually borrow more and never have to worry about running out of credit. "We are addressing a real need for many of our customers who may have little or no credit and may be caught in a situation where they desperately need to be in contact," said McElvanna, highlighting the app's benefits. "For example, the mother who needs to call the doctor's office to make an appointment for her sick child no longer has to wait until she has the cash to go buy credit; the teenager who's nearing a low balance late at night doesn't have to leave the comfort and security of his/her home to visit a top up centre. Regardless of the circumstance, Flow Lend is available to our customers, anytime, anywhere." Flow Lend isavailable in all Flow's mobile markets across the regionfor bothAndroidandiOSsmartphones. EDITORS NOTE:About Mondato Innovation Award for Digital Finance and Commerce (DFC)The Mondato Awardswere created to recognize excellence and innovation in Digital Finance and Commerce (MFC) andDigital Finance Plus (DF+). The winners represent some of the most innovative DFC and DF+ solutions from emerging startups, as well as established companies paving new paths in the industry. C&W Communications in partnership with Juvo received the 2016 award. Juvo was founded with an overarching vision: to establish financial identities for the billions of people worldwide who are creditworthy, yet financially excluded. In partnership with mobile network operators, Juvo's proprietary Identity Scoring technology uses data science, machine learning and game mechanics to create an identity-based relationship with anonymous prepaid users, opening up access to otherwise unattainable mobile financial services. Juvo is a privately held company backed by global business leaders and luminaries in the world of tech, mobile and finance. Its executive team comprises accomplished industry leaders across the data science, consumer internet, financial services and mobile telecom fields. Headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Miami, London, Buenos Aires, Manila, Jakarta and Hanoi, Juvo has a reach of over 100 million subscribers across four continents and is deployed in 23 countries. For more information, follow us onTwitterorLinkedIn, or find us atwww.juvo.com All trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners. About C&W CommunicationsCWC is a full-service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, CWC provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. CWC also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more atwww.cwc.com, or follow C&W onLinkedIn,FacebookorTwitter. About Liberty GlobalLiberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enable us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 59 million television, broadband, internet, and telephony services. We also serve 11 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group (NASDAQ:LBTYA) (NASDAQ:LBTYB) and (NASDAQ:LBTYK) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group (NASDAQ:LILA) and (NASDAQ:LILAK) (OTC PINK:LILAB), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visitwww.libertyglobal.com. Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3093327Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3093322Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3093330 || Bitcoin extends losses, slides another 12 pct on China warning: LONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Bitcoin plunged another 12 percent on Friday after China's central bank urged investors to take a rational approach to the digital currency, which has is on track for its heaviest two-day falls in two years. Bitcoin had gained more than 40 percent in two weeks to hit a three-year high of $1,139.89 on Wednesday, just shy of its all-time record of $1,163 on the Europe-based Bitstamp exchange . But the digital currency - which has shown an inverse correlation to the Chinese yuan in recent months - plunged as the yuan soared on Thursday, falling as much as 20 percent at one point, before closing the day around 10 percent down on the day. On Friday it fell to $887, having lost almost a quarter of its value since Wednesday's peak. Bitcoin prices had showed abnormal fluctuations, the Shanghai head office of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a notice. It stressed bitcoin is not a currency and cannot be circulated as a real currency in the market. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; editing by Sujata Rao) || Bitcoin's total value hits record high above $14 billion: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - The total value of all bitcoins in circulation hit a record high above $14 billion on Thursday, as the web-based digital currency jumped 5 percent on the day to its highest levels in three years after more than doubling in price this year. The price of one bitcoin reached $875 on the Europe-based Bitstamp exchange, its strongest level since January 2014, putting the cryptocurrency on track for its best daily performance in six months. That compared with levels around $435 at the start of the year, with many experts linking bitcoin's rise with the steady depreciation of the Chinese yuan, which has slid almost 7 percent this year. Data shows the majority of bitcoin trading is done in China, so any increase in demand from there tends to have a significant impact on the price. Bitcoin is a web-based "cryptocurrency" that can move money across the globe quickly and anonymously with no need for a central authority. That makes it attractive to those wanting to get around capital controls, such as China's. The digital currency is still some way off the peaks it scaled in late 2013, when it traded as high as $1,163 on the Bitstamp exchange. But because more bitcoins continue to be added to the system, currently at a rate of 12.5 every 10 minutes, its total value - or "market cap" - on Thursday surpassed the 2013 peak of around $14.01 billion. That puts its total value at around the same as that of an average FTSE 100 company. Charles Hayter, founder of data analysis website Cryptocompare, said bitcoin had been helped higher by demonetisation in India, and by global political uncertainty. "If that trend continues, bitcoin is a good thematic play on the fracturing of our global norms as a flight to safety," he said. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly, editing by Nigel Stephenson) || Big China bitcoin exchange says no government pressure on outflows: By John Ruwitch SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The head of a major bitcoin exchange in China says few people there use the cryptocurrency to get around rules on how much money they can take out of the country, and despite a publicized meeting with the central bank last week the exchange, BTCC, hasn't been told explicitly to check capital outflows. Bitcoin's price took a steep dive on Friday after China's central bank cautioned investors to take a rational and careful approach to investing in the digital currency. The price had surged to record highs. The central bank's comments come as Beijing escalates a campaign to check capital outflows and slow the depreciation of the yuan currency <CNY=CFXS>, which lost nearly 7 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar last year. With bitcoin's soaring price and the relative anonymity it affords, some believe the digital currency was becoming an attractive option for tech-savvy Chinese to hedge against the yuan and circumvent rules that limit individuals to $50,000 of foreign exchange each year. The Shanghai office of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said on Friday it had met with BTCC to understand the platform's operations, highlight the risks, remind the exchange to abide by the law, and "urge the platform to carry out self-examination and corresponding clean-up and rectification" according to law. Asked if BTCC had received direct pressure on outflows, CEO Bobby Lee, who founded BTCC in 2011, said: "No. Not as of yet... Nothing verbal or written to us." In Beijing, the PBOC told two of China's other big bitcoin exchanges, Huobi and OKCoin, not to mention the depreciating yuan when advertising their platforms, the influential news outlet Caixin said, citing people familiar with the meeting. Star Xu, CEO and founder of OKCoin, confirmed there had been a meeting of the PBOC and leading bitcoin exchanges on Friday to discuss the operation of trading platforms. Story continues "The industry can benefit from balanced, risk-based regulation and/or oversight, and we look forward to further constructive discussions with the regulators and industry participants," Xu told Reuters in an emailed comment. Huobi's chief operating officer Zhu Jiawei said in an emailed response to Reuters queries that Huobi plans to work with other bitcoin firms to establish an alliance and rules to self-govern the industry. While it's possible to buy bitcoin with yuan and then sell it abroad for a foreign currency, BTCC's Lee said "to be honest, not many" people were doing it because of the cost. The renminbi price of bitcoin carries a premium to the price in other currencies, he noted. In addition, buy or sell orders in the 100,000 yuan ($14,423) to 1 million yuan ($144,233) range, and up, would influence the bitcoin spot price and affect the transaction. "For that range, you're not going to be able to do it at a good rate. You're going to lose 10 percent of your money," Lee said. "Maybe the individual household might buy 20,000 more dollars worth of bitcoin than their $50,000 (forex) quota, but that's a drop in the bucket." Still, Lee said various indicators, like active trading accounts, new users, actual deposits and withdrawals, were "very active" in China, and some key BTCC metrics were at "all-time highs", though he declined to be more specific. NOT LEGAL TENDER Bitcoin is not regulated in China, but the PBOC has declared it is not legal tender, and is instead a "virtual good", Lee said. That puts it in the same category as other goods. "If I pack a suitcase and take a plane to the United States, do the clothes, does the computer in my suitcase, does the watch I wear count towards capital flight?" he said. "Where do you draw the line?" He said no new or planned rules regarding bitcoin were discussed in the latest meeting with the PBOC, and he estimates it will be two to three years before China regulates bitcoin. In a statement on its website, BTCC, which calls itself the world's longest running bitcoin exchange, said it regularly meets with the PBOC and "work(s) closely with them to ensure that we are operating in accordance with the laws and regulations of China." Exchanges in China say they account for more than 90 percent of global bitcoin trading, which would help explain why a shift in Chinese demand would sharply affect the price. But many bitcoin experts say Chinese exchanges overstate their volumes in the digital currency, and attribute sharp moves to speculation by, for example, U.S.-based hedge funds. (Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Ian Geoghegan) || First Bitcoin Capital Adds Innovative Automated Check Cashing ATM Solution for Cannabis Dispensaries’ Clientele: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 12, 2017 /FIRST BITCOIN CAPITAL CORP. (OTC PINK: BITCF), a leading bitcoin and cryptocurrency developer, specializing in both blockchain and online merchant payment solutions for medical marijuana dispensaries and other high-risk merchant accounts and services, today announced the signing of an Exclusive Master Distributor Agreement to distribute a new type of fully automated check cashing ATM designed for use in medical cannabis dispensaries for the State of California. BITCF will add this check cashing ATM service to complete a full suite of financial services for the medical marijuana industry: merchant processing and POS solutions through its alliance network, a fully compliant, user friendly solution to accept Credit and Debit Cards through traditional Merchant Card Processing networks. The check cashing ATMs marketing efforts will be focused toward larger established medical marijuana dispensaries. Fees for the check cashing services will be competitive. Dispensary customers using the service will be able to cash all types of checks: government issued checks, payroll checks and other types. Cannabis dispensaries service all kinds of customers. Many of those are unbanked and may need to cash checks before purchasing. Offering check cashing services on premises to this group of customers will be a very attractive way to increase revenues, as dispensary owners are looking for new ways to draw more customers because of check cashing convenience. According to FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) recent 2015 National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households, indicates that more than 7 percent of households in the United States were unbanked in 2015. This proportion represents approximately 9.0 million households. An additional 19.9 percent of U.S. households (24.5 million) were underbanked, meaning that the household had a checking or savings account but also obtained financial products and services outside of the banking system. By offering check cashing, our ATM Division expects that dispensaries will increase their customer base by 18%. BITCF uses sophisticated fully automated risk analysis algorithms and underwriting procedures, resulting in 100% guarantee to the dispensary owners. Summary of benefits of our services for the cannabis dispensaries and their customers: Any types of checks can be cashed, including Payroll checks, Insurance checks, Personal checks, business checks, money orders, government issued checks and the funds can be credited to the Dispensaries bank account instead of their client pulling out and paying in cash. Regulatory Compliance: The check cashing ATM will be installed pre-programmed to comply with all state, local federal regulations in California. First Bitcoin is also developing a system that will enable dispensaries to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a form of legal payment. Stater of California has already enacted legislation that makes Bitcoin and similar digital currencies legal tender. BITCF has developed specific programs to meet the unique needs of the medical cannabis industry. Offering merchant services at competitive rates for businesses operating legally under state law of California and Oregon, the company can now provide financial services not typically available from conventional banks. While legalization of marijuana in many forms – and in many states – garnered over $5 billion dollars in 2016, the sums are expected to grow for 2017. More innovative and unique products are being created, and the stigma that once surrounded cannabis is slowly fading. These changes are helping the medical cannabis industry to prosper now that federal policies allow dispensaries to sell, grow, or possess cannabis while compliant with state laws. BITCF will only provide these services where federal policies allow our business model to proceed for dispensaries that are fully compliant with state and country laws, rules and regulations. Should your dispensary be interested in these services please contact us by email:info@bitcoincapitalcorp.com About the company: First Bitcoin Capital is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, financial processing services and the digital currency exchange-www.CoinQX.com.We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges) we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital and blockchain technologies. At this time the Company owns and operates the following digital assets. www.CoinQX.comcryptocurrency exchange, registered with FINCEN. www.iCoiNEWS.comreal time cryptocurrency and bitcoin news site. www.BITminer.ccproviding mining pool management services. www.2016coin.orgonline daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL, $GARY& $BURN -commemorative presidential election coins. www.bitcannpay.comFinancial and merchant services for medical cannabis dispensaries. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file atwww.OTCMarkets.com. Contact us via:info@bitcoincapitalcorp.comor visithttp://www.bitcoincapitalcorp.com SOURCE:First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || Expect more blockchain hype in 2017: The price of the digital currency bitcoin rose more than 100% this year. At the outset of 2016, the controversial coin was trading around $430. This week, it cleared $900, its best level since 2013. As Bloomberg points out, it “crushed every other currency.” But the talk this year was all about blockchain. Blockchain, the open, tamper-proof, peer-to-peer ledger technology that underlies bitcoin, hascaptured the excitement of banks and financial institutionswho want to apply the technology to a wide range of processes—without bitcoin. (What exactly is blockchain?Watch this video.) This year, IBM announced the creation of a new unit called Watson Financial Services to encompass Watson, cloud, and all blockchain-related offerings and strategy. The computing giant created new jobs specifically devoted to blockchain, with the aim of harnessing blockchain technology for client services. Big banks and payment processors, too,staffed up for blockchain. On job networks like Monster.com, Yahoo Finance found more than 100 posts at companies like American Express, Bank of America, BNY Mellon, Capital One, Citigroup, Fidelity, and JPMorgan. Walmart partnered with IBM on a pilot program totrack the pork supply chain in Chinausing an IBM blockchain built through theHyperledger Project, an open-source group created by the Linux Foundation. IBM was a Hyperledger Project founding member, along with Accenture, Intel, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and others. Jerry Cuomo, IBM’s VP of blockchain technologies,told Yahoo Financethat 2016 began with “blockchain tourism,” companies expressing public interest in experimenting with blockchain, but not necessarily doing anything real. Ramesh Gopinath, IBM’s VP of blockchain solutions, now says “there has clearly been a transition from experiments to real deployments.” To be sure, the examples of real deployments are still lacking. The average consumer doesn’t know or care about blockchain, and skeptics dismissall the “blockchain-without-bitcoin” talk as just talk. On the bitcoin blockchain, “miners” upload transactions in bundles called “blocks” and are rewarded in bitcoin as an incentive for mining; the transaction records are permanent and immutable. Bitcoin entrepreneurs insist that the entire point of a blockchain is negated if banks try to apply the same technology in a closed, permissioned context, without a digital currency. Some say banks will eventually come around to the uses of bitcoin itself.Balaji Srinavasan, CEO of 21.co, compares it to old narratives around online dating. “It was like, it’s for nerds, it’s for nerds, it’s for nerds,” he says, “and then suddenly, oh, here’s Tinder, and now it’s totally flipped and normal and you’d be crazy not to date that way.” Even if major mainstream applications of blockchain haven’t come along yet, big companies have at least made real investment, demonstrating a faith that all of this will go somewhere. Companies like Chain now offer “blockchain as a service” (BaaS), building specialized blockchains for these high-profile clients. Oliver Bussman, former CIO at UBS,writes on his advisory firm’s blogthat 2017 “will be the ‘year of the pilot’ for blockchain in financial services, as it moves from a proof-of-concept technology into production, especially in the cross-border payment and trade finance areas,” but adds that broad adoption of blockchain technology will still “happen more quickly outside of financial services—in areas like supply chain management, in e-government, or health care.” Meanwhile, the membership list continued to grow for R3 CEV, a consortium for banks and financial companies interested in deploying blockchain technology to improve their operations. R3 expects to close a new funding round of $150 million in the first quarter of 2017. Blockchain hype continued to grow in 2016, and in 2017 it will only get louder. The headlines weren’t as kind to bitcoin. In August,hackers stole $54 million worth of bitcoins from Hong Kong bitcoin exchange Bitfinex, the largest bitcoin exchange in the world by US dollar volume. It was the largest bitcoin hack since the infamous hack of Mt. Gox in 2013. In December, the peer-to-peer payment app Circle, which had also offered the ability to buy and sell bitcoin and was one of the earliest prominent bitcoin startups, announced it would no longer allow bitcoin buying on its app. The company said it would still use bitcoin as a settlement token on the back end, and it had already been pivoting away from being bitcoin-only when itadded the ability to deposit money via Visa, MasterCard or debit card, but the damage was done: news headlines touted that a prominent bitcoin company “gives up on” bitcoin (Fortune), “pulls the plug on” bitcoin (Wall Street Journal) or “says bye-bye” to bitcoin (pymnts.com). Circle isn’t the first prominent bitcoin startup to move away from bitcoin publicly. Bitreserve, a cloud bank led by former Nike CIO Anthony Watson,changed its name last year to Uphold, dropping the “bit” found in so many bitcoin company names. And there’s more: theIRS subpoenaed the bitcoin company Coinbase, one of the most well-funded bitcoin startups and provider of the most popular US bitcoin wallet, for personal information of its users from the past three years. But blockchain, too, had low points in 2016. This month, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Santander alldropped out of R3. This comes despite JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon saying in January of this year that bitcoin was “doomed,” but “the blockchain is a technology, which we’ve been studying… and yes, it’s real. If it proves to be cheap and secure it will be adopted for a whole bunch of stuff.” Don and Alex Tapscott,authors of the book “Blockchain Revolution,” summarize the banks-and-blockchain hype in 2016 this wayin an op-ed at Coindesk: “2016 was the year that many bank CEOs woke up to both the threat and the opportunity of the blockchain. At a meeting of 50 CEOs of the 50 largest banks back in January, most were skeptical. Now most are investigating how this technology might transform their companies and industry services.” Expect the “blockchain, not bitcoin” narrative to continue among Wall Street circles in 2017, despite the eye-rolls it garners from bitcoin faithful. But the appeal of bitcoin, as an investment, shouldn’t be underestimated. Bitcoin, like gold, isseen as a safe haven asset, uncorrelated to the mainstream markets. So when there’s uncertainty in the economy, many investors turn to bitcoin, and when there are tightened capital controls in countries like China, many investors turn to bitcoin. With the start of a new US presidential administration,there will be some uncertainty, and that might push bitcoin even higher. — Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering technology and sports business. Follow him on Twitter at@readDanwrite. Read more: Bitcoin price soars, but it isn’t just about Trump and Clinton Here’s where big banks stand on blockchain Why 21.co is the most exciting bitcoin company right now Coinbase is more bullish on bitcoin than ever || Fashion Forward: Flow customers in for a treat as Monday Night TV heats up with Caribbean's Next Top Model Season 3 on Flow1: PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD--(Marketwired - Jan 27, 2017) - Flow customers will have front row seats as Caribbean's Next Top Model (CaribeNTM) Season 3 heats up Monday night television with its double-length series premiere on January 30 th at 9 pm -- exclusively on Flow1, formerly known as Flow TV. Over the past few months, aspiring young models from 15 countries across the region auditioned to become the next Caribbean girl who has what it takes to reach the top of the global fashion industry. Seventeen contestants will brace for battle in the new season, which is shot against the enchanting backdrop of the Spice Isle of the Caribbean, Grenada -- home to Season 2 winner, the 6ft tall Kittisha Doyle. Doyle is currently in New York City where she is carded to walk in this year's New York fashion week. Wendy Fitzwilliam , Trinidadian attorney at law, philanthropist, fashion model and former Miss Universe, will return as Host and Chief Judge of Season 3, which promises to be packed with even more drama and entertainment than ever before . "Modelling is a tough business," says Fitzwilliam, "and we promise Flow customers an exciting Season that will showcase the hard-work and determination that is required to make it to the top. We encourage viewers to tune in to Flow1 every week and support their favourite girls by following and voting on social media as well." Flow's Senior Director, Consumer Communications, Wendy McDonald said, "An added feature for CaribeNTM Season 3 is the ability for our customers to enjoy a more interactive experience, as they can follow the live action no matter where they are via our Flow-to-Go app, as well as catch up on reruns of Seasons 1 and 2 via Flow's video on demand services (VoD)." McDonald also proudly spoke about the company's commitment to create the best viewing experience and bring relevant and relatable content to Caribbean viewers. Flow has made significant investments to bring programmes such as Caribbean's Next Top Model, Caribbean Tales Incubator Programme for Caribbean filmmakers, and the airing of premier regional sports content like the Flow CARIFTA Games , which will be broadcast live from Curacao in 2017. Story continues Caribbean's Next Top Model will air exclusively on Monday nights at 9pm Caribbean and Eastern Time, with a repeat on Thursdays at 9pm on Flow1. EDITORS NOTE: About C&W Communications C&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more at www.cwc.com , or follow C&W on LinkedIn , Facebook or Twitter . About Liberty Global Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enables us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 60 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve 10 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group ( NASDAQ : LBTYA ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYB ) and ( NASDAQ : LBTYK ) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group ( NASDAQ : LILA ) and ( NASDAQ : LILAK ) ( OTC PINK : LILAB ), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visit www.libertyglobal.com . Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3103371 || Big China bitcoin exchange says no government pressure on outflows: By John Ruwitch SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The head of a major bitcoin exchange in China says few people there use the cryptocurrency to get around rules on how much money they can take out of the country, and despite a publicized meeting with the central bank last week the exchange, BTCC, hasn't been told explicitly to check capital outflows. Bitcoin's price took a steep dive on Friday after China's central bank cautioned investors to take a rational and careful approach to investing in the digital currency. The price had surged to record highs. The central bank's comments come as Beijing escalates a campaign to check capital outflows and slow the depreciation of the yuan currency <CNY=CFXS>, which lost nearly 7 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar last year. With bitcoin's soaring price and the relative anonymity it affords, some believe the digital currency was becoming an attractive option for tech-savvy Chinese to hedge against the yuan and circumvent rules that limit individuals to $50,000 of foreign exchange each year. The Shanghai office of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said on Friday it had met with BTCC to understand the platform's operations, highlight the risks, remind the exchange to abide by the law, and "urge the platform to carry out self-examination and corresponding clean-up and rectification" according to law. Asked if BTCC had received direct pressure on outflows, CEO Bobby Lee, who founded BTCC in 2011, said: "No. Not as of yet... Nothing verbal or written to us." In Beijing, the PBOC told two of China's other big bitcoin exchanges, Huobi and OKCoin, not to mention the depreciating yuan when advertising their platforms, the influential news outlet Caixin said, citing people familiar with the meeting. Star Xu, CEO and founder of OKCoin, confirmed there had been a meeting of the PBOC and leading bitcoin exchanges on Friday to discuss the operation of trading platforms. Story continues "The industry can benefit from balanced, risk-based regulation and/or oversight, and we look forward to further constructive discussions with the regulators and industry participants," Xu told Reuters in an emailed comment. Huobi's chief operating officer Zhu Jiawei said in an emailed response to Reuters queries that Huobi plans to work with other bitcoin firms to establish an alliance and rules to self-govern the industry. While it's possible to buy bitcoin with yuan and then sell it abroad for a foreign currency, BTCC's Lee said "to be honest, not many" people were doing it because of the cost. The renminbi price of bitcoin carries a premium to the price in other currencies, he noted. In addition, buy or sell orders in the 100,000 yuan ($14,423) to 1 million yuan ($144,233) range, and up, would influence the bitcoin spot price and affect the transaction. "For that range, you're not going to be able to do it at a good rate. You're going to lose 10 percent of your money," Lee said. "Maybe the individual household might buy 20,000 more dollars worth of bitcoin than their $50,000 (forex) quota, but that's a drop in the bucket." Still, Lee said various indicators, like active trading accounts, new users, actual deposits and withdrawals, were "very active" in China, and some key BTCC metrics were at "all-time highs", though he declined to be more specific. NOT LEGAL TENDER Bitcoin is not regulated in China, but the PBOC has declared it is not legal tender, and is instead a "virtual good", Lee said. That puts it in the same category as other goods. "If I pack a suitcase and take a plane to the United States, do the clothes, does the computer in my suitcase, does the watch I wear count towards capital flight?" he said. "Where do you draw the line?" He said no new or planned rules regarding bitcoin were discussed in the latest meeting with the PBOC, and he estimates it will be two to three years before China regulates bitcoin. In a statement on its website, BTCC, which calls itself the world's longest running bitcoin exchange, said it regularly meets with the PBOC and "work(s) closely with them to ensure that we are operating in accordance with the laws and regulations of China." Exchanges in China say they account for more than 90 percent of global bitcoin trading, which would help explain why a shift in Chinese demand would sharply affect the price. But many bitcoin experts say Chinese exchanges overstate their volumes in the digital currency, and attribute sharp moves to speculation by, for example, U.S.-based hedge funds. (Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Ian Geoghegan) [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Current price of Bitcoin is $775.00. || MMMBTC || Bitcoin is approaching new highs for the year because of ... http://bitcoinmining.buzzinginfo.com/bitcoin-is-approaching-new-highs-for-the-year-because-of-indias-demonetization/ …pic.twitter.com/UgiPCSsneE || MMMBTC || I'm calling it now, Bitcoin will hit $1,000.00 usd before The Dow hits 20,000 !!! #Facts #bitcoin #dow20k #crypto #altcoin #WallStreet #rack || MMMBTC || Bukti Pembayaran Investasi (Payment Loan) di BTCJam #btc #btcjam #investbtc http://bitcoinagile.com/9FAC35/bukti-pembayaran-investasi-payment-loan-di-btcjam_stream … || What happened to Sean's Outpost? http://ift.tt/2he4II4  #bitcoin #blockchain #cryptos #reddit || #Ripple #XRP $0.006467 (5.00%) 0.00000713 BTC (4.40%) || #ChainCoin #CHC $0.000090 (-1.84%) 0.00000010 BTC (0.00%)
Trend: up || Prices: 988.67, 1004.45, 999.18, 990.64, 1004.55, 1007.48, 1027.44, 1046.21, 1054.42, 1047.87
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2018-05-01] BTC Price: 9119.01, BTC RSI: 56.82 Gold Price: 1303.80, Gold RSI: 37.60 Oil Price: 67.25, Oil RSI: 54.92 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Is This Why AnaptysBio Inc. Fell on Monday?: Shares ofAnaptysBio Inc.(NASDAQ: ANAB), a clinical-stage biotech developing therapeutic antibodies, slipped 13.1% in late-day trading and finished Monday's session 9.7% lower. The company has been quiet since announcing data from a recent peanut allergy trial that has been the source of some disagreement. It appears that a second look at the interim data from the mid-stage trial with ANB020 put a bad taste in shareholders' mouths this afternoon. AnaptysBio has four partnered drugs in clinical trials and two more that the company owns outright. ANB020 is the wholly-owned candidate furthest along the development timeline. The stock marched up to anall-time highfollowing data from a mid-stage eczema trial released in February but has fallen about 15% since releasing spotty data from a small peanut allergy trial. Image source: Getty Images. Investigators gave ANB020 to 13 adults with moderate to severe peanut allergy symptoms and then essentially made them eat some peanuts a couple weeks later. Six of the 13 showed an improved peanut tolerance, which might be pretty good. There weren't any improvements in peanut tolerance among patients randomized to receive a placebo, but zero out of three isn't a lot to go on. While the results warrant further investigation, they failed to impress analysts bullish for potential competitors in the peanut allergy space. The most fearsome source of competition could come fromAimmune Therapeutics Inc.(NASDAQ: AIMT)and its lead candidate AR101. During a pivotal study that wrapped up recently, 96% of patients who completed treatment were able to tolerate a 300 mg dose of peanut, while 63% could handle a whole 1,000 mg of peanut protein. Aimmune's candidate put up arguably better data, but the pivotal study was limited to children between the ages of 4 and 17, while AnaptysBio has its lead candidate aimed at an adult population. If you're still worried about Aimmune's candidate in the peanut allergy space, remember ANB020's main source of value is as a treatment for eczema. More From The Motley Fool • 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices • 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 • 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Cory Renauerhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends AnaptysBio. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || 'Big Bitcoin Heist'—Iceland Cryptocurrency Thefts Lead to 11 Arrests: Eleven people, including a security guard, were arrested in Iceland in connection with the theft of almost $2 million worth of cryptocurrency-mining equipment from local data centers. Icelandic media are referring to the theft as the “Big Bitcoin Heist.” It’s not so much about the theft of Bitcoins themselves, though, but rather that of the equipment used to earn them. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are “mined” by very powerful computers that race one another to make the calculations needed to assemble the underlying shared ledger for the virtual currency, known as the blockchain. According to the Associated Press , a judge on Friday ordered two of the arrested people to remain in custody. There were actually four burglaries: three in December and one in January. The police held off from telling the public for a while, in order not to compromise their investigation. Two of the burglaries took place on the southwestern Reykjanes peninsula, where local police commissioner Olafur Helgi Kjartansson said: “Everything points to this being a highly organized crime.” Iceland is a popular cryptocurrency-mining location because the process is extremely energy-intensive, and renewable energy is cheap and plentiful there. According to an AP source, the Icelandic police are monitoring energy usage across the island nation in an attempt to locate the missing equipment. This is not the only recent example of bitcoin-related crime spilling over into the physical world. A couple weeks back, Taiwanese police said they suspected four gangsters of violently assaulting two men and forcing them to transfer Bitcoins into the gangsters’ account. || ‘Scoundrels’: Washington County Fires Back at Unauthorized Bitcoin Miners: If you’re in Washington’s Chelan County, you might want to think twice about attempting to mine bitcoin off the radar. At their latest meeting, the county’s public utility district (PUD) moved to enforce a moratorium that was placed on new mining applications last month and take whatever steps necessary — including fees and criminal charges — against what officials characterized as “scoundrels” running “unauthorized cryptocurrency operations,” according to a notice . Chief among their concerns is protection both for the community and the power equipment, but they’re also worried about supply. The moratorium was originally placed on new applications to give the agency time to review rates amid the massive power consumption associated with bitcoin mining facilities. Now the county is threatening fees, penalties, cutting off power and reporting unauthorized activity to the police for people who break the rules. They’re also considering installing automated power consumption meters so that they can uncover secret operations faster. Over the Edge Chelan’s PUD was put over the edge upon discovering several unauthorized bitcoin mining groups across the county, including an apartment complex (where power consumption jumped twentyfold), someone’s house as well as a mini-storage unit facility. The skyrocketing power consumption gave the miners away, from 500-kilowatt-hours to more than 11,000 kwH, not to mention the open windows and doors to usher in the cooler temperatures to keep the equipment from overheating. According to PUD, these operations put the community at risk of fire and place an overwhelming burden on the power supply. “Not only are we concerned, we’re incensed that individuals are putting people at risk. We’re not going to tolerate it. This is a strong message, and I want to make that very clear,” said Commissioner Steve McKenna. To be clear, the county doesn’t have a problem with bitcoin miners who have gone through the proper channels for approval. Story continues “I want to take one step back and say that users of power that have legitimate requests, and have been properly sized for the use of that power, that’s not the kind of entity we’re discussing today,” said Commissioner Garry Arseneault. Chelan County’s PUD is considering the following fee structure for unauthorized bitcoin miners- $5,000 for residential Between $7,000 and $10,000 in business locations In the midst of the chaos, one bitcoin minger hopeful asked PUD officials to consider moving through the applications for approval once again. Cheap Power Washington isn’t the only state with bitcoin mining in focus. CCN recently reported that New York’s public utility regulator gave the green light to municipalities to impose higher electricity rates for cryptocurrency mining facilities with “high-density loads.” Washington’s Chelan County, where power is cheap and abundant, similarly began as a review of the rates. But things escalated when they uncovered that rather than waiting for the application moratorium to be lifted, people were putting more of a strain on the power grid and mining cryptocurrencies anyway. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post ‘Scoundrels’: Washington County Fires Back at Unauthorized Bitcoin Miners appeared first on CCN . || Why Etsy, Inc. Stock Climbed 11% Last Month: What happened Shares of crafty online marketplace Etsy (NASDAQ: ETSY) were moving higher again last month after the stock benefited from momentum following a strong fourth-quarter earnings report at the end of February and the successful offering of $300 million in convertible senior notes. According to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence , the stock finished the month up 11%. As the chart below shows, Etsy's gains came in the first half of the month following its earnings report and the issuing of convertible notes. ETSY Chart ETSY data by YCharts. So what On Feb. 28, shares of the e-commerce operator jumped 20.4% after a better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings report. Gross merchandise sales, or the dollar value of goods sold on the platform, surged 17.8%, to $1.02 billion. This was the first time the company crossed the billion-dollar mark and accelerated from just 13.2% growth in the third quarter. Adjusted earnings per share also improved from a loss of $0.19 a year ago to a $0.15 profit. Changes that were implemented after activist investors took stakes in the company nearly a year ago and Josh Silverman took the helm as CEO seemed to be paying off. The Etsy logo next to several blank price tags Image source: Etsy. Etsy stock jumped again on March 9, gaining 6% when the company issued $300 million of convertible notes with a conversion price of $36.27, which indicated another bullish signal for the stock. For the rest of the month, there was little material news out on the company and the stock traded sideways. At the end of March, the company added two new directors to the board, Edith Cooper, former Global Head of Human Capital at Goldman Sachs , and Gary Briggs, Chief Marketing Officer at Facebook . The moves seem to reflect Silverman's ongoing efforts to remake the company. Now what Etsy shares have nearly tripled over the last year due to accelerating growth and the fact that the company has adequately defended itself from Amazon , which has made a push into handcrafted goods with its Amazon Handmade platform. With a unique niche in the arts-and-crafts e-commerce marketplace and the biggest number of buyers and sellers, Etsy should have an advantage over competitors like Amazon. If the company can keep demonstrating its long-term growth potential and posting solid growth numbers, the stock should continue moving higher. Story continues More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Jeremy Bowman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool recommends Etsy. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Bitcoin Falls on Bad News From Google and the IMF: On Wednesday morning, the price of one Bitcoin slipped back below the $9,000 mark for the first time this week, following several pieces of potentially worrying news for the cryptocurrency community. First came ablog postfrom Christine Lagarde, in which the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged regulators around the world to crack down on cryptocurrencies’ potential to be a “major new vehicle for money laundering and the financing of terrorism.” Lagarde raised the example of theAlphaBay “darkweb” marketplace, which was used to launder more than $1 billion before it was taken down. She also noted that the “extreme volatility” of crypto-assets could “easily create new vulnerabilities” in the financial system. Then came Google’s early-Wednesday announcement that it will bebanning adsfor cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings, or ICOs.Facebookmade a similar move earlier this year, so the two biggest digital ad players are shunning the cryptocurrency space. At least, in theory. Facebook’s attempts have been less than successful, with some people using off-brand spellings such as “bitc0in” to evade the social network’s filters. Even without such tactics, it still seems a few scammy ICO-related pitches aremaking it onto Facebook. At the time of writing, around 7 a.m. Eastern Time, Bitcoin was down 3.66% at a value of $8,830, according toCoinMarketCap.com. While the recent news may not be so great for some in cryptocurrency circles, it wasn’t all bad. On the plus side, Lagarde suggested that the blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin could also be used for regulatory purposes. “The technology that enables instant global transactions could be used to create registries of standard, verified, customer information along with digital signatures. Better use of data by governments can also help free up resources for priority needs and reduce tax evasion, including evasion related to cross-border transactions,” she wrote. || Is Winter Coming for Artificial Intelligence Stocks?: Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have become hot tech buzzwords in recent years thanks to their roles in analyzing data, predicting trends, and powering virtual assistants and robots. IDC expects global spending on AI and ML to surge from $12 billion to $57.6 billion between 2017 and 2021. Yet this isn't the first time companies fell in love with AI. Back in the 1970s, many companies and investors were enamored with AI-driven applications. But after several high-profile setbacks, many government agencies and venture capitalists pulled their funding, resulting in the so-called "AI winter" which lasted until the early 1990s. A robot stands on an icy bridge with a little girl. Image source: Getty Images. Speaking to the Financial Times , Gary Marcus, a psychology professor at New York University, recently warned that "one of the biggest risks in the current overhyping of AI is another AI winter." Should tech companies heed that warning? Let's discuss some recent developments in the AI market to find out. Crunching data versus "real" intelligence IBM 's (NYSE: IBM) Watson rose to fame as an AI-powered contestant on Jeopardy . The AI platform is now used across a wide range of industries -- including healthcare, cybersecurity, education, and even fashion. IBM often touts Watson' applications in hospitals, where it digests millions of medical records to help doctors make medical decisions. An AI brain replacing a businessman's head. Image source: Getty Images. However, Watson is ultimately limited by the answers which have already been collected. It can't figure out unsolved medical mysteries on its own. This "chicken and egg" problem caused many investors and medical institutions to abandon Watson, which they increasingly saw as a glorified indexing system. Last year, MD Anderson Cancer Center cut its ties with IBM after spending over $60 million on a Watson project which was ultimately deemed "not ready for human investigational or clinical use." VC firm Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya also called Watson "a joke" on CNBC, claiming that IBM uses its "sales and marketing infrastructure to convince people who have asymmetrically less knowledge to pay for something." Story continues The Facebook fiasco Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) uses AI to recognize faces, analyze a user's social profile to craft targeted ads, and more. But over the past few years, users, legislators, advertisers, and investors have become increasingly concerned about its data-mining practices. In 2014, it conducted a bizarre emotion experiment on its users to gauge their responses to certain posts. In 2016, it unwittingly sold ads through its automated system to Russian agencies, which attempted to influence the presidential election with divisive posts and fake news stories. Earlier this year, it was revealed that the data of about 50 million Facebook users was sold by a developer to data firm Cambridge Analytica , which was later hired by the Trump campaign. It was then revealed that Facebook was also tracking users' contact lists, telephone numbers, call lengths, and SMS messages. Facebook now faces an FTC probe and a potential loss of advertisers and users over the fiasco. But this mess will also send shockwaves across the entire AI industry as the public starts scrutinizing the unchecked power of these AI-powered algorithms. Really dumb chatbots Facebook and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) both believed that AI-powered chatbots would eventually replace mobile apps or human customer service representatives. Those efforts didn't pan out. Messages with a chatbot. Image source: Getty Images. Facebook's chatbots hit a failure rate of 70% last year, forcing the social network to scale back its efforts. Microsoft's experimental Tay chatbot, which it let loose on Twitter in 2016, started spouting out racist and misogynist replies within 24 hours . Microsoft quickly pulled the plug and issued an apology, noting that it had a made a "critical oversight" in its development. Killer autonomous vehicles Last year, the Trump Administration loosened regulations on driverless cars -- a main pillar of the AI market -- although critics claimed that the move could result in more accidents. Tesla , General Motors , Alphabet 's Waymo, and Uber all saw their self-driving vehicles involved in accidents over the past few years. However, Uber's self-driving vehicle was recently involved in the industry's first fatality after it failed to identify a pedestrian on the road in Arizona. That tragedy, which resulted in Uber being suspended from driverless tests in Arizona, will likely cause other companies to slow down their efforts. Regulators could also pass tougher rules on the industry. That would be bad news for automakers or chipmakers, which are dependent on the rising adoption of driverless cars. It's a cold front, not winter These recent developments will likely chill the feverish enthusiasm for AI-related investments. But I don't think they will derail the entire industry, since AI technologies remain integral to many industries. Instead, an industrywide reality check is healthy, and could prevent another "AI winter" from actually occurring. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Teresa Kersten is an employee of LinkedIn and is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft. Leo Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Facebook, Tesla, and Twitter. The Motley Fool is short shares of IBM. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Ignore Tesla: Here Are 3 Better Stocks: I wouldn't bet against Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) . In fact, as a Tesla shareholder, I'm actively rooting for the company and its bombastic founder, Elon Musk. But after an 879% share price increase over the last five years without a single positive earnings report, Tesla is looking more than a little overvalued right now. If you can stomach the risk and you believe in Musk's vision, there are worse places for your money. But I have three stocks -- General Motors (NYSE: GM) , Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE: OSK) , and Republic Services (NYSE: RSG) -- that are better than Tesla for investors concerned about the fundamentals. And better yet, unlike Tesla, all three pay a dividend. A man uses his finger to draw a glowing line moving upwards. Tesla has rewarded investors with great returns. But at these levels, it might make sense to look for other stocks to buy. Image source: Getty Images. If you're concerned about value It's impossible to compare Tesla's valuation to other companies' using the standard price-to-earnings ratio, because Tesla has only reported positive quarterly earnings twice in the last five years. But if we look at another valuation metric -- enterprise value to EBITDA -- on a trailing-12-month basis, Tesla comes in at 243.6 (lower is better). How about a car company that's currently trading at an EV-to-EBITDA ratio of 5.2 instead? That company is General Motors, which not only achieved record earnings per share last year, but did so in a year when U.S. auto sales declined year over year for the first time since the Great Recession. Better yet for investors, the company is projecting further earnings growth in 2019 and 2020 after a flat 2018. Much of the credit goes to sales growth for GM's more lucrative pickups and crossover SUVs . Given how well GM is doing, it's tough to understand why the market isn't placing a higher premium on the stock. I'm not complaining, though, because it gives investors a chance to buy into a good company at a bargain price. Story continues If you're concerned about sales One of Tesla's big issues has been production. The company's latest -- and so far most affordable -- electric vehicle, the Model 3, finally started rolling off the production line last June. But production has been plagued by delays, and Tesla can't sell cars it hasn't manufactured yet. So why not invest in a company that is currently making plenty of vehicles and has locked in contracts for hundreds more? I'm talking about specialty truck-maker Oshkosh Corporation. Oshkosh makes vehicles like fire engines, cement mixers, and forklifts for municipalities and construction companies, but it's also a major defense contractor, with several lucrative Department of Defense contracts for light trucks. Sales aren't a problem for Oshkosh. In Q1 2018, sales were up 31% year over year. Defense sales rose an astonishing 68% year over year. And Oshkosh is making plenty of money from those sales, reporting $0.74 in profits per diluted share. That was almost three times the company's per-share earnings from Q1 2017. After February's market correction, Oshkosh's shares dropped and are currently down 13.3% for the year. This may be as good a time as any to pick up shares in a vehicle manufacturer that's already chugging along. If you're concerned about the future Buying Tesla stock means betting not on the company's present, but on the future that Musk envisions for the world -- a world in which Tesla's electric cars and solar energy-generating roofs are part of a radical reshaping of the energy grid. But if the future doesn't shape up the way Tesla envisions -- or if a competitor beats Tesla at its own game -- the company's investors stand to lose big. You may feel safer investing in a company that has a more certain outlook. And one thing that's pretty certain is trash. Given the growing global population, trash and trash disposal is an industry that will be around for a long, long time. Better still for investors, it's the kind of boring, slightly disgusting industry that master investor Peter Lynch counseled investors to look for -- the opposite of the hot, flashy Tesla. There are plenty of waste-management stocks to consider, but right now, Republic Services looks like a solid bet for investors. The company finished 2017 with a great fourth quarter, seeing revenue rise 7.6% and earnings per share increase 7%. Full-year 2017 earnings per share were up an impressive 9.5%, beating even the high end of the company's guidance. For 2018, the company is projecting a 27% increase in adjusted earnings, fueling $450 million in dividends and $775 million in share buybacks. Even better, the company's current P/E ratio of 17.8 looks cheap compared to main rival Waste Management 's P/E of 27.9. And the two companies' dividend yields are nearly identical at about 2.1%. Republic Services should continue to reward its investors regardless of what the future brings. What a Fool believes No stock is a sure thing, and sometimes what seems like a questionable, overvalued investment can surprise you with further explosive growth. But Tesla has already grown so far, so fast, that it makes sense to consider other companies with more reasonable valuations, established sales growth, and clear future plans. General Motors, Oshkosh Corporation, and Republic Services check those boxes and pay dividends to boot. Does that mean you absolutely shouldn't buy Tesla? Not necessarily. If you believe in Musk's vision and think the company can execute it successfully, you may feel like Tesla is worth buying even at today's lofty valuations. But you'll probably also want to pick up some less risky stocks for your portfolio, just in case things don't turn out as planned for Musk & Co. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This John Bromels owns shares of Oshkosh, Tesla, and Waste Management. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends Republic Services. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Kinder Morgan Stock Upgraded: What You Need to Know: Every day, Wall Street analysts upgrade some stocks, downgrade others, and "initiate coverage" on a few more. But do these analysts even know what they're talking about? Today, we're taking one high-profile Wall Street pick and putting it under the microscope... Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) stock is once again on sale. The oil pipeline operator received a vote of confidence this morning when Bank of America/Merrill Lynch announced it is upgrading the stock to buy. Here's what you need to know. Pipeline next to gravel road stretches into the distance, with mountains in the background Image source: Getty Images. Valuation matters Merrill Lynch likes Kinder Morgan stock primarily for its "valuation," according to StreetInsider.com . And yet, that valuation may not look immediately attractive to most investors, seeing as based on trailing earnings, Kinder Morgan currently sells for a P/E ratio of 188 (data from S&P Global Market Intelligence ). And yet, in January, Kinder Morgan reported estimates-beating results. Although earnings declined year over year to end with a $0.47-per-share loss, Kinder Morgan attributed this loss primarily to effects of the just-passed 2017 tax reform, and argued its results were actually "solid" apart from those tax effects. Analysts agreed, noting that Kinder Morgan's adjusted earnings for Q4 2017 were actually up 17% year over year, and $0.03 ahead of estimates. Merrill Lynch in particular thinks that after Kinder Morgan beat estimates once already, there's the potential for "attractive upside" in the shares, as "fundamentals" at the company are "improving." In today's note, the analyst not only upgraded Kinder Morgan to buy, but assigned the stock a $20 price target. If Merrill is right, this implies there's as much as 28% upside in the shares over the next 12 months. Valuing Kinder Morgan stock So is Merrill Lynch right? Valued on its trailing P/E ratio of 188, it's hard to make much of a case for investing in Kinder Morgan stock -- even at analysts' projected 18% long-term growth rate. On the other hand, while GAAP earnings remain weak, last year, Kinder Morgan did generate free cash flow of more than $1.4 billion. With a price-to-free-cash-flow valuation of less than 25 and a dividend yield of 3.2%, Kinder Morgan does begin looking attractive when valued on free cash flow. Story continues Viewed from yet another perspective, Kinder Morgan stock is currently selling for almost no premium whatsoever to its book value (Kinder Morgan has a price-to-book-value ratio of 1.03). Boasting an "unparalleled asset footprint" that includes the "largest natural gas network in North America" ( Kinder's words ), it's hard to imagine any competitor being able to build up a similar business at a cost similar to the cost to buy Kinder Morgan at book value -- yet that's all the market is valuing the stock today. That's perhaps the strongest argument in favor of buying shares of Kinder Morgan. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Berkshire Hathaway (B shares) and Kinder Morgan. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || 'Big Bitcoin Heist'—Iceland Cryptocurrency Thefts Lead to 11 Arrests: Eleven people, including a security guard, were arrested in Iceland in connection with the theft of almost $2 million worth of cryptocurrency-mining equipment from local data centers. Icelandic media are referring to the theft as the “Big Bitcoin Heist.” It’s not so much about the theft of Bitcoins themselves, though, but rather that of the equipment used to earn them. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoinare “mined” by very powerful computers that race one another to make the calculations needed to assemble the underlying shared ledger for the virtual currency, known as the blockchain. According to theAssociated Press, a judge on Friday ordered two of the arrested people to remain in custody. There were actually four burglaries: three in December and one in January. The police held off from telling the public for a while, in order not to compromise their investigation. Two of the burglaries took place on the southwestern Reykjanes peninsula, where local police commissioner Olafur Helgi Kjartansson said: “Everything points to this being a highly organized crime.” Iceland is a popular cryptocurrency-mining location because the process is extremely energy-intensive, and renewable energy is cheap and plentiful there. According to an AP source, the Icelandic police are monitoring energy usage across the island nation in an attempt to locate the missing equipment. This is not the only recent example of bitcoin-related crime spilling over into the physical world. A couple weeks back, Taiwanese policesaidthey suspected four gangsters of violently assaulting two men and forcing them to transfer Bitcoins into the gangsters’ account. || Shares of Cooper Tire & Rubber Plunge 12% on Earnings Miss: What happened Shares of tire manufacturer Cooper Tire & Rubber (NYSE: CTB) are down 12.2% as of 12:15 p.m. EDT today after the company reported first-quarter earnings results. Needless to say, they weren't what Wall Street was expecting. So what Cooper checked with earnings per share of $0.16 for the first quarter compared to $0.57 per share this time last year. That $0.16 EPS result was also well below consensus Wall Street estimates of $0.57. Weak sales from high levels of replacement tire inventories across North America and increasing manufacturing costs were the biggest culprits of this quarter's weak performance. Close-up of a tire on a car. Image source: Getty Images. Now what According to management, it expects these challenging market conditions to ease in the second half of the year as it scales back its unit production and lets these high levels of inventory draw down. Then again, this high level of inventory and weak pricing environment have been going on for several months now, so one has to be a little skeptical about predictions of this inventory reduction that management has been saying these challenging conditions would ease several quarters ago . With shares down 12% today and 37% over the past year, I don't doubt there are some people out there looking at this company as a value investment. It still has a healthy balance sheet, growing markets in truck and bus radial tires in China, and some strong brands in the aftermarket tire business. So there is certainly something there for investors. At the same time, though, this business has been slogging through a tough period of an oversupplied North American market for more than a year with no clear signs of it letting up despite what management says. With all that in mind, it's hard to get excited about Cooper Tire & Rubber's stock today, but if management is right and the glut does start to clear in the second half, then it may be worth revisiting down the road. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Tyler Crowe has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] I really hope #bitcoin gets passed $8500.00 without all the weak hands that will break even panic selling! #HODL @davidgokhshteinpic.twitter.com/O5Pq39YT35 || 【BTC】今日マイナス200万円なんだけど質問ある？ http://bitcoinanntena.com/?p=18396  || 2018年04月15日 05:00 [DOGE建] 1XP=0.0169014円 24時間の最高値 0.02376円 24時間の最安値 0.0152916円 [BTC建] 1XP=0.0171631円 24時間の最高値 0.0264円 24時間の最安値 0.0166984円 時価総額ランキング: 227 位 / 全 894 中 #XP $XP || START BITCOIN MINING http://bowwell2016.blog.fc2.com  || (Biostar Motherboard TB350-BTC AMD Ryzen CPU B350 DDR4 SATA PCI Express USB ATX Retail) MercaExito - https://www.mercaexito.com/producto/biostar-motherboard-tb350-btc-amd-ryzen-cpu-b350-ddr4-sata-pci-express-usb-atx-retail/ …pic.twitter.com/n3ZgVn4Puz || Taiwan Looks to Regulate Bitcoin Under Anti-Money Laundering Laws http://tribetica.com/index.php/2018/04/03/taiwan-looks-to-regulate-bitcoin-under-anti-money-laundering-laws/ … #newsoftheweek #Bitcoin #blockchain #crypto #cryptocurrency #newspic.twitter.com/uVJSOSyVYb || Echa un vistazo a este Meetup: Blockchain & Bitcoin - Taller de Priorización de Oportunidades https://www.meetup.com/es-ES/bigdatacol/events/249386116/ … #Meetup #Medellín vía @MeetupES || https://ift.tt/2HgyUjz  - Analisi tecnica Criptovalute 7 aprile 2018 – Bitcoin Ethereum pic.twitter.com/Ta63DnbxaO || [PATROCINADO] BitCoin, conheça e invista http://mon.net.br/1tyr1  | RT @LinhaAmarelaRJ: 5:00 Sentido Barra trânsito bom || ABC Developer Amaury Séchet on the Future of Bitcoin Cash http://tradecryptoco.in/abc-developer-amaury-sechet-on-the-future-of-bitcoin-cash/ …pic.twitter.com/UhLqos98Ik
Trend: down || Prices: 9235.92, 9743.86, 9700.76, 9858.15, 9654.80, 9373.01, 9234.82, 9325.18, 9043.94, 8441.49
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-05-13] BTC Price: 9269.99, BTC RSI: 61.54 Gold Price: 1713.90, Gold RSI: 54.99 Oil Price: 25.29, Oil RSI: 54.32 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Ethereum Dips Below 142.77 Level, Down 1%: Investing.com - Ethereum fell bellow the $142.77 level on Sunday. Ethereum was trading at 142.77 by 03:29 (07:29 GMT) on the Investing.com Index, down 1.44% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage loss since April 4. The move downwards pushed Ethereum's market cap down to $15.83B, or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Ethereum's market cap was $135.58B. Ethereum had traded in a range of $142.08 to $145.26 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, Ethereum has seen a rise in value, as it gained 10.5%. The volume of Ethereum traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $11.78B or 0.00% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $125.0189 to $148.9122 in the past 7 days. At its current price, Ethereum is still down 89.97% from its all-time high of $1,423.20 set on January 13, 2018. Bitcoin was last at $6,780.6 on the Investing.com Index, up 0.74% on the day. XRP was trading at $0.17955 on the Investing.com Index, a gain of 0.19%. Bitcoin's market cap was last at $124.33B or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $7.87B or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles 7 Crypto Firms Targeted by 11 Lawsuits in New York EU Highlights Blockchain Benefits in Digitization Write-Up BIS Calls for Central Bank Digital Currencies Amid Coronavirus Pandemic || Bitcoin Dips Below 6,666.5 Level, Down 0.87%: Investing.com - Bitcoin fell bellow the $6,666.5 level on Wednesday. Bitcoin was trading at 6,666.5 by 13:19 (17:19 GMT) on the Investing.com Index, down 0.87% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage loss since March 24. The move downwards pushed Bitcoin's market cap down to $122.0B, or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Bitcoin's market cap was $241.2B. Bitcoin had traded in a range of $6,474.6 to $6,930.2 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has seen a rise in value, as it gained 28.29%. The volume of Bitcoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $46.1B or 0.00% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $5,256.0405 to $6,930.2427 in the past 7 days. At its current price, Bitcoin is still down 66.45% from its all-time high of $19,870.62 set on December 17, 2017. Ethereum was last at $136.07 on the Investing.com Index, down 0.08% on the day. XRP was trading at $0.16068 on the Investing.com Index, a loss of 0.28%. Ethereum's market cap was last at $15.1B or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $7.1B or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles Hive Continues Independence Push as Steem Stakeholders Migrate to New Chain Cardano CEO Thinks Trump is Calling America’s Bluff With Easter Reopening Cardano Dips Below 0.029534 Level, Down 0.91% || Nike, Lululemon say they learned lessons from coronavirus store closures in China: Nikereported third-quarter earnings this week, and unsurprisingly, its sales in China dropped for the first time in more than 20 straight quarters, falling 4% because of store closures while China was getting hit by the coronavirus pandemic. But there were silver linings: Nike’s (NKE) online sales in China spiked more than 30% in the quarter, suggesting that consumers stuck at home were still happy to make purchases online; Nike saw high engagement on its mobile apps (both its fitness and e-commerce apps) amid the peak of the outbreak in China; and Nike says it is already seeing signs of a rebound in store sales in China now that it has reopened 80% of its stores there. Nike shares rose 24% this week, but are down 17% for the year. “We’re seeing the other side of the crisis in China,” said new Nike CEO John Donahoe. “Due to the resilience and creativity of our team in China,we now have a playbookthat we can use elsewhere. In addition to Greater China, we’ve applied that playbook in Japan and South Korea over the past two months, and we’re seeing early momentum in those markets as well... With COVID-19 now spreading across Europe and the U.S., we are applying the same playbook.” The playbook appears to be: keep stores closed as long as local authorities and experts mandate in order to protect the health of customers and employees, but push e-commerce from distribution centers while stores are closed; once it’s safe to reopen stores, ramp back up quickly. Lululemon sounded a very similar note. The athleisure leader beat Wall Street expectations, driven by a continued surge in sales of its men’s clothing, the same segment that has been fueling Lululemon (LULU) for a few quarters now. Due to coronavirus, Lululemon is not providing2020 full-year outlook. Like Nike (andmany other sports and apparel retailers like Under Armour, New Balance, Adidas, REI, and Urban Outfitters), Lululemon has closed all of its U.S. stores amid the spread of coronavirus. But in China, which is through the worst of coronavirus, Lululemon has now reopened all but one of its stores. And Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald said on Thursday’s earnings call that sales in China are growing quickly, though not yet back to pre-coronavirus levels. He concluded that the China business “will bounce back” and indicated that the same can be applied to the U.S. once the U.S. is through the worst of coronavirus, even though store closures will last longer in the U.S. than they did in China. Lululemon shares are up 15% this week, but down 19% for the year. Nike and Lululemon aren’t alone among major U.S. retail chains that closed all their stores in China.Apple last week reopened all 42 of its stores in China, andStarbucks began reopening all of its China stores at the end of February, citing “early signs of recovery” there. All of these companies will surely watch brick-and-mortar sales trends in China and apply them—if optimistically—to what they hope to see happen once the U.S. is through the worst of the virus. — Daniel Roberts is an editor-at-large at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite. Read more on how coronavirus is hitting a wide range of industries: Amid coronavirus, Walmart says it's seeing increased sales of tops — but not bottoms Chef Tom Colicchio on coronavirus: Restaurants should stay closed, even for takeout Coronavirus puts 'extreme pressure' on all three pillars of Disney's business Movie theaters seek bailout as coronavirus devastates business Adidas CEO emailed store employees about coronavirus: ‘Closing is easy, staying open requires courage’ Bitcoin is crashing even more than stocks amid coronavirus || Bitcoin on the brink of major breakout above $6,800: Bitcoin is approaching the critical $6,800 level of resistance after surging by more than 15% in the past 24 hours. The tremendous move to the upside will come as a surprise to the majority of Bitcoin traders, many of whom have been suggesting that a continued correction to the $3,000 region was on the cards. Bitcoin isn’t out of the woods just yet, it needs to demonstrate strength by closing this evening’s daily candle above $6,800 , which became a point of rejection on Friday. After failing to achieve a new high on Friday, Bitcoin proceeded to plunge by around 20% to the $5,700 before enjoying a period of consolidation. It’s worth noting that the daily MACD indicator has printed a bullish cross for the first time since it crossed to the downside on 15th February, which marked the local top at $10,500. A clear breakout above $6,800 would bring price targets of $7,400 and $7,880 into the picture, although Bitcoin will also likely test the daily 200MA which is at $8,330. Another rejection from this point would be a miserable turn of events for Bitcoin bulls as it indicates that an extension of this short-term bear market is certainly on the cards. Bearish momentum in light of a rejection from resistance could well result in an initial move to the $5,700 region before it tests this month’s lows of $3,600 and $4,000. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . Bitcoin pricing Current live BTC pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Bitcoin price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: US Dollar – BTCtoUSD British Pound Sterling – BTCtoGBP Japanese Yen – BTCtoJPY Euro – BTCtoEUR Australian Dollar – BTCtoAUD Russian Rouble – BTCtoRUB About Bitcoin In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered. On 31st October 2008, a paper was published called “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. This was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. To date, no one knows who this person, or people, are. Story continues The paper outlined a method of using a P2P network for electronic transactions without “relying on trust”. On January 3 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence. Nakamoto mined block number “0” (or the “genesis block”), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins. More BTC news and information If you want to find out more information about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Here’s an article to get you started. As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. || Binance Doesn’t Have a Headquarters Because Bitcoin Doesn’t, Says CEO: Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao really doesn’t want to tell you where his firm’s headquarters is located. To kick off ConsenSys’ Ethereal Summit on Thursday, Unchained Podcast host Laura Shin held a cozy fireside chat with Zhao who, to mark the occasion, was wearing a personalized football shirt emblazoned with the Binance brand. Scheduled for 45 minutes, Zhao spent most of it explaining how libra and China’s digital yuan were unlikely to be competitors to existing stablecoin providers; how Binance’s smart chainwouldn’t treadon Ethereum’s toes – “that depends on the definition of competing,” he said – and how Binance had an incentive to keep itsnewly acquired CoinMarketCapindependent from the exchange. Related:The CoinDesk 50: Binance Eyes the Whole Pie There were only five minutes left on the clock. Zhao was looking confident; he had just batted away a thorny question about an ongoing lawsuit. It was looking like the home stretch. Then it hit. Shin asked the one question Zhao really didn’t want to have to answer, but many want to know: Where is Binance’s headquarters? This seemingly simple question is actually more complex. Until February, Binance was considered to be based in Malta. That changed when the island European nation announced that, no, Binance isnot under its jurisdiction. Since then Binance has not said just where, exactly, it is now headquartered. Little wonder that when asked Zhao reddened; he stammered. He looked off-camera, possibly to an aide. “Well, I think what this is is the beauty of the blockchain, right, so you don’t have to … like where’s the Bitcoin office, because Bitcoin doesn’t have an office,” he said. Related:Crypto Firms Establish Messaging Standard to Deal With FATF Travel Rule The line trailed off, then inspiration hit. “What kind of horse is a car?” Zhao asked. Binance has loads of offices, he continued, with staff in 50 countries. It was a new type of organization that doesn’t need registered bank accounts and postal addresses. “Wherever I sit, is going to be the Binance office. Wherever I need somebody, is going to be the Binance office,” he said. See also:Binance Is Not Under Our Jurisdiction, Says Malta Regulator Zhao may have been hoping the host would move onto something easier. But Shin wasn’t finished: “But even to do things like to handle, you know, taxes for your employees, like, I think you need a registered business entity, so like why are you obfuscating it, why not just be open about it like, you know, the headquarters is registered in this place, why not just say that?” Zhao glanced away again, possibly at the person behind the camera. Their program had less than two minutes remaining. “It’s not that we don’t want to admit it, it’s not that we want to obfuscate it or we want to kind of hide it. We’re not hiding, we’re in the open,” he said. Shin interjected: “What are you saying that you’re already some kind of DAO [decentralized autonomous organization]? I mean what are you saying? Because it’s not the old way [having a headquarters], it’s actually the current way … I actually don’t know what you are or what you’re claiming to be.” Zhao said Binance isn’t a traditional company, more a large team of people “that works together for a common goal.” He added: “To be honest, if we classified as a DAO, then there’s going to be a lot of debate about why we’re not a DAO. So I don’t want to go there, either.” “I mean nobody would call you guys a DAO,” Shin said, likely disappointed that this wasn’t the interview where Zhao made his big reveal. See also:Binance CEO Says Crypto Exchange Has Applied for a Singapore License Time was up. For an easy question to close, Shin asked where Zhao was working from during the coronavirus pandemic. “I’m in Asia,” Zhao said. The blank white wall behind him didn’t provide any clues about where in Asia he might be. Shin asked if he could say which country – after all, it’s the Earth’slargest continent. “I prefer not to disclose that. I think that’s my own privacy,” he cut in, ending the interview. • First Mover: US Arms of Binance, FTX Push Into Margin Trading, but Likely Not at 100x • Why Binance and Akon Are Betting on Africa for Crypto Adoption || How Coronavirus Is Accelerating the End of Globalism, Feat. Peter Zeihan: “Some countries just aren’t going to emerge from the coronavirus.” For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , IHeartRadio or RSS . Peter Zeihan is one of the world’s foremost geopolitical experts. In his new book “Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World,” Zeihan argues we’re at the end of the largest expansionary period in human history. As America withdraws from global leadership, a totally new (and for most parts of the world, more painful) “normal” will emerge. Related: As Governments Rush to Track Coronavirus, Honduras May Offer a Privacy-First Model On this episode of The Breakdown, Zeihan joins @NLW to discuss why the coronavirus crisis is rapidly accelerating the end of the era of globalization. How the American-led global order used the dollar as the tool to keep the world together Why geopolitics and demography are coinciding to end the era of globalization Why the coronavirus will spark a massive return of American manufacturing Why, when it comes to the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency, “Never before has the “exorbitant privilege” of being the world’s reserve currency felt more exorbitant or more like a privilege. Why the crisis could spell the end for the euro Why China isn’t nearly as well positioned in the post globalization era as many assume Why the best positioned countries in the coming era are the U.S., Japan, Argentina, France and Turkey See also: Cronyism, Zombie Companies and the True Cost of the Coronavirus, Feat. Morgan Creek’s Mark Yusko For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , IHeartRadio or RSS . Related Stories 5 Reasons for Cautious Optimism in Crypto Using Bitcoin in Zimbabwe, Part 3 of a Six-Part Documentary Podcast Series Crypto Wants Stronger Public Response to Coronavirus, CoinDesk Survey Shows || CFTC Approves Bitnomial to Offer Futures Contracts Settled in Real Bitcoin: The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approved Bitnomial Exchange to operate as a designated contracts market (DCM), meaning the exchange can now offer bitcoin futures and options contracts. The approval, granted Monday , brings a new player to the still-small world of bitcoin futures in the U.S. To date, only CME, Cboe, Bakkt, ErisX and LedgerX offer bitcoin futures and options contracts, though Cboe ended its contract in early 2019 and ErisX sees little volume on its futures. Unlike CME, Bitnomial appears to be focusing strictly on physically-settled contracts, meaning customers receive the actual bitcoin when the contract expires, rather than the fiat equivalent. Related: $166B Asset Manager Renaissance Eyes Bitcoin Futures for Flagship Fund The CFTC conducted an onsite technical evaluation of the exchange’s operations before granting the approval, according to an order issued Monday . Bitnomial said it was the “first and only startup exchange” to receive approval to offer both margined and physically delivered bitcoin futures and options contracts in the U.S. “The approval allows Bitnomial to tackle a confluence of generational shifts in financial markets: First, a new generation of customers are emerging as savvy with trading, technology and delivery. Second, innovative new unregulated derivatives are booming with daily volumes topping $45 [billion] but may be illegal for many U.S. traders,” it said in a press release . The release also said Bitnomial hopes to find customers for what it termed “new growth areas,” claiming the existing legacy firms have had difficulty tapping this base. Related: CFTC Charges Florida Resident With Defrauding Crypto Investors Out of $1.6M Bitnomial is now setting up user acceptance testing, expected to begin on April 27, and has opened user signups. In a statement, founder and CEO Luke Hoersten said the company will start with quarterly futures, micro futures and options. Contracts trade on 37 percent margin and will settle on-chain rather than book entry. Story continues Jump Capital’s Peter Johnson said physically settled bitcoin futures contracts are “still largely inaccessible” to much of the U.S. market. Jump Capital backed Bitnomial , alongside Digital Currency Group, CoinDesk’s parent firm. “[Bitnomial’s] products are also reliably tied to the underlying asset price via the option for physical delivery. We’re excited to be partners with a company that is committed to meeting the highest regulatory standards and increasing the accessibility of crypto derivatives to U.S. traders,” he said in a statement. Bitnomial raised $7.5 million in an equity raise from 12 investors last December, according to an SEC filing . Related Stories Bitcoin Drops as Traders See Bearish Signals in Futures Markets The CFTC Just Defined What ‘Actual Delivery’ of Crypto Should Look Like || Bitcoin Jumps 12% as Fed Keeps Money Flowing and US Economy Shrinks: Bitcoin’s price jumped Wednesday by the most in six weeks, outpacing U.S. stocks, after the Federal Reserve pledged to keep pumping new money into markets and government data showed the economy sliding into recession. Bitcoin rallied 12% to $8,703 as of 19:30 UTC (3:30 p.m. Eastern time). The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 3.1%. In terms of year-to-date performance,bitcoin’sreturns increased to 20%, surging past gold’s 12%. Many cryptocurrency investors see bitcoin as a hedge against inflation, similar to gold, which could theoretically be a long-term consequence of central-bank money injections. Deutsche Bank estimates that central bank balance sheets have expanded by some $3.7 trillion just since the start of March. Related:BTSE Exchange Taps Into Crypto Demand by Increasing Request-for-Quote Limits The Fed, led by Chair Jerome Powell, said it would keep benchmark U.S. interest rates close to zero while reiterating a pledge to continue buying U.S. Treasury bonds and other assets in an unbounded amount to keep global markets functioning smoothly. Some economists had speculated the central bank might announce plans to start tapering the asset purchases, which along with emergency-lending programs have ballooned the Fed’s balance sheet past $6.5 trillion for the first time in its 107-year history. Read more:How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Money Printer “It’s clear that the effects on the economy are severe,” Powell said during a press conference Wednesday. Reporters, based remotely, dialed into the event via a group video call. “We won’t run out of money. It’s an unlimited pot.” The Fed’s announcements came after a report from the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis earlier Wednesday showing that gross domestic product contracted at an annual rate of 4.8% during the first quarter as government issued stay-at-home orders. The report provided what economists described as the first official data confirming that the country is sliding into a recession. Related:Genesis CEO Details ‘Black Thursday’ Chaos in Q1 Lending Report Powell, in his press conference, warned that second-quarter economic data will reveal the “unprecedented” damage from the coronavirus. Bitcoin’s rally was likely abetted by “fear of missing out,” or FOMO, on the part of traders, said Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Delphi Digital, a cryptocurrency research firm. “Buying begets more buying,” he said. We won’t run out of money. It’s an unlimited pot. Bitcoin tumbled 11 percent during the first quarter of 2020, but the price has soared since the start of April. “Bears are yet to put up any fight and, given the contained squeeze past $8,000,” said Denis Vinokourov, head of research at BeQuant, a London-based institutional bitcoin brokerage firm. Such trading action “suggests the upside may have some longevity.” • Shares in Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust Up By 14% After Crypto’s Price Rallies • First Mover: Bitcoin Now Crushing Gold After Biggest Price Jump in Six Weeks || CLASS ACTION UPDATE for CAN, CRON and NCLH: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP Reminds Investors of Class Actions on Behalf of Shareholders: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / April 22, 2020 /Levi & Korsinsky, LLP announces that class action lawsuits have commenced on behalf of shareholders of the following publicly-traded companies. Shareholders interested in serving as lead plaintiff have until the deadlines listed to petition the court. Further details about the cases can be found at the links provided. There is no cost or obligation to you. CAN Shareholders Click Here:https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/canaan-inc-loss-form?prid=6130&wire=1CRON Shareholders Click Here:https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/cronos-group-inc-loss-form-2?prid=6130&wire=1NCLH Shareholders Click Here:https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/norwegian-cruise-line-holdings-ltd-loss-form?prid=6130&wire=1 * ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BELOW * Canaan Inc. (CAN) CAN Lawsuit on behalf of:investors who purchased publicly traded securities of Canaan, including its American Depository Shares pursuant and/or traceable to the Company's registration statement and related prospectus issued in connection with the Company's November 20, 2019 initial public offering.Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 4, 2020TO LEARN MORE, VISIT:https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/canaan-inc-loss-form?prid=6130&wire=1 According to the filed complaint, (1) the purported "strategic cooperation" was actually a transaction with a related party; (2) the company's financial health was worse than what was actually reported; (3) the company had recently removed numerous distributors from its website just prior to the initial public offering, many of which were small or suspicious businesses; and (4) several of the Company's largest Chinese clients in prior years were clients who were not in the Bitcoin mining industry and, thus, would likely not be repeat customers. Cronos Group Inc. (CRON) CRON Lawsuit on behalf of:investors who purchased May 9, 2019 - March 2, 2020Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 11, 2020TO LEARN MORE, VISIT:https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/cronos-group-inc-loss-form-2?prid=6130&wire=1 According to the filed complaint, during the class period, Cronos Group Inc. made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Cronos had engaged in significant transactions for which its revenue recognition was inappropriate; (ii) the foregoing would foreseeably necessitate reviews that would delay the Company's ability to timely file its periodic reports; and (iii) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH) NCLH Lawsuit on behalf of:investors who purchased February 20, 2020 - March 12, 2020Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 11, 2020TO LEARN MORE, VISIT:https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/norwegian-cruise-line-holdings-ltd-loss-form?prid=6130&wire=1 According to the filed complaint, during the class period, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) the Company was employing sales tactics of providing customers with unproven and/or blatantly false statements about COVID-19 to entice customers to purchase cruises, thus endangering the lives of both their customers and crew members; and (2) as a result, Defendants' statements regarding the Company's business and operations were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times. You have until the lead plaintiff deadlines to request that the court appoint you as lead plaintiff.Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff. Levi & Korsinsky is a nationally recognized firm with offices in New York, California, Connecticut, and Washington D.C. The firm's attorneys have extensive expertise and experience representing investors in securities litigation and have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for aggrieved shareholders. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. CONTACT:Levi & Korsinsky, LLPJoseph E. Levi, Esq.55 Broadway, 10th FloorNew York, NY 10006jlevi@levikorsinsky.comTel: (212) 363-7500Fax: (212) 363-7171www.zlk.com SOURCE:Levi & Korsinsky, LLP View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/586356/CLASS-ACTION-UPDATE-for-CAN-CRON-and-NCLH-Levi-Korsinsky-LLP-Reminds-Investors-of-Class-Actions-on-Behalf-of-Shareholders || Ethereum Dips Below 130.44 Level, Down 0.91%: Investing.com - Ethereum fell bellow the $130.44 level on Monday. Ethereum was trading at 130.44 by 03:23 (07:23 GMT) on the Investing.com Index, down 0.91% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage loss since March 30. The move downwards pushed Ethereum's market cap down to $14.42B, or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Ethereum's market cap was $135.58B. Ethereum had traded in a range of $125.02 to $131.38 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, Ethereum has seen a rise in value, as it gained 4.58%. The volume of Ethereum traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $10.86B or 0.00% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $124.8400 to $142.8971 in the past 7 days. At its current price, Ethereum is still down 90.83% from its all-time high of $1,423.20 set on January 13, 2018. Bitcoin was last at $6,247.5 on the Investing.com Index, up 1.48% on the day. XRP was trading at $0.17292 on the Investing.com Index, a loss of 0.50%. Bitcoin's market cap was last at $114.52B or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $7.56B or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles Network of Fake Bitcoin QR Code Generators Stole $45,000 in March ConsenSys Partnering with Hitachi for PegaSys Plus Sales in Japan Blockchain-Related Deals Are Moving From The US to China [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 9733.72, 9328.20, 9377.01, 9670.74, 9726.58, 9729.04, 9522.98, 9081.76, 9182.58, 9209.29
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-07-19] BTC Price: 2273.43, BTC RSI: 45.37 Gold Price: 1241.20, Gold RSI: 53.04 Oil Price: 47.12, Oil RSI: 58.05 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Mark Zuckerberg Visits Local Ice Cream Shop in Small Iowa Town: founder and CEOMark Zuckerbergvisited a small town in Iowa, stopping by a local ice cream shop and marking another stop on his tour of the United States. Zuckerberg arrived in the small town ofWilton, Iowa,on Friday. Heposted about his trip on Facebookwriting, “In the last generation, there has been a real divergence between opportunity available in small towns and big cities. I’ve seen many struggling small towns this year, but I’ve also seen small towns like Wilton that are growing.” Zuckerberg also visited Detroit back in April,The Hill reported. While visiting Detroit, he toured a assembly plant just outside of the city. The country-wide tour is part of aNew Year’s resolutionhe made this year. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com • The Elephant in Trump's Brainstorming Room • Inside Odyssey: The Decline of a College Media Empire • Why Bitcoin Needs Washington to Go Mainstream • Tesla's Autopilot Tech Is a Danger to Cyclists, Robotics Expert Says • Why the World's Best Consumer Drones Aren't Just "Made in China," They're Designed and Developed There Too || Tech Giants Can’t Do Much to Fight Terrorism: Facebook, , Twitter, and YouTube announced Monday that they are joining forces in a Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism. This consortium will pool technology, research, and counterterrorism tactics including "counter-speech," which tries to prevent terrorist recruitment and incitement. This certainly is good news, but the scope of the task should not be underestimated. Between mid-2015 and early 2016, Twitter shut down 125,000 terrorist accounts. Keep in mind that those were just the ones that could be identified as terrorist-related (mostly affiliated with the Islamic State). Twitter noted that "there is no 'magic algorithm'for identifying terrorist content on the Internet, so global online platforms are forced to make challenging judgment calls based on very limited information and guidance." Further, the same users could quickly open new accounts. For most of us, these four companies constitute the Internet universe that we venture into for our personal use. But beyond this level of the Internet are zones where terrorist groups do their most serious business. Those whom we might call "top-level terrorists"--among them the leaders of Islamic State (IS) and Al Qaeda and their subsidiaries--survive because they are quick to adapt to changes in the physical and virtual battlespace. For some of their online communication, this has meant moving from the easily accessible "surface web" to the "deep web" and then on to its deepest part, the "dark web." This is where one can find drugs, pornography, weapons, and other contraband. The dark web is out of reach of the most common search engines, such as , and is difficult for hackers to penetrate. IS warehouses its propaganda videos and other material on dark sites, and has raised and transferred money using the dark web's currency of choice, Bitcoin. Similarly, IS has relied on Telegram, one of the encrypted communication tools that provides enhanced security for texts and other messaging, to relay instructions to its supporters, such as how to find a particular dark web address. In 2015, Telegram began featuring "channels" for specialized content, which IS promptly started using. During one month in 2016,700 new IS-related channels were opened. One such channel was "Mujahideen Secrets," which provided indoctrination and information for prospective "lone wolf" terrorists. Another challenge the Global Internet Forum faces is in its effort to produce counter-messaging that is effective in offsetting terrorist recruitment and fundraising. IS has been particularly successful in making the case that Islam is under siege by the West, and that the poverty and discrimination many Muslims encounter justify violent action. The harsh exigencies of life in suburbs of Paris and Brussels have more power to convince than do even the most rational pleas to renounce violence. Since the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. government has tried various counter-messaging themes and formats, but it remains unclear how successful these efforts have been. Until terrorism prevention campaigns address issues such as jobs and housing, terrorist groups will find plenty of recruits. The tech giants must recognize the difficulty of establishing credibility (especially because they are American businesses) if they are to undermine the likes of Islamic State. The roots of terrorism run deeper than weak appeals for peace. Philip Seib is a professor at the University of California's Annenberg School. His book,As Terrorism Evolves, will be published in October. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com • Four Tech Giants Team Up to Fight Terrorism • Germany Plans to Fingerprint Children and Spy on Personal Messages • Facebook's EMEA VP Defends Its Fight Against Extremist Content • These Countries Want Police To Have Speedier Access to Tech Firm Data • Theresa May Can't Just Blame the Internet for Terrorism || Bitcoin eyes return to $3,000 as Ether edges lower: Investing.com – Bitcoin renewed its swing higher on Tuesday, as investor appetite for the digital currency returned while Ethereum struggled to hold onto gains. On the U.S.-based GDAX exchange, BTC/USD rose to $2,746.6 up 7.29%. Bitcoin continued its march higher to $3000, the level achieved last week, as investors piled back into the digital currency, after it fell to $2,409, a level that some analysts suggested could be attractive for reentry. Bitcoin is up nearly 180% year-to-date far outpacing traditional the gains achieved by traditional U.S. benchmarks such as the Nasdaq and the S&P 500, which are up about 15% and 10%, respectively. Whereas, Ether, a currency transacted through the Ethereum platform, has risen 4,500% since the beginning of the year, backed by big corporate names like JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). Ether failed, however, to mirror bitcoin’s move higher in the session, with eth/usd down 1.20% to $250.73. Ether has made up significant ground against bitcoin in short space of time, reaching a market cap of about $33 billion not far off bitcoin’s $44 billion. If recent trends continue, then the value of Ethereum’s currency could usurp Bitcoin’s in the coming weeks – a phenomenon referred to as the “flippeninig.” Related Articles Forex - Yen points higher in early Asia ahead of BoJ minutes Dollar remains close to session highs as sterling slide continues Forex - Dollar gains amid Fed remarks and sterling weakness || Be Wary Of This Skyrocketing Bitcoin Fund: Bitcoin is flying. Prices for the digital currency briefly topped $2,800 in May, the latest milestone in what's become a parabolic move higher. Consider these figures: In the past month, bitcoin is up 68%; year-to-date, it's up 154%; over the past year, it's up 350%; and over the past two years, it's up 973%. But as incredible as those moves have been, the performance of one bitcoin fund makes them look paltry by comparison. That fund is the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC), which has more than tripled in the past month alone, while rising an eye-popping 1,600% over the past two years. 2-Year Returns For Bitcoin And GBTC The market value of the trust ballooned to as much as $1.1 billion in May, compared with $224 million at the beginning of the year. Dangerous Premium To NAV GBTC is an "open-ended trust" and the first publicly traded bitcoin investment vehicle. The fund made its debut on the OTC market in May 2015, and since then has been doing its best to track the price of bitcoin―with limited success. Indeed, even though GBTC is a self-proclaimed open-ended trust (and its sponsor Grayscale has periodically created new shares), it's acted more like a closed-end fund, with huge premiums the norm. The share price of GBTC was last trading at double the value of its underlying bitcoin holdings. At 131%, GBTC's premium to its net asset value is astronomical by any measure, and close to the highest level it's ever been. For investors buying into the fund, such large premiums are a disaster waiting to happen. Premiums are a fickle thing, and can fluctuate wildly depending on the supply and demand for shares. For example, GBTC's premium has ranged from zero to 142%, with an average of 40%, since May 2015. Not An ETF For investors used to buying exchange-traded funds, such large premiums are almost unheard of. In an ETF, large premiums and discounts are arbitraged away through the creation/redemption mechanism. When a premium becomes large, authorized participants will buy up the underlying, deliver it to the ETF provider in exchange for ETF shares, and sell them for a profit, pushing the ETF market price back towards the fund's NAV. Story continues But GBTC isn't an ETF. It doesn't abide by the stringent regulations and disclosure requirements of the Investment Company Act of 1940, and currently, its only AP is Genesis Global Trading, an affiliated company that has only offered shares to investors in private placement transactions, according to Spencer Bogart, managing director and head of research for BlockChain Capital. Up until early this year, share creations for GBTC took place through private transactions with accredited investors. Those new shares were subject to a one-year lockup period before they could be sold on the public market, hindering the ability to arbitrage any premium above NAV. After Jan. 19, Grayscale completely stopped issuing shares in connection with an SEC filing it made (more on that later), which means that what little ability to arbitrage the premium away before is now completely gone. Meanwhile, redemptions for GBTC have been completely suspended since 2016 after the trust and its AP were found to be in violation of an SEC rule. Put that all together and you have a product that can't be considered an ETF even by the loosest definition. Grantor trusts, '40 Act funds, '33 Act commodity pools and even ETNs are often lumped together under the ETF umbrella. They all hold securities with a fluid, unrestricted creation and redemption mechanism that serves to keep the traded price close to the underlying fair value. GBTC fails that test (not to mention it doesn't trade on an actual exchange). Only Game In Town … For Now Even with its flaws, clearly there's been a lot of demand for GBTC. Currently, the trust has a market value of nearly $1 billion and even counts two ETFs among its holders: the ARK Web x.0 ETF (ARKW) and the ARK Industrial Innovation ETF (ARKQ) . For investors who don't want to go through the hassle and risk of buying bitcoin directly from a digital currency exchange and storing it themselves, GBTC is, in many ways, the only game in town. But it doesn't have to be. The Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust ETF (COIN) was rejected by the SEC in March . The commission didn't allow the ETF to see the light of day because it was concerned about the lack of regulation in bitcoin markets, which could harm investors. Yet COIN would be vastly superior to the readily available GBTC, which is likely to burn investors who buy at premium prices. GBTC's sponsor Grayscale is well aware of the deficiencies of its product. In January, the firm made a filing with the SEC to do an initial public offering on the NYSE. Grayscale also lined up three APs to replace its affiliate Genesis, if the filing is approved. In other words, the sponsor hopes to convert GBTC into a fully fledged ETF. That's probably a smart move. If COIN or another bitcoin ETF comes to market and competes with GBTC in its current form, the latter will likely see an exodus of assets as investors gravitate toward the superior ETF structure. Indeed, in March, when it looked like the SEC could green-light the Winklevoss ETF, GBTC's premium briefly dropped to zero as demand for the product waned. Stark Choice For SEC Currently, the SEC is reviewing its disapproval of COIN. There's no timetable for when the commission will reach a decision. The SEC is also considering the Grayscale filing to IPO GBTC shares on the NYSE; that decision will be reached by Sept. 22. There's plenty of skepticism about whether the SEC will turn around and finally approve a bona fide bitcoin ETF after already rejecting two [along with COIN, the SEC rejected the SolidX Bitcoin Trust (XBTC)]. But as the massive inflows into bitcoin in general and GBTC in particular indicate, investors are going to buy up the digital currency regardless of what the commission does. The SEC can either help investors by allowing a regulated ETF that trades close to NAV come to market, or stand in the way and see those same investors hurt when they buy bitcoin directly from untested exchanges or through the flawed GBTC. At the time of writing, the author did not hold any positions in the securities mentioned. Contact Sumit Roy at sroy@etf.com . Recommended Stories Be Wary Of This Skyrocketing Bitcoin Fund SEC Sends Mixed Signals About Cutting Edge ETFs Bitcoin Flying As ETF Gets Second Shot 3 Market Surprises Impacting ETFs Friday Hot Reads: ETF Survival Rates By Asset Class Permalink | © Copyright 2017 ETF.com. All rights reserved || MORGAN STANLEY: There's one company pulling ahead in blockchain tech: Major Wall Street banks have been investing in blockchain technology for years now, but few products have yet to actually reach the market. That's because we're still in a "proof of concept" phase, according to new Morgan Stanley research published this week. "Whilst Blockchain, or distributed ledger technology, has been around for a number of years, it has only really begun to gain traction in the mainstream in the last 12 months," write analysts at the bank. (Morgan Stanley Research) One company that's leading the way? BNY Mellon. Morgan Stanley says the custody giant has created a parallel infrastructure using blockchain technology. BDS360 (short for Broker Dealer Services 360) monitors the custodial bank's ledger simultaneously and creates a second, redundant ledger that serves as a backup record. It's been up and running since March 2016. Here's how it works: (Illustrative structure of BNY Mellon's BDS360 in relation to existing infrastructure BDC.Morgan Stanley Research) It "provides a cost-effective way of adding extra layers of resiliency to the current platform," the bank said in a note. BSD360 is the closest thing to a market-ready product, says Morgan Stanley. All that's left is to roll out is client-facing portions, which comes with its own set of challenges. "There is still work to be done to figure out the specifics of client interface," says Morgan Stanley. "BNY Mellon would also need to engage in regulatory dialogues, and establish necessary standards and protocols. We think BNY Mellon is well positioned to take on those challenges, with ~85% market share in the [bond] space." Since it's only internal, and merely duplicates the current settlement processes, it's not a cost-save move by BNY Mellon. Rather, it's a cheap way to add another layer of resiliency, according to Morgan Stanley. Other examples of blockchain experiments include theAustralian Securities Exchange, Monetary Authority of Singapore, andRipple, a blockchain startup that wants to break SWIFT's stranglehold on intra-bank messaging. These proofs of concept are paving the way for cost-saving innovations, but there's still a long way to go. "Adoption of some form of Blockchain technology by incumbents is likely," writes Morgan Stanley. "Given the amount of collaboration required, we expect it could take several years to replace existing back office functions." NOW WATCH:A $16B hedge fund CIO explains what it takes to work at a hedge fund today More From Business Insider • MORGAN STANLEY: Bitcoin isn't a currency • Keep these 5 things in mind to get the most out of your summer investment-banking internship • This Wall Street veteran has raised $107 million to build the 'app store' of financial services || Steve Cohen reportedly plans record-breaking $20 billion hedge-fund comeback: Steve Cohen, whose former investment firm pleaded guilty to criminal insider trading charges, plans to return to hedge funds with a $20 billion goal in mind,The Wall Street Journal reports. The new hedge fund could launch as early as 2018, according to recent conversations Cohen and his representatives have had with bankers, colleagues and potential investors, the Journal says. Cohen is restricted from managing others' money until that time. Should the billionaire's plans go through, this would mark the biggest U.S. hedge-fund launch in history, according to data the Journal accessed from industry publisher Absolute Return. To surpass his $20 billion target, Cohen is prepared to lower his famously high fees, people familiar with Cohen's plans tell the Journal. Cohen's new firm is likely to launch with a so-called pass-through arrangement, a relatively uncommon structure under which recurring expenses are paid directly by investors instead of the fund firm, the people familiar with the proposition add. Cohen's SAC Capital paid $1.2 billion in November 2013 in a settlement with regulators over securities fraud charges. Months after the settlement, Cohen renamed the hedge fundPoint72 Asset Managementto manage his family's fortune. A representative from Point72 declined to comment, while Cohen was not immediately available for a response. Read the full report from The Wall Street Journal here. More From CNBC • Bitcoin is outperforming major assets but hedge funds are still staying away • General Motors shareholders advised against hedge fund-backed plan • You can't produce if you're not profitable: Kudlow || Bitcoin drops to three-week low on profit taking: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK, June 15 (Reuters) - Bitcoin fell to a three-week low on Thursday as investors took profits partly in response to a bearish report from Goldman Sachs as well as concerns about a Chinese bitcoin miner's plan to undertake a "hard fork" that will result in a split in the digital currency. The virtual currency relies on "mining" computers that validate blocks of transactions by competing to solve mathematical puzzles every 10 minutes. The first to solve the puzzle and clear the transaction is rewarded with new bitcoins. Bitcoin fell as low as $2,120 on the Bitstamp on Thursday and was last down 6 percent at $2,290. On the week, the currency has fallen about 22 percent, on track for its largest weekly slide since December 2013. On Monday, bitcoin hit a record just shy of $3,000. So far this year, bitcoin remains up 137 percent. Sharp losses such as Thursday's are par for the course for an asset like bitcoin, analysts said. Over the course of its eight-year history, Bitcoin has on a daily basis risen as much as 18 percent and fallen as much as 13 percent. Greg Dwyer, business development manager at crypto-currency trading platform BitMEX, said bitcoin's decline may have started on Monday when Goldman Sachs analyst Sheba Jafari said in a report, "The balance of signals are looking broadly heavy" for bitcoin. Jafari was "wary of a near-term top ahead of $3,134, adding that investors should consider re-establishing bullish exposure between $2,330 and no lower than $1,915." Analysts also said investors were spooked by Chinese miner Bitmain's plan to undertake a "hard fork" of bitcoin if a code upgrade on the currency is activated late this summer. Under a "hard fork", Bitmain would create an entirely new version of the bitcoin blockchain, resulting in an entirely new bitcoin currency, separate from the original currency. Bitmain's move was in response to proposals that attempt to solve the bitcoin network's limitations in processing millions of daily transactions. Bitcoin's network has not kept pace with its growth and is unable to process all the transactions fast enough. "Traders are concerned with what a fork could do to their holdings and most likely now converting to fiat (government currencies) until some clarity about the scaling debate comes to light," said BitMEX's Dwyer. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) || Bitcoin is making a big comeback: Bitcoinis making a big comeback, trading up by 9.8% at $2,563 a coin on Friday. Friday's gain follows awild day Thursday, which saw the cryptocurrency ultimately put in its 27th gain in the past 30 sessions. Bitcoin climbed above $2,500 and ultimately put in a record high of $2,799. But then the bottom dropped out, and bitcoin plunged to a low of $2,200 before recouping some of those losses and finishing the day with a small gain. The cryptocurrency climbed had climbed by much as 26% following Wednesday's announcement that the Digital Currency Group, representing 56 companies in 21 countries, reached ascaling agreementat the Consensus 2017 conference in New York. It has been on fire in the past two months, gaining nearly 140% since the beginning of April, when Japan announced bitcoin had become alegal payment methodin the country. Trade has also been boosted by news that Russia's largest online retailer,Ulmart, had begun accepting bitcoindespite Russia's saying it wouldn't consider the use of the cryptocurrency until 2018. But the market is still waiting on a ruling by the US Securities and Exchange Commission on whether it will overturn itsdecision on the Winklevoss twins' bitcoin-exchange-traded fund. The SEC was accepting public comment on that decision until May 15, but it hasn't announced whether it will overturn its rejection of the ETF. Bitcoin is up 169% this year. (Investing.com) NOW WATCH:9 phrases on your résumé that make hiring managers cringe More From Business Insider • People are making a fortune buying government-seized bitcoins • Bitcoin plunges and then recovers • Bitcoin blows past $2,000, $2,100, and $2,200 for the first time || Goldman Sachs: This is Bitcoin’s Sweet Spot: Even though Bitcoin has been called a bubble , investors who have hungrily watched Bitcoin’s price soar 290% over the past year from the sidelines still have a chance to win big. Or at least that’s according to analyst Sheba Jafari. On Sunday, the banking giant sent a note seen by CNBC that said Bitcoin, now priced at $2,568 a piece, could fall as low as $1,857 before bouncing to a much higher valuation between $3,212 to $3,915. That means if an investor watches the cryptocurrency carefully and times it perfectly, they could gain as much as 110% on their initial investment. Granted, that would take quite a bit of patience, with Goldman acknowledging that “it might take time” to hit $3,915. Read: Can Bitcoin's First Felon Help Make Cryptocurrency a Trillion-Dollar Market? If Bitcoin were to hit $3,915, then that would add another $22 billion in market capitalization to cryptocurrency, which is up 53% from Bitcoin’s current market capitalization of $42 billion. That comes as the cryptocurrency has fallen from a high of just over $3,000 in mid-June, with investors, including Mark Cuban, warning that Bitcoin’s price has already peaked . See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com Bitcoin Nears Bear Market Territory What Bitcoiners Are Doing to Fight Ransomware Here's When You Should Buy Bitcoin and Ethereum VC Firm Homebrew Considering an ICO to Raise its Next Fund Bitcoin Exchange Hacker Sentenced to Nearly 6 Years in Prison || Tiger Cub Rob Citrone Is Bullish on Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (VRX), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (AMD), Slashes Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN): Image result for "Rob Citrone" Rob Citrone is fund manager of the $5.37 billion Discovery Capital Management fund. In Q1 Citrone made some interesting portfolio adjustments- initiating holdings in Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE: VRX ) and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (NASDAQ: AMD ) while slashing the fund’s holding of one of the market’s most popular stocks, e-commerce giant Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN ). Citrone began his career in Julian Robertson’s legendary fund Tiger Management giving him the ‘Tiger Cub’ nickname along with other big-name fund manager such as Steve Mandel and Lee Ainslie. Citrone, who founded Discovery in 1999, is a fan of macro bets and emerging markets- a strategy that saw the firm lose money in both 2014 and 2015. These losses were somewhat offset in 2016 when the fund made a 9% return- apparently from trades made in the last 2 months of the year alone. However the fund’s measured performance of 19.46% remains considerably below that of the average hedge fund (53.57%). Now let’s dig down into the fund manager’s key Q1 moves: New Hopes for Valeant Pharmaceuticals Perhaps surprisingly given fellow fund manager Bill Ackman’s recent exit from the stock with a $4 billion loss, Citrone initiated a new position in Valeant Pharma worth $5.11 million. So far the investment has paid off with shares up 28% since the last filing date. Rumors have now surfaced that Valeant intends to sell eye unit Bausch & Lomb’s surgery products business to Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, a $4.6 billion medical tech company based in Germany. The deal could be worth about $2 billion, sources told Bloomberg, but added that it could take several weeks for an agreement to be signed as the two companies are just in discussions for now. At the right price, a sale could be good news for the embattled health care stock Valeant which is trying to clear its massive $28.9 billion debt burden racked up from numerous acquisitions, poor sales and legal investigations into former pricing policies. This year Valeant has already sold three skincare brands to L’Oreal for $1.3 billion and its Dendreon cancer business to China’s Sanpower for $819 million. Story continues Analysts are more cautious on the stock’s outlook. TipRanks shows that in the last three months the stock has received 2 buy, 9 hold and 3 sell ratings. The average analyst price target of $18.20 now stands at a 46% upside from the current share price of just $12.51. Small Bite in AMD In Q1 Citrone also decided to start seriously investing in semiconductor company AMD with a new position worth $164.63 million. So far shares are down, with a decrease of over 12% since the last filing date. AMD is now seeing an unexpected boost in demand from rapidly exploding cryptocurrencies. Shares in AMD were up 7% on Tuesday making the stock the best-performer in the S&P 500 for the day after AMD revealed that cryptocurrencies are leading an upsurge in demand for its graphic cards. Bitcoin is up 200% this year, Ethereum an incredible 2900% year-to-date. AMD says that gaming continues to be the company’s main focus where it sees “solid demand” for its Polaris-based graphics cards. However it’s possible that the situation will not end as well as the market currently believes. In December 2013, the same situation occurred and the demand for AMD’s graphic cards proved very temporary. At the time, Bitcoin rose and then dropping by 80%. This could happen again. Now Bitcoin is arguably also being boosted by a kind of cryptocurrency euphoria which could make the downturn even more severe. Perhaps that is why AMD is trying to downplay the news with the gaming comment. The stock has a hold consensus rating from the Street, according to TipRanks which shows a spread of 6 buy, 9 hold and 3 sell ratings in the last three months. Due in part to the recent share gains, analysts are predicting downside of -8.74% to the average price target of $11.70 from the current share price. Slashing Amazon In Q1, Citrone slashed the fund’s Amazon holding by a considerable 61%. The fund’s remaining position in the e-commerce giant now stands at $165 million- making it the fund’s fourth biggest stock. And since the last filing date it has performed well with shares up 14%. Amazon has just announced that it will discount its Prime subscriber service by 49% to just $5.99/ month for customers with verified Electronic Benefits Transfer cards (i.e. people who are involved in a government assistance program). Prime membership means customers can receive special product discounts, free same-day delivery, free monthly e-books and access to more of Amazon’s entertainment offerings. The reduced rate lasts for one year, but can be renewed up to four times according to Amazon, which says it intends to expand the offer to similar assistance programs in the future. The move by Amazon towards a lower-income market is an interesting one, especially as smaller rival Walmart is concentrating its efforts on the more affluent consumer says KeyBanc analyst Edward Yruma . This will increase the competitive pressure on other retailers trying to find their niche in between these two giants, writes Yruma. According to Yruma, 51% of US households are Amazon Prime members, and this new initiative will push that percentage even higher. While the stock has a very negative hedge fund confidence signal, the Street is much more bullish on Amazon’s outlook. Over the last three months, the stock has received 28 buy ratings and only 3 hold ratings. The average price target of $1,104 also represents further upside potential for the stock of close to 10% over the next 12 months. More recent articles about AMD: 3 Reasons Why You Should Drop Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) Shares Here’s What Ken Fisher Up To: Apple Inc (AAPL), NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA), Amazon.com, Inc (AMZN) See Hedge Fund Whiz Benjamin Smith's Trades in Tech: Tesla Inc (TSLA), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), Snap Inc (SNAP) Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) Launches Ryzen PRO Desktop Processors [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] PR: Insurex Announce Crowdsale for Blockchain-Based Marketplace for Insurance Products - http://bitcoinschannel.com/pr-insurex-announce-crowdsale-for-blockchain-based-marketplace-for-insurance-products/ … $BTC #investing #altcoins || Earn 1% Daily On #BitCoin Mining And Trading. Double Your Money With Forex. Credible Global Company. https://global121.clickfunnels.com/usitech-intro pic.twitter.com/Ge69hTPozT || 朝の7:30から夜の22:00まで毎日働いて、家族との時間も取れず、そんな生活ホントに幸せですか？この先何歳まで続けますか？自由を手に入れたいなら現状からの脱出と環境を変えなければとうてい無理です。 #仮想通貨 #ビットコイン #不労所得 #bitcoin || The Hardware Bitcoin Wallet. Get Trezor now for only $99 https://buytrezor.com?a=coinokbuytrezor.com/?a=coinok  #btc #bitcoin 00 pic.twitter.com/CpLTMxA0NU || Bitcoin - BTC Price: $2,598.93 Change in 1h: +0.16% Market cap: $42,705,064,188.00 Ranking: 1 #Bitcoin #BTC || Bitcoin Misses $3,000 Due To Issues... And The 'Flippening' May Happen http://ift.tt/2rtbDpD  || This Is Why Rothschild Banks Fear #Bitcoin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwonV7eTQek&feature=share … || Help. Going to get margin call against home equity loan home if price drops anymore http://ift.tt/2trS91m  #reddit #bitcoin || Comment on Курс Bitcoin: анализ, прогноз, обсуждение | Bit•Новости by Anonymous http://ow.ly/1sXL50caJac  || JNECare: wprameswari_15 Hi kak, admin cek kirimannya sdh diterima oleh Staff/Karyawan JNE BTC tgl 19-06-17 pukul 19:00. Admin sarankan utk …
Trend: down || Prices: 2817.60, 2667.76, 2810.12, 2730.40, 2754.86, 2576.48, 2529.45, 2671.78, 2809.01, 2726.45
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-08-30] BTC Price: 47054.98, BTC RSI: 53.85 Gold Price: 1809.00, Gold RSI: 55.83 Oil Price: 69.21, Oil RSI: 52.65 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Dogecoin’s Highs and Lows: Is It Still Worth an Investment?: epicimages / iStock.com If you’re bored with index funds and you’re ready to roll the dice on one of those sexy and mysterious new alternative investments, you have plenty of options . One of those options involves a Japanese dog, Elon Musk and what appears to be fake money from a toy cash register. Read: How Does Cryptocurrency Work – and Is It Safe? Find Out: Where Does Cryptocurrency Come From? That’s Dogecoin (DOGE), and it’s here to rescue anyone who couldn’t bear to wait one second longer for the latest next-big-thing cryptocurrency that promises to out-Bitcoin Bitcoin. What Is Dogecoin? Dogecoin is a joke — or at least it started out as one. Two software engineers — IBM’s Billy Markus and Adobe’s Jackson Palmer — created Dogecoin in 2013 to lampoon all the altcoin wannabes that popped up after Bitcoin rose to blockchain fame. As a logo, they chose a Shiba Inu from a meme called Doge, which went viral that same year. The Economy and Your Money: All You Need To Know Like Bitcoin and all cryptocurrency, Dogecoin is: Decentralized — it’s not issued or backed by a government or bank “Mined” independently and recorded on a blockchain Anonymous — privacy is part of the reason crypto is so popular Unlike Bitcoin and other “deflationary” cryptocurrencies that exist in limited quantities, there is no cap on “inflationary” Dogecoin. It started as tech-geek satire, but Palmer and Markus were skilled, experienced and imaginative professionals. Their blockchain, proof-of-work process and minting procedures were stable, efficient and secure. Crypto wonks recognized its potential and the fake currency began amassing a very real following. More Economy Explained: Ethereum (ETH): What It Is, What It’s Worth and Should You Be Investing? It already had achieved cult status by the time Tesla CEO Elon Musk started tweeting about Dogecoin in 2021 . The props from Musk made Dogecoin a household name and sent its value soaring. It’s now one of the most-used altcoins, particularly for tipping on social media. Story continues How Much Is Dogecoin Worth? Investors who are put off by the $36,000-plus asking price of a single Bitcoin will be happy to know that comparatively, Dogecoin trades at a bargain. As of March 19, Dogecoin was trading at $0.0585 per coin. But as of May 4, the price was up to $0.53, according to CoinDesk — a huge increase for people who had already bought in. It has since dropped down to $0.23, as of June 23 — still a big increase if you bought way back when. Find Out: Why Some Money Experts Believe In Bitcoin and Others Don’t Is Dogecoin a Good Investment? If you’re reading a basic primer like this, you’re probably better off sticking with your ETF until you learn the ropes. Investing in crypto is not like buying shares of Walmart or UPS. First, it’s incredibly volatile. Wild price swings that would make the common investor queasy are par for the course. The way that cryptocurrency is generated, distributed, validated and accounted for is completely foreign even to most tech-savvy investors. It’s not backed by any bank, government or corporation, and despite the fact that it feels like everyone’s talking about it, crypto is still a highly experimental niche concept that the vast majority of people know almost nothing about and are nowhere near adopting. Read: How To Invest In Cryptocurrency: What You Should Know Before Investing There’s a steep learning curve to investing in cryptocurrency. It requires immersion. If you’re just recently hearing about Dogecoin, it’s probably best to invest time in research before you invest a single dollar in an imaginary coin adorned with a picture of a smiling dog. This article is part of GOBankingRates’ ‘Economy Explained’ series to help readers navigate the complexities of our financial system. More From GOBankingRates From New York to California: A Spotlight on Beloved Small Businesses Across All 50 States Read About the Best Small Businesses in Your State Small Businesses That Celebrities Love Monifi Review: Mobile Banking That Can Improve Your Budgeting Last updated: June 23, 2021 This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : Dogecoin’s Highs and Lows: Is It Still Worth an Investment? || DeFi TVL Rebounds 20% as Crypto Sell Pressure Wanes: The amount of collateral locked across various decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols has rebounded over the past two weeks or so, suggesting the sellers are running out of steam. As the bearish pressure eases and the crypto market selloff appears to have abated, more collateral is being pumped back into DeFi. Various DeFi analytics platforms are all in agreement that total value locked has steadily increased over the past few weeks while bitcoin and major altcoins have mostly traded sideways. DeFiLlama is reporting a 20% gain in TVL across listed platforms, from late June when it dropped below $92 billion, to current levels which are just shy of $111 billion. DappRadar has seen a similar surge in TVL, which has gone up by 16% since late June to reach $89 billion today. Meanwhile, DeFiPulse which lists far fewer protocols has recorded a 12% gain over the same period to current levels of $54 billion. CoinGecko’s TVL figures show an increase of 24% since June 27 with a figure of $76 billion today. DeFi in recovery The TVL on Binance Smart Chain-based protocols has also seen an uptick from $17.1 billion on June 28 to $19.5 billion on July 13 according to BSCproject . The 14% gain is in line with the rest of the DeFi sector, suggesting that BSC is no longer undergoing growth at a faster pace. The move suggests that those still holding crypto assets are preferring to invest in DeFi rather than sell to markets. The total crypto market cap itself has been relatively flat over the past two months, oscillating between $1.5 trillion and $1.7 trillion. In terms of top DeFi protocols, the three analytics providers have differing results. DeFiLlama lists Curve Finance at the top with $9.3 billion, DappRadar has Uniswap leading the pack with $8.3 billion, and DeFiPulse favors Aave as the market leader with $10.5 billion in TVL. Industry observers have also noted that the number DeFi users have hit a milestone of three million. However, this figure is likely to be an overestimate as observed by Alex Krüger who stated “there are multiple addresses per user. I’d guess the actual user number is in the 1,200,000-800,000 range.” Story continues BTC exchange outflows increasing One metric that backs these TVL gains up is the outflow from exchanges which has increased over the past fortnight. When investors and traders are preparing to sell, they normally move crypto assets into exchanges, which was what happened in April and May. When investors and traders are accumulating, exchange outflows increase which is exactly what has been happening according to on-chain analytics provider Glassnode in its weekly insights report . || Money Reimagined: Can DeFi Stay Decentralized?: How decentralized, really, is DeFi? That’s a question sparked by Uniswap’s move to restrict investor access to certain tokens on its platform, seemingly in response to threats from regulators, and the topic of our column this week. We also explore the relationship betweenbitcoindifficulty and price and the meme fun that was had with Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) description of cryptocurrency developers as “shadowy super-coders.” In our podcast this week, Sheila Warren and I were joined by my old friend and former CoinDesk colleague Noelle Acheson, who is now head of Markets Insights at Genesis, a CoinDesk sister company. The three of us picked apart a couple of prominent essays that were critical of Bitcoin and crypto assets. Have a listen after you read the newsletter. Related:Fundamentally Incompatible: How the Proposed Crypto Tax Rules Miss the Mark It’s a question you hear a lot from crypto outsiders: Why did Satoshi Nakamoto choose anonymity? Why not write your name into the history books as a contributor to the march of progress? I can’t answer the question definitively, of course. I don’t have Satoshi’s ear – not that I know of, at least. (He/she/they may well be among the many Bitcoin OGs (original gangsters) I’ve spoken to over the years.) But I do know this: If Bitcoin’s inventor was an identifiable human being or group of human beings, it would not have been able to grow as it has. In fact, it may well have died shortly after its birth, much likee-Goldbefore it orLiberty Reserveafter it. You’re readingMoney Reimagined, a weekly look at the technological, economic and social events and trends that are redefining our relationship with money and transforming the global financial system. Subscribe to get the full newsletterhere. One can imagine state or federal regulators knocking on the fully identified Satoshi Nakamoto’s door and hitting him/her/them with a cease-and-desist order for running an unlicensed money transmission business. The Bitcoin founder could have protested, “The network is decentralized”/“neither me nor my fellow node operators hold custody of customer assets”/“it’s code, protected by the First Amendment.”  But the power of law enforcement at such times often means that nuances like that are lost. Related:Did Laozi Dream of Blockchain? There’s a lesson here for the folks who built automated money maker Uniswap as well as for other protocol developers in the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry. Uniswap is a decentralized exchange. Unlike centralized crypto exchanges and wallets, it takes no custody of customer assets. In theory, it’s governed by a decentralized community, whose members use its native token,UNI, to coordinate voting on financial conditions and other elements of the system. But last week Uniswap Labs, the company that launched the protocol,announced it would limit trading in certain financial assetson its site. Citing “a shifting regulatory landscape,” the company restricted access to tokens that are synthetically linked to the value of stocks and other traditional financial instruments. The move came after U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Genslerwarned that stablecoin tokens pegged to traditional securities may themselves constitute securitiesthat are subject to its oversight. With this one outcome, DeFi is suddenly looking a bit less decentralized. For some time, DeFi advocates speculated that regulators who’ve found ways to impose anti-money laundering, know-your-customer and securities rules on centralized, custodial crypto exchanges and wallets such as Coinbase would run into a dilemma with decentralized exchanges because, supposedly, there is no one in charge for them to go after. But Uniswap’s quick response to a regulator’s public comment is a reminder this was an overly optimistic view. The protocol might be distributed, but if there’s an identifiable, centralized entity running the interface with that protocol, and it can be pressured to block access to it, the distinction seems moot. It may still be that there’s a decentralization threshold beyond which regulators can’t or won’t intervene. Administration of a protocol’s governance could evolve to where it’s out of the hands of its founders and is guided by the decisions of its network, and so it escapes the scope of regulation. That’s kind of what SEC Director of Corporation Finance William Hinman said in amuch-cited speech about Ethereum in 2019. If so, a big test of that idea may come with MakerDAO, the decentralized lending platform that runs thedaistablecoin.In a blog post last week, founder Rune Christensen said the MakerDAO Foundation, which runs the lending system, will hand over control entirely to a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), also called MakerDAO. AsChristensen explained on our podcastrecently, the founders quickly learned it was impossible to launch an entirely decentralized platform from the start. The decision-making of the foundation was needed for the system to run effectively at first, but the founders worked to build out the participation, liquidity and a structure that would eventually allow the protocol to run by itself. Whether the formal move in that direction now is enough to protect dai from thestablecoin regulation that is also expectedto be forthcoming is another thing.Legislation to provide a “comprehensive legal framework”to regulate cryptocurrencies and stablecoins was introduced in the House of Representatives Wednesday. It does look as if DeFi is now very much in the U.S. government’s crosshairs. Hot on the heels of Gensler’s message and the Uniswap response,a new infrastructure billthat’s looking to raise tax revenue from crypto traders included decentralized exchanges and peer-to-peer marketplaces in its definition of the brokers from which information would be demanded. As Anderson Kill lawyer andCoinDesk columnist Preston Byrne argued last week, the recent round of cease-and-desist actions by state-based securities regulators’ against centralized crypto lending platform BlockFi (see Relevant Reads below) may be a precursor to similar moves against DeFi. These agencies are viewing crypto interest-bearing products as investment contracts, and thus subject to securities laws, irrespective of whether they are offered by CeFi (centralized finance) or DeFi. This is not to say DeFi doesn’t pose legal or even moral challenges for regulators. Many have argued that regulators are crossing some fat red lines by going after the developers of open-source code if those developers are making that software available to others in an open, token-regulated system and not taking custody of users’ funds or assets. In other settings, software code has been recognized as a form of speech, protected by the First Amendment. And as Protocol Labs general counselMarta Belcher has argued, some of these actions could constitute breaches of civil liberties based on invasions of privacy. Still, law enforcement is coming. So, does that mean that the only solution is the Satoshi solution? Is the only way for a project to launch for the founder to use a pseudonym and stay in the shadows? Sadly, that option may also now be unavailable. As theBlue Kirby problemdemonstrated, where a pseudonymous coder made off with investors’ funds, the market itself is now inclined to demand identity. It’s the best way for investors to protect themselves from a fraudulent founder. Satoshi’s genius move to build something outside of the glare of public view may have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, available precisely because so few people knew about it and because, to start with at least, there was not much at stake in the way of dollar value. To me, DeFi founders capture the same inventive spirit that Satoshi embodied. It would be a pity if regulators quash their ability to turn it into something valuable and lasting. Bitcoin difficulty, a measure of how much hashing power is needed to mine a block of bitcoin transactions, underwent its biggest drop ever earlier this month. The cause: the massive reduction in hashing power brought about by China’s crackdown against bitcoin mining in what was once the world’s leading region for such activity. The Bitcoin protocol automatically institutes an adjustment every 2,016 blocks, or roughly two weeks, to reflect changes in hashrate to maintain a more or less even spread of bitcoin issuance and reward distribution over time. As the chart below shows, the recent massive drop in difficulty came slightly after the sharp decline in price from bitcoin’s mid-April all-time high of $64,829. That’s a trend seen at other times of falling prices, as lower profitability can lead miners to shut down inefficient equipment, which lowers the hashrate, triggering difficulty adjustments. But if you look at the rising trend during the first part of the post-bubble price correction in 2018, you’ll notice that it’s not a lockstep function. It wasn’t until bitcoin took another leg lower in late 2018/early 2019, that miner profit margins were squeezed far enough to prompt hashrate and difficulty reductions. In the latest case, despite the correlation, there’s also a strong case to be made that the price and difficulty adjustment relationship is at least partly coincidental. The China crackdown would have prompted a hashrate retrenchment regardless of price, though it’s also likely a decline in profitability accelerated the exodus by Chinese miners and dissuaded competitors from outside China from quickly jumping in to take their place. The bigger question is: What now? Well, the lower difficulty rate makes existing mining less expensive, which means there’s a new profit incentive to offset the loss of a lower price. So with bitcoin back around $40,000 after dropping below $30,000 a week ago, and with Chinese miners starting to relocate to new locations, some could argue that the bottom has been reached. • Why Bitcoin Needs Its Critics: A Conversation With Noelle Acheson • US Stablecoin Regulation Could Lead to Geopolitical Competition || Grayscale Hires Global Head Of ETFs, Says It Is 100% Committed To Converting Its Largest Bitcoin Fund: Grayscale Investments plans to convert its largest fund – theGrayscale Bitcoin Trust(OTCMKTS: GBTC) – to aBitcoin(CRYPTO: BTC) exchange-traded fund, despite the unfavorable odds prevailing in the market. What Happened:In anannouncementon Wednesday, Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein said, "Grayscale is 100% committed to converting our investment products, including Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), into ETFs” while announcing the appointment of a Global Head of ETFs. David LaValle, the newly appointed senior managing director, and ETF head, will report directly to Sonnenshein. “Dave is a pioneering leader in the ETF space with expertise spanning critical components of the ETF ecosystem, including product development, distribution, capital markets, trading, and regulation,” said the Grayscale CEO. Before joining Grayscale, LaValle served as CEO of Alerian and S-Network Global Indexes and held several positions leading ETF strategy at State Street, SPDR ETF Capital Markets, and Nasdaq’s ETP listing and trading businesses. “Grayscale is an unrivaled leader in the digital asset space and I am eager to work with the team to meet investor demand for single-asset trusts and diversified funds while developing the future of digital currency-based ETFs,” said LaValle. What Else:LaValle seemed to echo the sentiments of other proponents of the crypto space who believe that Grayscale willhave the best shotat getting an ETF approved. “As one of the more established providers, it's likely Grayscale will have a better path forward than others, but ultimately it will depend on the quality of their filing. Having highly trusted, institutional players, like BNY Mellon, as part of their offering will only help,” Doug Schwenk, chief executive officer ofDigital Asset Research, told Benzinga last month. Price Action:At press time, the market-leading digital assetBitcoin(CRYPTO: BTC) was trading at $39,779, gaining 2.34% over the past 24-hours. See more from Benzinga • Click here for options trades from Benzinga • Bitcoin ETF In The U.S. Isn't Likely To Be Approved Anytime Soon, According To Blockchain Association's Karen Smith © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || SkyBridge Purchases Carbon Offsets of BTC Holdings: BeInCrypto – SkyBridge Capital has offset the carbon footprint of the Bitcoin held across its funds by purchasing and retiring tokens representing approximately 38,436 tons of carbon. “We project that bitcoin mining will be fully renewable by the end of the decade,”saidAnthony Scaramucci, Founder and Managing Partner of SkyBridge. “In the interim, carbon offsets represent an effective way to green the bitcoin network and facilitate adoption by ESG-minded investors.”. Scaramucci has said recently that every diversified portfolio should own at least alittle bitof Bitcoin. Offsets from Moss SkyBridge purchased these carbon offsets from Moss, who operates in the voluntary carbon offset market. This means that they source credits from independently verified projects that avoid deforestation that otherwise would occur. This storywas seen first onBeInCryptoJoin our Telegram Groupand get trading signals, a free trading course and more stories likethisonBeInCrypto || What's Up With Ethereum Classic As It Follows Bitcoin, Ethereum Into Bullish Consolidation: Ethereum Classic (CRYPTO: ETC), Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) and Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) were just a few of the popular cryptocurrencies consolidating on Tuesday. All three cryptos had a relative strength index (RSI) registering above 70% which put them into overbought territory and the consolidation was needed. For technical traders, an extended RSI is a sell signal and some traders of the cryptos may have decided to sell some or all of their positions with the hope to buy back and lower or average down on their trade. The average daily volume for Ethereum Classic, Ethereum and Bitcoin was low as of late afternoon, indicating traders were not exiting their positions en masse which is a good sign for the bulls. On Tuesday, Ethereum Classic’s RSI dropped down to the 65% level and was settling into two bullish patterns while holding above support at $65.10 See Also: Ethereum Already 'Flipped' Bitcoin In This Part Of The World The Ethereum Classic Chart: On Aug. 7, Ethereum Classic broke up bullishly from a symmetrical triangle the crypto had been trading in since around June 1. Ethereum Classic then traded sideways for five days to consolidate the move higher. Ethereum shot up almost 30% and has spent the past two days consolidating the move. The most recent rise followed by consolidation has helped Ethereum Classic to form a bull flag pattern on the daily chart with the pole created between Aug. 13 and 15 and the flag on Monday and Tuesday. If Ethereum Classic breaks up bullishly from the flag pattern it has the potential to soar another 30% higher from the lowest point in the flag pattern, which could cause the crypto to reach $86.50. Ethereum is also trading in a bullish rounded bottom pattern indicating higher prices may come in the future. The rounded bottom pattern began with a decline in price beginning on May 28 and was eventually followed by a curl back north on July 20. See Also: Bitcoin vs Ethereum • What's the Difference? Story continues Ethereum Classic is trading above the eight-day and 21-day exponential moving averages with the eight-day EMA trending above the 21-day, both which are bullish indicators. The crypto is also trading over 65% above the 200-day simple moving average indicating overall sentiment is bullish. Bulls want to see continued consolidation within the flag before big bullish volume comes in and breaks Ethereum Classic up bullishly from the pattern. If it breaks up from the flag it has resistance above the $72 and $79 levels. Bears want to see big bearish volume come in and push Ethereum Classic down below the eight-day EMA which would invalidate the bull flag. If the crypto loses support at $65.10 it could revisit lower support near $57. etc_aug._17.png Image: Ethereum Classic See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Ethereum Classic, Baby Doge Form Bullish Patterns As Bitcoin Rises Through Resistance © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin and major cryptos continue downward spiral: Cryptocurrencies have been under much pressure for regulation from global governments to central banks, with several countries imposing measures to regulate digital tokens. Photo: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images (NurPhoto via Getty Images) The most valuable cryptocurrencies by market cap have continued a downward slide on Tuesday. Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) fell 3.6% to $33,164 (£23,906) falling as much as $32,804 on Tuesday morning. The largest token has been unable to either break upwards or correct downwards, being stuck to break above the $36,000 mark, but stayed managed to float $32,000. The decline comes after bitcoin reached a high of $41,330 on 15 June, passing past a key $41,250 resistance area, however, it has been decreasing and on a volatile path since. Other cryptos followed suit, ethereum ( ETH-USD ) declined 6.5% to $2,015, while Tesla ( TSLA ) boss Elon Musk's favourite joke token, Dogecoin ( DOGE-USD ) fell 6.3% to $0.20 during the session. Chart: Yahoo Finance It comes after the Metropolitan police's economic crime command seized almost £180m ($250m) of bitcoin on Tuesday following an investigation into international money laundering. The Met also confiscated £114m of the cryptocurrency last month . "While cash still remains king in the criminal word, as digital platforms develop we’re increasingly seeing organised criminals using cryptocurrency to launder their dirty money," the Met's deputy assistant commissioner, Graham McNulty said. "Whilst some years ago this was fairly unchartered territory, we now have highly trained officers and specialist units working hard in this space to remain one step ahead of those using it for illicit gain." Cryptocurrencies have been under much pressure for regulation from global governments to central banks, with several countries imposing measures to regulate digital tokens. Watch: What is bitcoin? China has been the strictest in its moves. Chinese vice-premier Liu Hu promised in May that the nation would "severely crack down on illegal securities activities and severely punish illegal financial activities." The country extended the clampdown on the bitcoin mining industry to its biggest bitcoin producing provinces, including the southwest province of Sichuan, in June. Story continues The Bank of England (BoE) governor, Andrew Bailey, previously said digital currencies will not get a regulatory " free pass " in the future, despite their potential for innovation. Meanwhile, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority previously warned that if consumers invest in cryptoassets "they should be prepared to lose all their money". The regulator estimated that 2.3 million adults in Britain now hold crypto assets, up from 1.9 million last year, with increasing numbers of people seeing them as either a complement or alternative to mainstream investments. UK bank TSB banned over 5 million customers from purchasing cryptos amid fears over "excessively high" fraud rates on trading platforms. TSB's move follows similar moves by other UK banks amid a crackdown on financial cyber crime. Earlier in May, Barclays ( BARC.L ) Monzo and Starling Bank temporarily banned cash transfers to crypto platforms such as Binance. The UK's Advertising Standards Office announced it will start a major effort this month to remove misleading or irresponsible crypto ads, especially online. Read more: From Binance to Coinbase: The rise of cryptocurrency exchanges Cryptos have been boosted by institutional support recently. Several organisations, including MicroStrategy ( MSTR ) and Tesla, have invested billions of dollars into cryptocurrencies and traditional financial firms like PayPal ( PYPL ) and Goldman Sachs ( GS ) started to handle the asset on behalf of clients. Despite regulation fears, there has been more adoption of cryptocurrencies, especially bitcoin. A member of Argentina’s congress submitted a bill that would allow staff to receive their salary in bitcoin, to "strengthen their autonomy and conserve the purchasing power of their remuneration.” Last month, El Salvador's president Nayib Bukele announced it would accept bitcoin as legal tender. The move makes the Central American nation the first in the world to formally adopt the digital currency. Watch: What are the risks of investing in cryptocurrency? || Bitcoin Bulls Falter Despite Gaining 14% In July: For the first time since mid-May, the pioneer cryptocurrency saw its price surge above the $40,000 mark over the weekend, but the rally started to falter on Sunday. It topped $42,000 on Saturday, but by Monday morning, had fallen back to about the $40,000 price range on the FTX exchange. Althoughbitcoinis essentially flat over the past five days, FTX data shows it has been up 14% month-to-date, and 38% year-to-date, despite being off by about 40% from its all-time high of around $65,000 in April. Despite dropping below $30,000 on July 20, bitcoin has surged since then, partly because investors view it as a hedge against inflation and currency values if and when the Federal Reserve stops buying $120 billion in assets a month. Bitcoin bears were not able to hold onto the lead in July as resistance levels fell and sentiment improved as the month drew to a close. The perpetual funding rate has continued to trade negatively as an indicator of the directional bias of futures markets. Accordingly, there is still a net bias against Bitcoin. In particular, this measure reveals that last week’s price rally may be connected to an overall short squeeze, with funding rates remaining at even more negative levels even after the price surged 30%. On-chain activity and transaction volumes remain extraordinarily quiet compared to the volatility of spot and derivatives markets. A 14-day median transaction volume of $5 Billion per day for Bitcoin is low based on entity-adjusted data. Despite the decline, $16 billion per day still remains a significant sum compared to what it was before the sell-off in May. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Bitcoin Lacks Momentum While Ethereum Rallies • Stocks Set To Open Higher At The Start Of The Week • AUD/USD Forex Technical Analysis – Trader Reaction to .7352 Sets the Tone Ahead of Tuesday’s RBA Decision • Oil Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Traders Showing Slightly Bearish Reaction to New OPEC+ Supply • Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Early Liquidation Ahead of Friday’s Non-Farm Payrolls Report? • Natural Gas Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Buyers Trying to Build Base Ahead of Expected Heat || SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Pomerantz Law Firm Reminds Shareholders with Losses on their Investment in Coinbase Global, Inc., of Class Action Lawsuit and Upcoming Deadline - COIN: New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - August 9, 2021) - Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Coinbase Global, Inc. ("Coinbase" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: COIN) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, and docketed under 21-cv-06049, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities other than Defendants that purchased or otherwise acquired Coinbase Class A common stock pursuant and/or traceable to the Company's registration statement and prospectus (collectively, the "Offering Materials") for the resale of up to 114,850,769 shares of its Class A common stock, whereby Coinbase began trading as a public company on or around April 14, 2021 (the "Offering"). Plaintiff pursues claims against the Defendants under the Securities Act of 1933. If you are a shareholder who purchased or otherwise acquired Coinbase Class A common stock pursuant and/or traceable to the Company's registration statement and prospectus, you have until September 20, 2021 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com . To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at newaction@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 7980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased. [Click here for information about joining the class action] Coinbase "powers the cryptoeconomy," offering a "trusted platform" for sending and receiving Bitcoin and other digital assets built using blockchain technology to approximately 43 million retail users, 7,000 institutions, and 115,000 ecosystem partners in over 100 countries. On April 14, 2021, Coinbase filed its prospectus on Form 424B4 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which forms part of the Registration Statement. The Company registered for the resale of up to 114,850,769 shares of its Class A common stock by registered shareholders. According to the Registration Statement, the resale of the Company's stock was not underwritten by any investment bank and the registered stockholders would purportedly elect whether or not to sell their shares. Such sales, if any, would be brokerage transactions on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, and Coinbase would purportedly not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of Class A common stock by the registered stockholders. Thus, Coinbase's operations, including its liquidity and capital resources, would continue to be financed with cash flow from operating activities and net proceeds from the sale of convertible preferred stock. As of December 31, 2020, Coinbase had cash and cash equivalents of $1.1 billion, exclusive of restricted cash and customer custodial funds. Story continues The complaint alleges that, the Offering Materials were false and misleading and omitted to state that, at the time of the Offering: (1) the Company required a sizeable cash injection; (2) the Company's platform was susceptible to service-level disruptions, which were increasingly likely to occur as the Company scaled its services to a larger user base; and (3) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects, were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. Only a month later, the high-flying promise of Coinbase came to a screaming halt, as Coinbase conceded the need to raise capital and revealed performance issues that prevented users' ability to trade cryptocurrencies. On May 17, 2021, Coinbase announced its plans to raise about $1.25 billion via a convertible bond sale. Then, on May 19, 2021, Coinbase revealed technical problems, including "delays . . . due to network congestion" effecting those who want to get their money out. On this news, the Company's share price fell $23.44 per share, nearly 10% over two consecutive trading sessions, to close at $224.80 per share on May 19, 2021, thereby injuring investors. By the commencement of this action, Coinbase stock traded as low as $208.00 per share, a significant decline from its April 14, 2021 opening price of $381.00 per share. Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com . CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP rswilloughby@pomlaw.com 888-476-6529 ext. 7980 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/92599 || Market Wrap: Possible Trend Reversal as Bitcoin Spikes Past $40K: Bitcoin is in rally mode, posting its largest daily gain in six weeks as shorts covered positions over the weekend. The cryptocurrency was trading around $38,874 at press time and is up 14.5% over the past 24 hours. Sentiment has shifted from extreme bearishness after a sharp correction in May and two months of consolidation between $30,000 and $40,000. Some analysts expect further upside and view the recent bounce as a trend reversal. “We turned bullish last Wednesday but weren’t expecting the short squeeze to happen quite so soon,” wrote QCP Capital in a Telegram chat. “We’ve been pleasantly surprised by how supported the market was after Wednesday and sentiment flipped decisively bullish into the weekend.” Latest prices Related: Crypto Fintech Eco Raises $60M for High-Yield USDC Savings App Cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC) $38,874, +14.5% Ether (ETH) $2,324.7, +9.08% Traditional markets: S&P 500: 4422.3, +0.24% Gold: $1976.8, -0.31% 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.293%, compared with 1.281% on Friday. “This move higher feels more like a bounce back into a neutral state after being overstretched to the downside below $30K,” QCP wrote. “The real pain could be lurking from short gamma positions above the $40K level.” “Bitcoin momentum is back, and incremental endorsements on Wall Street could easily be the catalyst to help prices rally towards the $45,000 level,” wrote Edward Moya , strategist at Oanda, in an email to CoinDesk. Related: Bitcoin Declines From $40K Resistance; Support at $34K Blockchain metrics are also showing positive signs for bitcoin. “Bitcoin has slowly trickled back into the hands of longer-term holders throughout these months after the dramatic sell-off from all-time highs in May,” wrote Sean Rooney, head of research at crypto asset manager Valkyrie Investments , in an email to CoinDesk. “Historically this trend of entities that hold long term does not reverse quickly, which will likely result in further advance in price as we move towards Q4,” Rooney wrote. Story continues Short squeeze confirmed The strong bounce in bitcoin over the weekend occurred as shorts covered positions. Roughly 2,000 short positions were liquidated over a two-hour period, according to data from CryptoQuant . The short-squeeze rally occurred despite regulatory pressure surrounding stablecoins. “The short order liquidation amount in the past hour reached $640 million, which is the largest single-day liquidation volume in more than two months,” wrote WuBlockchain in a tweet on Monday. Bitcoin options expiry A strike price of $40,000 represents the largest source of open interest for the upcoming bitcoin options expiry this Friday, which could be a source of volatility. “BTC has been rangebound between $28K-$43K and most expect an upside squeeze to occur on a break above $40K,” wrote Coinbase in a newsletter to institutional clients on Saturday. “But with overwriting strategies forced to settle on lower strikes ($35K-$38K), a sharp short-covering rally will likely begin from lower levels,” Coinbase wrote. Weekly fund flows They missed out. Investors pulled money out of digital-asset funds as bitcoin dipped below $30,000 last week, according to a report Monday by CoinShares. Outflows coincided with negative sentiment that preceded a near- 24% price jump in bitcoin over the past seven days. Monday’s crypto price rally – bitcoin jumped above $38,000 – could encourage digital-asset inflows because many investors have been on the sidelines since the sell-off in May. Altcoin roundup USDT maintains dollar peg: USDT has largely held its dollar peg since Bloomberg reported Monday that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Tether, issuer of the largest stablecoin, for possible bank fraud. The token, which serves as crucial plumbing for the $1.6 trillion crypto market, has traded at $1 for most of its history, but past scares have caused it to temporarily lose parity with the greenback. In 2018, for example, USDT fell to as low as 92 cents amid concerns about its collateral and about Bitfinex, the crypto exchange that shares owners and managers with Tether. The reaction to the latest news is mild by comparison. Altcoin rally: Bitcoin’s price surge early Monday led a rally in so-called altcoins, with aave (AAVE), chainlink (LINK) and bitcoin cash (BCH) notching double-digit percentage gains. Aave, an open-source and non-custodial protocol that runs on the Ethereum blockchain that enables users to lend and borrow a range of crypto assets, has climbed 18% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinDesk 20 data. Chainlink, a decentralized oracle network, was trading at $19.17, representing a 14% gain in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin Cash, the blockchain that forked off Bitcoin in 2017, was up 13%. Uniswap Labs Limits Access to Some Tokens: Uniswap Labs is restricting access to some tokens, including tokenized stocks and derivatives on the protocol interface that it supports, the software development studio said in a blog posting Friday. The news comes days after U.S. regulators’ announcement that they would increasingly scrutinize these types of decentralized finance (DeFi) products. Uniswap cited an “evolving regulatory landscape” in explaining its decision. Relevant news FTX Cuts Leverage Limit to 20x From 100x as Criticism of Margin Trading in Crypto Grows Binance Says It’s Cutting Leverage Limit to 20x, a Day After FTX Announces the Same ‘Tulip Bulb’ Crypto Has ‘No Inherent Worth,’ Man Group CEO Says Bitcoin Spike Fueled by Short Squeeze as Market Shrugs Off Tether News Other markets Most digital assets on CoinDesk 20 ended up higher on Monday. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): chainlink (LINK) +19.1% aave (AAVE) +16.2% bitcoin cash (BCH) +15.4% Notable loser: algorand (ALGO) -0.74% Related Stories Bitcoin Takes a Breather as Stocks Drop, Inflation-Adjusted Bond Yields Hit Record Low Amazon: No, We Have No Plans to Accept Bitcoin Payments [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 47166.69, 48847.03, 49327.72, 50025.38, 49944.62, 51753.41, 52633.54, 46811.13, 46091.39, 46391.42
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2015-03-11] BTC Price: 296.38, BTC RSI: 70.89 Gold Price: 1150.70, Gold RSI: 25.12 Oil Price: 48.17, Oil RSI: 44.55 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bayside Corp. Announces The Launch Of Vault 51 In Vietnam: DALLAS, TX / ACCESSWIRE / March 8, 2015 /Bayside Corp. (BYSD.PK) today announced through its subsidiary company Bitcoinz USA, the official launch of Vault 51, a secure offline storage for Bitcoin is now available to all consumers in Vietnam. Furthermore, Bitcoinz USA is now offering Bitcoin for sale to consumers in Vietnam through the Vault 51 website. Currently, the company's management team believes that Vietnam has the potential to become a huge catalyst for Bitcoin worldwide. To continue,"as an emerging growth market with aggressive technological advances, and a burgeoning population, Vault 51 in Vietnam provides a tremendous amount of growth potential not only for Vault 51 but the Bitcoin eco community in general"-JW Walker President Bitcoinz USA.Vault 51 is an offline storage system for Bitcoin users, which is represented by a Physical Bitcoin. The electronic Bitcoin is then stored off-line in a secured computer chip known as Vault 51 and embedded in a Physical Bitcoin, which is not connected to the internet. This process is also known as cold storage and is done to avoid hacking, loss, or theft. -Official Vault 51 Website -Official Facebook Page -Official Google Plus Page -Official Twitter Page About Bayside Corp. Bayside Corp. is an American multinational corporation that manages multiple subsidiary companies engaged in a variety of business industries and sectors. At Bayside Corp. we believe that the future is now and that our efforts today will have a long lasting impact for generations to come. For additional information on the Company visit our website at:http://www.baysidecorp.comCertain statements in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" All forward-looking statements are based on Bayside's current expectations, estimates, projections, beliefs and assumptions based on information available at the time the statement was made and in light of Bayside's experience and its perception of historical trends.The forward-looking statement in this news release includes reference to: Bayside's ability to execute on its strategy and deliver strong results on behalf of its shareholders. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks and uncertainties; some that are similar to other related companies and some that are unique to our company. Bayside's actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on them. Contact:15400 Knoll TrailSuite 501Dallas, TX 75248800-719-1310 SOURCE:Bayside Corp. || What The World's Richest Person Thinks Of Bitcoin: Bill Gates on Wednesday gave his thoughts on bitcoin and digital currencies in a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) session Gates commented that “Bitcoin is an exciting new technology” and that digital currencies are a part of his Foundation’s work in connecting banking services to the poor. Bill Gates’ Foundation, however, does not utilize bitcoin for two reasons. “One is that the poor shouldn't have a currency whose value goes up and down a lot compared to their local currency. Second is that if a mistake is made in who you pay then you need to be able to reverse it so anonymity wouldn't work.” Related Link: Bill Gates On Microsoft: 'More Progress Than Ever In Next 30 Years' The billionaire philanthropist did note that financial transactions will become cheaper using digital currencies and “Bitcoin related approaches” although ensuring “that it doesn't help terrorists is a challenge for all new technology.” Progress is being made in getting digital currencies adopted in poor countries, according to Gates, and he is “hoping to have India and Nigeria going in the next 2 years if things go well." Kenya, Tanzania and Bangladesh still need improvements but “have grown a lot,” said Gates. See more from Benzinga General Growth Properties Beats On Q4 Revenue Vertex Pharmaceuticals Beats Q4 Revenue Expectations How 3 Technical Experts Are Preparing For Facebook Earnings © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Police risk losing tech arms race with criminals: Europol: AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Austerity and funding cuts threaten to place police at a technological disadvantage against increasingly innovative and high-tech criminal organizations, Europe's policing agency warned on Monday. Europol said criminal gangs had a new array of technological tools at their disposal, ranging from hard-to-trace virtual currencies like Bitcoin to communications systems that allowed organizations to become looser and more decentralized. "Sustained austerity threatens to leave law enforcement behind the curve and unable to close the gap to criminal actors, who continuously innovate and invest," the Hague-based organization said in a report. Scattered crime groups would increasingly do deals in a "virtual criminal underground," carrying out transactions using virtual currencies and leaving little organizational footprint for police to target, Europol said. Europol's warning echoes concern in national intelligence agencies. Last year, the Netherlands said Islamist radicals in Europe were increasingly organizing themselves online, becoming an elusive and decentralized "swarm". Cracking such networks would need skills few police forces currently had, Europol said, adding that if budgets did not rise, victims of cybercrime might have to step up themselves, "crowdsourcing" the funding to investigate incidents. The agency said that the shifting balance of the global economy would also bring about changes in the nature of the crimes faced by police in Europe. As the continent's relative prosperity declined, the streams of economic migrants trying to enter the continent via the Mediterranean and the Balkans would slow or change direction. "Europe ... may not necessarily remain in the top tier of desired destination regions" for economic migrants, it said. In the longer term, criminal gangs could begin offering their services to European economic migrants hoping to gain illegal entry to the Asian or South American labor markets. (Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Crispian Balmer) || Bitstamp Launches Trading From the Chart Powered by ChartIQ: CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA--(Marketwired - Feb 18, 2015) - Bitstamp, one of the world's leading Bitcoin exchanges, has launched its new TradeView web-based trading platform, based on ChartIQ's advanced charting and trade-from-chart technology. The new platform allows traders to take their technical analysis directly in to action, executing orders from the chart itself. Both long and short limit orders can be placed with a click, including conditional "add if" orders to take profit at a specified level. "As a leader Bitcoin trading, we're committed to providing our traders a best-in-class experience," said Nejc Kodric, CEO of Bitstamp. "By partnering with ChartIQ, we were able to deliver a complete trading interface, including technical charting and trade execution, all built in HTML5. The ChartIQ technology was easy to customize and integrate in to our user experience." The new responsiveHTML5 trading interfaceworks seamlessly across desktop and touch devices, allowing traders to stay connected to the markets wherever they go. "Bitstamp is pushing the envelope of user experience in trading systems, bringing sleek, modern design and advanced functionality to the world of Bitcoin," Dan Schleifer, co-founder and CEO of ChartIQ said. "The new TradeView platform is a perfect example of what customers are building with ourHTML5 charting technology." The new trading platform is available immediately to all Bitstamp clients. New clients can register at bitstamp.com. About ChartIQAn extraordinary transformation in trading technology is underway. Mobile and social trading are overturning old models just as the Internet did over a decade ago. ChartIQ has developed charting software with mobile optimization, trading from the chart, and an advanced toolset geared towards technical traders. ChartIQ's products are available directly to investors, as well as being offered via white labeled solutions. About BitstampBitstamp provides secure platform for exchanging bitcoins. Bitstamp has been serving Europe and the world since August 2011. The service continues be actively developed and improved. Bitstamp.net is service of Bitstamp d.o.o., established in Slovenia, EU. || Gem Brings Multi-Signature Security to expresscoin's Exchange Platform, Builds New Full-Service Wallet for Digital Currency Retailer: VENICE, CA--(Marketwired - Jan 15, 2015) - Gem (https://gem.co/), the Venice-based Bitcoin startup offering a multi-signature based security platform to Bitcoin developers, today announced a progressive partnership with expresscoin (https://www.expresscoin.com), the fastest, easiest, and safest way to buy bitcoin, litecoin, dogecoin, blackcoin, and darkcoin. The partnership will offer Gem's scalable and secure API wallet to expresscoin users, initially powering internal accounts and operations and eventually powering co-branded end-user wallets with Gem's multi-signature security solution, thus providing an alternative to expresscoin's current bring-your-own-wallet environment. "Expresscoin has gone out of their way to increase access to bitcoin as much as possible, which is in line with our philosophy of making Bitcoin security easy for developers. From the very beginning, we wanted Gem to empower digital currency companies to focus on building great user experiences, instead of focusing on infrastructure," said Gem CEO and founder Micah Winkelspecht. "Partnering with expresscoin, one of the industry's most prominent digital currency retailers, is the next big step in showcasing how seamlessly Gem's API can integrate into other apps and services while maintaining the level of security consumers demand." Expresscoin is a Santa Monica-based Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Blackcoin, and Darkcoin retailer that makes the digital currency buying experience fast, safe and easy. Previously, the company required users to bring their own wallet to the site, allowing them to test various wallet offerings on the market. However, as multi-signature, hierarchical-deterministic (HD) wallets are increasingly recognized and adopted as an industry best practice, expresscoin has partnered with Gem to be able to offer a multi-sig, HD wallet as their default. Since launching at TechCrunch Disrupt's Startup Battlefield last September, Gem has already been hailed as a "game-changer" in the increasingly saturated Bitcoin and payments space. Gem's focus on developer happiness sets it apart from the rest, with an easy to use API that can be integrated into a variety of apps and services with less than ten lines of code. With their core philosophy of empowering individual sovereignty, Gem's multi-signature API wallet also stands out from typical industry custodial wallets in that Gem is never in possession of enough keys to move a customer's funds without their approval. Simplicity and security are in high demand in the Bitcoin ecosystem, which is why Gem's innovative combination of multi-signature technology, multi-factor authentication and monitoring capabilities make Gem a top API wallet choice for expresscoin and the entire digital currency community. Gem's partnership with expresscoin consists of two phases. Phase one will equip all current expresscoin internal operational wallets with Gem's multi-signature security platform. Phase two includes the release of a new, co-branded wallet that will be the default wallet for new expresscoin customers. This wallet will also be made available to existing expresscoin customers who would like to switch to the new multi-sig HD wallet from their existing wallet. This integration makes expresscoin the first major bitcoin retailer to adopt multi-sig as their security standard. The benefit of the new collaborative wallet is ultimately more security and control as it features Gem's multi-signature key system through which Gem issues three keys: two that the customer holds (one online and one stored securely offline), and a third key held by Gem as a cosigner. The three-key system ensures that the customer always has control over their funds, with possession of enough keys to move funds without Gem. Since Gem only holds one key, it can never transfer funds without the customer's approval. On the other hand, if a customer's online key becomes compromised, the attacker would be unsuccessful moving funds without Gem's cosigning key or the customer's offline key. "Keeping our customers' funds safe while allowing them full control and manageability of their coins is our number one priority," said expresscoin CEO Will Wheeler. "Gem's cutting-edge platform offers our customers the security and flexibility they desire and allows us to focus on providing a superior service." "There are thousands of Bitcoin apps with many more currently in development, but none of them will resonate with users unless they are secure and easy to use," said Gem COO Ken Miller. "2014 was a monumental year for legitimizing bitcoin as a currency. 2015 should be the year it becomes mainstream; however, crucial to its wide adoption and advancement is trust in its security, and we're excited to provide that security to expresscoin and all other apps and services." For more information about Gem, please visit:https://gem.coTwitter: @GemHQFacebook:http://www.facebook.com/gemhqLinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/gem-hqGithub:https://github.com/gemhqInstagram: @GemHQ About GemGem, founded in 2014 by Micah Winkelspecht, is a simple and secure Bitcoin and cryptocurrency platform that allows developers to build feature-rich Bitcoin applications in minutes using less than ten lines of code. Gem's mission is to empower individuals to be sovereign over their own assets, starting with bitcoin. The Gem API leverages a host of security features such as multi-signature wallets and multifactor authentication to provide an easy to use, comprehensive security solution for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency apps, without ever taking possession of funds. Gem is located in Venice, CA. || Bitcoin Merchant Payment Gateway AsMoney Launches Offering Free Cryptocurrency Transactions And Web Wallets For Anyone Worldwide: U.K based Bitcoin payment gateway AsMoney is pleased to announce their official launch; with zero fees, mass payments, auto conversion to USD and Euro, online crypto wallets, and multiple cryptocurrencies available. London, England / ACCESSWIRE / February 23, 2015 / Six months after starting the beta version of their service, British Bitcoin startup AsMoney has just launched their official cryptocurrency payment processing platform AsMoney.com: offering zero fees on cryptocurrency transactions. AsMoney allows anyoe online to transfer money in cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Peercoin and Darkcoin; these can all be accepted online via AsMoney's payment gateway. The in-house developed AsMoney payment gateway is designed so flexible that it allows merchants to accept a specified coin such as Bitcoin and convert customers payments with live rates into their preferred local currency such as USD or Euros . AsMoney takes no fees for cryptocurrency transactions, a 0.5% fee for transfer of local currencies between accounts and a 1% fee for withdraw making it a price competitive payment option. Due to the price fluctuations of cryptocurrencies, some merchants prefer not to accept cryptocurrencies, while merchants using with live rates whenever they need. AsMoney takes on board the risk of cryptocurrency price changes, so merchants can reduce their exposure to cryptocurrency exchange rate risk. On the other hand, due to the nature of cryptocurrencies, when Bitcoin prices go up network fees goes up too, hence AsMoney´s free cryptocurrency transactions make it an appropriate choice for micro-payments . AsMoney supports multiple currencies and allows people to send money based on location and their local currency; as well as 'mass payments' to multiple receivers - a service that could be helpful for companies of any scale. Gintatus Vileita, the founder of AsMoney states, "Initially, our plan was to create a Bitcoin payment gateway, but after a while, we came to the conclusion that users needed a comprehensive solution so as to have access to a set of various cryptocurrencies. A Merchant is in need of more hardware resources and more development expenses for adding new Coins, but AsMoney creates a situation in which all popular Coins can be accepted through one payment gateway." Story continues AsMoney strives to make Bitcoin more user-friendly for the not so tech-savvy user, and is a simple way to send and receive crypto payments. The platform also provides a web-based ewallet for sending, receiving, and storing Bitcoin without the need to download software. AsMoney also provides a secure payment gateway for anyone selling product or services online. The Bitcoin gateway provides a secure API for concurrent mass payments, instant cryptocurrency payments with no transaction costs, exchange possibilities for BTC and LTC to other currencies, and supports multi-currency transactions. After six months of analysis, market research, and software testing the experienced AsMoney team can now introduce the final version of the site. During this period AsMoney has added five popular cryptocurrencies and their range now includes Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Peercoin and increasingly popular Darkcoin . AsMoney is planning to potentially add more cryptocurrencies in the future and has due to popular demand chosen to offer their services in Russian. AsMoney offers industry-standard encryption for the transmitting of all sensitive information, regular backups, a highly secured data center for storing user information with approximately 90% of customer funds in cold storage to prevent theft or loss. AsMoney also has 24/7 account and transaction monitoring both by computer systems and by live security agents, all employees must pass criminal background checks and are required to encrypt their hard drives, utilize strong passwords and enable screen locking. Further in-client side security is also supported; AsMoney has creative pincode structure and supports 2-step authentication to prevent malware stealing clients account information. After 18 months in development, AsMoney might very well become a popular crypto payment platform for online merchants and cryptocurrency users alike. For more information about us, please visit https://www.asmoney.com Contact Info: Name: Paul Redden Email: paul@asmoney.com Organization: AsMoney SOURCE: AsMoney || Your first trade for Tuesday: The " Fast Money " traders announced their final trades of the day. Tim Seymour was a buyer ofITUB (Sao Paulo Stock Exchange: ITUB'-BR).Steve Grasso was a buyer of KBH (KBH).Brian Kelly was a seller of TLT (NYSE Arca: TLT).Guy Adami looked at another gold play. He was a buyer of GDX (NYSE Arca: GDX). Trader disclosure: On January 16, 2015, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Tim Seymour is long AAPL, BAC, C, DIS, F, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, BX, SUNE, Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, CCU, DSKY, KNDI, MCD, NKE, NOK, PBR, SINA, TSL, VIP. Brian Kelly is long BBRY calls, BTC=, CTRL calls, GCG5, HYG puts, Yen, TWTR call spreads, he is short EWA, EWG, EWQ, EWZ, EWH, EWW, US Dollar, Yuan, HGH5, today he bought GCG5, today he sold TLT, ZBH15, ZBH, today he covered his short in ESH5. Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. Steve Grasso is long AAPL, BA, CLVS, EVGN, FB, GDX, GOOGL, IMMR, KBH, KDUS, MBLY, MHY, MJNA, NVIV, PFE, POT, SO, T, TMUS, TWTR, YHOO, his kids are long EFG, EFA, EWJ, IJR, SPY his firm is long APA, APC, DHI, DNR, OXY, MTH. || Is Bitcoin The Next Internet?: The Bank of England is comparing digital currencies like bitcoin to the technological revolution that the internet provided decades ago, suggesting that bitcoin’s fall from grace could be temporary. In itsOne Bank Research Agenda, the Bank of England touted the benefits that digital currencies could provide and even suggested the possibility of a BOE created cryptocurrency pegged against the pound. A New Way To Bank The research noted that a switch toward mobile technology was likely to continue promoting the idea of digital currency, and that it could be in the bank’s best interest to investigate how the introduction of cryptocurrencies would affect traditional banking. While the BOE is still skeptical bout the security risks associated with developing a digital currency, banking officials have not ruled out the possibility, saying that digital currencies could become the new norm for banking much like the internet replaced the way the world accessed information. Related Link:Bitcoin Gets A Makeover England Isn’t The Only Nation Looking In To Digital Currencies The BOE is not the first major central bank to discuss the use of a digital currency. Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has mentioned that the technology behind bitcoin could be effectively applied to the eurozone as a weapon against deflation. In Ecuador, the government has already introduced its own digital currency pegged to the dollar in an effort to help citizens who don’t have access to traditional banking. Economists in the U.S. have also discussed the possibility of rolling out a government-backed digital currency as online payments become more popular. See more from Benzinga • Pinterest To Prove Quality Trumps Quantity • Despite Veto, Keystone Battle Isn't Over Yet • Housing Data Presents Conflicting Information © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Tether Introduces Real-World Currency to the Blockchain by Going Live on Bitfinex: HONG KONG, CHINA--(Marketwired - Jan 15, 2015) - Tether, the first real-world currency platform built on the Bitcoin blockchain and currently in private beta, today announced its first live integration with Bitfinex, the leading US Dollar digital currency exchange. For the first time, verified exchange clients can fund accounts and withdraw US Dollar balances directly and securely without using traditional financial institutions. Tether Co-Founder and CEO Reeve Collins stated, "This integration with Bitfinex is the first step into a world where traditional currencies move like bitcoins. Dollars have now inherited the portability benefits of cryptocurrency." Tether aims to accelerate the adoption of blockchain technologies by enabling individuals to use the currencies with which they are familiar on a robust, decentralized network. Users of Tether leverage a secure platform that allows deposited US Dollars (and soon Euros, Japanese Yen and others) to be converted into Tether currency on a 1-to-1 basis and held in their online or offline wallet. A spokesperson for Bitfinex said, "We see Tether as a significant optimization for the problems that plague bitcoin traders and exchanges when interfacing with the traditional banking system. We proudly support Tether and encourage other exchanges, OTC traders, and arbitrageurs to also use Tether. We believe that widespread adoption of a secure Blockchain-compatible 'crypto-dollar' will lead to better price discovery, market transparency and liquidity." A new financial platform for the Bitcoin ecosystem Each Tether is backed 1-to-1 by its corresponding currency, which can be viewed and verified in real-time via the Tether.to website and on the Blockchain. Tether will be fully transparent and audited to demonstrate 100% reserves at all times. The near-zero fees for creating and redeeming tethers, and zero-fee transfer ability incentivizes rapid adoption and widespread use. Craig Sellars, Tether Co-Founder and CTO added, "We built Tether as a non-competitive technology platform to enhance the features of all Blockchain companies by focusing on one premise -- to provide access to fiat currency on the Blockchain. A simple integration with Tether enables a new foundational layer on Bitcoin and offers a powerful utility for everyone in the ecosystem." || ZeusHash Offers Up To 30% Off Bitcoin Cloud Mining Batch II And Launches Extensive Cryptocurrency E-Commerce Platforms: With over 90 000 customers worldwide, cloud hashing platform ZeusHash is pleased to announce a new batch of Bitcoin cloud mining with up to 30% price drop and 15% cut in maintenance fees. Up to 20% discounts are offered for existing customers. Cryptocurrency e-commerce platforms are also under development. CHINA / ACCESSWIRE / January 30, 2015 /"ZeusHash's efforts to deliver the best cloud hashing services has never stopped and we hold a strong belief in the future of the crypto industry." Stated ZeusHash management earlier today. ZeusHash was launched on October 3rd 2014. In only 3 months, ZeusHash has successfully signed up over 90,000 users from 190 countries and regions around the world.The innovative cloud mining platform has just announced new batch II GHS cloud mining available for purchase. In the current climate of Bitcoin price instability, ZeusHash's commitment to their regular clients is highlighted by rewarding all customers who registered before January 27th 2015 with 10% off all GHS purchases. Recognized VIP users also receive a 20% off any cloud mining purchased. Brand new users will also receive one week of zero maintenance fees if they are one of the first 10 orders of the day. This special offer lasts from January 27th to January 31st 2015. Cloud mining prices start as low as $359 for 1 THS and $0.002 per GHS in maintenance fees per day. As well as extensive cloud mining infrastructureZeus also retails Bitcoin ASIC Antminer S5's. Customers that wish to purchase a $399 Antminer S5 for $20 off can use coupon code "ZEUS-1501-399-20", $50 off a $799 purchase with coupon code "ZEUS-1501-799-50", and a $200 discount on Antminer S5 orders in the $1,999 price range can be claimed by using coupon code "ZEUS-1501-1999-200". ZeusHash Ecosystem 1. Cloud Mining2. E-commerce3. ZPAY.io Besides cloud mining services,ZeusHash is also working on its unique and interconnected ecosystem supported by two pillars: a cross border e-commerce platform that offers discounted goods with adoption of coin payment, and ZPAY.io, a wallet/payment service that will integrate international crypto businesses offering diversified and secured consumer services. Crazy Wednesday (zeusminer.com/forums/forum/4-zeushash_crazywednesday) is now the early stage of the e-commerce platform. With special products offered with major discounts every Wednesday it has gathered a lot fans worldwide. More will come for Crazy Wednesday in the near future and it will gradually grow into a mature e-commerce platform. Upcoming Zeus project ZPAY.io will feature cryptocurrency web wallets, online shops, merchant services, cryptocurrency crowdfunding, charity projects, and much more in one integrated platform. ZPAY.io is under intensive development and its diversified features will be released to the public in the near future. ZeusHash is also seeking partnerships with different Bitcoin and cryptocurrency businesses, anyone interested in future cooperation may send a request tobd@zeushash.com. Pillared by cloud mining services, e-commerce and ZPAY, the new ZeusHash ecosystem will serve as an integrated network that provides the best services for all cryptocurrency enthusiasts. About ZeusMiner and ZeusHash: Hong Kong based ZeusMiner is one of the largest distributors and retail sellers of Litecoin and Bitcoin ASIC mining hardware worldwide. With data centres spanning the globe clients worldwide can also cloud mine Bitcoin and Litecoin with ZeusMiner's in-house cloud mining platform ZeusHash. Pooling the best resources in the industry ZeusHash offers reliable, scalable and affordable Bitcoin and Litecoin industry grade cloud mining infrastructure. Moving forward ZeusHash aims for more industry partnerships, continued scaling of mining infrastructure, and to continue building out their infrastructure with a unique ecosystem in development. *This press release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest. For more information about us, please visithttps://zeushash.com. Contact Info: Name: Fei HongEmail:info@zeushash.comOrganization: ZeusHash SOURCE:ZeusHash [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Bitstamp Prices LAST: $242.00 BID: $241.28 ASK: $241.92 VOL: 7620.68 BTC http://bit.ly/Cryptoticks  || BTCTurk 698.17 TL BTCe 265.16 $ CampBx 270.00 $ BitStamp 266.90 $ Cavirtex 279.79 $ CEXIO 265 $ Bitcoin.de 246.91 € #Bitcoin #btc || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 16650.00 INR Sell : 16126.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 17 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $264.83 #bitcoin #btc || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 14568.00 INR Sell : 14083.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 14836.00 INR Sell : 14363.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin || Current price: 191.95£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2015-03-11 08:00:08 GMT || Current price: 232.81$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-01-22 18:00:05 EST || 1 #bitcoin 573.7 TL, 229.773 $, 203.106 €, 153.35999 GBP, 14456.00 RUR, 28325 ¥, 1415 CNH, 280.13 CAD #btc || 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes: $227.86/$228.65 #Bitstamp $223.03/$223.28 #BTCe ⇢$-5.62/$-4.58 $228.24/$229.00 #Coinbase ⇢$-0.41/$1.14
Trend: down || Prices: 294.35, 285.34, 281.89, 286.39, 290.59, 285.51, 256.30, 260.93, 261.75, 260.02
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin: Breaking Up Money and State: For the first time in human history, a technology has been created that once and for all divorces money from the state. This separation of money and state is poised to transform the way we think about value and our expectations of government involvement in our financial lives, and may be the largest cultural-political shift since the separation of church and state. Bitcoin cannot be created at the whim of some centralized power, taking away the ability of governments to spend wantonly. It may sound utopian, but once humanity evolves to a Bitcoin standard the government-created boom-bust cycle, constant inflation and ability to fund wars will be things of the past. Will Szamosszegi is founder and CEO of Sazmining. Bitcoin is a digitally native currency that runs on a decentralized ledger called a blockchain. Unlike the Federal Reserve, which has never been audited, Bitcoin’s ledger is audited every 10 minutes by hordes of nodes across the globe. Without the ability to create money out of thin air, governments will instead have to tax its citizens directly. Raising taxes is typically a tough sell, even when the proceeds are expected to be used for domestic goods like public health or education. But citizens will be highly unlikely to accept tax increases for any war that is not purely defensive. For all we know, America’s Middle Eastern adventures of the last two decades may not have occurred had we already been on a Bitcoin standard. See also:Bitcoin Should Change ... Slowly - CoinDesk| Opinion A Bitcoin standard will drastically damp the boom-bust cycle. Central banks – if they still exist – will be constrained by Bitcoin such that they will be unable to lend out easy money. First of all, the only money they could create out of thin air would only be a second-layer money, not bitcoin itself. People will be skeptical at accepting any non-bitcoin currency, and so central banks’ clientele will be far more limited than it is now. Furthermore, even if some people do accept the central banks’ second-layer currency, those people will struggle to find others who would accept it as payment. In short, on a Bitcoin standard, creating money out of thin air and handing it out is not a workable business model. Finally, a Bitcoin standard is the (gradual) death of inflation. Bitcoin’s supply schedule is preprogrammed such that the supply will increase at a predictable and decreasing rate until there are 21 million bitcoin in circulation. At that point, no more bitcoin will ever be mined. Assuming that humanity continues to innovate, then prices of goods and services will fall over time. In other words, Bitcoin’s purchasing power will continuously rise in proportion to the amount of wealth that humanity creates. See also:The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin Maximalism| Opinion Thanks to Bitcoin, humanity now possesses a technology that governments cannot ban even if they try. This may have sounded bold in 2008 when Bitcoin was first invented but it is far too late to stop the decentralized network now. Remember how China tried to ban bitcoin mining in the country, then the largest supplier of network hash power? Instead it proved how resilient bitcoin is. Mining thrives around the world, including as a Chineseblack market. Bitcoin also has powerful allies now. El Salvador and the Central African Republichave made bitcoin legal tender. North American politicians including Cynthia Lummis, Jared Polis and Pierre Poilievre are ardent bitcoin supporters. Bitcoin even played a significant role in theCanadian trucker protests of early 2022, as well as in theongoing crisis in Ukraine. More and more will likely become “orange-pilled,” as the saying goes, referring to bitcoin's orange symbol. While the State may not like losing its monopolistic control over money, it is quite difficult to convince people that inflation is good for them and that a deflationary asset is bad for them. Therefore, out of citizens' mere self-interest, bitcoin will gradually force the State to give up on its control over money. While the separation of Church and State has always been imperfectly implemented, the separation of money and State will be real, total, and permanent. || David Chaum Rolls Out Privacy-Protecting CBDC Technology: Will central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) replace cash and bank transfers in the future? And will they be an ultimate tool for financial surveillance and control, or is another, more benign future possible? David Chaum, creator of the Bitcoin predecessor eCash and, more recently, the Elixxir cryptocurrency , believes the democratic world can have a version of CBDCs that protects privacy. He is working with the Swiss National Bank (SNB) on Project Tourbillon, designed for privacy-focused central bank money. The project will be developed under the auspices of the Bank of International Settlements’ (BIS) Innovation Hub, the organization announced on Thursday. The project will add to the range of CBDC pilots already in the works by the BIS Innovation Hub, like the projects Helvetia and Mariana – both involving the SNB, too. The technology underlying the Project Tourbillon will combine privacy preserving functions and quantum-resistant cryptography developed by Chaum, the BIS announcement says. The system will also be scalable as it will be “using an architecture that is compatible with, but not based on, distributed ledger technology,” the press release reads. The concept, based on Chaum’s blind signature technique, has been outlined in a joint research paper by Chaum himself and Thomas Moser, alternate member of the SNB governing board. According to Morten Bech, Head of the BIS Innovation Hub Swiss Centre, the project allows to avoid trade-offs between cyber resilience, scalability and user privacy. “Project Tourbillon will build and test a prototype that reconciles these trade-offs and pushes central banks' technological frontier," Bech said in the BIS announcement. The prototype is slated to be completed by mid-2023. Not like China According to Chaum himself, the SNB first approached him last year about his eCash technology and he took it as a chance to prove that a CBDC can be designed in a privacy-protecting fashion. Speaking with CoinDesk in an exclusive interview, he pointed at China as an example of omnipresent digital surveillance by the government. China’s central bank has one of the world’s most advanced CBDC projects, with 100 billion yuan (US$13.9 billion) in transactions already completed. Story continues The U.S. and Europe can do better, Chaum believes. He acknowledges that “CBDCs are a big deal” in the world at the moment and is well aware of the fact that many believe CBDCs will be “the end of privacy in money.” “It’s incredibly ironic for me that something I’ve been working on 40 years ago has become the actual pivotal distinction between the East and West – privacy in payments,” Chaum said. “It really becomes a choice: are we going to have a kind of protection we are entitled to and that distinguishes us as a human rights-based democracy, or we basically are going to have the same thing as in China,” he added. Chaum says the technology he created and described in the paper with SNB’s Moser, named eCash 2.0, is a “superior payment system” with both privacy and anti-counterfeiting protection built into it. He believes it’s important to show that a CBDC can actually be privacy-preserving, so that no government can say it’s impossible and use it as an excuse to build something similar to the Chinese model. In another scenario, a government might be willing to maintain privacy for its CBDC, but at some point, it can discover that criminals are using those privacy features to conceal illegal activities. That in turn can become a reason to abandon the idea of privacy altogether. Chaum believes that the technology he invented can prevent both scenarios, preventing anyone from tracing how people use their money and, at the same time, allowing the law enforcement to track criminal funds. How this works in practice is not easy to unpack. Revocable anonymity The eCash 2.0 model has two tiers when it comes to issuing central bank digital money: a central bank does it via commercial banks, which onboard users. To get some CBDC on their digital wallets, users need to request it from banks they already have accounts with. Banks perform KYC and send a specific authentication code to the central bank, so that money can be issued. Cryptographic mechanics of eCash 2.0 allow central banks to issue those coins to a user without knowing which user exactly owns specific coins, says Mario Yaksetig, the project’s cryptographer. Neither knows the commercial bank that onboarded the user, although both the central and commercial bank know how much money in CBDC a known user received from the system. A central bank holds a blockchain-based ledger of all the valid coin identifiers, Yaksetig said, so no one can forge new coins, but transactions between wallets are not recorded on a blockchain. “There is no record of transactions whatsoever,” Yaksetig said in an interview with CoinDesk. However, users can voluntarily give up the privacy of their coins if they want law enforcement to trace stolen funds. For this, a user would need to reveal his unique cryptographic key to, say, the police, and then the police can see when these stolen coins are being spent at a restaurant, a store or other kind of merchant, because merchants, unlike individual users, would be known to the system. So the police would be able to find where that merchant is, go there and arrest the thieves, Chaum said. Alternatively, instead of going to the police, a robbed or scammed user might request re-issuance of his money, using his unique key, Chaum said, so he can spend those coins before the criminals do. Asked if a government building a CBDC can use what he created to make a surveillable and censorable system, making crypto’s worst fears about CBDCs come true, Chaum believes his technology is ill-suited for that. “There is no way to use it for evil because all it does is protect privacy,” he said. You can opt to use decentralized cryptocurrencies if you wish, but “if you choose to use government-issued money, the government should not be able to see how you spend it,” he added. || Bitcoin Gaming and Payments Company ZEBEDEE Launches New Open Source Bitcoin Initiative: Bitcoin gaming and payments company ZEBEDEE announced the launch of its "No Big Deal" (NBD) nonprofit organization that aims to advance open-source Bitcoin development. NBD comes out of the gate with several projects that deal with "hosted channels" on the Lightning Network, a layer 2 network that helps make bitcoin transactions faster and cheaper. Hosted channels are network connections that don’t require users to pony up bitcoins before making Lightning transactions. Read more:THNDR Games Launches Play-to-Earn Bitcoin Solitaire Mobile Game The NBD initiative will allow other Bitcoin developers to build their own software instead of relying on third-party, for-profit services, such as ZEBEDEE itself. "NBD does not sell anything, it does not offer services, it does not support products. It just writes code and gives it to the world to do with it as they will," said Andre Neves, co-founder and chief technology officer of ZEBEDEE, in a press release provided to CoinDesk. NBD's first four projects deal with hosted channels. Over time, the organization's open-source development efforts will branch out to include other aspects of Bitcoin. The four projects are: 1. Open Bitcoin Wallet(OBW) is an advanced bitcoin Lightning wallet with support for hosted channels. It's noncustodial, meaning users controls their own keys and therefore control their own bitcoins. Those three key features (Lightning compatibility, support for hosted channels and being non-custodial) are what make it different from other wallets, the company said. 2. Ponchois a plugin that allows Lightning nodes (computers on the Lightning Network) to run and serve hosted channels for Lightning-compatible wallets. Poncho is aCore Lightning(CLN) software implementation, meaning Poncho is designed with specifications outlined in CLN. 3. Clicheis software program that lets developers create Lightning nodes with built-in support for hosted channels. 4. Immortanallows wallet developers to add Lightning features to their wallets in a "plug-and-play" fashion. The project is a software library, or a collection of programming tools, similar to the popularLightning Development Kit(LDK). Read more:Move Over, Ethereum - Bitcoin's Lightning Network Has Apps, Too "We basically created an entire suite of tools for the modern sovereign individual, from the client you’d use to set up a node, to the wallet you’d use to manage your funds in a self-sovereign way," said Neves. "Anyone can now take any of what we’ve built and use it themselves, or completely transform it and create products of their own." || Markets: Bitcoin price falls with Ether. Doge sole gainer in top 10 cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin fell but held above US$19,000 in Wednesday morning trading in Asia as the world’s leading cryptocurrency continued its month-long dalliance with that support level. Excluding stablecoins, most of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization fell, led by Solana. Dogecoin was the only token on the list to gain ground. See related article:BNB Chain back online after devs deploy update to save funds • Bitcoin fell 0.5% in the past 24 hours to trade at US$19,052 at 8 a.m. in Hong Kong, while Ether fell 0.9% to US$1,279, according todata from CoinMarketCap. • Solana led the losers on the list, dropping 3.7% to US$30.79, but Polygon wasn’t far behind with a 3% fall to US$0.78. This despiteannouncing Tuesdaythe network’s open-source zero-knowledgeEthereum Virtual Machine (EVM)public testnet, which will allow users to prove they own a piece of data without revealing the information on the EVM. • Tron dropped 1.9% to change hands at US$0.06. Dogecoin was the only gainer among the top 10, adding 1.26% to US$0.06. • U.S. equities had a mixed day Tuesday. The S&P 500 Index fell 0.7% and the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 1.1% to its lowest since July 2020 as both Indexes capped a 5-day losing streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the day up 0.1% boosted largely by gains in Amgen, Inc. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. • Equities were hit following Bank of England Governor Andrew Baileyadvising a meeting of pension funds managerson Tuesday that its £65 billion bond-buying intervention will end this week, and they should rebalance their portfolios by then. The pound fell against the U.S. dollar following the statement, dipping below US$1.10. • Investors await the release on Wednesday of the minutes from September’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting for further insight into the thinking of the U.S. Federal Reserve on interest rates and inflation. The Consumer Price Index is also due on Thursday, which will show the rate of inflation for September. Inflation was running at 8.3% for the 12 months to August versus the Fed’s target rate of 2%. See related article:Brazil police bust crypto group led by ‘Bitcoin Sheikh’ || 7 Stocks to Buy at the ‘Midterm Elections’ Bottom: Although the concept of stocks to buy at the ‘midterm elections’ bottom seems farfetched considering the broader volatility this year, the calendar might provide a change of heart. According to The New York Times , the U.S. equities sector generally follows election-related patterns . “The months leading up to midterm elections have generally been the worst in what is known as the four-year presidential election cycle . But the stock market is about to enter a sweet spot. Stocks have usually rallied in the year after the midterms — no matter which side wins.” Fundamentally, that might be great news for stocks to buy. As well, the latter point may give investors relief. To no one’s surprise, the campaign cycle features incredible vitriol all over the map. And with major geopolitical events in the background, this year’s midterms may be more significant than others. However, if stocks to buy will rise irrespective of which party wins, that’s one factor to help people sleep better. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Still, some ideas may be better than others. Therefore, the stocks to buy on this list feature a combination of undervalued profiles and fiscal resilience. GOOG GOOGL Alphabet $95.28 NVDA Nvidia $135.26 META Meta Platforms $94.62 ADBE Adobe $320.32 EW Edwards Lifesciences $71.99 TTD Trade Desk $53.42 TROW T. Rowe Price $107.57 Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) Alphabet Inc. (GOOG, GOOGL) and Google logos seen displayed on smartphones. The Google stock split is happening today. Source: IgorGolovniov / Shutterstock.com One of the hardest-hit majors in the broader technology space, Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG , NASDAQ: GOOGL ) finds its equity value chopped by more than a third since the start of the year. Fundamentally, this volatility might be overdone. As stated before, the company’s Google ecosystem dominates the internet. For instance, it commands over 92% market share in the search engine sector. Financially, Gurufocus.com labels GOOG and GOOGL as significantly undervalued based on its proprietary calculations. To be fair, under standard assessments, GOOG/GOOGL is priced at 17 times forward earnings, which is middling for the industry. Story continues However, Alphabet brings excellent income statement-related strengths to the mix. For instance, its three-year revenue growth rate stands at 25%, better than about 75% of its peers. And its net margin pings at nearly 24%, rating higher than nearly 85% of the competition. Finally, Alphabet allows long-term stakeholders to sleep easier at night due to its balance sheet. Specifically, its Altman Z-Score hits nearly 10 points, reflecting very low bankruptcy risk. Nvidia (NVDA) Nvidia (NVDA) logo and sign on headquarters. Blurred foreground with green trees Source: Michael Vi / Shutterstock.com Semiconductor specialist Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA ) is hurting, and it’s no surprise why. In 2021, the company flourished with certain growth sectors like cryptocurrencies absolutely booming. Unfortunately, cryptos deflated badly this year, applying pressure on NVDA. In addition, the company suffered from the usual suspects like global supply chain problems and monetary policy fluctuations. Still, for the patient, NVDA represents one of the stocks to buy on discount. Per Gurufocus.com, Nvidia is significantly undervalued based on proprietary calculations. Based on traditional metrics, it runs a premium, such as its 30-times forward earnings price. However, investors also need to consider its income statement. For instance, its three-year revenue growth rate stands at 31%. Its net margin pings at 26%. Both stats rank well above their respective industry median levels. Just as importantly, Nvidia enjoys a stable balance sheet. While it carries a middling cash-to-debt ratio, its Altman Z-Score rates at 12.8. This reflects extremely low bankruptcy risk, providing a discount you can believe in. Meta Platforms (META) Meta Written On The Googles - Man Wearing Virtual Reality Goggles Inside A Metaverse. FTC investigating META. Source: Aleem Zahid Khan / Shutterstock.com Although Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META ) made a big fuss about its transition to the metaverse, both investors and analysts remain unimpressed. For the former category, META dropped nearly 71% of equity value on a year-to-date basis. Clearly, investors aren’t enamored with the pivot. Regarding the latter category, analysts criticized the emphasis on the metaverse. With people asking really basic questions (such as what’s the point?) Meta faces a difficult road ahead. That is, a difficult road for the metaverse. Relating to its massive social media footprint, that’s where the money is. Sure, Meta warned earlier this year about the slowdown in the digital advertising market . However, companies will still need to advertise somewhere. Meta brings nearly a three-billion-strong active user base to the picture. As well, Elon Musk’s Twitter possibly about to nuke its attractiveness , the safe space that is its Facebook platform could be very enticing. META also represents a steal. With strong income-statement metrics, a stable balance sheet and a forward price-earnings ratio of just under 12 times (compared to the industry median 15.5 times), you don’t want to ignore META as one of the potential stocks to buy. Adobe (ADBE) ADBE stock adobe stock Source: Shutterstock On the surface, the volatility toward Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE ) might appear rational. Though a compelling tech play, Adobe largely generated its reputation with creatives-related programs. The market for such services seemingly may be at risk considering economically deflationary risks . However, the burgeoning gig economy may help to bring in demand over the next several years. Further, the loss of over 42% of equity value since the beginning of the year may be too much. We’re not talking about some junk company that’s tethered to aspirational projections. Rather, the enterprise features compelling attributes sold at discount. For instance, Adobe’s earnings yield based on investor Joel Greenblatt’s model stands at 4%. In contrast, the median for the industry is 1.3%. Along with that, Adobe’s income statement-related metrics, including three-year revenue growth rate and net margin stand above industry norms, especially for profitability. Factor in the strong balance sheet (with an Altman Z-Score of over 10) and you have a great case for stocks to buy on discount. Edwards Lifesciences (EW) Modern Medical Research Laboratory with Computer, Microscope, Glassware with Biochemicals on the Desk. Scientific Lab Biotechnology Development Center Full of High-Tech Equipment. Biomedical technology stocks Source: Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock.com A medical technology firm, Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE: EW ) specializes in artificial heart valves and hemodynamic monitoring . To be fair, EW represents one of the riskiest stocks to buy, in part because of its recent earnings report. Per Investor’s Business Daily , Edwards slashed its profit guidance due to U.S. hospital staffing challenges and a strong dollar. Since the beginning of this year, EW dropped almost 45% of equity value. Aside from the recent downgrade, the overall picture for EW remains attractive for speculators. For instance, Gurufocus.com rates Edwards as a significantly undervalued business. For example, the company’s earnings yield (Greenblatt model) is 4.15%. In contrast, the industry median is only 0.6%. On the income statement, Edwards features a three-year revenue growth rate of 12.6%, beating out over 64% of its peers. The company’s net margin stands at 27%, beating out over 90% of its rivals in the medical devices segment. Finally, the company features an Altman Z-Score of over 13, reflecting great stability in the balance sheet. Trade Desk (TTD) The logo for The Trade Desk is displayed on a smart phone. Source: Tada Images / Shutterstock.com Another high-risk, high-reward idea among stocks to buy during the possible midterms bottom, Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD ) specializes in real-time programmatic marketing automation technologies, products, and services, designed to personalize digital content delivery to users, per its corporate profile. However, the fundamental headwind to TTD stems from the digital ad space market. Suffering deflationary forces, Trade Desk doesn’t bring a confident canvas to the table. However, it’s also important to point out that entertainment streaming services appear to be enjoying an uptick in demand . This dynamic isn’t just significant for the companies directly involved. Rather, the consumption of entertainment may be pivoting back to the living room. Part of this may center on economic pressures. People still want to be entertained, it’s just that they must seek cheaper alternatives. Well, that spells music to Trade Desk’s ears due to its programmatic marketing specialty. As well, the company brings a stable balance sheet to the picture, with an Altman Z-Score of 9.45. T. Rowe Price (TROW) Graphic of side view of virtual financial charts with tech aesthetic, symbolizing fintech Source: shutterstock.com/whiteMocca In 2020 and 2021, with worker bees operating remotely, people couldn’t get enough of the equities market . Fast forward to this year and the term stocks to buy might represent fighting words to some folks. Not surprisingly, T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW ), an investment management firm, feels the pressure. Since the beginning of this year, TROW slipped over 44% of equity value. Admittedly, it’s not a great look for stocks to buy. With the Federal Reserve committed to a hawkish monetary policy , it rendered limitations for investment opportunities. I don’t want to get bogged down here but the basics is this: higher costs of borrowing generally reduces investor sentiment and confidence. However, if you can get past this little detail, TROW brings an attractive profile to the stage. Based on its price-earnings-growth ( PEG ) ratio of 0.67 (with the industry median being 1.43) you can make the argument that TROW is undervalued . The company also features a stable growth trek and profitability margins. Further, its return on equity is 28%, reflecting a high-quality business. As well, T. Rowe features an Altman Z-Score of nearly 10, signifying a resilient enterprise. Plus, investors will still invest, making T. Rowe one of the best among the troubled. On the date of publication, Josh Enomoto did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines . A former senior business analyst for Sony Electronics, Josh Enomoto has helped broker major contracts with Fortune Global 500 companies. Over the past several years, he has delivered unique, critical insights for the investment markets, as well as various other industries including legal, construction management, and healthcare. More From InvestorPlace Buy This $5 Stock BEFORE This Apple Project Goes Live The Best $1 Investment You Can Make Today Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” It doesn’t matter if you have $500 or $5 million. Do this now. The post 7 Stocks to Buy at the ‘Midterm Elections’ Bottom appeared first on InvestorPlace . || BNY Mellon, largest custodian bank, starts Bitcoin, Ether custody services: Bank of New York Mellon Corp., a 238-year-old bank based in the U.S., is now allowing select U.S. clients to hold and transfer Bitcoin and Ether, the bank announced in apress release on Tuesday. See related article:Crypto self-custody is no longer a choice. It’s an imperative. • BNY Mellon will store private keys of crypto wallets to help hold and transfer Bitcoin and Ether on behalf of a limited group of asset managers, theWall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. • The announcement is a notable event signifying the growing acceptance of digital assets amongst the traditional banking sector in the U.S., the WSJ says. • Earlier this fall, the New York State Department of Financial Services approved BNY Mellon to receive cryptocurrency assets from customers. • According to asurvey sponsored by Mellon, 91% of institutional investors are interested in investing in tokenized assets, while 41% already hold crypto in their portfolios. • In 2021, the bank formed an enterprise, the Digital Assets Unit, to develop digital asset technology solutions and a bridge between traditional and digital asset custody. • BNY Mellon is the largest custodian bank in the world, with US$43 trillion assets under custody and US$1.9 trillion under management across 35 countries as of June 2022,according to its website. See related article:South Korean banks seek green light on crypto || Hungary Threatens to Block EU Joint Funds for Ukraine Aid: (Bloomberg) -- Hungary won’t back European Union efforts to aid Ukraine with jointly raised funds, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said, a stance that comes as Budapest fights with the bloc to access recovery funds held up by a rule-of-law dispute. Most Read from Bloomberg Twitter Now Asks Some Fired Workers to Please Come Back Elon Musk Tells Twitter Followers to Vote for a Republican Congress Elon Musk Walks Back on Twitter Job Cuts, Blue Checks in Second Week Billions in Capital Calls Threaten to Wreak Havoc on Global Stocks, Bonds Twitter Fires More Than 90% of India Staff, Leaving Just a Dozen Hungary has provided support for Kyiv on a bilateral basis and will continue to do so, Szijjarto said Monday at a conference in Sofia. Budapest opposes any arrangement that would see funding jointly with other EU member states, he said. The EU on Wednesday will propose a new €18 billion ($18 billion) aid package for Ukraine for 2023. The plan would use the EU’s budget as a guarantee to raise the funds for Kyiv, a step that involves changes to the bloc’s rules that require the unanimous backing of its 27 member states. Hungary earlier supported the EU’s decision to jointly raise debt to finance the bloc’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, but it has yet to receive its share of those funds. The EU’s executive arm is planning to discuss the status of those recovery funds in a meeting on Nov. 22 as Hungary faces a year-end deadline to satisfy EU requirements related to rule of law. Officials are working on an assessment of Hungary’s progress on 17 pieces of legislation that Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government has promised to deliver to reduce graft. “They’re punishing us and openly blackmailing us with EU money,” Orban told the Budapester Zeitung newspaper last month. “But there’s no legal basis for this -- it’s blackmail, pure and simple.” EU Gears Up for Hungary Showdown This Month in Rule-of-Law Spat --With assistance from Jorge Valero. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek Small Businesses Find a Loophole in the New Tax Law: Zelle Seizing a Russian Superyacht Is Much More Complicated Than You Think Inflation-Focused Voters Defy Biden’s Bid to Change the Subject El Salvador’s $300 Million Bitcoin ‘Revolution’ Is Failing Miserably ©2022 Bloomberg L.P. View comments || Xi Tells Scholz China Opposes Nuclear Force in Message to Putin: (Bloomberg) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz he opposed the use of nuclear force in Europe, in his most direct remarks yet on the need to keep Russia’s war in Ukraine from escalating. Most Read from Bloomberg Lawyer Suing Twitter Over Layoffs Says Musk Trying to Comply China to ‘Unswervingly’ Keep to Covid Zero Policy, Dashing Hopes Wells Fargo Faces US Demand for Record Fine Exceeding $1 Billion Putin’s Ukraine War Is Entering a Terrifying New Phase Carvana’s 96% Collapse Erases Billions From Father-Son Duo’s Wealth During the two leaders’ first in-person talks on Friday in Beijing, Xi called on the international community to “reject the threat of nuclear weapons” and advocate against a nuclear war to prevent a “crisis on the Eurasian continent,” according to the official Xinhua News Agency. The Chinese leader also spoke of the joint need to ensure the stability of food and energy supply chains, which have both been disrupted by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Kremlin officials including former President Dmitry Medvedev have warned in recent months about the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine as Moscow’s faltering war enters its tenth month. Xi’s comments send a clear message to Putin that nuclear threats are a red line for China, giving Beijing some common ground with Brussels on a conflict that’s strained ties with the bloc. The Chinese leader’s declaration of a “no limits” friendship with Putin before the invasion prompted Europe to reexamine the security risks of expanding economic ties with Beijing. After a meeting in Muenster, Germany, foreign ministers of the Group of Seven nations said Friday that “Russia’s irresponsible nuclear rhetoric is unacceptable.” They added: “Any use of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons by Russia would be met with severe consequences.” Josef Gregory Mahoney, a professor of politics at East China Normal University in Shanghai, said Xi’s comments would please those in Europe who’d hoped China would use its position as a “friend of Russia” to deter Moscow against nuclear threats. Story continues “Xi’s remarks are unambiguous here, against both the use and threats of use of nuclear weapons,” he said. “That will be interpreted by some as a very important message.” Scholz is the first major European leader to visit China in more than two years, as Xi returns to in-person diplomacy after his long spell of self-imposed Covid isolation stifled such exchanges. The German leader, who is joined on the one-day trip by top executives from BASF SE, Volkswagen AG, Deutsche Bank AG and BioNTech SE, is also the first from the bloc to meet Xi after he clinched a precedent-defying third term in office last month. The German leader said his trip came at a “time of great tension,” as Russia’s war in Ukraine challenged the rules-based order, and stressed the importance of face-to-face dialogue. “We can now talk concretely and directly with each other to respond to the challenges the world is facing and the bilateral relations between Europe and China,” he said in a statement. “Destroying political trust is easy, but rebuilding it is difficult, so it requires both sides to take care of it,” Xi told Scholz, according to Xinhua. In a press briefing after meeting Premier Li Keqiang on Friday afternoon, Scholz said he’d urged China to use its influence over Russia to deter it from nuclear force. Xi has engaged in a flurry of diplomacy this week, hosting top foreign leaders from Vietnam, Pakistan and Tanzania as he begins a third term focused on increasing China’s global influence. The Chinese leader didn’t leave his nation for two years after Covid emerged, a period that saw Beijing’s ties with the West sour over Xi’s crackdown on Hong Kong, treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang and military pressure on Taiwan. Later this month, Xi is expected to expand that outreach campaign at major summits in Thailand and Indonesia, where he could sit down with President Joe Biden for the first time since the US leader took power. That meeting could ease hostilities between the world’s two largest economies, which have reached a new low during the pandemic. While Xi seems to have eased his own virus restrictions, meeting dignitaries in person and appearing unmasked in public, the nation’s Covid Zero policy remains in play. The German delegation had to take two PCR tests before landing in Beijing, and another on arrival, while workers wearing hazmat suits were seen rolling out a red carpet for Scholz. Xi’s efforts to solidify ties with Germany this week are part of a broader push to prevent relations with the European Union from further deteriorating. Last year, the EU halted an investment agreement with China after both sides traded sanctions over Xinjiang, where the US has accused Beijing of genocide. China denies such allegations. For its part, Berlin is working to hone a new national strategy on China that aims to weaken reliance, diversify supply chains and enhance security, while reinforcing business ties. That handed Scholz the delicate balancing act of pushing trade ties in Beijing, while voicing concerns on sensitive issues. Noah Barkin, managing editor of the Rhodium Group’s China practice, said that while Scholz will likely view Xi’s warning to Moscow on nuclear force as a victory, the Chinese leader still hadn’t turned his back on Putin. “The lessons of the past year are that Xi will stick with Putin through thick and thin,” Barkin said, adding that Scholz’s push to deepen economic ties with Beijing was at odds with his own government’s aims. “It will raise questions among Germany’s allies in Europe, the US and Asia about where Berlin really stands.” --With assistance from Sarah Zheng and John Follain. (Updates with G-7 statement in fifth paragraph) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek El Salvador’s $300 Million Bitcoin ‘Revolution’ Is Failing Miserably Yeezy Roller Coaster Ended With Two-Minute Phone Call at Adidas US Housing Hit by Spiraling Mortgage Rates as Inflation Persists Fast Fashion Waste Is Choking Developing Countries With Mountains of Trash These Five Women Are Helping Doctors Crack the Long-Covid Mystery ©2022 Bloomberg L.P. || Cryptoverse: Bitcoin wants to break its bond with stocks: (Our weekly analysis of the wild world of cryptocurrencies. Repeats for additional subscribers) By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Medha Singh (Reuters) - After months of tears and tantrums, bitcoin wants to split up with stock markets. The cryptocurrency, which has been closely correlated with tech stocks for much of its torrid 2022, is staging one of its strongest efforts yet to break away. Its 30-day correlation with the Nasdaq slid to 0.26 last week, its level lowest since early January, where a measure of 1 indicates the two assets are moving in lock step. The correlation, which shows the degree to which the two move in sync with each other over a 30-day period, has hovered above 0.75 for much of the year and at times has approached perfect unison - at 0.96 and 0.93 in May and September. For some crypto backers, any bitcoin break-up from Big Tech is a sign of strength. "The latter's growth has been somewhat tapped out, and investors are looking for the next growth industry. Bitcoin and crypto is one of those 'next' growth industries," said Santiago Portela, CEO of FITCHIN, a Web3 gaming ecosystem. The nascent uncoupling does indeed coincide with a period of comparative calm and consolidation for the teenage cryptocurrency a year after it began its epic nosedive from the heady heights of $69,000 hit in November last year. Bitcoin is hovering near one-month highs around $20,500 and rose over 5% last week, outperforming the Nasdaq's 2% gain as dour quarterly results from Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta and Amazon weighed. GRAPHIC - Bitcoin tests linkage with stocks https://graphics.reuters.com/FINTECH-CRYPTO/WEEKLY/xmpjkgeryvr/chart.png HODLERS HOLDING OUT The crypto winter has been cold and hard, though. The total market cap for cryptocurrencies has shrunk by more than two-thirds to $984 billion from nearly $3 trillion in November 2021, according to CoinMarketCap.com. Market participation has also dwindled, with the average daily trading volume of digital asset products falling to $61.3 million as of Oct. 25, far from the daily volumes of around $700 million seen last November, CryptoCompare data shows. Story continues Nonetheless, months of persistent selling has failed to shake out the old hands, who are digging in despite a grim economic backdrop. The dollar wealth held in bitcoins that haven't been traded for three months or more is at an all-time-high, indicating accumulation by long-term holders or "HODLers", according to blockchain data firm Glassnode. The name for that group of diehard crypto investors emerged years ago from a trader misspelling "hold" on an online forum. Furthermore, a record 55,000 bitcoin were withdrawn from the largest exchange Binance on Oct. 26, according to analytics platform CryptoQuant showed, flows that typically signal coins are moving to wallets for longer-term storage. "The holder base of BTC has changed drastically from being heavily weighted towards speculators, which largely came in in 2021, to the near cult-like 'HODLer' community which would not sell their BTC in almost any macro circumstance," said Stéphane Ouellette, CEO at crypto derivatives provider FRNT Financial. "The market is now looking to the Fed meeting next week for further confirmation of the risk asset/BTC correlation breakdown." NEXT FOR FICKLE BITCOIN? Samuel Reid, CEO of consulting firm Geometric Energy Corporation said heavy outflows from exchanges could potentially indicate some large buyers were "sniffing out" the end of the bear market. Yet it's anyone's guess whether fickle bitcoin will begin to rally, or slide anew, or if it will swiftly rebound to the embrace of technology stocks. For the foreseeable future, macroeconomics remain the driver of a market that remains highly speculative in nature. "The more speculative crypto is, the more it is tied to macro," said Alex Miller, CEO of blockchain firm Hiro Systems. "It comes back to, what are the use cases and what's the productive capability of the asset? The more it's being used for other things, the less it'll be tied to macro." (Reporting by Medha Singh and Lisa Pauline Mattackal in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Alun John in London; Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Pravin Char) || 3 Once-Mighty Cryptos That Have Fallen The Farthest From Grace: The cryptocurrency market is shaky at best. It has been very difficult to find much encouraging about the sector this year. With an overall decline from around $2.2 trillion to start the year to roughly approximately $850 billion as I write this, nearly any of the cryptos investors would normally buy are down big. Currently, the overall market is down in excess of 60% on a year-to-date basis. Over the last year, these losses have been even more severe, approaching 70%. With FTX ( FTT-USD )  filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, contagion fears are bound to increase. Voices claiming that cryptos can broadly be defined as Ponzi schemes will only get louder in the wake of the debacle. Frankly, it’s wild to think that Sam Bankman-Fried, worth $16 billion to begin the week, will perhaps end this week penniless. Indeed, the crypto market seems to be riddled with stories of the once-mighty falling from grace. I still believe cryptocurrencies can play a role in shaping the future of finance. My hope is that developers continue to build truly utilitarian projects. That is the only way forward if DeFi and blockchain technology will truly be revolutionary. In any case, let’s look at some of the cryptos that have fallen farthest from grace. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips AVAX-USD Avalanche $13.08 CRO-USD Cronos $0.07 FIL-USD Filecoin $4.34 Avalance (AVAX-USD) CBDC crypto: a person touching the center of a virtual monitor displaying several currency symbols linking to a central bank Source: Dilok Klaisataporn / Shutterstock Avalanche ( AVAX-USD ) is a project that received a lot of attention as a so-called “ Ethereum ( ETH-USD ) killer.” The main drawing point of Ethereum killers is that they excel where Ethereum doesn’t. These blockchains can process more transactions at greater speeds and do so at lower prices. The problem, though, is that Avalanche is a follower and not a leader. Ethereum is one of the first and most important cryptocurrencies, while Avalanche is not. Ethereum boasts a market capitalization of $155 billion while Avalanche’s market cap is a relatively modest $4.2 billion. Story continues That fact has mattered, as the capital flight out of crypto has been less-severe for seminal projects in the space. Ethereum has seen its valuation fall by roughly 65% in 2022. Avalanche has seen its price fall from $110 to begin the year, to $13 currently. That correlates to an 88% reduction in market cap. Avalanche isn’t as reliable as Ethereum in the sense that it nearly shut down due to a bug that was exposed during a period of high traffic in early 2021. However, that didn’t stop investor capital from flooding in after the near-shutdown . Instead, Avalanche has faltered due more to macroeconomic factors overall. And there’s little reason to believe investors will change their minds soon when it comes to this crypto project. Cronos (CRO-USD) 2 isolated CRO cronos Cryptocurrency Crypto .com DeFi Coin tech and future money blockchain digital colorful technology lines background 3d rendering illustration Source: Voar CC / Shutterstock.com Cronos ( CRO-USD ) has seen its losses outpace those of the broader cryptocurrency market in 2022. While the broader sector has seen its value drop by 60%, Cronos has seen its price drop by 85% during the same period. Cronos is the child of Crypto.com, the payment services and blockchain finance company. At its height, it looked like Crypto.com and Cronos were destined to make waves in the crypto sector. Crypto.com paid handsomely to have its branding on the former Staples Center in L.A. a year ago. The move cost $700 million , and seemed more logical when the Cronos token was worth 10-times what it now is. Part of the problem is that Cronos is a generic cryptocurrency and its success is predicated on the overall growth of the Crypto.com exchange. The CRO token powers the mobile payments app of its parent website and pins its success on vague notions like increasing personal control over money. The problem is that it just hasn’t happened, and 2022 continues to be far different from 2021. Filecoin (FIL-USD) Source: Shutterstock Filecoin ( FIL-USD ) falls in line with the general trend of the weaker performers highlighted in this article. This token has also shed 87% of its value this year. The project centers around a decentralized storage system with the heady task to “store humanity’s most important information.” That kind of self-aggrandizing language played well before this year. It doesn’t now. That isn’t to say that bold claims are the reason Filecoin has lost so much value. It’s just that utility-first projects are more likely to thrive moving forward. Filecoin’s utility comes from the fact that it powers the cloud file storage services the project is developing. It’s fair to argue that there’s real utility in open-source, decentralized cloud storage. I think we can all agree that it feels insecure to upload information to the cloud at times. Any service that increases security should surely have demand. It’s fair then, that Filecoin argues against some of the pitfalls of AWS or Azure or any other cloud product. But it doesn’t have the ability to erode the power of those platforms at the same time. Investors liked this idea when quantitative easing was the norm. Liquidity was sloshing around the market and found its way into Filecoin. Under quantitative tightening, the idealist notions of the firm have far less pull. On the date of publication, Alex Sirois did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines . Alex Sirois is a freelance contributor to InvestorPlace whose personal stock investing style is focused on long-term, buy-and-hold, wealth-building stock picks.Having worked in several industries from e-commerce to translation to education and utilizing his MBA from George Washington University, he brings a diverse set of skills through which he filters his writing. More From InvestorPlace Buy This $5 Stock BEFORE This Apple Project Goes Live The Best $1 Investment You Can Make Today Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” It doesn’t matter if you have $500 or $5 million. Do this now. The post 3 Once-Mighty Cryptos That Have Fallen The Farthest From Grace appeared first on InvestorPlace . [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 17130.49, 16974.83, 17089.50, 16848.13, 17233.47, 17133.15, 17128.72, 17104.19, 17206.44, 17781.32
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-01-22] BTC Price: 33005.76, BTC RSI: 49.60 Gold Price: 1855.70, Gold RSI: 47.61 Oil Price: 52.27, Oil RSI: 62.34 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bluesky Digital Assets Corp., Announces the Amendment to the Corporation's Current Non-Brokered Private Placement Raise: Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 11, 2021) - Bluesky Digital Assets Corp. (CSE: BTC) (CSE: BTC.PR.A) (OTC Pink: BTCWF) ("Bluesky" or the "Corporation"), announced today that due to strong market demand, the Corporation is amending the closing date of its current and open private placement raise from Friday January 29th, 2021 to Friday January 15th, 2021. For complete details in regards to the terms of the offering, please refer to the Corporation's press release dated January 5th, 2020 which can be viewed by visiting the Corporation's SEDAR profile, or on the Corporation's listing page at the CSE website or on the Corporation's website. About Bluesky Digital Assets Corp. Bluesky Digital Assets Corp, is building a high value digital currency enterprise. Bluesky mines digital currencies, such as Bitcoin and Ether, and is developing value-added technology services for the digital currency market, such as digital mining proprietary software. Offering a complete ecosystem of value-creation, Bluesky is targeting reinvesting appropriate portions of its digital currency mining profits back into its operations. A percentage of the profit will be invested in the development of a proprietary Artificial Intelligence ("AI") based technology. Overall, Bluesky takes an approach that enables the Corporation to scale, and respond to changing conditions, within the still-emerging digital currency industry. The Corporation is poised to capture value in successive phases as this industry continues to scale. For more information please visitwww.blueskydigitalassets.com. For further information please contact: Mr. Ben GelfandCEO & DirectorBluesky Digital Assets Corp.T: (416) 363-3833E:ben.gelfand@blueskydigitalassets.comMr. Frank KordyDirector Secretary & DirectorBluesky Digital Assets Corp.T: (647) 466-4037E:frank.kordy@blueskydigitalassets.com Forward-Looking Statements Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. The forward- looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements included in this document are made as of the date of this document and the Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation. Although management believes that the expectations represented in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such. Neither CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. We seek safe harbor. THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES. - 30 - To view the source version of this press release, please visithttps://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/71736 || Asia’s Retail FOMO Could Be Behind XRP’s Rally Despite SEC’s Lawsuit: XRP’s double-digit gains could be the result of a bold bet by retail investors, especially those in Asia, that the cryptocurrency’s price could follow the broader crypto bull run. The latest rally surprised many because it is happening not long after XRP crashed on the news the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple Inc., claiming the company sold the token as a security. That said, it seems as if some market participants are undeterred by the regulator’s action. “Traders often trade products on a relative value basis,” Chris Thomas, head of digital assets at Swissquote Bank, told CoinDesk on Jan.7. “XRP felt cheap a few days ago. Today it feels normal again, in my opinion.” Related: Ripple 'Tried' to Settle With SEC Ahead of XRP Suit, CEO Says Read More: XRP Climbs Back up Crypto Rankings With Near 50% Rise Simons Chen, a crypto trader based in Hong Kong, told CoinDesk he bought XRP when the price went to nearly its bottom point at the end of December with the belief that it would rebound soon, following bitcoin’s trend. Chen said that when bitcoin and other alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) were going up , XRPs price went the opposite way because of the SEC news. That movement, to him, meant a great opportunity to “buy the dip.” Read More: An SEC Victory in Ripple Case Would Render XRP ‘Untradeable,’ Market Pros Say Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Reaches $40.3K While DeFi Value Locked Inflates to Over $22B Trading volumes from major exchanges globally, particularly in Asia, also show significant traffic in the XRP/ USDT (tether) and XRP/KRW (Korean won) pairings, according to data from Nomics . CoinDesk Research collected XRP trading volume data since Dec. 1, 2020, from six exchanges that saw noticeable activity and broke down the data by quote currency. Significant volumes came from the XRP/USDT and XRP/KRW ) pairings, yet volumes on XRP/bitcoin and XRP/ ether pairings were relatively small. Story continues Tether, a dollar-pegged stablecoin, is frequently used by traders and investors in Asia, especially in China, to buy cryptocurrencies. Due to regulations in South Korea , people there often buy cryptocurrencies directly from fiat on Korea-based exchanges. The data indicates the markets in Asia have been the main driver of the price rally. Even though multiple exchanges, especially those that have a presence in the U.S., have announced suspension or delisting of XRP on their platforms , XRP pairings are still available on many other exchanges, including the so-called “Big Three” – Binance, Huobi, and OKEx – all of which first started in China. “Unlike Coinbase or other ‘regulated’ exchanges, Korean and [other] Asian exchanges do not need to care that much of what the SEC does, and investors in Asia are less sensitive about the news,” said Sinhae Lee, partner at Shanghai-based blockchain consulting firm Block72. “With the current major altcoins’ price appreciation, investors bought XRP as its price went down a lot.” The lack of institutional investors, particularly those based in the U.S., is evidence that non-U.S. retail investors are most likely the reason for XRP’s rebound, according to Lingxiao Yang, chief operating officer at crypto quant firm Trade Terminal. Yang said large digital asset managersincluding Grayscale have dropped XRP from their funds, “a death penalty” for XRP’s market in the U.S. [Grayscale is owned by DCG, CoinDesk’s parent company.] Read More: Grayscale Drops XRP From Large Cap Crypto Fund Following Ripple SEC Suit If retail investors’ increasing appetite is the only driver of XRP’s price, it is hard to tell whether the price will remain healthy in the long term. A key factor will be what happens between Ripple and the SEC. Just Wednesday, the company’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, said his company “tried” to settle charges of conducting unregistered securities transactions with the SEC. Read More: Ripple ‘Tried’ to Settle With SEC Ahead of XRP Suit, CEO Says “If the SEC rejected [Ripple’s] proposal [to settle] and there seems nothing more than a court case, then the token is now over-valued, in my opinion.” Swissquote’s Thomas said. “As an 18-month court case it will weigh heavily on the asset.” At the press time, XRP traded at $0.31, down 8.95% in the past 24 hours but up 14.2% from the December low of around $0.17. Related Stories Asia’s Retail FOMO Could Be Behind XRP’s Rally Despite SEC’s Lawsuit Asia’s Retail FOMO Could Be Behind XRP’s Rally Despite SEC’s Lawsuit || Janet Yellen Says Cryptocurrencies Are a ‘Concern’ in Terrorist Financing: Cryptocurrencies are “a particular concern” when it comes to terrorist financing, potential Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday. Speaking at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on her anticipated nomination after President-elect Joe Biden takes office tomorrow, Yellen said the U.S. should be aware of emerging tools for terrorist financing. “The technologies to accomplish this change over time and we need to make sure that our methods for dealing with these matters, with tech terrorist financing, change along with changing technology, cryptocurrencies are a particular concern,” she said in response to a question by Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), who called crypto use in terrorist financing a “growing concern.” Related: US Lawmakers Tell Mnuchin to Back Off From Potential Crypto Wallet Regs Hassan was asking about last year’s National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a provision for examining how terrorists might use new financial technologies to raise funds. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) led the provision’s inclusion. “I think many [cryptocurrencies] are used, at least in transactions sense, mainly for illicit financing and I think we really need to examine ways in which we can curtail their use and make sure that anti-money laundering doesn’t occur through those channels,” Yellen said Tuesday. Federal authorities are currently investigating whether there is a link between a December transaction of 13.5 bitcoin by now-deceased French computer programmer Laurent Bachelier to right-wing figures and the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month. Several of the recipients of the transaction appear to have been at the Capitol on Jan. 6. As Fed Chair, Yellen said she didn’t want to over-regulate the crypto space, though she’s also dismissed bitcoin at various points during her term and immediately after . When she takes office, she’ll oversee a number of proposed regulations through the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, including a controversial rule that would require exchanges to collect and store counterparty information for unhosted wallets. Story continues Related: What Janet Yellen as Treasury Secretary Means for Bitcoin and Markets Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) hopes a confirmation vote will occur Thursday . UPDATE (Jan. 19, 2021, 18:55 UTC): Updated with additional context. Related Stories Janet Yellen Says Cryptocurrencies Are a ‘Concern’ in Terrorist Financing Janet Yellen Says Cryptocurrencies Are a ‘Concern’ in Terrorist Financing || Will AMD Or Qualcomm Stock Grow More By 2022?: Every week, Benzinga conducts a sentiment survey to find out what traders are most excited about, interested in or thinking about as they manage and build their personalportfolios. We surveyed a group of over 200 Benzinga investors on whether shares ofAdvanced Micro Devices(NASDAQ:AMD) orQualcomm(NASDAQ:QCOM) stock would grow the most by 2022. AMD Vs. Qualcomm Stock Advanced Micro Devices designs and produces microprocessors for the computer and consumer electronics industries. The majority of the firm's sales are in CPUs and GPUs. On Oct. 27, AMD reported revenues jumped 56%year-over-yearto $2.8 billion. Quarter-over-quarter, growth came to 45%. AMD attributed the performance to its computing and graphics segments. See Also:Is Bitcoin A Good Investment? Qualcomm develops and licenses wireless technology and also designs chips for smartphones. The company's key patents revolve around CDMA and OFDMA technologies, which are standards in wireless communications that are the backbone of all 3G and 4G networks. The firm is a leader in 5G network technology as well. Many respondents to our study shared a similar point of view regarding future sales prospects for AMD’s computer microprocessors, particularly for the new Ryzen 5000 series of desktop processors. Investors believe AMD will benefit from strong game consoles and computer sales this holiday season. Overall, 53% of traders and investors told us AMD’s stock will grow more by the end of next year, while 47% said shares of Qualcomm will grow the most by 2022. This survey was conducted by Benzinga in December 2020 and included the responses of a diverse population of adults 18 or older. Opting into the survey was completely voluntary, with no incentives offered to potential respondents. The study reflects results from over 200 adults. See more from Benzinga • Click here for options trades from Benzinga • Will AMD's Stock Reach 0 By 2022? • Will Micron Or Intel Stock Grow More By 2025? © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Steve Wozniak's New Cryptocurrency Increased 1,400% In Value In Less Than a Week: Last week,Steve Wozniak, Apple's co-founder, launched hisnew cryptocurrency, the WOZX.Since its inclusion on December 3 in HBTC, one of the largest exchange platforms in the world, the 'token'has increased in value by 1,400%! TheWOZXis the cryptocurrency that Wozniak launched forEfforce, the new environmental 'blockchain' project that he joined last year. The platform aims to transform the energy efficiency market and allow any investor to “help the planet”. It is the second commercial venture of the legendary partner Steve Jobs. "We created Efforce to be the first decentralized platform that enables everyone to participate and financially benefit from energy efficiency projects around the world and create significant environmental change," Wozniak explainedin a statement. In the first 13 minutes after its departure, the new cryptocurrency attracted$ 950 million, the company claimed. The huge interest from investors caused the WOZX to rise almost 1,400% since it began trading.Its initial price was 0.1 dollars (2 Mexican pesos), and this Monday it reached 1.41 dollars per unit (27.85 pesos). This week, the 'token' will begin trading on a smaller exchange, Bithumb Global, Efforce announced. The WOZX will have alimited supply of 1 billion 'tokens'. See also:Bitcoin keeps rising and this is the reason || PreMarket Prep Stock Of The Day: Marathon Patent Group: Benzinga'sPreMarket Prepairs every morning from 8-9 a.m. ET. During that fast-paced, highly informative hour, traders and investors tune in to get the major news of the day, the catalysts behind those moves and the corresponding price action for the upcoming session. On any given day, the show will cover at least 20 stocks determined by co-hosts Joel Elconin and Dennis Dick along with producer Spencer Israel. WhenBitcoinhad its initial rally back in late 2017, it carried several issues along for the ride. One of those issues wasMarathon Patent Group(NASDAQ:MARA), which is the PreMarket Prep Stock Of The Day. The Company:Marathon Patent Group focuses on mining digital assets. It owns cryptocurrency mining machines and a data center to mine digital assets. The company operates in the digital currency blockchain segment and its cryptocurrency machines are located in Canada. Late 2017 Price Action:After ending October 2017 at $6.16, just as the Bitcoin boom was gaining momentum, Marathon Patent Group was ramping up for liftoff. At that time, just about any issue that had “blockchain” in its description was the toast of Wall Street. The issue ended the Nov. 22, 2017 session at $8.72 and the rally was just getting started. Two days later it rallied to $40.12 and retreated to end the session at $26.04. In volatile trading over the next few weeks, it traded down to $14.56 but managed to rally back to $28.12 on Dec. 12 before it was lights out. The Death March And Rebound:The road to zero for the company was halted in March at $0.35 and had rallied to as high $5.25 in August, but fell back to end October at $2.16. While Bitcoin broke over $10,000 in August and kept going, buyers were cautious of Marathon. When the Bitcoin rally began to really accelerate in mid-November and December, the issue began to participate. It nearly tripled in November, from $2.16 to $6.28, and doubled from there in December, when it peaked at $14.86 and retreated to end the year at $10.44. Moving Forward On Fundamentals:Obviously the late 2017 rally was an anomaly and the issue may never see those levels ever again and for good reason. The company has only a handful of profitable quarters over the last few years and has posted an EPS loss in each of the last 17 quarters. The revenue side is not much better. It had a revenue peak of $34.35 million in Q2 of 2015 but made only $835,000 in its last quarter. In fact, it has not posted a quarter of revenue over $1 million since that outlier in 2015. It did have some positive news before today's open, that it was teaming up with Digital Blockchain Solutions to form Digital Currency Minders Of North America (DCMNA) to create a better mining environment for North American miners. Moving Forward With Technicals:So far being only two sessions into the year, the issue looks good from a technical standpoint. On Monday and Tuesday, it found buyers just above its year-end close ($10.44) at $10.53 and $20.69, respectively. It has more than distanced itself from those lows as it's currently trading in the $13 handle. Therefore investors wanting to go long the issue may have to pick an entry point considerably above its current support. It's also poised to post its highest close since January 2018, if it can end the session above its Dec. 28 close ($12.25). For another major leg higher, the issue would need to clear its Dec. 28 high ($14.66). Keep in mind the Bitcoin rally does not appear to want to retreat from its lofty levels. See more from Benzinga • Click here for options trades from Benzinga • PreMarket Prep Stock Of The Day: Nvidia • PreMarket Prep Stock Of The Day: JanOne © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Road to IPO: Coinbase’s Power Struggles: “Some people lead by loyalty and inspiration. Balaji [Srinivasan] leads by fear and by money,” says Nathalie McGrath who, as Coinbase’s VP of People, watched as infighting engulfed the company. Balaji’s style as he led the charge for a non-corporate vision of crypto was abrasive but effective. For someone who by all accounts did not work well with others, [Coinbase’s former CTO] was remarkably good at office politics. Anyone in his way got edged aside with alacrity. Balaji either fired them outright or, through back-office maneuvering, stripped them of influence until, totally demoralized, they quit on their own accord. This is an excerpt from “ Kings of Crypto: One Startup’s Quest to Take Cryptocurrency Out of Silicon Valley and Onto Wall Street ,” published by Harvard Business Review Press and available now . Jeff Roberts is a senior writer for Fortune, who has covered Bitcoin since 2013. Related: Coinbase Going Public Could Let the SEC Dictate Which Tokens Get Listed Among these casualties was Adam White . The former Air Force commander and Coinbase employee number five had risen to run the company’s professional trading exchange and, in his latest role, was in charge of the company’s new office in New York City. But in Balaji’s view, the New York office was supporting the corporate vision of the future and would divert resources from his obsession – adding new cryptocurrency assets – and so the office and its staff had to be demeaned and diminished. Adam knew what was up. “[Former Coinbase president] Asiff [Hirji] cared about decorum in an office environment and tried to carry himself that way,” says Adam. “But Balaji was cutthroat and manipulative. He had this political genius. He would be the ideal person to be on Survivor. Adam was okay with this. He had new opportunities. Wall Street was at last waking up to the potential of cryptocurrency. The New York Stock Exchange came calling, telling Adam in confidence about an ambitious plan to offer bitcoin futures and work on a crypto deal with Starbucks. Would he like to be the new project’s COO? Hell yes, he would. Story continues Adam flew back to Coinbase headquarters and broke the news to Brian. Years ago, the early Coinbase crew had instituted something called a “walk and talk” – a way to get out of the office, get some air, and speak frankly. Now, treading the streets of San Francisco, Adam and Brian went for their final walk and talk. For more than ninety minutes, the pair engaged in another Coinbase ritual – candid comments about how the other could improve. Brian offered friendly advice and encouraged Adam to bring their shared spirit of crypto evangelism to the East Coast. For his part, Adam offered a subtle plea for his long-time boss to rein in warring factions at his company. “Brian, at the end of the day, it’s you and you alone who can shape the culture of this company as the CEO,” he said. Good advice is not always heeded, and in this case, the politics and power struggles went on unabated as Balaji pushed out designers and a head engineer. Also toppled was Mike Lempres, the veteran legal fixer who had tried to get Brian to warm to Washington, DC. Lempres had worked at the top levels of the Justice Department and once, as a side hustle, he had served as mayor for the affluent Silicon Valley town of Atherton. But none of this compared to what he saw at Coinbase in late 2018. “I’ve been the mayor of a California town, but I’ve never seen a place as political as Coinbase,” he said on his way out the door in the spring of 2019. Related: Ruffer Investment Used Coinbase to Execute $745M Bitcoin Buy See also: Coinbase Files for IPO Lempres would remain philosophical about his ouster and still speaks warmly of Brian, if not of his lieutenants. “I would be such an asshole if I was a billionaire at his age,” he observes. “And he’s not.” Soon after, Coinbase lost Nathalie McGrath, who years before had helped the startup overcome its “Vulcan banker” culture by introducing a spirit of warmth and humanity, had endured bomb threats, and had seen her fill of office warfare. Unlike Lempres, she felt less forgiving. “Balaji was Coinbase’s first brilliant jerk,” she recalls, “and it changed the culture of our leadership. That’s why I left. The heart and soul of what I built is gone.” The departures of longtime fixtures like Adam and Nathalie did not trouble Asiff, who regarded employee churn as ordinary. In Silicon Valley, he says, every startup outgrows its early managers and the executive team will turn over four or five times if a company is scaling up fast. Besides, amid all the drama, he and Balaji were doing a lot to fix Coinbase’s earlier problems. In April, the company hired a banking veteran, Alesia Haas, as CFO. Finally, there would be someone to reform Coinbase’s loosey-goosey cash management system. And the firm’s scattershot approach to strategy began to tighten up. See also: Marc Hochstein – Balaji Srinivasan: The Man Who Called COVID In early 2018, the vice president of Coinbase’s Consumer Group, Dan Romero, boasted to Business Insider that the company was becoming the “Google of Crypto” – a tagline the public relations team pushed to others in the media. It was a neat phrase. Being the Google of anything sure sounds good. But what did it mean? Google had lots of successful products – YouTube, Gmail, Docs, Cloud, and so on. But Coinbase only had one product anyone cared about. Meanwhile, it was squandering money on experiments that had no obvious appeal, like Toshi. One benefit of Balaji’s wrecking-ball approach was that the secondary projects got sidelined or smothered, and Coinbase moved to focus on his priority – adding new cryptocurrencies. Coinbase unveiled new currency offerings like XRP and Ethereum Classic for US customers, and dozens more for clients overseas. The gap with Binance started to shrink. But as Balaji consolidated power and sidelined lesser rivals, it became harder to avoid direct collisions with Asiff, who continued to push a strategy centered on Chicago and Wall Street. Tension between the two was palpable at executive meetings. The conflict became so strident that, in time, rumors would swirl in crypto circles that Balaji and Asiff had come to blows. Like many juicy startup rumors, this wasn’t true, but screaming matches occurred whenever Asiff pushed the company down a corporate path. “Balaji would jump in and yell, ‘Fuck all that! We need to add assets!” says a former senior Coinbase executive who sat in the meetings. Realpolitik replaced the idealism Brian had always tried to impart. This became even clearer in early 2019 when the company set out to buy a blockchain analytics service. Coinbase had long relied on a service called Chainalysis, a firm known for creating forensics reports for law enforcement, to provide it with data about blockchain activity. But after Chainalysis insisted on parsing data about Coinbase customer wallets – and after an Israeli security firm reported that a Coinbase account had been funneling bitcoin donations to the terrorist group Hamas – the company dropped Chainalysis in order to bring its analytics service in-house. Rather than build it, they bought it. In February, Coinbase triumphantly announced the acquisition of Neutrino, an Italian analytics startup known for its work analyzing blockchains in Europe. Unfortunately, Neutrino’s founders also headed up a company called Hacking Team, which had colluded on spying operations with some of the nastiest governments around the globe, including the Saudi intelligence unit that orchestrated the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Reporters Without Borders had labeled Hacking Team an “enemy of the internet” for spy work it had conducted on behalf of despots in Somalia and Morocco. It was clear that Neutrino’s founders were cold-blooded  mercenaries. And now they were Coinbase’s newest employees. An uproar ensued as crypto journalist David Z. Morris set out the new hire’s ugly past. In response, Coinbase’s normally sharp PR team dithered for days, initially brushing off the allegations as uninformed, and then claiming the company’s higher-ups knew nothing about the Hacking Team’s activities. That didn’t work. Public outrage grew louder, and a new hashtag began trending on crypto social media: #DeleteCoinbase. The apparent duplicity of senior management didn’t play any better among Coinbase employees. “They knew about it,” says engineer Craig Hammell. “It showed a lack of understanding of what crypto is all about. This is not like other industries. Crypto is driven by the philosophies and ideals behind it.” As the scandal rumbled on, Brian finally acted. After weeks of inertia, he went to where he was most comfortable, writing a blog, where he announced that Coinbase had screwed up and that the company would part ways with anyone who had worked at Hacker Team. “Bitcoin – and crypto more generally – is about the rights of the individual and about the technological protection of civil liberties,” he wrote. “We will fix this and find another way to serve our customers while complying with the law.” But even as Brian tamped down one crisis, another was coming to a head. The battle between Asiff’s and Balaji’s factions raged on, and Balaji seemed to have the upper hand. By early 2019, many of Asiff’s pet projects lay in tatters. The biggest blow to Asiff came in April 2019, when Coinbase abruptly shut its Chicago office and sent thirty people packing. The move came amid growing opposition to Asiff’s corporate vision as Balaji amassed more allies and more power, but it also came down to dollars and cents. Crypto winter had dragged on for so long that even Coinbase began to feel pinched. It didn’t help that word leaked to the longtime San Francisco engineers that their Chicago counterparts were making more money than they were. Silicon Valley techies are used to being the top earners – Asiff’s decision to pay more for talent in the Midwest came as an affront. Shutting down Chicago solved multiple problems, even if it was a black eye for Asiff. Balaji was winning the internal political struggle, but he wasn’t handling it graciously. In a meeting where Balaji set out his latest road map for adding new crypto assets, Asiff asked a sensible question. Was there a process to delist assets? Balaji snapped. “Why are you even asking about this when you don’t know anything about crypto?” he sneered at the company’s president and COO. It looked bad for Asiff. In less than a year, Balaji had sown deep divisions in Coinbase, pushed out many longtime employees, thwarted all kinds of projects that didn’t benefit his vision, and even got an entire office shuttered. He had also added many new cryptocurrencies – by mid-2019, Coinbase offered dozens of coins in markets around the world – and shook up a tired bureaucracy. And then he quit. Coinbase’s board had structured Balaji’s contract to pay him richly once a period of time – in this case, one year –had elapsed, a typical arrangement in the Valley. And like others before him, Balaji waited until the moment those riches rained down, and then, vested, he left to do something else. Balaji’s departure in early May would end the factional drama that had roiled the company. Asiff, suddenly and unexpectedly, saw an opening to have a free hand running Coinbase. He took the bold step of asking Brian in mid-2019 if Brian would report to him, Asiff, on questions of product. Jeff Roberts – 3 Ways Coinbase Could Lose Its Crypto Crown Asiff had overplayed his hand. He had regarded himself as the company’s de facto CEO, and for months had acted that part. In the process, he had exhausted much of his political capital at the executive level. Coinbase’s true crypto believers had never warmed to him, and still wouldn’t even if Balaji was gone. Coinbase’s real CEO at last reasserted himself. It was time for Brian to take charge of his company again. He told Asiff, “No!” Asiff took the rejection poorly. Rather than accept a reduced role, he declared he would resign. Brian obliged. And in a moment that still rankles Asiff, he was quickly shown the door without any sort of formal farewell or chance to say good-bye to his staff. The two men haven’t spoken since. Asiff says now that Brian has a lot to learn as a leader: “Brian is a genuinely good person, but he struggles with what his role is. Every successful CEO is one of three things – a product visionary, a culture and talent magnet, or a super salesman. Brian doesn’t fit any of those roles.” Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Review Press. Excerpted from KINGS OF CRYPTO: One Startup’s Quest to Take Cryptocurrency Out of Silicon Valley and Onto Wall Street by Jeff John Roberts. Copyright 2021 Jeff John Roberts. All rights reserved. Related Stories Road to IPO: Coinbase’s Power Struggles Road to IPO: Coinbase’s Power Struggles || DigiMax Commences Trial Version of Crypto-Trading App: TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / December 17, 2020 / DigiCrypts Blockchain Solutions Inc. o/a DIGIMAX GLOBAL SOLUTIONS(the "Company" or "DigiMax")(CSE:DIGI)is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, DataNavee, has commenced operation of the free trial version of its AI Driven, Crypto Currency Trading App for select qualified Users. Additional qualified Users will be added each week. A qualified User has more than 12 months trading experience with either Bitcoin or Ethereum, has a trading account on a valid crypto exchange, and has agreed to share their trading data resulting from using the App with the Company. The App has been designed to give Users predictive indications of price change directions of both Bitcoin and Ethereum on either an intra-day basis, or multiday swing-trade basis, as selected by the User. The indicators can draw from as many as 12 different inputs as selected by the User. Unlike conventional technical trading analysis tools, the DataNavee tool draws from multiple sets of data that includes technical trading data but adds both macro and micro economic indicators, international currency trading pairs, and up to the minute news flow. Internal trials over the past year has resulted in superior returns to holding the crypto currency and provides predictions for buying, selling and shorting trades. A completed subscription-based version of the App is anticipated to be made available to the general public on a subscription basis commencing in early 2021. About DigiMax DigiMax is based in Toronto and is the first company in the Digital Security space to be both publicly listed (listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange-symbol: DIGI) and own a registered Dealer. Canada, DigiMax Capital Corp is an 'Exempt Market Dealer registered in Ontario. The Company has a highly qualified management team with extensive experience in global financial and capital markets, combined with a rapidly expanding global presence through collaborative partnerships in the USA, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, England, Singapore, Korea and Malta. Contacts DigiMax: Chris CarlPresident & CEO416-312-9698ccarl@digimax-global.com Edward MurphyChairman416-720-0456emurphy@digimax-global.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE, NOR THEIR REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDERS HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE This press release contains "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as: anticipate, intend, plan, goal, seek, believe, project, estimate, expect, strategy, future, likely, may, should, will and similar references to future periods. Examples of forward-looking statements in this press release include, among others, statements we make regarding a second closing. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on our current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. Our actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements include, among others, the following: shareholders approving the change of name to DigiMax, the adequacy of our cash flow and earnings, the availability of future financing and/or credit, and other conditions which may affect our ability to expand the App Platform described herein, the level of demand and financial performance of the cryptocurrency industry, developments and changes in laws and regulations, including increased regulation of the cryptocurrency industry through legislative action and revised rules and standards applied by the Canadian Securities Administrators, Ontario Securities Commission, and/or other similar regulatory bodies in other jurisdictions, disruptions to our technology network including computer systems, software and cloud data, or other disruptions of our operating systems, structures or equipment,as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in disclosure documents filed by the Company with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this press release is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, we undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. SOURCE:DigiMax Global Solutions View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/621386/DigiMax-Commences-Trial-Version-of-Crypto-Trading-App || Shh! Commodity ETFs Quietly Rallying: While the stock market may be the biggest beneficiary of the enormous sums of money that governments around the world have pumped into their economies, another asset class is riding the reflation trade as well—commodities. Left for dead by investors, many commodities have surprised to the upside. Several are higher—in some cases, much higher—than where they were before the coronavirus pandemic struck. It’s an interesting phenomenon considering most economies are still operating below their peaks, but one that makes sense in the context of a roaring bull market in financial markets across the board. Indeed, even though commodities are used in the real world, their movements are often influenced by trading activity on electronic exchanges, particularly futures markets. This is not to say that real-world fundamentals aren’t playing a part in the rally as well. Thanks to early stringent lockdown measures, China, the largest consumer of commodities, is back to growing at pre-virus rates. The world’s second-largest economy grew by 6.5% year over year in the fourth quarter, the fastest pace since 2018. Stronger economic growth boosts commodities, and similarly, any stimulus that turbocharges demand helps the group. That’s the case even if the stimulus causes inflation. While equities may be wary that inflation will provoke central banks into hiking interest rates, commodities live in the here and now. An overheated economy isn’t an obstacle for the asset class in the short term, it’s a boon. Commodities also benefit from a sliding dollar, which makes USD-denominated commodities cheaper for overseas buyers, lifting demand on the margin. Solid Gains Of course, commodities are a disparate group, with separate supply and demand fundamentals for each. That said, most of the major ones are heading in the same direction right now—higher. The largest broad commodities ETF, the $3.1 billion Invesco Optimum Yield Diversified Commodity Strategy No K-1 ETF (PDBC) , is up 20% over the past six months, similar to the 19.4% gain in the S&P 500 over the same time period. 6-Month Returns For PDBC & SPY Story continues That’s solid, but within PDBC’s portfolio, certain individual commodities are sporting much higher returns. Take the agricultural complex; corn, soybeans and wheat have surged to levels not seen since 2014 due to strong Chinese demand and poor weather conditions in South American growing regions. The Teucrium Corn Fund (CORN) is up 40% over the past six months, while the Teucrium Soybean Fund (SOYB) has risen 43.14% in that same period. OPEC Supports Oil Meanwhile, oil, one of the worst-performing assets last spring, has made a respectable comeback over the past several months. Both primary oil benchmarks—WTI and Brent—were last trading in the mid-$50/barrel range, levels last seen in February 2020. The United States Oil Fund LP (USO) and the United States Brent Oil Fund LP (BNO) gained 22.9% and 23.4%, respectively, over the past six months. An uneasy alliance between the OPEC countries, Russia and others have lent support to prices while demand slowly recovered. The group’s output still remains millions of barrels per day below prepandemic levels, leaving the oil supply/demand balance in a slight deficit, according to analysts. That’s supportive of prices—for now. But should prices continue to rise, OPEC and its allies will surely open their oil taps wider, bringing millions of barrels of more supply onto the market. Multiyear High For Metals Earlier I mentioned that the agricultural commodities were hitting multiyear highs. They’re not the only ones doing so. Many of the metals are at prices not seen in at least a few years. Copper is at an eight-year high; nickel is at its highest point since 2014; and silver is close to its best level since 2013. These industrial metals have been beneficiaries of the strength in the goods-producing side of the global economy, which has flourished at the same time the services side has struggled amid social distancing. All three of the metals are used extensively in manufacturing and construction. Over the past six months, the iPath Series B Bloomberg Nickel Subindex Total Return ETN (JJN) is up 36.2%; the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) has gained 29.6%; and the United States Copper Index Fund (CPER) returned 23.7%. Signs Of Life Commodities may not be back to their high-flying days of a decade ago, but they are showing signs of life. With central banks committed to bolstering growth, and in some cases, letting inflation run a little hot, this might be an asset class that starts to attract some attention. The ETFs mentioned in this article and others can be found on ETF.com’s commodities channel . Learn more about contango and backwardation—key drivers of commodity ETF returns— here . Email Sumit Roy at sroy@etf.com or follow him on Twitter @sumitroy2 Recommended Stories Hot Reads: Bitcoin Passes $50K Mark 2020 ETF Trends: Opportunity Expands, Fees Contract 'SLV' Powers Weekly Inflows Silver ETF Pump Loses Steam Permalink | © Copyright 2021 ETF.com. All rights reserved || Trump Reportedly 'Ballistic' After Twitter Blocks All His Attempts To Post: In a matter of the last 24 hours,Twitter Inc(NYSE:TWTR) has banned Donald Trump’s personal Twitter page,deletedhis tweets from the @Potus official presidential account and suspended Trump’s campaign account. What Happened:The social media platform said in astatementon Friday it had permanently deleted Trump’s personal account @realDonaldTrump “due to the risk of further incitement of violence." It then blocked Trump’s attempt to tweet from the official presidential Twitter @Potus, after the president wrote, “We will not be SILENCED!” Twitter also suspended Trump’s campaign page @TeamTrump after Trump tried to use it. In a now-deleted tweet, he accused Twitter of banning free speech and potential collaboration between “the Democrats and the Radical Left” to silence him. "As I have been saying for a long time, Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech, and tonight, Twitter employees have coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me — and YOU, the 75,000,000 great patriots who voted for me," Trump posted. Mark Zuckerbergsaidon Thursday that Facebook and Instagram had "indefinitely" suspended Trump’s account. “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great. Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete,” Zuckerberg wrote. What Else: Alphabet Inc’s Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) pulled conservative social media app Parler, which describes itself as a "non-partisan public place,” from GooglePlay for violation of content moderation practices by allowing its users to plan a violent protest in D.C., Axiosreported. Why It Matters:A senior administration official described Trump as going “ballistic” after Twitter permanently banned him, Politicohas reported. The official added that the president was “scrambling to figure out what his options are.” In an official statement, Trump said he’s considering different options and talking to “various other sites,” not ruling out the possibility of “building out our own platform in the near future.” Source image: Unsplash.com See more from Benzinga • Click here for options trades from Benzinga • Crypto Market Update, Jan.6: Bitcoin Surges To ,500, Ethereum Surpasses ,200 • Crypto Market Update, Jan. 3: Ethereum Eyes k, Dogecoin Down 19% © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 32067.64, 32289.38, 32366.39, 32569.85, 30432.55, 33466.10, 34316.39, 34269.52, 33114.36, 33537.18
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2022-07-08] BTC Price: 21731.12, BTC RSI: 48.32 Gold Price: 1740.60, Gold RSI: 26.43 Oil Price: 104.79, Oil RSI: 44.46 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Celebs like Matt Damon and Tom Brady have been hawking crypto in high-profile ads — but if you invested when they told you to, you'd be seeing major losses as crypto nosedives: Matt Damon appeared in an ad for Crypto.com that began airing last October. NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images Celebrities began hawking crypto in earnest last fall as bitcoin was hitting record highs. But if you invested then, you'd be seeing losses over 50% right now. Cryptocurrencies plummeted for the second day Thursday after the collapse of a major stablecoin. If you've turned on your TV anytime in the past six months or so, chances are you've seen a celebrity hawking crypto. And if you're among those swayed by their endorsements, you'd be out hundreds, if not thousands of dollars right now. Celebrities have been steadily hopping on the crypto craze for years, but it wasn't until last fall that they began starring in high-profile ad campaigns promoting cryptocurrency exchange platforms. In September, Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen appeared in a $20 million campaign for crypto exchange FTX where they called people in their contacts — everyone from a surgeon to a dog-walker — to convince them to start investing on the platform. Then, famously, Matt Damon joined the party with a much-maligned ad for Crypto.com where he compared investing in cryptocurrencies to being brave enough to travel to outer space. By the time the Super Bowl rolled around, crypto ads dominated the commercial breaks. Larry David and LeBron James were starring in ads of their own — David's FTX ad was based on the premise that if you didn't start investing in crypto, you'd be dismissing something as genius as the invention of the wheel. So, how much money would you have lost if you listened to the likes of Brady or Damon? Well, if you invested in bitcoin on October 28 when Damon's ad debuted, over 52% of your investment would have been wiped out by now. Which means, as The Intercept's Jon Schwarz pointed out on Twitter, that if you'd bought $1,000 worth of bitcoin at the time, you'd have about $526 right now. Those who invested following the Super Bowl, an event with 208 million viewers, are seeing less of a startling crash right now — about 30% — but a wipeout nonetheless. Story continues Thursday marked the second day of cryptocurrency turmoil , with bitcoin nosediving to its lowest since December 2020 and other major coins — like ether, solana, and cardano — sinking by as much as 30%. The sell-off comes after TerraUSD, a major stablecoin that's supposed to maintain the same value as the US dollar, plunged to less than $0.30, rattling investor confidence amid a time of broader turmoil in the stock market. Bitcoin, which hit a record high of $69,000 in November, fell below $26,000 Thursday morning, while ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, plummeted below $1,900, according to CoinMarketCap . Read the original article on Business Insider || NY bill aims to limit crypto miners using fossil fuel-generated power: (Reuters) -The New York State Legislature has passed a bill that would impose a two-year moratorium on the use of fossil-fuel power plants to provide energy to miners of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but Governor Kathy Hochul's office on Monday said she had not yet decided whether to sign it. Cryptocurrency mining requires a lot of electricity to power computer systems that compete to solve mathematical puzzles to validate blockchain transactions. The miner who solves the puzzle first is rewarded with cryptocurrency. The State Assembly passed the bill in April and the Senate passed it late last week. The governor's office said on Monday she was still weighing whether to sign the bill. "There is a balancing act involved here, very much a balancing act," the governor said in a statement on Monday. "We have to balance protection of the environment, but also protect the opportunity for jobs that go to areas that don't see a lot of activity, and making sure that the energy that's consumed by these entities, is managed properly." The bill is part of the state's effort to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions by 85% by 2050. Cryptocurrency mining operations "are an expanding industry in the State of New York" that "will greatly increase the amount of energy usage" in the state, according to the bill. To prevent cryptocurrency mining from increasing greenhouse gas emissions, the bill would impose a moratorium on air permit issuance and renewal for an electric generating facility that utilizes a carbon-based fuel and provides energy used by crytocurrency mining operations. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by David Gregorio) || Institutional Crypto Products Saw Record Outflows of $423 Million Last Week: • Institutional crypto products saw record outflows totalling $423 million last week. • Canadian investors represented nearly all of the outflows. • Bitcoin also experienced a net withdrawal of $453 million in investments. According to CoinShares’ weekly Digital Asset Fund Flows report, digital asset investment products saw record outflows totalling $423 million last week. Interestingly, Canadian investors represented nearly all of the outflows for crypto investment products, with the figure being partially offset by $70 million worth of inflows from five other countries. U.S-based investors accounted for more than half of the inflows with $41 million last week. Meanwhile, Germany and Switzerland accounted for inflows totalling $11 million and $10.4 million, respectively. In contrast, Brazilians and Australians contributed with minor inflows of $1.6 million and $1.4 million. Overall, the outflows amounted to $422.8 million, which represents the largest weekly shedding by institutional investors since CoinShares records began. For perspective, this figure was $198 million in January this year – more than double last week’s outflows. While inflows into an asset can be considered bullish, outflow is defined as an amount of coin withdrawal from exchangewalletswhere investors move out of a specific crypto and into other assets, be it cash, different cryptocurrencies, or otherwise. The report also highlighted how investment products offering exposure to Bitcoin (BTC) saw $453 million worth of outflows – wiping off all the inflows made over the past six months and leaving Bitcoin assets under management (AUM) at $24.5 billion – the lowest point since the beginning of 2021. Solana (SOL) products saw outflows of $100,000. The offloading of BTC products last week has nearly pushed the year-to-date (YTD) flows into the negative. In fact, over 108,200 Bitcoin has been withdrawn across crypto exchanges since June 14. The world’s largest cryptocurrency is currently trading at around $21,000, which is 69% lower than itsall-time high of $69,044set in November 2021. Crypto prices have plummeted amid bearishness following the U.S. Federal Reserve’s reversal of pandemic-era stimulus measures. However, it is worth noting that BTC and altcoins generated nominal gains after the Fed raised the benchmarkinterest rateby 0.75% on June 15 – the largest hike in 28 years. What’s more, the report found that investment products offering exposure to shorting the price of BTC generated the largest inflows last week at $15.3 million. This can be attributed to ProShares launching thefirst-ever short Bitcoin exchange-traded fund(ETF) in the U.S. on June 22. The Bitcoin Short Strategy ETF (BITI) allows investors to take short positions on the market without holding BTC themselves and on launch day, it traded a measly 183,300 shares. The next day’s trading volume jumped nearly four times to 886,200 shares, worth about $36.2 million. Finally, Ethereum (ETH) investment products posted inflows of $10.9 million last week but year-to-date Ether products have seen outflows totalling $448.3 million, which makes them the least favoured investment choice amongst institutional investors this year. In January this year,  investors pulled an average of $61 million from digital asset vehicles each week. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Current Bear Market is Worst Ever Recorded, Report Shows • Arm launches new chip technology for smartphone games • ISS says new JetBlue offer more favorable for Spirit Airlines • Walgreens shelves pharmacy Boots’ sale as market turmoil hits dealmaking • Iran applies to join China and Russia in BRICS club • Spirit Airlines rejects JetBlue offer, backs merger with Frontier Group || 6 Stocks That Will Be First to Rebound From the Coming Recession: These six stocks will be the first to rebound from the coming recession. In fact, we are probably already in a recession now, but that won’t be known until sometime in July. In any case, these rebound stocks will be the ones investors flock to first as it becomes clear that economic growth is returning. These are high-quality companies, with good earnings prospects, brand names, and dividends that their earnings can more than cover their dividends. 7 Unstoppable Stocks to Own in 2022 Let’s dive in and look at these stocks. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips MSFT Microsoft $248.65 GOOG , GOOGL Alphabet $2,194.8 KO Coca Cola $59.35 X United States Steel Corp $20.51 LYB LyondellBasell Industries $97.15 NECB Northeast Community Bancorp $11.19 Microsoft (MSFT) The Microsoft logo outside a building representing MSFT stock. Source: Asif Islam / Shutterstock.com Market Cap: $1.861 trillion This $1.86 trillion market capitalization stock has strong brand name qualities and very powerful cash flow. The fact is every computer tends to use either Windows, its Edge browser, Office software, and/or its Azure cloud platform offerings. Microsoft proposed to buy game publisher Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI ) in January 2022 for $69 billion , the largest tech deal ever, but it may not close until July 2023, if ever. The FTC is now starting to act in a manner that could be interpreted as though it will scrutinize very carefully large mergers like this. Nevertheless, analysts predict that revenue in 2022 will rise by 18% for the year ending June 30, 2022, to almost $200 billion. For the next year, they forecast a rise in sales of 14.4% to $227 billion . In other words, no recession here, although maybe a slowdown in growth. The same is true with earnings. Analysts foresee EPS rising to $9.27 this year (June 2022) and moving 15.4% higher by June 2023 to $10.70 per share. That puts MSFT stock on a cheap forward P/E multiple of just 22.85 times at $248.65 as of June 15. According to Morningstar.com , this is well below its historical average multiple in the last five years of 27.96 on a forward P/E basis. That is why MSFT could easily be one of the first stocks to rebound from the coming recession. Story continues Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) Alphabet Inc. (GOOG, GOOGL) and Google logos seen displayed on a smartphone Source: IgorGolovniov / Shutterstock.com Market Cap: $1.443 trillion Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG , NASDAQ: GOOGL ) is due to rebound from the coming recession possibly sooner than the others on this list. The main reason is that the company has announced it will do a 20-for-1 stock split . This will take effect on July 15. Although this does not mean anything from a financial and mathematical standpoint, it often brings about a higher price. For example, at today’s price of $2,194.8 for GOOG stock, the new price will be 1/20th of that, or $107.19 per share. That means that smaller investors can more easily buy the shares, in that one share only costs $107.19 rather than $$2,194.8. American investors like to own whole shares, in part because dividend payments are typically fairly stable on a per-share basis. In addition, this makes it much easier to purchase options, since one contract for 100 shares represents just $10,719. Now it will be easier, for example, to do a covered call play or an out-of-the-money short put play to earn income on GOOG stock. 7 Nasdaq Stocks to Buy and Hold Forever On top of that analysts still forecast that earnings will rise in the year ending December 2023 by 19% to $133.35 per share. That puts the stock on a forward multiple of just 16 times. According to Morningstar.com , this is well below the 26.4 forward P/E multiple average for the past 5 years. The Coca-Cola Company (KO) Close-up of Coca Cola drink cans lying on paper background Source: Tetiana Shumbasova / Shutterstock.com Market Cap: $257.292 billion Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO ) is the ultimate brand name icon company and its revenue and earnings are forecast to grow incrementally from $41.9 billion in 2022 to $44.05 billion in 2023. Moreover, analysts forecast earnings growth from $2.37 in 2021 to $2.47 in 2022 and $2.65 in 2023 . This puts KO stock on a forward P/E multiple of just 22 times. This is below the historical average of 23.35x for the past five years. This implies that KO stock is now cheap. Once the recovery from a recession takes place it is highly likely that Coke volumes will increase around the world. The stock’s valuation will likely also be rated higher. United States Steel Corp (X) Steel stocks: rods, bars and other forms of steel Source: Shutterstock Market Cap: $5.355 billion United States Steel Corp (NYSE: X ) — Some of the first stocks to rebound from a recession are those in highly cyclical industries such as steel, mining, and industrial fabrication. As such, U.S. Steel stock will start to reflect investors’ expectations of an inflection point in economic activity well before the end of a recession. The market will discount the future and before orders, sales and earnings turn up. Investors push up the stock price in anticipation of these events. As such, they can expect that this will happen with X stock sometime before the end of the recession. So far, it is too early to expect it. But one way to play this is to start buying cyclical stocks like U.S. Steel during the darkest part of a recession. For example, right now analysts now forecast that revenue will slide from $21.2 billion this year to $16.4 billion in 2023. They also see earnings per share falling from $10.76 per share to an EPS forecast of $3.64 in 2023. That raises the P/E ratio now from 1.9x to 5x in 2023. 7 Great Dividend Stocks Under $25 In fact, the best time to buy a cyclical stock like U.S. Steel is when the P/E is very high. For example, by the end of this year, analysts may start forecasting earnings for 2024 even lower. That will raise its forward P/E. Look to buy one of these typical cyclical stocks at the worst part of a recession, when analysts are expecting the worst. LyondellBasell Industries (LYB) A LyondellBasell production plant in Wesseling, Germany is seen at dusk. Source: Flagmania / Shutterstock.com Market Cap: $33.6 billion LyondellBasell Industries (NYSE: LYB ) is a global chemical company that makes plastics and composites. Revenue and earnings for the company are forecast to fall over the next year. For example, analysts now expect that sales will fall to $50.6 billion in 2023 from $52.58 billion in 2022. They also see a decline in EPS to $16.33 from $16.49 in 2022. That puts the stock on a forward P/E of 6x for 2023. I suspect that analysts’ forecasts will deteriorate as the recession wears on. That will raise the stock’s multiples. But, just like other cyclical stocks, the best time to buy this stock is when its multiples are the highest. Right now the stock has a low P/E. When earnings fall, the P/E multiple will rise. That will actually probably be the best time to buy the stock — at its worst. This will discount a future rebound. Northeast Community Bancorp (NECB) gold building with "bank" on the front to represent banking stocks Source: Shutterstock Market Cap: $183.187 million Northeast Community Bancorp (NASDAQ: NECB ) is a White Plains, NY bank holding company with seven full-service branches in New York and three full-service branches in Massachusetts. Most of its loans are real-estate-related. Its tangible book value per share (TBVPS) is significantly higher than today’s stock price. For example, its book value as of March 31 was $16.95 per share and the TBVPS was $16.91. So at $11.19 on June 15, NECB stock is just 66% of its TBVPS. Upon liquidation or a sale at the TBVPS price, investors at today’s price would make an ROI of 53.0%. In addition, NECB pays a dividend of 72 cents annually, giving it an annual dividend yield of $6.5%. Earnings forecast for 2022 at $1.15 more than cover this by about 60%. 7 of the Hottest ETFs to Buy Right Now That also puts the stock on a cheap forward multiple of just 9.6x for 2022 and 8.34x for 2023. That means that once a recession is over or the market forecasts this, this is one of the stocks likely to quickly rebound. On the date of publication, Mark Hake did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines . More From InvestorPlace $200 Oil Sooner Than You Think – Buy This Now Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. The post 6 Stocks That Will Be First to Rebound From the Coming Recession appeared first on InvestorPlace . || Crypto Market Daily Highlights – June 10 – ADA, BNB, GMT, and MATIC: Key Insights: It was a bearish Friday, with the broader crypto market declining for a fourth consecutive day. US inflation figures for May sent the crypto majors into freefall after inflation hit another 40-year high. Among the top ten, Binance Coin (BNB) faired better than most, falling by just 1.0%. After a mixed Thursday session, the crypto market recoupled with the NASDAQ 100 to see deep red. Cardano ( ADA ) reversed Vasil hard fork-driven gains from earlier in the week. US inflation figures for May did the damage on Friday. The NASDAQ 100 tumbled by 3.52% in response to US inflation hitting a new 40-year high. In May, the US annual rate of inflation accelerated from 8.3% to 8.6%. A modest decline in crude oil prices provided little comfort at the end of the week. While the inverse correlation between bitcoin (BTC) and WTI Crude weakened, the correlation with the NASDAQ 100 strengthened on Friday. The correlation reflected investor sentiment towards inflation and Fed monetary policy ahead of next week’s FOMC meeting. NASDAQ BTC WTI 110622 5 Minute Chart Crypto Market Cap Gives Up $60 Billion Before Steadying After having avoided sub-$2,000 billion for a second consecutive day, the total crypto market cap slumped to a day low of $1,157 billion on Friday. A $58 billion tumble came in response to the US inflation figures. A modest recovery to $1,16 billion levels was of little consolation late in the day. From the top ten cryptos, ADA slid by 9.2%. BNB faired the best among the top ten, falling by just 1.2%. BTC (-3.4%), DOGE (-5.0%), ETH (-7.1%), and XRP (-4.7%) all reacted to the inflation numbers. From the top 100, Chainlink ( LINK ) was among the worst performers, tumbling by 13.3%. MATIC (-6.3%) and GMT (-8.5%) also saw heavy losses alongside the broader market. Several cryptos bucked the trend on Friday. UNUS SED LEO ( LEO ) (+1.5%), Bitcoin SV ( BSV ) (+3.1%), and Huobi Token ( HT ) (+1.0%) found support. Total Crypto Liquidations Spiked on Friday Total liquidations spiked on Friday, as the broader market reacted to the latest US inflation numbers. Story continues According to Coinglass , 24-hour liquidations stood at $298.31 million, up from $103.50 million on Thursday. More significantly, liquidations over 12 hours stood at $239.70 million, taking 24-hour liquidations to levels seen last week. 1-hour liquidations suggested a steadying in market conditions. At the time of writing, total liquidations over one hour stood at $8.35 million. Total Crypto Liquidations 110622 Crypto Daily News Highlights The SEC is investigating Terraform and founder Do Kwan. Following news of the Lummis and Gillibrand bill, the CFTC and the SEC will battle it out for oversight of digital currencies. Bloomberg expanded the Bloomberg Terminal coverage to include 50 cryptocurrencies. In the SEC v Ripple case, a court ruling went against the SEC ahead of a major court ruling next week. Global bitcoin (BTC) adoption could be up by a further 10% by 2030. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Hyundai Motor plants in extra weekend run, S.Korea truckers’ strike continues Biden unveils migration plan, capping Americas summit roiled by division Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now Brazil, U.S. to cooperate against illegal timber exports from the Amazon Australia reaches settlement with France over scrapped submarine deal Facing record inflation, Biden chides Exxon, oil companies for profits || Samsung produces 3nm chips that can be used for Bitcoin mining: South Korean tech giant Samsung has started producing chips using its latest 3-nanometer (nm) technology, the companysaid Thursday. The new chips can be used forBitcoin mining hardware. See related article:LG to follow Samsung adding NFT features to flagship TVs • One of the earliest clients for Samsung’s 3nm chips could be a Chinese chip firm specializing in Bitcoin mining, according tolocal media The Elec. • Samsung said the first application of 3nm chips would be for high-performance and low-power computing, with plans to expand to mobile processors. • Bitcoin mining profitability istaking a dive, due to rising energy prices and crashing crypto markets. • Samsung’s chip-making rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, whichsupplies wafersto Bitcoin mining rig makers, is expected to commence mass production for 3nm chips in the second half of this year, according to aBloomberg report. • Samsung did not immediately respond toForkast’srequest for comment. See related article:Marathon Digital says Montana storm knocked out most Bitcoin rigs || Dollar dips as hopes rise that inflation has peaked: By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar index retreated from earlier highs and fell on Tuesday as Wall Street stocks erased initial declines amid growing hopes that inflation may have peaked, but the greenback managed to hit its highest level in 20 years against the Japanese yen. While a decline in Target dented gains on Wall Street, U.S. stocks mostly advanced as some investors took the retailers profit warning as a sign price pressures on the consumer may start to ease. Longer-dated U.S. Treasury yields, which hit a 3-1/2 week high overnight on concerns the Federal Reserve will continue on its aggressive rate hike path as it seeks to combat inflation, also eased as a tapering off of inflation could slow the central bank's hiking plans. "The market is pricing in that the Fed is going to do almost all of what it says it is going to do, but that being said you are starting to get this idea that maybe inflation has reached its peak and might be starting to roll over," said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments in Atlanta, Georgia. "Retailers are having inventory accumulation problems and you are seeing some prices come down so rates in the U.S. at least have stalled out in this area." Investors will get a look at the latest inflation reading on Friday in the form of the May consumer price index. The dollar index fell 0.176% to 102.270, with the euro up 0.14% to $1.0709. After touching a near 20-year high of 105.01 on May 13, the dollar index has eased back to around the 102 level, although Friday's strong payrolls report helped the greenback notch its first weekly gain in three. The yen weakened to touch 132.99 per dollar, its softest since April 3, 2002. The greenback has been strengthening against the yen as the policy paths of their countries' respective central banks diverge. On Tuesday, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda repeated his view that a weak yen benefited the economy if its moves were not too sharp, a comment that followed the currency's fall to a fresh two-decade low. The Japanese yen weakened 0.55% versus the greenback at 132.59 per dollar, while sterling was last trading at $1.2596, up 0.53% on the day. The pound gained against the dollar, rebounding after falling to a three-week low against the greenback on the heels of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson escaping a confidence vote that left him politically wounded. The Australian dollar rose 0.65% versus the greenback to $0.724 after the Reserve Bank of Australia lifted its cash rate by 50 basis points to 0.85%, the most in 22 years, and flagged more tightening to come as it battles to restrain surging inflation. Investors will hear from the European Central Bank at its next policy announcement on Thursday, with the U.S. Federal Reserve set to announce policy next week. In cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin last fell 3.03% to $30,489.49. (Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Mark Heinrich) || Crypto Lender Celsius Accused of Being ‘Ponzi Scheme’: (Bloomberg) -- Most Read from Bloomberg Elon’s Out Fresh US Inflation Peak to Keep Fed on Aggressive Rate Path Biden Administration to Again Extend the Covid Public-Health Emergency Thirteen ‘Perfect Storms’ That Are Sweeping the World Right Now Ten Ways Things Are Really Different Than the Last Big Recession Celsius Network, the crypto lender that froze assets last month, used customer funds to manipulate the price of its proprietary token and lost hundreds of millions of dollars by failing to hedge risk, a former money manager for the company said in a lawsuit. Celsius amassed more than $20 billion in assets by offering interest rates as high as 18% to customers who deposited their cryptocurrencies. Founder Alex Mashinsky dismissed skepticism about whether that was sustainable, saying the company was able to earn high rates itself. But Celsius was in fact struggling to cover the payouts and suffered “severe exchange rate losses” due to the fluctuating values of different coins, according to a complaint filed Thursday in New York state court by KeyFi Inc., the company founded by the former money manager, Jason Stone. Stone, who called Celsius a Ponzi scheme in the complaint, said it cheated him out of potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in pay. A spokesperson for Celsius didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Kyle Roche, KeyFi’s lawyer, declined to comment. Read More: Crypto Debacle at Celsius Rattles Market Already Shaken by Terra The allegations come amid a credit crisis in cryptocurrency markets. Hedge fund Three Arrows Capital was ordered into liquidation last month, broker Voyager Digital Ltd. filed for bankruptcy this week and other firms offering high-yield products including Babel Finance and Vauld have suspended withdrawals. Celsius’s customers have been unable to access their funds since June 12. The company said on June 30 that it’s considering restructuring its debts. More than a million people entrusted their savings to Celsius, according to the company. The appeal was obvious: The rates it paid were tens or hundreds of times higher than traditional savings accounts. Story continues Behind the scenes, Celsius was investing customer funds in risky trading strategies, without proper controls, according to the lawsuit. Starting in August 2020, Celsius started transferring hundreds of millions of dollars to Stone’s company, KeyFi. What’s Crypto Lending? Why Did Investors Get Burned?: QuickTake Though the two firms didn’t have a written agreement, Stone was given the private cryptographic keys to the funds, meaning he could have run off with them, according to the complaint. Stone was tasked with investing the money through DeFi. Short for “decentralized finance,” it’s a constellation of apps that let users borrow, lend and trade with each other, without middlemen. At the time, many of the apps were paying users huge rewards in proprietary cryptocurrencies. KeyFi earned more than $800 million for Celsius through DeFi strategies, according to the lawsuit. Stone says Celsius was supposed to pay him a 20% share of most of that but never did. The problem, according to Stone, was that Celsius mainly took deposits in Bitcoin and Ethereum, but his strategies earned rewards in other coins. That meant that if Bitcoin and Ethereum went up faster than the others, Celsius could end up owing more than it had, even if it was earning money. Celsius also kept track of customers’ deposits in U.S. dollar terms, even if they were actually owed Bitcoin or other tokens, according to the suit. When this error was discovered, it resulted in “a $100-$200 million hole on its balance sheet,” Stone alleged. Celsius raised $50 million in 2018 by selling a proprietary token, CEL, and the company and its executives held large stocks of the cryptocurrency. Stone now claims that Celsius in 2020 used $90 million worth of Bitcoin deposits to “artificially inflate” the price of CEL. He says that let Mashinsky “enrich himself,” and enabled Celsius to borrow against its CEL holdings. He also says that Celsius borrowed 1 billion Tethers from the stablecoin issuer to cover the hole in its balance sheet. Stone says he ended his relationship with Celsius in March 2021 once he discovered the improprieties. In a thread on Twitter, Stone wrote that Celsius “assured me they had risk management and hedging in place. But in late Feb 2021, we discovered Celsius had lied to us.” Read More: Celsius Is Latest Decentralized Finance Crisis to Rock Crypto While he was managing money for Celsius, Stone also ran a popular anonymous Twitter account under the name 0xb1, former employees of the company told Bloomberg Businessweek in January. That account’s collection of nonfungible tokens -- digital art -- gained so much attention that in October, Creative Artists Agency agreed to represent it for licensing deals. 0xb1 paid more than $1 million for the “demon mutant ape” it uses as its profile picture. Stone says in the lawsuit that Celsius allowed him to buy NFTs as a kind of advance on his share of the trading profits. He alleges that after he left the company, Mashinsky transferred some of them to his wife’s wallet. The case is KeyFi Inc. v. Celsius Network Ltd. and Celsius KeyFi LLC, New York State Supreme Court Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek WeChat Is China’s Most Beloved (and Feared) Surveillance Tool Natural Gas Is Gaining Ground, and the US Has Plenty of It The US Is Thwarting China’s Love Affair With Israeli Tech Using Artificial Intelligence to Predict the Next Covid Variants A Weight Loss Program by Any Other Name Is Still a Diet ©2022 Bloomberg L.P. || Morgan Stanley Sees Crypto Equivalent of Quantitative Tightening: Don't miss CoinDesk'sConsensus 2022, the must-attend crypto & blockchain festival experience of the year in Austin, TX this June 9-12. Weakness in crypto markets, the failure of a dollarstablecoinand a reduction in leverage indecentralized finance(DeFi) are resulting in the “crypto equivalent of quantitative tightening,” Morgan Stanley (MS) said in a report Tuesday. Therecent collapseof stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) saw Tether (USDT) also lose its dollar peg intraday, and this caused crypto prices to drop further as some questioned the stability of the third-largest cryptocurrency, bank said. USDT has a market cap of $73 billion and is the most heavily traded digital asset on a daily basis, the report said. More than half of all bitcoins (BTC) traded on exchanges are traded against USDT. Investors are redeeming USDT at a record pace, the bank said. Some $10.6 billion of redemptions occurred in the last month alone, while other stablecoin issuance is not rising. Morgan Stanley called this the “crypto equivalent of quantitative tightening, as total stablecoin market cap falls, and liquidity on decentralized exchanges and leverage on lending platforms falls even faster.” Of the $10 billion of USDT redeemed, $5.9 billion was on the TRON blockchain, with much less on Ethereum, the note said. At $21 billion, crypto exchange Binance is the largest known owner of USDT and controls 49% of the stablecoin issued on TRON, the note added. According to the report, Binance, FTX and Bitfinex were the three largest redeemers of USDT. Curve, a DeFi exchange, hosts over a third of USDT on DeFi platforms, and here traders were swapping USDT for other stablecoins, it added. “Systemic spillover” risks from the crypto markets to the fiat banking system appear limited, the bank said, because the leveraged crypto companies usually borrow from each other. However, if USDT falls materially under its $1 peg, this would have a larger negative impact on crypto and risk markets. Read more:BofA Says Crypto Winter, Contagion Risk Concerns Are Overdone || Top 10 Cryptocurrencies To Watch in June 2022: Key Insights: After the crash of May 9, most of the cryptocurrencies fell to their lowest in months. Since last week, the crypto market has regained its lost $138 billion. Top cryptos for the month of June include Terra 2.0, ApeCoin, Dogecoin, and more. The cryptocurrency market, over the course of the last five months, has witnessed a lot of fluctuations and shifts in trends, but the one thing that did not change was the broader market bearishness. However, the worst of it came to form only this May when the crypto market crashed twice within the same month. Today all the cryptocurrencies in the market amount to $1.28 trillion after a 12% recovery three days ago, which brought $137.3 billion back into the market. And even though one may not have found the best opportunity to make profits this month, the month of June certainly presents an opportunity to make gains with these cryptocurrencies that show promise going forward. 1. Bitcoin Starting off with the king coin, Bitcoin , regardless of the market conditions, is always a good choice since it will find room for growth with minimal fluctuations. Since BTC holds a 43% domination in the crypto space, a broader market rally will trigger a rise for BTC as well, and those who enter the market at $30k will certainly gain profits by the end of quarter 2. Trading at $31,583, BTC is set to rise further after the 11.27% rally noted this week. 2. Cardano With the Vasil hard fork set to arrive by the end of June, Cardano , at the moment, is one of the biggest coins to look forward to as investors expect this to be the turning point for the cryptocurrency. A similar bullishness was also noted last year when the Alonzo hard fork was set to activate, and hopefully, this time around, investors can actually recover their losses. ADA recently noted a 37.44% rise which brought the price up to $0.61, inching it closer to the critical support of $1. 3. Terra 2.0 Although Terra’s UST and LUNC (now Terra Classic ) was the cause of one of the biggest crash in the history of crypto this month, Terraform Labs is giving it another shot. Story continues Last week they launched a new blockchain with a new set of tokens still named LUNA to retrace their steps back to their peak. Despite the depegging and subsequent LUNC supply overflow, Terra as a blockchain holds a lot of potential in the DeFi space, and that will be LUNA 2.0’s boon going forward as it trades at $7.19 today. 4. ApeCoin Although it has been well over two months since its launch, ApeCoin hasn’t exhibited skyrocketing feats. The reason behind this is the unfortunate timing as the broader market bearishness combined with the crash of May 9 halted its growth, and the altcoin came crashing down by 75.88% But that doesn’t take away from the fact that APE is one of the most profitable projects in the crypto space, thanks to it being the token of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection. The biggest NFT project will only grow further when the BAYC NFT-based feature film is released, and consequently, APE will skyrocket. 5. Dogecoin The meme coin lives! It is a surprise that DOGE continues to be one of the topmost cryptocurrencies globally and that it has endured the recent crashes. While Dogecoin does not have much to offer as a blockchain and cryptocurrency, its resilience definitely makes it a worthy investment vehicle. Besides, the meme coin will always have the backing of the “DOGEfather” Elon Musk, who recently made it a viable payment option for its SpaceX merchandise. 6. Axie Infinity Shards One of the biggest Gaming tokens in the crypto space, AXS has always held its position as a profitable crypto investment. Although the token took a hit in January after Axie Infinity’s Ronin bridge was hacked for $625 million, and once again during the recent crash, AXS has bounced back quickly. Supported with the launch of Axie Infinity Origins in May, AXS noted the highest single-day rally in more than six months of 35.22%. As the GameFi protocol continues to expand, AXS will also continue to grow thanks to its utility and value. 7. Flow If this is a name you haven’t heard before, you’re not alone. Up until a few days ago, Flow wasn’t a big deal, but in the last week of May, the blockchain and token shot up in value owing to the announcement of a prominent Instagram artist’s NFT project on the Flow blockchain. Consequently, FLOW became the biggest NFT token with a market cap of $2.74 billion, surpassing ApeCoin. However, this is not what makes FLOW an unmissable opportunity. The blockchain created by Dapper Labs, creators of CryptoKitties, is backed by some major industry players, including Coinbase , Google Ventures, Samsung, Reddit, and Zynga , among others. This makes the token a highly valuable asset that is poised to witness growth going forward. 8. Uniswap Uniswap does not warrant an introduction as it is the biggest Decentralized Exchange (DEX) in the world. Although the entire DeFi space is relatively quiet right now owing to the bearishness in the market, Uniswap still managed to maintain an average transaction volume of $10 billion every week. As the market recovers, so will the DeFi space, and DEX’s will be in high demand. Naturally, UNI will observe high traction, eventually placing it on the path to a rally, which it might already be on given its recent 17.27% increase. 9. Decentraland Known to be the pioneer of Metaverse, the Decentraland is definitely a cryptocurrency to look out for this month as Metaverse is becoming a place of choice for not just the crypto niche but also for mainstream industry players who are using it as a means of marketing. Thus Decentraland is set to observe high demand, which will automatically trigger a rise for MANA. As it is, the token was the first and the quickest cryptocurrency to recover from the crash of May 9, when it rose by 92.69% in 48 hours. 10. The Sandbox Last but certainly not least, The Sandbox is also a rising star in the crypto space, being a Metaverse platform. The Sandbox, although it has been on a downtrend since its all-time high of December, still is a sure-shot investment option, given it recently surpassed the likes of AAVE and Axie Infinity by market cap. Plus, recently, the platform became the new home of the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, whose NFTs will be launched as avatars in the Metaverse. 🎙️ Ladies and gentlemen… @elvispresley has left the building and entered #TheSandbox ! pic.twitter.com/5Ks7sws7k2 — The Sandbox (@TheSandboxGame) May 25, 2022 As the market comes closer to the end of the second quarter, it will be interesting to see which other altcoins rise the ranks to become the next big investment option. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Wall St slides 1% as strong factory data fans fears of aggressive rate hikes Mexico death toll from storm Agatha rises to 11, with 33 missing Delta Air Lines sees snapback to pre-pandemic levels Ford may slash ad spending, revamp dealers to boost EV profit, CEO says OpenSea employee charged with insider trading in NFTs Russia’s weekly inflation at zero as rates meeting looms [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 21592.21, 20860.45, 19970.56, 19323.91, 20212.07, 20569.92, 20836.33, 21190.32, 20779.34, 22485.69
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Five YouTube cryptocurrency channels you should subscribe to: YouTube is one of the most popular social media platforms for people seeking entertainment and education about their favourite topics. Over the past few years, it has become home to an array of channels devoted to all things cryptocurrency. Whether you’re new to the market or an experienced trader, there is likely to be a YouTube cryptocurrency channel offering useful industry insights and opinions. However, not all YouTube cryptocurrency channels are to be trusted, so we’ve decided to round up some of the best and most popular channels for 2020 here. Ivan on Tech With 212,000 subscribers, Ivan on Tech is one of the most popular YouTube cryptocurrency channels. Hosted by Swedish-based software developer Ivan Liljeqvist, who is also an international blockchain speaker and educator, the channel is all about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Liljeqvist has racked up an impressive 16.7 million views for his videos, which offer insights into macro events impacting the crypto market. He also posts interviews with key crypto figures such as Bitcoin investor Roger Ver, Bitfinex CTO Pablo Ardoino, and Block.One founder Dan Larimer. Doug Polk Crypto Known for his long-running poker channel, former professional poker player Doug Polk now runs a popular cryptocurrency channel which has gained 185,000 followers. Doug Polk Crypto is a crypto news and entertainment channel which covers the latest events in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, and various other projects in the crypto space. There is a particular focus on crypto scams, with info on the traps that new traders fall into and general tips on how to avoid being scammed. The channel also offers trading advice, which Polk provides in a fun and entertaining manner. The only downside is the videos are quite infrequent – you might have to wait up to six months for a new one to be uploaded. The Crypto Lark The Crypto Lark is hosted by Lark Davis, New Zealand’s most popular crypto and Bitcoin personality, who entertains his 104,000 subscribers with a humorous yet articulate look into technology disruption and blockchain solutions. Story continues The Crypto Lark offers videos on crypto and ICO news, analysis, reviews, and interviews. It’s a good choice for crypto newbies because you can learn how to trade crypto and get paid in Bitcoin. Davis offers his insights into the latest market movements and information on important events such as the Bitcoin halving. He posts about two videos a week and has garnered more than nine million views. You can read Coin Rivet’s recent interview with Davis here . Crypto Zombie Crypto Zombie is a useful channel for the more experienced crypto enthusiasts out there. The channel discusses cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and many other altcoins, as well as covering news surrounding blockchain technology, ICOs, and coin reviews. There are also general discussions and trending topics related to cryptocurrency and the future of digital assets. Crypto Zombie is well-known for its up-to-date Bitcoin feed and analysis of the trends in the Bitcoin market. It is quite technical though, so viewers need to have a fairly good grasp of crypto trading and understand financial charts. Crypto Zombie has gained 94,800 subscribers and more than 11 million views. Crypto Daily Crypto Daily has been running since 2014 and aims to offer its viewers honest news on an almost daily basis. The host delivers news in a sarcastic, witty, and chilled-out manner, making it an entertaining choice for those wanting a light-hearted take on the latest market goings-on. You can even watch Crypto Daily’s top selection of crypto music videos. Videos are time-stamped, which means you can skip to the sections you find most interesting, thereby saving you valuable time. Crypto Daily has gathered 145,000 followers and more than nine million views. Conclusion Whether you want to become a better cryptocurrency trader, get the latest market news, or simply be entertained, YouTube has become a great platform for crypto lovers. As the top channel hosts point out, it’s extremely important to be aware of scams and stick to the YouTubers you feel you can trust. As the market develops further, it’s likely there will be even more YouTube cryptocurrency channels to choose from in the near future, offering a new twist on the latest happenings in the blockchain world. The post Five YouTube cryptocurrency channels you should subscribe to appeared first on Coin Rivet . || With Freedom at Stake, More Hongkongers See Bitcoin’s Unique Value: Leo Weese is president of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong. From June to November 2019, Hong Kong saw its worst civil unrest in 50 years. What began with peaceful marches with up to two million participants (about one-fourth of the territory’s population) escalated into more and more violent clashes involving protesters, police and triads. More than 2,500 people have been injured so far, and at least 7,000 arrested. Vandalism targeting Chinese banks, government buildings, the subway system and stores appeared to be connected to criminal organizations and the Chinese government. Hong Kong is a key financial center in Asia. Its access to the international banking system, the liquid stock market and large concentration of wealth has made it significant not only for the People’s Republic of China, but also the international Bitcoin community. Related:Information Overload Is Stopping Us From Seeing the Truth Multiple cryptocurrency exchanges, token funds, advisory firms and crypto events have made Hong Kong their home and profit from the city’s easy taxation regime and lack of capital controls. There are at least50 ATMs around the citywhere people can exchange their cash for bitcoin, ether or tether without sign-up or identification. Before the protests, explaining the value proposition ofbitcoin(BTC) had been difficult. People privileged convenience over abstract ideas like “censorship resistance,” and anonymity was seen as something only criminals desired. As the protest movement grew, what makes bitcoin unique and valuable became more and more obvious. As the protest movement grew, what makes bitcoin unique and valuable became more and more obvious. The mass protests of 2014 ended with mass arrests. Leading figures were jailed, and those who served their time continue to beharassed by authorities. In 2019 few were willing to step up as organizers and figures. The movement learned quickly to coordinate without central leadership. The goals are formed by consensus, the strategies are created spontaneously. Messages are spread on message boards and group chats. The Hong Kong protest movement was the first decentralized civil movement, and its tactics have been replicated from Beirut to Santiago. Related:Tron’s Takeover of Steemit Is Internet History Repeating Itself As authorities began withholding or even withdrawing their approval for scheduled protest marches, locals suddenly risked long jail sentences for “unauthorized assembly” or even “rioting” (10 years), while others feared for their jobs. Those showing support for the movement were sometimesfiredandviolently attacked. People began to wear masks to disguise their faces. In fear of being recorded digitally for having travelled to and from a protest location, protesters began abandoning their electronic stored value tickets, the Octopus card, in favor of cash. They even leftchange by subway ticketing machinesso other passengers could safeguard their privacy. This was a good idea, as policeused electronic payment recordsto determine who had participated in a protest. Those holding bank accounts weren’t spared trouble. In December, police raided an organization that had crowdfunded money to defend arrested protesters,seizing $9 million and arresting four individualsfor money laundering. HSBC, with which theSpark Alliancegroup had been banking, found itself in the highly controversial position of complying with laws and beingtargeted with vandalism. Its corporate symbols, “Stephen” and “Stitt,” had to bejailed in a wooden cagefollowing an arson attack. The most prominent Hong Kong groups that were using bitcoin at the height of the protests includeHK Map Live. The tool, which had its iOS appbanned from the App Store, was used to learn about street barricades, locations of police lines and special equipment like water cannons and armored vehicles. The data is crowdsourced and appreciated both by those seeking to support and avoid the protests, but the heavy traffic load was a big financial burden for the group. To cover these costs while preserving anonymity, the organizers mainly use bitcoin, gift cards, affiliate commissions for Amazon and donations made through Brave, the privacy-enhancing browser. Hong Kong Free Press, after a difficult attempt to move funds out of Bitpay, shifted to the open-source payment processor BTCPay andraised almost 2 BTCin just a few weeks. Funds not immediately needed to keep one of the last remaining free media organizations running are not converted to fiat to avoid a similar fate of Spark Alliance. A Telegram channel for protesters, whose name roughly translates to “Hong Kong School of Magic,” also raised funds with bitcoin while educating their 30,000 followers on how to buy masks on Amazon with bitcoin or buying and selling bitcoin in Hong Kong. Capital flight out of Hong Kong was widely anticipated during this crisis, especially since the controversial extradition bill at the center of it would have also allowed for assets to be more easily reprimanded to mainland China, but there is no evidence bitcoin played a role here. In a system without capital controls, a bank wire remains the easiest mechanism to send funds abroad. While some, includingprominent speculator Kyle Bass, expected the peg to the U.S. dollar to be broken, the exchange rate remained stable. Cash remains the most useful tool for Hong Kong protesters to retain anonymity, as most transactions happen in the physical world and cash remains widely accepted. Most problems faced by protesters are not of financial nature either way. More pressing are the availability of legal support, anonymity of online messaging platforms, how to avoid arrests at assemblies or abuse at home. In 2019 Hong Kong, with its usually highly reliable civil service, trusted judiciary and respected financial system, abandoned faith in its institutions on a scale unprecedented for a modern rich society. The ripple effects will be felt by businesses and individuals for years to come, and a lot of the trust the territory relied on will be hard to rebuild. Cryptocurrencies play only a small role in this for now, but those who have been able to make them work for them are doing well. • Stop Treating Bitcoin as Risky. It’s a Safer Asset Than Most • India’s Supreme Court Ruling Is a Win for the Whole Blockchain Industry || Bitcoin: Not Gold, But it Shines Today: The benchmark cryptocurrency adds more than 2% and changes hands for $8,600. Thus, we see thatBitcoinstill attracts support in the $8,300 area, while the correction rollback after the new year rally did not develop into a full-scale drop. Altcoins supported the strengthening of the first cryptocurrency and are in the green zone. All bitcoin forks, includingBitcoin Cash(+15%), Bitcoin SV (+8%),Bitcoin Gold(+14%) and Bitcoin Diamond (+11%) showed impressive growth on Monday morning. There are growing assumptions in the crypto community that the new growth momentum linked to the China virus spreading. The conclusions щare drawn by analogy with geopolitics and the threat of a new world war after the sharp increase in tension between the U.S. and Iran earlier this year. Given that Bitcoin is often equated with protective assets like gold in the crypto community, a shift from war threats to fears of an epidemic may play a role. Still, more often than not, positive or negative dynamics are now linked to more obvious reasons, such as increased trading volumes in futures and the triggering of trading bot orders. On the one hand, the Chinese virus does hurt the traditional market for obvious reasons. For example, oil is declining due to the prospect of lower demand. Stock indices react to worsening sentiment and chances of supply chain disruptions, possible bankruptcies. On the other hand, the positive impact of the epidemic on the Bitcoin can be questioned, as so far, the scale does not allow to assume panic demand for an alternative possibility to move capital. This option is possible if the epidemic turns into a national catastrophe with the prospect of disabling mining farms, disruptions in the supply of mining equipment, restrictions on capital flows from the country and other dire consequences. It is possible to assume a decline in Chinese demand for Bitcoin due to the long holidays until February 2. Most likely, investors who own stocks and other risky assets, which are now declining, also own bitcoin. Some diversification has affected the cryptocurrencies, but it is more likely a rebound from support levels and routine (adjusted for increased crypto volatility) fluctuations in prices due to bots reacting to technical indicators. The current reaction of the crypto market doesn’t look like panic buying. At the end of last week, there was a market decline. We all remember how massive the growth was in response to Xi Jinping’s statements about the country’s course to the blockchain. Thus, it will be possible to link the epidemic, and the Bitcoin dynamics in case of volatility spike and double digits percentage markets moves. This article was written byFxPro Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • S&P 500 Price Forecast – Stock Markets Gap Lower To Start Week • GBP/JPY Price Forecast – British Pound Gaps Lower Against Japanese Yen • USD/JPY Price Forecast – US Dollar Gaps Lower Against Japanese Yen • Wuhan Virus Spreads, Global Markets Fall, Earnings Season Hits Peak • Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Test Support • AUD/USD Price Forecast – Australian Dollar Gapped Lower To Kick Off The Week || Coinbase Hands Nearly $1M to Cryptsy Victims After Settling Class Action Lawsuit: Coinbase has settled a class action lawsuit brought by users of the former Cryptsy cryptocurrency exchange. According to a set of court documents dated Nov. 27 and Dec. 10 , 2019, Coinbase has agreed to turn $962,500 over to an escrow agent responsible for handling class action claims related to a previous lawsuit against Cryptsy. Lawyers for the plaintiffs, who announced the settlement Monday, have already won 11,325 BTC from this previous case. The plaintiffs created a webpage for potential Cryptsy victims – any individuals who used the exchange before 2015 – listing upcoming key dates and outlining how they can submit claims. Related: Suit Alleging Tether and Bitfinex Manipulated Bitcoin Market Has Been Revised The settlement concludes a three-year legal action that nearly saw a jury trial. A hearing will be held on April 17, 2020, to either approve the preliminary settlement agreement or add further modifications as needed, according to the filing. Brandon Leidel, designated the class representative in the class action lawsuit, will receive $2,500 due to his efforts. He brought the suit in 2016 alleging Cryptsy CEO Paul Vernon used the exchange to launder millions of dollars’ worth of user funds over a multi-year period. The case was originally filed by the Silver Miller law firm and Wites Law Firm, both of which were designated class counsel. In a statement, attorney Marc Wites said the case against Coinbase, as well as the previous lawsuit filed against Cryptsy, “were difficult cases” to resolve. Related: Coinbase Pro App Now Available on Android With 50 Trading Pairs “When companies go out of business, founders flee the country and the amount at issue is relatively small, most plaintiff law firms would decline to pursue the case,” he said. “We were the only lawyers in the country to pursue a case against Cryptsy or Coinbase, individually or as a class action, and we were able to obtain multiple meaningful recoveries for victims who would have otherwise been left without any recourse.” Story continues David Silver of Silver Miller said he commended Coinbase “for stepping up and resolving” the case. The Cryptsy case shows how early exchanges, “especially unregulated exchanges like Cryptsy, shunned regulators, laws and ultimately stole from its own clientele,” he said. “This case shows that businesses in the cryptosphere bear a large measure of responsibility, from with whom they decide to do business and with whom they choose to associate,” he said. Coinbase did not immediately return a request for comment. Read the preliminary settlement below: Read the judge’s order below: Related Stories YouTube, Tron and the Dream of Decentralization Coinbase CEO Armstrong Wins Patent for Tech Allowing Users to Email Bitcoin || Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust is now registered with the SEC as reporting company: Crypto asset manager Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust has been officially registered as a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reporting company. As previouslyreported, the New York-based firm filed a registration statement on Form 10 with the SEC in Nov. 2019 on behalf of its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). It has been over 60 days after the initial filing – the typical wait period before Form 10 filings automatically go effective – and GBTC is now the first cryptocurrency investment vehicle to become an SEC reporting company, according to apress statement. The fund was offered a private placement exemption from SEC registration in 2013, but decided to pursue this registration voluntarily to boost its compliance standard and gain confidence from investors. “Grayscale voluntarily pursued this designation and will continue to work within existing regulatory frameworks,” said Michael Sonnenshein, managing director at Grayscale Investment. “Today’s announcement should signal to investors that our regulators are willing to engage with our products and our space as a whole." The trust will now have to turn in its quarterly and annual reports, audited financial statements as well as other required forms to the SEC. Additionally, Grayscale is set to reduce the statutory holding periods for shares purchased from the trust’s private placement from 12 months to 6 months, the statement said, which would give accredited investors an earlier liquidity opportunity. The change will take place at least 90 days from now on the condition that the trust has met all relevant requirements under the Securities Act. GBTC has seen considerable success in 2019, a company spokesperson told The Block, with over $471 million total inflow into private placement, almost twice the amount in 2018. Sonnenshein previously emphasized that the filing was not a move to turn GBTC into an exchange-traded fund (ETF), although its products were modeled after popular investment products and have a familiar structure, according to a Nov.statement. || $4.3B In Cryptocurrency Stolen In 2019: One of the biggest early selling points for cryptocurrency was its security, but a new study by Chainalysis suggests criminals are having no problem making huge profits in cryptocurrency. Scammers tripled their cryptocurrency revenue in 2019, stealing $4.3 billion worth of cryptocurrency from millions of victims, according to Chainalysis. Ponzi schemes, including PlusToken, were the largest source of revenue. Blackmail scam payoffs also quadrupled last year to $22.5 million, according to the firm. Crypto Crime On The Rise The Chainalysis numbers echo a report by CipherTrace back in November. CipherTrace found $4.4 billion in cryptocurrency theft in the first nine months of 2019 alone, up from just $1.7 billion in 2018. Regulators around the world have attempted to crack down on the use of cryptocurrency for illegal purchases, money laundering and fraudulent transactions. Due to the fact that many cryptocurrencies are pseudo-anonymous, these transactions can be difficult for law enforcement to trace. Chainalysis found that more than $1 billion in Bitcoin was sent to and from dark net markets in 2019, more than double the amount sent in 2018. Dark net markets are notorious for the sale of stolen credit card information, illegal drugs and other criminal activity. More Crypto Regulation Needed? While cryptocurrency users often protest government regulation of the space, Chainalysis said more oversight is exactly what is needed to keep the boom in cryptocurrency crime in check. “On the government side, regulators need to be aware of how these scams function and how players like OTC brokers fit in so that they can craft more effective consumer protection laws,” according to the report. The good news for investors: the spike in cryptocurrency crime doesn’t seem to be impacting the price of bitcoin. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTC: GBTC ) is up 171.1% in the past year. Benzinga’s Take The bad news for cryptocurrency investors is that this type of criminal activity is a barrier to cryptocurrency becoming more mainstream. The SEC has repeatedly cited concerns over investor safety in rejecting cryptocurrency ETF applications. Story continues Do you agree or disagree with these predictions? Email feedback@benzinga.com with your thoughts. Related Links: Boredom Is The Enemy? A Look At Bitcoin Since Peaking At ,000 Commodity, Currency, Security, Or Scam: What Type Of Asset Do You Think Bitcoin Is? 0 See more from Benzinga The Repo Market Is So Broken That The Fed Wants To Change It Boredom Is The Enemy? A Look At Bitcoin Since Peaking At ,000 © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Vermont Turns to Home-Grown Blockchain Company to Track Hemp With Ethereum: Vermont regulators will track hemp production on the ethereum mainnet in partnership with cannabis supply chain blockchain startup Trace. The five-year deal,announced Mondayby Vermont’s Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (VAAFM), is a production-ready solution for every level of the hemp trade, said Trace CEO Josh Decatur. Beginning in March, farmers and processors will begin putting all associated crop data into the Trace system, which runs on ethereum. It is one of the first times a state regulatory agency has decided to run with the ethereum mainnet, Decatur told CoinDesk in a phone call. The two-year-old company, based in Vermont’s capital Montpelier, has built an app users can share details through, and gas fees for conducting transactions are passed onto the users – in this case, the state government. Related:Options Market Sees More Risk in Ether Than Bitcoin in Coming Months “Everyone is deriving value from innate blockchain tech – namely the security that comes with public permissionless blockchain technology,” he said. Vermont’s regulators said this is the first full-scale government registration and licensing system that pairs blockchain with the nascent hemp industry. Hemp was legalized nationally in the 2018 Farm Bill, but Vermont’s program runs under the 2014 edition. A cannabis strain used in the textiles industry, hemp represents a small but growing slice of Vermont’s agriculture sector. The Green Mountain State had just 1,000 registered hemp farmers in 2019 with nearly 9,000 acres of farmland, as well as 300 processors, according Stephanie Smith, VAAFM’s Hemp Program manager. “It’s important to understand what’s being grown, where it’s being grown and where it’s going after being harvested,” she said. Related:ConsenSys Project Launches ‘Proof-of-Use’ Network to Discourage Speculation The mini-boom foreshadowed VAAFM’s call for a hemp registration system. Trace, whose CEO has roots in the Northern California grow scene, beat out the competition. Being based in Vermont didn’t hurt either. “We spent the last couple of years finding innovative ways to hone a product that could meet the tracking and data requirements of a state agency,” Decatur said. His Vermont-based team had been building “seed-to-shelf” tools for other sectors of the cannabis supply chain, such as cannabidiol (CBD) products. The company builtpatented software, an app and a web portal to document where, when and to whom a plant and its derivative products move. Trace’s solution relies on the ethereum network. At 15 transactions per second, the network is hardly a salve for industrial users moving massive amounts of data. But that doesn’t matter for the low-frequency hemp lot farmers who, Decatur said, only send three to four transactions per year. “The use case that we’ve applied the tech to fits into the performance restrictions of ethereum,” he said. Trace’s registration system should be live by the end of March, according to Smith, in time for the start of the outdoor growing season in June. • JPMorgan May Merge Its Blockchain Project With Ethereum Studio ConsenSys: Report • Plasma Became Optimism and It Might Just Save Ethereum || Sweden’s Central Bank Finally Embraces DLT, But Only in Simulation Mode: Sweden’s central bank will soon trial a blockchain-based digital currency – but it’s still in its very early stages, at best. AnnouncedThursday, Sveriges Riksbank’s e-krona pilot is the latest attempt at a central bank digital currency (CBDC) from an institution that for years fretted over basing any such project on distributed ledger technology (DLT). For now at least, the e-krona pilot is set to move forward on a limited basis. Built byAccentureand based onR3 Corda, Riksbank’s digital currency trials will run as a simulation through February 2021, at which point Riksbank could extend the project for another six years. Related:China Has Many Strategic Reasons to Invest in Blockchain The pilot will not involve any banks or end-users; everything will be simulated within the central bank’s closed network. Accenture is still preparing the final system for testing, according to Riksbank’s press office. This high-profile investigation of digital government money will “increase [Riksbank’s] knowledge” of CBDCs, the bank said in a report. But it will also better Riksbank’s understanding of DLT and “blockchain technology,” two nearly synonymous tech solutions (in the bank’s stated view) that it spent nearly three years arguing was too “immature” to use for the e-krona pilot. Forced into action by its citizens’deep aversion to cash, Riksbank has been talking about developing a possible “e-krona” since at leastNovember 2016. But it was never clear about what technology could power a Swedish digital currency. DLT has been an option since the project formally began inSeptember 2017. But it was hardly the obvious choice for a bank that saw the “existing tried-and-tested” centralized technologies as perhaps more compelling. Related:Central Bankers From Canada, Netherlands, Ukraine Call Blockchain Unnecessary for Digital Fiat “From a purely technical point of view, we can see nothing at this point in time that would prevent an e-krona solution built around a central register,” Riksbank wrote in that first e-krona project report. “RIX, the Riksbank’s system for the transfer of funds in accounts, is, for example, built around a central register. An e-krona could in principle be constructed in a similar way.” Riksbank was not willing to take a leap on the still-developing tech back in 2017. It described DLT as weak, troublesome and untried in the report – “this is partly due to the technology being so new” – a still-uncharted solution to digital-currency-minded central bankers around the world. Riksbank appears to have concluded that Corda addresses its previous DLT concerns,the Feb. 20 report shows. Usingbitcoin (BTC)as a DLT foil, Riksbank argues Corda consumes less energy and is more scalable while still preventing users from committing double-spending. In the simulated system, the Riksbank’s node will issue e-krona to participant nodes, banks. The banks will then distribute digital cash to end-users: consumers and merchants. Users will then hold the e-krona in digital wallets – on smartphones, wearable tech, cards – that make “peer-to-peer payments as easily as sending a text,” according to the most recent report. The system will also carry some of the permissioned features anathema to decentralization maximalists but integral to organized governance and central banks: Riksbank alone will have control over its private network and hold the sole power to add new participant nodes to that system. “Centralize it too far, and the exercise of creating [a CBDC] becomes rather pointless,” said Don Guo, CEO of brokerage tech provider Broctagon Fintech Group. “The founding principal of crypto was decentralization, so banks need to be careful that they don’t lose sight of the advantages that decentralization can provide, otherwise there will be no real benefit of using the new currencies over fiat.” The bank will not commit to launching an e-krona – in any form – just yet. That’s “ultimately a political decision,” Riksbank said in the report. But the yearlong pilot will illustrate how DLT e-krona “technical solution” might work in the country that long said it couldn’t. The pilot will also help Riksbank determine if, how, when and in what form it might issue digital money to the people of Sweden. More broadly, a focus on centralized thinking continues to circulate in the central banker community. For technical and philosophical reasons regarding governance and control, bankers hesitate to embrace DLT for CBDC,according to speakersat Friday’s Conference on Central Bank Digital Currencies in Ukraine. That comes as banks actively test DLT across other aspects of their financial infrastructure. Even in October 2018, when Riksbank was issuing itssecond report on the e-krona, bankers in Canada, Singapore, Japan and the Eurozone were all looking into DLT for large interbank payments. Riksbank is more interested in developing a retail payments solution for Sweden; it wants a digital krona that consumers, not bankers, can use on the go. And though it spent years considering DLT as one solution among many, Riksbank’s reports always left the door ajar. “Technological development continues apace,” the 2018 report said. “The Project cannot therefore rule out a DLT solution becoming relevant in the longer term.” Paddy Baker and Anna Baydakova contributed reporting. • Davos, CBDCs, and the Rise of Bitcoin Art • Swedish Crypto Exchange BTCX Plans IPO in 2020 || Coronavirus Impacts on Bitcoin (And the IRS’s Dumb Singularity): The best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations. Earlier this week theLet’s Talk Bitcoin! Showgathered to discuss coronavirus and its potential impacts or disruptions to the decentralized world of bitcoin. Later, we hear from correspondent George Ettinger about the indications of a “Dumb Currency Singularity” taking place at the Internal Revenue Service right now (also presented in full text below). Listen/subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast feed for unique perspectives and fresh daily insight withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS. Related:Bitcoin Rebounds as Coronavirus-Infected Stocks Get Jolt From Fed, BOJ On today’s podcast we discusscoronavirusand: • The bitcoin mining industry and the slowing rate of hash-rate increases in the run-up to the 2020 halving • Safe-haven, uncorrelated and risk asset narratives as the price ofbitcoin(BTC) bounces defies expectations • The potential for shifts in how society thinks about money in the wake of a highly transmissible global disease • Plus a brief primer on virus families(skip to 13 minutes for blockchain only content if you’re already up to speed) Credits for LTB#429– Coronavirus Impacts on Bitcoin (And the IRS’s Dumb Singularity)This episode of Let’s Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored byPurse.ioandeToro.com.This episode featuredStephanie Murphy,Andreas M. Antonopoulos, George Ettinger and Adam B. LevineToday’s episode was produced by Adam B. Levine, edited by Adam B. Levine with music provided byJared Rubensand Adam B. LevineWould you like to Sponsor a future episode of the Let’s Talk Bitcoin! show? Do you have any questions or comments? Emailadam@ltbshow.com The Dumb Singularity: Crypto Currencies and Game Currencies are Overdue for a Collision Related:The View From China: Crypto, Crisis and Digital Currencies Feat. Matthew Graham So. It has come tothis. One of the biggest barriers to entry for a disruptive technology is the incompetence of the average consumer. On the other hand, simply preying on the illiteracy of consumers can be a boon for some truly terrible inventions. It is in the clash of these two ideologies that we have reached the Dumb Currency Singularity. Digital currency has been on course for the Dumb Singularity for well over a decade, and we finally passed the event horizon late last year. At the end of 2019, the IRS quietly published a set of virtual currency guidelines that broadly lumped together mainstream cryptocurrency such as bitcoin and ethereum with honest-to-god Fortnite V-Bucks and Roblox Money. I have just been informed that the legal term for Roblox currency is “Robux.” That seems… fair. My point, however roundabout it may be, is that somebody in a position of some influence at the United States Internal Revenue Service saw their grandkid beg for a Roblox card in the Walgreens checkout line and thought, “MY GOD, THE BITCOINS HAVE COME FOR THE CHILDREN.” And then, when he put his horror to print, enough a phalanx of fellow IRS employees looked it over and thought “yes, that sounds right” that it was greenlit for public consumption. That advisement (to which the IRS claimed players of Fortnite and Roblox must report any purchases of “Bucks”, whether “V”- or “Ro”-) stood monolithically for nearly three months before it was escorted off the stage just as quietly as it had arrived. In a fit ofStreisanding, this change caught more attention than the addition had garnered to begin with, and the IRS gave a formal explanation. “The IRS recognizes that the language on our page potentially caused concern for some taxpayers,” they said. “We have changed the language in order to lessen any confusion. Transacting in virtual currencies as part of a game that do not leave the game environment (virtual currencies that are not convertible) would not require a taxpayer to indicate this on their tax return.” This is, surprisingly, rather huge. Huge in that they got this follow-up explanation relatively right, and huge in that they still persist in getting so-called “virtual currency” wrong. You see, the IRS has been caught flat-footed over and over with every passing year that crypto currency has spread. They were slow enough recognizing the growing importance of bitcoin that it wasn’t until 2013 that they designated a team to begin planning for how to handle the currency… and they still haven’t figured out how to handle it. Yet, dating back even earlier than this, the IRS has ALSO been blindsided at every turn by non-crypto “gaming” digital currencies. Their official language conflating the two isn’t just a red flag- it’s a canary in the coal mine. Game Currencies – for simplicity, hereafter referred to as, uh, “Game Currencies”- run a wide gamut but the majority is exactly what the IRS failed to recognize in Fortnite and Roblox: a non-convertible, non-transferrable currency that cannot reasonably leave the confines of its game. Your Fortnite V-Bucks and Apex Legends Coins and… [SIGH].. Ro-Bux… are just an interstitial medium between your real money and the gameplay. You do not trade these with other players, nor do you have the options to take these chips up to the casino counter and cash them back out: once your USD enters the game, it cannot leave it in any reasonable form. After the original point-of-sale a Game Currency is no different from Sonic’s rings. So, for as correct as the IRSeventuallygot it, they’ve still been handling Game Currencieswrong, and it has informed the ways they still get Cryptowrong. Many game currencies ARE transferrable and ARE dangerously viable mediums for exchange and laundering, and they have been around longer than Bitcoin. It’s absolutely no secret that World of Warcraft gold is player-transferrable: it’s the entire reason “gold farming” remains a legitimate source of income for so many. Though less ubiquitous than Warcraft, the seminal Supply Chain Actuary Simulator EVE Online notoriously monetized its monthly subscription cards into aconsumable ingame item. For those unfamiliar, this means that when you buy a month of game time, it isn’t simply added to your account: it becomes an item in your game inventory that can either be USED to extend your subscription, or TRADED with other players as a dollar-pegged commodity. Now, the truly fantastical economic tales of money laundering, actual virtual space piracy, and actual-million-actual-dollar banking deals in Eve Online can and HAS filled several books, so I will not go into detail here. The point is, simply, that player-exchangeable cash-value items have been a massive grey market for years and continued to slip under the IRS’s nose. They didn’t bat an eye at the horrifying headlines of Diablo 3’s aborted real-cash auction house fiasco, yet now in 2020 they’re fumbling to grasp onto its legacy. That fumbling is part-and-parcel with their fumbling of bitcoin, and the timeline tells a story. A recent Government Accountability Office review of IRS virtual currency policies painted a somewhat scathing picture of a bureaucracy that was slow to notice and even slower to adapt. The IRS initiative in 2013 was a knee-jerk response to the first truly landmark year of Bitcoin cash trading, where dollar parity was suddenly blown aside byhundreddollar parity. The impetus is obvious: disruptive changes to currency don’t matter to the IRS until they see it on the “Wacky Stories” segment of their local station news. The financial establishments that stood togainfrom digital currencies were quick on the uptake, but the groups tasked with oversight were responding to changing conditions and new developments with the grace of a grandparent still giftwrapping cabbage patch dolls for the kids’ 35th birthdays. The GAO points out that, across three years, the IRS was trying to garner clues from the 900 people that had self-reported Bitcoin capital gains. That’s right – from 2013 to 2015, nearly a thousand god-fearing Americans had thesaintlyhumility to self-report their bitcoin earnings to the feds, and it tookthree years of analysisfor those feds to deduce that there might bemoreout there goingunreported. Kudos, by the way, to those 900 honorable people who attempted to watch out for the watchmen while the watchmen weren’t even watching. In these years since, the spectrum of cryptocurrencies has exploded and the applications of game currencies has become strangely homogenized. Convertible game currencies like Warcraft gold persist, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Publishers have found that stifling a cross-player economy gives them a better control over the experience and far less accountability for what is done with that money. Fortnite follows this modern standard; real currency is an aggressively optimized one-way flow from player to publisher, with no convertible gains to tax. The IRS has long since missed the boat on game currencies. Why, then, did they so recently and so awkwardly collide with cryptocurrencies in the revenue service’s jumbled mind? This, my friend, is the beginning of the Dumb Singularity: Desperation and technological-illiteracy have finally boiled over, and the bureau is trying to play catch-up on the years that have passed it by. They may have smoothed over the initial blunder, but this is indicative of their intent to move forward with a more active hand, and the broad use the phrase “virtual currency” means that more blunders lie ahead. The GAO excoriated them for their slowness, vagueness, and all-around wishy-washiness in these regards, but to some extent it was not the IRS’s fault. The organization has struggled under budget cuts and a dangerous lack of new blood, and yes, you may read that as younger-and-more-savvy blood. It was that same old blood that struggled to make any headway with their internal Virtual Currency Issues Team in 2013 and still wasn’t seriously analyzing self-reported data from major crypto exchanges even into 2016. Some gentle flame finally reached their backsides sometime after, because by 2018 they were beginning to proactively reach out to users with obvious crypto gains and attempting to secure accurate reporting. Now, with the end of tax year 2019 upon us, they are finally facing the ontological conundrum at the center of the Dumb Singularity: What is the Enforceable Definition of “Virtual Currency?” What will distinguish between play money and dangerous money? While they dragged their feet comprehending the question, the answers have gotten only more muddled as technology blazed trails forward with no policy guidance. This year, game currencies are completely surpassing retail purchases as the primary source of publisher revenue andmostof them aren’t convertible or taxable; most, but notall.The IRS’s complacency left it with a massive ecosystem to sift through and a lack of reliable, literate talent to do it. If their random grab at themost obvious game currencies they could think ofwas any indication, there will be more broad and clumsy strokes before there are any real answers. The IRS has the unenviable task of writing a perfect definition in a language it can’t seem to speak, all because they never got around the asking the question that I accidentally stumbled on twenty years ago. When my 13-year-old self spent 10 bucks on eBay for a wealth of obviously hackedPhantasy Star Online loot, I wondered: What laws can actually apply to the man who Game-Genies his paychecks? • Bitcoin, Uncertainty and the Ultimate Narrative • Bitcoin News Roundup for March 2, 2020 || Square Crypto Is Creating a ‘Lightning Development Kit’ for Bitcoin Wallets: Square Crypto, the payment company’s bitcoin-focused wing, is building a “Lightning Development Kit” for wallet and app developers to more easily build on the layer-2 solution. Announced Tuesday, the new kit includes an API, language tools, demo apps and other features to help developers integrate support for Lightning payments into their own wallets. Existing bitcoin wallets will also be able to support Lightning through the new kit, rather than requiring companies to build a separate wallet. The tools will help developers create better user experiences, a Medium post explained. Related: Bitcoin Price Indicator Eyes First Bullish Turn Since August “For bitcoin to become a widely used global currency – one that can’t be stopped, tampered with or rigged in anyone’s favor – improvements to bitcoin’s UX, security, privacy, and scaling are required,” the group said. The post indicated the kit is still being built out and did not provide a timeline for release, but said “today’s Lightning infrastructure is incomplete without features like these.” Related Stories Blockstream Co-Founder Joins Bitcoin-Only Start-up River Financial After Sudden 8% Drop, Bitcoin Bulls Must Defend Price Support at $8,460 Grasping Lightning: Mapping the Key Players in Bitcoin’s Next Phase [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 7923.64, 7909.73, 7911.43, 4970.79, 5563.71, 5200.37, 5392.31, 5014.48, 5225.63, 5238.44
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-05-02] BTC Price: 1452.82, BTC RSI: 82.93 Gold Price: 1255.10, Gold RSI: 46.24 Oil Price: 47.66, Oil RSI: 32.23 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] The irony of bitcoin and the SEC: On Friday, theSEC deniedaproposal from Cameron and Tyler Winklevossto launch the first regulated bitcoin exchange-traded fund. The plan was to list shares of the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust on the Bats Global Exchange under the ticker COIN. The ETF, pegged to the bitcoin price onGemini(their bitcoin exchange site), would offer mainstream investors the chance to hold an asset tied to the value of bitcoin without actually buying bitcoin in the usual way. The SEC said no—and said it rather harshly. You might say the SEC, with a 38-page letter, rejected friend requests from both the Winklevoss brothers and from bitcoin. But none of this should have come as any surprise to bitcoin buyers and believers. In itsdecision, the SEC said that it does not believe the ETF proposal was “consistent with Section 6(b)(5) of the Exchange Act, which requires, among other things, that the rules of a national securities exchange be designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices and to protect investors and the public interest.” The SEC also did not believe that the Gemini exchange, which launched in 2015, and which the bitcoin ETF would be pegged to, is secure enough: “The Exchange represents that it has entered into a comprehensive surveillance-sharing agreement with the Gemini Exchange with respect to trading of the bitcoin asset underlying the Trust… however, the Commission does not believe this surveillance-sharing agreement to be sufficient, because the Gemini Exchange conducts only a small fraction of the worldwide trading in bitcoin, and because the Gemini Exchange is not a ‘regulated market’ comparable to a national securities exchange or to the futures exchanges that are associated with the underlying assets of the commodity-trust ETPs approved to date.” Translation: The SEC believes a bitcoin ETF would be too volatile and unsafe to regulate, and, if pegged to Gemini, the price would not necessarily fairly represent an accurate price across all exchanges. The SEC also pointed to the high risk of bitcoin writ large, beyond just what the Winklevoss brothers had proposed. “One commenter states that the market for bitcoin, by trade volume, is very shallow,” the SEC decision reads. “This commenter notes that the majority of bitcoin is hoarded by a few owners or is out of circulation. The commenter also notes that ownership concentration is high, with 50 percent of bitcoin in the hands of fewer than 1,000 people, and that this high ownership concentration creates greater market liquidity risk, as large blocks of bitcoin are difficult to sell in a timely and market efficient manner… This commenter also states that several fundamental flaws make bitcoin a dangerous asset class to force into an exchange traded structure, including shallow trade volume, extreme hoarding, low liquidity, hyper price volatility, a global web of unregulated bucket-shop exchanges, high bankruptcy risk, and oversized exposure to trading in countries where there is no regulatory oversight.” Translation: Due to concentrated ownership of bitcoins, and to shady dealings at bitcoin exchanges, the SEC sees a similar fundamental problem with digital currency itself. Of course it does. The entire original appeal of bitcoin, when first introduced in a 2009 white paper by someone using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, was its anti-government appeal. Bitcoin is meant to be an unregulated, decentralized, non-fiat currency. As one DC-based risk-analysis firm, Oxbow Advisory,tweeted: “Don’t ask the fiat to remove the fiat.” (The joke there: don’t expect the government to warm to a currency that undermines it.) And this is the great irony of recent efforts to bring bitcoin more mainstream, and to obtain various licenses and regulatory approvals: it’s a contradiction of bitcoin’s original, libertarian appeal. “After reading the response, it really does make sense that they would decline it,” says Brian Hoffman, project lead forOpenBazaar, a peer-to-peer marketplacethat runs on bitcoin. “I think so far their concern has been to be able to control it and understand it, and the nature of the market over time has always been unstable. And another point they brought up around large ownerships being controlled by people that we don’t know who they are, I think that is a pretty big question mark.” The creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, has yet to be unmasked (many leading voices in bitcoindoubt the reports that it is Australian cybersecurity expert Craig Wright) and theoretically still owns somewhere around one million bitcoins of the 16.2 million supply. So the SEC doesn’t like thatit doesn’t know who created bitcoin. And if Satoshi were to unload their coins, it would create a huge market event—and in that scenario, the SEC, if it had approved a regulated bitcoin asset, “could be on the hook for questions around customer losses, and that’s something they want to avoid,” says Hoffman. “So it makes sense, from a conservative standpoint, to just stay away from it.” To be sure, there is some involvement of mainstream financial institutions in bitcoin exchanges.Coinbase, the leading American bitcoin exchange, is backed by BBVA; Crypto Facilities, a new bitcoin derivatives exchange, was launched by a former Goldman Sachs exec and former BNP Paribas exec. And beyond the exchanges, a number of blockchain-as-a-service companies,such as Chain, have amassed big-bank partners. But banks and financial institutions haveshown less interest in bitcoinas a currency. You can see bitcoin businesses splitting broadly into two camps. There are those who want it to exist outside of government reach, untouched by regulators, and similarly aren’t excited by banks getting involved in the space; and there are those who feel regulation will bring legitimacy and mainstream usage. Stefan Thomas, CTO of Ripple (a blockchain partner for banks that also has its own rival cryptocurrency, XRP), is in the latter camp. “I was a contributor to bitcoin early on, I was a bitcoin believer, but over time it just never became more legitimate and serious, and to me, that was the problem.” The price of bitcoinfell by nearly 20%in the hours after the SEC denial on Friday, then bounced back somewhat. That temporary crash was also ironic, since anyone holding bitcoin as a speculative investment should have anticipated that the SEC would deny the ETF proposal. As Hoffman of OpenBazaar says, the SEC decision “is only a setback for people that have the mentality that bitcoin is just for holding over time. For me, personally, the thing that’s so fascinating about bitcoin is being able to use it, not just hold it. The price going up is great, but in my eyes that’s just an extra added bonus. An ETF existing doesn’t preclude me from buying or using bitcoin.” For bitcoin to thrive, it doesn’t necessarily need any mainstream approval or regulation, though such regulation would certainly bring more faith from traditional, cautious investors. For an example of the divide, look no further than the different regulatory approaches of different exchanges. Two years ago, when the New York Department of Financial Services released the “BitLicense,” its set of regulatory rules that would apply to digital currency transmitters, it had an instantaneous dramatic effect: Coinbase, the leading US site for anyone to buy bitcoin, launched its bitcoin exchange without waiting for a BitLicense;Kraken, a bitcoin exchange that sees most of its trading volume in euros, swiftly halted all operations in New York rather than seek licensing; the Winklevoss brothers, eager to launch their own exchange Gemini, waited until they could obtain proper licensing (not a BitLicense, but a chartered LLC trust license) anddid not launch until that happened. Watch for the philosophical divide to continue to put stress on bitcoin businesses. — Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering technology and sports business. Follow him on Twitter at@readDanwrite. Read more: Bitcoin crashes after SEC rejects Winklevoss proposal Bitcoin is becoming the new gold Expect more blockchain hype in 2017 Here’s where big banks stand on blockchain Why 21.co is the most exciting bitcoin company right now || How to Invest in Bitcoin and Digital Currency: In the years since the Great Recession, you've probably heard about the electronic payment system and so-called cryptocurrency called bitcoin . But you're perhaps less likely to have heard of the underlying technology that powers it. It's called blockchain. Blockchain technology is a digital ledger distributed across a network of computers that keeps track of transactions. But beyond payments, it can be used for a wide variety of applications such as contracts, documents and basic record keeping. "Wall Street is going to eventually move into this in a big way," says Alan Friedland, founder of Compcoin, a blockchain-based public currency trading platform. "In the meantime, it's a great opportunity to get into early." [See: 9 Under-the-Radar Ways to Buy Financial Stocks .] Just like the internet democratized the dissemination of information, blockchain technology democratizes the securitization of information, says Chris Burniske, head of blockchain products with Ark Investment Management. "It's probably the most impactful general purpose technology that's been invented in the 21st century," he says. While bitcoin decentralizes payments, another major blockchain technology called Ethereum enables decentralized applications. Another, Storj, is involved in decentralized computer storage. Each issues its own value token or coin -- bitcoin issues bitcoins, Ethereum issues ether, and Storj issues Storjcoin X -- that can be bought and traded. There are now many different digital currencies. Blockchain assets have a very low correlation to other assets, and so they can be used to diversify portolios , Burniske says. Some use them as a risk hedge similar to how they use gold, he says. Stan Miroshnik, managing director with the Argon Group, an investment bank focusing on the blockchain sector, adds that bitcoin is uncorrelated to bonds, gold, real estate, commodities and emerging market currencies. It only has a very small correlation to U.S. equities, he says. Story continues Blockchain is "an important enough technology that people should try to invest a little bit," Miroshnik says. There are different schools of thought about the best way to invest in this nascent, but growing, industry. On the one hand, you can stockpile tokens , such as bitcoin or another digital currency, and hope the demand for them will increase, their value will rise and you can sell them later at a profit. Or, you can invest in the companies that are creating different blockchain-based products. Morningstar analyst Jim Sinegal falls into the latter camp, saying investors should focus on companies that stand to make money if they find useful applications for blockchain technology. He suggests investors go after the companies because the coins don't generate any cash flow. So the only way you'll make money off it is if a token's price goes up and you can then sell it, Sinegal says. However, because the industry is so new, it can be tough to invest in companies with exposure to blockchain technology, Sinegal says. He compares it to the early stages of internet stocks in the 1990s. A few were successful, but investors lost money on others. "It's very tough to make a direct investment," he says. [See: 6 ETFs That Let You Buy Micro-Cap Stocks .] Still, Sinegal says companies such as Goldman Sachs Group (ticker: NYSE: GS ) and CME Group ( CME ) eventually stand to significantly benefit from the lower costs blockchain technology makes possible. While more than 70 of the world's largest financial institutions have joined a blockchain-development consortium, and large technology firms like International Business Machines Corp. ( IBM ) and Microsoft Corp. ( MSFT ) have blockchain solutions, Miroshnik says it remains difficult to get true exposure to the technology through public companies. The blockchain penny stock universe includes BTCS, Global Arena Holding, HashingSpace Corp. and First Bitcoin Capital Corp. But penny stock companies are very young and may not be the best investment now as their business models are evolving, Miroshnik says. Miroshnik says investing in coins is the way to go because blockchain assets appreciate for two reasons. First, there is a real cost to producing each transactional ledger of the blockchain. It takes computer equipment and energy. These so-called miners compete to produce the next block in the chain and are rewarded with coins. This cost of production keeps going up over time, creating a fundamental driver of higher value, Miroshnik says. Additionally, there is transactional value created as demand rises for a blockchain coin, Miroshnik says. For investors wanting to buy into this emerging asset class, they can go to places such as Coinbase, Bitstamp or Kraken, Burniske says. It's similar to a foreign exchange trade, where investors exchange the value of one asset with another based on exchange rates, he says. His company runs two exchange-traded funds -- the Web x.0 ETF ( ARKW ) and Ark Innovation ETF ( ARKK ) -- that each have exposure to bitcoin though Bitcoin Investment Trust ( GBTC ), he says. Uninitiated consumers should stick with bitcoin or ether to get comfortable with the language of this emerging capital market, Miroshnik says. For other coins, investing means doing research into what project they are supporting and what value the investor thinks it represents, he says. [See: The 9 Best Municipal Bond Funds for Tax-Free Income .] "That process is very similar to how you would think about investing in small-cap stocks," he says. More From US News & World Report The 10 Best Financial ETFs You Can Buy Avoid These 8 Rookie Investing Mistakes 10 Tips for Couples and Young Families to Build Wealth || Giuliani talks security, Trump at cybersecurity conference: Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani brought a marker to a cybersecurity conference Tuesday. The occasional advisor to President Trump had a few things to say to attendees of theV4 Cybersecurity Conference, and he needed a visual aid to get those points across. Giuliani was a late addition to the agenda of this half-day gathering put on by theVisegrád Group, which represents the shared interests of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. He did not get into the same level of technical detail as other V4 speakers, but his half-hour talk did yield some insights into his cybersecurity priorities and those of the president whopassed on appointing him as Secretary of State. Giuliani, now chair of the cybersecurity, privacy and crisis-management practice at Greenberg Traurig, LLP, led off his talk at the Washington offices of Google (GOOG) with a cybersecurity confession most of us could make: “We spent too little time talking about it in the past.” He cited CompStat, the crime-tracking system the New York Police Departmentlaunched in 1995to map offenses precinct by precinct. “It wasn’t until 1997 or 1998 that I thought about defending it,” Giuliani said. But the city’s effort to prevent “Y2K” calamities caused by code assuming all years start with “19” led to a new awareness of its computing weaknesses. “I found out how undefended we were,” he said. “My wonderful CompStat program, which I’m in love with, any criminal could have hacked in.” But just as companies and governments have begun taking cybersecurity seriously, attackers have been working harder to thwart their efforts. Giuliani cited today’s epidemic of ransomware attacks, in which malware encrypts data and demands the victim pay a ransom in Bitcoin to regain access to it, as “maybe the most dangerous of all.” He noted thatmany hospitals have been hit with ransomwareand defended their practice of keeping “quite quiet” about it. Security experts do not agree, saying that silence about an attack onlyleaves other potential victims unaware of weaknesses they should fix. That’s when Giuliani turned to the board he’d brought to the stage, and things became complicated. First he sketched out a pyramid, representing the hierarchy of a company or government office from C-suite executives down. Then he drew a circle around that, saying this organization “needs a company that surrounds it” to defend its computers. That company can’t just maintain a firewall but needs to study attack techniques and attackers. “You do profiling, based on who’s coming after you,” Giuliani said. This organization will next need a second security firm to monitor activity from the inside. “The company on the inside has to be able to be sure that they’re not missing something.” That, however, isn’t enough either. “I believe you need a third company, which is an attack and penetration company. They are attacking you all the time, as if they are the bad guys.” Security pros would generally agree with that — hacking-resistant organizations stay that way byhaving “red teams” try to defeat their own defenses. We weren’t done yet, though. Giuliani said this organization will also need “an investigatory company” that can trace an attack back to its authors, whether they’re in China or, as Trump once famously said,somebody’s basement. This fourth security firm should also monitor what experts call the“dark Web”— the vast expanse of servers unreachable through normal web browsers and apps, though Giuliani kept calling it “the black Web.” Giuliani finally endorsed putting a fifth company to work defending individual employees with sensitive data. He cited his own circumstances, saying “you don’t have to hack me.” Instead, hacking his assistants would yield the former mayor’s passwords, contacts and schedule. This cybersecurity-coaching part of the talk included a useful caveat: “In each one of these areas there are completely phony companies who don’t know what they’re doing.” This is true. It is not so apparent whether this full-employment policy for cybersecurity types will make an organization more secure or result in a lot of managerial overhead. Giuliani himself noted that many companies get by with just the first three companies on his list. Giuliani, however, noted that he doesn’t keep his meetings with President Trump on any list. He didn’t get into much other detail about his own security practices, either. For people who have struggled to get a sense ofTrump’s tech-policy goals, the most useful parts of Giuliani’s talk were his characterizations of the president’s cybersecurity priorities. The former mayor said Trump has a holistic view of security, in that a vulnerable private sector will wind up infecting the government and vice versa: “You have to solve this problem for the whole country.” But while there’s “no Republican or Democratic solution to this,” Trump does expect that the best answers won’t come from the public sector. “He has a prejudice that this is going to be better solved in the private sector than the government.” More from Rob: • What you should and shouldn’t worry about in Android security • 3 ‘unlocked’ phones that might make your carrier unhappy • The FCC just gave you a reason to hold off on buying a 4K TV • Broadband companies can’t build out networks, and it’s hurting consumers • Wireless carriers are fighting for your cash, and that’s good news • How Verizon’s new ‘unlimited’ plan compares to the competition • Study finds most people are scarred of being hacked, but don’t do much about it EmailRobat rob@robpegoraro.com; follow him on Twitter at@robpegoraro. || Did You Hear About MIT's New Civil Disobedience Award?: Did you hear about the MIT Media Lab's new proposition? If not, it's simple: win $250,000 by breaking the rules or shaking up the status quo. Yes, that's right. The MIT Media Lab's "Disobedience Award" will be presented to "a person or group engaged in what we believe is an extraordinary example of disobedience for the benefit of society." MIT explained that the winner needs to abide to non-violence measures and isn't limited to specific disciplines, such as scientific research, civil rights, freedom of speech, human rights and the freedom to innovate. Don't Count On A NYSE-Listed Company On Winning Needless to say, Western corporations follow the law and there are few, if any, companies that are "self-sacrificial" for the common good. Companies may take a stance, such as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL ) refusing to comply with an FBI order to assist the government in unlocking an iPhone used by one of the terrorists involved in the San Bernardino attack. Bitcoin? It would be reasonable to assume a Bitcoin company could be considered for the award. The anonymous digital currency offers individuals across the world the ability to move money without government surveillance. This is especially true in heavily restricted countries like China where individuals aren't permitted to move $50,000 outside of the country. Are there any companies you think could or should be up for the award? See Also: Tim Cook: FBI Is Asking Apple For Something Too Dangerous To Create Brave New Coin Is The Bloomberg Of Blockchain See more from Benzinga Attention Detroit Entrepreneurs: Google Demo Day Is Right Around The Corner McDonald's Mobile Ordering Is Now A Reality Goldman Highlights Positive iPhone Data Out of China, Taiwan © 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin could be on the edge of a cliff: (A Bitcoin sign is seen in a window in TorontoThomson Reuters) Let me be clear: I do not trade bitcoin, but I do write about it often.Before going into journalism, I spent my days trading. I learned a lot about technical analysis during that time, and right now, technical analysis spells huge trouble ahead for the cryptocurrency. Let's recap what has been going on in the bitcoin market so far this year. Bitcoin rallied 120% in 2016 and has been thetop-performing currencyin each of the last two years. It opened 2017 by gaining 20% in the first week before crashing 35% on news thatChina was going to consider clamping downon trading. Since then, bitcoin has ripped higher by more than 50% even in the face of several pieces of bad news. First, China's biggest bitcoin exchanges said they were going to start charging a 0.2% fee on all transactions (previously there was no fee). This was significant asnearly 100% of bitcoin's trading volumetakes places on China's exchanges. Then, China's biggest exchanges said they were going toblock withdrawalsfrom trading accounts. But bitcoin kept climbing higher.It put in a record high of $1,327 a coin on March 10 as traders piled in ahead of the US Securities and Exchange Commission's ruling on theWinklevoss twins' bitcoin exchange-traded fund(ETF). The SEC denied the ETF. There are two more SEC rulings on the way, the next being on March 30. Neither one is expected to pass.That ruling sent bitcoin crashing 16% lower, but again it was ultimately resilient in the face of bad news. Prices snapped back up in overnight trade and ended the following session above the previous day's opening price. All of those ups and downs, though, have left the cryptocurrency in a precarious position. Take a look at a bitcoin chart: (Investing.com) The chart pattern appears to be putting in a classicdouble toppattern. In very simple terms, that's describing those two peaks you see highlighted above. What the double top does, is give us a clue to where traders will go from buying to selling bitcoin. In order for this pattern to be activated, bitcoin would have to close below the neckline, which appears near the $1,100 level. And while that hasn't happened yet, there is another troubling sign that's popping up on the charts. (bitcoinity.org) Bitcoin volume exploded into the end of 2016, but has vanished in 2017. This means that as the price was going up, the drop in volume didn't support the price trend. In other words, there wasn't any conviction behind the move. It appears that the transaction fees implemented by China's biggest exchanges have caused participation to dry up. So where is bitcoin headed? If the cryptocurrency falls below the neckline drawn on the first chart, the charts suggest a trip to the $900 area is likely. That's $300 a coin less than it's current level, or a 25% drop. NOW WATCH:7 mega-billionaires who made a fortune last year More From Business Insider • Bitcoin crashes after the SEC rejects the Winklevoss twins' ETF • Bitcoin super spikes to an all-time high • Bitcoin makes a big comeback || Bitcoin steadies after biggest three-day tumble in over two years: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin regained its footing on Monday, having suffered its heftiest falls since early 2015 between Thursday and Saturday as investors sold the digital currency on worries about its future. Having soared to an all-time high of $1,350 on the Bitstamp exchange on March 10, on speculation that regulators could approve the first U.S. bitcoin exchange traded fund the following day, the digital currency then slipped back. Its falls began accelerating on Thursday and it hit a five-week low of $944.36 on Saturday. But bitcoin recovered a little on Sunday and built on those gains on Monday, climbing around 2.5 percent to roughly $1,050 by 1815 GMT. Bitcoin experts said its steep losses were driven by a longstanding, and intensifying, row over whether - and how - to increase the capacity of the "blocks" that bitcoin transactions are processed in, so as to make sure there are no delays in transactions being finalised. "The bitcoin scaling debate is a risk for the network and highlights core issues in terms of governance and this is where more nimble crypto competitors see advantages in fleshing out their capabilities sooner," said Charles Hayter, CEO of digital currency analysis website Crytocompare, in London. At the same time that bitcoin was plunging, a newer, rival "cryptocurrency" was soaring: ether. The digital currency behind Ethereum - a project that some experts say holds more potential than bitcoin - has almost tripled in value this month, jumping to record highs of around $45. Some experts said traders were selling bitcoin and buying ether, which was exacerbating the falls in the original cryptocurrency. "Traders in the space are looking for better returns in the more risky and nascent cryptos such as Dash, Monero and Ethereum (and are) looking to replicate the extraordinary returns that bitcoin saw in its early days," added Hayter. U.S. regulators dashed Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss's bitcoin ambitions earlier in the month by rejecting their application to list an exchange-traded fund linked to the digital currency. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Alison Williams) || Zacks Investment Ideas feature highlights: Alamos Gold, Avino Silver, Fortuna Silver and Great Panther Silver: For Immediate Release Chicago, IL – March 14, 2017 – Today, Zacks Investment Ideas feature highlights Features: Alamos Gold ( NYSE: AGI – Free Report ), Avino Silver ( NYSEMKT: ASM – Free Report ), Fortuna Silver ( NYSE: FSM – Free Report ) and Great Panther Silver ( NYSEMKT: GPL – Free Report ) . Bitcoin Crash Creates Golden Opportunity I’ve been wrong about my timing of the silver and gold trade twice now. Once to my followers in Momentum Trader and another time in a much more public way, on Bloomberg the end of last year. My fundamental investment thesis surrounding gold hasn’t been wrong just my timing. And now, with gold prices bouncing off $1,200 and last week’s Bitcoin debacle I’m taking another stab at it. The Bitcoin debacle I’m referring to is last week’s decision by the SEC to reject the Winklevoss Twins’ proposal for a Bitcoin ETF. An ETF would have helped to legitimize the cryptocurrency and expose it to an entire new market of potential investors. The SEC’s decision was based on the unregulated nature of the Bitcoin market itself. With no way of overseeing the underlying investment, there was no way the SEC could give it a stamp of approval. You could argue that Bitcoin and gold are both alternatives to global fiat currencies. Neither has a central bank which governs them nor do they pay interest. They are both a store of value and can be held anonymously. Gold and silver have a tendency to track with each other so I’m including it when I look for stock ideas. Of course there’s one giant difference between the two. Gold has been a historic store of value for ages and something you can physically possess. Bitcoin is a digital currency that was created from nothing a few years ago. There is still a huge amount of skepticism surrounding Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. A rash of high profile hacks, essentially digital bank robberies, have loomed like a cloud over Bitcoin for years. This ETF would have been something like a Bitcoin coming out party. However, that was not the case and Bitcoin’s value plunged in Friday trading. Nearly simultaneous there was a huge rally in gold prices with the metal bouncing from just under $1,200 an ounce, an obvious psychological support level. Gold still does have an inverse relationship with yields. As interest rates rise you tend to see pressure on gold prices. We all know the Fed is going to hike rates next week. That is a huge negative on gold pricing. But if the metal can rally even in the face of that hike, then there could be overpowering fundamentals at play. Story continues One way to play a potential continuation of silver and gold’s move higher is to look at the silver and gold miners. A lot of these companies got lean and mean in order to survive the plummet in prices and have emerged with much stronger balance sheets. They have found ways to minimize their acquisition costs and streamline their mining process. I’ve put together a list here of gold stocks that are Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stocks for you to investigate a little further. Alamos Gold ( NYSE: AGI – Free Report ) Alamos Gold Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and extraction of gold deposits in North America. It also explores for silver and precious metals. The company holds interests in the Young-Davidson mine, which includes contiguous mineral leases and claims totaling 11,000 acres located in Northern Ontario, Canada; the Mulatos mine located within the Salamandra Concessions in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range in the east-central portion of the State of Sonora, Mexico; and the El Chanate mine that comprises 22 mineral concessions covering 4,618 hectares situated in the State of Sonora, Mexico. It also holds interests in a portfolio of development stage projects in Mexico, Turkey, Canada, and the United States. Avino Silver ( NYSEMKT: ASM – Free Report ) Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. engages in the production and sale of silver, gold, and copper bulk concentrates; and the exploration, evaluation, and acquisition of mineral properties. The company owns 42 mineral claims and leases 4 mineral claims in the state of Durango, Mexico. It also holds 100% interests in the Bralorne mine located in the Lillooet mining division, British Columbia, Canada; and the Eagle property located in the Mayo mining division of Yukon, Canada. Fortuna Silver ( NYSE: FSM – Free Report ) Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. engages in the exploration, extraction, and processing of mineral properties in Latin America. The company explores for silver, gold, lead, and zinc deposits. It holds interests in the Caylloma mine located in the Arequipa Department in southern Peru; and the San Jose mine located in the State of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Great Panther Silver ( NYSEMKT: GPL – Free Report ) Great Panther Silver Limited, a silver mining and exploration company, engages in the mining of mineral properties in Mexico. It explores for silver, gold, lead, and zinc. The company holds interests in the Topia Mine and Guanajuato Mine Complex properties. It also holds mineral property interests in the exploration stage, such as the El Horcon and Santa Rosa projects located in Mexico, and Coricancha Mine Complex located in the Central Andes of Peru. Bottom Line I think Bitcoin blowing up here could benefit gold and silver over the short run. That being said, a great way to play the rise in these metals could be to look at the silver and gold miners. This is a short list to start researching the best one to buy. Looking for Ideas with Even Greater Upside? Today's investment ideas are short-term, directly based on our proven 1 to 3 month indicator. In addition, I invite you to consider our long-term opportunities. These rare trades look to start fast with strong Zacks Ranks, but carry through with double and triple-digit profit potential. Starting now, you can look inside our home run, value, and stocks under $10 portfolios, plus more. Click here for a peek at this private information>> Get the full Report on AGI - FREE Get the full Report on ASM - FREE Get the full Report on FSM - FREE Get the full Report on GPL - FREE Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZacksResearch Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZacksInvestmentResearch Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 support@zacks.com https://www.zacks.com/performance Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Alamos Gold Inc. (AGI): Free Stock Analysis Report Avino Silver (ASM): Free Stock Analysis Report Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. (FSM): Free Stock Analysis Report Great Panther Silver Limited (GPL): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. View comments || There's $29.4 billion in cryptocurrencies — here's which ones people are using the most: Bitcoin became the firstdecentralized cryptocurrency back in 2009, and ever since interest in digital currencies has exploded. According to CoinMarketCap.com, there are796 cryptocurrencies currently trading around the world, with a combined market cap of $29,374,919,176. Of those, only 10 have a market cap of $100 million or more. Check them out: (Business Insider/Mike Nudelman, data from CoinMarketCap.com) NOW WATCH:People are outraged by this shocking video showing a passenger forcibly dragged off a United Airlines plane More From Business Insider • An under-the-radar startup is behind what might be the best watch you can buy for under $250 • We just got a huge sign that the US intelligence community believes the Trump dossier is legitimate • Report says North Korea stole bitcoin from South Korea for years || Why AMD Shares Jumped 7%: Shares of Advanced Micro Devices jumped 7% on Monday after a pair of Wall Street analysts issued positive notes about the company’s new line of microchips. AMD’s stock rose $0.98 to $14.47 in midday trading. The stock, which quadrupled last year, had fallen from a 10-year high of $15.55 at the end of February over concerns about slow early sales of its new chips. But those short-term worries are unfounded because ofCEO Lisa Su’s strategy of offering comparable or better performancewith competing chips at a fraction of Intel’s prices, Jeffries analyst Mark Lipacis wrote on Monday in a note. He raised his target price on AMD to $16 from $13. Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter. Intel has captured close to 95% market share in chips for desktops, laptops, and servers, but now AMD is poised to recapture some of that share. If AMD reaches 5% market share in all three segments, it could generate as much as $1.5 billion of additional revenue over the next few years, Lipacis forecast. Hitting 15% in the three markets could add as much as $4.6 billion. That’s more than the $4.3 billion AMD brought in for all of last year. “We have argued that AMD is in the early innings of its multi-year turnaround story, a strategy being executed upon by its new CEO,” the analyst wrote. “We think AMD’s ability to price between-the-seams while achieving competitive performance will result in meaningful share gains from (Intel) in the desktop, server, and notebook markets starting in 2017.” Wall Street and investors have beengrowing increasingly concernedabout the mounting competition for Intel. Its shares have dropped 2% so far in 2017, while the S&P 500 Index has gained 6%. Still, sales of AMD’s desktop-oriented Ryzen 7 chips, released in early March, have been held back by shortages of related parts like compatible motherboards, Susquehanna analyst Christopher Rolland noted in a report on Monday. And whilea few lesser PC makershave begun selling PCs with Ryzen chips, the heavy hitters like Dell and won’t offer AMD-laden systems until next month at the earliest, Rolland said. “We identified a few smaller PC makers that are selling Ryzen desktops, however, we believe they are just purchasing standalone processors and putting them inside pre-assembled PCs,” Rolland wrote. “No major PC OEM (HP, Lenovo, Dell, Asus) is currently selling Ryzen desktops. We estimate sales will begin in April.” See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com • Bitcoin Is Finally Starting to Settle Down • This New Tactic Might Finally Lure Big Investors to Bitcoin • Software Maker MuleSoft Shares Jump on Public Debut • Why Stocks Are Better Than Leprechaun Gold on St. Patrick's Day • Snap Inc. Shares Fell Below $20 for the First Time || U.S. regulators reject Bitcoin ETF, digital currency plunges: By Trevor Hunnicutt and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday denied a request to list what would have been the first U.S. exchange-traded fund built to track bitcoin, the digital currency. Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have been trying for more than three years to convince the SEC to let it bring the Bitcoin ETF to market. CBOE Holdings Inc's Bats exchange had applied to list the ETF. The digital currency's price plunged, falling as much as 18 percent in trading immediately after the decision before rebounding slightly. It last traded down 7.8 percent to $1,098. Bitcoin had scaled to a record of nearly $1,300 this month, higher than the price of an ounce of gold, as investors speculated that an ETF holding the digital currency could woo more people into buying the asset. Bitcoin is a virtual currency that can be used to move money around the world quickly and with relative anonymity, without the need for a central authority, such as a bank or government. Yet bitcoin presents a new set of risks to investors given its limited adoption, a number of massive cybersecurity breaches affecting bitcoin owners and the lack of consistent treatment of the assets by governments. "Based on the record before it, the Commission believes that the significant markets for bitcoin are unregulated," the SEC said in a statement. "The commission notes that bitcoin is still in the relatively early stages of its development and that, over time, regulated bitcoin-related markets of significant size may develop." The regulators have questions and concerns about how the funds would work and whether they could be priced and trade effectively, according to a financial industry source familiar with the SEC's thinking. "We began this journey almost four years ago, and are determined to see it through," said Tyler Winklevoss, CFO of Digital Asset Services LLC. "We agree with the SEC that regulation and oversight are important to the health of any marketplace and the safety of all investors." The Winklevoss twins are best known for their feud with Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg over whether he stole the idea for what became the world's most popular social networking website from them. The former Olympic rowers ultimately settled their legal dispute, which was dramatized in the 2010 film "The Social Network." Since then they have become major investors in the digital currency, which relies on "mining" computers that validate blocks of transactions by competing to solve mathematical puzzles. The first to solve the puzzle and clear the transaction is rewarded with new bitcoins. Solutions to the puzzle come roughly every 10 minutes. Advocates of the currency and the technology it relies on to document transactions, blockchain, were dismayed by the ruling. "How do we develop well-capitalized and regulated markets in the U.S. and Europe if financial innovators aren't allowed to bring products to market that grow domestic demand for digital currencies like bitcoin?" asked Jerry Brito, executive director of Coin Center, an advocacy group. Spencer Bogart, head of research at Blockchain Capital, said bitcoin's price could fall as much as 20 percent but that its long-term adoption will continue. A Bats spokeswoman said the exchange is reviewing the SEC's statement and would have no further comment. There are two other bitcoin ETF applications awaiting a verdict from the SEC. Grayscale Investments LLC's Bitcoin Investment Trust, backed by early bitcoin advocate Barry Silbert and his Digital Currency Group, filed an application last year. SolidX Partners Inc, a U.S. technology company that provides blockchain services, also filed its ETF application last year. (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington and John McCrank in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler and Jennifer Ablan) [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes: $1193.70/$1194.99 #Bitstamp $1188.58/$1189.82 #BTCe ⇢$-6.41/$-3.88 $1194.76/$1207.00 #Coinbase ⇢$-0.23/$13.30 || #Bitcoin 0.00% Ultima: R$ 3500.00 Alta: R$ 3574.01 Baixa: R$ 3442.31 Fonte: Foxbit || The latest #Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index is 10.40 TWh per Year/963k U.S. households (+0.00%). http://bitcoinenergyconsumption.com pic.twitter.com/mM7Et2gJoy || LIVE: Profit = $1,152.82 (0.39 %). BUY B244.89 @ $1,216.27 (#BTCe). SELL @ $1,224.00 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || #UFOCoin #UFO $0.000013 (3.38%) 0.00000001 BTC (0.00%) || #bitcoin #miner 2 Cointerra Terraminer Bitcoin Miner ASIC Machine - Pick Up only $150.00 http://ift.tt/2nAXdOp pic.twitter.com/99egS1GmES || Current value of DOGE in BTC: Vircurex: 0.00000023 -- Volume: 431505.24598885 Today's trend: stable at 03/25/17 00:55 || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 9 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $1,050.54 #bitcoin #btc || Average Bitcoin market price is: USD 1,047.00, EUR 975.08 || $1280.00 at 15:16 UTC [24h Range: $1251.00 - $1285.00 Volume: 3769 BTC]
Trend: up || Prices: 1490.09, 1537.67, 1555.45, 1578.80, 1596.71, 1723.35, 1755.36, 1787.13, 1848.57, 1724.24
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Social Media ETF Stumbles as Facebook, Twitter Execs Face Congress: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com. As if Labor Day Weekend barbecue wasn't enough, lawmakers for the Senate Intelligence Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee grilled top social media executives today for Twitter and Facebook regarding efforts to parry foreign influence operations on their respective platforms. The Global X Social Media ETF (SOCL) stumbled 3.26% as a result of Twitter falling by more than 6% and Facebook dropping by about 2%. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg faced a battery of questions regarding foreign influence operations as the November midterm elections near. The Wednesday morning inquiry is a portion of a larger inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Related:Twitter, Netflix to Join Large-Cap S&P Index ETFs Sandberg was staunch in her support of Facebook's efforts to prevent foreign influence. Sandberg's comments come as the social media giant isfacing additional heatfrom lawmakers regarding the collection of consumer data. “Let me be clear: we are more determined than our opponents and we will keep fighting," said Sandberg. "When bad actors try to use our site, we will block them, when content violates our policies, we will take it down, and when our opponents use new techniques, we will share them so we can strengthen our collective efforts. Everyone here knows this is an arms race and that means we need to be ever more vigilant.” Lawmakers inquired about the social media platform's inability to prevent influence campaigns originating from Russia. "We were too slow to spot this and too slow to act," said Sandberg. "That's on us. This interference was completely unacceptable. It violated the values of our company and of the country we love." Likewise, Dorsey felt that Twitter could have made a more concerted effort to decrease influence campaigns. "We aren't proud of how that free and open exchange has been weaponised and used to distract and divide people, and our nation," said Dorsey. "We found ourselves unprepared and ill-equipped for the immensity of the problems we've acknowledged." Related:Google and Tencent to Bring Cloud to China? "We've learned from 2016 and more recently from other nation's elections how to help protect the integrity of our elections," Dorsey added. "But we all have to think a lot bigger, and decades past today. We must ask the question 'what is Twitter incentivizing people to do (or not do), and why?' The answers will lead to tectonic shifts in how Twitter, and our industry, operates. Required changes won't be fast or easy." Search engine company Google was also invited to attend the hearing as well, but declined to send its chief executives to attend. Instead, in a written statement, Google chief legal officer Kent Walker promised to maintain efforts to prevent anyt foreign interference in forthcoming U.S. elections. "Google remains deeply concerned about attempts to undermine democratic elections,"said Walker. "As we promised the committee last year, we have now fulfilled all four of our commitments to provide increased transparency in election advertising." For more real estate trends, visitETFTrends.com POPULAR ARTICLES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM • The Rush is on to Fidelity’s Zero Fee Funds • Berkshire Hathaway Makes First Direct Investment in India • BlackRock Seeking to Disrupt ETFs by Rethinking Sector Classifications • Kevin O’Leary on Choosing to Rent or Buy a House • SEC Still Holds Concerns Over Bitcoin Before Approving ETFs READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || SEC Charges Forex Broker for Illegal Securities Swaps Involving Bitcoin: SEC Charges Forex Broker for Illegal Securities Swaps Involving Bitcoin In what seems like the first coordinated strike from government agencies, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have taken action against a securities broker for violating federal laws in connection with security-based swaps funded by bitcoin. On September 27, 2018, the SEC announced that it had filed charges at a U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against Marshall Islands-based securities company 1pool Ltd., also known as 1Broker, and its Austria-based CEO Patrick Brunner for trading security swaps to American investors and others across the world without meeting the "discretionary investment thresholds required" by federal securities law. The SEC further claims that 1Broker was fraudulently issuing swaps as it was not a registered "securities-based swaps dealer," and it also failed to transact on a registered national exchange. Commenting on the claims, Shamoil Shipchandler, director of the SEC's Fort Worth regional office, said the SEC would protect U.S. investors on any platform regardless of the currency used in the transaction. "International companies that transact with U.S. investors cannot circumvent compliance with the federal securities laws by using cryptocurrency." The SEC is seeking permanent injunctions, penalties and "disgorgement plus interest" against 1Broker and its CEO. Responding to the SEC's allegation, 1Broker assured customers of the safety of their funds and said they were ready to cooperate with the SEC. The CFTC filed a similar complaint against 1Broker for illegally offering off-exchange, transactions, not registering as a Futures Commission Merchants (FCM), and failure to implement anti-money laundering and supervisory features. The statement from the CFTC reads in part: "Entities required to be registered as FCMs such as 1pool, are required by Commission Regulations to diligently supervise all activities of their officers, employees, and agents relating to their business as an FCM, including the handling of customer accounts, and to implement and maintain adequate supervisory systems and procedures." Story continues The Federal Bureau of Investigation followed this up with a seizure of the 1Broker.com domain name. The Bureau claims the domain was taken down after a U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found probable cause that it's in violation of federal laws. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine . || Bitcoin Flat; Japan Tightens Registration Process for Crypto Exchanges: Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies were mixed on Monday, with Bitcoin flat as trade remained thin due to the U.S. holiday. Bitcoin rose 0.02% to $7,2327.40 on the Bitfinex exchange, as of 7:31 AM ET (11:31 GMT). Trade was expected to be light, as traders in the U.S. celebrated the Labor Day holiday. Cryptocurrencies overall were slightly lower, with the coin market cap of total market capitalization was at $235 billion at the time of writing compared to $239 billion on Sunday. Ethereum, the second biggest alternative currency by market cap, fell 1.03% to $287.87 while XRP, the third largest virtual currency, decreased 1.17% to $0.33441 and Litecoin was at $64.762, up 0.14%. Japan’s Financial Services Agency is introducing stricter registration rules for cryptocurrency exchanges, The Japan Times reported on Sunday. The rules are being introduced “to see whether they [crypto exchanges] are properly conducting risk management.” The changes include more application questions, minutes of board meetings, and reviews of the companies shareholders. Japan was the first country in the world to legalize digital currency exchanges with its licensing regime introduced last year. After a series of exchange hacks, the regulator has closely monitored existing virtual coin companies and has given business improvement orders to several. In other news, web-browser Mozilla Firefox will soon block cryptocurrency mining malware. As the digital coins have grown in popularity, security remains one of the biggest hurdles to the industry. “Sites have deployed cryptomining scripts that silently mine cryptocurrencies on the user's device. Practices like these make the web a more hostile place to be. Future versions of Firefox will block these practices by default,” Mozilla vice president of product Nick Nguyen said in a blog post last week. Related Articles Ethereum (ETH) Team Proposes Block Reward Cut after Constantinople Hard Fork UK Financial Watchdog Warns against Three Unauthorised Crypto Companies Crypto Startup FXcoin Taps Ex-Deutsche Bank Dealer as Coin Strategist || Smart Beta Is a Rising Trend in ETF Universe: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. As the ETF universe matures, a number of smart beta or factor based ETFs have hit the market, and the strategies are quickly garnering many investors' attention. "It is an evolution, and it is an education process that goes along with that," Luke Oliver, Managing Director and Head of Capital Markets for DWS , said at the 2018 Morningstar Investment Conference. Like any other investment strategy, smart beta ETFs come with their own quirks that investors should fully understand to better utilize the investment products in an efficient manner. For example, DWS offers a Comprehensive Factor ETF suite, including X-trackers Russell 1000 Comprehensive Factor ETF ( DEUS ) , X-trackers FTSE Developed ex US Comprehensive Factor ETF ( DEEF ) , X-trackers Russell 2000 Comprehensive Factor ETF ( DESC ) and X-trackers FTSE Emerging Comprehensive Factor ETF ( DEMG ) . The X-trackers multi-factor suite selects components based on a broader five factors, including quality, value, momentum, low volatility and size. For buy-and-hold investors, multi-factor investments help combine uncorrelated investment styles to smooth out volatility. Since there are multiple uncorrelated factors at play, it helps guarantee that at least one factor will help support the portfolio during times of distress. Moreover, a multi-factor ETF removes the need for investors to babysit a portfolio and switch between factors in an attempt to time market moves. "These are the five factors that we think are very compelling both pro-cyclical and counter-cyclical. And if we combine those in the right way, we provide a portfolio that is an all-weather portfolio," Oliver added. The quality factor helps hone in on the quality of a company earnings as a better gauge of future earnings performance. The underlying indices may provide a quantifiable measure of each company’s profitability, efficiency, earnings quality and leverage. The value factor reflects the idea that cheaper equities are thought to outperform more expensive stocks over the long-term. Consequently, the underlying indices will focus on cash-flow yield, earnings yield and sales-to-price of each company as measures of value. Story continues Momentum may reflect the recent price movements over time as an indicator of future stock price movements. Specifically, the underlying indices review the 11-month cumulative total returns of each stock. Low volatility suggests that portfolios with less volatility or low beta can provide higher-than-average return with smaller drawdowns. The underling indices will calculate the standard deviation of five years of weekly total local returns for each stock. Lastly, the size factor reflects the historical long-term effect that show long-term outperformance in small-caps over large-caps. The underlying indices will select companies based on full market capitalization. For more ETF-related commentary from Tom Lydon and other industry experts, visit our video category . POPULAR ARTICLES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM How to Best Use an HSA to Your Benefit Does the Money Management Industry Need Consolidation? Tesla Board to Meet Next Week About Going Private Bitcoin Suffers from ‘Week of Pain,’ Bounce Ahead? Investors Flocked to Healthcare ETFs in July READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Bitcoin Magazine’s Week in Review: Making Strides Across Industries: Industry buzz surrounded Ethereum this week as community members await the next stage of the coin’s development. The protocol also served as the jumping-off point for a new fully regulated stablecoin. Also in regulation, a New York judge issued a ruling this week that, if held up by a jury in court, could set a legal precedent for ICOs as securities; in other courtroom drama, the space’s longest running suit — between two of its biggest players — draws to an undisclosed close. All the while, institutional-grade products and services continute to come to light. Stay on top of the best stories in the bitcoin, blockchain and cryptocurrency industry.Subscribe to our newsletter here. DevCon 4 Will Set the Stage for Ethereum’s Next Milestone: Constantinople Following November 2018’s DevCon 4 in Prague, Czech Republic, Ethereum will be due for an upgrade. Constantinople, as the hard fork is called, will implement five Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), introducing such changes as a a revamped gas scheme for transactions and reduced block rewards. To the common user, these EIPs are unlikely to cause too many noticeable changes, but they will give developers more creative and technical leeway when building DApps on Ethereum’s Virtual Machine. Gemini and Paxos Both Launch Stablecoins on Ethereum Blockchain Winklevoss-owned Gemini exchanged launched a stablecoin this week built on Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard. Endogenous to the exchange, which is fully regulated under New York’s Bit Liscense, GeminiUSD (GUSD) was dropped without prior disclosure or media priming. The same day, settlement platform Paxos released its own stablecoin, the Paxos Standard (PAX). Morgan Stanley Eyes Bitcoin Swap Contracts Tied to Futures Prices Morgan Stanley is reportedly working toward a way into the the cryptocurremcy market. The legacy financial institution has been developing a institutional-grade bitcoin derivative that is tied to futures prices, a source close to the matter told Bloomberg this week. While the product is ready to go to market, Morgan Stanley is waiting to launch it until investor demand increases. BitGo Gets Approval From State Regulators to Launch Custody Service Cryptocurrency company BitGo announced a service this week that could ease instituional access to the crypto market, upon receiving approval from regulators in Montana to operate cryptocurrency custodial services. The custody, which must endure a waiting period before it goes live, will leverage BitGo’s wallet service to manage funds for institutional investors. Federal Judge Applies Long-Established Securities Laws to ICOs A N.Y. State judge issued a ruling this week that, if upheld in court, could set a defining precedent for ICO regulation going forward. In his decision, the judge found that two ICOs were security offerings, arguing that the founder’s simply calling them currencies didn’t free them of this classification. Ripple and R3 Reach Settlement in Year Long Court Case Ripple and R3 have finally settled their year-long legal battle. The blockchain companies brokered a settlement after R3’s original suit and Ripple’s countersuit saw the two cycle through three courts in three states. The terms of the settlement are being kept under wraps. This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || Yahoo Finance Morning Brief: August 14, 2018: Tuesday, August 14, 2018 What to watch today The major U.S. indexes on Monday lost ground with the Dow and S&P 500 declining for the fourth straight day as a currency crisis in Turkey and stresses in Argentina weighed on markets to start the week. Will Tuesday mark the fifth straight day of losses? Tuesday also comes with some notable earnings announcements with results from Home Depot ( HD ) and Coach and Kate Spade parent company Tapestry ( TPR ) set to report earnings in the morning. Investors will be closely watching results from Home Depot for comments on the health of the U.S. housing markets and a view of general consumer confidence in the economy. Wall Street expects Home Depot to report adjusted earnings per share of $2.84 on revenue of $30 billion, according to estimates from Bloomberg. Comparable-store sales are expected to rise 6.5% during the quarter. Read More Top news (Pool Photo via AP) Erdogan says Turkey will boycott US electronics : Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would boycott U.S.-made electronics such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone in response to U.S. sanctions, striking a defiant tone in a standoff that has pushed his country toward a financial crisis . [Bloomberg] Musk talking to Saudi fund, others as he seeks Tesla buyout financing : Elon Musk on Monday explained what he meant by tweeting “funding secured” to take Tesla Inc. ( TSLA ) private: he is confident a deal can be done but has not yet finalized a plan. [Reuters] Musk says Silver Lake, Goldman advising on taking Tesla private : Tesla Inc. ( TSLA ) Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted on Monday that he was working with buyout firm Silver Lake and investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. ( GS ) as financial advisers on his plan to take the U.S. electric car maker private. [Reuters] Icahn reverses position on Cigna-Express Scripts dea l: Activist investor Carl Icahn said on Monday that he no longer intended to solicit proxies to vote against the $52 billion Cigna-Express Scripts ( CI , ESRX ) deal, a turn around from his position last week when he urged the health insurer’s shareholders to vote against it. [Reuters] Story continues Bitcoin sinks below $6,000 as almost everything crypto tumbles : Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) dropped below $6,000 and dozens of smaller digital tokens tumbled as this month’s selloff in cryptocurrencies showed few signs of letting up. The largest digital currency fell as much as 6.2% to $5,887 as of 10:44 a.m. in Hong Kong, the lowest level since June, according to Bloomberg composite pricing. [Bloomberg] For more of the latest news, go to Yahoo Finance A car that crashed outside the Houses of Parliament is surrounded by members of the emergency services in Westminster, London, Britain, August 14, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay Yahoo Finance Originals Solving Turkey’s problems will require more than just raising interest rates American women are facing ‘perfect storm’ of student debt How two car hackers plan to keep GM’s self-driving cars safe Tiger Woods singlehandedly fuels pro-golf ratings — Like what you just read? Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. And feel free to share it with a friend! The Morning Brief provides a quick rundown on what to watch in the markets, top news stories, and the best of Yahoo Finance Originals. || Bitcoin Price Remains Stable Below $6,600, What’s Next for Crypto Market?: Bitcoin price steady For over a week, Bitcoin has remained relatively stable in the $6,400 to $6,600 range, struggling to sustain its daily trading volume across major crypto exchanges. Within the past 48 hours, the volume of Bitcoin has declined from $4 billion to $3.2 billion on Coinmarketcap and from $2.6 billion to $2 billion on CoinCap.io, the cryptocurrency market data provider of popular digital asset exchange ShapeShift. Overall, Bitcoin has lost around 20 to 30 percent of its volume in the past two days, which has prevented the cryptocurrency market from initiating a large movement on the upside. Bear Bias But Breakout Should be Considered Given the low volume of Bitcoin and the weakening $6,500 support, in the short-term, it is highly likely for BTC to record a minor decline in value based on technical indicators and its price trend since mid-September. However, the stability of Bitcoin and the unpredictable nature of the digital asset leaves a breakout of the $6,800 resistance level still a possibility. Some traders in the cryptocurrency community have started to place long-term long positions. But, as widely recognized technical analyst CryptoYoda explained, it is still risky at this phase of the market to enter a long position. “Early entry long BTC in anticipation of trendline break and leaving $6,000 area for good as support has proven to be respected. Two higher lows, proximity of important trendline and triggered bullish outside bar in favor of positive advance. Risky trade as early, worth the risk in my opinion,” he said. Don Alt, another prominent cryptocurrency trader, emphasized that the market still remains biased to bears, but the possibility of a breakout cannot be dismissed. He noted: “Right at both daily and H4 resistance. That said we did nuke some good levels & are holding strong so far. Invalidation of the bear case is a 4H close through resistance. Until then I favor the bears over the bulls.” Although the volume of BTC has declined substantially in a short period of time, historically, BTC has tended to see a drop in volume and months of stability in a low price range prior to initiating a large rally, as seen in 2012, 2014, and 2016. Story continues As of current, the price trend of Bitcoin is not favorable for traders looking to enter short-term long contracts. But, in consideration of the positive developments the cryptocurrency industry has demonstrated in the past three months, bulls should still have a positive outlook on the mid-term trend of the market. Stability Expected In August, several analysts predicted the price of Bitcoin to achieve $8,000 to $9,000 by the end of October. With Bakkt, Coinbase Custody and major financial institutions serving investors in the market, traders remain confident in the next rally of leading cryptocurrencies. If the volume of the market does not recover however in the next 24 to 48 hours, stability in the upcoming months should be expected. Featured Image from Shutterstock. Charts from TradingView . The post Bitcoin Price Remains Stable Below $6,600, What’s Next for Crypto Market? appeared first on CCN . || Bitcoin Mining Giant Bitfury Trims Cooling Demands by 95% with ‘Magic’ Liquid: With cryptocurrency markets struggling,Bitfury Grouphas immersed its mining equipment in a non-conducive liquid to reduce costs at its 40-megawatt mining plant in Tbilisi, Georgia, as it races to mine the remaining 21 million mineable bitcoins. The company’s investment in cooling technology signals the extent cryptocurrency miners are going to chill their energy-intensive computers, according toBloomberg. Some have moved operations to Siberia and submerged them in oil, while one went as far as burying its rigs beneath the Eurasian steppe. At a July visit to Bitfury’s Tbilisi site with a view of the Caucasus Mountains, Bloomberg witnessed 160 mining cooling tanks with extensively engineered fluid. The company is using a liquid from 3M Co. called Novec, which has been used to draw water from the desert and contain auto racing fires. Valery Vavilov, Bitfury CEO, noted that the cooling technology reduces both space requirements and energy consumption. He said the mining activity remains profitable and the company is upbeat about bitcoin’s long-term prospects. The cooling system reduces the amount of space required for mining by a third, according to Kar-Wing Lau, founder of Allied Control, a cooling system provider Bitfury acquired. Bitfury also believes there will be demand for the technology from urban cloud computing providers. Bitfury has made the Republic of Georgia, located between Europe and Asia, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency mining region after China, driven by cheap energy, inexpensive land and government tax incentives. In enhancing the region’s cryptocurrency prominence, Bitfury has become a player in Georgia’s politics. The company owns the property housing its expanding data center, and it has used its leverage to secure agreements for certain blockchain services,including facilitating Ukrainian elections. Remi Urumashvili, Bitfury’s Georgia representative, noted that he was instrumental in advising the company it would have zero taxation when Vavilov visited the country in 2013. Two weeks later, the company announced plans to open a data center. Also read:Bitfury inks ‘biggest blockchain government deal ever with Ukraine When Bitfury sold its mining facility before repurchasing it at a discount, some claimed that one of the company’s backers, Georgia ex-Prime Minster and billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, profited from the sale and stuck taxpayers with the cost of the incentives. Ivanishvili’s political opponents examined the facility’s energy costs. Legislators have also sought an investigation of Ivanishvili’s connection to a Georgia politician’s son who was indicted in a hack in the U.S. that involved an unlawful bitcoin exchange. The fund’s CEO, George Bachiashvili, said he did not know of an investigation, while the prosecutor did not respond to a comment request. Bachiashvili said politics played no role in the decision to sell the facility. He said the company was looking to profit from high cryptocurrency prices at the time. Bitfury noted in February it signed an agreement on Richard Branson’s private resort in the Caribbean to sell the facility to a Hong Kong fintech firm before repurchasing it. Yew Kiat Phang, CEO of Chong Sing Holdings in Hong Kong, said he met George Kikvadze, Bitfury’s deputy chairman, and Vavilov at Branson’s British Virgin Island’s resort in 2015. He later sold the facility as he sought to mitigate his risks. Featured image from Shutterstock. The postBitcoin Mining Giant Bitfury Trims Cooling Demands by 95% with ‘Magic’ Liquidappeared first onCCN. || The Upside of Under Armor's Second Round of Layoffs: In this segment from theMotley Fool Moneypodcast, host Chris Hill and his guests, Fool senior analysts Jason Moser, Matt Argersinger, and Ron Gross, talk about former Wall Street darlingUnder Armour(NYSE: UA)(NYSE: UAA), which has in recent years lost its mojo with both consumers and investors. The athletic-apparel company's CFO and the executive team have been pushing for a pivot to near-term profitability rather than revenue growth, and CEO Kevin Plank is listening. The Fools talk about where the company will be headed in the next year, its long-term plans, its direct-to-consumer sales channel, and more. A full transcript follows the video. More From The Motley Fool • 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices • 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 • 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This This video was recorded on Sept. 21, 2018. Chris Hill:The restructuring continues for Under Armour. The sports apparel company announced its second round of layoffs in the past year. Jason, we don't like seeing people lose their jobs. Hopefully Under Armour is, if nothing else, getting smarter about how to run their business. Jason Moser:On the headlines, it is more people losing jobs. But from the investor's perspective, this really is an indicator that CEO and founder Kevin Plank is listening to his team and acting on their advice. In this case, CFO David Bergman. They laid this goal out earlier in the year. Instead of focusing on top line revenue and growing this business as fast as they can, to get back to where they are at this stage of the game. Focus on what they have, trim the company down, get rid of the fat, focus on profitability, become more efficient, become leaner. And then, over time, if you run a good business, it will grow. If you have a brand that people want, it will grow. If you make products that people want, they will buy them, and your business will grow. This really is in line with that goal. I think it makes a lot more sense. I think that one of the biggest mistakes Kevin Plank made -- with all of his success -- I think the mistake that he made was always pinning his desire to supplantNikeas the No. 1 athletic brand of the world. I think you can do that, but you can't ignore the fact, it took Nike a while to get there. You can't just say you want to do that then do it overnight. Time is a part of that equation. Under Armour is going to have to put in some time to do that. I think that they've got some decision-making going now that has this company headed back in the right direction. Hill:In terms of the next 12 months for Under Armour, how big is the e-commerce channel? One of the things we've seen recently with Nike is, they've done a good job of building that out. Moser:With Under Armour, it's very much the same story. We see, with Sports Authority going under, withDick's Sporting Goodshaving its own challenges, Nike and Under Armour continue to push that direct-to-consumer channel. It's responsible for about a third of Under Armour sales today. I expect it will become more as time goes on. Definitely, they will continue to invest in that channel. Chris Hillowns shares of Under Armour (A Shares) and Under Armour (C Shares).Jason Moserowns shares of Under Armour (A Shares) and Under Armour (C Shares). The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Under Armour (A Shares) and Under Armour (C Shares).The Motley Fool recommends Nike. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || ECB has no plan to issue digital currency: Draghi: FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central bank has no plan to issue a digital currency because the underlying technology is still fragile and the use of physical cash still high in the euro zone, the ECB president said on Friday. The sudden proliferation of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, essentially a privately created online token, has sparked a global debate over whether central banks should also launch their own digital money. This would give holders a direct claim on the central bank, bypassing the banking system and potentially revolutionizing the way monetary policy is carried out. Sweden's Riksbank is exploring whether to issue an electronic version of its currency, called e-krona, to respond to the dwindling use of banknotes and a rise in electronic payments in that country. But ECB President Mario Draghi said the time was not ripe for such a change in the euro zone. "The ECB and the Eurosystem currently have no plans to issue a central bank digital currency," he said in a letter to a member of the European Parliament. He added that technologies such as distributed ledgers "require substantial further development" and that he saw no "concrete need" to issue a digital euro. Cash accounted for 79 percent of all payments at point of sale in the euro zone in 2016 and for 54 percent of the total value of those transactions, according to ECB research. Separate ECB data published on Friday showed non-cash payments were growing, however, with a 7.9 percent annual increase in 2017 led by cards. (Reporting By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Mark Heinrich) [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Lovely little infographic, maybe add a column for BTC value of the collateral? || 08/22 12:00 のStrongHands価格（日本円）をお知らせします。 1剛力　 = 0.0000245386 円 (前日比 : 6.56 パーセント) 1億剛力 = 2453 円 10億剛力 = 24538 円 プロテインはこちらへ↓ 【SPV4eLwzqt8arMP1QxzfJbEQndYYwyAgAq】 #StrongHands #SHND #仮想通貨 #bitcoin || Aug 09, 2018 15:00:00 UTC | 6,501.40$ | 5,608.50€ | 5,047.40£ | #Bitcoin #btc pic.twitter.com/Qy0b5zRToJ || Cotización del Bitcoin Cash: 502 30.€ | +0.34% | Kraken | 12/08/18 18:00 #BitcoinCash #Kraken #BCHEUR || ツイート数の多かった仮想通貨 1位 $BTC 327 Tweets 2位 $TRX 195 Tweets 3位 $XRP 85 Tweets 4位 $ETH 77 Tweets 5位 $NEO 40 Tweets 2018-08-18 14:00 ～ 2018-08-18 14:59 COINTREND いまTwitterで話題の仮想通貨を探せ！ https://cointrend.jp/  || 現在の #コイン価格 $BTC ¥745,571(-0.28%) $ETH ¥25,805(-1.03%) $XRP ¥62.78(-0.33%) $BCH ¥60,722(+1.1%) $LTC ¥6,774.29(-0.61%) $XMR ¥13,165(+0.76%) $DASH ¥20,816(-1.26%) $ETC ¥1,271.00(-0.21%) $XEM ¥12.14(+3.82%) $ZEC ¥14,381(-2.2%) $LSK ¥385.38(-0.47%) || So we know BTC will probably make a big move this week or at least the next few days. We also know whenever BTC moves substantially, alts tend to suffer short term. Here’s the idea: everyone sell alts and buy BTC! Spread this idea on CT to boost BTC in the right direction. Go! || Good question! On average about 1 week on reading up and another tracking through technical analysis to gauge the risk. Often I walk away because that BTC behaves erratically. || 20Aug2018 18:00 UTC #Bitcoin live spots - #XBTUSD @ 6,470.00000 $ - #XBTEUR @ 5,655.65000 € || #cryptocurrency Price Analysis for #Bitsend #BSD : Last Hour Change : -0.75 % || 21-09-2018 11:00 Price in #USD : 0.1507683482 || Price in #EUR : 0.1278628669 New Price in #Bitcoin #BTC : 0.00002256 || #Coin Rank 617
Trend: no change || Prices: 6602.95, 6652.23, 6642.64, 6585.53, 6256.24, 6274.58, 6285.99, 6290.93, 6596.54, 6596.11
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-03-24] BTC Price: 937.52, BTC RSI: 35.59 Gold Price: 1248.20, Gold RSI: 63.63 Oil Price: 47.97, Oil RSI: 35.05 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] STOCKS HIT NEW ALL-TIME HIGHS: Here's what you need to know: (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images) All three major indexes hit new all-time highs on Tuesday, jumping on the first trading day back after the Presidents Day holiday. The positive move also marks the eighth straight day that the Dow Jones industrial average has finished in record territory. We've got the big headlines of the day, but first, the scoreboard: • Dow:20,737.51, +113.46, (0.55%) • S&P 500:2,365.03, +13.91, (0.60%) • Nasdaq:5,865.58, +26.27, (0.43%) 1. Restaurant Brands, the owner of Burger King and Tim Horton's, is buying Popeyes for $1.8 billion.The deal for the Southern fried chicken fast food chain valued Popeyes at $79 per share. JPMorgan and Wells Fargo will help to finance the deal. 2. Verizon cut its price for Yahoo by $350 million.The companies announced a joint decision to lower the acquisition price for Yahoo following the revelation of two data breaches that hit the tech firm. The revised deal will be for $4.48 billion. 3. Snap's IPO roadshow hit New York City.The meeting with investors in New York was the second such gathering after a stop in London on Monday. Snap executives pitched the company to a group of institutional investors. 4. Fannie and Freddie plunge after court rules hedge funds can't sue the government over collecting their profits.Hedge funds still won't be able to sue the US government over seizing profits made by mortgage loan companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after their post-recession bailout, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. 5. Walmart beat on earnings.The mega-retailer posted fourth-quarter earnings per share of $1.30, more than the $1.29 per share expected by analysts. Comparable store sales growth of 1.8% from the year before also beat expectations of just 1.3% growth. 6. Macy's beat on earnings and unloaded $673 million in real estate.The retailer posted earnings of $2.02 per share and a comparable store sales decline of 2.1%, better than the $1.96 per share and 2.2% decline expected by analysts. The company also said that it had sold off large parts of real estate in 2016. 7. Bitcoin cracked $1,100. The cryptocurrency jumped by over 4% in trading to $1,104 per coin, the first time above that level since early January. Additionally: Home Depot beat and said it's not worried about the US housing market yet. Trump may change some of the major ways we measure the strength of the US economy. The GOP is struggling to get its act together on the Obamacare repeal. Here's how global stock markets have changed over the past 117 years. 'We do not see upside': London-based analyst calls 'neutral' after Snap's London IPO road show NOW WATCH:The US government just sank a giant ship on purpose — and the footage is amazing More From Business Insider • These courses can help you master the single most powerful tool in Excel • I’ve tested over 100 headphones in the past year, and I keep coming back to this $26 pair • This little-known Amazon service turns stuff you want to get rid of into store credit || Analyst Outlines Why Snapchat Has a Facebook Put for Potential Buyout: Snap Inc. (SNAP) has had a pretty wild initial public offering. After some analysts and publications have discussed how overvalued the parent of Snapchat really is, one more analyst has chimed in with a less negative view of Snap. A firm called FBN Securities has rated Snap with a Sector Perform rating and assigned a $23 price target. After shares closed on Wednesday at $22.81, what investors will care about here is that if the price of Snap gets too low then Facebook Inc. (FB) is speculated to be a buyer. There is also a Twitter Inc. (TWTR) aspect to this call. ALSO READ:Are the Bullish IBM Investors Still Getting Enough Upside Versus the Risk? Before getting excited that perhaps Snap would be considered as a hostile acquisition, guess again. Snap's founders have full control, and the public stock buyers have no vote whatsoever in Snap's management decisions. FBN's Shelby Seyrafi noted that Snap has a very strong presence in the 12- to 24-year-old age demographic and that Snap has been highly innovative so far. The analyst's checks so far indicated that advertisers intend to spend much more on Snap, and at the expense of Twitter, later in 2017. FBN did address some key concerns, hence the Sector Perform rating. These were slowing user growth, its relatively weak presence outside of the 12-to-24 demographic, and of course the weak corporate governance, in which shareholders get no vote at all. In fact, the report further highlights that Snap is unlikely to be admitted to any of the major indexes due to investors having no vote. Other concerns included massive operating losses and difficulty penetrating non-developed markets. ALSO READ:Water War Dilemma: Why Is GE Selling Its Industrial Water Unit? The report offers a valuation for a long-term adjusted EBITDA margin of 32%, with upside. As far as why the firm feels there is a Facebook put, that was put down at $14 per share. The report said: One of the key points that the bears on Snap may be missing is that we believe that Facebook would love to acquire the company, and it could be willing to pay at least $20 billion-plus ($14/share) for the asset. If this is so, then investors in Snap effectively have a “put” at around $14 per share. Remember that Facebook paid $21.8 billion for WhatsApp, a company which, although it had more users than Snap, was not generating any real revenue. ALSO READ:Dividend Woes: Frontier Loses Its Biggest Bull on Wall Street Several reasons were highlighted for why Facebook might make a bid for Snap at the right price. The primary reason was that Facebook already tried to acquire Snap for about $3 billion back in 2013. Facebook is also said to have the balance sheet and cash flow to finance such a deal. Lastly, a deal to acquire Snapchat's parent would remove one of the few long-term threats to its business. As for Twitter, it feels like yet another call is being made that Twitter could be left in the cold here. Thursday's report suggested that advertisers are expected to increase ad spending on Snapchat later in 2017, at the expense of Twitter more than anyone else. ALSO READ:Will a Bitcoin ETF Keep Bitcoin Worth More Than Gold? As a reminder, Snap's IPO price was $17.00 per share, with an offering of 200 million shares. Its initial range had been set at $14 to $16 per share for that IPO. Investors are not all that excited about the possibility of a "Facebook put" down at $14. That being said, maybe that at least keeps the risk lower than if this were to just trade without the hope that anyone would want to buy it. Snap shares were trading up fractionally at $22.99 on Thursday morning, in a post-IPO range of $20.64 to $29.44. Related Articles • Cities Where Crime Is Plummeting • States With the Best (and Worst) Schools • The Happiest (and Most Miserable) Cities in America || Here's what's behind Visa's massive Q4 win: VISA GPV (BI Intelligence) This story was delivered to BI Intelligence " Payments Briefing " subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here . Visa plans to stick with the approach that delivered exceptionally strong growth in Q4 2016. CEO Alfred Kelly noted that the firm doesn’t foresee making massive changes to its strategy, but will instead remain ready to adapt to industrywide changes and focus on three key areas for growth: global access, partnerships, and digital gains. In order to best understand Visa’s growth in these areas, it’s worth taking a look at two key metrics: Payment volume: In Q4, Visa payment volume hit $1.8 trillion, with $803 billion coming from the US and $998 billion internationally. That’s up 39% year-over-year (YoY) on a constant currency basis. Though gross volume is down slightly sequentially, when accounting for the loss of Visa Europe co-badge volume, which was no longer counted beginning in Q4, it marks a slight acceleration. The acquisition of Visa Europe will help grow the company by adding new markets, but its performance was not the main improvement factor. Transaction growth: Visa processed 40.8 million transactions in Q4, up 41% on a year-over-year basis. Of those, 65% were debit, and 35% credit, indicating the strength of Visa’s massive debit network. That indicates that, though users are spending more on credit than on debit, both in the US and abroad, debit cards are used more often. Though these gains were the product of many factors, there are a few key trends worth calling out. US credit appetite: Visa identified US volume, which increased by 12.4% in Q4, as a “key business driver”. Though the firm is having issues with debit, acquiring the Costco and USAA portfolios helped increase its volume. In addition, strong credit appetite in the US — spending is now at pre-recession levels — has led issuers to bolster rewards offering, which likely leads to increased issuance and rising spend, ultimately benefiting networks in the long run, according to the Wall Street Journal. Improved cross-border volume: For the past several years, Visa had been struggling with cross-border volume. That’s now improving — cross-border volume grew by 12% on a constant currency basis, marking acceleration that Visa calls “broad-based” and considers it a tailwind. The improvements could be a product of strong cross-border volume in Europe, inbound UK commerce rising due to a weak pound, and outbound commerce from Russia and Eastern Europe, according to the firm’s earnings call. India demonetization: India’s demonetization, which removed 86% of the country’s cash from circulation, had a massive and immediate impact on mobile payments. This seems to have extended to card networks as well. Visa saw a 75% increase in volume in India, and more than double the number of transactions, making the country the major driver of international transaction growth. That’s likely a bump due to a major change in policy, but the ongoing shift to cashless could help Visa maintain India as a key growth channel. Story continues John Heggestuen, director of research at BI Intelligence , Business Insider’s premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on the payments ecosystem that drills into the industry to explain how a broad range of transactions are processed, including prepaid and store cards, as well as revealing which types of companies are in the best and worst position to capitalize on the latest industry trends. Here are some key takeaways from the report: 2016 will be a watershed year for the payments industry. Payments companies are improving security, expanding their mobile offerings, and building commerce capabilities that will give consumers a more compelling reason to make purchases using digital devices. Payments is an extremely complex industry. To understand the next big digital opportunity lies, it's critical to understand how the traditional credit- and debit-processing chain works and what roles acquirers, processors, issuing banks, card networks, independent sales organizations, gateways, and software and hardware providers play. Alternative technologies could disrupt the processing ecosystem. Devices ranging from refrigerators to smartwatches now feature payment capabilities, which will spur changes in consumer payment behaviors. Likewise, blockchain technology, the protocol that underlies Bitcoin, could one day change how consumer card payments are verified. In full, the report: Uncovers the key themes and trends affecting the payments industry in 2016 and beyond. Gives a detailed description of the stakeholders involved in a payment transaction, along with hardware and software providers. Offers diagrams and infographics explaining how card transactions are processed and which players are involved in each step. Provides charts on our latest forecasts, key company growth, survey results, and more. Analyzes the alternative technologies, including blockchain, which could further disrupt the ecosystem. To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options: Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the payments ecosystem. More From Business Insider Unpacking Visa and Mastercard's tokenization deal Visa and MasterCard are delaying the EMV shift for gas stations Walmart is ramping up its battle with Visa || STOCKS REBOUND AFTER 'TRUMPCARE' VOTE PULLED: Here's what you need to know: (Google Finance) Stocks shot up after Republican congressional leaders pulled the American Health Care Act from what looked almost certain to be a failed vote Friday. All three major indices were tumbling lower near the end of the day, ahead of the scheduled vote. However, immediately after it was announced that the bill was pulled, stocks shot back up. The Nasdaq finished up for the day, the S&P 500 was little changed, and the Dow was slightly in the red. First up, the scoreboard: • Dow:20,596.72, -59.86, (-0.29%) • S&P 500:2,343.98,-1.98, (-0.08%) • Nasdaq:5,828.74, +11.04, (+0.19%) • US 10-year yield:2.418, -0.000 • WTI Crude:$48.10, +0.40, (+0.84%) 1.The GOP leadership has pulled the American Health Care Act from what looked almost certain to be a failed vote Friday.The move came as it became more clear that Republicans did not have enough votes to pass their bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. 2.The company behind the Keystone Pipeline just got a presidential permit to go ahead. The move overturns President Barack Obama'srejection of the $8 billion project. Following a wave of protests fromenvironmentalists, Obama said the project was against the long-term interests of the US. 3.Russia's central bank cut rates.The bank lowered its one-week repo rate by 25 basis points to 9.75% from 10.00%, and suggested that more cuts could be coming this year. 4.GameStop tanks after missing on sales and signaling it will close some stores this year.In its earnings release, the video-game retailer said its core category was weak, especially in the second half of last year, as the console cycle aged with a dearth of new hardware releases. 5.US oil rig count jumped for the 10th straight week, according to Baker Hughes.The US oil-rig count spiked by 21 to 652 this week — thehighest total count since the week of September 11, 2015.The gas-rig count fell by two to 155. 6.Bitcoin fell below $1,000.Aggressive selling on Friday morning had the cryptocurrency down 4.1% at $987 a coin as traders remain uneasy over its near-term outlook. ADDITIONALLY: Snapchat is more like Twitter than Facebook in one important area. One of Wall Street's most steadfast bulls is worried about stocks. Finish Line's explanation of its disappoint quarter perfectly captures the retail apocalypse. NOW WATCH:7 mega-billionaires who made a fortune last year More From Business Insider • STOCKS DO NOTHING: Here's what you need to know • STOCKS SNAP THEIR STREAK: Here's what you need to know • STOCKS DO NOTHING: Here's what you need to know || First Bitcoin's COINQX Opening Offices in Shanghai, China: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 23, 2017 /FIRST BITCOIN CAPITAL CORP. (OTC PINK: BITCF) CoinQx Exchange LIMITED, a wholly owned subsidiary of FIRST BITCOIN CAPITAL CORP. and history's first publicly trading bitcoin business is pleased to announce the opening of its new offices in Shanghai, China to accommodate its rapid growth and future expansion plans into Chinese and other Asian markets. BITCF has designed its trading platform (currently in beta) to cater to Chinese Bitcoin traders and will be offered in Mandarin. New offices in China will provide capacity for customer support, engineering and other important functions for the Chinese market. CoinQX platform will enforce government imposed anti-money laundering (AML) and foreign exchange regulations. BITCF is expanding its cryptocurrency business model to focus on China where the majority of Bitcoin trading occurs. The COINQX bitcoin exchange can provide its Chinese customers access to competitive industry exchange rates and products specifically for the Chinese bitcoin traders. "Expanding COINQX.com in China will allow us to increase our customer base in key areas that align with our current and future growth plans. We will actively attract talent to join the team. Our team is excited about the rapid growth plans we have developed for China and this move represents a commitment to continue to expand into the world's largest Bitcoin trading market. "China remains the largest market for Bitcoin tradingand is still responsible for over 91% of all Bitcoin trading volumes. Even the recent inquiries by thePBOCwill not deter Chinese traders from getting involved in Bitcoin. Nor should that be the case, as the PBOC reportedly has no direct plans to ban Bitcoin. Volumes of bitcoin trading increased as China's foreign reserves shrank, by about 8% to $3.05 trillion in 2016. Meanwhile, the yuan weakened against the dollar, causing flow of money out of the country and increasing interest in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. About the company: First Bitcoin Capital is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange-www.CoinQX.com. We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges) we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. At this time the Company owns and operates the following digital assets. www.CoinQX.comcryptocurrency exchange, registered with FINCEN. www.iCoiNEWS.comreal time cryptocurrency and bitcoin news site. www.BITminer.ccproviding mining pool management services. www.2016coin.orgonline daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL, $GARY & $BURN -commemorative presidential election coins. Company has recently introduced $XBU -Bitcoin Unlimited Futures available for trading on CoinQX.com and OMNIDEX exchange (http://omniexplorer.info) www.bitcannpay.comOpen Loop merchant services for dispensaries. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file atwww.OTCMarkets.com. Contact us via:info@bitcoincapitalcorp.comor visithttp://www.bitcoincapitalcorp.com SOURCE:First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || Bitcoin firm gets approval to operate in Switzerland: By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi ZURICH, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Bitcoin wallet provider Xapo said it has received conditional approval from Switzerland's financial market watchdog to operate in the country in a regulatory breakthrough for companies that provide safekeeping for the virtual currency. "After almost two years of substantial effort and investment, Xapo has received conditional approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) to operate in Switzerland," Xapo CEO Wences Casares said in a blog on the company's website. The approval depended on several factors, including membership of a "self-regulatory organisation", Casares said, but added that the company was optimistic of meeting the conditions and being able to serve non-U.S. customers from Switzerland. FINMA declined to comment on an individual company's status. Olga Feldmeier, a former managing partner of Xapo who coordinated the Swiss licensing process for the company, told Reuters that Xapo had been designated a financial intermediary, meaning it will not require a costly banking licence. Wallet providers like Xapo, which was founded in Silicon Valley, store the private keys that allow clients to access their digital currency funds. While other crypto-currency firms already operate in Switzerland, Xapo's operation as a bitcoin wallet provider had raised questions over whether it required a banking licence. A burgeoning industry surrounding bitcoin - a web-based "crypto-currency" that has no central authority, relying instead on a global network of computers that validate transactions and add new bitcoins to the system - has posed questions for lawmakers and regulators. Xapo argued it did not accept deposits. Swiss authorities are eager to secure a leading role for Switzerland while playing catch-up in a rapidly changing financial technology (fintech) landscape. Bitcoin Suisse operates a network of bitcoin ATMs across the country, as well as an online and in-person brokerage for buying and selling bitcoins. But it does not itself store the private access keys that led to questions about whether Xapo was taking deposits. Switzerland's cabinet in November proposed new light-touch regulations for fintech companies aimed at bolstering business and competitiveness. The proposals include a fintech licence, granted by FINMA, for institutions which are restricted to taking deposits of up to 100 million Swiss francs ($99.9 million) and do not lend. Xapo is now in the process of joining a self-regulatory organisation required under Swiss anti-money laundering regulations to begin operations, Feldmeier said. ($1 = 1.0009 Swiss francs) (Editing by Adrian Croft) || Trump's trade-war mongering is starting to rattle Wall Street: President Donald Trump made international trade, and his skepticism thereof, a centerpiece of his campaign. Yet Wall Street, ever hopeful,saw those promises as bluster, choosing instead to focus on Trump's talk of corporate tax cuts and widespread deregulation. Now that Trump is in power, markets are starting to realize he has a lot more leeway to enact his trade agenda unilaterally than he does to act on the tax and regulatory fronts, where legislators and the judiciary will have a much greater say. (Peterson Institute for International Economics) That's causing some economists to question the wisdom of the recent run-up in stocks, which were specificallycatapulted higher by bank sharesrallying on the hopes of a swift erasure of the postcrisis Dodd-Frank rules. "Given President Trump's long-held views that the US has been losing out on foreign trade, the likelihood and consequences of a trade war are Top of Mind," Goldman Sachs economists wrote in a research note. "US action on China's currency policy and unilateral, targeted tariffs are likely, and China would respond proportionately." Trump has hired several ex-Goldman bankers as his top economic advisers. A look at Trump's key economic appointments more broadly has alsoput investors on alertfor the possibility that the US will raise tariffs on trading partners like Mexico and China, unleashing retaliation with no clear end in sight. "The incoming administration has a protectionist bend," says David Doyle, an equities analyst at Macquarie Capital Markets Canada. Peter Navarro, an economics professor from the University of California at Irvine, has been appointed to lead a newly formed National Trade Council. Navarro "has had an aggressive stance towards China," Doyle says. "For example, two books he has written are entitled 'Death by China' and ‘The Coming China Wars.'" Leaving aside the possible nightmare of an actual war, what would be thecost of a US trade warwith major partners? If it escalated into a full-blown crisis, the damage would be difficult to tally. These are some of the proposals Trump made during his campaign. (Peterson Institute for International Economics) Economists at the Peterson Institute for International Economics gave it a try ahead of the US elections and found that a trade war would bedeeply hurtful to US workers, "plunge the US economy into recession and cost more than 4 million private sector American jobs." (Peterson Institute for International Economics) Harvard economistKenneth Rogoff offers a stark warningto the Trump administration: "The US cannot win a trade war with China, and any victory will be Pyrrhic. The US needs to negotiate hard with China to protect its friends in Asia and deal with the rogue state of North Korea. And the best way to get the good deals Trump says he seeks is to pursue a more open trade policy with China, not a destructive trade war." NOW WATCH:Here's how to use one of the many apps to buy and trade bitcoin More From Business Insider • Bitcoin is zooming higher • Trump's push to roll back financial regulation is a 'big mistake' that threatens a new financial crisis • DEUTSCHE BANK: Trump could name China a 'currency manipulator' in the coming weeks || Investors chained to bitcoin bets as U.S. ETF decision looms: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors are betting market regulators will approve what would be the first U.S. exchange-traded fund to track the price of bitcoin. From investment funds to wealthy individuals and even a Las Vegas strip club, the bitcoin ETF is generating a lot of buzz for a financial product. The surge in interest in the digital currency is driving upbeat outlooks from several gauges of investor sentiment on the proposed fund. Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the digital currency ETF, which was filed nearly four years ago. The twins are expected to receive by March 13 the final decision on whether they can list their ETF on the Bats Exchange. "We have spoken to a number of our investors, particularly from the U.S., who have indicated to us that they have been buying bitcoin," said Daniel Masters, portfolio manager of Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund Plc. "They think the Winklevoss ETF and other bitcoin ETF listings will succeed." If the SEC approves the listing, it would lend legitimacy to an asset that has been the province of enthusiasts and lay speculators. It could pave the way for other ETF listings and unleash the flow of institutional money. The Legends Room, a Las Vegas strip club where bitcoin is accepted as payment for all services, is hardly institutional money, but it has been following the Winklevoss ETF. "We are already supporters and expect to be investors as well," said Legends Room founder Nick Blomgren. "Good opportunities to expand the market for digital currency are rare but they are possible." So far this year, bitcoin has surged more than 20 percent, largely due to speculation about the Winklevoss ETF, hitting a record high near $1,300 last Friday <BTC=BTSP>. On Wednesday, however, it dropped below $1,200. Spencer Bogart, head of research at Blockchain Capital, said at least $300 million could flow into the fund in the first week of trading if the Bitcoin ETF gets approved. WHAT ARE THE ODDS? A contract created by Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange, a cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform, to bet on the SEC's decision showed a 50 percent probability of approval on Tuesday, said BitMEX's chief executive, Arthur Hayes, compared to 34 percent late last month. Another metric gauging investor sentiment on the bitcoin ETF ruling is GBTC, the Bitcoin Investment Trust <GBTC.PK> backed by Grayscale Investments LLC, which does not trade on public exchanges. Historically, GBTC has traded at an average of between a 30-40 percent premium to its officially calculated value. The consensus is that the premium on GBTC shrinks if investors believe the bitcoin ETF will be approved by the SEC because they expect a better product to replace it. GBTC premiums have dropped since the beginning of the year, Grayscale data showed. By February, the premium shrunk to single digits. Late on Monday, however, the premium has recovered modestly to 16.44 percent. But strong interest has not convinced investors such as Michael Venuto, chief investment officer at Toroso Investments LLC, which holds bitcoin investments in some client portfolios. "This could pop the market and I don't want to be anywhere near it," Venuto said of the ETF. "If you're going to buy this, it's a long-term thing and speculating is a bad idea." (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Megan Davies and Leslie Adler) || Bitcoin ETFs For Dummies: Spencer Bogart is vice president of equity research for Needham & Co. He joined the firm in 2014 and currently leads the research efforts on blockchain technology and bitcoin while supporting research on cloud software (SaaS) companies. ETF.com recently sat down with Bogart, a former ETF.com analyst, to get his take on all the important developments in the bitcoin market ahead of the key SEC decision on the Winklevoss ETF, expected within the next month. ETF.com: Before we jump into more specifics, in a nutshell, how would you describe what bitcoin is to the layperson? Bogart:Bitcoin is peer-to-peer digital cash that's not issued by any central authority. ETF.com: Tell us about the highly anticipated decision that's coming from the SEC. What is it ruling on and what are the odds the ruling will be positive?Spencer:There's a number of bitcoin ETFs that are going through the regulatory approval process. The one that's been going through the process the longest is the Winklevoss bitcoin ETF [Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust (COIN)]. That's been going on for about 3 1/2, four years now. The exchange they would like to list that particular ETF on―which in this case is Bats [owner of ETF.com]―has filed a proposed rule change, which would be necessary to list the ETF. It's that proposal that essentially we've been watching go through the regulatory approval process. At each point along the way, the SEC has had the option to approve, disapprove the ETF or to extend its time to make a decision. All along the way, it’s chosen the opportunity to extend the time to make a decision, including submitting requests for public comments. We’ll now see an end to that process before March 11, which is the deadline. Before that, we’ll either get an approval, a disapproval or Bats will withdraw its request for a rule change. Or, if no decision is made by March 11, then the rule change is automatically approved. ETF.com: What factors are the SEC considering? Bogart:I don't have any inside information, but my sense is that the majority of the things that the SEC is particularly concerned about revolve around bitcoin itself as opposed to anything specific about the Winklevoss filing. They're asking if a digital asset such as bitcoin―which, unlike a commodity doesn't have a physical form, and unlike a security or derivative, is not under any kind of regulatory supervision―is a suitable underlying asset for an ETF. At the highest level, that's the kind of thing they're considering. A little bit more in the weeds they're asking if the specific markets that bitcoin trades on are stable, fair and efficient, and if they facilitate or enable or encourage any kind of market manipulation. And then of course, there are the factors that are more specific to the ETF itself, which I think, in this case, probably the most important ones are what do you use as a reference price for bitcoin, and how are you going to securely store that bitcoin? ETF.com: Does the Trump administration have any influence on the process? Bogart:I’m hearing there are a number of bitcoin-friendly people that have taken up various posts within the administration. I'm hearing that it's, on the margin, at least a little bit positive for bitcoin. I'm not sure if any of those people are in influential roles at the SEC. They may or may not impact the ETF decision, but overall, the probability of onerous legislation or regulation against bitcoin decreases on the margin with the administration change. ETF.com: All that said, you say you believe the odds of approval aren't very high. Why is that? Bogart:We've pegged the odds at less than 25%. That's because the very first thing the SEC lists in its own mission statement is protecting the investing public. When you think about the game theory aspect of this, if I work at the SEC and I approve this ETF and it goes well, nobody is probably going to come around and pat me on the back and give me a promotion. But if I approve it and a lot of money flows into it and something goes wrong, I'm likely to lose my job. The SEC has gone very deep on this, and it’s really explored it far deeper than I expected it to. It would have been a pretty easy thing for it to just write off three years ago and forget about it. But I just don't know if it can get comfortable with the number of risks related to bitcoin itself. ETF.com: If you're wrong and the SEC allows the launch, how much money do you see it attracting, and what will be the impact on the bitcoin price? Bogart:Roughly speaking, we've estimated that at least $300 million would flow into this fund in the first week. An ETF would be the first time that the gates have been opened to bitcoin for institutional capital. Most institutional money managers have mandates that require they invest in registered securities, and bitcoin itself is not a registered security. So for most institutional money managers, they can't touch bitcoin itself. The ETF would basically be the first time institutional money could really flow into bitcoin in a meaningful way. The effect on price would be very profound. There's something on the order of $15 million to $60 million worth of bitcoin typically traded against the U.S. dollar on the world's major exchanges. If you're trying to source $300 million worth of bitcoin within a few days, there's really no way to do that—even in a normal market—without significantly disrupting the price. Then you add into that the market where an ETF has just been approved and price is going to start rallying, liquidity's going to dry up really quickly just because nobody really wants to sell into that market. Everyone's going to want to hold their bitcoins in a time when the SEC has just approved an ETF. At the same time, you're going to have a favorable shift in public perception away from "Bitcoin is only used for the sale of illegal goods" to "Oh, wow, the SEC has just given it a stamp of approval." And because you’d potentially have a much greater percentage of the population saving bitcoin, the propensity for the regulators to enact onerous regulation on bitcoin would at least decrease on the margin. If you put all this together―you put this large sum of capital trying to flow into bitcoin at a time when price is already rallying, you add in the fact that there's a favorable shift in public perception, coupled with a marginal decline in regulatory risk―and the effect on price would be very significant. ETF.com: The bitcoin price is up tremendously in the last year―about 150% in the past 12 months. How much of the run-up has to do with the ETF? Bogart:I think very little of it has to do with the ETF. It's possible some of the recent price action has been related to the ETF. If at all, it's a small effect on the margin. It's mostly just about general growing adoption and a shifting perception. ETF.com: If the SEC rejects the ETF, do you expect some kind of crash? Bogart:I definitely don't expect a crash. There would be some downside to disapproval. We'll see price slump a bit, but I would guess it won't slump more than 10%. ETF.com: If the SEC rejects the Winklevoss ETF, is there a chance it’ll revisit the issue down the line and another ETF can muster the support to come to fruition? Spencer:Absolutely. This will be an ongoing process. The particular decision that we have coming up before March 11 is only related to the Winklevoss filing. There are two other major filings out there. Even if the SEC rejects the Winklevoss filing, eventually they will try to address whatever concerns the SEC has, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them go back and try to take another swing at this. But it's anybody's guess how long they would wait to do that. ETF.com: Let me ask you about the underlying bitcoin fundamentals, aside from the ETF. What's the current market price and market cap of bitcoin? How much higher can it go? Bogart:We're at about $1,000 today, which translates to a market cap of about $16 billion to $16.5 billion. How much higher can the price go? It's really anybody's guess. There's definitely a heavy percentage of total bitcoin ownership related to speculation. I divide investors into two camps, and if you draw them on a Venn diagram, the overlap between them is probably extremely high. For one, there are people who invest in it kind of as a commodity. These people invest in it for the same reasons they might invest in gold. They're assuming that for reasons outside of bitcoin, bitcoin will become more valuable. They believe maybe hyperinflation in a particular currency, a global financial crisis or things like that will drive up the value. Those are factors that are unrelated to bitcoin itself; they're external factors. On the other side are people who almost look at it like a venture capital investment. They're thinking this is a payments network that is going to have a lot of value in the future, and they want to own a piece of that real estate. Of course, there's a lot of overlap between both camps. I personally own bitcoin and I own it for both those reasons. ETF.com: Is bitcoin like gold in the sense that it's difficult to put a price target on it? Can you say it's going to $5,000 or $10,000? Or is that just impossible to do? Bogart:You can, but you're totally right. To some extent, you're pulling numbers out of the air. The way we look at it is, we ask, "Five years out, what percentage of the gold market might bitcoin be, and what percentage of payments volumes do we think bitcoin might account for?" And then we use a quantity theory of money to come up with what would be a fair price of bitcoin five years from now, and then use a discount rate to get that back to a present value. We've done some of that work in the past. The last thing we published was a price target for $848. That was back when bitcoin was in the $500-600 range. We have not updated that price target since then. Contact Sumit Roy atsroy@etf.com. Recommended Stories • How Hedge Funds Use ETFs • Bitcoin ETFs For Dummies • The Most Interesting New Gold ETF Since GLD • HACK & ROBO Funds On A Technical Roll • The Innovative Side Of Dividend ETFs Permalink| © Copyright 2017ETF.com.All rights reserved || Why AMD Shares Jumped 7%: Shares of Advanced Micro Devices jumped 7% on Monday after a pair of Wall Street analysts issued positive notes about the company’s new line of microchips. AMD’s stock rose $0.98 to $14.47 in midday trading. The stock, which quadrupled last year, had fallen from a 10-year high of $15.55 at the end of February over concerns about slow early sales of its new chips. But those short-term worries are unfounded because of CEO Lisa Su’s strategy of offering comparable or better performance with competing chips at a fraction of Intel’s prices, Jeffries analyst Mark Lipacis wrote on Monday in a note. He raised his target price on AMD to $16 from $13. Get Data Sheet , Fortune’s technology newsletter. Intel has captured close to 95% market share in chips for desktops, laptops, and servers, but now AMD is poised to recapture some of that share. If AMD reaches 5% market share in all three segments, it could generate as much as $1.5 billion of additional revenue over the next few years, Lipacis forecast. Hitting 15% in the three markets could add as much as $4.6 billion. That’s more than the $4.3 billion AMD brought in for all of last year. “We have argued that AMD is in the early innings of its multi-year turnaround story, a strategy being executed upon by its new CEO,” the analyst wrote. “We think AMD’s ability to price between-the-seams while achieving competitive performance will result in meaningful share gains from (Intel) in the desktop, server, and notebook markets starting in 2017.” Wall Street and investors have been growing increasingly concerned about the mounting competition for Intel. Its shares have dropped 2% so far in 2017, while the S&P 500 Index has gained 6%. Still, sales of AMD’s desktop-oriented Ryzen 7 chips, released in early March, have been held back by shortages of related parts like compatible motherboards, Susquehanna analyst Christopher Rolland noted in a report on Monday. And while a few lesser PC makers have begun selling PCs with Ryzen chips, the heavy hitters like Dell and won’t offer AMD-laden systems until next month at the earliest, Rolland said. Story continues “We identified a few smaller PC makers that are selling Ryzen desktops, however, we believe they are just purchasing standalone processors and putting them inside pre-assembled PCs,” Rolland wrote. “No major PC OEM (HP, Lenovo, Dell, Asus) is currently selling Ryzen desktops. We estimate sales will begin in April.” See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com Bitcoin Is Finally Starting to Settle Down This New Tactic Might Finally Lure Big Investors to Bitcoin Software Maker MuleSoft Shares Jump on Public Debut Why Stocks Are Better Than Leprechaun Gold on St. Patrick's Day Snap Inc. Shares Fell Below $20 for the First Time [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] bitCNY-BITCNY|Strength Index 10.1%|BTC:0.00013767|Cap 135593.0|1h 0.12%|24h -1.69%|7d -2.89% || La cotización #Bitcoin actual es: Compra: $15.755,475 ARS Venta: $16.874,7891 ARS || https://lnkd.in/dKZrgc9  Welfunding appena lanciato Si tratta di un programma di Bitcoin molto ben progettato e funz…https://lnkd.in/d7y5HpB  || Chinese Bitcoin Exchange BTCC Stops Withdrawals for a Month http://ift.tt/2kNpZdm  || coindesk : The latest Bitcoin Price Index is 1,038.79 USD http://www.coindesk.com/price/  … https://twitter.com/coindesk/status/832439439955808259 …)pic.twitter.com/pzgzZvPVR6 || Timothy May on the history of the cypherpunks (and leading up to Bitcoin) http://dlvr.it/NPfn6J pic.twitter.com/TuG0S4x7Ds || #bitcoin #miner Bitmain Antminer S9 12.93TH/s ASIC Bitcoin Miner BTC, no PSU $2900.00 http://ift.tt/2m7yIeJ pic.twitter.com/gc4W75vqyd || #bitcoin #miner SP 10 SPONDOOLIES 1.4 TH/S Bitcoin Miner BTC $65.00 http://ift.tt/2jxRyqo pic.twitter.com/H6FxEJkO9N || Il miglior hosting italiano http://luca1012.altervista.org/miglior-hosting-italiano/ … #Bitcoin #hosting #SEO #web #WordPress || Download application | SOURAV BTC COMMUNITY http://www.androidcreator.com/app232575 
Trend: up || Prices: 972.78, 966.72, 1045.77, 1047.15, 1039.97, 1026.43, 1071.79, 1080.50, 1102.17, 1143.81
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2016-11-16] BTC Price: 744.20, BTC RSI: 67.66 Gold Price: 1223.40, Gold RSI: 30.17 Oil Price: 45.57, Oil RSI: 44.93 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Swiss rail operator to sell bitcoins at its ticket machines: ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's national railways firm SBB is branching out next month with the launch of a new service on its ticket machines to sell bitcoins, the web-based digital currency. Beginning Nov. 11, customers will be able to trade Swiss francs for bitcoins using the ticket machines in a two-year experiment that will test Switzerland's appetite for the cryptocurrency, the state-owned company announced on Friday. "There have been few possibilities to obtain bitcoins in Switzerland until now," SBB said. "With its 1,000-plus ticket machines, SBB operates a dense, around-the-clock distribution network that's suited for more than just ticket sales." SBB is working with Zug-based digital payments firm SweePay to allow customers to top up their digital 'bitcoin wallet' accounts by mobile phone. Customers can exchange anywhere between 20 and 500 Swiss francs ($20-503) per transaction. SBB will act as distributor, while the exchange will be performed by SweePay and require users to hold an account with a wallet service that allows storage of the digital currency. Bitcoin is known for allowing users to move money across the world quickly and relatively anonymously but, on the Swiss ticket machines, users won't be able to procure it without a trace: customers will need to identify themselves using a Swiss mobile phone. While bitcoins can be purchased, they won't be accepted as payment at the machines, meaning ticket revenues will be unaffected by changes in the bitcoin exchange rate. ($1 = 0.9943 Swiss francs) (Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Greg Mahlich) || The 'failure' of election polling was about 3 key things: Before voting began on Election Day, nearly every major poll was predicting a Hillary Clinton win by 2-4 percentage points. When the smoke cleared Wednesday morning, Donald Trump had won. In the wake of Trump’s surprise win, arguably the biggest fascination has been the failure of the polls.Politicoasked, “How did everyone get it so wrong?”Fusionasked how it went “so, so, so wrong?”Harvard Business Reviewwrote that pollsters were “completely and utterly wrong.” Yes, the polling was wrong—but the reasons why are numerous, and nuanced, and will take a long time to fully parse and understand. In addition, it wasn’t just the polls that went wrong, but also the media’s interpretation of the polls. One of the biggest theories as to what the polls missed was the idea of “shy Trump voters” who didn’t want to say when polled that they were planning to vote for Trump, but always knew. White women, in particular, proved to be a surprise: 53% of them voted for Trump overall, led by those without a college degree, who went for Trump by a 2-1 margin. White women with a college degree went for Clinton, but only barely, by six percentage points. “There’s your shy Trump vote,”tweeted Kristen Soltis Anderson, a pollster at Echelon Insights. Andersonlater addedthat a bigger problem than secret Trump voters was “a phony mirage of a Clinton vote.” Trump got fewer votes than McCain did in 2008 and Romney did in 2012 and won anyway, because too many Democrats didn’t vote. Indeed, polling also fails to account for turnout, which was the lowest overall it has been since 2000. (Latino turnout was up from 2012 and skewed toward Clinton, but not by enough to beat Trump.) All non-white ethnic groups went for Clinton, as did millennials—but not enough of them voted. AsHarvard Business Reviewpoints out, “People tend to say they’re going to vote even when they won’t… the failure of a complex likely voter model is why Gallup got out of the election forecasting business.” As much as big data (and the technology to sift through it) has advanced, our methods of gathering data are still dated. Most of the national polls are still done by landline telephone. And that has been a problem for over a decade now. In 2003, Gallup wrote a post about thefalling response ratesin polls. If you start with a target sample size of 1,000 households, Gallup wrote, at least 200 households fall out because they are businesses or non-working numbers. Of the 800 left, another 200 “may be unreachable in the time frame allocated by the researcher… household members at these numbers may use caller ID or other screening devices and refuse to answer.” Now you’re down to 600, of which 200 more people may pick up the phone but refuse to participate in the poll. Suddenly, the sample size has shrunk from 1,000 to a mere 400 households. Declining to pick up the phone, or declining to participate in the poll, may have been a particular problem with this election polling. The shrinking sample size is a significant problem. As pollster Andersontweeted, the “only way you can bring down margin of error is to raise sample size.” That’s not easily done. In an interview withBloomberg, Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer pointed to “the continuing barrier of the lack of landlines, the erosion of landlines” as a particular problem this cycle. Bloombergwrote it in October: “Your mobile phone is killing the polling industry.” And Matthew Nisbet atThe Breakthroughnoted back in 2012, “Other under-reported sources of error also factor into a poll’s accuracy, including the greater reliance on cell phones.” Online polling is a newer method, but has its own problems. Trump campaign managerKellyanne Conway said back in August, after a Trump dip in the polls, that the candidate “performs consistently better in online polling where a human being is not talking to another human being about what he or she may do in the elections.” TheWashington Postpointed out that this wasn’t the case overall—on average, Trump wasn’t doing better in online polls than in telephone polls. However, a Morning Consult post from Nov. 3 (with nearly the now-suspect headline, “Yes, there are shy Trump voters. No, they won’t swing the election”) pointed out that Trump was doing 1% better in online polls than phone polls, a difference small enough to be dismissed. But here was the key line in the Morning Consult post: “Trump’s edge over Clinton online instead of in phone polling is especially pronounced among people with a college degree or people who make more than $50,000… more-educated voters were notably less likely to say they were supporting Trump during a phone poll than in an online survey.” That was the exact slice of voters that went for Trump more than anyone expected. So it isn’t black-and-white whether phone or online polls are better, and it isn’t clear that phone polls should die; but it is clear that methods of polling need to evolve and improve, and that the best route to get as many data sets as possible is a combination of different methods. After an initial immediate backlash to the polls, a newer narrative is already emerging: the polls didn’t fail as terribly as everyone is saying they did. Many are pointing out that Clinton looks likely to win the popular vote (although barely, and by a smaller margin than Gore won it in 2000). If Clinton does win the popular vote by around one percentage point, then polls that showed Clinton winning by two or three points were only one or two points inflated. Moreover, polls come with a margin of error that in many cases did cover the eventual difference. The problem is that in a 140-character media landscape, margin of error is often left out, or squeezed into posts and articles as an asterisk. The election polls were actually off by less than Brexit polls were off. And Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight pointed out on Thursday morning that this year’s polls were in fact more accurate than in 2012. That year, polls generally predicted a slim Obama win margin of 1 percentage point, and he won by 4 points. This time, the polls gave Clinton a margin of 3-4 points, and she looks likely to win the popular vote by 1 or 2. Of course, that defense won’t exactly quell outrage over the polling (just look at the replies to Silver’s tweet), because the polls in 2012 didn’t call the wrong winner. There’s a big difference between Obama winning by a larger margin than polls said he’d win by, and Trump winning when polls said Clinton would win. And to be sure, a fair retort to Silver and others claiming that the polls weren’tthatwrong is that the result here was binary: polls could either predict the right winner or the wrong winner. Almost all of them predicted the wrong winner. Polls are estimates. They are aprojectionof what appears likely to happen, within a margin of error. But we take them too literally. As Fairleigh Dickinson University professor Peter Woolleytold Bloomberg, “We tend to over-report the accuracy of the poll, and tend to forget very quickly that it’s an estimate within a range.” The biggest problem with the polls this time around, then, wasn’t actually the polls, but our interpretation of them. Because the vast majority of the polls (all of them but two, from USC/LA Times and IBD/TIPP) had Clinton winning, the media and the public counted on a Clinton win, ignoring the fact that most polls had her winning only slightly, and many had a margin of error that allowed for the opposite result. The volume and noise drowned out nuance. In a September article inThe Atlantic(appropriately headlined, “Taking Trump seriously”), Salena Zito wrote of Trump, “The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.” The media spent time picking over everything Trump said as though he were serious, when he often wasn’t, and didn’t take him seriously as a legitimate threat to Clinton; his voters didn’t worry too much about each individual shocking sound bite, but took him seriously as a candidate. In a column published after Trump’s victory,Maureen Dowdof The New York Times pointed to Zito’s line as a “prescient” one, and it truly was—it describes not just the result of the election, but the problem with how the media embraced the polls. Pundits – and the public – took the polls literally. Many are now asking whether polls are even useful if they can be so wrong. Does the Trump surprise win kill the polling industry? Hardly. Polling isn’t going anywhere, but the methods need to improve, and we must temper our embrace of the predictions they yield. They are only that: predictions. — Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite. Read more: Trump ‘trounced’ Clinton in his use of Facebook video Facebook and Twitter played very different roles in the 2016 election Bitcoin price flies after Trump is elected What it was like to listen to Trump and Clinton debate on the radio || C&W Business Launches Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) on Demand at Cisco Live!: CANCUN, MEXICO--(Marketwired - Nov 7, 2016) -Cisco Live! --C&W Business, part ofC&W Communications(C&W), one of the largest full service communications and entertainment providers in the Caribbean and Latin America region, now owned byLiberty Global(LiLAC Group), is excited to announce the launch ofHosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) on Demand,a managed Unified Collaboration Service, atCisco Live!. Cisco Live is one of the main IT conferences in the Latin America region and is expected to draw more than 5,500 customers, experts and partners from different business segments and levels. Cisco Live! will be held from November 7-10 in Cancun, Mexico and C&W Business will be present atbooth #506showcasing live demos of its next-generation platform, HCS on Demand. The launch of HCS on Demand, powered by Cisco, is a managed unified collaboration platform that will enable customers in 24 countries across the Caribbean and Latin America to leverage a full suite of IP-enabled collaboration tools. HCS on Demand will be hosted by C&W Business at their data centers and be delivered to customers over the Company's world-class, SIP-enabled fiber IP (terrestrial and submarine) and fault-tolerant network. This network encompasses over 42,000 kilometers (26,000 miles) of fiber across the Caribbean and Latin America and is the only MEF CE 2.0 certified network across the region, allowing C&W Business to deliver highly secure and reliable data, voice and video services efficiently to its customers. "C&W Business HCS on Demand helps accelerate customers' day-to-day business processes, helping achieve better and faster business outcomes across the region. Customers won't have to worry about burdening their IT staff with the effort to deploy and operate their own PBX or UCC platform. Customers will only pay for what they need, with no upfront costs, making unified communications more affordable and the costs more predictable in a fixed monthly service charge per user," said Daniel Peiretti, SVP Product Development and Management, C&W Business. "Our HCS on Demand solution is secure, offers strong SLA's, and is supported by a business-class infrastructure with a certified team that uses a simplified deployment model. We will have customers up and running in no time, from anywhere, anytime and from any device," added Peiretti. As a Cisco Master Managed Service Provider, C&W Business utilizes its highly secure and connected fabric of datacenters to deliver the most comprehensive, integrated solutions for clients. This crucial element enables clients to have a single point of contact, avoiding the challenge of managing multiple vendors. In addition, business applications and unified communication applications are hosted in the same datacenter significantly reducing latency and enhancing data security. C&W Business HCS on Demand will offer customers: • Voice and video communications, mobility, messaging, presence, web and video conferencing, and contact center. • Access to cloud-based resources in a fast and easy way so customers can get up and running faster than with traditional models. • Predictable per-user monthly costs without having to incur upfront capital expenditure investments. • Ability to easily ramp up or down to address seasonal needs. • Deployment of different license types to individuals across work groups or departments as required. • Elimination of the costs and problems of equipment maintenance and software upgrades. • Customers most likely to benefit from this solution are those with a need for enhanced remote worker integration, mobility, cost reduction, reduced travel cost, simplified user experience, accelerated decision making, improved customer service and better work-life balance for its employees. In addition, existing Cisco collaboration customers can migrate their "on premises" solution into this cloud and maintain their investment in licensing. Cisco Live! is the premier IT conference in Latin America -- which gathers customers, experts and partners from different industries, segments, and countries. Cisco Live! is held annually in four cities worldwide: Las Vegas, Berlin, Melbourne and Cancun. Learn more at#CiscoLiveLA Visit C&W Business at Cisco Live!C&W Business will be an exhibitor atbooth #506duringCisco Live!,at the Moon Palace Golf & Spa Resort Cancun, Mexico. To learn about our technology-driven solutions that offer unique Cisco collaboration technologies using hosted and managed models. Meet our technology experts and join us for demo presentations on our solutions onNovember 9 from 10:30 am - 12:30 pmand onNovember 10 from 12:30 - 2:00 pmin the Cisco Powered booth. NOTES TO EDITORSC&W Business To Offer Cisco Collaboration As A Service Over Its MPLS Networks About C&W CommunicationsC&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more atwww.cwc.com, or follow C&W onLinkedIn,FacebookorTwitter. About Liberty GlobalLiberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enables us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 60 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve 10 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group (NASDAQ:LBTYA) (NASDAQ:LBTYB) (NASDAQ:LBTYK) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group (NASDAQ:LILA) and (NASDAQ:LILAK) (OTC PINK:LILAB), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. || Indian bitcoin company raises $1.5 million from U.S., Indian investors: NEW YORK (Reuters) - Unocoin, a Bangalore-based bitcoin startup, has raised $1.5 million in funding from a mix of Indian and U.S. investors, the company announced on Thursday. The company, which runs a trading platform to buy, sell, and store bitcoins for Indian customers, said the money raised was the largest for an Indian bitcoin startup. Unocoin, which has 100,000 users and more than 30 employees, has been in operation since December 2013. Unocoin describes itself as the Coinbase of India. San Francisco-based Coinbase is the largest U.S. bitcoin company and runs an exchange and a wallet service, among other businesses. Funding came from Indian entities such as Blume Ventures, Mumbai Angels and ah! Ventures along with U.S. investors such as Digital Currency Group, Boost VC, Bank to the Future, and FundersClub. Digital Currency Group was founded by one of the top U.S. bitcoin investors Barry Silbert, while Boost VC is run by U.S.-based Adam Draper, the son of billionaire entrepreneur Tim Draper. "We needed a separate exchange for India. A few years ago when we wanted to buy bitcoin, there was nothing available in India," Sunny Ray, Unocoin's co-founder and president told Reuters in an interview. "So if you want to buy bitcoin from an international exchange, you will have to do a wire transfer from India to these international exchanges and get your bitcoin and oftentimes it takes three to five days." Unocoin raised about $200,000 in its first financing round. It started from a small hometown called Tumkur, near Bengaluru. Bitcoin, a digital currency, was trading at $604.50 on the Bitstamp platform. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) || C&W Communications Expands Network With Ericsson Across Caribbean and Panama: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Oct 13, 2016) - • C&W's customers to enjoy best-in-class high speed, high performance network to address increasing data traffic demands • Expansion is currently underway and expected to be completed in November 2016 • Radio Access Network (RAN) and Core expansion includes both 3G and Long-Term Evolution (LTE), plus indoor coverage based on Ericsson Radio Dot System Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) andC&W Communications(C&W), one of the largest full service communications and entertainment providers in the Caribbean and Latin American region, now part ofLiberty Global(LiLAC Group) today announce the delivery of a complete network expansion for C&W across their operations in the Caribbean and Panama. The expansion includes hardware, software, licensing and services for C&W brandsFLOW(Caribbean),BTC(Bahamas) andCWP(Panama). In addition, C&W's network expansion will provide all C&W markets across the Caribbean and Panama access to software upgrades and the opportunity to migrate to the Ericsson Software Model, which provides operators with the best available performance through a simple and transparent upgrade subscription. With 3G and LTE, C&W customers will benefit from a network capable of supporting advanced technologies and other high-speed features designed to provide a better user experience. "Ericsson is committed to providing C&W Communications with excellence in end-user satisfaction and delivering best-in-class results. In the journey that we envision undertaking with C&W, Ericsson will provide solid guidance and support throughout all of the project's critical phases, enabling C&W to provide its customers with the best in mobile connectivity solutions," said Clayton Cruz, Vice-president, Ericsson Latin America and Caribbean. "We are happy to once again partner with Ericsson in this network expansion project across all of our markets. Considering the clear trend in the growth of subscribers, mobile data and smartphone usage, C&W's key objective is to deploy a mobile network with world-class quality, performance and operational convenience in order to exceed our customers' expectations," said Carlo Alloni, Executive Vice-president and CTIO, C&W Communications. According to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report, by 2021, smartphone subscriptions in Latin America and the Caribbean will comprise 65% of all mobile subscriptions; LTE will account for approximately 30% of all mobile subscriptions, representing more than 250 million mobile subscriptions. In addition, mobile data traffic is expected to grow nine times in the region by 2021, reaching 75% of all mobile traffic. To meet these increasing traffic demands, C&W's network expansion increases site capacity, improves the performance of the existing network through hardware and software upgrades, facilitates the implementation of carrier aggregation, and allows for the addition of small cells. The expansion is currently underway and expected to be completed in November 2016. Ericsson is present today in all high-traffic LTE markets, including the US, Japan and South Korea, and handles the most global LTE traffic. In addition, 40 percent of the world's total mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks. More than 270 LTE RAN and Evolved Packet Core networks have been delivered by Ericsson worldwide, of which 200 are live commercially. NOTES TO EDITORSCable & Wireless and Ericsson deliver world-class mobile broadband for Caribbean & Latin AmericaCable & Wireless partners with Ericsson and Cisco to enhance its Caribbean IP networksEricsson core to enable Wi-Fi calling and VoLTE for Cable & Wireless in PanamaFor media kits, backgrounders and high-resolution photos, please visitwww.ericsson.com/press Ericsson is the driving force behind the Networked Society -- a world leader in communications technology and services. Our long-term relationships with every major telecom operator in the world allow people, business and society to fulfill their potential and create a more sustainable future. Our services, software and infrastructure -- especially in mobility, broadband and the cloud -- are enabling the telecom industry and other sectors to do better business, increase efficiency, improve the user experience and capture new opportunities. With approximately 115,000 professionals and customers in 180 countries, we combine global scale with technology and services leadership. We support networks that connect more than 2.5 billion subscribers. Forty percent of the world's mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks. And our investments in research and development ensure that our solutions -- and our customers -- stay in front. Founded in 1876, Ericsson has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. Net sales in2015 were SEK 246.9 billion (USD 29.4 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX stock exchange in Stockholm and the NASDAQ in New York. Ericsson has been present in Latin America since 1896, when the company established an agreement in Colombia and delivered equipment for the first time in the region. In the early 1900s, Ericsson increased its presence in Latin America by signing commercial deals in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Today, Ericsson is present in 56 countries within South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean, which combined count the region as one of the few with complete Ericsson installations, including a Production Unit, R&D Center and Training Center. Ericsson is the market leading telecom supplier, with over 40% market share in Latin America and more than 100 telecom service contracts in the region. www.ericsson.com/jmwww.ericsson.com/jm/newswww.twitter.com/EricssonCaribwww.facebook.com/EricssonLatinAmericawww.youtube.com/EricssonLatamwww.slideshare.net/EricssonLatinAmerica FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACTWendi Patrick, External CommunicationsPhone:+506 2519 0800E-mail:wendi.patrick@ericsson.com About C&W CommunicationsC&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more atwww.cwc.com, or follow C&W onLinkedIn,FacebookorTwitter. About Liberty GlobalLiberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enables us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 59 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve 11 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group (NASDAQ:LBTYA) (NASDAQ:LBTYB) (NASDAQ:LBTYK) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group (NASDAQ:LILA) and (NASDAQ:LILAK) (OTC PINK:LILAB), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visitwww.libertyglobal.com. || Traders debate buying pullback in Intel after earnings: The " Fast Money " traders debated whether to jump on a dip in Intel ( INTC ) after the company gave current-quarter guidance that slightly missed Wall Street expectations. Trader Guy Adami said Intel slightly lowered its gross margins guidance, which he found "potentially concerning." Trader Pete Najarian said he would be a buyer of Intel shares, as the stock fell more than 5 percent in extended trading on Tuesday. Trader Brian Kelly said he's concerned about Nvidia ( NVDA ) , another semiconductor stock, and would be taking profits off the table in the company. He also said he would buy Intel. Disclosures: PETE NAJARIAN Long stock: AAPL, BAC, DIS, DISCA, GE, KMI, KMIA, KO, LUX, MRK, PEP, PFE CALLS: AAL, ABT, AMD, ATVI, BABA, BAC, BBY, BHI, BSX, CNX, COP, COTY, CRM, CS, CSCO, CXW, DAL, DISH, ECA, ETP, GM, GS, HAL, INTC, JBLU, JCP, KBE, KGC, KMI, KO, LLY, LOW, M, MOS, MRO, MRVL, MUR, NAV, NBR, P, RIO, SBUX, SLV, TMUS, TTS, TV, TWTR, VRX, WFT, WLL, XLF and puts: CLF, EEM, MBLY, WFC TIM SEYMOUR Tim Seymour is long ABX, APC, AVP, BAC, BBRY, CLF, DO, DVYE, EDC, EWZ, F, FB, FCX, FXI, GM, GOOGL, GE, INTC, LQD,MCD, MUR, OIH, PG, RACE, RAI, RH, RL, SINA, T, TWTR, VALE, VZ, XOM short: SPY, XRT. His firm is long ABX, BABA, BIDU, CBD, CLF, EWZ, F, KO, MCD, MPEL, NKE, PEP, PF, SAVE, SBUX, SINA, VALE, VIAB, WMT, WEN, X, YHOO, short EWG, HYG, IWM BRIAN KELLY Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, SLV and Silver Futures, US Dollar UUP. He is short the euro and Japanese yen. GUY ADAMI Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC. Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || 10 paid iPhone apps on sale for free for a limited time: Galaxy Note 7s are exploding... iPhones are exploding... it's time for some uplifting news and nothing is more uplifting than scoring a bunch of paid iPhone and iPad apps for free. Today's batch includes several solid apps as well as a few nifty sticker packs for iMessage, but these sales won't last so be sure to check them out right away. DON’T MISS: No matter what happens next, the Galaxy Note 7 is dead to us These are paid iPhone and iPad apps that have been made available for free for a limited time by their developers. There is no way to tell how long they will be free. These sales could end an hour from now or a week from now — obviously, the only thing we can guarantee is that they were free at the time this post was written. If you click on a link and see a price listed next to an app instead of the word “get,” it is no longer free. The sale has ended. If you download the app, you will be charged. Widget Calendar widget-calendar Normally $0.99. “Quotes: Widget & Watch” gives 2 beautiful quotes a day. “Memory: Your Memo” helps you remember everything by various colors. --- Widget Calendar shows the full calendar in widget. - See the calendar and the events in widget - Hide events of category that you don't want to see in widget - View all the reminders and manage it - Open Calendar app of the date - Open Reminders by touching the list name - Smooth transitions and no buggy moment The fastest way to check your calendar whenever you need to, even when the screen is locked! Download Widget Calendar Union union Normally $1.99. - "A professional image blending tool that’s actually easy to use." - TECHCRUNCH - "A quick and easy way to turn your iPhone or iPad into a photo manipulation tool." - GIZMODO - "The best image-blending app around." - CULT OF MAC *** From the creators of Fragment, Tangent and Matter, previous App Store Editors' Choice and App of the Week *** Union is an elegant image blending tool that lets you create superimposed, silhouetted, and double-exposed photos. Here's how it works. 1. Load a background image, solid color, or transparent layer 2. Load a foreground image, solid color, or shape 3. Efficiently erase areas of the foreground image using Union’s palette of intuitive, user-friendly tools 4. Adjust the position and size of the foreground image to reach desired composition 5. Make color adjustments on the background and foreground so they blend seamlessly 6. Save your work in full resolution and share your work with friends Also included in Union is Pixite Source, a free resource for professional quality images, textures, and overlays that you can use in your edits. Union invites professionals and hobbyists alike to explore image blending and photo editing. Story continues Download Union Election Stickers election-stickers Normally $0.99. Election Stickers: 2016 Edition Express your political views in iMessages with this U.S. Election sticker pack that contains our 2016 presidential candidates: Hillary and Trump. Quick tips on installing and using Sticker apps: • To access iMessage apps, tap the App Store icon alongside the compose field to see your most recently used iMessage app. • To continue browsing, tap the icon on the lower left corner which brings up the app drawer. From there, tap the plus icon to access the App Store for iMessage, where you can browse and download more apps. Here, you can also go to Manage where you can add your apps to your app drawer. • To use a sticker within a conversation, you simply tap to send or you can touch and hold to place them on top of bubbles, other Stickers, or even photos. It feels just like peeling and pasting a traditional sticker. • iPhone and iPad users (running iOS 10) and Apple Watch owners (running watchOS 3) can receive stickers. On Apple Watch, you can send any of the stickers you recently sent from iPhone or iPad. You can receive stickers on earlier versions of iOS and other platforms but they’re received inline as images and don’t support being pasted on top of text, photos etc. Express yourself in new ways with Election Stickers you can put anywhere in your chat. Scale, rotate, and layer stickers—even place them on photos you send and receive! • SEND stickers in chat • PLACE stickers anywhere on your iMessages • CUSTOMIZE your photos with stickers in chat • LAYER stickers over each other, in chat, and on photos • SCALE & ROTATE stickers Download Election Stickers Halloween halloween Normally $0.99. Halloween stickers for iMessage. Special price for launch only so download now and try it out! The pack contains 15 high quality ANIMATED stickers you can put everywhere on your messages. No in-app purchase. all stickers are included with the app! Download Halloween Mobdro Plus mobdro-plus Normally $0.99. Mobdro Plus is built for music lovers. This is the only outstanding music app for millions songs from YouTube. Get the app, discover, organise and play thousands of premium tracks or playlists seamlessly. Feature Sections of Mobdro app: Trending Songs & PlayLists - Realtime hottest official music tracks by Genres. - Trending premium songs on overall. - Season, spotlight and Index playlists. Search - One search button to continuously listen best songs on your favourite topics. - Easy to create playlist and add tracks to your library. - Search by track and playlist. PlayList - Organise unlimited number of playlists. - Play your list on your own favours : normal, repeat and shuffle. Player - Best optimised player for watch music mvs. - Best experiences on listening music, just like normal music app. Please do send your voices so we can get it and deliver your favourite features at the best manner. Download Mobdro Plus let's led lets-led Normally $0.99. Let’s Led turns your iphone/ipad into an ticker display. a time clock, and with over 100 symbol, you can send any message you want. Download let's led mixsuite mixsuite Normally $0.99. MixSuite allows you to mix your favourite tracks with your favourite videos effortlessly. This app allows you to select your video(s) from a variety of different areas, to make sure you never miss out on capturing the perfect video for your mood. Choose from YouTube, Vimeo, or even upload your own videos from your personal device! Now onto the Music - MixSuite brings through all your personal tracks from your native music app to allow for quick and easy selection of the tracks you wish to listen to. Now you can create your own Mix! Simply Double-tap the tracks from first to last to order them along with the selected video(s). MixSuite will even allow you to add a voiceover to the video - narrate over your favourite videos to give a truly unique mix. Tap save and you’re ready to listen to your mix! All mixes are saved to a dedicated library within the app to allow for playback at any time. Don’t forget to share the app to your friends for them to give it a try! Download mixsuite CryptoTrader cryptotrader Normally $2.99. CryptoTrader: Interactive, Real-Time Cryptocurrency Advisor! - Handy & clear chart optimized for mobile screens - Up-to-date real-time price data of digital coins and tokens - Historical price data to analyze trends - Current order book and recent trades - EMA and MACD indicators Supported cryptocurrencies: - Bitcoin (Bitfinex, Coinbase, Btc-e, Okcoin) - Ethereum (Poloniex, Kraken, Bitfinex) - Monero - Augur - Ripple - Dash - Steem - Litecoin - Ethereum Classic - and many more. Download CryptoTrader MORPH morph Normally $0.99. From the ominous dangers of a dark square world, MORPH an adorable little creature is propelled by adept chooses into the light, finding his way from world to world in this extremely astute puzzle game. Careful thought is necessary to avoid treacherous obstacles which would lead to a certain horrible death and find the hidden path to the portal leading to the light a symbol of your growing enlightenment. Download MORPH Clean&Clean cleanclean Normally $0.99. CLEANER MASTER FOR IOS … √ Clean&Clean Master – The World's Leading Cleaner & Optimizer for Mobile. √ "Memory Cleaner" helps you free up your RAM on device to boost performance. √ "Lightning Disk Cleaner": we bring the new technology for this feature to helps you clean junk/temp files on disk, which is faster than other apps same feature. Do you think your device is well organize? You will surprised how app can upgrade and make it more smooth & faster!!! Main Features: √ Find & Merge duplicate contacts, phone √ Delete multiple contacts √ One tap backup your contacts √ Quick find the contacts you need √ Show system statistics: memory, storage Download Clean&Clean Trending right now: Apple launches investigation as another iPhone goes up in flames Don’t expect a Surface Book 2 to take on Apple’s new MacBook Pro this year Tests show that one iPhone 7 model is actually slower than all the others See the original version of this article on BGR.com View comments || Microsoft and BAML to Test Blockchain for Trade Finance: Microsoft Corporation MSFT and Bank of America Corporation’s BAC corporate and investment banking division, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (‘’BAML’’) have teamed up to implement blockchain technology in trade finance to facilitate faster, safer, cheaper and more transparent transactions. The main objective of the collaboration is to develop and test blockchain technology before commercializing it. We note that Microsoft’s very own cloud-based platform Azure will be utilized to test the project. What is Blockchain? Simply put, a blockchain is a chain of blocks, where each block represents an electronic record that cannot be revised or tampered with once it is included in the chain. Additionally, each block has its own timestamp and a link to an earlier block in the chain, which enables all the parties to have easy access to information via a secure network. Benefits of the Blockchain Speed: Having its origins in Bitcoin (the digital currency), the blockchain technology is believed to speed up all types of transactions as there is no need for manual processing or authentication by intermediaries. Security: Currently trade transactions take anywhere between 7 to 10 days to complete and are vulnerable to document frauds as they involve paper trails that are often complicated. Blockchain does away with all that fuss. Chronology: Each block in the chain is connected to an earlier block and has its own timestamp that facilitates easy record keeping in a chronological manner. Our Take We note that businesses throughout the world are gradually making the switch to digitization in a bid to remain competitive, agile and drive growth and blockchain could prove to be the tool to facilitate the transformation. Though the technology is still at a nascent stage, this is not the first time that it will be tested. Per some media reports, Barclays PLC BCS and a start-up based in Israel announced this month that they have successfully deployed blockchain technology to carry out a real-world trade deal that is a first of its kind. Story continues MICROSOFT CORP Price MICROSOFT CORP Price | MICROSOFT CORP Quote Zacks Rank & Key Picks At present, Microsoft carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A better-ranked stock in the broader technology space is Avid Technology, Inc. AVID, sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. We note that the estimates for Avid for 2016 and 2017 have remained steady at $2.08 and $1.60, respectively over the last 7 days. Confidential from Zacks Beyond this Analyst Blog, would you like to see Zacks' best recommendations that are not available to the public? Our Executive VP, Steve Reitmeister, knows when key trades are about to be triggered and which of our experts has the hottest hand. Click to see them now>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report BANK OF AMER CP (BAC): Free Stock Analysis Report BARCLAY PLC-ADR (BCS): Free Stock Analysis Report MICROSOFT CORP (MSFT): Free Stock Analysis Report AVID TECH INC (AVID): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research || C&W Business Launches Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) on Demand at Cisco Live!: CANCUN, MEXICO--(Marketwired - Nov 7, 2016) - Cisco Live! -- C&W Business , part of C&W Communications (C&W), one of the largest full service communications and entertainment providers in the Caribbean and Latin America region, now owned by Liberty Global (LiLAC Group), is excited to announce the launch of Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) on Demand, a managed Unified Collaboration Service, at Cisco Live! . Cisco Live is one of the main IT conferences in the Latin America region and is expected to draw more than 5,500 customers, experts and partners from different business segments and levels. Cisco Live! will be held from November 7-10 in Cancun, Mexico and C&W Business will be present at booth #506 showcasing live demos of its next-generation platform, HCS on Demand. The launch of HCS on Demand, powered by Cisco, is a managed unified collaboration platform that will enable customers in 24 countries across the Caribbean and Latin America to leverage a full suite of IP-enabled collaboration tools. HCS on Demand will be hosted by C&W Business at their data centers and be delivered to customers over the Company's world-class, SIP-enabled fiber IP (terrestrial and submarine) and fault-tolerant network. This network encompasses over 42,000 kilometers (26,000 miles) of fiber across the Caribbean and Latin America and is the only MEF CE 2.0 certified network across the region, allowing C&W Business to deliver highly secure and reliable data, voice and video services efficiently to its customers. "C&W Business HCS on Demand helps accelerate customers' day-to-day business processes, helping achieve better and faster business outcomes across the region. Customers won't have to worry about burdening their IT staff with the effort to deploy and operate their own PBX or UCC platform. Customers will only pay for what they need, with no upfront costs, making unified communications more affordable and the costs more predictable in a fixed monthly service charge per user," said Daniel Peiretti, SVP Product Development and Management, C&W Business. "Our HCS on Demand solution is secure, offers strong SLA's, and is supported by a business-class infrastructure with a certified team that uses a simplified deployment model. We will have customers up and running in no time, from anywhere, anytime and from any device," added Peiretti. Story continues As a Cisco Master Managed Service Provider, C&W Business utilizes its highly secure and connected fabric of datacenters to deliver the most comprehensive, integrated solutions for clients. This crucial element enables clients to have a single point of contact, avoiding the challenge of managing multiple vendors. In addition, business applications and unified communication applications are hosted in the same datacenter significantly reducing latency and enhancing data security. C&W Business HCS on Demand will offer customers: Voice and video communications, mobility, messaging, presence, web and video conferencing, and contact center. Access to cloud-based resources in a fast and easy way so customers can get up and running faster than with traditional models. Predictable per-user monthly costs without having to incur upfront capital expenditure investments. Ability to easily ramp up or down to address seasonal needs. Deployment of different license types to individuals across work groups or departments as required. Elimination of the costs and problems of equipment maintenance and software upgrades. Customers most likely to benefit from this solution are those with a need for enhanced remote worker integration, mobility, cost reduction, reduced travel cost, simplified user experience, accelerated decision making, improved customer service and better work-life balance for its employees. In addition, existing Cisco collaboration customers can migrate their "on premises" solution into this cloud and maintain their investment in licensing. Cisco Live! is the premier IT conference in Latin America -- which gathers customers, experts and partners from different industries, segments, and countries. Cisco Live! is held annually in four cities worldwide: Las Vegas, Berlin, Melbourne and Cancun. Learn more at #CiscoLiveLA Visit C&W Business at Cisco Live! C&W Business will be an exhibitor at booth #506 during Cisco Live!, at the Moon Palace Golf & Spa Resort Cancun, Mexico. To learn about our technology-driven solutions that offer unique Cisco collaboration technologies using hosted and managed models. Meet our technology experts and join us for demo presentations on our solutions on November 9 from 10:30 am - 12:30 pm and on November 10 from 12:30 - 2:00 pm in the Cisco Powered booth. NOTES TO EDITORS C&W Business To Offer Cisco Collaboration As A Service Over Its MPLS Networks About C&W Communications C&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more at www.cwc.com , or follow C&W on LinkedIn , Facebook or Twitter . About Liberty Global Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enables us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 60 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve 10 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group ( NASDAQ : LBTYA ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYB ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYK ) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group ( NASDAQ : LILA ) and ( NASDAQ : LILAK ) ( OTC PINK : LILAB ), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. || Traders weigh chasing Microsoft rally after stock passes all-time high in late trading: The "Fast Money" traders debated whether it's worth chasing the rally in Microsoft(NASDAQ: MSFT)after the company posted anearnings beat driven by continued growth in its cloud business. The stock climbed above its 1999 all-time high of $59.97 in extended trade. Trader Brian Kelly said he would not chase the rally in Microsoft, but would be interested in it on a pullback. "Everything that these guys said is exactly what everybody in this market now wants. There's very few stocks out there that have this type of growth, that have a dividend, that have a strong management team ... so Microsoft is going to attract a lot of investment money," Kelly said. Trader Karen Finerman agreed, but added that Microsoft's current valuation — about a 27 price-to-earnings ratio on a trailing basis — is much more appetizing than it was 17 years ago. Trader Dan Nathan said that a large portion of Microsoft's revenue still comes from its legacy businesses and that the current valuation is still too rich. He said there's a risk that the growth of the cloud business could slow down. Trader Tim Seymour disagreed, saying that Microsoft could still increase margins and market share. Disclosures: KAREN FINERMAN Karen Finerman is long AAL, BAC, C, DAL, long DB calls, FB, FL, GOGO, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, KORS calls, KORS puts, M, MA, SEDG, SPY puts, UAL, URI, WIFI long call spreads. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, C calls, FB, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, JPM calls, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, PLCE, SPY puts, URI, WIFI. Her firm is short IWM, MDY. Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. DAN NATHAN Dan Nathan is TWTR long, PYPL long Oct calls, XHB long Jan put spread, XLU long Dec call Spread, XLK long Jan put spread, XRT long Jan put spread, PG long Dec put spread, EEM long Nov put spread. BRIAN KELLY Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, SLV and Silver Futures, US Dollar UUP. He is short the euro and Japanese yen. TIM SEYMOUR Tim Seymour is long ABX, APC, AVP, BAC, BBRY, CLF, DO, DVYE, EDC, EWZ, F, FB, FCX, FXI, GM, GOOGL, GE, INTC, LQD,MCD, MUR, OIH, PG, RACE, RAI, RH, RL, SINA, T, TWTR, VALE, VZ, XOM. short: SPY, XRT. His firm is long ABX, BABA, BIDU, CBD, CLF, EWZ, F, KO, MCD, MPEL, NKE, PEP, PF, SAVE, SBUX, SINA, VALE, VIAB, WMT, WEN, X, YHOO, short EWG, HYG, IWM More From CNBC • Top News and Analysis • Latest News Video • Personal Finance [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] $701.76 at 08:45 UTC [24h Range: $670.32 - $743.00 Volume: 11596 BTC] || One Bitcoin now worth $603.90@bitstamp. High $604.73. Low $601.00. Market Cap $9.602 Billion #bitcoin || #ChainCoin #CHC $0.000136 (0.02%) 0.00000019 BTC (0.00%) || 1 #bitcoin = $12415.00 MXN | $666.17 USD #BitAPeso 1 USD = 18.64MXN http://www.bitapeso.com  || One Bitcoin now worth $714.99@bitstamp. High $722.00. Low $707.00. Market Cap $11.423 Billion #bitcoin || #UFOCoin #UFO $0.000007 (0.22%) 0.00000001 BTC (-0.00%) || One Bitcoin now worth $607.90@bitstamp. High $613.01. Low $605.00. Market Cap $9.669 Billion #bitcoin || Bitfinex to Hacker Can We Have Our Bitcoin Back http://cryptscout.com/news-portal/?id=5&ref=3906&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=news-portal … || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 3 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $14.40 #bitcoin #btc || 1 #bitcoin = $14799.00 MXN | $748.21 USD #BitAPeso 1 USD = 19.78MXN http://www.bitapeso.com 
Trend: no change || Prices: 740.98, 751.59, 751.62, 731.03, 739.25, 751.35, 744.59, 740.29, 741.65, 735.38
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2015-06-03] BTC Price: 225.87, BTC RSI: 37.89 Gold Price: 1184.70, Gold RSI: 43.78 Oil Price: 59.64, Oil RSI: 54.00 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Exclusive: Bitcoin exchange itBit seeks New York banking licence: By Lauren Tara LaCapra NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a little noticed move, bitcoin exchange itBit has filed for a banking licence in New York, according to the state banking authority. Approval for the licence may come in the next couple of weeks, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, which could make itBit the first bitcoin company to be regulated as a bank in the United States. The application is part of itBit's plan to expand its business into different corners of financial services, and present itself as a trustworthy and reputable company. Right now, itBit operates as an exchange where buyers and sellers trade the bitcoin digital currency. After a series of scandals that have roiled the virtual currency markets, reassuring customers, investors, and bitcoin market participants is critical. Last year, rival Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy after its computer system was hacked, and prominent bitcoin advocates had been accused of money laundering. "Some highly publicized failures and potentially illegal activity have focussed attention on virtual currencies and have highlighted the need for a sound regulatory framework for virtual currencies," itBit Chief Executive Charles "Chad" Cascarilla said in an October letter to New York's state banking regulator on an unrelated matter. ItBit, whose exchange operates in Singapore, moved its primary headquarters to New York last year, and hired Erik Wilgenhof Plante from eBay Inc (EBAY.O) as chief compliance officer. The company's web site touts its anti-money laundering efforts and "know your customer" credentials, as well as its compliance in all jurisdictions in which it operates. "Whether fairly or not, companies that work within the regulatory framework are more trusted by customers and partners," said David Berger, CEO of the Digital Currency Council, an industry advocacy group. The bank application for itBit Trust Company LLC lists three bigwigs in government and regulatory circles as "organizers," including former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Sheila Bair, former Financial Accounting Standards Board director Robert Herz and former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley. Organizers are responsible for setting up limited liability companies in New York, but do not necessarily hold operating positions within them. Story continues The application also names Cascarilla as an organizer, as well as his business partner Emil Woods, a former SAC Capital portfolio manager who co-founded the investment firm Cedar Hill Capital Partners with Cascarilla. Benjamin Lawsky, New York's superintendent of financial services, has been a vocal advocate of regulating virtual currencies like bitcoin as well as other businesses, like payments, that would operate using the same technology. That technology, called blockchain, essentially records every transaction that happens on the system. Transferring cash requires changing an entry in the ledger, but does not require processing by a bank or other intermediary, making it potentially faster and cheaper. Many on Wall Street and Main Street dismiss unregulated virtual currencies like bitcoin as a wacky concept embraced by paranoiacs, gamblers and bored teenagers. But large companies including International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) are looking seriously at applying the technology behind bitcoin to businesses ranging from payments to trading. Central banks like the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England have also examined blockchain, while major cities including Singapore, London and New York are positioning themselves as bitcoin hubs. [ID:nL5N0X63BQ] "Many people believe that the real payoff with the bitcoin phenomenon is blockchain and all the various uses it can be put to," said Jeff Neuburger‎, a partner at the law firm Proskauer Rose who specializes in technology. "It will have some impact on the way all kinds of financial services are conducted." Spokespeople for itBit and New York's department of financial services confirmed the company had filed a banking licence application but declined further comment. Bair, Herz, Cascarilla and Woods did not respond to requests for comment. Bradley could not be reached for comment. ItBit is backed by venture capitalists including Canaan Partners, RRE Ventures and Liberty City Ventures, where Cascarilla is a partner. Since its founding in 2012, the company has received $3.3 million in a round of fund-raising, according to the startup site CrunchBase. Lately, itBit has been looking to gather more money from investors including Cedar Hill to fund new business ventures, one person briefed on the matter said. (Reporting by Lauren Tara LaCapra; editing by Dan Wilchins and Diane Craft) || Cryptocurrency Finds A Place In Education With Smileycoin: Universities and schools offering online education have grown in number over the past decade as students' preferences change and college enrollment fees rise. The low-cost nature of an online education has been one of the largest draws for schools like the University Of Phoenix, which offers everything from a Bachelor's Degree in business administration to a Master's Degree in Education. However for many students, financial constraints and self-esteem issues keep them from even considering a higher education. Gunnar Stefansson is looking to change all of that with an online tutoring project designed to get low-income students involved in their education through the use of digital currencies. Online Tutoring In an effort to increase math proficiency among students across the globe, Stefansson founded Tutor Web , an online tutoring system that helps students by providing courses covering topics like calculus and statistics. Students from around the globe can participate in the classes, designed by Gunnar himself and some of his colleagues at the University of Iceland. Digital Rewards This year, the site added a reward system based on its own cryptocurrency, smileycoin. Smileycoin can be bought and sold on cryptocurrency exchanges and is intended to give students an incentive to participating in the program. Students can earn the coin in a variety of ways from passing a lecture for a relatively small number of coins to earning the highest mark in the class for a larger sum. The site is also rolling out a peer-tutoring option, which allows students to tutor each other and pay for those services using smileycoin. Related Link: Charities Are Turning To Bitcoin The Bigger Picture While the value of smileycoin is still quite low, Gunnar told Benzinga that he sees the platform as a jumping off point for bigger things. While only a handful of students have cashed in their smileycoins on an exchange to date, Tutor Web is hoping to expand the project to include new uses for the coin that could further entice students to make use of the service. Story continues In the future, he hopes to partner with other companies like coffee shops and airlines to offer discounts or video game providers to offer free time for smileycoin payments. Ideally, Stefansson said smileycoin would mature enough to give low income students a way to earn their way to a higher education. See more from Benzinga The Future Of Robots World Leaders Looking For Ways To Fight Back Against Terrorism Using Social Media Pot For Spot: Can Marijuana Treat Pets? © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Decentralized Application Network Corona Promotes Bitcoin 2.0 Technologies and Provides Funding for Developers Worldwide: A Newly Launched Community Network for Developers of Decentralized Applications (Dapps), Corona Encourages Breakthroughs Using Blockchain Technology, Offering Funding and Resources for Entrepreneurs Worldwide SAN FRANCISCO,CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2015 / Corona is a global hub for Dapp developers and entrepreneurs in search of educational resources and financial support. Corona believes that "positive and tangible change in the world" is possible as Dapps proliferate across the web. By creating a community driven network Corona hopes to encourage the creation of socially and economically disruptive applications. Corona strives to advance cutting edge open-source software and decentralized business models by providing a collaborative environment and funding possibilities for Dapp projects. Developers and entrepreneurs who wish to build the next generation of internet applications can apply for funding on the Corona website https://corona.info/ . Corona is a crypto-technology neutral organization that supports a diversity of decentralized development platforms and technologies such as those offered by Ethereum, Maidsafe, Codius, and Eris amongst others. Corona also supports other decentralization and smart contract technologies such as Bitcoin, Counterparty, Sidechains, Bitshares and NXT. All of these platforms share the same common goal of creating autonomous, distributed and secure systems. Founded by Daniel Greene and backed by a talented team of developers and advisors, Corona aims to make Dapps easier to develop while promoting the new possibilities of their use. Dapps operate on the basis that their users agree on common rules and protocols which cannot be dictated upon them by a central authority . Additionally, they reduce the need for centralized control therefore can provide the user with much higher levels of security, trust and privacy. According to Daniel, Dapps can be built, "in a shorter time period compared to standard applications because of the turnkey infrastructure, lowered barrier to entry, and simplified deployment." The increasing ease of creating such software will lead to the rapid expansion of decentralized services. These peer-to-peer services are revolutionizing the internet economy, "offering alternatives to centralized corporate monopolies." Dapps are anticipated to have a significant disruptive effect on the way companies do business by shifting power back to the consumer . The next generation of desktop and mobile internet applications will provide services such as peer-to-peer insurance, identity and reputation, secure messaging, and decentralized marketplaces. These applications are expected to be highly dependent upon one another "and it is this concept, that Dapps can act like cells in a larger organism, which is a core motivator for the Corona network." Story continues By building a networking hub for Dapp developers in need of funding and resources, Corona is poised to advance new blockchain technologies, open-source software solutions and disruptive decentralized business models that may benefit billions worldwide. About Corona: Corona is a highly collaborative development network promoting and funding the building of platform agnostic decentralized applications and services. The Corona network will accelerate adoption, increase awareness, and optimize the creation of the new decentralized web. Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to FDIC and other consumer protections. This press release is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. For more information about us, please visit https://corona.info . Contact Info: Name: Daniel Greene Email: team@corona.info Organization: Corona SOURCE: Corona View comments || A bitcoin-like solution for Greece: Over the next few months, Greece must repay its bailout and large public-sector debts. Greece and the euro zone need a quick, simple solution that allows Greece to stay in the euro zone and retain ownership of its plentiful and prized assets. An IOU currency isn't the answer - but there is one solution that could work. This past Wednesday, Greece was able to make a 200-million euro (US$224 million) interest payment to the International Monetary Fund, but only by requiring all state enterprises - including schools and pension funds - to transfer reserves to an account at the Greek central bank. Next Tuesday, Greece faces an even bigger payment of 750 million euros to the IMF. As of now, it is unclear how Greece will manage to make this payment. Read MoreGreece makes $224 million payment amid 'nail-biting' talks The situation has become unsustainable, even though there has been no shortage of solutions. However, implementation has been a significant hurdle. In particular, privatization of Greek assets is a lengthy process that has run into political resistance. Adding to the urgency, the recent sharp rise in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese interest rates suggests markets are fearful of contagion if Greece were to exit the euro zone. The European Central Bank is apparently working on anIOU-based secondary currencysimilar to the IOU's used by California in 2009, according to a Reuters report last month. Interestingly, Yanis Varoufakis (Greece's new Finance Minister)wrote a blog postin February proposing a similar currency, which he dubbed Future Tax Coin (FT-Coin). In both of these cases, the secondary currency would borrow tax revenue from the future to pay for obligations today. Furthermore, the secondary currency would be tantamount to a T-bill that was backed by the full faith and credit of the Greek government. As a trust-based financial instrument, acceptance would be a function of the confidence in the Greek government to collect future taxes. Without a way to easily spend the IOU currency, it would likely go unused by government employees and thus have no impact on economic growth. These limiting factors make it clear that an IOU currency issued by a government under financial stress is not a workable solution. Read More'Grimbo': The new thing to worry about in Greece Using block-chain technology (the technology behind bitcoin) there is a simple and elegant way for Greece to monetize assets and pay government employees. While Greece may not have the liquidity to satisfy its current obligations it does have enough illiquid assets to solve much of its financial problems. According to Eurostat, as of September 2014, Greece held 86 billion euros of financial assets on its general government balance sheet. As a percentage of GDP, this makes Greece the 7th wealthiest nation in the EU. As a point of reference, financially sound Germany ranks 17th on the list of state-owned assets as a percentage of GDP. Given the amount of assets held by Greece, the solution to its financial problem becomes evident - it must monetize the assets. This understanding has not escaped the IMF, euro zone and the ECB (the troika), but it has run into resistance from the citizens of Greece. Greece needs a method to monetize state-owned assets while still maintaining ownership. In my opinion, a digital currency based on block-chain technology can provide the solution. Instead of selling assets in what will likely be a fire sale, the Greek government could use block-chain technology to create an asset-backed digital currency that can be used to repay creditors and pay government employees. Initial proceeds from the sale of the currency could be used to meet obligations to the troika, while government employees could be paid in this parallel currency. To make this work, the government of Greece would place a portion of its assets into a trust. Then a digital currency would be issued and backed by this basket of assets. The mechanism for tying the assets to the currency would be a smart contract embedded in the currency that would not allow Greece to sell any asset in the basket unless the holders of the digital currency are paid. Read MoreGreece deal: Seriously, what's holding it up? This approach is a hybrid of a parallel currency and an asset-backed security. Combining the attributes of a digital currency and an asset backed security would result in several benefits. 1. Greece would retain ownership of its highly prized state assets, satisfying the voter mandate to curtail privatization. 2. The currency could be used to pay government salaries and workers would be able to spend the currency at local businesses providing a much-needed economic boost. 3. This creates an investable asset that would be a proxy for a recovery of the Greek economy. 4. Greek banks could hold this hybrid asset instead of T-bills; the asset backing would immediately strengthen bank balance sheets. I want to be clear that this proposal is not suggesting Greece leave the euro zone - in fact, just the opposite. This new digital currency would work in parallel with the existing financial system. This would allow Greece to benefit from remaining in the euro zone while internally expanding money supply and paying off debt. As well, it could quell fears of contagion by providing a template for other liquidity-challenged countries. It is useful to note that this solution does not need to be implemented nationwide - the flexibility and scalability of digital currencies allow a stepwise progression. It is possible for municipalities and agencies within the government to adopt this solution individually. While many proposals sound good on paper, they are often not reasonable to implement. In order to ground this proposal in reality a "One Thing Challenge" has been issued to the block-chain technology community. Over the last few days, the community has been challenged to provide a working prototype of technology that aids in the implementation of the parallel currency. Start-up and established companies have been given a global stage to demonstrate products based on block-chain technology. Read MoreEurogroup: No Greek deal by Monday, but it will get done In my view, this is an opportunity for real-world implementation of block-chain technology. This is not a solo act; it will require a collaborative effort. To that end, a wiki page has been created where block-chain technology firms can submit and discuss all the technology that will be needed. On May 20, I will be hosting an online symposium where companies will have the opportunity to present their piece of the workable solution. Importantly, reasoned disagreement is welcomed as the solution requires examination from multiple angles. Let this serve as an open invitation to contribute. Everyone is invited to be a part of the solution by submitting proposals atwww.drachmae.org. This is not a pie-in-the-sky proposal; there is already a company with a mobile-banking solution and payroll function that will enable the Greek government to pay government workers via mobile phones. Another company is working on storing asset ownership records in a block chain so that ownership can be verified and tracked by everyone. The goal of this project is to create a decentralized organization that can provide a usable solution for Greece and illustrate the potential for block-chain technology. We are fortunate to have this powerful technology at our fingertips and now is the time for the block-chain community to demonstrate its game-changing potential. Brian Kelly is founder and managing member of Brian Kelly Capital LLC, a global macro investment firm catering to high net worth individuals, family offices and institutions. He is also the creator of the BKCM Indexes, benchmarks for multi-asset money managers. He's also the author of the upcoming book, "The Bitcoin Big Bang: How Alternative Currencies Are About to Change the World."Kelly, a CNBC contributor, often appears on "Fast Money." Follow him on Twitter@BKBrianKelly. More From CNBC • Top News and Analysis • Latest News Video • Personal Finance || Buffett holds court in Omaha, Mayweather and Pacquiao bring in big bucks: Sell in May? No way! After a rough ride on Thursday stocks are bouncing back today with all three indices (^DJI,^GSPC,^IXIC) up more than half a percent. Some good news for consumers and automakers seems to be at least partly responsible for traders positive start to May. Get the Latest Market Data and News with the Yahoo Finance App Here are some of the other stoires Yahoo Finance is keeping an eye on today. Berkshire shareholders flcok to OmahaBerkshire Hathaway (BRK-A,BRK-B) is holding its annual shareholder meeting this weekend. In what has become an annual ritual, the financial world will be listening for hints as to when 84-year-old CEO Warren Buffett might step down...and who might replace him.Mayweather vs. PacquiaTomorrow night...it's the big fight! Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao are squaring off for the world welterweight title in Las Vegas. The purse--estimated at $300 million dollars--is the most ever for a boxing match. HBO and Showtime are charging $99 dollars a pop to customers like our own Mike Santoli to watch it on pay-per-view. There are sure to be plenty of winners regardless of who wins the bout. What to watch next weekFinally...it's Friday. Time to look at what we'll be watching next week. Andy Serwer: Cinco de mayAaron Task: Jobs reportAkiko Fujita:  British elections More from Yahoo FinanceThe department store app that outpaced Uber, Tinder and NikeBitcoin goes mainstream with Goldman Sachs' backingMicrosoft developers conference falls flat, is Apple next? || New York regulator issues final virtual currency rules: By Karen Freifeld and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York state issued on Wednesday extensive new rules for companies that operate in virtual currencies such as bitcoin but did little to accommodate complaints that overly tight regulation could hamper the nascent industry. The new rules, the first by a state, create comprehensive guidelines for regulating digital currency firms, according to the state's Department of Financial Services, which developed the regulations. It means that digital currency companies operating in New York state that hold customer funds and exchange virtual currencies for dollars or other currencies are required to apply for what is known as a state "BitLicense." "There is a basic bargain that when a financial company is entrusted with safeguarding customer funds and receives a licence from the state to do so, it accepts the need for heightened regulatory scrutiny to help ensure that a consumer's money does not just disappear into a black hole," Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of the New York state regulator, said in a speech Wednesday at the BITS Emerging Payments Forum in Washington. The "BitLicense" rules include consumer protection, anti-money laundering and cybersecurity protections. The regulations come as digital currencies have drawn criticism for attracting drug dealers and other criminal elements, whilst failing to safeguarding consumer funds. Last year, bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox collapsed after it claimed to have lost $500 million worth of customer bitcoins after being hacked. Overall, industry participants said New York's new rules are still problematic but nonetheless an improvement over the original proposals laid out in July and revised in December. Digital currency companies are required to obtain prior approval for material changes to their products or business models, such as wallet firms offering exchange services. They would also need approval for new controlling investors. But they would not need approval from the state for every round of venture capital funding or standard software updates. "We have no interest in micro-managing minor app updates. We're not Apple," said Lawsky. Companies that want both a BitLicense and a money transmitter licence can work with the state regulator to have a "one-stop" application submission to cover the requirements for both. Jerry Brito, executive director of non-profit research group Coin Centre, called the final regulations "far from perfect," specifically citing what he said were vague state-level anti-money laundering obligations that go beyond federal regulations. He said the group was working with other states "to ensure they do not repeat the mistakes made here." The rules do not apply to software developers, individual users, customer loyalty programmes, gift cards, currency miners, or merchants accepting bitcoin as payment. Lawsky, meanwhile, has come under fire from the bitcoin community for issuing the rules shortly after announcing he was leaving the agency to set up a consulting company that will advise companies on financial matters that could possibly include digital currencies. The most prominent virtual currency now is bitcoin, often used as an investment or to pay for goods and services online. Bitcoin prices have been steady of late, at $225.77 on the BitStamp platform on Wednesday. The price rose as high as $1,123 in December 2013. "I think (the rules) are going to increase the costs to entry for businesses," said New York attorney Reuben Grinberg, who specialises in virtual currency. "But I think it's going to give consumers greater peace of mind and will end up promoting investment in this area much more so than it hurts." (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Karen Freifeld; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Steve Orlofsky) || Bitcoin Shop Signs Letter of Intent to Merge With Spondoolies-Tech: ARLINGTON, VA--(Marketwired - Apr 28, 2015) -Bitcoin Shop, Inc.(OTCQB:BTCS) ("BTCS" or the "Company"), a blockchain technology company that engages in transaction verification services, announced today that it has signed a Letter of Intent ("LOI") to merge withSpondoolies-Tech Ltd("Spondoolies"), a digital currency server manufacturer. BTCS is embarking on a mission to build a fully integrated transaction verification services business using Spondoolies' state-of-the-art bitcoin mining technology. In the bitcoin network, transactions are typically verified by operators of specially designed servers which ensure speed, efficiency, security and accuracy. Currently, there are only five companies globally manufacturing these servers and Spondoolies is widely recognized as a leader in the space. Both companies believe the anticipated combination of BTCS and Spondoolies will create the world's first publicly traded company to produce Bitcoin transaction verification equipment and deploy Bitcoin mining resources. The merger is subject to a number of conditions, including satisfactory completion of diligence and execution of definitive agreements. There can be no assurance that the conditions to closing will be satisfied or merger will be completed. "Our key goal in 2014 was to create the partnerships needed to build an ecosystem and start laying the foundation to put our vision into place," said Charles Allen, CEO of BTCS. "Once completed, our merger with Spondoolies would be a significant leap forward in making this ecosystem a reality. We believe this merger once completed would create significant value for BTCS and Spondoolies shareholders, customers, and employees and serve to accelerate the strategic plans in which both companies have invested. As a collective, our next objective will be to complete the development and production of a next generation chip to drive our transaction verification services business and to generate revenue from the combination." "Over the last several months, we've worked closely with Charles Allen and the BTCS team to establish the nature of our potential partnership," said Guy Corem, CEO of Spondoolies. "The synergy between the teams is amazing. I have the utmost confidence that together we will build a very successful and prosperous company by growing and expanding our business beyond bitcoin mining equipment." About BTCS:BTCS is a blockchain technology company that provides transaction verification services for digital currency. BTCS is building a universal digital currency platform with the goal of enabling users to engage in the digital currency ecosystem through one point of access. BTCS continues to actively partner and integrate with strategic digital currency technology companies who provide products or services that are complementary to its business strategy. BTCS operates its public beta site (www.btcs.com) where consumers can purchase products using digital currency such as bitcoin, litecoin and dogecoin, by searching through a selection of over 250,000 items. For more information visit:www.btcs.com About Spondoolies-Tech:Founded in 2013 by a group of Israeli high-tech veterans, Spondoolies is a digital currency hardware manufacturer. Spondoolies raised ten million dollars in capital from leading Israeli venture capital firms and assembled a team of leaders in the Israeli Semiconductor industry, with the goal of building the infrastructure on which digital currencies will flourish. Building bitcoin transaction verifying servers from the bottom up, Spondoolies is producing machines that are designed for efficiency and performance. During 2014, Spondoolies successfully launched five different products. Forward Looking Statements:Certain statements in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "predict," "forecast," "project," "plan," "intend" or similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. While the Company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation those set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, not limited to Risk Factors relating to its digital currency business contained therein. Thus, actual results could be materially different. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. || The semiconductor trade: 4 stocks to watch: Applied Materials(NASDAQ: AMAT)' earnings beat Thursday may provide a reason to buy into the battered semiconductor space, CNBC"Fast Money"trader Brian Kelly said. The company-which makes technology used to manufacture chips-beat Wall Street's earnings expectations as total orders rose 11 percent year-over-year. Shares rose 2.5 percent in extended trading to more than $20 per share. Read MoreAfter-hours buzz: El Pollo Loco, King, Party City & more "I would be a buyer of Applied Materials here," Kelly said. Big-name stocks in the sector, including Qualcomm(NASDAQ: QCOM)and Micron(NASDAQ: MU), have suffered this year. Trader Jon Najarian looked to stocks that have performed well while some peers struggled. He pointed to Broadcom(NASDAQ: BRCM), which he called a "monster" as it has climbed more than 50 percent in the last year. Najarian also liked Maxim Integrated Products(NASDAQ: MXIM), which has climbed 7 percent this year. Maxim jumped more than 4 percent Thursday on reports that Avago(NASDAQ: AVGO)has shown interest in buying it. NXP Semiconductors(NASDAQ: NXPI)also looks to have upside despite an "incredible rise," said trader Steve Grasso. The company-which has a hand in credit card system components-has soared 34 percent higher this year. Disclosures: Jon Najarian Jon Najarian is long AEP, BBY, CS, CSLT, EXXI, FEYE, GE, HFC, HSBC, HUN, HZNP, JWN, MAS, MCD, MDRX, MRVL, MW, NEE, NRG, NUGT, OAS, OC, PG, PVA, RHT, RRC, RYL, SCTY, SIMO, SIRI, SKX, SOL, SYK, TAP, TEVA, TTWO, TLT, VIX, WMB, UPS, XLI, YPF and ZIOP. He is long calls AKS, BBY, CTXS, EQT, EWJ, FB, GE, GREK, GRPN, GSK, GTI, IDTI, JWN, LNKD, MCD, MDRX, MT, MYL, NTAP, NUAN, OAS, PG, PPC, PRU, RAD, SAP, SIMO, SKX, SNDK, TAP, UPS, VALE, WFM and XLK. He is long LOCO puts. Today, he bought AEP, JWN, NUGT, UPS, JWN calls MT calls, UPS calls and LOCO puts. Steve Grasso Steve Grasso is long AAPL, BAC, BTU, DD, EVGN, MJNA, PFE, T, TWTR and GDX. His firm is long MCD, AXP, IBM, KO, TWTR and ZNGA. His kids own EFG, EFA, EWJ, IJR and SPY. Karen Finerman Karen is long BABA, BAC, C, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, M and KORS. She is short SPY. Her firm is long AAPL, ANTM, BAC, C, DIS, FBT, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, GPS, IBB, JPM, M, KORS, SUNE, URI and XBI. Her firm is short IWM, SPY, MDY. Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long DXGE, BTC=, BBRY, SPY puts and U.S. dollar. He is short Australian dollar, euro, yen and yuan. Today, he bought DXGE and sold short euro. More From CNBC • Top News and Analysis • Latest News Video • Personal Finance || Bitcoin Shop Signs Letter of Intent to Merge With Spondoolies-Tech: ARLINGTON, VA--(Marketwired - Apr 28, 2015) -Bitcoin Shop, Inc.(OTCQB:BTCS) ("BTCS" or the "Company"), a blockchain technology company that engages in transaction verification services, announced today that it has signed a Letter of Intent ("LOI") to merge withSpondoolies-Tech Ltd("Spondoolies"), a digital currency server manufacturer. BTCS is embarking on a mission to build a fully integrated transaction verification services business using Spondoolies' state-of-the-art bitcoin mining technology. In the bitcoin network, transactions are typically verified by operators of specially designed servers which ensure speed, efficiency, security and accuracy. Currently, there are only five companies globally manufacturing these servers and Spondoolies is widely recognized as a leader in the space. Both companies believe the anticipated combination of BTCS and Spondoolies will create the world's first publicly traded company to produce Bitcoin transaction verification equipment and deploy Bitcoin mining resources. The merger is subject to a number of conditions, including satisfactory completion of diligence and execution of definitive agreements. There can be no assurance that the conditions to closing will be satisfied or merger will be completed. "Our key goal in 2014 was to create the partnerships needed to build an ecosystem and start laying the foundation to put our vision into place," said Charles Allen, CEO of BTCS. "Once completed, our merger with Spondoolies would be a significant leap forward in making this ecosystem a reality. We believe this merger once completed would create significant value for BTCS and Spondoolies shareholders, customers, and employees and serve to accelerate the strategic plans in which both companies have invested. As a collective, our next objective will be to complete the development and production of a next generation chip to drive our transaction verification services business and to generate revenue from the combination." "Over the last several months, we've worked closely with Charles Allen and the BTCS team to establish the nature of our potential partnership," said Guy Corem, CEO of Spondoolies. "The synergy between the teams is amazing. I have the utmost confidence that together we will build a very successful and prosperous company by growing and expanding our business beyond bitcoin mining equipment." About BTCS:BTCS is a blockchain technology company that provides transaction verification services for digital currency. BTCS is building a universal digital currency platform with the goal of enabling users to engage in the digital currency ecosystem through one point of access. BTCS continues to actively partner and integrate with strategic digital currency technology companies who provide products or services that are complementary to its business strategy. BTCS operates its public beta site (www.btcs.com) where consumers can purchase products using digital currency such as bitcoin, litecoin and dogecoin, by searching through a selection of over 250,000 items. For more information visit:www.btcs.com About Spondoolies-Tech:Founded in 2013 by a group of Israeli high-tech veterans, Spondoolies is a digital currency hardware manufacturer. Spondoolies raised ten million dollars in capital from leading Israeli venture capital firms and assembled a team of leaders in the Israeli Semiconductor industry, with the goal of building the infrastructure on which digital currencies will flourish. Building bitcoin transaction verifying servers from the bottom up, Spondoolies is producing machines that are designed for efficiency and performance. During 2014, Spondoolies successfully launched five different products. Forward Looking Statements:Certain statements in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "predict," "forecast," "project," "plan," "intend" or similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. While the Company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation those set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, not limited to Risk Factors relating to its digital currency business contained therein. Thus, actual results could be materially different. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. || Greece's credit rating just got downgraded AGAIN by S&P: garbage pile junk (Wikimedia Commons) With Greece's fiscal situation seemingly deteriorating every day, and little hope of any substantive deal on the horizon, Standard & Poor's just slashed the country's credit rating. That S&P downgrade sends Athens even further into junk territory, down from B- to CCC+. Here's what S&P had to say: The downgrade reflects our view that Greece's solvency hinges increasingly on favorable business, financial, and economic conditions. In our view, these conditions have worsened due to the uncertainty stemming from the prolonged negotiations between the almost three-month-old Greek government and its official creditors. The outlook for full-year economic growth is highly uncertain. We estimate the Greek economy has contracted by close to 1% over the past six months despite a weaker euro and lower oil prices. In our opinion, economic prospects could deteriorate further unless talks between Greece and its creditors conclude soon. Which doesn't sound particularly healthy. The country is struggling to negotiate a bailout deal with its European creditors , and things are not looking good. But even if Greece does meet the conditions its lenders want and get enough to please the far-left government and its supporters, it'll be back in this situation later in the summer — the bailout will only last for three or four months. NOW WATCH: 9 animated maps that will change the way you see the world More From Business Insider A senior eurozone figure says it's 'impossible' to work with Greece and it'll miss its deadline for a deal Greece's rock star finance minister Yanis Varoufakis is the star of a new film about Bitcoin Greece made its big IMF debt repayment [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] current #bitcoin price (winkdex) is $226.53, last changed Wed, 29 Apr 2015 02:30:00 GMT. queried at: 02:33:02 || Current price: 213.56€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-05-24 17:00:04 CEST || current #bitcoin price (winkdex) is $237.39, last changed Sat, 11 Apr 2015 03:34:00 GMT. queried at: 03:36:38 || current #bitcoin price (winkdex) is $236.33, last changed Wed, 22 Apr 2015 20:00:00 GMT. queried at: 20:02:49 || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 20 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $788.47 #bitcoin #btc || 00.38: RT @Lexxspeed: Ada pengerjaan reklame di Jalan Pasteur pas U Turn BTC. Dua jalur di tutup untuk alat berat. pic.twitter.com/2xAEV4ttww || current #bitcoin price (okcoin) is $218.41, last changed Mon, 27 Apr 2015 00:33:00 GMT. queried at: 00:33:00 || 2015年4月8日 16:00:02 BTC_MONA 買[bid]:1707.00000000MONA 売[ask]:2100.00000000MONA API by もなとれ || LIVE: Profit = $794.84 (21.40 %). BUY B15.37 @ $240.50 (#BitStamp). SELL @ $246.00 (#VirCurex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || Bitcoin traded at $249.21 USD on BTC-e at 01:00 PM Pacific Time
Trend: up || Prices: 224.32, 224.95, 225.62, 222.88, 228.49, 229.05, 228.80, 229.71, 229.98, 232.40
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin Hash Rate Almost Fully Recovered, Closes in on All-Time High: BeInCrypto – The hash rate of the Bitcoin network is nearly back at pre-crash levels as it closes in on a new all-time high. This story was seen first on BeInCrypto Join our Telegram Group and get trading signals, a free trading course and more stories like this on BeInCrypto || One year on from Bitcoin breaking $30k, where is it headed next?: At the end of 2020, Bitcoin made one of the most impressive moves in its entire history – going from $19k at the start of December to a January 8 high of $41.9k. Following the major breakout to $41k, Bitcoin (BTC) pulled back to $30k before starting its upward trajectory towards April’s former all-time high (ATH) of $64k. From there, the pain started with a three-month retrace back to the $30k level before slowly grinding back up to a November ATH of $69k. However, the pain has since returned with another retrace back to current levels of $46k. Following a rollercoaster year for Bitcoin, which started with swathes of investments from an array of institutional investors and businesses, Coin Rivet now looks at what’s next for the market-leading asset. A new ATH? Seemingly the question on everybody’s lips, a new all-time high for Bitcoin would mark the asset’s eventual move towards the $100k price point and once again secure its status as a $1tn asset. However, the question is when? Well, nobody knows. Despite heavy investment from major global businesses, country-wide adoption from El Salvador and others alongside mainstream adoption in the form of payments and ETFs , Bitcoin has still yet to show any major strength outside of bullish catalysts. Now, it’s anticipated that an institutionally-led rally or another major, industry-changing development is required to spur a push towards the previous ATH of $69k and beyond. Institutional interest A large contributor to the growth of Bitcoin has been institutional interest in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Demand for the asset has been high in 2021 according to Grayscale , which set the Bitcoin community alight when it announced it will eventually convert its Bitcoin fund into an ETF product. This sparked a number of other ETF products to be applied for, including applications from Van Eck and Fidelity International . This, in turn, led to a number of large institutions and businesses investing in Bitcoin, including Tesla and MicroStrategy alongside support from leading banks such as JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley . Story continues Due to its status as a ‘store-of-value’ (SoV) asset and a ‘hedge’ against rising inflation caused by the devaluation of the US dollar, holding Bitcoin on a balance sheet has become a popular way to gain exposure to cryptocurrencies. A similar swathe of investment in Bitcoin from an array of new institutions and global players could spur price action upwards. Conversely, little to no further interest in the asset could signal that Bitcoin is losing favour as the go-to SoV over gold. The need for Bitcoin Alongside the growing interest in the asset, many bold predictions have been made about Bitcoin and its ability to terraform an unstable and declining economy. Having been designed as a form of ungovernable, decentralised money, the need for Bitcoin has become more clear than ever. Already an established part of global financial markets despite being only a $1tn asset, the draw of Bitcoin may prove too much to ignore for everyone – especially those interested in diversifying their portfolios into digital assets. If it can maintain its status as the leading SoV, continue to become globally adopted, and prove itself as a truly decentralised asset, then Bitcoin could reach and exceed the predictions set by many. However, regulatory woes alongside potential cryptocurrency ‘bans’ could mar its progress into becoming more widely accepted. || EUR/USD Daily Forecast – Test Of Resistance At 1.1325: Euro Tries To Move Higher Against U.S. Dollar EUR/USD is currently trying to settle above the resistance at 1.1325 while the U.S. dollar is losing ground against a broad basket of currencies. The U.S. Dollar Index is currently trying to settle below the support level at 95.75. In case this attempt is successful, the U.S. Dollar Index will gain additional downside momentum and head towards the support at 95.40 which will be bullish for EUR/USD. Yesterday, EU reported that Euro Area Inflation Rate increased by 0.8% month-over-month in October, in line with the analyst consensus. On a year-over-year basis, Euro Area Inflation Rate grew by 4.1%. Euro Area Core Inflation Rate grew by 2% year-over-year compared to analyst consensus of 2.1%. Inflation in the Euro Area is weaker compared to the inflation in the U.S., and ECB is expected to remain dovish while the Fed could be forced to raise rates several times in 2022. In this light, it remains to be seen whether euro will be able to gain more ground against U.S. dollar on the foreign exchange market. Technical Analysis EUR/USD managed to settle above the resistance level at 1.1300 and is trying to settle above the next resistance at 1.1325. RSI remains in the oversold territory, and there is plenty of room to gain upside momentum in case the right catalysts emerge. In case EUR/USD settles above the resistance at 1.1325, it will move towards the next resistance level which is located at 1.1350. A successful test of the resistance at 1.1350 will open the way to the test of the resistance at 1.1370. In case EUR/USD manages to settle above this level, it will head towards the resistance at 1.1400. On the support side, the nearest support level for EUR/USD is located at 1.1300. In case EUR/USD moves back below this level, it will head towards the support at 1.1270. A move below 1.1270 will push EUR/USD towards the next support at 1.1230. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar . Story continues This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Avalanche Hits All-Time High Above $100 as DeFi Ecosystem Crosses $10B U.S Dollar Maintains Siege Below 16 Month High EUR/USD Daily Forecast – Test Of Resistance At 1.1325 Changpeng Zhao Reveals He Holds Bitcoin and Binance Coin EUR/USD Forex Technical Analysis – Confirmation of Closing Price Reversal Bottom Sets Up Rally into 1.1364 Ethereum Faced Resistance At The 20 EMA And Pulled Back || Crypto-Adjacent Stock Has Room to Run After Rebound: The shares of Marathon Digital Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: MARA) are surging today, up 9.8% to trade at $45.91 at last check, as crypto stocks rebound alongside Bitcoin (BTC). The stock hasn't yet recovered its losses from Friday's 15.4% drop, however, its recent pullback has MARA pulling back to a historically bullish trendline. More specifically, Marathon Digital stock has run into its 200-day moving average, after spending a significant period of time above it. According to data from Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White, three similar signals have occurred during the past three years. MARA enjoyed a positive one-month return in 100% of those cases, averaging an impressive 50.4% gain. From its current perch, a similar move would put the security back above the $69 level, putting it closer to its Nov. 9 six-year high of $83.45. MARA Dec7 It's also worth noting that the security's Relative Strength Index (RSI) of 28 is in "oversold" territory. This means a short-term bounce is likely in the cards. There is plenty of short-covering potential, too. Short interest represents 15.5% of the stock's available float. However, it's worth noting that the recent volatility has MARA on the Short Sale Restricted (SSR) list today. The stock's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 129% stands higher than 21% of all other readings in its annual range, implying that options players are pricing in relatively lower volatility expectations than usual at the moment. Furthermore, the security's Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) sits at a 99 out of 100, meaning MARA has exceeded these volatility expectations during the past year. || BTCS becomes the first company to offer dividends paid in Bitcoin: Blockchain-focused BTCS has become the first Nasdaq-listed company to offer investors a dividend payable in Bitcoin – referred to as a ‘Bividend’. The ‘ Bividend ‘ will be payable at $0.05 per share owned in Bitcoin , based on the Bitcoin price on the date when dividends are distributed. The development marks the first time a company has offered dividends in the market-leading asset as an alternative to cash payments. Being the first ‘Pure Play’ US publicly-traded company focused on blockchain technologies, BTCS provides blockchain infrastructure and helps secure proof-of-stake blockchains through the native staking of crypto assets. It is also currently developing a proprietary ‘ staking-as-a-service ‘ platform to allow users to stake supported cryptocurrencies through a non-custodial platform. BTCS is currently operating nodes on the Ethereum 2.0 network and plans to expand to other ‘disruptive’ blockchains such as Solana , Polkadot , Cosmos , Cardano , Polygon and Algorand in the future. “We want to reward our long-time shareholders for their continued support and encourage financial freedom by providing the means to enable direct ownership of Bitcoin and other digital assets,” said Charles Allen, Chief Executive Officer of BTCS. “In the crypto space, BTCS has a long history of firsts, including being the first pure-play US public company focused on cryptocurrencies and blockchains, the first US public company to mine Bitcoin and the first US public company to secure next-generation proof-of-stake blockchains.” Allen also added that, thanks to an improved financial position, now was an “ideal time to reward our shareholders with a non-taxable return-of-capital Bividend”. || Bitcoin Mining Profitability Falling with More Drops to Come, Says Arcane: Mining profitability levels for bitcoin are finally on the decline, a new report has claimed. China’s crackdown on BTC and altcoin mining – which began in early summer and intensified in September – took a heavy toll on the global hashrate (computer power on the BTC network). But the findings of an Arcane Research report suggested that Chinese miners defying the crackdown and miners based elsewhere in the world saw profits soar. #Bitcoin mining profitability is on the way down after the super-profitable autumn. The Antminer S19 now has a cash flow per BTC of $39k, down 36% from the $60k peak in November. From our weekly market report: https://t.co/1BRmx043AV pic.twitter.com/5MFpsbsEff — Arcane Research (@ArcaneResearch) December 22, 2021 That growth appears to have continued until November, when profitability began to decline, Arcane noted. November Peak Now Over The profitability rate for BTC miners using the Bitmain Antminer S19 rig has now dropped to July levels. The cash flow per BTC 1 currently stands at $39,000, the researcher added. In November, profitability levels were almost double this figure, peaking at around $60,000 per coin. Price drops in the bitcoin market were also partly to blame for the profitability decline. But it appears that miners are happy to hold on to their coins and wait for price rises before making liquidity moves. Earlier this week, the analytics service Glassnode remarked that the amount of bitcoin currently being held by miners stands at BTC 500 shy of the all-time-high figure set in December last year – at almost BTC 1.8 million. Glassnode added that miners had “started HODLing significantly more” bitcoin beginning in March last year – apparently confident that more crypto price rises will soon be on their way. #Bitcoin miner unspent supply is currently sitting just 500 $BTC below ATH. These coins are issued to miners as a reward for solving a block, but have never been spent onchain. Miners started HODLing significantly more $BTC since March 2020. Live Chart: https://t.co/D2jZTD0O52 pic.twitter.com/vJy1G41Xvf — glassnode (@glassnode) December 20, 2021 Share Price Fall Outpaces Token Drops Arcane, meanwhile, remarked that the “recent profitability decline” had “led to a reduction in the share prices of publicly listed mining companies.” Story continues It noted that since early November, some players have seen a share price slide of over 55%, with rival players seeing 40% falls – despite the fact that bitcoin prices had “only” fallen by 32% “in the same period.” The firm concluded that this slide downwards proves that “mining companies are more volatile than the bitcoin price.” Arcane predicted a further drop in profitability in the near future, writing: “As more hashrate continue to come online, we expect the profitability of mining to continue trending downwards over the next months.” This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: S&P 500 Price Forecast – Stock Markets Continue to Grind Higher Why Tesla Stock Is Back To The $1,000 Level Today Gold Price Forecast – Gold Markets Continue to Hover Bitcoin Mining Profitability Falling with More Drops to Come, Says Arcane E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – Strong Over 35506, Weak Under 35323 USD/JPY Price Forecast – US Dollar Grinding Higher View comments || Bitcoin Returns Above $58K as Momentum Improves: Bitcoin (BTC) is holding support above its 100-day moving average, currently around $54,200, as last week’s sell-off stabilizes. The cryptocurrency was trading around $58,000 at press time and could face initial resistance at $60,000-$63,000. Price momentum is starting to recover on the daily chart, which suggests buyers could remain active into the Asia trading day. Additionally, the relative strength index ( RSI ) on the daily chart is near oversold levels similar to what occurred in late September, which preceded a price rally. For now, buyers will need to clear resistance in order to yield further upside targets. Longer-term indicators have shifted neutral as buyers failed to sustain an all-time high near $69,000 over the past month. || USD/CAD Rebounds Despite Soft U.S. Data: On Friday, the dollar rebounded versus the Loonie as U.S. Treasury yields rallied. The increase in the 2-year yield pulled the yield differential in favor of the greenback. The move-in Treasury yields come despite weaker than expected U.S. data. Retail Sales, Import Prices and Industrial Production all fell short of expectations. TheUSD/CADmoved higher on Friday but finished the week in the red. Support is seen near the 200-day moving average at 1.25. Resistance is seen near the 10-day moving average at 1.2640. The 10-day moving average crossed below the 50-day moving average, which means a short-term downtrend is in place. Short-term momentum has turned negative as the fast stochastic generated a crossover buy signal. Medium-term momentum has turned negative as the MACD (moving average convergence divergence) index generated a crossover sell signal. This scenario occurs as the MACD line (the 12-day moving average minus the 26-day moving average) crosses above the MACD signal line (the 9-day moving average of the MACD line). The MACD histogram is printing in negative territory with a downward sloping trajectory which points to a lower exchange rate. Import prices dropped 0.2% last in December, the first decrease since August, after increasing 0.7% in November,. In the 12 months through December, prices rose 10.4% after advancing 11.7% in November. Expectations had been for import prices, which exclude tariffs, gaining 0.3%. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • S&P 500 Trying to Hang On for The Week • Crypto – U.S Market Correlation Continued on Friday, Delivering Bitcoin (BTC) Support • USD/CAD Rebounds Despite Soft U.S. Data • Gold Prices Slip as Treasury Yields Rise to Fresh 23-Month Highs • Gold Markets Carving Out a Consolidation • S&P 500 Bounces After Initial Selloff || WallStreetNinja: Angel Round led by Swiss crypto boutique CoinNexus: The growth of decentralized ecosystem’s has been exponential and the application of its use cases seem to have no limits, with full mainstream adoption in sight there’s never been a better time to launch the WallStreetNinja. Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Nov. 23, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (via Blockchain Wire ) WallStreetNinja “the Unstoppable Ecosystem” (aka WSN) is a clear example of how the computing space under the premise of a Web3 can generate an irruption within a disruptive technology such as blockchain: possibilities of multi-chain decentralized products and decentralized applications interconnected through a single session and without frictions via the WSN Web DApp at internet speed. Photo Available: WallStreetNinja In order to alter the decentralized sector and support a set of innovative projects in the blockchain space, CoinNexus has become an early-stage backer of WSN by leading the angel round to grow this disruptive project along with other high-profile partners such as DarkPool Ventures and Midas Touch Consulting, who led the incubation of WSN. CoinNexus is a Swiss-based Crypto Boutique firm with both founders combining more than 20 years of experience operating within the decentralized technology sector. The core business of CoinNexus is managing its own portfolio of crypto-assets and brokering selected projects to its clients along with consulting. Regarding the alliance, Fabio Bossi, Vice-President of CoinNexus, stated "We were highly impressed with the professionalism and deep commitment of the team. WSN is one of the most interesting projects we've come across in recent years and it has the potential to bring decentralization to the masses." With this new alliance and partnership, WallStreetNinja will receive a strategic investment that not only provides capital, but also advice from an experienced team in the space of financial markets, cryptocurrencies and technology. This will help diversify the options of generating value to users of the WSN ecosystem. Story continues In this regard, the team behind WallStreetNinja stated that “the entry of CoinNexus to the group of investors who believe in WSN's unique and revolutionary proposition in the decentralized sector, is a sign of the growing interest of institutional investors in up and coming decentralized ecosystems.” CoinNexus Swiss-based bespoke firm offering innovative crypto brokerage solutions to institutional and HNWI clients. Innovations include automated buying and selling of bitcoin (BTC) via their institutional-grade fully integratable API interface. Follow CoinNexus developments on: Website WallStreetNinja WallStreetNinja (WSN) provides users simplified access to a decentralized ecosystem’s chain of their choice from a single web app. WSN is taking the self custody wallet segment to the next level through decentralized computing and blockchain relays. Follow WallStreetNinja’s developments on: Website Telegram Announcement | Telegram Chat | Twitter | Gitbook CONTACT: support-at-coinnexus.ch hello-at-ws.ninja https://www.ws.ninja || Will there be a bear market in 2022?: When 2021 comes to its finale, it will be remembered as a solid year for stocks that represented more of a bull than a bear market. The benchmark S&P 500 had more than doubled (+24%) its average annual total return of 11% over the 40 years. But for cryptocurrencies, things were more than solid – they’ve been phenomenal. Since the beginning of the year, the aggregate value of digital currencies rose by 176% to $2.14tn. New possibilities regarding decentralised finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and the enormous potential for blockchain-based gaming in the metaverse, boosted investor confidence but also sent cryptocurrencies to the undreamt heights (just look at the rise of the meme-coin Shiba Inu of more than 45,000,000% year-to-year). However, there are certain fears that the upcoming year may not treat cryptos as nice. There are a few reasons that could lead to a crypto bear market in 2022. FED’s Policy The FED finally admitted that the inflation wasn’t only ‘transitory’ and indirectly announced the possibility for multiple interest rate raises next year. Mario Gatara, an analyst from market intelligence company Analogika , told Coin Rivet: “Now that FED finally got over the ‘transitory’ sticker for the inflation, accelerating the QE taper, multiple interest rate raises are clearly on the cards for the next year. “No surprises there, which explains the most recent bout of optimism on Wall Street. “However, with Jerome Powell touting central bank monetary policy as data-dependent, the guessing game continues – monetary policy should remain the dominant issue for the stock market performance, keeping stocks at the mercy of the Federal Reserve. “Needless to say, things could get ugly in case of a prolonged period of higher inflation.” He further explained that the crypto universe looks like an obvious beneficiary but, despite the historically low correlation with the stock market, during the last few months, Bitcoin exhibited a starkly different behaviour – that could lead to a bear market. Story continues “Notoriously volatile, the crypto bellwether led the rest of the coins into a risk-on/risk-off mode, in tandem with stocks, suffering a sharp sell-off, and languishing far off the all-time-high, along with a handful of (recently very popular) meme stocks,” he said. “It could be a sign of a reduced risk appetite from retail investors, while a protracted stagnation could cool off fresh demand and even further dampen the momentum desperately needed to keep the crypto assets attractive to newcomers.” However, Gatara concluded, in case of a prolonged period of higher inflation – “things could become pretty rough”. History of crypto market History may suggest that the crypto market could mirror the bear market situation and that reversions coming after the upswings are nothing new. Since the March 2020 bottom, the total value of all digital currencies has jumped more than 14-fold to $2.14tn. This is somewhat similar to the 35-fold increase in total market value over roughly 10 months between March 2017 and January 2018. However, following the January 2018 spike, the aggregate value of all cryptocurrencies would go on to decline by just shy of 90% over the subsequent 11 months. Blockchain distrust – Catch 22 While blockchain is exciting, it is still new and not widely adopted yet. Businesses are still reluctant to just jump at the chance to support large-scale projects until there’s practical evidence of its effectiveness. Yet, the whole thing cannot be proved until businesses welcome blockchain with open arms. It’s quite the riddle/Catch-22 that could postpone the rally and cause bear market rules for some time. Margin debt Margin describes the amount of money, investors are borrowing with interest to buy or short-sell securities. In some instances, investors using margins to leverage their trades can boost their returns. But if the securities being purchased on margin don’t move how they expected in the short term, the brokerages will want investors to invest more money as collateral or could even force the sale of assets – also known as a margin call. FOMO Some argue that ‘fear of missing out’ (FOMO) moves could suck the life out of the cryptocurrency market in 2022. The most famous meme coins all share one key trait – lack of anything resembling a competitive advantage. For example, Shiba Inu may be one of the most-searched digital currencies this year, but social-media hysteria doesn’t necessarily mean it will have long-term potential. In short, nothing regarding Shiba Inu (or Dogecoin and Floki Inu, for that matter) guarantees it’ll be the payment coin of choice by businesses in the constantly growing sector of blockchain projects. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 42250.55, 42375.63, 41744.33, 40680.42, 36457.32, 35030.25, 36276.80, 36654.33, 36954.00, 36852.12
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2015-07-08] BTC Price: 270.79, BTC RSI: 68.22 Gold Price: 1163.30, Gold RSI: 43.11 Oil Price: 51.65, Oil RSI: 28.02 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin Shop Makes $1.5m Strategic Investment in Spondoolies-Tech: ARLINGTON, VA--(Marketwired - May 18, 2015) -Bitcoin Shop, Inc.(OTCQB:BTCS) ("BTCS" or the "Company"), a blockchain technology company that engages in transaction verification services, announced today that it has invested $1.5m intoSpondoolies-Tech Ltd("Spondoolies"), a transaction verification server manufacturer. BTCS' investment in Spondoolies comes on the heels of the announcement of the intention for BTCS and Spondoolies to merge (April 28, 2015) and is serving as the first integral step of the planned merger. Together, the two companies will create the world's first publicly traded company to produce Bitcoin transaction verification equipment and deploy Bitcoin mining resources. Under the terms of the definitive investment agreements, BTCS purchased a 6.6 percent equity interest in Spondoolies, and received certain exclusivity rights and pricing for current and future Spondoolies' products as well as a $1m breakup fee, in case the planned merger between BTCS and Spondoolies is not consummated. The investment in Spondoolies was based on a pre-money valuation of approximately $21.2m. Based in Kiryat Gat, Israel, Spondoolies-Tech is the premier developer of Bitcoin transaction verification servers. Launched in August 2013, Spondoolies is Israeli venture backed and has shipped thousands of servers to customers around the world in the past year. The terms of the planned merger between BTCS and Spondoolies are a merger of equals. Upon closing, the parties will equally share the dilution resulting from BTCS' April 22, 2015 $2.3m financing. Charles Allen will serve as the merged entity's CEO and Chairman and Guy Corem, Spondoolies CEO and cofounder, will serve as a board member and executive officer. Additionally, Yuval Rozen will serve as BTCS' CFO. The merger is subject to a number of conditions, including satisfactory completion of diligence and execution of definitive agreements. There can be no assurance that the conditions to closing will be satisfied or merger will be completed. BTCS' Chairman and CEO Charles Allen, who will lead the new company, said that the planned combination of the two companies represents a new force in the evolving blockchain industry. "This is a powerful merger as the technologies of the two companies are clearly very complementary and stand to produce immense revenue growth while delivering value to customers, shareholders, and employees." "We are excited to begin our partnership with BTCS and appreciate their support during a transformative part of our company's growth," said Spondoolies CEO, Guy Corem. "We believe this new relationship will ensure our ability to continue development and production of innovative and high quality products, targeted mainly for internal use of the merged company but also to deliver the highest quality bitcoin mining equipment for our transaction verification services." About BTCS:BTCS is a blockchain technology company that provides transaction verification services for digital currency. BTCS is building a universal digital currency platform with the goal of enabling users to engage in the digital currency ecosystem through one point of access. BTCS continues to actively partner and integrate with strategic digital currency technology companies who provide products or services that are complementary to its business strategy. BTCS operates its public beta site (www.btcs.com) where consumers can purchase products using digital currency such as bitcoin, litecoin, and dogecoin, by searching through a selection of over 250,000 items. For more information visit:www.btcs.com About Spondoolies-Tech:Founded in 2013 by a group of Israeli high-tech veterans, Spondoolies is a transaction verification server manufacturer. Spondoolies raised ten million dollars in capital from leading Israeli venture capital firms and assembled a team of leaders in the Israeli Semiconductor industry, with the goal of building the infrastructure on which digital currencies will flourish. Building bitcoin transaction verifying servers from the bottom up, Spondoolies is producing machines that are designed for efficiency and performance. During 2014, Spondoolies successfully launched five different products. Forward-Looking Statements:Certain statements in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "predict," "forecast," "project," "plan," "intend" or similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. While the Company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation those set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, not limited to Risk Factors relating to its digital currency business contained therein. Thus, actual results could be materially different. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. || SendChat Crowdfunding For iPhone App, Android App Supporting Bitcoin, DOGE, USD Begins – Instant Messaging And Transactions: SendChat Prepares to Launch a Digital Currency Messenger App for iOS and Android, that will Allow Users to Send and Receive Bitcoin, Sendcoin, and Other Digital Currencies with USD, AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP and More Instantly - Parallel to Messaging NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2015 / The use of Bitcoin can be overwhelming for most new users. There are many new elements to consider when switching from existing fiat channels to that of a digital currency. Moreover, there are some boundaries that can limit the overall adoption. Such things as security, education and overall understanding of this new technology. This is where the SendChat messaging app team have proposed a new application to overcome such boundaries whilst proving a platform for new and existing users to be involved with digital currencies . Imagine being able to send and receive bitcoins and other digital currencies - that will be introduced over time - without worrying about the learning curve, security, safety or privacy and in this case are as easy as sending a message. SendChat has been able to achieve this by surrounding itself with pioneers within each field. As CEO Alejandro De La Torre explained, "SendChat is a fun and easy way to communicate and send digital currency using the blockchain. The platform incorporates the existing technologies of Telegram and Blocktrail to deliver a platform with privacy and security in mind. With SendChat, users can send digital currency such as Bitcoin and Sendcoin to their contacts, creating an exciting solution that can cater to both new and existing mobile users...Many products coming to market in the blockchain space are cumbersome, and not very easy to use. Non-technical users often have difficulties completing the most common tasks in such applications. With SendChat you can send digital currencies effortlessly, and chat with your friends while you do it." The Telegram platform along with its security features have been incorporated within its shell to ensure users that their messaging remains free, easy, safe and without interruption. An open source application that has accumulated over 50 million users due to its successful design and system architecture. Story continues Individuals from all around the world can get involved with this revolutionary application by joining the crowdfund hosted by BlockTrust starting May 10th . They have ensured the safety and security of all funds put towards this project through their robust and thoroughly tested infrastructure that has been designed with one thing in mind - peace of mind for backers. BlockTrust - a leader in digital currency crowdfunding - has been selected to stand as the gateway during this stage that will seek to raise the capital needed for its embankment. Finally with the support of the blockchain technology everyone can rest assured that the tokens issued by the platform - named SEND - benefit from the same level of integrity to that of Bitcoin. It is also worthy to note that the most important aspect of this platform, one that will see its users benefit by being able to purchase digital currencies using existing and widely used currencies - such as USD, AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP and others - through its internal system. Users can also trust that their personal wallets are kept safe through the services offered by BlockTrail , another powerful partner that stands for security. As mentioned by the BlockTrail CEO, Boaz Bechar, "BlockTrail is a Bitcoin API and multisignature security platform, enabling scalable and secure Bitcoin for developers and enterprises." Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to FDIC and other consumer protections. This press release is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. For more information about us, please visit https://blocktrust.org/#/offeringFeature/SendChat . Contact Info: Name: Alejandro De La Torre, founder and CEO Email: contact@sendchat.org Organization: SendChat Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlkTilDKOTI SOURCE: SendChat || Fast Food Gets Even Faster In Asia: McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD ) has had a difficult year as consumer tastes shifted and the restaurant battled criticism over its ingredients and lack of healthy offerings. However, the burger chain has been working to restore its bottom line, especially in China, where the massive population represents a major growth opportunity. Appealing To Their Preferences In an effort to reach Chinese consumers, who are becoming increasingly focused on digital innovation, McDonald's is piloting a new program that will allow customers to pay for their orders on their mobile device, making the process of collecting their meal in-store faster and easier. Custom Burgers The decision to include a mobile payment option in China came after McDonald's unveiled digital kiosks that allow customers to build their own burger using a touch screen machine at two Shanghai locations. By adding state-of-the-art technology to its appeal, McDonald's is hoping to lure in first-time customers who are eager to try something new. Related Link: Bitcoin Glitch Costs Miners Thousands Mobile Payments Take Off While mobile payments are nothing new, in China they are becoming increasingly popular. Online retailer Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE: BABA ) recently launched a mobile payment system which has been adopted by several big names including Wal-Mart Corp (NYSE: WMT ) and Yum Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM )'s KFC food chain. Since Chinese customers have historically shied away from using credit cards, mobile payments has become a major draw. Customers have been looking for a fast, convenient way to pay and mobile options are providing that experience. See more from Benzinga FIFA Sponsors Weigh Up The Cost Of Scandal McDonald's Back In The Firing Line Over Happy Meal Ad © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Fearing return to drachma, some Greeks use bitcoin to dodge capital controls: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - There is at least one legal way to get your euros out of Greece these days, to guard against the prospect that they might be devalued into drachmas: convert them into bitcoin. Although absolute figures are hard to come by, Greek interest has surged in the online "cryptocurrency", which is out of the reach of monetary authorities and can be transferred at the touch of a smartphone screen. New customers depositing at least 50 euros with BTCGreece, the only Greece-based bitcoin exchange, open only to Greeks, rose by 400 percent between May and June, according to its founder Thanos Marinos, who put the number at "a few thousand". The average deposit quadrupled to around 700 euros. Using bitcoin could allow Greeks to do one of the things that capital controls were put in place this week to prevent: transfer money out of their bank accounts and, if they wish, out of the country. "When people are trying to move money out of the country and the state is stopping that from taking place, bitcoin is the only way to move any value," said Adam Vaziri, a board member of the UK Digital Currency Association. "There aren't any other options unless you buy diamonds, and that's very difficult to move." But Marinos said the bitcoin buyers' main aim was to shield their money against the prospect that Greece might leave the euro zone and convert all the deposits in Greek banks into a greatly devalued national currency. If voters reject the demands of international creditors in a referendum on Sunday, this becomes much more likely. "A lot of people are keeping all the bitcoins they buy on our platform, until they understand what to do with them," Marinos said. "In their eyes, now they have bitcoins, they're safe." VOLATILE CURRENCY That said, the value of a bitcoin, a web-based digital currency invented six years ago that floats freely and is not backed by a government or central bank, has been highly volatile. It peaked at over $1,200 in late 2013 before crashing almost 70 percent in less than a month after a hacking attack on the Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox in early 2014. Story continues This week, as Greece defaulted on a debt to the IMF, the price jumped to a 3-1/2-month high of $268 (BTC=BTSP) on the Bitstamp exchange - up more than 20 percent since the start of June - while the number of daily transactions reached a record 150,917. Most bitcoin-watchers reckon the digital currency's rise is mostly due to speculators betting that capital controls would trigger heavy demand. In March-April 2013, when Cyprus clamped down on bank withdrawals, bitcoin rocketed almost 700 percent. Coinbase, one of the world's biggest bitcoin wallet providers, which is not currently accessible to Greeks, said it had seen huge interest from Italy, Spain and Portugal. It said the average daily sign-ups from euro zone countries had increased 350 percent since the start of June. Average daily bitcoin purchases from the euro zone this week were up 250 percent compared with June's average. On June 20, Greece got its first bitcoin "ATM", in a family-run bookstore in Acharnes on the outskirts of Athens. There, if they had them, customers could insert euros and in return receive bitcoin at the current exchange rate, which they would scan into an electronic "wallet" on their smartphones. But with Greeks having to form long queues at bank ATMs just to receive a meager 60 euros' cash a day, this machine has seen no customers since talks with creditors broke down on Saturday. "Before Saturday, there was some very limited interest, mostly customers asking what it does and how it works," said Maria Varila, an employee in the shop. "Since Saturday, however, when all hell broke loose, there has literally been zero interest." (Additional reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos and Dimitrios Michalakis in Athens; Editing by Kevin Liffey) || Fearing return to drachma, some Greeks use bitcoin to dodge capital controls: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - There is at least one legal way to get your euros out of Greece these days, to guard against the prospect that they might be devalued into drachmas: convert them into bitcoin. Although absolute figures are hard to come by, Greek interest has surged in the online "cryptocurrency", which is out of the reach of monetary authorities and can be transferred at the touch of a smartphone screen. New customers depositing at least 50 euros with BTCGreece, the only Greece-based bitcoin exchange, open only to Greeks, rose by 400 percent between May and June, according to its founder Thanos Marinos, who put the number at "a few thousand". The average deposit quadrupled to around 700 euros. Using bitcoin could allow Greeks to do one of the things that capital controls were put in place this week to prevent: transfer money out of their bank accounts and, if they wish, out of the country. "When people are trying to move money out of the country and the state is stopping that from taking place, bitcoin is the only way to move any value," said Adam Vaziri, a board member of the UK Digital Currency Association. "There aren't any other options unless you buy diamonds, and that's very difficult to move." But Marinos said the bitcoin buyers' main aim was to shield their money against the prospect that Greece might leave the euro zone and convert all the deposits in Greek banks into a greatly devalued national currency. If voters reject the demands of international creditors in a referendum on Sunday, this becomes much more likely. "A lot of people are keeping all the bitcoins they buy on our platform, until they understand what to do with them," Marinos said. "In their eyes, now they have bitcoins, they're safe." VOLATILE CURRENCY That said, the value of a bitcoin, a web-based digital currency invented six years ago that floats freely and is not backed by a government or central bank, has been highly volatile. It peaked at over $1,200 in late 2013 before crashing almost 70 percent in less than a month after a hacking attack on the Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox in early 2014. Story continues This week, as Greece defaulted on a debt to the IMF, the price jumped to a 3-1/2-month high of $268 (BTC=BTSP) on the Bitstamp exchange - up more than 20 percent since the start of June - while the number of daily transactions reached a record 150,917. Most bitcoin-watchers reckon the digital currency's rise is mostly due to speculators betting that capital controls would trigger heavy demand. In March-April 2013, when Cyprus clamped down on bank withdrawals, bitcoin rocketed almost 700 percent. Coinbase, one of the world's biggest bitcoin wallet providers, which is not currently accessible to Greeks, said it had seen huge interest from Italy, Spain and Portugal. It said the average daily sign-ups from euro zone countries had increased 350 percent since the start of June. Average daily bitcoin purchases from the euro zone this week were up 250 percent compared with June's average. On June 20, Greece got its first bitcoin "ATM", in a family-run bookstore in Acharnes on the outskirts of Athens. There, if they had them, customers could insert euros and in return receive bitcoin at the current exchange rate, which they would scan into an electronic "wallet" on their smartphones. But with Greeks having to form long queues at bank ATMs just to receive a meager 60 euros' cash a day, this machine has seen no customers since talks with creditors broke down on Saturday. "Before Saturday, there was some very limited interest, mostly customers asking what it does and how it works," said Maria Varila, an employee in the shop. "Since Saturday, however, when all hell broke loose, there has literally been zero interest." (Additional reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos and Dimitrios Michalakis in Athens; Editing by Kevin Liffey) || New York regulator issues final virtual currency rules: By Karen Freifeld and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York state issued on Wednesday extensive new rules for companies that operate in virtual currencies such as bitcoin but did little to accommodate complaints that overly tight regulation could hamper the nascent industry. The new rules, the first by a state, create comprehensive guidelines for regulating digital currency firms, according to the state's Department of Financial Services, which developed the regulations. It means that digital currency companies operating in New York state that hold customer funds and exchange virtual currencies for dollars or other currencies are required to apply for what is known as a state "BitLicense." "There is a basic bargain that when a financial company is entrusted with safeguarding customer funds and receives a licence from the state to do so, it accepts the need for heightened regulatory scrutiny to help ensure that a consumer's money does not just disappear into a black hole," Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of the New York state regulator, said in a speech Wednesday at the BITS Emerging Payments Forum in Washington. The "BitLicense" rules include consumer protection, anti-money laundering and cybersecurity protections. The regulations come as digital currencies have drawn criticism for attracting drug dealers and other criminal elements, whilst failing to safeguarding consumer funds. Last year, bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox collapsed after it claimed to have lost $500 million worth of customer bitcoins after being hacked. Overall, industry participants said New York's new rules are still problematic but nonetheless an improvement over the original proposals laid out in July and revised in December. Digital currency companies are required to obtain prior approval for material changes to their products or business models, such as wallet firms offering exchange services. They would also need approval for new controlling investors. But they would not need approval from the state for every round of venture capital funding or standard software updates. "We have no interest in micro-managing minor app updates. We're not Apple," said Lawsky. Companies that want both a BitLicense and a money transmitter licence can work with the state regulator to have a "one-stop" application submission to cover the requirements for both. Jerry Brito, executive director of non-profit research group Coin Centre, called the final regulations "far from perfect," specifically citing what he said were vague state-level anti-money laundering obligations that go beyond federal regulations. He said the group was working with other states "to ensure they do not repeat the mistakes made here." The rules do not apply to software developers, individual users, customer loyalty programmes, gift cards, currency miners, or merchants accepting bitcoin as payment. Lawsky, meanwhile, has come under fire from the bitcoin community for issuing the rules shortly after announcing he was leaving the agency to set up a consulting company that will advise companies on financial matters that could possibly include digital currencies. The most prominent virtual currency now is bitcoin, often used as an investment or to pay for goods and services online. Bitcoin prices have been steady of late, at $225.77 on the BitStamp platform on Wednesday. The price rose as high as $1,123 in December 2013. "I think (the rules) are going to increase the costs to entry for businesses," said New York attorney Reuben Grinberg, who specialises in virtual currency. "But I think it's going to give consumers greater peace of mind and will end up promoting investment in this area much more so than it hurts." (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Karen Freifeld; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Steve Orlofsky) || Could Bitcoin Save Athens?: After the International Monetary Fund turned its back on debt negotiations with Greece on Thursday, many began to worry that the nation's efforts to appease creditors while reversing austerity cuts would prove to be fruitless. With a €1.5 billion payment due at the end of this month, Greece is running out of time to release the bailout funding it needs to stay afloat. Digital Currency To The Rescue? Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis jokinglytweetedthat the nation would adopt bitcoin if no deal was made on April Fool's day; but two-and-a-half months later with no agreement made, some analysts say thata cryptocurrency could be a viable solution. Digi-Drachma Some believe that Greece could create a digital currency backed by the nation's assets which would be used to maintain public sector salaries and pensions. The currency, dubbed "digi-drachma" would free up the nation's remaining euros for loan repayments and allow Athens to continue functioning without making any more unpopular austerity cuts. Related Link:Greek Banks Struggle To Handle Deposit Outflows With Default Fears Rising ECB Considers The Possibility During debt negotiations, the European Central Bank considered a similar situation in which the nation paid its workers using IOUs. This idea was parallel to the one Varoufakis outlined in his April Fool's blog post; he said a digital currency, called FT coin, could be based on future tax revenue. Just A Band-Aid? The digital currency scenario might get Athens through its next loan repayment, but many say it would be a temporary fix for the nation's larger problem— debt. Greece's economy has been unable to sustain the nation's massive debt, so without some kind of reform, this problem is likely to repeat itself. This has been the issue at the center of the nation's bailout talks as eurozone creditors want to see Greece stand on its own rather than leaning on bailout money in the years to come. See more from Benzinga • Net Neutrality Rules Go Into Effect Today: Here's How It Could Affect You • Will E-Cigarettes Replace Traditional Cigarettes? • Greek Banks Struggle To Handle Deposit Outflows With Default Fears Rising © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Microelectronics Results From the Bitcoins Conference in New York: MONARCH BAY, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 13, 2015 /Microelectronics Technology Company (MELY) is pleased to report results after attending and exhibiting at the Bitcoins Conference in New York City. BTC Pool Party, on behalf of Microelectronics Technology Company, was an active participant in the Bitcoins Conference in New York this past April 27th – 29th. Additionally, BTC Pool Party was a Sponsor for the Event and participated with an exhibit during the Conference. The attendance for the 2015 conference was approximately 1,300 participants, individuals and companies representing all aspects of the Bitcoin community; this attendance number was similar to the conference held in 2014. Majority of the conference participants stopped at the BTC Pool Party exhibit to learn more about the transparency of the pool, the technology on which it is based, and to learn how the Company is solidifying its position in the Bitcoin community. Microelectronics increased its recognition throughout the participants of the conference and developed strong alliances with manufacturers and developers of the new chip technology. The Company has entered into active communication with those manufacturers and developers invested in supplying the Company with an increase in mining production. "The Company is also pleased to be asked to assist in the advancement of 'friends of the pool initiative,' where the goal is to create an alliance of companies working together to support and promote our industry," stated President Brett Everett. "This is a strategic time for Microelectronics and BTC Pool Party growth." The primary goal of BTC Pool Party was to attract other miners to the pool. Many large miners as well as independent miners expressed interest in BTC Pool Party. There is a significant list of potential miners interested in joining BTC Pool Party. Several have been in communication with the Company to schedule testing of their specific miners on the pool. The company continues to develop and improve the BTCPOOLPARTY mining pool with the introduction of more detailed stats of the mining operations available as the Company moves forward.https://www.btcpoolparty.com/ https://www.facebook.com/btcpoolparty Additional photos and videos can be viewed at the company's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MELYPK. Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. While these statements are made to convey Company progress, business opportunities and growth prospects, readers are cautioned that such forward-looking statements represent management's opinion. Whereas management believes such representations to be true and accurate based on information and data available to the Company at this time, actual results may differ materially and are subject to risk and uncertainties. Factors that may cause actual results to differ include without limitation: dependence on key personnel and suppliers; MELY's ability to commercialize its technology; ability to defend intellectual property; material and component costs; competition; economic conditions; consumer demand and product acceptance, and availability of growth capital. Additional considerations and risk factors are set forth-in reports filed on Form 8-K and 10-K with the SEC and other filings. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon these forward-looking statements; historical information is not an indicator of future performance. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements. CONTACT: For further Information:Microelectronics Technology Company President:Mr. Brett Everett888-681-9777 ext. 5info@melypk.comwww.melypk.com SOURCE:Microelectronics Technology Company || Blockchain Could Be Used For Surveillance: Bitcoin has been under the microscope in recent months after the currency was in the news several times for being used to aid in illicit activities. Many believe that the anonymity that cryptocurrencies provide makes their use attractive to criminals who need to cover their tracks; but Estonian-based Guardtime claims that blockchain, the ledger-like technology that bitcoin runs on, could do just the opposite. Protecting Information Blockchain keeps a record of all bitcoin transactions in order to ensure that users are not making more than one transaction with the same bitcoin. This system, Guardtime execs say, could do the same for record keeping and sensitive information. Related Link: Cryptocurrencies In Focus At Cyercrime Event Tamper Proof When it comes to bitcoin, blockchain ledgers are impossible to tamper with because a copy of the blockchain is held by every client, and in order to change a transaction, a hacker would need control of at least half of the world's blockchain copies. If blockchain were applied to sensitive files in an organization, every employee would have a copy of that ledger – making it quite difficult for anyone, even a top-level exec, to tamper with those files. Although the information in those files wouldn't be protected by blockchain itself, the movements in and out of each file would be logged in such a way that no one could deny accessing or changing a file. Protecting A Connected World Guardtime says it has already teamed up with Ericsson (ADR) (NASDAQ: ERIC ) to create Black Lantern, a system that uses blockchain technology to monitor chunks of data and alert companies if they've been tampered with. The company said that as more devices continue to be incorporated into the Internet of Things, security like Black Lantern will be necessary to ensure that outside vendors haven't tampered with the being sent back and forth. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga Pinterest To Compete With Social Media Moguls Using New Buy Button Raytheon Unveils New Cybersecurity Arm Bitcoin Mining Lightbulbs Prove Cryptocurrencies Won't Be Left Behind In The IoT © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || 21 Inc. Finally Reveals Its Secretive Product: A Bitcoin Mining Chip: Back in March,bitcoinenthusiasts were abuzz with speculation about what21 Inc.might be working on. The cryptocurrency startup was able to secure upwards of $110 million in fundraising from a spate of big name investors likeQUALCOMM, Inc.(NASDAQ:QCOM) and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. However, the company has been secretive about what it had been working on – until now. A New Kind Of Chip On Monday, the companyrevealedthat it will roll out an embeddable chip that allows users to mine bitcoins from their wireless devices. The chip is designed to verify transactions while running as a background process, thus providing the user with a "continuous stream of digital currency." Related Link: Solving Bitcoins Scalability Problem Integrating Bitcoin Into The IoT 21 Inc. says its chip wasn't designed as a way to make people rich, but instead the company says it's more focused on integrating the cryptocurrency into the Internet of Things (IoT) and creating a micropayment scheme. Micropayment Device The chip, called BitShare, can consolidate, what 21 Inc. expects to be, a large number of micropayments, as the Internet of Things gains traction. Instead of customers paying for each individual service, they can install a BitShare chip and pay for the fees associated with things like connected lightbulbs or automated fire alarms using their mined bitcoin. The company says it eventually hopes to use the technology to make having a smartphone more attainable in developing countries by subsidizing some of the costs through bitcoin mining. Related Link: Bitcoin: Making Progress In Europe Is The Chip Worth It? The chip marks a big development for the bitcoin community, but it isn't without criticism. Many worry about the feasibility of such a product, as it is likely to use a great deal of data and could significantly reduce the battery life of a smartphone. Some say consumers will be unwilling to sacrifice those things for the comparatively small reward, which may be just a few cents worth of bitcoin. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga • What A Difference A Second Makes: Are Markets Prepared For Leap Second? • Delivery Services Deal With Growing Volume • Here's Why U.S. Automakers Fear The Pacific Trade Pact © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Current price: 241.2$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-05-12 14:00:04 EDT || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 18 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $874.17 #bitcoin #btc || @26_dollars ohhh nice painting here's $1.00 from me via @ChangeTip #bitcoin #cat || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 19 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $811.43 #bitcoin #btc || PSA: "6 July @ 04:00: A new fork occurred starting 5 July @ 21:30 with 3 blocks, before the valid cha... http://cur.lv/npazi  #bitcoin || Current price: 148.13£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2015-05-21 00:20:06 BST || One Bitcoin now worth $236.85@bitstamp. High $238.00. Low $235.01. Market Cap $3.356 Billion #bitcoin || Current price: 146.5£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2015-06-05 00:00:03 BST || One Bitcoin now worth $236.15@bitstamp. High $237.96. Low $234.00. Market Cap $ 3.354 Billion #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/uHKqrCCp9T || Current price: 237.99$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-05-15 15:00:04 EDT
Trend: up || Prices: 269.23, 284.89, 293.11, 310.87, 292.05, 287.46, 285.83, 278.09, 279.47, 274.90
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 21/10/19: Bitcoin Cash ABC rallied by 5.72% on Sunday. Following on from a 0.04% gain on Saturday, Bitcoin Cash ABC ended the week up 0.41% at $224.19. A bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC fall to an early morning intraday low $211.28 before making a move. Steering clear of the first major support level at $209.88, Bitcoin Cash ABC rallied to a late intraday high $225.52. Bitcoin Cash ABC broke through the day’s major resistance levels to hit $220 levels for the first time since Thursday. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was up by 0.23% to $224.70. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC rise from an early morning low $223.70 to a high $225.15 before easing back. Bitcoin Cash ABC left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, a move back through to $225 levels would bring the first major resistance level at $229.38 into play. Bitcoin Cash ABC would need the support of the broader market, however, to break out from $225 levels. Barring a broad-based crypto rally, Bitcoin Cash ABC would likely come up short of $230 levels on the day. Failure to move back through to $225 levels could see Bitcoin Cash ABC slide back into the red. A fall through the morning low $223.70 to $220 levels would bring the first major support level at $215.14 into play. Barring a broad-based crypto sell-off, Bitcoin Cash ABC should steer clear of sub-$210 levels on the day. Litecoin rose by 2.06% on Sunday. Following on from a 0.94% gain on Saturday, Litecoin ended the week down by 2.67% to $54.96. A bearish start to the day saw Litecoin slide to a late morning intraday low $52.64 before finding support. Litecoin fell through the first major support level at $52.88 before rallying to a late intraday high $55.59. Off the back of an afternoon rally, Litecoin broke through the first major resistance level at $54.44 and second major resistance level at $55.07. A late pullback saw Litecoin fall back through to sub-$55 levels. At the time of writing, Litecoin was down by 0.89% to $54.47. A bearish start to the day saw Litecoin fall from an early morning high $54.96 to a low $54.22 before finding support. Litecoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, a move through to $55 levels would support a run at the first major resistance level at $56.15. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Litecoin to breakout from Sunday’s high $55.59. Barring a broad-based crypto rally, the first major resistance level should cap any upside. Failure to move through to $55 levels could see Litecoin slide deeper into the red. A fall through the morning low $54.22 would bring the first major support level at $53.20 into play. Barring an extended sell-off through the day, Litecoin should steer clear of the second major support level at $51.45. Ripple’s XRP rose by 0.84% on Friday. Reversing a 0.79% loss from Saturday, Ripple’s XRP ended the week up by 6.25% at $0.29521. A bearish start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP slide to an early morning intraday low $0.283. Ripple’s XRP fell through the first major support level at $0.2874 before finding support from the broader market. Bullish through the rest of the day, Ripple’s XRP rallied to a late intraday high $0.29773. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $0.2998, Ripple’s XRP eased back to $0.2950 levels to limit the upside on the day. At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was down 1.52% to $0.29072. A bearish start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP fall from an early morning high $0.29559 to a low $0.29003. Ripple’s XRP left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, Ripple’s XRP would need to move back through to $0.2920 levels to support a rebound. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ripple’s XRP to take a run at the first major resistance level at $0.3010. Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, Sunday’s high $0.29773 and first major resistance level would likely limit any upside. Failure to move through to $0.2920 levels would likely see Ripple’s XRP test the first major support level at $0.2862. Barring an extended sell-off through the day, Ripple’s XRP should steer clear of sub-$0.28 support levels. Please let us know what you think in the comments below Thanks, Bob Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • OIL/USD Consolidating in a Bearish Range but Close to a Turning Point • AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast – Traders Adjusting Positions to Fed Rate Cut Expectations • European Equities: A Lack of Stats Leaves Brexit in Focus • Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 21/10/19 • Black Monday 1987 VS 2019 – PART II • Brexit and Canadian Elections Put the Pound and Loonie in Focus || Bitcoin price outlook shifts from “bullish to neutral” as geopolitical tensions simmer: The summer of wild crypto price rallies is over, as Bitcoin and other assets succumb to the same “macroeconomic forces” that have sent global stocks into a tailspin. Data from crypto exchangeSFOXshows a shift in cryptocurrency price movements from “bullish” to “neutral,” amid simmering US-China trade tensions and the muted performance of theBakktexchange following its much-anticipated launch. Bitcoin’s recent price decline tracks with similar declines in gold and the S&P 500, “suggesting broader macroeconomic uncertainty may be at play,” said SFOX in its report. “Recent events such as the China-US trade war have suggested that broader macroeconomic uncertainty impacts crypto markets just as it does equities and bonds, and these most recent data reinforce that idea.” Prices also took a beating following the tepid reception ofBakkt, the newly-launched Bitcoin futures exchange backed by the owner of the New York Stock Exchange. Expected to draw in a deluge of “institutional money,” Bakkt spluttered, suffering adrop in volume of over fifty percentin the weeks following its launch. But the Bakkt price plunge “may have been overblown,” said SFOX. “It’s possible that this drop in the crypto partly reflects traders acting emotionally when an overnight flood of institutional money into crypto didn’t happen, even though that scenario was probably unrealistic in the first place.” Nevertheless, the report said, “the downturn in market sentiment may have to do with fear around signals that ‘major’ institutions may not be as ready and willing to jump into crypto now as some previously believed.” That in turn “may have led to broader uncertainty about the trajectory of the sector.” But Bitcoin’s role as an uncorrelated “safe haven” still holds in spite of the current price swings, said SFOX CEO Akbar Thobahni. "Bitcoin's sensitivity to global market thrusts is neither sudden nor new: most, if not all, asset classes are impacted by broader forces,” he said. “That does not inherently undermine its investment thesis.” And Thobahni pinned Bakkt’s disappointing debut on the relative smallness of the crypto markets. “That might mean that some sophisticated investing products, while ultimately helpful to the asset class's maturation, may still be too early to the market,” he said. “Imagine if Uber had tried to launch in 1999 on PDAs: at that point in the trajectory of personal technology, it might have been too early for a ride-sharing market to come to fruition." || Pantera Leads $5 Million Round for Decentralized Derivatives Market: A protocol built to put financial middlemen out of business has secured a $5 million seed round led by Pantera Capital. The Vega Protocol aims to make it feasible for people anywhere in the world to spin up markets for derivatives (futures, swaps, options, etc.) that can interact with each other and abide by relevant regulations. Other key investors joined the round, including Ripple’s Xpring, Hashed and KR1. Participants purchased an as-yet-unnamed ERC-20 token that will manage staking and governance services on the blockchain, according to Vega founder Barney Mannerings. Related:Stripe-Backed Payments Firm Raises $100 Million to Compete Against Stablecoins “We see the value to be in the network, really,” Mannerings said, predicting that the company would shift its work to a foundation eventually. Vega has not yet discussed what the token will do or how holding it will be beneficial. “We will be releasing some details about the staking and validator models in the next month or two,” he said. The funding round will be used to build out the software to fulfill Vega’s vision, and also support establishing a nascent community of developers and potential users of the protocol, Mannerings said. Vega is a Layer 2 solution for trading derivatives in a non-custodial and secure fashion. It’s not a decentralized exchange or a standalone business. It’s building the software that will allow others to set up marketplaces for assets that have a time horizon. Related:Fidelity Digital Assets to Provide Custody for Bitcoin Derivatives Yield Fund “It’s a fairly ambitious project in terms of the complexity of the software,” Mannerings said.“With derivatives, the trade has a life cycle.” For example, a trader could sell the right to buy a given asset at a given price six months out. This requires that prices are monitored, leverages are kept and risks are managed. It can require a lot of computation. “The ethereum network is not great at running computationally intensive,” Mannerings said.“We can get 10 to 100-times better performance for doing those calculations.” It’s very powerful “compared to the slightly toylike version that can be created on the ethereum virtual machine,” he contended. In what Mannerings described as a sort of second release, Vega will be able to conform to the rules of any given country and verify that the user is really under that jurisdiction. Further, the software will open up tools for creating more kinds of derivatives. Said Mannerings: “It’s going to be a simple way for people to create basically any derivative product on earth.” And he really does mean any on earth. The whole product suite anticipates a time when real-world securities will be tokenized and traded on these sorts of exchanges. “We wouldn’t be doing this if we thought the only people who would be using it would be crypto-native ICOs and bitcoin and such,” Mannerings said. Take for example a small export business that wanted to hedge the currency risk of another nation where it ships a lot of its products. For small and medium-sized businesses, Mannerings argued, that kind of hedging can be too expensive to be worth it in the current world. It’s potential that Paul Veradittakit, partner at Pantera Capital, echoed in a statement: “The team’s vision for the future of finance is a level playing field in which all people can participate. That vision is integral to the blockchain ethos and represents everything we are fighting to enact.” Pantera Capital partner Paul Veradittakit (right) image via CoinDesk archives • New Interest in DAOs Prompts Old Question: Are They Legal? • Data Privacy Startup StrongSalt Raises $3 Million for Encrypted API Service || Your Evening Briefing: (Bloomberg) -- Want to receive this post in your inbox every afternoon? Sign up here U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo refused to cooperate with the timing of the impeachment inquiry as Democrats warned him of the potential consequences. Pompeo is now a central figure in the probe since it was revealed he was on the line when President Donald Trump asked the president of Ukraine to reanimate unsubstantiated allegations tied to former Vice President Joseph Biden. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that Attorney General William Barr personally asked foreign officials to aid him in investigating the origins of Robert Mueller’s probe of alleged collusion between Trump’s campaign and the Kremlin. The president has sought to undercut the origins of the special counsel’s probe of Russia’s effort to throw the 2016 election. Here are today’s top stories Trump and some Republican allies are scrambling to identify the whistle-blower who triggered impeachment, blowing up years of precedent aimed at promoting government accountability. One Republican said the whistle-blower deserves to be protected while others criticized him for including secondhand accounts. The intelligence community’s inspector general said the whistleblower law doesn’t require first-hand knowledge. The State Department approved a $39 million sale of additional Javelin anti-tank weapons to Ukraine. This deal is separate from the $250 million of congressionally authorized military aid that was held up by Trump until after the July 25 call in which he sought Ukraine’s help with Biden. Communist China’s 70th birthday was marked by the first police shooting of a protester in Hong Kong as democracy demonstrations intensified. According to one account, video showed the 18-year-old, who remains in critical condition after surgery, on the ground with blood “spilling from his chest.” Trump congratulated President Xi Jinping on China’s anniversary, which was celebrated in Beijing with a big military parade. Story continues The global economy flashed grim warnings Tuesday as a wave of data showed manufacturing slumping, exports falling and sentiment sliding. In America, the news is particularly bad, thanks in part to the trade war. Stocks tanked. Norway unexpectedly took almost $400 million from its sovereign wealth fund in August. The mystery is what the Nordic country did with it. Credit Suisse exonerated Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam as one of his key allies took the fall for a corporate spying scandal. What’s Joe Weisenthal thinking about? The Bloomberg news director is still focused on how Beijing’s domestic policies suppress the well-being of Chinese and American workers. By subsidizing elites, China pushes capital abroad, boosting U.S. real estate prices and the dollar while making it harder for Americans to afford homes or remain competitive. But Joe notes there’s a key beneficiary to all this suffering by people who work for a living in both countries: bankers. The Trump administration’s idea of putting limits on Chinese listings on U.S. exchanges may have actually helped address this, but the White House has been backing away. What you’ll need to know tomorrow There’s another Trump administration whistleblower—at the IRS. A month before the Brexit deadline, Boris Johnson is in trouble. Bonds got a taste of what happens when central banks retreat. Bitcoin isn’t the world’s most-used cryptocurrency. This is. Senator Bernie Sanders raised $25.3 million in the third quarter. Schwab slashed online stock and ETF fees in a growing price war. Yes, robots are hurting your pay check. What you’ll want to read in Bloomberg Pursuits The cult of midcentury architecture has been going on for so long that its aesthetic is indistinguishable from contemporary design. White walls? Check. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows? Check. Spare interiors with judicious flourishes of wood and marble? But of course. Bloomberg Pursuits explores why this style remains so pervasive. To contact the author of this story: David Rovella in New York at drovella@bloomberg.net For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com ©2019 Bloomberg L.P. || XRP remains bullish, but resistance near $0.30 proves strong: Ripple’s XRP is on steady ground today. And unlikeBitcoin, XRP's outlook has remained bullish since late September’s crash, in terms of short-term trading opportunities. XRP today started the week off at $0.29 per token, very close to its closing price last Monday. Thecryptocurrency-of-disputed-originsremains in an upward channel, which traders have maintained since the end of September, without any unusual breakouts, according to data fromTradingView. And unlike the generally pessimistic outlook throughout the rest of the crypto market, XRP bulls have proven their dominance over the course of the last month. The pattern is clear: bulls cause a relatively significant increase in price one day, and then the market slowly corrects, with small candles that remain flickering until the next major bullish break occurs. This has occurred five times in the last 30 days: on September 25 and 30; and then again on October 7, 14, and 17. Nevertheless, XRP has been one of the worst-performing tokens in the top-10 cryptocurrencies by market cap in 2019, in terms ofreturn on investment. And even though some traders believe the token has bottomed out, XRP bulls still need to fight to prove this theory right. The $0.29 price point represents a robust historical resistance for XRP. The asset’s high Relative Strength Index (RSI) signals that the bulls are probably a little tired and need some time to recover before pushing a new big, green candle (like what happened the last five times this recent pattern played out). However, this fatigue from traders, coupled with the fact that XRP is testing a historical resistance, is reason enough for those trading XRP to proceed with caution. || Bitcoin May Be Headed for a Stronger Price Bounce: • Bitcoin’s moving average convergence divergence (MACD) histogram is charting higher lows, indicating seller exhaustion. Other indicators are also reporting oversold conditions. • A falling channel on the hourly chart may end with a bullish breakout and fuel a rally to $8,800. On the way higher, BTC may encounter resistance at $8,500 (200-day average). • The case for a stronger corrective bounce would weaken if prices find acceptance below $8,000. Bitcoin’s stalled recovery rally may soon gather pace, as a key indicator is reporting seller exhaustion. The top cryptocurrency by market value is currently trading at $8,130 on Bitstamp, having faced rejection at highs above $8,500 on Oct. 1. With the $400 pullback, the corrective bounce from Sept. 30’s lows near $7,700 looks to have ended. Bitcoin’s MACD histogram, however, is telling otherwise. Related:Coinbase Pro Is Increasing Its Fees – And Users Aren’t Happy A technical tool used to identify trend strength and trend changes, the MACD has recovered sharply from the Sept. 26 low of -236 to -56 suggesting weakening bearish momentum. The MACD has produced shallower bars below the zero line over the last few days. The higher lows indicate seller exhaustion, as noted above, and indicate scope for a stronger corrective bounce. Related:Gold, Not Bitcoin, Is Drawing Haven Demand on US Recession Fears The long tails attached to the previous two candles (above left) indicate selling pressure weakened weakened on Wednesday and Thursday, allowing prices to recover lost ground before their UTC closes. Put simply, buyers are beginning to test sellers’ resolve in keeping prices low. Additionally, the 14-day relative strength index (RSI) continues to report oversold conditions with a below-30 print. All-in-all, the falling channel seen on the hourly chart (above right) appears likely to end with a bullish breakout. That would imply a continuation of the rally from lows near $7,700 and could fuel a rally to $8,833 (June 2 high). On the way higher, BTC may encounter resistance at the 200-day moving average (MA), currently at $8,503. The average proved a tough nut to crack on Oct. 1. The bullish case would weaken if prices find acceptance below $8,000 in the next 24 hours, although that looks unlikely. Also, any rally to $8,800 or higher could be short-lived, as longer duration chartsare still biased bearish. Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing. Bitcoin image via CoinDesk Archives; charts byTrading View • Bitcoin Price Risks Further Decline After Recovery Rally Stalls • Bitcoin’s $800 Price Recovery Runs Into Key Resistance || Natural Gas Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – ‘Battle of the Seasons’ Begins; Weakens Under $2.368, Strengthens Over $2.440: Natural gas futures are trading lower on Friday after a bearish government storage report drove prices sharply lower the previous session. The market is now testing a major 50% to 61.8% retracement zone, which should determine its next short-term move. Additionally, the change from summer to fall also claimed a fuel casualties after a steep plunge in spot prices. According to Natural Gas Intelligence, “widespread discounts sent NGI’s Spot Gas National Average tumbling 12.5 cents to $1.985/MMBtu.” At 11:55 GMT,November natural gasfutures are trading $2.421, down $0.022 or -0.94%. On Thursday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a larger-than-expected weekly injection into U.S. natural gas stocks, topping even the highest estimates. The EIA reported that domestic supplies of natural gas rose by 102 billion cubic feet for the week ended September 20. Traders were looking for the EIA report to show an injection in the upper 80s or low 90s Bcf for the week-ending September 20. Bloomberg analysts were looking for a median 92 Bcf, with estimates from 79 Bcf to 100 Bcf. The Wall Street Journal predicted an average 89 Bcf, with a range of 83 Bcf to 96 Bcf. Reuters analysts forecast 89 Bcf, with responses from 79 Bcf up to 96 Bcf. Intercontinental Exchange EIA Financial Weekly Index futures settled Tuesday at 92 Bcf. NGI’s model predicted a 90 Bcf injection. A year ago the EIA reported a 51 Bcf build. The five-year average is a 74 Bcf injection. Total stocks now stand at 3.205 trillion cubic feet, up 444 billion cubic feet from a year ago, but 47 billion below the five-year average, the government said. According to NatGasWeather for September 27 to October 3, “High pressure will strengthen to unseasonably strong levels across the southern and eastern halves of the country this weekend through next week with very warm to hot conditions as highs reach the 80s to 90s. It will be hottest across from Texas to the Southeast for relatively strong late season demand. At the same time an early season cold shot will advance into the West with valley rain and mountain snow with lows dropping into the chilly 20s to 40s for modest early season heating demand. Essentially, stronger demand the next seven days with a better mix of heating and cooling needs.” Get ready for the return of volatility due to the weather. The National Weather Service (NWS) highlighted a “battle of the seasons” in its short-range forecast Thursday, predicting “huge temperature contrasts across the nation” for Friday and into the weekend. “Much below-average temperatures” were expected to develop “from the Pacific Northwest, Great Basin, California, into the Northern Rockies and Northern High Plains, while much above-average temperatures dominate from the Central to Southern Plains into the East.” On the daily chart, the main range is $2.185 to $2.745. Its 50% to 61.8% retracement zone is $2.440 to $2.368. This zone is currently being tested. Trader reaction to this area will determine the next short-term move. A sustained move over $2.440 will signal the return of buyers, while a move under $2.368 will indicate the selling pressure is getting stronger. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • AUD/USD Price Forecast – Aussie dollar continues to find support • Silver Prices Drop For Third Straight Day • US Stock Market: Trade Deal is Still Number One Concern for Investors • Bitcoin Price Collapse Continue for Many Months • USD/JPY Fundamental Daily Forecast – Rising Treasury Yields, Firm Demand for Risk Weighing on Dollar/Yen • GBP/USD Daily Forecast – Sterling Extends Losses, Support in Play || Top exchanges team up to determine whether crypto assets are securities: A number of top digital asset exchanges including Coinbase, Bittrex and Kraken have teamed up to assess which cryptocurrencies possess characteristics of securities. According to the Wall Street Journal , the process will involve exchanges rating particular cryptocurrencies between one and five to see if they can remain listed on exchanges from a compliance standpoint. Token issuers will reportedly have no input on the initial ratings, although they will be able to dispute their score by providing information to the contrary. The world’s largest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap, Bitcoin, has been giving a ‘1’ rating which means that it is the least like a security, while the Maker token has a ‘4.5’ rating, making it very similar to a security. So, a bunch of unregulated crypto exchanges are giving their 'impartial' opinion on which cryptocurrencies should be regulated under Securities Law. The intention is great but I'm not sure the SEC will like this, leave them to do their job. @SEC_News $crypto #regulation — Oliver Knight (@KnightCoinRivet) September 30, 2019 The aim is to assist the SEC and show that there is a conscious effort going towards safeguarding investors and the categorisation of cryptocurrencies as potential securities. Mary Beth Buchanan, Kraken’s general counsel said: “It’s our hope the SEC will view this as a positive step. It does show the SEC what each exchange is doing to come to a decision”. However, it seems as though the SEC has not yet been consulted on this new process. This could eventually be detrimental to exchanges as the SEC won’t take kindly to largely unregulated exchanges attempting to impose securities laws on unregulated digital assets, especially as they don’t have the authority to do so and it may impact the price of said assets. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . The post Top exchanges team up to determine whether crypto assets are securities appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Gold in the Negative Real Interest Rates Environment: Gold in the Negative Real Interest Rates Environment Many people believe that negative interest rates are the ailment of Europe and Japan, and that they will never materialize in the United States. But this is not true. They are already present in America. Can’t believe it? Please take a look at the chart below. Chart 1: Yields on the US 10-Year Inflation-Indexed Treasury in 2019 As one can see, the yield on the U.S. 10-year inflation-indexed Treasury has dived below zero at the turn of August and September. Hence, although nominal interest rates are still positive in America, the real interest rates have turned negative for a while recently. By the way, the chart also shows that the real bond yields have been gradually declining in 2019 until September, which boosted the gold prices . But why is the fall of real interest rates into negative territory so important? Well, more generally, everything that relates to the real interest rates should be of great interest to precious metals investors. This is because of the very strong negative correlation between the real interest rates and gold. It means that the gold prices tend to move in the opposite direction to real interest rates, as it is illustrated by the chart below. Chart 2: Gold prices (yellow line, right axis, London P.M. Fix, in $) and yields on the US 10-Year Inflation-Indexed Treasury (green line, left axis, in %) from January 2003 to September 2019 More specifically, the previous two times when the 10-year TIPS yield went negative, the price of the yellow metal peaked. Just take one more look at the chart above. Last time when the real interest rates proxy went negative was in July 2016, which coincided with a medium-term peak in the gold prices. This is because the TIPS bottomed and reversed their trend soon after they dipped into negative territory. As real interest rates rallied, the yellow metal struggled. The second case of the TIPS going negative occurred in August 2011, which coincided with a historical peak in gold prices. Interestingly, the real interest rate continued to trend downward for several months after the gold price peaked. It indicates that either other (perhaps technical) factors prevented the yellow metal from rallying further or that the following slide in the real interest rates was already factored into the gold prices. Story continues TIPS are a great proxy for real interest rates. However, the data series dates back only to 2003. This is why we constructed another proxy, simply by subtracting the annual percentage change in the CPI from the 10-year Treasury yields. We display it, together with the gold prices, on the chart below. Chart 3: Gold prices (yellow line, right axis, London P.M. Fix, in $) and the difference between the US 10-Year Treasury yields and CPI annual percentage change (green line, left axis, in %) from January 1971 to July 2019 As one can see, there were two additional periods of negative real long-term interest rates: in 1973-1975 and in 1978-1980. In both cases, the bottoms in real interest rates were caused by high inflation and coincided with peaks in gold prices. What does it all mean for the future real interest rates path and the gold market? Well, either the real interest rates will rebound, forcing correction in the gold market, or they will continue its downward trend for a while. Given the recent cuts in the federal funds rate and the expected further cuts – perhaps until the yield curve reinverts itself – the latter scenario seems to be more probable. However, the more dovish central banks and the lower real interest rates could already be priced in the gold market. As it happened in 2011, this is the risk we see currently. Indeed, the sentiment towards gold is very positive right now, as the total speculative net-long position in Comex is very high, which strengthens the view that we could see a correction. We think that 2019 would be more positive for the yellow metal than 2018. However, that does not rule out a short-term or medium-term correction. What is important is that the correction should not take years. In recessionary 2008, the real interest rates increased due to the jump in the risk-premium, but from the end of 2008 to the end of 2012, the TIPS remained in the downward trend. Similarly, given that recession is expected to arrive probably next year, the real interest rates may find themselves in the downward trend again. To the benefit of gold. If you enjoyed the above analysis and would you like to know more about the fundamentals of the gold market, we invite you to read the October Gold Market Overview report. If you’re interested in the detailed price analysis and price projections with targets, we invite you to sign up for our Gold & Silver Trading Alerts . If you’re not ready to subscribe yet and are not on our gold mailing list yet, we urge you to sign up. It’s free and if you don’t like it, you can easily unsubscribe. Sign up today ! Thank you. Arkadiusz Sieron Sunshine Profits‘ Gold News and Gold Market Overview Editor This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: AUD/USD Forex Technical Analysis – Short-Covering Rally Building; Trend Change Over .6774 Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 08/10/19 USD/JPY Fundamental Daily Forecast – Two-Sided Trading Expected Ahead of Trade Talks EUR/USD Daily Forecast – Euro Makes Another Run at the 20 DMA Gold in the Negative Real Interest Rates Environment Brexit Update – Another Extension and Promise of a Voter Resolution? || Capitalize on Transformational AI Technology with ETFs: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com. When it comes to investing in transformational technology, exchange-traded fund (ETF) investors shouldn’t look further than artificial intelligence (AI). It’s certainly something that Japanese holdings company SoftBank is focusing on in the future. “Within 30 years, definitely, things will be flying,”saidSoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. “Things will be running much faster without accident. We will be living much longer, much healthier. The diseases that we could not solve in the past will be cured.” Per areportby CNBC, “Son has long championed the benefits of artificial intelligence, investing billions of dollars in companies he believes can capitalize on it. Some of these companies include Uber Technologies and WeWork. He said all the 70 or so investments of his Vision Fund have been focused on AI.” And how much of that effort actually translates to dollars invested in AI? “We are investing $100 billion in just one thing, AI,” Son added. AI ETFs to Consider Whether society is ready for it or not, robotics, AI, machine learning, or any other type of disruptive technology will be the next wave of innovation. For investors who missed out on the bull market run of FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google) stocks, they can look to capitalize on disruptive tech options in 2019 and beyond that. In the investment space, AI is increasingly gaining widespread attention for its ability to be a disruptive technology that spans across a variety of sectors, which makes it a viable alternative for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) opportunities. For one ETF, theAI-Powered International Equity ETF (AIIQ) , it’s been a year since inception and has already bested its benchmark by 7 percent. Under the hood, the fund runs on the EquBot Model: a proprietary algorithm with the use of IBM’s Watson. The model analyzes and compares a multitude of data points and international companies on a daily basis to find and optimize portfolio exposures. AI continues to disrupt the investment management space, prompting many asset managers and investors to rethink the way they invest, research and develop portfolio construction methodologies. EquBot recognized this need for advancement and broke the mold by pioneering a new method combining AI with ETFs. Another ETF to consider is theARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) . ARKK is an actively-managed fund that invests in domestic and foreign equity securities of companies that are relevant to the fund’s investment theme of disruptive innovation. For more market trends, visitETF Trends. POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM • SPY ETF Quote • VOO ETF Quote • QQQ ETF Quote • VTI ETF Quote • JNUG ETF Quote • Top 34 Gold ETFs • Top 34 Oil ETFs • Top 57 Financials ETFs • VanEck And SolidX Take First Steps For Bitcoin-Related ETF Approvals • Could Inverse ETFs Thrive In September? • Social Media Stock SNAP Gets An Upgrade • Gold, Precious Metals ETFs Surge on Geopolitical Uncertainty • Q&A With Barry Ritholtz on New WealthStack Conference READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Fact || Can’t believe I missed the last chance to buy $BTC over $10k... until text time https://t.co/8qH8WxQjnn || @AnitaCo75163714 @AstonishingLuck https://t.co/DA04pSmlY6 || Feeling bearish short term #btc || #Cryptography is the science of secure communication. A great example of encryption techniques used in the past is Alan Turing and breaking the enigma code. #cryptocurrency #Bitcoin #blockchain || Great Analysis crypto currency Channel! join =&gt; https://t.co/LJgIxXylR3 $BTC $XRP $LTC $ETH $ADA $XLM $XVG $TRX $OCN $IOST $NCASH $STORM $EOS $NEO $IOTA $CDT $DASH $XEM $VEN $ETC $GVT $LISK $OMG $APPC $MOD $NEBL $ENJ 19 || Tycoon Community , Win up to $5,000 in tokens to get Started in Tycoon. Be quick! https://t.co/0JGJ2xIsPR #airdrop #giveaway #bitcoin #Ethereum #eth #Bounty || New post in BitcoinTrade: After Dip of $500, Bitcoin Price Back to Trading Sideways at $10,200 &lt;img src= https://t.co/8XKYGBWFyW || US move for McLaughlin back on cards https://t.co/VD0EzC7yWa ▶️ https://t.co/aw3pmZX04g #Bitcoin #Sportsbook https://t.co/UmKtoU32SK || Great opportunity to those who have huge friend lists, this kind of program is really profitable to join with. I'll try to get some awesome rewards. #realestate #blockchain #property #bitcoin
Trend: down || Prices: 9412.61, 9342.53, 9360.88, 9267.56, 8804.88, 8813.58, 9055.53, 8757.79, 8815.66, 8808.26
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-06-21] BTC Price: 2689.10, BTC RSI: 57.24 Gold Price: 1243.40, Gold RSI: 41.38 Oil Price: 42.53, Oil RSI: 27.17 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] 'Strong evidence' North Korea-linked group was behind NHS cyberattack: There is "strong" evidence to suggest a North Korea-linked group was behind last week's global cyberattack, security experts say. Simon Choi, director of South Korean anti-virus firm Hauri, said the code used in the attack shared many similarities with previous hacks attributed to North Korea-linked Lazarus Group. The same collective is believed to have been behind the 2014 hack of Sony Pictures and is also suspected of previous attacks on the global financial system. Mr Choi said: "I saw signs last year that the North was preparing ransomware attacks or even already beginning to do so, targeting some South Korean companies." He added that since 2013, hackers aligned to Pyongyang have been using malicious software to extort Bitcoin - the online currency demanded in last week's WannaCry cyberattack. Israeli-based security firm Intezer Labs said there were "clear code connections" between Lazarus and WannaCry, adding that the evidence "strongly suggests that these hacking tools were written or modified by the same author". Symantec and Kaspersky are investigating whether hackers from Lazarus Group were responsible for infecting an estimated 300,000 machines in 150 countries. Their enquiries came as the White House said that paying ransom money to unlock files encrypted by the global cyberattack does not work. Homeland security adviser Tom Bossett told reporters he is not aware of a case where transferring $300 (£232) in Bitcoin - the amount demanded from victims of last week's attack - has "led to any data recovery". President Trump's administration estimates that less than $70,000 (£54,285) has been paid to the criminals behind the ransomware so far. During a White House briefing, Mr Bossert said no federal systems in the US had been affected by the malicious software. He added that his British counterparts said they now had a "feeling of control" after the attack struck 47 NHS organisations. Russia has denied it had anything to do with what Europol called the "largest ransomware attack observed in history", and President Vladimir Putin described it as payback for the US intelligence services. His remarks came after Microsoft's chief legal officer said the US National Security Agencyhad developed the original code used in the attack, which was later leaked in a document dump. Mr Putin said: "A genie let out of a bottle of this kind, especially created by secret services, can then cause damage to its authors and creators." Meanwhile, the 22-year old computer expert who discovered the WannaCry's hidden kill switch says he does not think of himself as a hero and was just "doing my bit to stop botnets". British-born Marcus Hutchins, who is currently working in Los Angeles, stumbled on the solution by accident while analysing a sample of the malicious code, and then spent three days fighting the ransomware worm. Mr Hutchins' manager at online security firm Kryptos Logic said he "not only saved the United States but also prevented further damage to the rest of the world". Sky News has learned thathealth trusts in England were sent details of a security patch last monththat would have allowed them to protect themselves. A spokesman for NHS Digital said: "Our understanding is that if that had been acted on it would have prevented (the malware attack)." || Ray Kurzweil on bitcoin: 'I wouldn't put my money into it': On Friday, futurist Ray Kurzweil spoke at the Exponential Finance Summit, a New York City technology conference put on by Singularity University, a Silicon Valley think tank. Kurzweil, an author and inventor, is often called the “father of the singularity,” in reference to his own concept of the time when artificial intelligence will surpass human beings. He’s also written and lectured on transhumanism, nanotechnology, computer avatars, and how technology has changed and will change the global economy. So Yahoo Finance asked him for his thoughts on bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that is soaring in value right now, up 200% in 2017 to nearly $3,000 per coin. It sounds like Kurzweil is intrigued by the concept of non-fiat currency, and the possibilities of cryptocurrencies. But he is not bullish on bitcoin. “There’s no reason why currency should be associated with particular national economies and governments,” he said. “However, currencies like the dollar have provided reasonable stability. Bitcoin has not. And it’s not clear to me that the whole mining paradigm can provide that type of stability… We’ve seen tremendous instability with bitcoin, so I wouldn’t put my money into it. I certainly do think there could be alternatives to national currencies emerging in the future. Algorithmic ones are a possibility, I just don’t think we’ve arrived at the right algorithm yet.” Kurzweil is oversimplifying slightly when he says that bitcoin has not been stable. Its price often goes through major swings up or down on a day or in a week, but over longer periods of time it has consistently gained: up 60% in the past month, 260% in the past six months, and 1,100% in the past five years. With his current thinking, Kurzweil joins some other prominent names in the bitcoin skeptics club: Warren Buffett (whocalled it “a mirage“), Mark Cuban (he saysbitcoin’s recent price hike is a bubble), and Jamie Dimon (he’scalled bitcoin “doomed”), to name a few. What aboutblockchain, the decentralized ledger technology that underlies bitcoin, and now has Wall Street and financial institutions excited aboutblockchains for banking? Kurzweil is more optimistic about blockchain. “I think the theory is sound,” he said. “People don’t yet have confidence in it; they’ve seen too many examples of supposedly secure systems being compromised in one way or another. I think once we can demonstrate confidence, then yes, a blockchain currency makes sense, and being able to document transactions securely, but there’s a lot to work out.” Along with bitcoin’s price rise, two other cryptocurrencies, litecoin and ether (token of the Ethereum network), are up 526% and 1,700%, respectively, in the last year. Disclosure: The author owns less than 1 bitcoin, purchased in 2015 for reporting purposes. — Daniel Roberts covers bitcoin and blockchain at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite. Read more: Bitcoin is becoming the new gold Why Ethereum is the hottest new thing in digital currency ‘Bitcoin is dead’ says prominent fintech exec Expect more blockchain hype in 2017 || Bitcoin bulls runs wild as cryptocurrency surges above $3000: Bitcoin(Exchange: BTC=-USS)traded above $3,000 for the first time on Sunday, continuing this year's massive surge and helped by increased demand from Asia-based investors. After trading in a range for the last week, bitcoin climbed to an all-time high Sunday of $3,012.05, according to CoinDesk. On Chinese exchanges such as BTCC, the currency traded about $40 to $60 above that price. Last week, several major Chinese bitcoin exchanges allowed customers to resume withdrawals of the cryptocurrency, after haltingwithdrawals in early February amid scrutinyfrom the People's Bank of China. Source: CoinDesk The digital currency has had a stellar year, rising by more than 200 percent and easily outperforming stock market benchmarks like the S&P 500(INDEX: .SPX)Index and the Nasdaq composite(NASDAQ: .IXIC)in 2017. The cryptocurrency has now more than tripled in value since trading at $968 on Dec. 31, and has gained nearly 30 percent in June alone. Bitcoin in 2017 Source: CoinDesk Brian Kelly, CEO and founder of BKCM and a CNBC contributor, told CNBC this week that the cryptocurrency was "in the first years of what is likely to be a multi-year bull market. Of course there will be corrections and even crashes along the way, but bitcoin is here to stay." A contributing factor to bitcoin's recent surge is growing demand from Asia. In addition to the China factor, Japanese interest has risen ever since the government approved bitcoin as a legal payment method in April. Investors also plowed more money into the currency after Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari commented on the blockchain technology behind bitcoin, saying it "has more potential than bitcoin itself." —CNBC's Fred Imbert contributed to this report. More From CNBC • If you're always running out of space on your iPhone, try these six tricks • Big tech stocks likely to be under pressure again after Apple shares downgraded • A tech investor heads home to run for Congress in rural California || The No. 1 interview mistake job candidates make is surprisingly simple: In previous jobs, and now in my role as a managing editor at CNBC, I've conducted dozens of job interviews. I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly, and I'm constantly amazed atthe basic thingsthatcandidates screw up. The No. 1 thing that can ruin your job interview is surprisingly simple:Displaying low energy. I've seen it plenty of times myself and have heard it from many different hiring managers. While it can be hard to define what exactly "low energy" means, here's what it typically looks like: • Slumped shoulders • Lack of eye contact • Slowness to respond to questions • Not smiling • Flat speaking voice • Leaning back in the chair • Not asking questions • A general lack of enthusiasm It comes down to a simple truth: If you don't clearly want the job, it's near impossible to persuade someone to give it to you. Kate White, the former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, underscores this point in her career advice book"I Shouldn't Be Telling You This."After years of analyzing why some candidates dazzled and others disappointed, she realized the ones she liked seemed excited to be there. "There's even a little bounce to their step when they walk into the room, and you may sense that bounce even when they're sitting in the chair talking to you," she writes. "They want the job, and they're not afraid to show their passion." White says too many people tamp down their enthusiasm because they're nervous or worried about seeming unprofessional, and it's the worst mistake you can make. "Here's what you must remember: It's the hot tamale who wins the day, not the [candidate] who's as cool as a cucumber," she says. What can you do tomake sure the interviewer sees how much you care? Start by smiling wide and sitting on the edge of your seat with your feet firmly planted on the ground.Come preparedto talk aboutwhy you're a great fitand what you've achieved in the past. Ask lots offollow-up questions. Energy is contagious. If youshow that you're excited about the job, the hiring manager is much more likely to be excited about you. See also:The 11 most common job interview mistakes And don't miss:Marcus Lemonis reveals the one question job candidates should never ask in an interview. More From CNBC • BBQ, Bitcoin, Brazil and the other top stories that could hit you in the wallet • 3 ways you can be more productive in the morning • Why leaders need term limits || BIT Moving to Bitcoin Blockchain as BITCF to Unify Trading Between Markets; OTC Markets Removes Caveat Emptor Symbol From its Publication of Quotes on BITCF: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 15, 2017 /FIRST BITCOIN CAPITAL CORP. (OTC PINK: BITCF) ("Company," "we," "us," or "our") would like to announce that the most prolific cryptographic creator of tokens on the Bitcoin Blockchain has resolved to move the ownership of its common shares now trading in the cryptocurrency markets onto the Bitcoin Blockchain and simultaneously reduce authorized shares from 21 billion back to 500,000,000. The reduction in authorized capital ofFirst Bitcoin Capital Corp. does not reduce the number of shares currently issued and outstanding. Crypto shareholders will be given two options; either to keep their mined shares or convert those shares to the new blockchain. Those that convert to the new blockchain will own shares of BITCF, however, those that do not elect to move to the new blockchain will continue to hold BIT, which will then become a simple cryptocurrency with no relationship to the shares of company other than sharing the first portion of its name, "First Bitcoin." The transference of shares from BIT, on its unique, existing blockchain, to BITCF on theBitcoinBlockchain will be conducted through BIT's primary crypto-exchange,C-CEX.com, and will be automatic for all those who are holding their BIT at C-CEX. The new BITCF Crypto shares will then trade as BITCF so that it will be easier for the markets to understand that the crypto and traditional shares include the same rights, title, and interest. Those who wish to continue to trade BIT as a mere cryptocurrency will be allowed to do so via BIT's secondary exchange, Livecoin, but must remove their BIT from C-CEX on the deadline to be set soon. Deposits and withdraws will be allowed atC-CEXuntil the movement to the new blockchain has been implemented. The company plans to implement this blockchain move within two weeks. The company has determined that moving to theBitcoin Blockchainmakes the management of issuing shares more efficient and less expensive so that there is no mining cost to the company or its shareholders in the form of dilution. It is a safer system and allows for issuing new shares in the future instead of pre-mining to reserve shares in the treasury, as was done mining BIT. This move also creates a new asset for the coffers of BITCF so that all pre-mined 20 billion BIT will soon be available for liquidity, dividends, mergers, and acquisitions without any further dilution to BITCF, which heretofore was caused by daily mining of BIT. BITCF riding on the rails of Bitcoin using the Omni Layer Protocol will allow BITCF to easily pay dividends in the form of its other Omni layered coins such as ALT, XBU, XB, GARY, HILL, BURN, WEED, PRES, TESLA, etc., as well as the more popular MAID, OMNI, Tether (USTD), should we accumulate or acquire more of same. Reduction in Authorized Capital In preparing to move the small percentage of company shares held by miners from our own blockchain to the Bitcoin Blockchain the company resolved today to reduce authorized capital from 21,000,000,000 to 500,000,000 shares which will become effective upon completing this move within the next two weeks. OTC Market's Skull and Bones Designation After the company's SEC counsel provided and opined on the required disclosures to OTC Markets, the caveat emptor was removed so that the company has returned to its former status of a current alternative reporting company. About the Company First Bitcoin Capital Corp is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange -www.CoinQX.com. We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges), we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. At this time, the Company owns and operates more than the following digital assets under development: www.CoinQX.comcryptocurrency exchange, registered with FINCEN.www.altcoinmarketcap.commarket capitalization for all cryptocurrencies with up and down voting by altcoin communities.www.strain.IDcannabis strains genetic information depository on decentralized Blockchain.www.iCoiNEWS.comreal time cryptocurrency and Bitcoin news site.www.BITminer.ccproviding mining pool management services.www.2016coin.orgonline daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL, $GARY& $BURN - commemorative presidential election coins.www.bitcannpay.comOpen Loop merchant services for dispensaries. List of most Omni protocol coins issued on the Bitcoin Blockchain and owned by the Company:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1FwADyEvdvaLNxjN1v3q6tNJCgHEBuABrS Second Omni wallet owned by CoinQX reflecting our airline mileage tokens issued:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1VuF26AgLyQ4tBoGzYTWRqtDG9zCB7QXe Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file atwww.OTCMarkets.com. Contact us via:info@bitcoincapitalcorp.comor visithttp://www.bitcoincapitalcorp.com. SOURCE:First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || Explaining Bitcoin Investment Trust’s (GBTC) Premium Over NAV: The Bitcoin Investment Trust (OTCMKTS:GBTC) is the first publicly traded security designed to track the performance of Bitcoin, and it does so for a 2% annual fee. The trust holds a little over $230 in Bitcoin per share while trading for $450-550 per share. Shares of GBTC trade for a significant premium over the value of the Bitcoin they represent, annoying many observers. However, the negativity surrounding GBTC's premium is based on a misunderstanding of market efficiency and should not deter investors from this excellent opportunity. Often, analysts and investors mistakenly assume a large premium is a sign of market inefficiency or irrationality when it is actually a normal and healthy part of an investment's value. This article will explain why GBTC's premium over the spot price of Bitcoin is actually a good thing. Like most rule of thumb beliefs, the idea that a premium over NAV is bad feels intuitive. After all, you wouldn't want to buy an apple for double the price of an apple. But this surface-level example doesn't fully capture why premiums over NAV became such an anathema to the investment community. Most investment trusts hold bonds and other income generating securities that pay a fixed amount based on their face value. If an investor buys $100 worth of 10% coupon bonds for $200 - not only is his income reduced to 5% but when the bonds mature or get called, the investor will only receive $100 when he paid $200 to buy the bond. Most of the bond's yield was just return of capital. And that 5% was in practice only 1% or 2% if not negative when considering inflation. That sounds awful - but only in perception, not reality. Investments can only be evaluated on a risk-adjusted basis. And if abond trades for such a high premium that its yield becomes minuscule, that simply means the bond was incorrectly priced at face value and the market compensated for this through a premium that reduced its yield. Premiums and discounts to NAV are the market's way of ensuring an equilibrium between risk and reward. The Risk Premium GBTC's premium exists because of the significant risks averted by investing in GBTC instead of the traditional methods of transacting in Bitcoin. To be clear, GBTC's premium is not about convenience, it is about actual value. Cryptocurrency exchanges are generally not secure. Digital currencies lack central accountability or authority and there is little recourse for theft. Many of the largest exchanges have been hacked. In 2014, a Bitcoin exchange called Mt. Gox handled around 70% of global transactions beforebeing hackedfor what was worth $450 million at the time. Last year, Bitfinex was hacked for $71 million, causing users to lose 36% of their deposits. Because of the threat of hacking, cryptocurrency users generally recommend holding Bitcoin in what is called "cold storage" - a secure offline environment where it cannot be hacked. But there is a problem here. And whenever there is a problem there is an opportunity for value to be created through a security that solves the problem. By holding Bitcoin in cold storage, an investor sacrifices liquidity - the ability to quickly buy and sell his Bitcoin. However, if the investor holds the asset online, he increases the risk of total loss from hacking. GBTC solves this dilemma. The Bitcoin Investment Truststores its Bitcoinin "Xapo, Inc., in deep cold storage vaults. Bitcoin stored in the Xapo Vaults reside on multi signature-addresses, the private keys for which are protected by intense cryptographic, physical and process security." By storing its Bitcoin in offline cold storage, GBTC solves the problem of security without sacrificing the liquidity. By solving this problem, GBTC has created value and it is literally worth more than the liquidation price of its assets. But it doesn't end there, GBTC provides many more advantages. For example, Coinbase, the most popular Bitcoin exchange, imposes limits on the amount of Bitcoin that can be bought at a time. On top of this, bank transfers take 3-5 days to process. Bitcoin purchases transacted through a bank account are locked-in and cannot be sold until up to a week after purchase. The price of Bitcoin can change significantly over this period, but the investor will be unable to sell or cancel the order. On the other hand, GBTC allows investors to buy and sell freely. Conclusion The Bitcoin Investment Trust creates value by providing a solution to the tradeoff between security and liquidity in traditional Bitcoin investments. The trust's premium over the value of its assets is a reflection of the risks investors avoid by investing in GBTC instead of actual Bitcoin. This is not simply a premium for convince, but rather a premium for safety. And as investor awareness and interest in cryptocurrency grows, GBTC's premium is likely to increase, making the security a good way to invest in Bitcoin. With all that said, Investors must also consider the possibility of a new Bitcoin-based fund or ETF reducing demand for GBTC and removing its premium. • Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC): Moving Back to the Upside || We went inside an Amazon Prime Now hub to learn how Amazon does 2-hour delivery: Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is quietly expanding Prime Now, its free 2-hour delivery service. After originally launching in one zip code in New York City back in 2014, it's now available in more than 45 cities in eight countries. This year alone, it's added 14 more cities. But don't feel bad if you haven't heard about it yet. Amazon may be keeping it under wraps as it ramps up its offerings and perfects its fastest delivery method yet. After all, you won't find the service on the Amazon mobile app — you'll have to give up some screen real estate for its "Prime Now" app. We headed inside one of Amazon's Prime Now hubs in the company's hometown, Seattle, to see for ourselves what free 2-hour delivery looks like. What we found was surprising efficiency, a whole lot of randomness and some hints as to what Seattle consumers are shopping for. And, possibility, Amazon's vision for the future of ecommerce and retail. The Prime Now service offers a smaller selection of mostly household items available on Amazon.com to Prime members with a free 2-hour delivery window. It's no small feat considering there are tens of thousands of products available, as well as selections from local restaurants and stores. There's even ice cream and chilled wine on offer. Unlike Amazon.com's fulfillment centers, which are over a million square feet and house millions of items, Prime Now hubs are closer to city centers and about 30 to 50 square feet on average. Humans — not robots — manually pick out the items in an order from rows of shelving and bins, using internal Amazon systems that have cataloged where every item is stored. Amazon can also tells a "picker" the most efficient route to getting all those items as quickly as possible. When we visited the hub, around noon, there were only a few orders to fill and everything seemed to run smoothly. We didn't get to see how the hub handled a rush of orders or bottlenecks, which typically happen around 6 or 7pm when customers order items or groceries to arrive as they get home. More From CNBC Gianforte win means two of Montana's three congressional reps have Oracle ties Facebook is making a big push this summer to sell ads to drugmakers Bitcoin rival Ripple is sitting on many billions of dollars worth of currency || This Trump ETF Trade Completely Unwinds: Swirling controversy about President Trump's conversations with ex-FBI director James Comey sent stocks and interest rates spiraling lower this week. Many of the "Trump trades" that performed so well in the wake of the president's surprising victory on Nov. 8 reversed course, erasing a chunk of their post-election moves. One of those trades is ahead of them all in its fade. Not only has it reversed course, but the U.S. dollar has completely erased all of its gains since Election Day. On Wednesday, the widely followed U.S. Dollar Index fell for its fifth-straight session, bottoming out at 97.43, the lowest point since the election. The buck is now down 4.5% year-to-date, while the largest ETF tracking the currency, the $659 million PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund (UUP) , is down 4.8%. YTD Return For US Dollar Index & UUP Pro-Growth Agenda Pushed Back It's not hard to figure out why the greenback is falling. The latest allegations against Trump, regardless of whether they are true or false, will likely push back his pro-growth economic agenda. Health care reform, tax reform, deregulation and infrastructure spending all become more difficult when the president is having to defend himself on a near-daily basis. Less growth translates into a weaker dollar. That's without even accounting for the effect on the Fed's tightening schedule. If the central bank slows down its rate hikes in light of the latest events, that's another big weight on the U.S. currency. Overseas Outlook Brightens All that plays into why the dollar fell most recently. But the greenback has been falling steadily for much of the year, ever since peaking at 14-year highs during the first few trading sessions of January. Since then, the outlook for overseas economies has brightened considerably, giving a boost to nondollar currencies at the expense of the buck. In the case of Europe, expectations are rising that the economy has improved enough for the European Central Bank to put together an outline for winding down its €60 billion/month quantitative easing program as early as June. Meanwhile, data from the International Monetary Fund indicates emerging markets could see their fastest economic growth in four years in 2017. Story continues That's all positive for dollar rivals and the ETFs that track them . Just to name a few, the $274 million CurrencyShares Euro Trust (FXE) returned 5.6% so far this year; the $258 million CurrencyShares British Pound Sterling Trust (FXB) returned 5%; and the $47 million WisdomTree Emerging Currency Strategy Fund (CEW) returned 6.3%. Familiar Pattern Where does the dollar go from here? That's hard to say; currency markets are some of the most difficult to forecast, as evidenced by how ill-timed the bullish dollar calls at the beginning of the year now look. The current downtrend in the buck could reverse in a flash if Trump can show he's an effective president, and he along with the Republican Congress are able to pass their pro-growth economic measures. Moreover, a look at the chart for the U.S. Dollar Index reveals that the currency hasn't yet broken any critical levels. The index has been essentially range-bound between 93 and 100 since early 2015, with a brief breakout above the top of that range in the aftermath of the election. US Dollar Index In fact, the dollar is following the same pattern from 2015 and 2016, when it peaked early in the year, sold off during the middle of the year and then staged a comeback late in the year. So far, this year fits that mold perfectly, though of course, eventually the pattern will break. Contact Sumit Roy at sroy@etf.com . Recommended Stories This Trump ETF Trade Completely Unwinds 3 ETFs For Surprise Drop In The Dollar Emerging Market Local Debt ETFs Shine Big Bitcoin ETF Decision Coming Today, Or Maybe Not The Most Interesting New Gold ETF Since GLD Permalink | © Copyright 2017 ETF.com. All rights reserved || Mark Zuckerberg joins Silicon Valley bigwigs in calling for government to give everybody free money: Facebook(NASDAQ: FB)CEO Mark Zuckerberg called on the need to consider universal basic income for Americans during his Harvard Commencement Speech. Zuckerberg's comments reflect those of other Silicon Valley bigwigs, including Sam Altman, the president of venture capital firm Y Combinator. "Every generation expands its definition of equality. Now it's time for our generation to define a new social contract," Zuckerberg said during his speech. "We should have a society that measures progress not by economic metrics like GDP but by how many of us have a role we find meaningful. We should explore ideas like universal basic income to make sure everyone has a cushion to try new ideas." Zuckerberg said that, because he knew he had a safety net if projects like Facebook had failed, he was confident enough to continue on without fear of failing. Others, he said, such as children who need to support households instead of poking away on computers learning how to code, don't have the foundation Zuckerberg had. Universal basic income would provide that sort of cushion, Zuckerberg argued. Altman's view is similar. A year ago,Altman said he thinks"everyone should have enough money to meet their basic needs—no matter what, especially if there are enough resources to make it possible. We don't yet know how it should look or how to pay for it, but basic income seems a promising way to do this." Altman believes basic income will be possible as technological advancements "generate an abundance of resources" that help decrease the cost of living. Alsosee:Mark Zuckerberg: Success comes from 'the freedom to fail,' so billionaires like me should pay you to do that WATCH: Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg delivers Harvard graduation speech More From CNBC • Bitcoin rival Ripple is sitting on many billions of dollars worth of currency • GameStop shares tank despite earnings beat • Bitcoin rival ethereum is headed for a 38% correction, analyst says || As Comey Testimony Looms, Here's Every President Who's Used Executive Privilege To Deny Congress Information: President Donald Trump may exercise a rarely used presidential legal authority to prevent former FBI director James Comey from testifying about conversations he had with the president in front of the Senate next week. Comey has said Trump pressured him to end an ongoing FBI investigation into potential ties between Trump’s former security advisor Michael Flynn and Russian officials. If Trump chooses, he could attempt to invoke executive privilege to keep Comey from testifying. Executive privilege is a controversial legal principle that allows the president and high-level members of the executive branch to withhold information from Congress, the judicial branch and the public. The idea of executive privilege is based strictly on precedent, as it does not appear in the U.S. Constitution. Related Link: For This Congress, Tax Cuts Are The Entree, Reform The Side Dish 221 Years Of Executive Privilege While executive privilege was made famous during the Watergate investigation of then-President Richard Nixon, a number of presidents have invoked executive privilege: George Washington (1796) refused to provide the House of Representatives with documents related to Jay Treaty negotiations with Great Britain. Thomas Jefferson (1809) refused to testify in the treason trial of Aaron Burr. Andrew Jackson (1833) refused to provide documents to the Senate related to the removal of deposits from the Second Bank of the United States during the Bank War , a political battle over the legitimacy of the Second Bank. Harry Truman (1948) refused to cooperate with the House of Representatives during the Alger Hiss investigation related to potential Russian spying. Dwight Eisenhower (1954) blocked Senate access to “any data about internal conversations, meetings, or written communication among staffers, with no exception to topics or people" during the anti-communism Army-McCarthy hearings. Richard Nixon (1974) attempted to invoke executive privilege to prevent Congress from gaining access to audio recordings made in the White House related to the Watergate break-in. In United States v. Nixon, the Supreme Court ruled that the public’s interest in the pursuit of criminal prosecution took precedence over the president’s general need for confidentiality and ordered the release of the tapes. Ronald Reagan (1981–1989) invoked executive privilege three times: to deny access to information related to Canadian oil leases, to withhold documents related to Superfudn enforcement practices and to withhold internal memos related to the nomination of Justice William Rehnquist to the Supreme Court. George H.W. Bush (1991) invoked executive privilege to deny Congress access to documents related to an investigation into the Navy aircraft program. Bill Clinton (1998) invoked executive privilege 14 different times during his impeachment trial for perjury related to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. A federal judge denied Clinton’s attempt to prevent White House aides from testifying. George W. Bush (2001–2007) invoked executive privilege six times, withholding information related to FBI misuse of organized crime informants, Vice President Dick Cheney’s meetings with energy executives, former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and political director Sara Taylor, and the death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman. Bush also denied a subpoena calling for senior advisor Karl Rove to testify in front of the Senate. Barack Obama (2012) invoked executive privilege to withhold documents related to the Operation Fast and Furious gun-trafficking controversy and to withhold documents related to the implementation of the “net worth sweep” of Federal National Mortgage Association (OTC: FNMA ) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp (OTC: FMCC ). Story continues Trump reportedly may have a tough time invoking executive privilege regarding his conversations with Comey. Trump has repeatedly discussed details of the conversations with Comey in public interviews. Therefore, it may be difficult to make the case that the content of the conversations should be withheld now that Comey is set to give his version of the story in front of Congress. Related Links: White House Says The Paris Climate Accord Hurt American Businesses; Do American Businesses Agree? Trump Confirms US Exit From Paris Accord: He's Right, It Is A Bad Deal _________ Image Credit: By Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) - Director Provides Update on Orlando Shootings Investigation, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons See more from Benzinga Despite Historically High Valuations, Another 50% Upside Possible For Stocks Will Pricey Bitcoin Just Make The Rich Richer? © 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] New post: "Bitcoin Isn't Viable: Morgan Stanley" http://ift.tt/2sEjdOi  || #Bitcoin -0.21% Ultima: R$ 9833.24 Alta: R$ 9970.00 Baixa: R$ 9699.10 Fonte: Foxbit || 抜けるというより、しばらくこんな感じの調整続くんじゃないですかね？BTC || Major bitcoin exchanges hit by cyberattacks as record rally makes them a target https://www.fxinter.net/en/free-realtime-forex-news.aspx?ID=198592&direct=Major+bitcoin+exchanges+hit+by+cyberattacks+as+record+rally+makes+them+a+target … || あれ、、？　一ヶ月前はここに橋があったとおもったんやけどな？？pic.twitter.com/ww6wagwrZA || #Bitcoin is cool, but the #Blockchain technology it sits on is far more interesting. #Autonomous projects #Algorithms #SmartContracts || $2310.00 at 10:15 UTC [24h Range: $2201.00 - $2350.00 Volume: 12975 BTC] || 16:00~17:00のBitcoin市場はよこばいだったみたいだね。 変化率は-0.0815% 18:00までは反落かな? 直近の市場の平均Bitcoinの価格は310208.0円 【AIコメントです:テスト中パターンB】 #bitcoin #AI || $2522.51 at 02:30 UTC [24h Range: $2460.62 - $2665.00 Volume: 9115 BTC] || #Bitcoin rival #Ethereum looks to topple the cryptocurrency http://on.rt.com/8esi 
Trend: down || Prices: 2705.41, 2744.91, 2608.72, 2589.41, 2478.45, 2552.45, 2574.79, 2539.32, 2480.84, 2434.55
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Your first trade for Wednesday: The " Fast Money " traders delivered their final picks with just two trading days left in the year. Pete Najarian was a buyer ofWynn Resorts ( WYNN ) . Brian Kelly was a buyer of Trina Solar ( TSL ) . Dan Nathan was a seller of McDonald's ( MCD ) . Guy Adami was a buyer of Thermo Fisher Scientific ( TMO ) . Trader disclosure: On December 29, 2015, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Pete Najarian is long Long AAPL, BAC, BMY, BP, DIS, DISCA, FOXA, GE, KO, MRK, PEP, PFE, he is long calls A, ABX, BAC, COP, DAL, DDD, EMR, EXAS, HAIN, HUN, LC, LULU, MOS, MSFT, NRF, NSAM, PNR, SCSS, UAL, VZ, WLL, WYNN, He is long puts FCX, MRO, WFT. Dan Nathan is long MCD Feb Put Spread, Long PFE buy-write, Long TWTR March Risk Reversal, Long UUP March call, Long XLU Feb Call spread, Long PYPL Jan Risk Reversal, Long M Jan16 call spread, Long NTAP Jan risk reversal, Long GM Jan Put Butterfly, Long Len Jan Put Fly, Long QCOM feb calls, Short SPY, Long UUP. Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, Hong Kong Dollar, TLT, US Dollar; he is short British Pound, Euro, Yen, Yuan, Canadian Dollar, GSG, EEM, EWC, EWH, KRE, SPY. Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || YOUR MONEY-Giving to charity gears up after a crisis: By Beth Pinsker NEW YORK, Nov 30 (Reuters) - During the first two weeks after an earthquake hit Nepal in April, Fidelity Charitable sent out 4,400 grants totaling almost $5.3 million from donors using special charitable accounts called donor-advised funds at the Boston-based nonprofit associated with Fidelity Investments. Now a few months later, the total is up to 6,000 grants totaling $7.8 million. Within hours of something bad happening around the globe - whether its a hurricane or a humanitarian crisis like the flow of refugees from Syria - people start calling places like Fidelity Charitable, to ask where their donations would be most useful. In the philanthropic circles, motivating folks to give can be a costly and fickle marketing exercise. Donor-advised funds, which operate like mini-foundations, help to bridge the gap. "What we know about individuals, when it comes to disasters, is that they are highly influenced by media coverage and by the type of disaster," said Bob Ottenhoff, president and chief executive officer of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, a nonprofit based in Washington. "That is why so much money flows immediately after there is a certain type of disaster, and it dries up after a couple of days." Individuals gave an estimated 72 percent of the $358.38 billion donated to charity in 2014, according to Giving USA, with the rest coming from foundations and corporations. Donor-advised funds make up a very small but growing part of that individual pie, granting $12.5 billion in 2014, up from $9.7 billion in 2013, according to the National Philanthropic Trust, which operates a donor-advised fund. And overall assets held in those accounts rose to $70 billion from $58 billion. At Fidelity Charitable, one of the largest providers, you will need $5,000 to open a donor-advised fund. Most of those who open accounts like these have planned giving on their minds - to their alma maters, religious organizations, health concerns or local communities. But account holders at Schwab Charitable, for instance, leave about 30 percent of their assets free to fund causes that come along. Story continues "It's hard to know how many are pulling a credit card out and donating directly rather than using their donor-advised funds," said Kim Laughton, president of Schwab Charitable . "But I think they understand they can do it quickly through the fund. They can even grant from a cellphone, which is really nice." The advantages of giving through a donor-advised fund are that the money can be set aside and noted on tax returns, but granted later. Also, the fund groups take care of much of the paperwork involved in a donation - especially helpful for non-cash gifts like stocks or even Bitcoin, at some organizations. Donors should note, however, that brokerage management fees do apply to the accounts, as in regular investment accounts. While Fidelity and Schwab send out email blasts and newsletter updates to their donor bases when a major disaster occurs, they worry about creating disaster-giving fatigue. This has made some other donor-advised funds very cautious about pushing out notices. "We wait for donors to come to us, rather than becoming an annoying dinging to them," said Eileen Heisman, president and CEO of the National Philanthropic Trust. All the funds are especially cautious about looking beyond the immediate emotional need to help when they select charities to highlight. That is what Fidelity tried to steer with its Nepal effort, said Elaine Martyn, vice president of the private donor group at Fidelity Charitable. While the website highlighted just a few charities to start, by the time those 6,000 grants were given out, they went to hundreds of different organizations like Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and smaller ones that focused on eye health and animal welfare, many of which will be providing long-term support for rebuilding. "Lot of donors want to give to the first responders, then they forget about it. There's a whole other set of organizations that are good at hanging in there," added Heisman. Ottenhoff suggests breaking up gifts into two parts, one for immediate need and one for long-term building. "It should be a time to take a moment of reflection - what do you want to accomplish? What organization can do it?" he said. (Editing by Lauren Young and Jonathan Oatis) || Global Arena Holding Subsidiary Attends Final Demo of Blockchain High Speed Scanning and Voting Tabulation Software: NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Dec 7, 2015) - Global Arena Holding, Inc. (OTC PINK:GAHC), (the "Company") announced today that its subsidiary, Global Elections Services ("GES"), successfully completed its final testing of the blockchain voting tabulation system developed by Blockchain Technologies Corporation ("BTC"). In early November, GES executives conducted their first round of tests on a blockchain tabulation system designed by BTC as a technology upgrade for one of the current methods the elections company uses. While those initial tests did give Ms. Maralin Falik (CEO of GES) confidence in the system's user interface, as expected from a 35 year industry veteran, she sent BTC back with additional specs to be met. After several more iterations by BTC's software engineers, GES conducted their final test of BTC's blockchain scanning and voting tabulation system with great success. "GES strives to provide the highest standards in the election process. All of our municipal public elections must conform with the regulations of the United States Department of Labor, which has very stringent requirements," stated Maralin Falik. "Conforming to these standards is crucial. Working with BTC, we will now be on the cutting edge as an early adapter of a world changing technology, which will transform the election process in an efficient and credible way while maintaining the level of integrity the Department of Labor requires and expects." Ms. Falik continued, "We are very pleased with the results of this demonstration for Scanning and Tabulating Mail-in Ballots. We will look to move forward with BTC's technology at our elections, and quickly begin expanding our reach, securing many different types of elections, on a global scale." BTC CEO Nick Spanos stated, "At Blockchain Technologies Corporation, we pride ourselves on achieving real world blockchain integration. Through a partnership with GES, we will revolutionize election processes with the unveiling of the world's first blockchain voting tabulation system. In this case, we have modified our patented platform to coincide with the Department of Labor specifications. This will allow for greater transparency, accessibility and security for Union elections." Mr. Spanos continued, "This is just the beginning. Keep in mind, this blockchain voting tabulation system is only utilizing a small segment of our elections platform. I have over three decades of experience engineering electoral management software. So Maralin will have many options to grow GES with our technologies and applications, and we will support her every step of the way." John Matthews, CEO of Global Arena Holding, Inc., said, "When we began investing in Blockchain Technologies Corporation, we envisioned great synergies between GES and BTC. Today, it looks as though our ambitions are materializing. This relationship will pave the way to a new standard in 21st century voting, with the integrity of every election now being secured by the blockchain." Mr. Matthews continued, "This new process will also mean continued growth and potentially increased revenues to GES, while concurrently providing an income stream for BTC. So instead of paying third party providers for tabulation services, GES will pay a technologically advanced company [BTC], which Global Area Holding has a vested interest in." Mr. Matthews additionally stated, "This demonstration of the High Speed Scanning and Tabulation Software is phase one of GES' growth strategy. The Company expects further software upgrades using the blockchain to enhance our other current services which include; Internet Voting, In Person voting, and Hybrid Elections." At this point, the next step is for GES to sign an agreement with BTC and begin conducting elections using BTC's blockchain voting system. The Company's management is excitedly looking forward to this collaboration being consummated. About Global Arena Holding The Company trades on the OTC Pink Sheets under the ticker symbol GAHC. The Company has been publicly traded since 2011 and holds a number of interests, including Global Elections Services, Inc., GAHI Acquisition Corp and Blockchain Technologies Corporation Inc. The Company focuses on acquiring technologies, patents and companies having the ability to leverage the blockchain crypto technology. For more information visit:http://globalarenaholding.com Twitter:www.twitter.com/GlobalArenaGAHCFacebook:www.facebook.com/GlobalArenaHoldingGAHCLinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/pub/global-arena-holding/107/86a/a7Google+:http://tinyurl.com/GlobalArenaHolding Safe Harbor Statement The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for forward-looking statements. Certain information included in this press release contains statements that are forward-looking, such as statements related to the future anticipated direction of the industry, plans for future expansion, various business development activities, planned or required capital expenditures, future funding sources, anticipated sales growth, and potential contracts. Such forward-looking information involves important risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect anticipated results in the future and, accordingly, such results may differ from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, the company. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those relating to development and expansion activities, dependence on existing management, financing activities, domestic and global economic conditions, and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. || MarilynJean Interactive (MJMI.QB) Shareholder Update: Marilynjean Interactive ( MJMI ) Is Pleased To Update Its Shareholders on Its Business Plan for the Coming Year HENDERSON, NV / ACCESSWIRE / January 18, 2016 / The crypto-currency space saw major strides forward in 2015 with ground-breaking developments in its underlying technology and regulation as well as an unexpected rise in Bitcoin prices. The space appears poised for a quantum leap forward in 2016 and MarilynJean is excited to be a part of what will likely be tremendous growth in the industry. From a technology standpoint, Bitcoin's blockchain is envisioned to revolutionize the settlement of securities and payments for both financial and non-financial institutions alike. Major stock and futures exchanges, clearing houses, and other technology organizations are exploring the use of blockchain technology to underpin their transaction verification systems. Bloomberg estimates that approximately $373 million was invested in Bitcoin start-ups in 2015. As investment in Bitcoin and blockchain technology grew, new regulation evidenced that Bitcoin is on track to become a widely used and accepted currency. New York issued its first Bitlicense allowing Goldman Sachs backed Circle Internet Financial to offer digital currency services in the state. The advent of regulated exchanges and trading instruments may have been a factor in driving demand for Bitcoin, its value having increased over 40% in 2015. While price volatility remained higher than traditional FIAT currencies, 2015 was overall a more stable year than its predecessor for Bitcoin. Looking ahead to 2016, MJMI plans to continue its focus on the key verticals of exchange, remittance and gaming. In addition, the Company plans to seek partnerships with firms involved specifically in development of applications based on blockchain technology. The Company plans to continue to expand its management and advisory board in 2016, advance the partnerships it began negotiating last year and continue to forge new alliances in the space. Story continues Peter Janosi, MJMI's president said: "We believe that MJMI's best avenue for growth is via acquisitions and strategic partnerships. We expect the industry to continue to expand and evolve rapidly and, as such, we expect our publicly traded currency to be a key strategic tool for growth and financing." About MJMI MJMI is in the business of providing safe and accessible services for the users of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies. Crypto-currencies are a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure transactions and control the creation of new units. Bitcoin became the first decentralized crypto-currency in 2009. Crypto-currency is produced at a rate which is defined when the system is created and publicly known. By contrast, in centralized banking and economic systems, such as the Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency by printing units or demanding additions to digital banking ledgers. However, neither companies nor governments can produce units of crypto-currency and as such the value of crypto-currencies are completely based on supply and demand, free from any governmental control. Many people believe crypto-currencies, and in particular Bitcoin, hold the promise of being the most significant advancement in global finance in modern history. The advent of Bitcoin creates a secure, easily accessible and transferable transnational currency that is completely liberated from political influence. MJMI is currently exploring partnerships in several verticals within the crypto-currency space. Management believes that several industries, including international remittances, currency exchange and online gambling are on the verge of being revolutionized by the use of Bitcoin to effect transactions. MarilynJean Media Interactive is among the first publicly traded companies focused on Bitcoin and the crypto-currency space. The company's trading symbol is OTCQB: MJMI. Website: www.marilynjean.com Press Contact: bonnie@marilynjean.com SOURCE: MarilynJean Media Interactive || 5 Tech Trends To Watch In 2016: Tech is an ever-changing landscape that has provided investors and venture capitalists with an unending supply of "next big things." Over the past decade, Internet use has completely upended the way most companies do business and built an entirely new industry based on connecting people with each other. Now, with the tech space overflowing with new startups and great ideas, many investors are wondering where to place their bets in the year to come. Here's a look at five tech trends to watch in 2016. 1. The Internet Of Things Connected devices are expected to become a huge part of the future in the coming year as more companies work to give appliances, automobiles and even lightbulbs an Internet connection. The idea of connecting several aspects of life and being able to control them with the click of a button has grown in popularity, leading many to look into services like Hive, a system that remotely controls a home's heating system. On a larger scale, some cities are beginning to plan major overhauls that will allow residents to track things like real-time traffic and pollution levels and give planners the ability to regulate energy usage by installing remotely controlled lightbulbs and monitoring building conditions. Related Link: More Connections Means More Security Where To Look There are a wide variety of companies participating in the shift toward a more connected world. One firm that has been at the forefront of connected technology is International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM ). The firm recently an IoT "starter pack" that allows users to take readings from the environment using sensors attached to the device. The kit can be used on a small scale, for homeowners, or in a much larger capacity by a city planner. Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO ) is another interesting play, as the company has also begun working on smart city planning involvement. The company has already to provide automated solutions that connect important city functions in major places like Barcelona and Hamburg. Story continues 2. Wearables Wearable technology took off in 2015 when Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL ) entered the space with the highly anticipated Apple Watch. Competing products like Jawbone's UP and FitBit's activity trackers also saw a rise in popularity as more consumers began to focus on living a healthier, active life. However, just because this year was a big one for the wearables market doesn't mean the opportunity to jump on board is over. Many believe that wearable technology is still in its infancy and that new and improved devices will help the trend expand even further. At the moment, the idea that a smartwatch can do things like direct a wearer to the correct grocery aisle is novel, but many believe that the technology will expand to do even more impressive things in the future. Related Link: Research And Markets: Wearables Generating The Next Wave Of Personal Finance Experiences Where To Look The obvious pick for wearable devices is Apple, as the company has established itself as a leader in new consumer technology. The Apple Watch arguably put wearable devices on the map this year, and many believe that new versions due out in the coming months will attract even more fanfare. However, for investors looking even further into the future, companies like SAMSUNG ELECT LTD(F) (OTC: SSNLF ) and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ) may be good bets. Samsung has a new line of circuit boards that are about the size of postage stamps, making them ideal for use in things like fitness trackers. The company is expected to use the boards in its own line of products, as well as selling them on to other firms interested in using them in wearables or connected appliances. Intel similarly a bite-size computer chip that the company believes will make an impact on the wearables market. The firm says that watches are only the beginning of the trend and that its computer chips could be used in clothing designed to track the wearer's biometrics. 3. Big Data It should come as no surprise that big data will remain a huge part of corporate strategy in the coming year. The advent of cloud computing has given companies the ability to pull together and analyze huge data sets in order to run their business more effectively. Everything from comparing best practices to analyzing medical conditions has benefitted from improvements in data analysis, and that practice is only expected to become more commonplace in the coming year. A conducted by the analyst firm Gartner showed that over 75 percent of companies are planning to invest in big data over the next two years. Gartner researchers said the research's findings illustrated big data research itself is becoming the norm among most companies as they work to improve things like customer experiences and cut down on costs. Related Link: Harte Hanks Launches Data Refiner Platform Where To Look When it comes to big data, companies like Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN ) have a massive advantage, because the volume of customers using their service to shop, watch movies and listen to music has created a valuable store of data allowing for more accurate targeted marketing. However other companies like International Business Machines and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT ) also offer interesting investment opportunities, as those firms offer services that allow companies to make better use of their data collection by mining and analyzing customer data. So far, IBM appears to be a leader in this industry, as the firm offers developers and businesses a popular suite of products to help them manage big data. 4. 3D Printing 3D printing is a controversial tech trend that some say has been over-hyped during the past few years. While that may be true, 3D printing technology has come a long way recently, and many believe that 2016 could be its breakout year. The technology has proven most useful in specific capabilities, such as providing replacement parts for machinery or helping engineers create scalable models. However, new use-cases for 3D printing have started to crop up, leading many to believe that the industry will continue growing in the New Year. NASA has said that 3D printing technology could prove useful on missions into space; the devices have already been used to print tools for astronauts aboard the international space station. 3D printing technology has also changed to allow for printing , something that could revolutionize medical testing. Related Link: Add 3D Printing To Your Portfolio With These Stocks Where To Look Investors who are interested in tapping into the 3D printing space often look to firms like Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSYS ) or 3D Systems Corporation (NYSE: DDD ). Stratasys has been a market leader in the 3D printing space, as the company has already sold and installed thousands of devices that generate a steady revenue from replacement sales. 3D Systems has a much smaller reach, but the firm offers a wider variety of printers that are able to cater to several different industries – something that could give the firm a leg up as more and more businesses see a need for 3D printing technologies. 5. Cybersecurity With the pace of technological innovation rapidly increasing, the need for security has risen dramatically. A spate of high-profile hacking attacks and data leaks over the past year has raised awareness among both consumers and CEOs of the importance of a comprehensive security program. Consumers are using the Internet for everything from banking transactions to controlling their heating system, and the growing number of connections means threats to companies' databases is rising as well. Related Link: Adding Some Volatility To The Cybersecurity ETF Trade Where To Look When it comes to investing in cybersecurity, there is a plethora of options. For investors looking to benefit from increasing interest in cybersecurity on the whole, an ETF like PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF (NYSE: HACK ) could be a good play. The fund tracks a range of different companies and gives investors exposure to the industry as a whole. For a more targeted route, some investors are looking into companies like NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ: NXPI ). NXP is the company responsible for the security behind Apple Pay, making it a valuable investment for those who see interest mobile payment ballooning over the next year. Image Credit: See more from Benzinga 7 Of The World's Most Famous Corporate Rivalries 5 Things To Consider When Preparing For A Santa Claus Rally Bitcoin Seeks To Right Music-Industry Wrongs © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin industry consolidates: Why Kraken bought Coinsetter: For the past two years, the most popular type of new bitcoin company has been exchanges, where investors can buy and trade bitcoin and other virtual currencies. Now two exchanges are already rolling up, in the first major bitcoin industry acquisition of 2016. Kraken, which is based in San Francisco but sees most of its trading activity in Euros, has bought Coinsetter, a smaller New York-based exchange, for an undisclosed amount. Coinsetter will shut down on Jan. 26 and its customers will be converted to Kraken. According to data from TradeBlock, the average daily transaction volume on Kraken last year was around $1.3 million. The deal comes amid a price collapse and high negativity around bitcoin's future. Mike Hearn, a prominent bitcoin developer, wrote a post on Medium last week announcing his opinion that the bitcoin "experiment" has failed. "I will no longer be taking part in bitcoin development and have sold all my coins," he wrote. "The network is on the brink of technical collapse. The mechanisms that should have prevented this outcome have broken down, and as a result there’s no longer much reason to think Bitcoin can actually be better than the existing financial system." The core of Hearn's argument is that the speed of transactions has slown; a contentious issue in the bitcoin community right now is whether and when to raise the size limit on "blocks," the term for a bundle of bitcoin transactions. Every single transaction is recorded and processed as part of a block on the bitcoin blockchain, a public, decentralized ledger. If this all sounds like a foreign language to you, don't worry: All you need to understand is that the bad optics of a prominent bitcoin flag-waver leaving the industry in a huff was enough to send the price plummeting. After Hearn posted his piece on Jan. 14, the price of the digital currency fell from $430 down to a low of $358 two days later. It now hovers around $380, according to Winkdex. Story continues Viewed in this context, consolidation in the industry may look troubling. But Coinsetter CEO Jaron Lukasiewicz isn't concerned. "I’m bullish on bitcoin right now and believe we’ll see the price hit four-digits again," he tells Yahoo Finance. Perhaps that's easy for him to say: Coinsetter will shut down, and Lukasiewicz is moving on, likely following Hearn to the exit. ("For my next venture I am focused on starting or leading a team whose products are improving society... I’m not tied to any particular industry beyond that," he says.) The sale comes less than a year after Coinsetter made its own acquisition of the Canadian-based bitcoin exchange Cavirtex—a deal that likely helped make Coinsetter an acquisition target itself. Benefiting from volatility Kraken CEO Jesse Powell is less starry-eyed about the industry right now. "I think the market has not grown as fast as everyone anticipated," he says. "And the price has gone in the opposite direction of what people hoped. I think we’ll continue to see market consolidation. When the price is going up, new people are coming in, more media is covering it, it’s good news all around. When the price is going down, the public perception is bad, and everyone says bitcoin is crashing. The price is important in that aspect." For a long time, many bitcoin believers insisted that the price isn't important. As long as it is relatively stable, they reasoned, startups can keep innovating and building useful applications on top of the blockchain. But for bitcoin exchanges, price matters: Most make their money from transaction fees, so they do best when there’s either a lot of volatility, or the price is high. When the price is stable and low, exchanges suffer. Leaving New York Kraken, founded in 2011, is like a foreign exchange for digital currencies. Its customers are mostly professional traders executing margin trades and other advanced orders. It is not a site where beginners would go to casually dip a toe into the bitcoin market. Coinsetter, founded in 2012, offers Kraken the chance to instantly expand its customer base in Canada (from Cavirtex) and the U.S. Except in New York. Kraken was one of the companies to cut off service in the state last summer after the New York Department of Financial Services released the final version of the BitLicense, a regulatory framework for digital currency companies in New York that holds customers' funds. Many bitcoin entrepreneurs complained the framework was too strict and limiting, so rather than play ball, they left. Coinsetter didn't leave New York. But under new management, it will now. "We’re going to shut down New York again right after the acquisition," says Powell. "So the Coinsetter New York clients will be out of an exchange there, unfortunately. Coinsetter did put in a BitLicense application, but when you have a change of control, the application is void, so we won’t be serving New York and we have no plans to apply for a BitLicense in the future." In a sense, Powell is simply sticking to his guns, just like Hearn—except that the latter believes bitcoin has already failed, while the former believes it risks failure if there is over-regulation. Indeed, apart from the debate over block size, the industry's bigger battle will be over regulation. Many in the business are anxiously waiting to see whether other states will follow New York's lead and create their own form of a BitLicense. And while some companies stayed in New York and applied for a BitLicense (at high cost: Lukasiewicz says Coinsetter spent $50,000 to apply for one), others stayed in New York but did not apply, and continue to operate in uncertainty. That concerns Powell. "There’s still not really regulatory clarity, and the banks still aren’t getting on board. They’re all about the blockchain these days, but they’re still not giving bitcoin exchanges bank accounts. So there are huge challenges with getting new exchanges started." He's right about the blockchain being a buzzword for big financial institutions: Everyone from JPMorgan ( JPM ) to the Nasdaq have talked up their interest in the blockchain while distancing themselves from the cryptocurrency that fuels it. For now, Kraken gets bigger. It can compete more with the leading exchanges like BitInstant, Bitstamp, Coinbase and itBit, as well as brand new exchange platforms launched last year, including Abra, Align Commerce, and Gemini, an exchange launched by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, of Facebook fame. "The issue for everybody in bitcoin right now," Powell says, "is if you started out a few years ago, say, in 2011, you thought that five years from now, it’s going to be flying cars, bitcoin everywhere, fiat currency will cease to exist. Clearly that didn’t happen, and bitcoin isn’t $10,000 a coin. I think a lot of companies created a structure that depended on a high price of bitcoin. When the price went from $1,000 to $200, they could no longer afford to finance their operation." If the price drops further, expect to see more consolidation. And with so many different exchanges out there, it's inevitable more will roll up. -- Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology. Read more: Here's a sign that PayPal is embracing Bitcoin Fantex, the 'athlete stock exchange,' signs first golfer Why Apple, Uber are betting on Super Bowl sponsorship || Here's a sign that PayPal is embracing Bitcoin: PayPal was the hot new thing in payments when it launched in 1998, but in the era of digital currency, crowdfunding, micro-crowdfunding, and peer-to-peer lending, most people no longer see the company that way. So its newest board appointment is an effort to embrace the new landscape in digital payments. To that end, PayPal (PYPL) has named Wences Casares to its board of directors, the company announced on Wednesday. Casares is founder and CEO of Xapo, a wallet provider for the digital currency bitcoin, and before Xapo he founded Lemon, another digital wallet company. He is an unusual addition to a board that includes executives from AT&T (T), the American Red Cross, Enzon Pharmaceuticals (ENZN), and eBay (EBAY) cofounder Pierre Omidyar. It's likely a sign that PayPal is ready to embrace bitcoin and its technology. That's especially interesting considering that it is a company some bitcoin entrepreneurs often point to as "Web 1.0" and too slow because of its transfer delays and fees. One of the biggest selling points of bitcoin is the ability to send money to another country with little or no delay, and a fractional fee. "We’ve entered a period of unprecedented disruption in payments and financial services driven by the mass adoption of mobile technology and the digitization of cash," said PayPal CEO Dan Schulmanin a statement. "Wences’ long and successful track record as international fintech entrepreneur with a focus on next-generation payment and crypto-currency is a perfect fit for PayPal at this time." PayPal declined to comment beyond the press release. Casares does not come without controversy. He is a serial entrepreneur who founded an Argentinian brokerage in 1997 and sold it to Banco Santander in 2000 for $750 million. Then he founded a Chilean videogame developer in 2002 and sold it to Activision (ATVI) in 2006. But he is currently being sued by LifeLock (LOCK), a $1.3 billion public company that offers online-identity protection. In December 2013 LifeLock acquired Casares's company Lemon for $42.6 million. In a lawsuit filed in August 2014, LifeLock says Casares built and launched Xapo, his current company, while working at Lemon, "developed by Lemon employees, in Lemon’s facilities, on Lemon’s computers, and on Lemon’s dime.” Casares and four Xapo employees (each of whom previously worked at Lemon) are named as defendants in LifeLock's suit. The company wants him to pay back “the value of the Xapo product attributable to Defendants’ misrepresentations, omissions, breaches of duty, and other wrongful conduct.” It does not specify an amount it is seeking, but assessing damages would involve placing a value on Xapo. Meanwhile, Casares has fought back, filing a cross-complaint of his own this past July, alleging poor management by LifeLock. (And LifeLock itself was forced to pay a $12 million fine to the FTC this past summer for false advertising of its product.) Some in the bitcoin community believe that LifeLock is upset that it overpaid for Lemon, while Casares has moved on to Xapo, which has raised $40 million in venture capital and might have more promise than Lemon ever did. What does all of this legal drama have to do with PayPal? Perhaps nothing—but if Casares is found guilty of the civil fraud that LifeLock alleges, it would be bad for not just Xapo, but now PayPal as well. Moreover, Fortunereported last yearthat some of Xapo's investors are angry that they were never made aware of the ongoing litigation against Casares. So PayPal has taken a risk in appointing Casares to its board, not only because of his current legal situation, but on a broader scale it has more strongly associated itself with bitcoin, an industry that is not without its negative headlines. (Just this week, Ross Ulbricht, the mastermind of Silk Road, the online drug marketplace that used bitcoin as its form of payment, appealed his recent life sentence.) Just over one year ago, PayPal made partnerships with some prominent bitcoin startups, like BitPay and Coinbase, but the noise of that move has since died down. PayPal now might want to explore a larger form of implementation around bitcoin, or it is intrigued by its underlying technology, the bitcoin blockchain, a public, decentralized ledger that records every single bitcoin transaction. Financial heavyweights like JPMorgan and Nasdaq have both expressed interest in harnessing the blockchain. Or maybe PayPal wants to buy Xapo. || Paris Attacks Weigh On Bitcoin: EU officials are set to gather in Brussels in order to discuss the Paris attacks and ways to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future. One of the topics on the table for discussion is expected to be bitcoin and its potential to be used as a finance tool for terrorists. The recent crisis in Paris has shined a spotlight on some of the issues that bitcoin has been facing as it becomes a more and more popular tool to conduct financial transactions on the web. While bitcoin enthusiasts say the cryptocurrency's ability to send payments anonymously without a third party intermediary is an important part of its appeal, others believe that bitcoin could be contributing to terror plots and should be more tightly regulated. Related Link: Lasting Market Impacts From The Paris Attacks Trust Issues Bitcoin has long suffered from trust issues as the cryptocurrency has been portrayed as a tool for criminals after an underground marketplace dealing in illegal and illicit bitcoin transactions was exposed last year. The marketplace, called Silk Road, is what some say is only the beginning of the damage that bitcoin can do. Because making transactions with bitcoin can protect the buyer and seller's identities, criminals are better able to solicit and pay for illegal goods and services online. The same, many believe, is true for terrorists. Bitcoin gives them an avenue to send and receive funds undetected as there is no third party intermediary monitoring and verifying those payments. Regulation Could Break Bitcoin However, on the other side of the coin, bitcoin supporters say that too much regulation would eliminate bitcoin's purpose all together. The electronic currency was meant to operate outside of traditional finance in order to make sending money across boarders faster and easier. They argue that placing strict regulations on bitcoin would disrupt the currency's decentralized nature and undo all of the progress that bitcoin technology has made. Story continues Related Link: Ben Bernanke Sees Serious Problems With Bitcoin What To Do It is unclear how regulators plan to monitor bitcoin transactions and whether or not their efforts would be successful in thwarting terror plots. Bitcoin isn't the only payment scheme that is believed to be involved in terrorist planning operations either; pre-paid debit cards purchased from stores may also be a threat as they similarly don't require any kind of verification to be used for online payments. See more from Benzinga 9 IPOs That Fell Flat On Wall Street 9 Ways To Make Your Retirement Savings Stretch Further 9 Investment Options For Traders Looking To Add Europe To Their Portfolio © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || YOUR MONEY-Giving to charity gears up after a crisis: By Beth Pinsker NEW YORK, Nov 30 (Reuters) - During the first two weeks after an earthquake hit Nepal in April, Fidelity Charitable sent out 4,400 grants totaling almost $5.3 million from donors using special charitable accounts called donor-advised funds at the Boston-based nonprofit associated with Fidelity Investments. Now a few months later, the total is up to 6,000 grants totaling $7.8 million. Within hours of something bad happening around the globe - whether its a hurricane or a humanitarian crisis like the flow of refugees from Syria - people start calling places like Fidelity Charitable, to ask where their donations would be most useful. In the philanthropic circles, motivating folks to give can be a costly and fickle marketing exercise. Donor-advised funds, which operate like mini-foundations, help to bridge the gap. "What we know about individuals, when it comes to disasters, is that they are highly influenced by media coverage and by the type of disaster," said Bob Ottenhoff, president and chief executive officer of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, a nonprofit based in Washington. "That is why so much money flows immediately after there is a certain type of disaster, and it dries up after a couple of days." Individuals gave an estimated 72 percent of the $358.38 billion donated to charity in 2014, according to Giving USA, with the rest coming from foundations and corporations. Donor-advised funds make up a very small but growing part of that individual pie, granting $12.5 billion in 2014, up from $9.7 billion in 2013, according to the National Philanthropic Trust, which operates a donor-advised fund. And overall assets held in those accounts rose to $70 billion from $58 billion. At Fidelity Charitable, one of the largest providers, you will need $5,000 to open a donor-advised fund. Most of those who open accounts like these have planned giving on their minds - to their alma maters, religious organizations, health concerns or local communities. But account holders at Schwab Charitable, for instance, leave about 30 percent of their assets free to fund causes that come along. "It's hard to know how many are pulling a credit card out and donating directly rather than using their donor-advised funds," said Kim Laughton, president of Schwab Charitable . "But I think they understand they can do it quickly through the fund. They can even grant from a cellphone, which is really nice." The advantages of giving through a donor-advised fund are that the money can be set aside and noted on tax returns, but granted later. Also, the fund groups take care of much of the paperwork involved in a donation - especially helpful for non-cash gifts like stocks or even Bitcoin, at some organizations. Donors should note, however, that brokerage management fees do apply to the accounts, as in regular investment accounts. While Fidelity and Schwab send out email blasts and newsletter updates to their donor bases when a major disaster occurs, they worry about creating disaster-giving fatigue. This has made some other donor-advised funds very cautious about pushing out notices. "We wait for donors to come to us, rather than becoming an annoying dinging to them," said Eileen Heisman, president and CEO of the National Philanthropic Trust. All the funds are especially cautious about looking beyond the immediate emotional need to help when they select charities to highlight. That is what Fidelity tried to steer with its Nepal effort, said Elaine Martyn, vice president of the private donor group at Fidelity Charitable. While the website highlighted just a few charities to start, by the time those 6,000 grants were given out, they went to hundreds of different organizations like Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and smaller ones that focused on eye health and animal welfare, many of which will be providing long-term support for rebuilding. "Lot of donors want to give to the first responders, then they forget about it. There's a whole other set of organizations that are good at hanging in there," added Heisman. Ottenhoff suggests breaking up gifts into two parts, one for immediate need and one for long-term building. "It should be a time to take a moment of reflection - what do you want to accomplish? What organization can do it?" he said. (Editing by Lauren Young and Jonathan Oatis) || DA Davidson Favors Lifeway Foods Over Dean Foods: On Thursday, DA Davidson analyst Eric M. Gottlieb explained why he prefers Lifeway Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: LWAY ) over Dean Foods Co (NYSE: DF ). In two separate reports, the expert issued a Buy rating on Lifeway and a Neutral rating on Dean. In addition, the analyst issued a 12–18 month price target of $14 and a 5-year price target of $25 for the former, and a 12–18 month price target of $19 and a 5-year price target of $21 for the latter. Lifeway Foods While the company has been around for almost 30 years, analyst Eric Gottlieb at DA Davidson believes that it is “just starting to gain momentum.” The report pointed out a few issues related to the Buy thesis. First off, Gottlieb feels that “mainstream America, with their changing views on healthy living, appears now more ready than ever for kefir,” a product similar to a drinkable yogurt. However, the mass is still uneducated regarding the product’s benefits. Related Link: Dean Foods Falling After Morgan Stanley Downgrade Secondly, Gottlieb stated that the company’s new Wisconsin production facility unlocks further potential. Moreover, since “Lifeway Foods has already begun executing its plan to increase awareness, production capability, and distribution,” it’s only a matter of time before sales explode as its markets expand. Dean Foods On the other hand, Gottlieb does not see so much potential in Dean Foods. The expert noted that, while branded initiatives should help the company deliver wider and more stable margins, a declining milk demand dampens its growth prospects. “Milk prices should remain manageable in FY2016, which should provide at least a short-term opportunity for some success, while the operational turnaround continues to add benefits. Looking further out, milk prices will likely be cyclical and create periods of outperformance and underperformance,” the note expounded. Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above. Image Credit: Story continues Latest Ratings for LWAY Dec 2015 DA Davidson Initiates Coverage on Buy Mar 2015 Imperial Capital Upgrades In-line Outperform Nov 2014 Imperial Capital Maintains In-line View More Analyst Ratings for LWAY View the Latest Analyst Ratings See more from Benzinga 16 Stocks Moving In Friday's After-Hours Session Trade Options? Here's How To Get Involved In Bitcoin Citi Pair Trade In Hardware: Buy Cisco, Sell F5 © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Current price: 241.4£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2015-12-03 21:00:07 GMT || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000004 Bittrex: 0.00000003 Average $1.3E-5 per #reddcoin 01:00:01 || One Bitcoin now worth $374.57@bitstamp. High $423.95. Low $360.00. Market Cap $ 5.652 Billion #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/zdhH0jceEg || Current price: 449.92$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2016-01-09 05:00:18 EST || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 18 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $341.44 #bitcoin #btc || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 11 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $117.54 #bitcoin #btc || Current price: 235.24£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2015-11-28 23:00:03 GMT || LIVE: Profit = $111.93 (5.48 %). BUY B5.28 @ $400.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $406.12 (#HitBTC) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 14 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $256.22 #bitcoin #btc || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 8 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $204.14 #bitcoin #btc
Trend: no change || Prices: 380.15, 420.23, 410.26, 382.49, 387.49, 402.97, 391.73, 392.15, 394.97, 380.29
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-11-30] BTC Price: 57005.43, BTC RSI: 45.36 Gold Price: 1773.60, Gold RSI: 38.76 Oil Price: 66.18, Oil RSI: 27.64 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks rally, led by growth names, dollar eases: (Adds close of U.S. markets) * Wall Street gains, S&P 500 less than 1% from peak * European shares end at record closing highs * Dollar eases off highest since July 2020 * Elon Musk sells more Tesla shares By Herbert Lash NEW YORK, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Global equity markets rallied on Friday, with European shares hitting new highs on strong earnings, while the dollar eased but posted its biggest weekly gain since late August. Gold rose to notch its best week in six months and extend a winning streak to seven sessions. The advance has been spurred by surging U.S. consumer prices that bolstered the metal's appeal as an inflation hedge and rattled bond investors. The 6.2% year-over-year rise in inflation in October, the biggest jump since November 1990, upended the U.S. Treasury market as traders mulled whether the Federal Reserve will be forced to raise interest rates sooner rather than later. Crude oil futures closed the week with a third consecutive weekly fall after sharp swings driven by the dollar's recent strengthening. On Wall Street, mega-cap stocks Microsoft Corp, Apple Inc, Meta Platforms Inc, formerly known as Facebook; Amazon.com Inc and Google parent Alphabet Inc led stocks higher. A case can be made that big tech stocks will react better to rising rates than cyclicals, said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York. "There's a feeling from the users and purchasers of tech that they can't be left behind, that they always need to be on the cutting edge," he said. "That means they have more consistent and steadier growth regardless of the economic environment." MSCI's all-country world index closed up 0.64%, while the broad STOXX Europe 600 index rose 0.30% to a record closing high. France's CAC40 index and Germany's DAX index also ended at record closing highs. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.50%, the S&P 500 added 0.72% and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.00%. Growth stocks rose 1.15%, outperforming a 0.20% gain in value stocks. "This is a growthy market," Ghriskey said. Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities, said inflation was a risk to watch, but it was still in the future. "Stock prices will face a major crash only if the Federal Reserve turns out to be completely wrong in its assessment and is forced to raise interest rates rapidly. That's not where we are now," Fujito said. In Europe, euro zone money markets priced in two full European Central Bank rate hikes by the end of next year. A Reuters poll showed the Bank of England is expected to be the first major central bank to raise rates, probably next month. Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk sold more shares of the electric carmaker, regulatory filings showed on Friday. Tesla shares fell 2.8%, the biggest decliner on the Nasdaq 100. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of six currencies, slid 0.046% to 95.117. The euro eased 0.08% to $1.1441, while the yen edged lower 0.14% to $113.8900. Too many hedge funds expected the Fed and other central banks to quickly turn hawkish as inflation rises and have been forced to cover their short positions in bonds, said Thomas Hayes, chairman and managing member at Great Hill Capital LLC. "Fund managers were the least overweight bonds that they've ever been in the history of the data going back over two decades," Hayes said. "The volatility that you saw on and off in the last week or so was attributable to wrong-footedness in the bond market by a lot of hedge funds." The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes rose 2.0 basis points to 1.5784%. German 10-year yields slid 0.7 basis point to -0.262%. "Directionally, the line of least resistance is for lower bond prices and higher yields, and the stock market does not seem to care that much," said Mike Hewson, chief markets analyst at CMC Markets. Crude prices were hit by a firmer dollar and speculation the Biden administration might release oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to cool rising prices. Brent crude settled down $0.70 at $82.17 a barrel. U.S. crude fell $0.80 to settle at $80.79 a barrel. U.S. gold futures settled up 0.3% at $1,868.5 an ounce, adding to a gain of about 2.7% for the week. Bitcoin fell 0.92% to $64,227.17. (Reporting by Herbert Lash, additional reporting by Huw Jones in London, Hideyuki Sano and Dhara Ranasinghe; Editing by Mark Potter, Dan Grebler, Cynthia Osterman and Jonathan Oatis) || BitUp, a BTC Rewarding Token, Catches Fire on Binance Smart Chain Network After Bitcoin Breaks Above $60,000: Delaware, United States--(Newsfile Corp. - October 19, 2021) - "SEC Set to allow Bitcoin Futures ETFs as Deadline Looms". Bitcoin is again experiencing a growing trend for a few days once again, thanks to The Securities and Exchange Commission's decision to allow the first U.S. bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund to begin trading. The popular crypto token BitUp has promptly taken the steps to utilize the opportunity to attract users by providing rewards in BTCB (Binance smart chain pegged BTC tokens). Bit Up To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7994/100178_9b03eeec846e8a27_001full.jpg The rising trend of Bitcoin has affected the Binance Smart Chain sector so deeply that the Bitcoin reward token BitUp has witnessed a rise of about 1200% within a day after its launch with almost no marketing efforts. It was launched as what is called a "stealth launch" and still, investors flocked to it, and since then, the token has brought thousands of investors in at a rapid pace, amassing 3,000 holders at the time of this writing. The rationale for all of this is because, with Bitcoin breaching over $60,000 and a huge change in sentiment in favor of the bulls, investors are looking for ways to make even more Bitcoin. BitUp has been just in time to provide a fertile ground to its investors to gain more Bitcoins just by holding the BitUp token. However, the concept of BitUP is not limited to Bitcoin rewards alone. BitUP also includes a sophisticated smart contract that continuously lowers the supply of the cryptocurrency. This utility is referred to as "Elastic supply," and it enables the supply to drop continuously, resulting in scarcity and a constantly positive chart for the asset. Due to the fact that it is a "Rebase Token", as they refer to it, BitUp differs from conventional tokens in that it does not have a fixed supply. Instead, the quantity of rebase tokens is changed on an hourly basis. This is accomplished via the use of a technique known as "rebase." In this method, the overall supply is decreased every hour with a negative rebase, causing the price to rise as a result of the decreased supply. The reduction in the number of tokens is countered by a rise in the price, resulting in an unaltered total value for investor's holdings. Users will continue to own the same percentage of the total token supply as they did before the rebase. Story continues The rebasing method ensures that the value of the token will constantly rise over time. Because the charts on listing sites reflect the token price, the chart on listing sites will remain green. As a result of its constantly increasing chart, BitUp is able to achieve trending status on all of the major listing websites such as CoinGecko, Dextools, and CoinMarketCap, attracting new investors to the BitUp family. The rising chart, coupled with BTC rewards as an incentive to hold BitUp tokens, will allow investors to achieve returns that have never been seen before in the cryptocurrency market. BitUp's token economics, distributes 15% tax of every transaction under different heads. Marketing and buyback accounts for 6% of each transaction. This ensures a sufficient quantity of money to maintain a currency over a long period of time. If necessary, funds will be utilized to purchase tokens to support the chart's stability in strategic buybacks. 5% goes towards rewarding investors in BTC. Further, 3% liquidity tax allows the platform to maintain a stable liquidity pool to keep investments safe and more sustainable to hold for the long term. Lastly, 1% goes towards maintenance of the ecosystem. With BitUp claiming to be the first token to offer the automatic rebase function combined with BTC rewards, it provides an amazingly bullish chart and consistent BTC rewards as well. Bit has set high expectations for other BSC tokens. Advanced code, bullish utility, and an amazing community of crypto investors that want to hold and receive BTC rewards is setting BitUP far apart from the rest. Media Contact Details: Company Name: Bit Up Email: admin@bitup.finance Website: https://www.bitup.finance/ Telegram: https://t.me/BitUP_Official To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/100178 || Cardano Price Is Stuck in an Rut; Nevertheless, Keep your Eye on a $3 High: Cardano’s(CCC:ADA-USD) price action has been confined to a tight range for over one month. Meanwhile,Bitcoin’s(CCC:BTC-USD) price soared to a new high of $66,893 after several weeks of positive price momentum. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) allow more people access into this exciting space without having any special knowledge or expertise needed – which is why it was no surprise that investors saw huge returns afterProSharesreleased their first-ever bitcoin-linked ETF. Similarly, other altcoins have done very well recently. The only major coin left behind is Cardano. Source: Shutterstock To get a better idea of where ADA may be headed next, we have to closely look at past price action. The last two attempts by bears on this currency’s behalf sent it back towards the key support level of almost $2. That means patience is key when trying out your own trading strategies in these volatile markets. A confident push from the bulls would take this cryptocurrency beyond key resistance and closer towards an all-time high at $3 bucks per ADA token. From the point where we’re currently sitting, though, bears will want to drag this one down back to between $1.70 and $1.80. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips On Sept. 12, Cardano’s new smart contract update took place. This is known as the Alonzo hard fork, and IOHK has confirmed its success at Epoch 290, officially kickstarting theGoguen erafor this cryptocurrency. In the runup to upgrade, we saw the price of Cardano increasing handsomely. • 7 High-Yield Stock Gems for Income-Obsessed Investors But then the price stabilized in the current range. Also worth noting is that the use cases for Cardano are increasing. When we compare this token to the galaxy of meme coins out there, this is what sets it apart. Cardano uses a proof-of-stake protocol namedOuroboros, a public blockchain platform. Alongside this unique structure, peer review is very much of how platform updates are mapped out. Unlike many blockchain protocols that rely heavily on miners for validation and security, this one uses mathematicians. With prices up over 1,000% this year, it’s safe to say that ADA has been very lucrative for investors. And it is difficult to predict where a cryptocurrency will be in six months. However, a strong economic moat and multiple use cases mean the future is bright for Cardano. Cardano is a blockchain with two layers, helping it with transaction speed and volume — the cardano settlement layer (CSL) and the cardano computational layer (CCL). The first layer is similar to Bitcoin and records transactions. The second, designed forEthereum(CCC:ETH-USD)-like smart contracts, enables applications to run on the blockchain. ADA is a revolutionary way to send and receive money digitally in a relatively faster, easier way. It does this through encryption, which makes it faster than other methods like credit card transactions or using cash in-person. Transactions happen between two parties directly without an intermediary third party such as a bank, which charges fees for various services. Cardano is a more sophisticated blockchain than Bitcoin. The latter offers simple, smart contracts and has low transaction rates. Meanwhile, Cardano allows developers greater flexibility in writing sophisticated smart contracts. Smart contracts are self-executing, decentralized applications(DApps)that will allow developers to create any program they want on the network. And they are a big reason for the success of both Ethereum and Cardano. In addition, through using a proof-of-stake system, Cardano gets brownie points from environmentalists. For example, Bitcoin is a proof-of-work system that needs miners to verify transactions, and in return, the miners receive coins. Critics of this type of consensus say thatenergy consumption is too high, leading many companies away from supporting Bitcoin. Cardano is among the Ethereum killers vying to take down its predecessor. A PoS system is more efficient than Ethereum’s proof of work (PoW) because it only requires energy and hardware for the protocol while allowing smart contracts. It’s not surprising that with its infancy, Cardano is still catching up to Ethereum. The two cryptocurrencies share many features, but it can be tough to compare their track records and popularity among users. There are many ways in which Cardano could have the edge over Ethereum, and if it continues to grow at the same rate as this year, then there’s no reason why ADA can’t catch up. But Ethereum remains very popular among developers, giving it the edge at this stage. Cryptocurrencies are risky investments. The technology used to create cryptocurrencies is still in its infancy. So, even if you’re willing to take on the risk now, there’s no guarantee it will continue being worth anything down the line — which means crypto investing is not for the faint of heart. Having said that, there are several reasons to remain bullish on Cardano. As it continues to build out functionality, it sets itself apart from the sea of cryptocurrencies. Hype can only take you so far, which is why ADA should break out soon. On the publication date, Faizan Farooque did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines. Faizan Farooque is a contributing author forInvestorPlace.comand numerous other financial sites. Faizan has several years of experience analyzing the stock market and was a former data journalist at S&P Global Market Intelligence. • Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS Now • Analyst Who Found Microsoft at $0.38 Names #1 Pick for the AI Boom • America’s #1 EV Stock Still Flying Under the Radar The postCardano Price Is Stuck in an Rut; Nevertheless, Keep your Eye on a $3 Highappeared first onInvestorPlace. || AUD/USD Price Forecast – Australian Dollar Sitting on 50 Day EMA: The Australian dollar has initially tried to rally during the trading session on Tuesday but then pulled back from the 200 day EMA again. That being said, the market also found support at the 50 day EMA again, so it looks very much like a market that is currently squeezing. Both of these moving averages of course will attract a lot of attention, so I do think that the market will continue to be very noisy. The hammer that formed during the Friday session of last week continues to support the market, so I do think that it is probably only a matter of time before the buyers come in and pick this market back up. AUD/USD Video 10.11.21 All things been equal, if we can break above the 200 day EMA, I believe that the Australian dollar will continue to try to go looking towards the 0.75 level above. That being said, the market will more than likely continue to see a lot of choppiness. On the other hand, if we were to break down below the bottom of the hammer, then it is likely that we could go looking towards the 0.73 handle. Keep in mind that the Australian dollar is highly correlated to the commodities markets, so of course you need to pay close attention to what is going on with hard commodities around the world, and of course you also need to pay close attention to the US Dollar Index. With all that being said, I think the market is going to continue to see a lot of noisy behavior, but it does look like it is trying to pick up a certain amount of momentum. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Gold Price Forecast – Gold Markets Pressuring Resistance Is Tim Cook’s Investment In Cryptos Positive For Bitcoin And Ether? Ethereum Classic Eyes $65 After Surpassing the $60 Resistance Level Gold Price Prediction – Prices Edge Higher Following U.S. PPI Report E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis – Downside Momentum Targeting 4627.75 The Trade Desk Sees Huge Money || Cardano Moved on Positive News But There Are Reasons to Worry: October 2021 has been a month of enthusiasm about the cryptocurrency market.Bitcoin(CCC:BTC-USD) reached a new historic high near $67,000 and other altcoins such asCardano(CCC:ADA-USD) joined this frenzy. Source: Shutterstock Why call it a frenzy? To start, I am not a believer in the future of the cryptocurrency market. I consider the majority of these digital tokens as being in a historic bubble. Does this include Cardano as well? I argue that yes, it does. And while I see some positive aspects of Cardano, I consider its current price around of $2-plus to be out of tandem with logic. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Cardano in early 2021 was trading at 18 cents. It has appreciated about 11 times (or 1,100%). It is fueled, along with the whole cryptocurrency market, by FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) and FOMO (fear of missing out) biases. This has delivered impressive gains to investors and traders who believed in its future. Assuming you could invest $1 million in ADA token in early January, you would have about $11 million now. This is an overall return that is astonishing. Read on to see why I am not a supporter. It seems impossible that Cardano has a market capitalization of about $74.5 billion. It is close to the recent market capitalization ofGeneral Motors(NYSE:GM) of $83.7 billion when the GM stock price was $57.67. • 7 Top Stocks to Buy on Any Dip If You Get the Chance in Q4 Also, the market capitalization of Cardano now is almost twice what shares ofThe Travelers Companies(NYSE:TRV) are worth, with a market capitalization of about $39 billion at around $160 per share. Investors use future cash flows to discount them companies into the present and evaluate the true or intrinsic price of stocks compared to their share price. Altcoins do not have any cash flows. So, without any cash flows, it is plausible to argue that their intrinsic value is simply $0. Or, in what crypto enthusiasts do not want to hear – or read – that the cryptocurrency market is an epic bubble. Is Cardano an exception? No. Why should it be? Consider the following scenario for one moment. A group of 75 billionaires met and decided to either use their capital to buy either all ADA tokens (at least the ones that are currently available) or instead buy shares of General Motors. Of course, the scenario is simplified as General Motors has also a lot of intangible value, but let’s assume this was the main question on the billionaires’ agenda. What are the odds of investing in the unknown, with zero cash flow, having a wild price run in 2021 to the edge of bubble territory and hope that it changes the world of finance? This is Cardano. Now, on the other hand, set emotions aside and realize what may seem like a hot investment trend is disconnected from reality. Consider instead that all factors, including a history of business, point to skipping the crypto market and invest in what seems a safer, more stable business opportunity. That is General Motors. On top of that, psychology is everything in today’s modern life. You can touch, smell, see a GM vehicle. You can only see Cardano in your digital wallet, and you hope and pray that hackers do not steal it. For the sake of this analysis, I am not saying that GM stock is a hot stock now, but it is comparable in market cap capitalization with Cardano. This is beyond any logic to me, however. The valuation of Cardano today is unreasonable. In my previous article about Cardano, “Cardano Faces an Uphill Battle to Change the Finance World,” last May, I argued that “ADA has several advantages over competitors, but not enough to merit its recent price surge.” Until it is more widely embraced, I wrote that Cardano was overvalued and potential investors “wait and see” before deciding to buy. It’s not that Cardano is without merit. ADA is an altcoin that is scalable and flexible, especially with the latest Alonzo upgrade. The coin is environmentally friendly and oriented toward sustainability. It may well thrive in the dapp development in the future. But to me, what matters most is valuation and fundamentals. I dare to say that the cryptocurrency market could face a historic crash when expectations and logic start moving in the same direction. Euphoria at an extreme level in the crypto market. Beware of these risks. On the date of publication, Stavros Georgiadis, CFA did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines. Stavros Georgiadis is a CFA charter holder, an Equity Research Analyst, and an Economist. He focuses on U.S. stocks and has his own stock market blog atthestockmarketontheinternet.com/. He has written in the past various articles for other publications and can be reached on Twitter and onLinkedIn. • Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS Now • Analyst Who Found Microsoft at $0.38 Names #1 Pick for the AI Boom • America’s #1 EV Stock Still Flying Under the Radar The postCardano Moved on Positive News But There Are Reasons to Worryappeared first onInvestorPlace. || The 7 Best Cryptos to Buy on Coinbase Now: The cryptocurrency market has come of age in the past couple of years. Many thought the Covid-19 crypto enthusiasm would fade away, but the opposite has transpired so far this year. Unlike before, the crypto market of today is being pushed by institutional investors rather than retail investors, leading many to search for which cryptos to buy. Moreover, major financial institutions and governments around the world are taking them seriously. Hence, with everyone jumping in on the action, it’s time to ditch the FOMO and start looking for some cryptos to buy on Coinbase. Though there’s no denying the sustainability of the latest crypto bull run, you need to have a clear idea of which cryptos have long-term potential. There are plenty of meme cryptos out there, which are moving purely based on speculation. You want to be investing in cryptos that offer real-world use-cases, making them long-term investments. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips • 6 Mega-Cap Stocks That Make Great Stocking Stuffers Having said that, let’s look at seven of the most popular and worthwhile cryptocurrencies to invest in at this time: • Bitcoin(CCC:BTC-USD) • Ethereum(CCC:ETH-USD) • Cardano(CCC:ADA-USD) • Polkadot(CCC:DOT-USD) • Solana(CCC:SOL-USD) • Ripple(CCC:XRP-USD) • Polygon(CCC:MATIC-USD) Source: Shutterstock Bitcoin represents the crème de la crème of the crypto market, with many investors believing it to be the only crypto worth investing in over a long-term horizon. It enjoyed an incredible bull run in 2020,having risen from $4,748 in mid-March to slightly below $30,000by the close of the year. Though it hasn’t had a phenomenal run that many had expected this year, it has still shot up nearly 100% in value year-to-date. Nevertheless, Bitcoin is an institutional asset class that will continue to be the sheet anchor for the crypto market. The money being poured into Bitcoin is not from theRedditcrowd but by major institutional investors who believe in its long-term value. Therefore, Bitcoin’s long-term value can hardly be debated, and it is in it for the long haul. Source: Filippo Ronca Cavalcanti / Shutterstock.com Ethereum is the second-largest crypto by market capitalization as arguably the most versatile blockchain technology. Ethereum’s value has grown nearly 500% YTD, significantly higher than Bitcoin. The robustness of its platform sets it apart from the competition, making it a darling for institutional investors. Moreover, the platform’s impending transition to a proof-of-stake (POS) system will significantly improve scalability, transaction costs, and speed. • 7 Metaverse Stocks With the Potential to Make You Millions The great thing about the Ethereum blockchain is its massive developer community, which continues to grow aggressively. On top of that, the platform is being used to create new digital assets and markets. For instance, its applicability in decentralized finance has been a major contributor to ETH’s rapid ascent. Consequently, with its incredible network and multiple developments in the pipeline, many consider it a better investment than Bitcoin. Source: Stanslavs / Shutterstock Cardano is a third-generation cryptocurrency that has been one of the top altcoins in the market. Cardano has shot up more than 900% in value YTD, making it one of the top-performing digital assets since the start of the year. Unlike Ethereum, Cardano already uses a POS mechanismto process up to 257 transactions per second. Moreover, the POS system makes it more eco-friendly crypto compared to its peers. Furthermore, Cardano is programmable, allowing developers to create a smart contract that facilitates the creation of DeFi apps. Looking ahead, Ethereum and Cardano are likely to dominate the DeFi realm pushing their respective cryptocurrencies to new heights. Source: Zeedign.com / Shutterstock.com Polkadot is another unique blockchain network that aims to create a completely decentralized internet. The goal is for its users to access any service or decentralized application without compromising security. Moreover, Polkadotinvolves a network of connected blockchainsthat can substantially increase transaction throughput. With the help of sidechains, it is estimated that the platform could handle close to 1 million transactions per second. Hence, Polkadot’s unique solution offers a significantly robust and scalable network than its predecessors. • 7 Semiconductor Stocks to Buy for the Holiday Tech Rush Polkadot has gained over 400% since the start of the year and is expected to continue performing sublimely for the foreseeable future. Source: Shutterstock Solana has been gathering a lot of attention in the crypto community due to its low costs and high throughput compared to its peers. Additionally, its average transaction fee of $0.00025 per transaction make it one of the most economical blockchain platforms. Moreover, the platform can effectively handle more than 65,000 transactions per second andcould go up to 710,000 as per its white paper. Furthermore, its relevance in the DeFi sector continues to grow as the reported total value locked (TVL) on the platform is$14 billion. On top of that, the NFT markets are also popping on the network, making Solana a major contender to challenge the dominance of Cardano and Ethereum. Solana is up by over 11,000% YTD. Source: Shutterstock Ripple is one of the few cryptocurrencies that hasn’t rebounded as much investors would’ve hoped in the past couple of years. That is mainly because of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s case against it in December last year. However, the case against it continues to weaken and will likely result in a massive win for Ripple. • 7 Stocks to Buy With Stacks of Free Cash Flow The XRP token is a digital asset that is highly conducive to online payments. Its decentralized ledger can effectivelysettle countless transactions within 3 to 5 seconds. Therefore, several analysts believe that it can compete with the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT). Hence, with such strong use-cases as a payment platform, Ripple will be back on track after the conclusion of the SEC case. Source: Shutterstock Polygon is arguably one of the most rewarding investments in the crypto realm. MATIC gained a dumbfounding 10,000% since the start of the year. The layer-2 blockchain sits on top of the Ethereum network and effectively processes transactions much more quickly than its peers. Moreover, MATIC is essentially a governance token that allows users to say how the network is run and earn interest through staking. Polygon’s scalable platform appears to be tailor-made for DeFi transactions.Its modular network called “Plasma”facilitates the creation of sovereign off-chain transactions. Hence, the platform’s effectiveness in the DeFi realm points to an incredible growth runway ahead for MATIC. On the date of publication, Muslim Farooque did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines. Muslim Farooque is a keen investor and an optimist at heart. A life-long gamer and tech enthusiast, he has a particular affinity for analyzing technology stocks. Muslim holds a bachelor’s of science degree in applied accounting from Oxford Brookes University. • Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS Now • Man Who Called Black Monday: “Prepare Now.” • #1 EV Stock Still Flying Under the Radar • Interested in Crypto? Read This First... The postThe 7 Best Cryptos to Buy on Coinbase Nowappeared first onInvestorPlace. || Matt Damon Hastens Bitcoin Mainstream Adoption in New Ad: Bitcoin mainstream adoption may have arrived. One sign of this trend is the increasing participation among celebrities who have caught bitcoin fever. Among them, famous actor and screenwriter Matt Damon is being featured in an ad campaign by cryptocurrency platformCrypto.comthat embodies the proverb, “Fortune Favors the Brave.” The ad includes Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto among the pioneers of history who have “embraced the moment” and succeeded on their path to commit, achieve and adventure. The adhas received more than 9,000 views so far on Twitter as Crypto.com seeks to lasso in new users from nearly two-dozen nations. Damon is not only being featured in the ad but he is also abackerof Crypto.com. In addition, Singapore-based Crypto.com is supporting one of Damon’s causes by directing$1 millionto the famous actor’s global nonprofit organization, Water.org. Crypto.com isn’t the only company that is making a push into the mainstream. FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, will feature an ad during the NFL’s main event, the Super Bowl, which will be played in February 2022. According toJoe Pomplianoof Pomp Investments, FTX is doling out $6 million for the ad, which will run for 30 seconds and is expected to reach tens of millions of households. NFL star Tom Brady is also on the crypto bandwagon. He is giving one bitcoin to a fan who got his hands on a game ball that was of incredible significance to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback. The football represented Brady’s600th career touchdown, an historic milestone, and another player inadvertently handed it to a fan in the end zone. At the most recent price, one bitcoin is worth more than $60,000. Kris Marszalek, co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com, the company behind the Matt Damon ad,told CNBCtoday that the crypto “market remains super strong.” He pointed to rising adoption among retail investors and institutions, saying that the company is bracing for a “very strong Q4.” Crypto.com is behind a Visa card that lets users pay for goods and services with cryptocurrencies. The company, which supports dozens of blockchains, has more than 10 million customers. Marszalek touted bitcoin as a store-of-value asset that is an alternative to gold and says he’s “super bullish” on institutional adoption. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Gold Price Forecast – Gold Markets Pullback From Trendline • Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – Near-Term Bullish as Long as $1795.00 Holds as Support • E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – Watch 35580 After Apple Reports • Silver Price Daily Forecast – Silver Rebounds After Recent Pullback • GBP/USD Price Forecast – British Pound Continues to Show Support Just Below • Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF Up By 0.6% As Tech Stocks Rally || ASX200: Futures Point Northwards. Reaction to U.S Data and the FOMC Minutes to Set the Tone: Private New Capital Expenditure (QoQ) (Q3) Retail Sales (MoM) (Oct) It was back into the red for the ASX200 on Wednesday. Partially reversing a 0.78% gain from Tuesday, the ASX200 slipped by 0.15% to end the day at 7,399.44. A mixed session for the big-4 banks and commodity stocks weighed following a pickup in 10-year U.S Treasury yields on Tuesday. Following FED Chair Powell’s reappointment, the markets have shifted on FED monetary policy, pushing the 10-year higher. Eurozone and U.S private sector PMIs from Tuesday also continued to point to supply chain disruption and yet higher cost pressures. In the 3rdquarter, construction work down slipped by 0.3% quarter-on-quarter, following a 0.8% increase in the quarter prior. Economists had forecast a 3.1% slide. The numbers had a muted impact on the day, however. It was a mixed day for the banks.ANZandCBArose by 0.88% and by 0.37% respectively.Westpac andNABfell by 0.05% and by 0.07% respectively, however, withMacquarie Groupsliding 1.48%. Commodity stocks also had a mixed session.Newcrest Miningfell by 1.16%, withRio Tintoending the day down by 0.06%.Fortescue Metals Group LtdandBHP Groupsaw gains of 1.27% and 0.50% respectively, however. Elsewhere, it was another mixed session. The CSI300 and the Hang Seng Index rose by 0.07% and by 0.14% respectively, while the Nikkei slid by 1.58%. It’s another relatively quiet day ahead on the Aussieeconomic calendar. Private new CAPEX figures for the 3rdquarter will be in focus, with economists forecasting a 2% fall. From overnight, however, market reaction to U.S economic data and the FOMC meeting minutes will set the tone. Gains for the NASDAQ and the S&P500, in response to the FOMC meeting minutes, should deliver some early support. In the futures markets, at the time of writing, the ASX200 was up by 7 points. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out oureconomic calendar. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Gold Price Prediction – Prices Consolidate Recent Losses • Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – Market Rebounds after Test of Key 50% Level at $1781.00 • Samsung to Spend $17 Billion on a New Chip Plant in Texas • Crude Oil Price Update – Needs to Clear $79.33 to Confirm Shift in Momentum to Up • Bitcoin Being Squeezed Within Bearish Flag, Break Lower to 53,000 Area on the Cards • Tron and Cardano Down by More Than 5% After eToro Delisting || Twitter CFO Says Buying Crypto Assets ‘Doesn’t Make Sense Right Now’: Report: Investing in cryptocurrencies “doesn’t make sense right now,” Twitter CFO Ned Segal said, according to theWall Street Journal. • Twitter would have to change its investment policy to hold more-volatile assets on its balance sheet, Segal said. The company prefers to hold less-volatile assets such as securities, he added. • Fintech firm Square, which is also headed and co-founded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk’s Tesla and software firmMicroStrategyhold crypto on their balance sheets. • Dorsey is a supporter ofdecentralized technology, including bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. • Twitter wants toletusers connect their accounts to third-party services that allow them to send tips in bitcoin and bring authentication for non-fungible tokens on its platform. Twitter has also started acrypto team. Read more:Twitter to Add Bitcoin Lightning Tips, NFT Authentication || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – October 17th, 2021: Bitcoin , BTC to USD, fell by 1.33% on Saturday. Partially reversing a 7.55% rally from Friday, Bitcoin ended the day at $60,868.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning intraday high $62,333.0 before hitting reverse. Falling well short of the first major resistance level at $64,093, Bitcoin fell to a late afternoon intraday low $60,171.0. Steering clear of the first major support level at $58,074, however, Bitcoin revisited $61,000 levels before easing back. The near-term bullish trend remained intact, supported the latest return to $62,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need a sustained fall through the 62% FIB of $27,237 to form a near-term bearish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Saturday. Chainlink and Crypto.com Coin rose by 0.93% and by 3.48% respectively to buck the trend on the day. It was a bearish day for the rest of the majors, however. Polkadot fell by 2.27% to lead the way down. Binance Coin (-1.82%), Cardano’s ADA (-1.73%), and Litecoin (-1.88%), also struggled. Bitcoin Cash SV (-0.17%), Ethereum (-1.04%), and Ripple’s XRP (-0.80%) saw relatively modest losses on the day, however. In the current week, the crypto total market fell to a Tuesday low $2,210bn before rising to a Friday high $2,606bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $2,469bn. Bitcoin’s dominance fell to a Thursday low 44.43% before rising to a Saturday high 46.64%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 46.42%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.04% to $60,846.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $60,920.0 before falling to a low $60,651.0. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was a bearish start to the day. At the time of writing, Crypto.com Coin was down by 1.20% to lead the way down. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to move through the $61,124 pivot to bring the first major resistance level at $62,077 into play. Story continues Support from the broader market would be needed for Bitcoin to break out from $61,500 levels. Barring a broad-based crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Saturday’s high $62,333.0 would likely cap the upside. In the event of another breakout, Bitcoin could test resistance at $65,000 levels before any pullback. The second major resistance level sits at $63,286. Bitcoin would need plenty of support, however, to breakout from 14 th April 2021’s swing hi $64,829.0 Failure to move through the $61,124 would bring the first major support level at $59,915 into play. Barring an extended sell-off on the day, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$59,000 levels, The second major support level sits at $58,962. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Square Sets Its Sights on Bitcoin Mining USD/CAD Exchange Rate Prediction – The Dollar Rebounds on Solid Import Prices Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Close Down for the Week Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Continue to Grind Higher Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Continue to Look Very Bullish S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – S&P 500 Continues Showing Strength [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 57229.83, 56477.82, 53598.25, 49200.70, 49368.85, 50582.62, 50700.09, 50504.80, 47672.12, 47243.30
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-04-17] BTC Price: 7096.18, BTC RSI: 53.75 Gold Price: 1689.20, Gold RSI: 55.63 Oil Price: 18.27, Oil RSI: 32.27 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Stocks blast higher on expectation of sweeping federal action: There are no free market fanatics on corporate boards the moment the economy wobbles. Today makes the point, with stocks shooting higher on the back of news that a sweeping federal package of aid and stimulus should soon pass Congress. The goal of the financial package is to blunt the impact of COVID-19-related market disruptions that have led to mass layoffs, and an economy expected to slip into recession. Today in regular hours the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) led American indices by climbing over 10%. It was the best day for the venerable Dow since the 2008 crisis in percentage terms, though the index has posted sharper declines in percentage terms in recent days. Its kin also rose, if less. Here's the day's results: DJIA: rose 11.37% to 20,704.91 S&P 500: rose 9.38% to 2,447.33 Nasdaq composite: rose 8.12% to close at 7,417.86 SaaS shares, as tracked by the BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index, rose about 7.2% on the day. Bitcoin saw its value jump by 5% in the last 24 hours, and is worth about $6,600 as of the time of writing. The day may not meet the criteria for a market melt up, but it certainly was a welcome respite from recent weeks' declines. The next test for the American public markets comes tomorrow. After posting huge gains today, can they be retained? In the past dozen trading sessions, there has been a market habit worth noting in which any sharp action -- up or down -- was met with a similar, opposite result the following day. Call it Newton's third law of stonks. Ride-hailing get a boost Lyft and Uber were lifted by the broader gains across all major indices. Lyft rose 19.68% to $27.06, while Uber shares increased 17.81% to $27.38. The companies saw increases even as the ride-hailing industry faces continued pressure amid the spread of COVID-19. Both companies have seen a decline in demand, prompting a shift towards delivery and partnerships with non-profit organizations to provide transportation services to health care workers and others who need it during the pandemic. For Uber and Lyft, this week has been a wild ride On Monday, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi sent a letter to the White House, asking lawmakers to include protection and financial support for gig workers in the COVID-19 stimulus packages. Khosrowshahi also argued that there needs to be a third employment classification for gig workers that “would update our labor laws to remove the forced choice between flexibility and protection for millions of American workers.” || Bitcoin Dips Below 8,824.7 Level, Down 3%: Investing.com - Bitcoin fell bellow the $8,824.7 level on Monday. Bitcoin was trading at 8,824.7 by 10:20 (15:20 GMT) on the Investing.com Index, down 2.89% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage loss since March 2. The move downwards pushed Bitcoin's market cap down to $161.1B, or 62.36% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Bitcoin's market cap was $241.2B. Bitcoin had traded in a range of $8,503.1 to $8,888.1 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has seen a drop in value, as it lost 9.11%. The volume of Bitcoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $40.4B or 25.96% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $8,437.2441 to $9,672.2891 in the past 7 days. At its current price, Bitcoin is still down 55.59% from its all-time high of $19,870.62 set on December 17, 2017. Ethereum was last at $228.71 on the Investing.com Index, up 3.60% on the day. XRP was trading at $0.23761 on the Investing.com Index, a gain of 2.53%. Ethereum's market cap was last at $25.1B or 9.73% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $10.4B or 4.02% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles Lloyd’s New Insurance Offering Covers Crypto Held in Hot Wallets MoneyGram Declared $11.3 Million Ripple Cash Injection as Revenue BIS: No Central Bank Digital Currencies Focus on Cross-Border Payment || The Far-Right Helped Create The World's Most Powerful Facial Recognition Technology: Advanced facial recognition technology poses a mortal threat to privacy. It could grant the government, corporations and even average citizens the ability to capture a photo of anybody and, with a few keystrokes, uncover all kinds of personal details. So when The New York Times published an exposé about a shadowy facial recognition firm called Clearview AI in January, it seemed like the worst nightmare of privacy advocates had arrived. Clearview is the most powerful form of facial recognition technology ever created, according to the Times. With more than 3 billion photos scraped surreptitiously from social media profiles and websites, its image database is almost seven times the size of the FBI’s. Its mobile app can match names to faces with a tap of a touchscreen. The technology is already being integrated into augmented reality glasses so people can identify almost anyone they look at. Clearview has contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, BuzzFeed reported earlier this year , and FBI agents, members of Customs and Border Protection, and hundreds of police officers at departments nationwide are among its users. With the coronavirus pandemic increasingly throwing the country into chaos and President Donald Trump moving to expand domestic surveillance powers ― in theory, to better map disease spread ― Clearview has sought deeper inroads into government infrastructure and is now in discussions with state agencies to use its technology to track infected people, according to The Wall Street Journal . Even if you’ve never heard of Clearview, you likely have an online presence — maybe a friend or a relative has posted a photo of you to Facebook — which means you’re probably in its database. Clearview’s CEO and co-founder, Cam-Hoan Ton-That, and his associates chose to mass-violate social media policies against scraping accounts to build an image warehouse of unprecedented size, as several outlets have noted recently. Story continues What hasn’t been reported, however, is even scarier: Exclusive documents obtained by HuffPost reveal that Ton-That, as well as several people who have done work for the company, have deep, longstanding ties to far-right extremists. Some members of this alt-right cabal went on to work for Ton-That. Clearview stated that it had immediately parted ways with some of these people when HuffPost reached out for comment for this story, but the pervasive links between the company and the alt-right can’t be simply dismissed as a few bad apples. Big Brother, it turned out, was wearing a MAGA cap. A Mysterious Hacker Little is known about Ton-That, a 31-year-old Australian hacker who moved to San Francisco in 2007. He made a name for himself two years later by unleashing a computer worm that phished the login credentials of Gmail users . Ton-That showed no remorse after journalists traced the worm to him— he simply set up another phishing site . By 2015, he had joined forces with far-right subversives working to install Trump as president . They included Mike Cernovich, a Trump-affiliated propagandist who spearheaded the near-deadly Pizzagate disinformation campaign ; Andrew “weev” Auernheimer, a neo-Nazi hacker and the webmaster for The Daily Stormer; and Pax Dickinson, the racist former chief technology officer of Business Insider who went on to march with neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia. In this far-right clique, two of Ton-That’s associates loomed larger than most thanks to their close connection to billionaire Peter Thiel, a Facebook board member and Trump adviser: Jeff Giesea, a Thiel protégé and secret funder of alt-right causes, and Charles “Chuck” Johnson, a former Breitbart writer and far-right extremist who reportedly coordinated lawfare against media organizations with Thiel. And according to new documents obtained by HuffPost, Johnson appears to have received funding from Thiel for a startup that the Southern Poverty Law Center would label a “white nationalist hate group.” (Johnson has filed suit against HuffPost in Texas over a January 2019 article about his visits to members of Congress to discuss “DNA sequencing.”) People involved with Clearview appear to have gone to great lengths to conceal their links to the company and each other. Johnson, for instance, does not appear on any of the incorporation documents and has left little public trace of his association with Ton-That beyond a Facebook post. But multiple far-right sources who know Johnson told HuffPost that he and Ton-That were in close contact at least as early as 2016, and that Johnson told them he was working with Ton-That on facial recognition. Johnson told one source late that year that he viewed the technology as a way to potentially “identify every illegal alien in the country.” In early 2017, Johnson introduced Ton-That to another source, saying he was a gifted coder he’d hired to build the facial recognition tool. Around the same time, Johnson stated on Facebook that he was “building algorithms to ID all the illegal immigrants for the deportation squads.” Video and private messages obtained by HuffPost confirm that Johnson and Ton-That were collaborating on far-right schemes in 2016; by early 2017 at the latest, they were in contact about scraping social media platforms for the facial recognition business. At least two people who worked for Johnson took jobs with and worked for Clearview until late March, when the company claims to have severed ties with them after HuffPost reached out with questions. Thiel himself has an obvious interest in mass surveillance: Palantir, his data-mining behemoth, aggregates enormous amounts of personal information about immigrants and undocumented workers, and it provides the analytical tools for ICE raids. In 2017, Thiel became one of Clearview’s earliest investors. He did not respond to questions sent to him and his spokesperson. Like other tech products scaled in dodgy ways, Clearview may have grown too big to rein in. Every time police use Clearview, they upload images of people they’re trying to identify ― even child sex abuse victims ― to Ton-That’s unregulated and ever-expanding database, where they are stored indefinitely. No federal laws exist to govern the use of facial recognition. “The weaponization possibilities of this are endless,” Eric Goldman, co-director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University, told the Times. Clearview also appears to spy on law enforcement searches. After a Times reporter had police officers run her photo through the app, the officers received calls from Clearview representatives asking if they were speaking to a journalist. The potential for abuse is vast. “The fear is that the kind of authoritarian control this [tool] will grant will wind up in the hands of the wrong people,” said Liz O’Sullivan, the technology director at the nonprofit Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. Like, for instance, a Clearview contractor who is fond of disseminating Third Reich propaganda about Jews. The same extremist, with whom Ton-That now claims to have parted ways, was instrumental in helping sow disinformation from Kremlin operatives in 2016 to assist the Trump campaign. A Clearview “investigator” who appeared to work for the company until late March is part of a D.C.-based white nationalist crew that gathers in secret. Yet another Clearview employee who left the company after an inquiry from HuffPost is a Croatian-born extremist who wrote in 2015 that he “wholeheartedly endorse[s] racism, racialism, ethnocentrism, Islamophobia, Eurocentrism and anti-Semitism.” Writing under a pseudonym on various blogs, he had embraced the possibility of balkanizing America, which could allow authoritarian states such as Russia or China to fill the power vacuum. “For a stable and sustainable global order to exist,” he wrote, “the United States Government as we know it must be destroyed.” A White National Convention In July 2016, far-right extremists descended on Cleveland for the Republican National Convention. The alt-right’s intellectual figurehead, Richard Spencer, was there, as was Cernovich. So was Johnson, who at the time was running GotNews, a site that employed white nationalists to crank out race-baiting content for Trump supporters. Peter Brimelow, the publisher of the white nationalist VDARE, showed up. British political saboteur Milo Yiannopolous attended a “twinks for Trump” party that featured anti-Muslim speakers such as Pamela Geller and Geert Wilders. One night, Spencer attended a dinner with Johnson and other members of the far-right at an upscale Italian restaurant. He found himself sitting at a table with Ton-That, a striking figure with long black hair. The hacker arrived at the dinner with Johnson after they’d caused a minor fracas. They’d harassed Michelle Fields, a former Breitbart reporter who’d had her arm roughly grabbed at a Trump rally a few months earlier by the candidate’s then-campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. At the RNC, Johnson chased after Fields in the street until her fiancé shoved him away. The incident was captured in a video uploaded to Johnson’s GotNews YouTube channel. In the background, you can see Ton-That with Johnson, laughing as Fields scrambles away. (Fields worked for HuffPost at the time.) Over dinner that night, the hacker was more subdued. “He was smart,” Spencer told HuffPost of Ton-That. “He was into this esoteric reactionary sphere stuff. I remember he was talking about celibacy and the priestly order being celibate and thinking for the group and not having mundane concerns. He was into quasi-Catholic neo-trad[itional] reactionary type stuff.” The neoreactionary movement, also known as “NRx” or “Dark Enlightenment,” is a geeky subset of the racist, misogynistic far-right that has festered in Silicon Valley’s libertarian circles for over a decade, especially within the cryptocurrency community. Its members revere Thiel, microdose LSD and gussy up totalitarian ideas with a pseudo-intellectualism that creates a moral pretext for them to undermine ― “engineer,” they might say ― democracy. With tech skills and access to vast wealth, they have an influence that has eluded the bookish young men in Spencer’s orbit. Ton-That had been affiliated with this neoreactionary confederacy since before the 2016 RNC. The movement’s high priest, Curtis Yarvin, is a programmer who goes by “Mencius Moldbug” and has a cryptocurrency startup funded by Thiel . Yarvin, who seemingly endorses slavery and has written approvingly of apartheid , has argued the U.S. would be better off if ruled by a CEO-king. To make this happen, he advocates for a soft coup. Among neoreactionaries, Trump is often referred to as the “God-Emperor” who will restore order to an immigrant-flooded nation under the thumb of a progressive media-academic complex ― “global Jewry,” in neo-Nazi-speak. Giesea, whose ties to Thiel go back decades, organized t he dinner in Cleveland. As a student, he edited Thiel’s libertarian newspaper, The Stanford Review. He later worked for Thiel’s first hedge fund , and then for Koch Industries’ public affairs office. Thiel put up seed money when Giesea started his own company. Ahead of the 2016 election, Giesea worked closely with Cernovich to help organize a social media insurgency that could direct the far-right’s energy toward a singular purpose: getting Trump elected. Their network amplified extremists, besmirched opponents and disseminated Kremlin-boosted disinformation . Jeff Giesea talks politics in a Periscope video. (Photo: ) In a “How to Fund the Alt-Right” guide posted online in 2016 under an alias Giesea used, donors were encouraged to give money to white nationalist and neo-Nazi organizations. (“Not me at all,” Giesea said. “I don’t know who did that.”) The guide stressed the importance of anonymity and recommended donors use Bitcoin and PayPal, the online money transfer company founded by Thiel. Spencer said Giesea donated $5,000 ― the maximum amount that didn’t require donor disclosure to the IRS ― to his white nationalist organization, the National Policy Institute, in 2016. (“No comment,” Giesea said.) Spencer told HuffPost that he later came to feel as if Giesea was trying to use the energy of the alt-right for political subversion and profit. Auernheimer, the neo-Nazi hacker, described Giesea in a private Discord chat as a “major investor providing help to racists … a hugely connected dude … with lots of business interests who was supporting [T]rump stuff.” (“That’s not true,” Giesea said.) At Giesea’s dinner in Cleveland, conversation turned, inevitably, to building the ethnostate, according to Katie McHugh, a former Breitbart editor who attended the event and has since renounced far-right extremism. A group of Hispanic waiters in earshot looked on warily. Someone at the table apologized to them. The waiters laughed nervously. Then the extremists, Ton-That among them, set out into the night to put their plans into motion. Chuck Johnson’s Online Hatefest If you were a hip far-right elitist in 2016, the online place to be was a Slack channel Johnson set up for WeSearchr, a now-shuttered crowdfunding platform he had launched. In private messages between Johnson and McHugh from 2015, Johnson described a meeting with Thiel that year to pitch his crowdfunding idea. “Thiel gave me all the money I need,” Johnson said. “[W]rote me a check on the spot.” Thiel declined to comment. WeSearchr raised bounties for alt-right causes and would soon earn the designation of “white nationalist hate group” from the SPLC. Johnson had a well-deserved reputation as a troll, but he was also a central node in a web of extremists. And he had many enemies ― the social media companies that took away his platforms, the news outlets that exposed him, the liberal society that he was convinced had allowed minorities to get into Harvard at his expense. “When I met Chuck, I wondered why we weren’t weaponizing people like him,” Giesea told BuzzFeed . Giesea belonged to Johnson’s WeSearchr Slack. So did Cernovich. And so did Ton-That. Altogether, there were about 400 people in the channel, according to McHugh, who was a member and provided HuffPost with several dozen messages from the channel. The group was a who’s who of racist political saboteurs and moneyed terraformers of society, with a sprinkling of alt-right celebrities like George Zimmerman, who joined the channel in June 2016 and was auctioning off the weapon he used to kill Trayvon Martin. Johnson, who had deemed Zimmerman a “great man,” published a GotNews post to drive up the price of “the mighty gun that slain the dindu. ” Far-right politics brought George Zimmerman and Chuck Johnson together, as illustrated by this social media post of the two discovered by Little Green Footballs , a blog that has been tracking Johnson for years. (Photo: ) Ton-That shared his far-right views in the WeSearchr Slack, as well as online more broadly. He has since deleted his social media accounts, but archives of his Twitter exchanges from 2015 and 2016 show him spreading anti-liberal talking points and Islamophobia, as well as amplifying figures like Yiannopolous. He was clearly reading/listening to pretty trashy conservative media, and/or pretty trashy conservative people. Ben Wheeler, a coder in New York, about Clearview co-founder Cam-Hoan Ton-That Ben Wheeler, a coder in New York who met Ton-That in 2015 through programmer pals, called out the Australian for tweeting far-right conspiracies in the run-up to the 2016 election. “He had some very inaccurate takes on [Hillary] Clinton, he was clearly reading and talking to people in the Breitbart vein,” Wheeler wrote in a message to HuffPost. “[A]s an example of her corruption, he pointed to the ways he said the Clintons used Chelsea Clinton’s wedding to embezzle money. I looked that up and it was one of those almost certainly false claims from one untrustworthy source. He was clearly reading/listening to pretty trashy conservative media, and/or pretty trashy conservative people.” One of these people was likely Andrew Auernheimer, the webmaster for The Daily Stormer, the most popular neo-Nazi website. Another member of the WeSearchr Slack channel and a close collaborator with Johnson, Auernheimer devoted ample time to boosting both Johnson’s crowdfunding platform and his extremist friends. Aurenheimer told HuffPost that he had “never heard of” Ton-That. But in 2015, he appeared to interact publicly with him on Twitter to bemoan the number of liberals in academia, a conversation HuffPost was able to piece together by looking at replies to the two alt-right members that remain online. Auernheimer spoke often of his desire to slaughter Jewish children , start a race war and destroy the United States. He landed in federal prison in 2013 on identity fraud and hacking charges. After his conviction was vacated on a jurisdictional technicality, he reentered society with a giant swastika on his chest. He declared himself a neo-Nazi on The Daily Stormer and called for government agents and their families to be assassinated. He left the country and vowed revenge on America. “I plan on coming back with an army, be it human or automaton,” he wrote. He now claims to be based in Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova aligned with Moscow and beyond the reach of U.S. extradition treaties. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. Andrew "weev" Auernheimer publicly declared himself a neo-Nazi in 2014 in a post on The Daily Stormer, which included this picture. (Photo: ) Like Ton-That, Auernheimer also had an interest in biometrics. Around the time of the 2016 RNC, he told a friend that he was “working on facial recognition, specifically about black people.” When contacted by HuffPost, Auernheimer clarified that he’d been “building a racial, not facial, recognition project [that] took characteristics from the entire body, not just the face.” At the time, the system had been too costly to mount on drones, he said, but he planned to revisit the idea soon. Auernhemier could not provide any proof to support his statements. Ton-That told HuffPost that Clearview had nothing to do with the neo-Nazi. “I never met him and he did no work for the company,” Ton-That said. But Auernheimer had worked closely with Johnson for years, and he, too, claimed a connection to Thiel. A month after being released from prison in 2014, Auernhemier told a hacker friend in direct messages that he was “meeting with Peter Thiel’s right hand.” (Auernheimer denied making this claim, but HuffPost authenticated the messages with their recipient. Thiel didn’t respond to questions for this story.) That same year, Auernheimer teamed up with Johnson to mine the leaked database of the Ashley Madison infidelity website for kompromat. They partnered again in 2015 to publish covertly recorded smear videos of Planned Parenthood officials . (Auernheimer told HuffPost he and Johnson “have nothing to do with each other” and are “radically opposed politically and socially.” HuffPost obtained numerous friendly emails they had exchanged.) Johnson frequently collaborated with Giesea as well. In one especially inglorious caper, they arranged for Bill Clinton’s sexual assault accusers and Barack Obama’s Trump-supporting half-brother Malik to appear at the 2016 general election debates. “Malik Obama, getting him to endorse Trump, they brought him to Giesea’s apartment and just gave him cash,” Spencer said. “At least, that’s what Giesea told me.” (“I don’t recall any of that,” Giesea told HuffPost.) When HuffPost reached Malik Obama in Kenya to ask if he’d taken money from Johnson and his associates to promote Trump, Obama responded by saying, “Donald Trump is the best president America ever had and Charles Johnson is my friend.” But Johnson always had bigger plans than Malik Obama. He’d filled his black book with the names of far more important people whose coattails he could ride: Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas; xenophobic commentator Ann Coulter; Blackwater founder Erik Prince; high-profile attorney Alan Dershowitz — and Ton-That, whose technical ability offered Johnson a different pathway to power. They were the same age, with the same focus, fighting the same internet culture war. In one WeSearchr Slack exchange, Johnson linked to an article about the aggressive stock trading habits of Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), calling her “one of the best day traders ever.” “Of course,” Ton-That replied, “it’s a chink.” They also agreed on target selection. The WeSearchr Slack members reserved a good portion of their animus for Gawker, a publication that had aggressively covered Thiel and his business interests. Thiel had furtively bankrolled numerous lawsuits against the blog ― the most notable being an invasion of privacy case filed by former professional wrestler Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea after Gawker published a portion of sex tape he was in. The alt-right backed Thiel to the hilt. WeSearchr co-founder Pax Dickinson urged members of Johnson’s Slack channel to compile a list of Gawker employees and feed it to neo-Nazi trolls on far-right websites such as 4chan. “Let them do the contacting,” Dickinson wrote of the trolls, seemingly aware that his plan could lead to harassment. Johnson had his own vendetta against Gawker, which had covered him critically and in one instance mocked him over a rumor that he defecated on a floor in college. Johnson had sued Gawker for defamation and later reached a confidential settlement with the blog. “In a just world, I’d have them killed,” Johnson said of Gawker and its CEO, Nick Denton. “But we are not there yet.” Johnson, however, was in a position to crowdfund a WeSearchr bounty to sniff out plagiarism at Gawker, an ultimately fruitless quest. Ton-That, whom Gawker had also covered critically after his phishing scams seven years earlier, jumped at the chance. “[W]ho else is working on gawker plagiarism & wants to collaborate?” he messaged the channel at the beginning of June 2016. “[I]’m scraping all their articles right now.” On June 10, 2016, Gawker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and put up its assets for sale. A few days later, Cernovich posted a photo of Ton-That and Johnson having a meal, both of them flashing the “OK” sign that has become a popular hand gesture for white nationalists in the Trump era. Chuck Johnson and Hoan Ton-That flash the “OK” sign over a meal in 2016. (Photo: ) When BuzzFeed confronted Ton-That about the photo, he claimed he was “only making the Okay sign in the photo as in ‘all okay.’” That August, Ton-That messaged the WeSearchr channel with an idea to crash a “funeral” party Gawker employees were throwing to mourn the demolition of their publication. “Wish I had a hulkomania shirt,” he wrote. It was during this period of his life, ensconced among extremists online and off, that Ton-That began building the company that would become Clearview. In 2016, the Australian hacker brought on two unnamed engineers to help him on the project, according to The New York Times. Ton-That refused to give HuffPost their names. One helped design a program to scrape images of faces from a range of sites and social media platforms, often in violation of their policies. The other created a facial recognition algorithm. The Birth Of ‘Smartcheckr’ On election night, Ton-That partied with Johnson and Dickinson in New York amid a sea of red MAGA caps. Two days later, Johnson posted a news story from The Sun to his Facebook. It included a photo of Dickinson and Ton-That celebrating bawdily. “My business partners are in the Sun and I feel left out,” Johnson wrote. Far-right extremists Pax Dickinson and Chuck Johnson celebrate Donald Trump’s election in 2016 with Hoan Ton-That. (Photo: ) Far-right extremist Pax Dickinson celebrates Donald Trump’s election in 2016 with Hoan Ton-That in New York City. (Photo: REUTERS/Mike Segar) Johnson was very likely referring to a business that was registered in New York a few months later and followed the same naming convention as WeSearchr: Smartcheckr. The company would eventually rebrand as Clearview, as Ton-That later told the Times. In January 2017, Johnson indicated on Facebook that he was “building algorithms to ID all the illegal immigrants for the deportation squads.” Soon, he was boasting to friends and acquaintances that he was working on a powerful facial recognition tool. (Photo: ) Chuck Johnson dropped hints on Facebook in January 2017 that he was working on a facial recognition project. (Photo: ) A person who used to be close to Johnson and requested anonymity out of concern for their safety told HuffPost that they saw him “with a whole bunch of really important people” at Trump Hotel in spring 2017, “and he was going on and on about this facial recognition software he had hired people to build.” Johnson, they added, was with one of these hires ― “some coding wizard” with long hair in a ponytail. “He kept introducing him as a prodigy who was building the software,” the source recalled. When HuffPost showed the source photos of Ton-That, they confirmed he was the man with Johnson. “If it’s not him, that’s his twin.” Not long after the election, McHugh got a call from Johnson. “He told me they had a way to identify every illegal alien in the country,” she said. “He brought up facial recognition technology and demanded I call Stephen Miller because he knew Stephen Miller was a true believer.” It’s unclear if Johnson ever spoke to Miller, the architect of Trump’s brutal immigration policy. But around the same time, Johnson was working behind the scenes with Giesea and Thiel ― a member of the transition executive committee ― to recommend alt-right candidates for science and technology appointments with the incoming administration, according to Forbes . A person close to Trump’s transition confirmed to Politico that Johnson participated in transition-related meetings. By this point, Johnson had a well-documented track record of bigotry and dirty tricks. In 2015, he’d been permanently ― and noticeably ― suspended from Twitter after requesting funds to “take out” a Black civil rights activist. In 2016, he’d gone on an alt-right podcast called “Fash the Nation” to talk at length about the evolutionary traits of “Jews” and “Blacks.” (“They’re dumber,” Johnson said of African Americans.) In January 2017, Johnson hosted a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session during which he was asked for his thoughts on “the Holocaust, WW2, and the JQ in general.” (The “JQ,” or “Jewish Question,” is a term anti-Semites, including Hitler, have used for over a century as shorthand for their conspiracy theory that Jews have too much control over society.) “I do not and never have believed the six million figure,” Johnson wrote. “I think the Red Cross numbers of 250,000 dead in the camps from typhus are more realistic but I confess to having complicated views on the subject. I think the Allied bombings of Germany were a war crime. I agree with [Holocaust revisionist] David Cole about Auschwitz and the gas chambers not being real. Why were their [sic] swimming pools there if it was a death camp?” Two weeks after Johnson’s Holocaust denial on Reddit, SMARTCHECKR, LLC was registered in New York. The address associated with it belonged to Richard Schwartz, who had been a top aide to Rudy Giuliani when he was mayor of New York City. Schwartz would later admit to being one of the founders of Smartcheckr. Thiel was one of the company’s earliest investors. “In 2017, Peter gave a talented young founder $200,000, which two years later converted to equity in Clearview AI,” Thiel’s spokesman, Jeremiah Hall, said in a statement. Hall didn’t specify which founder he meant and did not respond to questions for this story. Emails and messages obtained by HuffPost show that Ton-That and Johnson were in touch about Smartcheckr in 2017. In one email thread, Johnson and his associates at GotNews discussed a dogwhistle post they were putting together about a racially motivated mass shooting in Fresno, California, that had been committed by a Black man who was Muslim. Tyler Bass, a GotNews writer, wondered if there was an easy way to scrape “an entire Facebook page quickly ... the next time another American goes apeshit and before Facebook pulls it down out of shame.” He added Ton-That to the conversation, who replied quickly. “I’m working on this for smartcheckr,” the hacker wrote. “Plan to make these tools available for our guys.” A Series Of Troubling Hires Bass was one of Ton-That’s guys. He had become interested in hacker culture as a young man, and he was arrested on a computer harassment charge in Virginia in 2013 that either the alleged victim or the prosecutor declined to pursue. Bass later morphed into a committed racist. By 2017, he was asking around about a writing job with American Renaissance, a heavyweight white nationalist organization. He already belonged to a white nationalist crew called the “DC Helicopter Pilots,” according to McHugh, who dated him in 2017. The group was a Washington-area chapter of The Right Stuff, an influential pro-Trump organization that attracts neo-Nazis. Members of the DC Helicopter Pilots ― likely a reference to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s practice of executing dissidents by throwing them out of helicopters ― met regularly, at least once to eat swastika-shaped cookies . One chapter leader was a State Department official assigned to the Bureau of Energy Resources who advocated for a nuclear-armed white ethnostate . A few weeks after the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in August 2017 ― which Bass told McHugh that he attended with his 8-year-old son ― he found a job as an “investigator” doing “remote software testing” at Smartcheckr. HuffPost obtained five of Bass’s résumés spanning from May 2017 to the present. He claimed to have assembled “devastating opposition dossiers on open-borders figures and activists” while working for Johnson and said he created “counternarratives for third-party reporters to mold mass perception.” His résumés also say he helped Johnson vet candidates for the Trump administration transition team. The administration declined to comment. Another early Smartcheckr hire was Douglass Mackey, an otherwise unremarkable Middlebury graduate who’d washed out of a job in finance and became an alt-right superstar in 2016 under the alias “Ricky Vaughn.” The advocate of “global white supremacy” was so effective at disseminating pro-Trump, anti-Semitic propaganda and Kremlin-originated disinformation that MIT Media Lab named his Twitter account on a list of top influencers on the election, ahead of NBC News and the Drudge Report. A photo posted by neo-Nazi Christopher Cantwell identifying Douglass Mackey, left. (Photo: ) In 2017, Mackey and an unidentified partner pitched Smartcheckr to the racist Republican candidate Paul Nehlen, who was vying for the Wisconsin seat of retiring House Speaker Paul Ryan. Nehlen, another member of Johnson’s WeSearchr Slack channel, was quickly radicalizing from outlandish bigotry to white nationalist extremism. He’d soon appear on David Duke’s radio show to talk about machine-gunning migrant children. In a proposal Mackey sent Nehlen, Smartcheckr promised to micro-target potential voters and donors for $2,500 per month. The company would do oppo research by tapping “unconventional databases.” Ton-That’s “proprietary search and facial recognition technology” would allow for analysis of voters’ social media and their views on various issues. Nehlen said on a podcast that he gave Mackey access to his Facebook through Business Manager, a tool for managing pages and accounts, for three months. “He didn’t post anything,” he said. “He didn’t do anything. He was suggesting that he was going to be able to grow my audience or whatever. He did nothing.” Ton-That told BuzzFeed that Mackey only worked “for 3 weeks as a consultant to Smartcheckr, which was the initial name of Clearview.” He denied any knowledge of Mackey’s Ricky Vaughn persona — even though Mackey was also a member of the WeSearchr Slack channel, where he used the handle “Richard Vaughn” and the same avatar that he did on Twitter. Ton-That claimed Mackey had been referred to him by a “liberal Democrat.” But Johnson posted a video in October 2016 in which he called Mackey a “friend of mine, a guy that I’ve talked to on the phone, a good guy.” Mackey did not respond to emails from HuffPost. Ton-That also claimed Mackey sent an “unauthorized proposal” to Nehlen and that “the technology described in the proposal did not even exist.” And yet Johnson had been bragging about the technology for the better part of a year. Bass was already troubleshooting Smartcheckr’s “flagship product,” according to his résumé. In early 2018, still angry about getting ripped off, Nehlen disclosed that Mackey was Ricky Vaughn — something that was previously known only to high-ranking members of the alt-right. One of them, Christopher Cantwell, posted the Smartcheckr proposal Mackey sent Nehlen on his website. Twitter and other platforms lit up with white nationalist chatter. “[O]ne of my closest pals just got his life ruined,” Auernheimer said of Mackey in The Daily Stormer forum. Andrew Auernheimer was upset after Mackey’s identity was revealed. (Photo: ) Smartcheckr employees and associates scrambled to hide their connections to the company and each other after the incident. Schwartz, the former Giuliani aide, sanitized his LinkedIn profile. Smartcheckr used a reputation management service to suppress information about itself and Schwartz by clouding Google search results with fake webpages , according to a source close to the company. Richard Schwartz listed himself as a Smartcheckr co-founder on LinkedIn until it was revealed that Mackey was a white supremacist. (Photo: ) Schwartz did not respond to questions from HuffPost. Eventually, the commotion subsided. Ton-That and Smartcheckr tightened up operational security. They’d incorporated Clearview AI in Delaware through a third-party registered agent the previous year and would shift to that name for the facial recognition business. “Thank ... goodness the panicked speculation about Smartcheckr is dying down ,” Bass emailed McHugh. “Still, it’s not going to be great. If you have any thoughts on how to tailor things going forward in light of Mackeygate, as you offered, please let me know.” Clearview Hits The Bigtime In January 2018, Ton-That surfaced at the “Night for Freedom” party Cernovich organized in New York. Up on stage, Gavin Mcinnes, the Canadian founder of the neo-fascist Proud Boys gang, joked about “faggots” and the genitalia of transgender women . Pizzagate-peddler and neo-Nazi collaborator Jack Posobiec turned up. So did Canadian cult leader Stefan Molyneux and James O’Keefe, who in 2009 made a Thiel-financed video that mocked people of color . McHugh was standing in a cluster of people when Ton-That materialized out of the crowd. It had been almost two years since she’d seen him at the far-right dinner in Cleveland. They chatted briefly. “Hoan told me things were going well for him,” McHugh said. “Especially with his company.” The hacker melted back into the party. McHugh never saw him again. Things certainly were going well. By the time of Cernovich’s event, Clearview had found more investors, including Ton-That’s former boss at AngelList, Naval Ravikant, and Kirenaga Partners, a small venture capital firm in New York. The firm’s founder, David Scalzo, told the Times that “there’s never going to be privacy” and shrugged about the possibility that technology “might lead to a dystopian future or something.” Another early investor was Hal Lambert, a Texas money manager and major GOP fundraiser who is close with Ted Cruz and claimed to be on Trump’s inaugural committee. Lambert had also invested early in Anduril, a Thiel-backed defense contractor that is building autonomous surveillance systems to police the southern border. Lambert has railed against the political left and the news media, most recently appearing on Fox Business Network to downplay the danger of coronavirus and accuse journalists of stoking fear. When reached by phone, Lambert expressed surprise to hear about anti-democratic extremists associated with Clearview. But he admitted to knowing Johnson. He also said he’d known Ton-That prior to Clearview because the coder “worked on some data stuff” for the investor. Lambert declined to provide further details, citing “proprietary” work. Throughout 2018 and into the following year, Ton-That worked with Schwartz to sign up law enforcement agencies for Clearview. The company claimed to have “mountains” of data in its “proprietary image database.” The Clearview team started aggregating every mugshot taken in the U.S. over the last 15 years, according to emails obtained by OneZero . Schwartz peddled the tech at law enforcement conferences. Ton-That set up bogus LinkedIn profiles to run ads that hyped the technology, according to BuzzFeed. To help drum up more business , Clearview recruited Jessica Medeiros Garrison, a former executive director of the Republican Attorneys General Association and a Daily Caller contributor . The company also retained Paul Clement, the former U.S. solicitor general and perennial right-wing consideration for the Supreme Court, as its attorney. Clearview brought on high-powered attorney Paul Clement to represent the company. (Photo: DOJ) Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies were signing up for Clearview: the Indiana State Police, the New York State Police, the Chicago Police Department, the Atlanta Police Department , police departments in New Jersey and Florida, and the Department of Homeland Security. So did the Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division of the Texas Department of Public Safety, a contract that has not been previously reported. Clement sent a letter to the Atlanta Police Department last summer stating that “over 200 law enforcement agencies around the nation” were using Clearview. That number would triple within months, according to The New York Times. Clement provided a legal cover for police to sidestep civil rights concerns, writing that Clearview didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment because the mere act of posting anything to social media removed any expectation of privacy. Clement also anticipated the argument that facial recognition has baked-in racial bias problems. A majority of algorithms tested in 2019 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology falsely identify female and darker-skinned faces at much higher rates than white male faces. Clearview was simply more accurate than existing technology, Clement wrote. (The company appears to have shunned an independent audit of its technology and did not participate in the NIST test.) Moreover, he added, Clearview used “non-race-based algorithms” to minimize bias. Clement offered no evidence in his letter to support either claim. On his April 2018 résumé, Bass wrote that he was identifying “prostitution and gang connections of subjects on 24-hour deadlines.” Clearview promotional materials state the company “began solving crimes using newly developed facial-recognition technology” in 2018, meaning that Ton-That and his employees may have had the ability to snoop on police searches and criminal investigations and harvest images of suspects for their database for almost two years. The company also found a big client in Rudin Management Company, a multibillion-dollar real estate firm for which Bass did “background screenings of tenants and hires.” He started hiding his employer on his résumé. He worked, he said, for “Confidential.” On his résumés, Bass took increasing steps to conceal his connection to Ton-That’s company. (Photo: Dinched 食在好味) On his résumés, Bass took increasing steps to conceal his connection to Ton-That’s company. (Photo: ) On his current résumé, Bass highlights that he used his “familiarity with the Spanish language” at Rudin Management, an indication that Clearview and the real estate firm may have had a white nationalist vetting Spanish-speaking people for jobs and housing. Bass now claims to work directly for Rudin Management, which Rudin Management says is untrue. “The individual in question was never employed by Rudin Management,” a spokesperson said. But Rudin did use Ton-That’s company to screen people, according to the spokesperson: “We utilized Smartcheckr’s services for a period of time to conduct routine background checks based on publicly available information.” Rudin Management refused to provide further details, but the firm previously told BuzzFeed that it also used a surveillance camera system developed by Clearview that works with the facial recognition technology. Bass declined to speak with HuffPost. A Radical Liaison To Law Enforcement As Clearview continued to sign up police departments, the far-right extremists at the company interacted more with law enforcement. In an email from December 2019 obtained by BuzzFeed , Clearview employee Marko Jukic pitched a free trial of the technology to a nationwide police listserv: “We invite you to test the limits for yourself.” Jukic had for years used an alias derived from his surname to spread racism and anti-democratic ideas, praise Vladimir Putin and even write approvingly about a potential collapse of the United States government. Born in Croatia, Jukic identified as an extremist Catholic traditionalist and had spent most of his childhood bouncing around the world with his Croatian mother and American father, a political officer with the U.S. State Department. He dropped out of Northwestern University in 2016. Soon enough, he went to work for Johnson and became an active member of the WeSearchr Slack channel. He coordinated with Ton-That on the Gawker-scraping project and tweeted about radical organizing with the former director of the Thiel-funded Machine Intelligence Research Institute. Marko Jukic and Chuck Johnson in Cleveland during the 2016 Republican National Convention. (Photo: Jim Swift for The Weekly Standard (Photos used with permission)) In his early adulthood, Jukic, who just turned 24, published many thousands of extremist words on neoreactionary blogs. He declared that “diversity, equality, tolerance and the rest of the lot of contemporary progressive values are indisputably corrosive to civilization as they are today practiced.” He expressed homophobic, misogynistic and racist views. “[I]f you spend a few hours letting your disenchanted friends and family know that it’s OK to use the word ‘nigger’ [and] point out that democracy is a miserable failure,” he wrote, “you will have accomplished far more concrete good in the world than you would have by spending a few hours doing almost anything else.” He was opposed to multiculturalism and wrote that Jews did not belong among people of European heritage. “The answer to the Jewish question,” he wrote, “is quite simple: segregation and separation. ... [U]nlike progressives, neoreactionaries do not believe one can abolish the laws of nature and turn diversity into a strength, least of all using the State. Diversity engenders animosity and eventually violence, and is thus a weakness.” Genocide wasn’t a solution, Jukic wrote, “unless you have the biggest bully around on your side.” By that, he meant the power of the state. “In context that is a quote urging far right extremists to avoid Jewish people and to disavow anti-Semitic violence,” Jukic said. Jukic was prone to flights of wild-eyed neoreactionary fancy, imagining a future where a king ruled America and would tackle “welfare spending” by sending the military and heavily armed militias to “pacify” the “ghettos” with lethal force. Journalists who set foot in occupied zones would be assassinated. “[V]iolence most definitely is the answer,” he wrote. He supported the “generous use” of racial profiling to curb immigration, as well as a wall along the Mexico border equipped with high-tech cameras and drones. In much of his writing, he looked to the ethnonationalism of Putin’s Russia for inspiration and speculated about a Russian empire that encompassed Hawaii and extended to San Francisco. In his vision of a new geopolitical order, the first step, Jukic wrote, was to dismantle and balkanize what he described as the “uniquely evil” United States. To neoreactionaries, that meant replacing democracy with some form of authoritarianism. Two years later, however, he’d decided that balkanization or civil war in America was impossible because “America’s diversity problem is not regional, but national and ubiquitous.” “This is not unwarranted pessimism but the sober reality that has to be accepted before any real goals can be achieved,” he wrote about a month later. “Just because the United States cannot Balkanize does not mean it cannot collapse into chaos, however.” Jukic emailed HuffPost a statement in which he claimed his posts were “exercises in theatrical hyperbole and comedic satire.” He was, he said, a young man trying to shock his reader. His talk of balkanization was little more than an off-the-books 4chan-fueled college bull session. He said he no longer believed that “America’s severe societal problems” would lead to governmental collapse, although he still felt the political process remained “fundamentally broken.” And he’d “always disavowed” political violence, he said. “I wrote a number of purposely inflammatory things as a teenager and young adult to test boundaries,” Jukic said in his statement. “I never meant any harm, but I admit my insouciance and prodigious imagination would not always give that impression. It’s something that I put firmly in the past many years ago already of my own accord, long before being contacted for this article, and I intend to keep it that way. Those quotes do not represent my thinking or views in the present day.” But many of Jukic’s posts appeared about two years before he says he started working at Clearview. Richard Spencer’s Radix Journal syndicated some of his writing. Other far-right extremists took Jukic seriously and engaged him in long conversations about radical politics. As far-fetched as Jukic’s vision seemed, he’d thought deeply about his tactics and eschewed the open activism the alt-right had embraced, most notably in Charlottesville. Instead, he endorsed the neoreactionary concept of “passivism”: lie low, create hidden networks, quietly build the “machinery” to subvert the system. “Victory will not be won at the ballot box,” Jukic wrote in 2016. “Donald Trump will need to build his own regime, his own state, and make it so good that the existing regime defects to it in fear and awe of his power. He’ll need his own NYT, his own State Department, his own CIA, his own Harvard.” Three years later, Jukic was pitching Clearview to law enforcement. Subverting Democracy After the Times published its investigation into Clearview in January , New Jersey’s attorney general ordered all police in the state to stop using its tool. Two Democratic senators introduced legislation to put a moratorium on facial recognition use by government officials and contractors until Congress could regulate the technology. Other lawmakers questioned Clearview about the company having licensed its technology to organizations in authoritarian countries such as Saudi Arabia, Singapore and United Arab Emirates. Social media companies fired off cease-and-desist letters demanding that Clearview stop scraping photos and data. The company was hit with multiple lawsuits by people who alleged that Clearview illegally collected their biometric information, including a class-action suit in New York federal court. Another class-action in Virginia federal court alleged that Clearview had violated the Virginia Computer Crimes Act, the same law Bass was arrested for allegedly violating in 2013 and for which he was never prosecuted. Vermont’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against Clearview last month, alleging that the company had broken state laws by collecting images of Vermonters, including children, without their consent. Clearview raced to do damage control. A “user code of conduct” materialized on the firm’s website, along with a promise that the technology would have no consumer applications and be available only to law enforcement and “select security professionals.” But that wasn’t true ― Clearview was aggressively courting companies and private clients such as Macy’s, Bank of America and Walmart, according to a list leaked to BuzzFeed . Clearview also allowed investors and Trump-affiliated elites to play around with its app and unregulated database. The company set up an account for the company of former Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller. His company has run almost 20 searches, according to BuzzFeed. John Catsimatidis, the billionaire Trump donor and owner of Gristedes Foods, the largest grocery store chain in Manhattan, tested the facial recognition technology at one of his supermarkets in an effort to catch shoplifters, according to The New York Times . But Catsimatidis, who is friends with Schwartz, also used the app to snoop on a man he spotted on a dinner date with his daughter. And Johnson appears to still be involved with the company. On a flight to Boston in January, the far-right extremist befriended a passenger and showed off a facial recognition app that could only have been Clearview, according to BuzzFeed. Ton-That bobbed and weaved through television interviews, letting more details slip while asserting a First Amendment right to access anything posted on social media. A number of banks were using Clearview, he told CNN, but he declined to name them. He admitted to meeting with legislators but didn’t say what they’d discussed. He declined to name them, too. Most of all, he downplayed the dangers of his technology. “This is not a 24/7 surveillance system,” he said. Another Clearview attorney, Tor Ekeland, emerged to field media requests. Ekeland was also Auernheimer’s lawyer and had made his name by getting the neo-Nazi out of federal prison. He did not respond to a request for comment. Another round of damage control ensued after HuffPost reached out to Jukic with questions last week. Ton-That said through a spokesperson on March 27 that Clearview had severed ties with both Bass and Jukic. “I was shocked by and completely unaware of Marko Jukic’s online writings under a different name,” Ton-That said. “As soon as those writings were brought to my attention, we took steps to separate him from the company.” But Ton-That almost certainly knew Jukic’s neoreactionary pen name. In Slack channel messages and emails between the two that date back to 2016, Jukic used the same alias as he did on Social Matter, a prominent, now-defunct neoreactionary blog run by a former Daily Caller writer who later took a job at a Thiel-funded think tank . In a statement to HuffPost, Ton-That professed his love for America ― in large part, he said, because of his adopted country’s diversity. He said he found white supremacist and anti-Semitic views “abhorrent.” He shared an insight into his background that could apply to many intelligent, wayward young men who stumble into hateful online echo chambers. “I grew up in Australia, but truthfully, I grew up on the Internet,” Ton-That said. “I grew up without television or movies as cultural touchstones. I learned about the world, its inhabitants and ideas online. It’s where I learned my craft to program and code, and how to navigate the vast variety of information, thoughts and views. It had not always been a straight path, and it had not always served me well. There was a period when I explored a range of ideas—not out of belief in any of them, but out of a desire to search for self and place in the world. I have finally found it, and the mission to help make America a safer place. To those who have read my words in the Huffington Post article, I deeply apologize for them.” When HuffPost contacted Johnson in late March, he pretended to be an undercover U.S. intelligence operative who’d been recruited out of high school. “Would prefer being kept out of whatever you are doing,” he said. “Nearly got me killed by a foreign government last time.” Johnson said his government contract prohibited him from talking to the press. He then spoke at length with HuffPost, and said if this article ran, “you’ll wind up hurting our country as China, Russia, Israel, and Britain all roll out facial recognition products which curtail our liberties.” The next day, a man using the pseudonym “John Smith” called from a VoIP line with a West Palm Beach number after HuffPost insisted that Johnson have a credible person verify his claims. “Smith” refused to say where he worked but offered vague reassurances that the government had vetted “the DNA” of the Clearview team and found no “red flags.” That team, according to Smith, included Johnson, whom Smith described as “not a significant equity holder” in Clearview. When asked again if Johnson had a stake in Clearview, Smith said, “I believe so. I don’t know for sure.” Johnson later texted HuffPost. “I’ve done my part,” he wrote. “Marko and Hoan do good work on behalf of our country.” Johnson refused to answer any questions about his involvement in the company or his relationship with Ton-That, who did the same when first contacted by HuffPost but eventually distanced himself from Johnson. “Charles Johnson is not an executive, employee, consultant, and doesn’t have a board seat at Clearview Ai,” Ton-That told HuffPost a week after his first statement. He refused to disclose whether Johnson had an equity stake in the company. But the money behind Clearview and the company’s opaque origins are bound to raise more eyebrows, especially during a health crisis in which a hard-right Trump administration could expand domestic surveillance in ways that would be hard to unwind. Clearview’s secretive founders have already shown a callous disregard for the privacy of American citizens. Even more concerning are their connections to a dark strain of political extremism now coursing through Silicon Valley and Washington. In April 2016, Johnson announced himself as an extremist in a GotNews video. “What is the alt-right?” he said. “I guess I’m sort of on the ground floor here given that I’m friends with Curtis Yarvin aka Mencius Moldbug.” To read Yarvin is, in the neoreactionary godfather’s own words, to find “instructions” for a quiet “fascist coup” in America, one that might take 25 years, maybe 50. What Yarvin calls a “reboot” of America would dissolve the government and “terminate democracy.” All in the name of a stable new world order. If you squint, you can almost see it underway, as techno-authoritarians who openly deride modern America as an obsolete operating system build-out, through their own companies and the complicity of law enforcement, an all-seeing eye unbound by the statutes that constrain the government’s use of personal data. Does the Trump adviser behind many of these efforts — the German-born American billionaire with a third citizenship quietly purchased from New Zealand ― really have the best interests of every American in mind? More than a decade ago, Thiel committed a statement to print that should adjoin his every mention in the press. “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible,” the Clearview investor wrote in a 2009 essay for the Cato Institute. He meant it. Related... The NYPD May Be Secretly Using Facebook Photos In Its Facial Recognition Searches Which Tech Bro Is Fleeing Coronavirus On This 'Lord Of The Rings' Plane? Donald Trump Is Using An Insanely Sketchy Newsletter To Find Campaign Donors This article originally appeared on HuffPost . || A New Chinese Miracle and too Much Optimism in Europe: Europe did not manage to rely on this experience, which turned out to be a disaster for Italy and Spain. The inability to quickly limit the spread has resulted in far more significant losses. The practice showed that governments have to make a quick choice: to shut down a particular city or province today under strict quarantine, or to extend it to the whole country a week later. The US was overly optimistic about quarantine measures. However, their health care system is still far from the chaos of Italy and Spain. Today we saw a new Chinese miracle. The PMI business activity indices in March came back into growth territory. Published service and manufacturing PMIs reached 52.3 and 52.0 in March against 29.6 and 35.7 in February. These figures should be interpreted as the economy returned to growth in March, having overcome the consequences of quarantine quite fast. The quarantine blitzkrieg may now become an economic one. Of course, this does not mean that this will be the case in Europe and the US, where a national quarantine will destroy business activity in both March and April. Today we will see the publication of March employment figures in Germany. Later this week, the data from the United States will be published. And for now, it should be noted that the average market forecasts are seriously lagging behind the data. Initially, we saw a sharp underestimation of the depth of the downturn in China; now the same can be said about the speed of recovery in the country. For Europe and the United States, economists so far repeat the same mistake as before with China, expecting on average an increase in the number of unemployed in Germany by 23k, and a decrease in employment by 81k the United States. These estimates may be too optimistic, which may cause severe dynamics after the publication of the data. by Alex Kuptsikevich, the FxPro senior market analyst. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • BTC/USD Drop Below 6298 Aims for 5940 • EUR/USD Daily Forecast – Six-Day Bullish Rally Ends as Euro Returns to Important Support • Huge Unemployment Is Coming. Will It Push Gold Prices Up? • Oil Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Weaker Shorts Covering as US, Russia Agree to Talk About Price Crash • EUR/USD Uptrend to Continue at 1.10 Support Zone • E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – Reaction to 22524 – 23571 Sets the Tone || Omni Core team releases protocol update to fix doubled transaction bug: Omni Core – a portable Omni layer implementation based on the Bitcoin Core codebase – has released version 0.8.0 to fix a bug that caused some transactions to occur twice. "A consensus affecting issue in an earlier version of Omni Core has been identified, which may cause some transactions to be executed twice," said anofficial blog post."This has been addressed and fixed in this release." According to the blog post, the bug originated from a 2019 update of Omni Core 0.6 and affects all 0.6 and higher versions. As a result of it, the system could credit and debit the same tokens more than once and consequently leave some accounts' total balances higher or lower than they actually are. "The first startup of the 0.8.0 release will trigger a full reparse of all blocks, after which balances will be restored to their correct state," the blog post said. "This will remove additional tokens credited by this error and any transactions which include them. This step can take several hours or more than a day." The team has identified seven blocks which might have been executed twice (619141, 618465, 614732, 599587, 591848, 589999, and 578141) and outlined two methods with which exchanges, wallet operators, and integrators can use on top of Omni Core to search for affected transactions. Additionally, they can use Omni Core to track transaction histories, according to the post. || Bitcoin development funding is led by Blockstream and Lightning Labs, says BitMEX: Blockstream and Lightning Labs are the two firms currently leading the funding for open-source bitcoin and lightning development, according to data compiled by BitMEX. Announcing the news on Saturday, BitMEX said the two firms employ the largest number of bitcoin developers. Pieter Wuille, Andrew Chow and Gregory Sanders are some of the bitcoin developers, which are currently being funded by Blockstream. Lightning Labs, on the other hand, employs at least 8 developers working on the open-source Lightning software, including Alex Bosworth, Johan Halseth, and Oliver Gugger, among others. Source: BitMEX Square Crypto is ranked third, per BitMEX, which currently employs notable bitcoin developer Matt Corallo, as well as provides grants to other bitcoin and lightning developers. Square Crypto is followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab’s Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) and Chaincode Labs. The latter, in fact, is the largest contributor to bitcoin core development, per the data. BitMEX said the current situation of bitcoin development is “more healthy” than it has been in the past, because of the availability of finance, transparency, and the degree of distribution among financial backers. || Error or Plunder? Report Suggests FCoin Purposely Moved Customer Bitcoin Since 2019: Ever since FCoin fell insolvent this month, blockchain researchers have been poring over data to figure out what caused the failure and where all the China-based exchange’s cryptocurrency went. A recent report from Silicon Valley-based Anchain AI wonders whether funds were pilfered by insiders, challenging FCoin’s official line claiming a data error was to blame. The study is provocatively titled, “FCoin Exchange Shutdown: Technical Difficulties or Planned Scam?” On Feb. 17, FCoin revealed a shortfall of up to $130 million worth ofbitcoin(BTC). The exchange’s verified “cold” wallet, the cryptocurrency version of a bank vault used to hold customer bitcoin, was emptied. According to Anchain AI, from 2019 until February 2020, the cold wallet’s funds were likely moved to four other exchanges — Gate.io, Binance, OKEx and Huobi — and then beyond. Related:Binance Now Supports Deposits and Withdrawals in Hong-Kong Dollars Anchain AI is more upfront about its suspicions than another analysis firm, China-based Peckshield, whichreported that Fcoin’s problemsstarted in 2018. According to Peckshield, Fcoin was not properly accounting for transactions on its platform, enabling users to “leak” out valuable cryptocurrencies to other exchanges. More than25,350 BTChas passed in and out of FCoin’s primary cold wallet, which Anchain AI labeled “Fcoin_1” in its analysis. The last 54 BTC was drained in a transaction sent on Feb. 13. Four days later, FCoin founder Zhang Jian announced the exchangewould no longer be able to process customer withdrawals. A wallet is considered “cold” when the private key controlling it is kept offline, on a hardware device or a piece of paper stashed in a safe place. Cryptocurrency exchanges use these wallets for long-term storage of customer assets, with funds rarely moving. In June 2018, FCoin published its bitcoin cold wallet address on itstransparency page. The link now redirects to the exchange’s homepage, which displays a note in broken English about “FCoin System Upgrading.” Related:Why Today’s Crypto Exchange Leaders Are Powerful, but Not Inevitable Fortunately, the cold wallet address was also published in a press announcement in 2018, giving Anchain AI a starting point to analyze over 210,000 transactions among FCoin’s 40,000 wallets. The cold wallet moved 9,889 BTC intoanother FCoin-controlled wallet, which then dispersed the funds through various other addresses. The Anchain AI analysis found that early in 2019, Fcoin was moving hundreds of bitcoin to other exchanges. Among the four biggest recipients, Huobi, where Zhang was the former CTO, received the most. For a few months in 2019, there were no exchange transactions. Activity picked up again in September, with OKEx becoming the preferred destination. Founded in 2018, FCoin used a “transaction mining” model, reimbursing traders for fees with a proprietary token, also called FCoin. When a customer paid a trading fee in BTC, for example, a corresponding amount would be sent back in FCoin tokens. Holders of this token were also paid 80 percent of the exchange’s fee revenue as an incentive to keep them. FCoin did not respond to CoinDesk’s requests for comment by press time. Addressing accusations of impropriety, Zhang took to social media to explain that FCoin’s estimated 7,000 to 13,000 bitcoin gap in funds was due not only to poor accounting but also to the transaction mining model. In a missive translated into English andposted to Reddit Feb. 17, Zhang wrote, “in particular, public lies will sooner or later break through under the watchful eyes of everyone.” Although Anchain AI made a strong case that something was suspicious in FCoin’s transactions, its inference that the company moved the bitcoin to four large exchanges and thereafter elsewhere is much harder to prove. As for the title question, Anchain AI’s report was inconclusive. “So, was the FCoin Exchange Shutdown due to technical difficulties, or the culmination of a planned scam? Only the FCoin team would know for sure,” the researchers said at the end of their study. • Binance and Others Are Rushing to Provide Stablecoins to Nigerian Crypto Users • Binance Is Not Under Our Jurisdiction, Says Malta Regulator || Yang 2020 and the Search for the Next Crypto Candidate: Andrew Yang was the first true crypto candidate to emerge since the advent of digital currencies and blockchain technology. Yang will be remembered for his detailed crypto platform and for the genuine enthusiasm he demonstrated as an advocate for the technologies. Though he never spoke about the technologies directly during a nationally televised debate, he endorsed crypto and blockchain in a range of fora, from Facebook Live AMAs to the main stage at Consensus 2019, where he gushed, “Oh, boy, are we going to have some fun in terms of the cryptocurrency community.” In contrast to Hilary Clinton’s sharp rejection of crypto donations in 2016 — citing concern over the perception they carried unseemly “libertarian” connotations — Yang accepted up to $2,500 in bitcoin (BTC) or ERC20 tokens, with some paperwork required. These donations supported Yang’s detailed crypto platform , including a pledge to act on “onerous regulations” that he believed have a “chilling effect” on the growth of the digital assets market. There was no hedging or ambivalence involved. The Yang2020 website stated flatly, “The blockchain has vast potential.” To comprehend just how much of a break this was, it helps to revisit the last election cycle. In 2016, the closest thing to a “crypto candidate” was the Republican Rand Paul. Before dropping out in early February, Paul quietly accepted donations in digital currencies, but otherwise didn’t consider the young technology worthy of policy attention. Ditto the libertarian former governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson, whose candidacy suggests the Clinton campaign’s concerns were misplaced. Despite being a self-declared libertarian, Johnson’s support among crypto investors was roughly the same as his support among the general population, which is to say negligible, around 5 percent . (Support for John McAfee’s “Don’t-ask-me-about-anything” 2016 and 2020 campaigns, meanwhile, is too negligible to quantify.) Related: Why Aren’t the Candidates Talking About Digital Currency? Story continues “Yang showed people who are outside the community that cryptocurrency policy is an issue that is very real and affects millions of Americans,” said Neeraj Agrawal, director of communications at Coin Center, the crypto advocacy and policy think tank. “He was the first candidate to have a sensible crypto policy, and the first to talk about these issues in a serious way on the national stage.” The first, but not the last. Observers in the space believe in future elections, as digital currencies gain mainstream traction, wider adoption and prominence within larger debates over U.S. monetary policy and financial regulation, candidates with platforms like Yang’s will be the rule rather than the exception. “Yang’s campaign was a historical moment for cryptocurrency and blockchain that will lead the way for more candidates to come forward championing the technology,” said Craig Cobb , host of “The Trader Cobb Crypto Podcast.” “With a larger millennial public coming to voting age, we will see an ongoing push at all levels of politics to advance the technology that this demographic has embraced.” Related: “A Tech Bro Like Us,” CoinDesk’s “Most Influential” Profile of Andrew Yang Related: Biden May Not Be Savvy About Big Tech, but He Understands Cybersecurity *** Meanwhile, Yang has no plans to disappear. As a newly hired regular commentator on CNN, he will continue to have a voice in the national political conversation. It isn’t yet clear whether he will be in a position to directly address crypto or related issues on the country’s most-watched cable network, or if he’ll be asked to comment only on more general political subjects. But he is now one of very few people on CNN’s payroll who has a known interest and knowledge on the issue. For years, CNN did not have anyone who could credibly discuss crypto or blockchain. This changed only in 2018, when CNN International hired Julia Chatterly, who now hosts occasional crypto segments, including a recent interview with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse. On the campaign trail, Yang’s absence has created a vacuum that has yet to be filled. When Yang announced that he was suspending his campaign on the night of the New Hampshire primary, many assumed that his role as the Crypto Candidate would be taken over by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. At first glance, this transfer of allegiance did have a certain logic to it. Bloomberg’s name is associated with business and technology and, like Yang, he has a crypto plank in his platform. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Bloomberg’s campaign has indeed made overtures to Yang, “courting the former candidate’s endorsement and floating the possibility of Mr. Yang becoming his running mate.” But the report also stated Yang did not show enthusiasm for the idea, mirroring a tepid response to Bloomberg on the part of the so-called Yang Gang, the group of media savvy and energetic supporters that put Yang on the map with a burst of Internet memes and other forms of organic, creative organizing activity. He was the first candidate to have a sensible crypto policy, and the first to talk about these issues in a serious way on the national stage. There are a number of possible reasons for this, beginning with the neutral tone of Bloomberg’s crypto platform in comparison to Yang’s. Nor is there a clear overlap between Bloomberg’s wider, more traditional business constituency and the more niche crypto community that rallied behind Yang. And where Yang had an undeniable buoyancy and charisma, Bloomberg possesses the leaden anti-charisma of a self-absorbed and domineering late-career CEO. “People were very quick to say Bloomberg is the next Yang, but he just doesn’t have the same techie-futurist vibe,” said Agrawal of Coin Center. “Bloomberg’s platform is very guarded and unspecific. It doesn’t celebrate the technologies; it just says there will be some regulation. Any overlap might just be from the fact that there are some more traditional finance types in the cryptocurrency world. But you can’t just buy the kind of meme energy that Yang had. Yang was a moonshot candidate and crypto is a moonshot thing.” If not Bloomberg, where does the crypto voter, if such a thing exists, go from here? As suggested by Gary Johnson’s tepid support, crypto investors are not ideologically predictable and do not necessarily fit the libertarian cliché. Nor are they all Democrats, even if the Democratic Party has traditionally been the most tech-forward of the two parties. Crypto Twitter is notoriously busy with Pepe the Frog avatars and memes, suggesting that a significant minority supports the retrograde policies of the current administration. Then there are what you might call dark-horse crypto candidates. There are, after all, a lot of ways to encourage the growth of crypto and blockchain, not all of them obvious. Four years ago, some made the case that Hillary Clinton, despite her public cryptophobia, was actually poised to become an ally and boon to the development of the underlying technology. In a July 2106 piece for TechCrunch, Brian Forde of the Digital Currency Initiative at MIT’s Media Lab argued that this was obvious when you took a closer look under the hood of Hillary Clinton’s policy goals for technology and innovation . These goals included general support for computer science and STEM education, increasing open data, and fighting for net neutrality. Then there was her low-key call for the development of “public service blockchain applications,” which got a lot less attention in the community than her rejection of crypto donations. “Secretary Clinton embraced the technology’s potential when looking at it in the context of her call to open more data,” wrote Forde, noting that crypto allies DJ Patil and Ed Felten both served as deputy CTOs in the same administration Clinton served as Secretary of State. “Having voices like theirs at the table is powerful and having a call for public service blockchain applications opens the dialogue between policymakers in a new Administration and the cryptocurrency community.” In a similar vein, Jon Buck of Beincrypto.com has more recently argued that the election of Bernie Sanders, a candidate more closely associated with universal health care and income inequality than tech issues, could be an unexpected boon to the growth of crypto and blockchain. Buck points to the senator’s plan to provide high-speed internet to every citizen as a “basic human right”, spreading the infrastructure key to wider participation in the sector. (This would also apply to Elizabeth Warren’s similar plank calling for heavy public investment into expanding broadband access.) “Regardless of the political leaning,” writes Buck, “universal access to high-speed Internet would be a massive boon for bitcoin. As a digital currency, Bitcoin requires access to the internet for simple trading and transactions. While government costs may be massive, such a plan would provide access to Bitcoin for the entire country. The virtuous adoption cycle of bitcoin would mean that, as access and adoption increase, prices would also increase. And, as prices respond to greater usage, more users would certainly move into the space.” There is another possible future for the Yang Gang, of course. They could reject all of the other candidates, and simply write “Andrew Yang” on the ballot-line marked “Other,” staying loyal to their candidate until he sends out word to gear up the machine for a second run in 2024 or 2028. Related Stories The Post-Trust Election: CoinDesk Hits the 2020 Campaign Trail How Elizabeth Warren’s Beef With Facebook Could Benefit Bitcoin || Canadians Get US Jail Time for Stealing 23 Bitcoin in Twitter Scam: Two Canadian nationals have been sentenced to two years in a U.S. jail for stealing bitcoin from an Oregon resident through a Twitter scam. Karanjit Singh Khatkar and Jagroop Singh Khatkar, both from Surrey, British Columbia, were sentenced on March 17 to 24 months in federal prison with three years supervised release for conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering involvingbitcoin(BTC). According to a U.S. Department of Justice Attorney’s Officepress releaseTuesday, a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation found the defendants sought to trick victims into thinking they were discussing customer service matters with representatives from Hong Kong-based crypto exchange HitBTC. Related:Bitcoin Sees 9% Gain as Turmoil Hits the Forex Markets In October 2017, the defendants used a Twitter account with the handle @HitBTCAssist to pose as HitBTC staff to manipulate one victim into handing over 23.2 BTC (worth $118,000 at today’sprices) from a HitBTC wallet to Karanjit Khatkar’s wallet on the Kraken exchange. The Khatkars also convinced the Oregon resident to hand over information that could be used to compromise the victim’s accounts including email as well as exchange account details. Within days of the theft, the Khatkars split the bitcoin proceeds and proceeded to spend the liquidated cryptocurrency on a lavish lifestyle involving luxury cars and casinos. On Dec. 16, 2019, the Khatkars pleaded guilty to the charges and were ordered to pay $142,349 in prepayment restitution during a change of plea hearing. A further $42,162 was awarded at sentencing, bringing the total figure to $184,511. • CME Bitcoin Options Volume Hits Record Low, While Bakkt Goes Weeks With No Trades • Controversial Group Behind Coronavirus Tracking App Has Crypto Ties • Canada’s Financial Crimes Watchdog Gets Ready for FATF Compliance || Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – Strengthens Over $1608.50, Weakens Under $1595.70: Gold prices are edging higher on Tuesday supported by hopes that major central banks will trim interest rates in an effort to combat the coronavirus and its impact on the global economy. Investors are no focused on a G7 conference call at 12:00 GMT where finance ministers and central bank governors will discuss measures to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. They will, however, stop short of coordinated rate cuts, two G7 officials said. At 12:51 GMT, April Comex gold is trading $1604.10, up $9.30 or +0.59%. Also helping to boost dollar-denominated gold is a weaker U.S. Dollar. It is being pressured by expectations of a cut of at least 25 basis points to the current 1.50%-1.75% target rate at the Federal Reserve’s March 17-18 meeting. Daily April Comex Gold Daily Technical Analysis The main trend is down according to the daily swing chart. A trade through $1564.00 will signal a resumption of the downtrend. This is followed by additional main bottoms at $1551.10 and $1542.80. The main trend will change to up on a move through $1691.70. The main range is $1458.50 to $1691.70. Its retracement zone at $1575.10 to $1547.50 is acting like support. Daily Technical Forecast Based on the early price action and the current price at $1604.10, the direction of the April Comex gold futures contract the rest of the session on Tuesday is likely to be determined by trader reaction to the steep downtrending Gann angle at $1595.70. Bullish Scenario A sustained move over $1585.70 will indicate the presence of buyers. The first target is an uptrending Gann angle at $1608.50. Overcoming $1608.50 will indicate the buying is getting stronger. This could trigger a surge into the 50% level at $1627.90. Sellers could come in on the first test of this level. Taking out $1627.90 could trigger a further rally into the Fibonacci level at $1642.90, followed by another downtrending Gann angle at $1643.70. Bearish Scenario A sustained move under $1608.50 will signal the presence of sellers. The first downside target is the main 50% level at $1575.10. If this fails to hold then look for the selling to possibly extend into the main Fibonacci level at $1547.60. This is followed by an uptrending Gann angle at $1533.50. Story continues This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Bitcoin Follows the Market, Losing the Battle for Digital Gold Gold Daily News: Tuesday, March 3 EUR/USD Price Forecast – Euro Bounces Around In Uncertainty Silver Price Forecast – Silver Markets Slam Into 200 Day EMA After Surprise Rate Cut Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural Gas Markets Rally Into Resistance Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Gap Higher Tuesday [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 7257.67, 7189.42, 6881.96, 6880.32, 7117.21, 7429.72, 7550.90, 7569.94, 7679.87, 7795.60
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2018-09-05] BTC Price: 6792.83, BTC RSI: 47.14 Gold Price: 1194.90, Gold RSI: 43.02 Oil Price: 68.72, Oil RSI: 51.11 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Revisiting Euro Currency Hedged ETFs: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. The C urrencyShares Euro Currency Trust ( FXE ) is lower by nearly 3% over the past month and some foreign currency market observers believe the euro has more near-term downside in store against the dollar. Investors looking to take advantage of that trend may want to consider currency-hedged exchange traded funds, including the X-trackers MSCI EMU Hedged Equity ETF ( DBEZ ) . DBEZ “seeks investment results that correspond generally to the performance, before fees and expenses, of the MSCI EMU IMI U.S. Dollar Hedged Index. DBEZ offers investors purer access to Eurozone equities while seeking to mitigate exposure to currency fluctuations between the U.S. dollar and the euro,” according to DWS . Some currency traders are forecasting more near-term weakness in the euro. “The immediate short-bias is vulnerable heading into these support targets with a breach above 1.1448 needed clear the way for a larger recovery. From a trading standpoint, look to reduce short-exposure / bring in protective stops here and be on the lookout for signs of price exhaustion (note we’re already marking divergence into these lows). Keep in mind we get the final read on July Eurozone CPI figures tomorrow,” according to DailyFX . What Drives DBEZ DBEZ holds more than 700 stocks and allocates about 60% of its combined weight to Germany and France, the two largest Eurozone economies. The Netherlands and Spain combine for almost 20%. Some investors are growing increasingly wary of European banks as ETFs tracking financials saw net outflows in Europe and the U.S. Goldman sachs research found mutual funds were on average holding fewer bank shares than benchmark indices and even raised short positions on the sector year-over-year. However, some market observers believe opportunities remain with European stocks. European stocks sport compelling value relative to major U.S. equity benchmark. European cyclical stocks are attractively against U.S. equivalents, which is a positive for DBEZ. Story continues DBEZ allocates about a third of its weight to financial services and industrial stocks. The consumer discretionary and technology sectors combine for 23% of the fund's weight. For more information on the currency hedging strategy, visit our currency-hedged ETFs category . POPULAR ARTICLES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM How to Best Use an HSA to Your Benefit Does the Money Management Industry Need Consolidation? Tesla Board to Meet Next Week About Going Private Bitcoin Suffers from ‘Week of Pain,’ Bounce Ahead? Investors Flocked to Healthcare ETFs in July READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 19/08/18: Bitcoin Cash Sells Off Bitcoin Cash slid by 8.5% on Saturday, partially reversing Friday’s 16.77% gain, to end the day at $553.9. A start of a day intraday high $610, which fell short of the first major resistance level at $633.2, was the only bullish move of the day, with Bitcoin Cash sliding through the first major support level at $543.3 to a late afternoon intraday low $533.9, before recovering to $550 levels. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash was down 1.63% to $544.8, with momentum from Saturday’s sell-off continuing into the early hours, Bitcoin Cash falling from a start of a day $544.2 high to a morning low $539.7 before recovering to $540 levels. For the day ahead a move through to $565 would support a run at the first major resistance level at $597.57 to bring $600 levels back into play, with Bitcoin Cash needing to hold on to $540 levels through the morning to support an afternoon recovery. Failure to move through to $560 levels could see Bitcoin Cash take a bigger hit later in the day, with any fall through to sub-$540 levels likely to bring the first major support level at $521.47 into play. The larger than expected sell-off on Saturday was further evidence of investor sensitivity to volatility, with the downward moves through the early morning on Saturday picking up speed, investors fearful of being caught up in a more material sell-off, leaving Bitcoin Cash in the hands of the crypto bears. {alt} Get Into Bitcoin Cash Trading Today Litecoin Back in the $50s Litecoin fell by 7.25% on Saturday, reversing most of Friday’s 11.25% gain, to end the day at $57.34. Tracking the broader market trend, Litecoin slid from an early morning intraday high $62.6 to a late afternoon intraday low $55.66, the moves through the day seeing Litecoin fall through the first major support level at $57.29, before recovering to $57 levels. The only good news from the day was Litecoin’s move back through the day’s first major support level by the day’s end, the sell-off reaffirming the extended bearish trend and continuing the trend of sharp pullbacks off the back of strong rallies. Story continues At the time of writing, Litecoin was up 0.37% to $57.6, the early moves seeing Litecoin bounce back from a start of a day morning low $56.51, with the day’s major support and resistance levels left untested, Litecoin’s early gains bucking the broader market trend. For the day ahead, a move through to $58.5 would support a run at $60 levels to bring the first major resistance level at $61.41 into play, though we can expect Litecoin to face plenty of resistance on the approach to $60 should broader market sentiment fail to improve through the day. Failure to move through to $58 levels could see Litecoin pullback through the morning low $56.51 to bring the day’s first major support level at $54.47 into play, with any reversal dependent on whether the broader market can recover from further losses in the early hours of this morning. While holding on to $57 levels through the morning will be key, Litecoin will unlikely be able to buck the trend through the entire day. {alt} Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency Instantly Ripple Holds on to $0.30 Ripple’s XRP slid by 11.2% on Saturday, partially reversing Friday’s 25.23% rally, to end the day at $0.32734. Pulling back from a start of a day intraday high $0.37267, Ripple’s XRP fell to a late afternoon intraday low $0.3125, calling on support at the first major support level at $0.3129 before recovering to $0.32 levels, Ripple’s XRP managing to avoid a continued sell-off through to the day’s end. At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was down 1.37% to $0.32131, with Ripple’s XRP pulling back from a start of a day $0.32794 high to a morning low $0.31781, before recovering to $0.32 levels. For the day ahead, a move through to $0.33 levels and $0.3375 would support a run at $0.35 levels to bring the first major resistance level at $0.3625 into play, though for Ripple’s XRP to be eyeing $0.36 levels, sentiment across the broader market will need to materially improve and a move through to $0.33 levels would need to happen through the morning. Failure to move through to $0.33 levels could see Ripple’s XRP take a bigger hit later in the day, with any pullback through the morning’s $0.31781 low bringing sub-$0.31 levels and the day’s first major support level at $0.3023 into play, though we would expect Ripple’s XRP to avoid sub-$0.31 levels following Saturday’s reversal. {alt} Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency Instantly This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Ripple vs. Stellar: Will There Be Only One Winner? Natural Gas Weekly Price Forecast – natural gas hangs top for the week S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – stock markets continue to show resiliency Renewed Trade Talks, Easing of Contagion Fears Soften Dollar’s Bullish Performance FBS Family Gathering in Cairo: Traders Party Highlights With Earnings Season Ending, Focus Will Shift to Geopolitical Events, Policy Changes || Nvidia to Profit in Q3 2018 Despite Crypto Mining Decline: nvidia While crypto mining is experiencing a slowdown due to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies yielding lower mining profits worldwide recently, tech giant Nvidia Corp. is still expected to generate healthy revenue in Q3 of 2018. The tech company is seeing strong sales in its staple market, gaming, with graphics processing units still flying off the shelves as well as chips for data centers doing very well this year. It’s difficult to say exactly how many graphics cards are being sold for gaming as opposed to mining, but recent data indicate that the cost of mining one bitcoin is actually greater than the market value in many parts of the world at the moment, with other areas seeing minor profit margins. Despite the market decline hitting miners where it hurts, Nvidia graphics unit sales are still high to cater for the international gaming community, and the prices have experienced a surge due to prior demand for cryptomining ventures. Nvidia’s other ‘side business’ is also taking a hit as Tesla has announced that they will no longer be using Nvidia chips in their self-driving cars, something which currently generates an estimated $50 million in revenue for Nvidia. However, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang insists that that sum is immaterial to Nvidia’s overall profitability – the company made $3.21 billion in Q1 2018 alone, with 9% or $289 million of that from cryptocurrency mining sales. Susquehanna Financial analyst Christopher Rolland weighed in to agree with Huang, saying : “While disappointing for Nvidia, we believe this represents less than $50 million of annual revenue and won’t be replaced until 2019.” Rolland, who has a has a neutral rating and a $250 price target on Nvidia, added that Nvidia data-center sales are expected to generate high revenue according to his Asia graphics processing units checks, along with Nvidia’s rise in the supercomputer field , with chips powering about 19% of the world’s top 500 supercomputers. Story continues Meanwhile Evercore analyst C.J. Muse, who has an outperform rating and a $275 price target on Nvidia, also felt that Nvidia’s core business model would easily carry the firm through any sales drops experienced in their cryptocurrency mining ventures, citing the rumored release of the next gen GTX11 or “Turing” GPU series as a product that will net the company strong profits overr the next two years. “Data Center/AI remains an area of strength, particularly when considering additional benefit of a new gaming cycle favoring Nvidia,” Muse said, adding: “We believe concerns around a likely falloff from cryptocurrency-driven Ethereum GPU mining strength are largely exaggerated, and Nvidia will likely power through any tough compares from Cryptocurrency-driven tailwinds.” Featured image from Shutterstock. The post Nvidia to Profit in Q3 2018 Despite Crypto Mining Decline appeared first on CCN . || BlackRock's Rieder: Fed may have to slow hikes, stop balance sheet moves: • BlackRock's Rick Rieder expects the Fed to slow down its rate hikes and possibly end its program to shrink its balance sheet next year, sooner than expected. • Rieder says there are a number of uncertainties that the economy and markets could respond to, including a rising dollar, the potential negative impact of trade wars and the drying up of liquidity as the Fed hikes rates. • Another uncertainty is what the impact will be of tax changes and stimulus that pull forward economic growth and corporate spending. The Fed is confident in the economy now, but by next year it may have to slow interest rate hikes and stop paring back its balance sheet, according to Rick Rieder, BlackRock's chief investment officer for fixed income. The Fed held rates steady this week and tweaked its language on the economy, upgrading its description of economic activity to "strong," a departure from its normal assessments since the financial crisis. Rieder said the Fed should raise interest rates in September and December, but then it will be important to see how trade tensions and other factors affect the economy. "I think 2019 is going to be very different, and ability of the Fed to keep moving at this pace, I think, could change very significantly," Riederd said in an interview. The Fed has been reducing the amount of securities it holds on its balance sheet by not replacing the Treasurys it holds as they mature. "I think they're going to slow down the reduction of the balance sheet sooner than people think, and they're going to slow down the pace of interest rates increases," he said, noting the rising dollar could also be a factor. Rieder also said he is concerned about the deceleration in growth of global liquidity and what it means for economies and markets. It could also become a challenge for central banks, which are in the process of "handing off" liquidity, ultimately resulting in more volatile markets. Global central banks flooded the world with cheap money after the financial crisis, providing unprecedented liquidity, and they are now winding down those programs. For its part, the Federal Reserve is moving rates back to a more normal level and trying to whittle away at its massive balance sheet, taking advantage of current economic strength, higher inflation and favorable market conditions. "We are draining so much liquidity so fast with the Fed reducing its balance sheet and the Treasury issuing supply," Rieder said. "You're draining liquidity out of the system. The Fed is doing it, and the Treasury is doing it. We're doing it faster than we've ever done it before." To fund the tax cuts and stimulus, the Treasury has said it expects to borrow $769 billion in the second half of the year, a projected 63 percent increase from 2017. According to BlackRock, liquidity peaked in dollar terms in March at about $26.5 trillion and is now at just over $26 trillion, a decline of $497 billion. Source: BlackRock At the same time, other central banks are stepping back slowly from their super-easy money policies. The European Central Bank plans to move away from asset purchases this year, and the Bank of Japan signaled a tweak to its target rate on the 10-year government bond. Rieder said he does not see the Fed keeping its current pace of once-a-quarter rate hiking next year. The Fed has forecast two more hikes this year and three for next year, but the market has priced in less than two for next year. Rieder said the Fed should be close to the neutral rate by the end of this year, and that would also suggest a slower pace of rate hikes next year. The neutral rate is basically just that: It neither speeds nor slows the economy. "I think it's trade. I think it's growth in China, and I think it's growth in emerging markets," he said. "You're pulling forward what you're doing years hence, so that's also unclear, what happens past that." The second quarter grew at a pace of 4.1 percent , the best in nearly four years, and growth is expected to be strong in the second half. The new tax law encourages companies to invest in capital expenditures. There is also the potential for global growth to slow down if trade conflicts heat up and trade is slowed down. "What does global growth look like? Particularly the impact it can have on things like commodities. Then when you lift the value of the dollar, and many of these [emerging economies] have tremendous funding needs, you create a much more significant risk for these countries," he said. More From CNBC • Goldman Sachs sees more price pain ahead for bitcoin • Bitcoin whale makes ‘enormous’ losing bet, so now other traders have to foot the bill • Blame Toys R Us closure for jobs report miss || ‘The Biggest Risk we Face Today is Regulation’: Senior Ripple Executive: The senior vice president of product atRipple, Asheesh Birla, has revealed that the biggest risk the company faces today is regulation. As a result, Ripple is putting together a large regulatory team charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the next wave of clients that the startup wins are not hindered by regulatory bottlenecks. “We are going around the world making sure that for the next 1,000 customers that we want to bring on… which we think we can do in the next two years … that regulation is not going to be an issue,”saidBirla during a panel session dubbed ‘Scaling and Digital Disruption in Fintech’ that was organized by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Scale School. One of the regulatory uncertainties that Ripple is currently grappling with is whether it should be classified as a security or not. While theU.S. Securities and Exchange Commissionhas clarified that Ethereum and Bitcoin are not securities, the same treatment has not been accorded XRP. However, the company has insisted that it is not a security and asreported by CCNlast month, Ripple Labs CEOBrad Garlinghousehas gone to great pains to emphasize the company’s view. “I think it’s really clear that XRP is not a security. XRP exists independent of Ripple and it would operate even if Ripple Labs failed. I don’t think that our ownership of XRP gives us control. Saudi Arabia owns a lot of oil that doesn’t give them control of oil,” Garlinghouse was quoted as saying late last month. During the ‘Scaling and Digital Disruption in Fintech’ panel session, Birla pointed out that the reason most countries across the globe were taking a conservative approach with regards to cryptocurrencies was that the sector is relatively new. And while he acknowledged that cryptocurrencies held a transformative potential on the world, Birla termed what Ripple was doing as more of ‘reshuffling the world order a little bit’ rather than disrupting banks. Per Birla, Ripple’s technology will assist smaller financial institutions to better compete with the bigger ones. In the same Wharton Scale School event, Birla also revealed that due to the fact thatfintechstartups such as Ripple were not offering as competitive a compensation package as the mainstream Silicon Valley tech firms, it was difficult to attract and retain talent. However, the situation is better now compared to five years ago when blockchain and cryptocurrencies had not gained as much attention as is currently the case. Consequently, the caliber of talent that Ripple is now able to hire is better than was previously the case. Ripple is also in a better position of poaching from establishedSilicon Valleytech giants. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post‘The Biggest Risk we Face Today is Regulation’: Senior Ripple Executiveappeared first onCCN. || Bitcoin Price Intraday Analysis: BTCUSD Undergoes Bullish Correction: The bitcoin price in the past 24 hours has undergone a much-needed bullish correction, rising about $500 since establishing an intraday low around $6,009. In ourprevious BTC/USD analysis, we were waiting for a bounce back from 6009-fiat to apply our intrarange strategy. As it did, our long position towards 6192-fiat made us a nominal profit. A near-term breakout followed later, upon which we placed another long position towards 6290-fiat and made another nominal return. Unfortunately, due to human constraints, we were unable to watch the rally towards 6494-fiat. Today, we established 6500-ish area as a strong resistance level against the minor upside. The early Asian trading hour saw traders exiting their position around this area, while during the rest of the European trading session, the BTC/USD pair was consolidating sideways within a nominally wide range. Let’s see how the latest price action has rattled our technical indicators. As discussed in our previous analysis, we had considered bitcoin to break above the bear trajectory (indicated in light blue) to bring medium-term upside targets in sight. And the digital currency eventually did, finally invalidating the curve and establish fresh intraday highs for our consideration. Nevertheless, we will still watch the trajectory in the event of an extended bearish momentum. We are still forming bearish pennants. At the same time, the BTC/USD is now slightly above its 50H and 100H moving averages, while still far enough to test its 200H one. The RSI and Stochastic indicators have jumped from the oversold region, and are now treading sideways in a neutral area. This makes the near-term bias a little focused towards bulls. The latest price action has brought us inside a new range, defined by 6192-fiat as our interim support and 6454-fiat as our interim resistance, and 6500-fiat as our psychological one. It is a pretty wide range to apply put our intrarange strategy in place. With that said, we would be waiting for the price to bounce back from 6192-fiat to enable our long position towards 6500-fiat. Similarly, a pullback from 6454-6500 area will enable us to put a short position towards 6192-fiat. If thebitcoin priceinvalidates either of the range levels, then we will switch to our breakout strategy for the day. Thus, a break below 6192-fiat will clear our short position towards 6009-fiat, our previous interim support level. Placing a stop loss three-pips above the entry position would help us reduce the overall risk of our trade. Conversely, a break above 6454-fiat will allow us to put a long position towards 6550-fiat, our primary upside target. Our position can, of course, be beaten down at 6500-fiat. This is purely instinctive at this point in time. Anyway, we will keep our stops a 3-pips below the entry position should the bias reverses. Featured Image from Shutterstock The postBitcoin Price Intraday Analysis: BTCUSD Undergoes Bullish Correctionappeared first onCCN. || ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ Author Is Bullish on Bitcoin, Says USD Is a Scam: rich dad bitcoin Robert Kiyosaki, the author of the famous financial self-help book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, has described the US dollar as a scam, declaring that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are “currencies of the people” that will outlive fiat currency. ‘The Dollar is Toast’ Speaking with Kim Hughes on the Sane Crypto Podcast in which he excoriated the dollar, Kiyosaki also predicted an imminent stock market crash. In his words: “The US Dollar is a scam…I think the dollar is toast because gold and silver and cybercurrency are going to take it out…The US Dollar is gone… In the year 2000 there was one currency, the US Dollar. It was called the reserve currency of the world…and then came bitcoin or cybercurrency.” Discussing his new book, Fake: Fake Money, Fake Teachers, Fake Assets, Kiyosaki revealed that he wrote about how gold, bitcoin , and other cryptocurrencies are a better hedge against an impending collapse of the financial market. He said: “In my new book… I talk about the three types of money today: God’s money, which is gold and silver, government’s money which is fiat currency, which is done by government decree which is the dollar… Then there’s the people’s money, which is cybercurrency on the blockchain technology. Gold is a hedge and I am expecting a collapse on the system…[and] which is why you are into cybercurrencies now… bitcoin and ethereum.” Going further, he expressed a series of typically controversial financial opinions including a description of fiat currency s avers as “losers” and calling for a return of the gold standard to the dollar following its 1971 removal by President Richard Nixon. Doomsday Preacher? Kiyosaki is no stranger to such opinions, having previously stated in an interview that another crash that will be “the biggest of all” is on its way following the crashes of 2000 and 2008. He is not the only prominent public figure to hold similar opinions about fiat currency in comparison to bitcoin and cryptos. CCN reported in 2017 that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak asserted that bitcoin is superior to USD, which he referred to as “kind of phony.” Story continues Bill Gates and former Goldman Sachs manager Nomi Prins have also predicted a financial market crash, though they have not publicly expressed a preference for bitcoin or cryptos. Gates in particular has been bearish on bitcoin in recent interviews. In April, when asked if the U.S. will have another financial crisis like that of 2008, Gates responded in the affirmative, describing it as a “certainty” despite being difficult to time. Featured Image from Facebook/Robert Kiyosaki The post ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ Author Is Bullish on Bitcoin, Says USD Is a Scam appeared first on CCN . || The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Nvidia, Intel, Micron, Advanced Micro Devices and Hewlett Packard: For Immediate Release Chicago, IL – August 10, 2018 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include Nvidia Corporation NVDA, Intel INTC, Micron MU, Advanced Micro Devices AMD and Hewlett Packard HPE. Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free. Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog: Can Bitcoin Overcome Shock From SEC's Delayed ETF Decision? On Aug 8, bitcoin price fell sharply after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decided to delay a decision on the proposed VanEck Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to Sep 30. This would have been the first financial product on bitcoin trading. Bitcoin prices fell to $6,346.7 as of 6.45 a.m. EST on Aug 9. As a result cryptocurrency markets too fell sharply. On Wednesday, bitcoin price hit a three-week low as the last time it traded below $6,400 was on Jul 16. Understandably, the bitcoin market continues to be volatile, with prices further declining on Aug 8. Bitcoin price has been trending down since the beginning of this year after hitting a record high in December 2017. That said, it somewhat recovered in June after falling below $6,000. This saw a number of graphics chips manufacturing companies gaining on the bitcoin rally. However, now that the decision has been delayed, it has made digital currency traders once again jittery. SEC Delays Bitcoin ETF Approval The SEC’s decision to postpone the decision made digital currency traders jittery, leading to falls in bitcoin prices. Bitcoin, which is the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has had a rough year so far after reaching an all-time high of nearly $20,000 in December 2017. Hopes were high about a probable bitcoin ETF debut this year since December 2017, when Cboe Global Markets launched three bitcoin futures contracts on the Cboe Futures Exchange. That said, bitcoin price started soaring once again in June on renewed hopes that the SEC would finally be allowing a bitcoin ETF. Time for GPU Makers to Shift Focus? One of the biggest gainers from the bitcoin gold rush has been the graphic processing unit (GPU) makers. Bitcoin miners have been snapping up GPUs to create server firms, as their processing power has made them ideal for cryptocurrency mining rigs. Until then, GPUs were more focused on manufacturing high-end gaming cards. Demand for graphic soared with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies reaching new highs at the end of 2017. This saw both sales and prices of GPUs soaring. GPU makers such as Nvidia Corporation, Intel, Micron, Advanced Micro Devices and Hewlett Packard made substantial gains during this period. Micron Technology has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can seethe complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. However, with bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices falling this year, demand for GPUs has declined too, as many are deciding to change their stance. So much so, that NVIDIA has even asked retailers of its hardware to prioritize sales to gamers compared to cryptocurrency miners. Now that the SEC has postponed its decision on the bitcoin ETF and prices are dipping, digital currency traders are once again jittery. However, it is still too early to assess if this decline will further affect the demand and prices of GPUs. Many analysts believe that digital currency traders are overreacting to SEC’s postponement of the decision on the VanEck Bitcoin ETF. The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All Last year, it generated $8 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $47 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early. See Zacks' 3 Best Stocks to Play This Trend >> Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1 Stock of the Day pick for free. About Zacks Equity Research Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term. Continuous coverage is provided for a universe of 1,150 publicly traded stocks. Our analysts are organized by industry which gives them keen insights to developments that affect company profits and stock performance. Recommendations and target prices are six-month time horizons. Strong Stocks that Should Be in the News Many are little publicized and fly under the Wall Street radar. They're virtually unknown to the general public. Yet today's 220 Zacks Rank #1 "Strong Buys" were generated by the stock-picking system that has nearly tripled the market from 1988 through 2015. Its average gain has been a stellar +26% per year. See these high-potential stocks free >>. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zacksresearch Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Zacks-Investment-Research/57553657748?ref=ts Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 support@zacks.com https://www.zacks.com/ Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss.This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportHewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE) : Free Stock Analysis ReportAdvanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) : Free Stock Analysis ReportIntel Corporation (INTC) : Free Stock Analysis ReportNVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis ReportMicron Technology, Inc. (MU) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || What to Expect When Netflix Reports Earnings: Netflix(NASDAQ: NFLX)has been on fire so far this year, and investors have high hopes that the company can continue its breakout performance. Shares have more than doubled since the beginning of the year, while the broader market, as represented by theS&P 500, has returned a paltry 2%. Netflix has been a beneficiary of a number ofanalyst upgrades and price target increasesin recent weeks, propelling the stock to lofty heights. Investors will be keeping a close eye on the numbers when the company reports the financial results for the 2018 second quarter on Monday, July 16 after the market closes. Let's review a few metrics that will be of interest to investors going into the company's earnings report. Image source: Netflix. Over the last several years, Netflix has been judged primarily on its subscriber growth -- and this quarter should be no different. During thefirst quarter of 2018, the company delivered surprisingly strong customer additions in its domestic market, which many believed was near saturation. Netflix added 1.96 million new viewers in the U.S., up 38% year over year, and blasting past the 1.45 million the company forecast. International viewers grew at an even faster pace, with 5.46 million additions, up 55% compared to the prior-year quarter, and also significantly higher than the 4.9 million Netflix expected. That brought the company's total net additions to a first-quarter record of 7.41 million, up 50% year over year, and bringing its total subscriber base to 125 million. So what caused the massive and unexpected subscriber gains? In its quarterly shareholder letter, Netflix said, "The variance relative to our guidance was driven by continued strong acquisition trends across the globe which we attribute to the growing breadth of our content and the worldwide adoption of internet entertainment." For its second quarter, Netflix management anticipates 6.2 million customer additions, up 19% from the prior year quarter. Breaking that down, the company expects to add 5 million new international subscribers and 1.2 million in the U.S., which would represent year-over-year growth of 21% and 12%, respectively. While subscriber growth is the most closely followed metric, there are others. On the revenue front, Netflix is anticipating revenue of $3.934 billion, an increase of 41.2% year over year. The company is forecasting operating income of $469 million, more than three times the $128 million produced in the same period last year. The company has even more ambitious goals for net income, which it expects will come in at $358 million, producing earnings per share of $0.79, five times the level achieved in the prior-year quarter. Netflix management has repeatedly said that it believes operating margins represent the best method for assessing the company's performance. For the second quarter, Netflix expects operating margins of 11.9%, more than double the 4.6% it achieved in the year-ago quarter, though slightly lower sequentially from the 12.1% achieved in the first quarter of this year. Image source: Netflix. Many will also be watching Netflix's guidance for the coming quarter for signs that the company's impressive growth can continue. Analysts' consensus estimates for the September quarter are for revenue of $4.14 billion, which would represent year-over-year growth of 38.6%, only slightly lower than Netflix's guidance for growth in the current quarter. Historically speaking, Netflix has made a habit of being conservative with its guidance, allowing it to exceed its own forecasts. Expect this to continue as the company has only missed its own projections on a handful of occasions in recent years. It's important to note that Netflix already sported a sky-high valuation -- and that was before its recent sprint. Itsprice-to-earnings rationow clocks in at a whopping 265 times trailing earnings, while its forward multiple is 137 times, both up significantly from just three months ago. With the recent market uncertainty regarding trade tensions with China, even if Netflix exceeds its ambitious forecast, that may not be enough to support its frothy valuation. Investors should be aware that the potential for significant volatility exists. In light of its recent run up, Netflix may have to put up truly stunning numbers to keep its stock price growing. That said, I believe thelong-term investing thesisremains intact, regardless of how the stock price reacts after the earnings release. More From The Motley Fool • 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices • 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 • 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Danny Venaowns shares of Netflix. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Netflix. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Hack Suspect To Pay Bail In Cryptocurrency: A suspect facing hacking allegations has been ordered by a US federal judge to pay a bail equivalent to $750,000 in cryptocurrencies. The suspect is facing charges for hacking Electronic Arts ( NASDAQ:EA ), a leading video game company. He is said to have gotten away with in-game currency that was had been collected from buying and selling in-game items. Part of the coins also came from the sale of access to online games through black-market websites. Cryptocurrency in the justice system Aspects of blockchain technology can be traced in almost all industry. This is likely to be the first case in which cryopocurrencies are being used to pay bail in an American court. Martin Marsich, the suspect, is expected to confirm payment of bail today, August 20. The choice of cryptocurrencies may have been the perfect one going by the circumstances at the time. The suspect, a resident of Italy, was arrested at the San Francisco International Airport. Marsich didn’t have enough money in fiat. Forcing him to pay for bail in cryptocurrencies will make him attend court sessions. Will this be a benchmark for other such cases? This case may be an isolated one and may not be carried forward in other court cases. One factor that makes Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) and other crytpocurrencies hard to be used in paying bail is their volatile nature. Bail requirements are quite harsh. A bail may be set today and cryptocurrency prices crushed or vaulted higher the following day. In such cases, lawyers would request for a revision of the bail amount, something that rarely happens in conventional court cases. However, Assistant District Attorney Abraham, said this may lead to other similar cases. According to him, cryptocurrencies will likely be used in other cases to pay bail because judges accept other assets like cars and real estate. After his arrest, the accused first appeared before a San Francisco federal court on August 9. The accused was on his way to Serbia. In his ruling Magistrate Judge Corley said the accused could be released to a halfway house after paying $750,000 bail. The post Hack Suspect To Pay Bail In Cryptocurrency appeared first on Market Exclusive . [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] @whats_a_bitcoin || @satoshi_BTC || good spot to give it a shot just make sure you got ur stops in order || 2018-08-15 07:00:02 UTC BTC: $6331.31 BCH: $513.43 ETH: $281.14 ZEC: $135.76 LTC: $55.22 ETC: $11.98 XRP: $0.2835 || @Bitcoin_Post || @andrecarstens9 This crypto winter trade USDT/ZAR and hedge against the Rand. Trade 15 ZAR, USDT, BTC, ETH, XRP, LTC and BCH pairs along with wallet support for over 40 coins & altcoins. Join https://coindirect.com/ .https://goo.gl/5sFz3m  || @btc_update || @eztechwin || @BTC_INFOCHAIN || 【仮想通貨】ビットコインBTC価格は742万円！2019年末2010年以降の値動きから見えてきた法則と予想最新情報 http://funews.tokyo/money/76251 
Trend: no change || Prices: 6529.17, 6467.07, 6225.98, 6300.86, 6329.70, 6321.20, 6351.80, 6517.31, 6512.71, 6543.20
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2019-09-27] BTC Price: 8251.85, BTC RSI: 22.97 Gold Price: 1499.10, Gold RSI: 48.09 Oil Price: 55.91, Oil RSI: 46.98 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] 3 ETFs to Check Out Ahead of a Volatile October: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com. For the reluctant equities investor, Global investment firm Goldman Sachs says it’s not safe to dive headfirst out of safe haven assets and back into stocks just yet. Ever since 1928, October has proven to be 28% higher in terms of volatility. It’s something to consider, especially for the queasy investor who can’t stomach the volatile market moves. “We believe high October volatility is more than just a coincidence,” John Marshall, equity derivatives strategist at Goldman,saidin a note Friday. “We believe it is a critical period for many investors and companies that manage performance to calendar year-end.” Per a CNBCreport, “ Cboe Volatility Index, a measure of the 30-day implied volatility of U.S. stocks also known as the VIX or “fear gauge,” has been tame this month as trade tensions between the U.S. and China eased and Treasury yields bounced back from their historic lows.” One reason for October’s volatile nature is the reporting of third-quarter earnings. A volley of hits or misses in earnings can send the markets fluxing. “Such pressures boost volumes and volatility as investors observe earnings reports, analyst days and management gives guidance for the following year,” Marshall said. “Not only are earnings day moves rising relative to average daily moves, but October tends to be the quarter with the largest absolute earnings day moves for U.S. stocks,” Marshall added. How can exchange-traded fund (ETF) investors play the volatility? There are certain funds to take refuge in if the markets get wild. • Utilities Select Sector SPDR (XLU) : seeks to provide investment results that, before expenses, correspond generally to the price and yield performance of publicly traded equity securities of companies in the Utilities Select Sector Index. The index includes securities of companies from the following industries: electric utilities; water utilities; multi-utilities; independent power and renewable electricity producers; and gas utilities. • iShares Dow Jones US Real Estate Index Fund (IYR) : seeks to track the investment results of the Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index. The underlying fund measures the performance of the real estate sector of the U.S. equity market and may include large-, mid- or small-capitalization companies. • iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT): seeks to track the investment results of the ICE U.S. Treasury 20+ Year Bond Index (the “underlying index”). The underlying index measures the performance of public obligations of the U.S. Treasury that have a remaining maturity greater than or equal to twenty years. For more market trends, visitETF Trends. POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM • SPY ETF Quote • VOO ETF Quote • QQQ ETF Quote • VTI ETF Quote • JNUG ETF Quote • Top 34 Gold ETFs • Top 34 Oil ETFs • Top 57 Financials ETFs • Why Impeachment News Might Not Hurt Markets • U.S. Markets Close in Red On Impeachment Inquiry • Health Concerns Over Vaping Escalate As Walmart Pulls E-Cigarettes From Shelves • Total Return Alternatives: Balancing Portfolio Risks When Even Junk Yields Less than 5% • Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Ruling Expected Before Mid-October READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Weekly Bitcoin Price Indicator Shows ‘Bear Cross’ in First Since February: View Bitcoin’s weekly moving average convergence divergence histogram has turned bearish for the first time in seven months. Even so, sellers need to observe caution as that indicator had trapped bears on the wrong side of the market during the 2015-2017 bull run. A bull revival, however, would be confirmed if and when prices find sustained acceptance, preferably a weekly close (Sunday, UTC), above $12,000. Short duration charts continue to call a move lower to $9,500. The bearish case would be negated if prices invalidate the lower highs setup seen on the daily chart with a move above $10,956 (Aug 20 high on Bitstamp). A widely-tracked trend-following bitcoin (BTC) price indicator is flashing a sell signal for the first time since February. The weekly moving average convergence divergence (MACD) histogram , which is used to identify trend reversals and trend strength, has crossed below zero and is currently printing a value of -25.13. That is the first negative value since the first week of February. Back then, BTC was trading at $3,700. As of now, the leading cryptocurrency by market value is changing hands at $10,340 on Bitstamp, representing 2 percent gains on a 24-hour basis. Related: The Faketoshi Circus: Even Bitcoin Can’t Escape the Politics of Money The histogram crossing below zero is considered a sign of the beginning of a new downtrend, while a move above zero is taken as confirmation of a bearish-to-bullish trend change. MACD’s bearish crossover Histogram’s latest drop below the zero lines indicates the rally from lows near $3,700 seen in the first week of February topped out at $13,880 in June and the bears have regained control. Many observers consider MACD histogram as a lagging indicator. After all, it is a spread between two moving averages (MAs), which are based on past data. Related: Burning Man & Crypto: Common Grounds Also, MACD’s bearish crossovers marked an end of corrective pullbacks during the 2015-2017 bull market, as tweeted earlier today by popular analyst Murad Mahmudov . Story continues MACD a contrary indicator Bitcoin bottomed out in January 2015 near $150 and rose to a record high of $20,000 in December 2017. Throughout the bull run, BTC charted bullish higher lows with histogram’s dip below zero (bearish crossover). Put simply, MACD’s bearish turn marked an end of corrective pullbacks and what followed was rise to fresh highs. For instance, BTC’s pullback from the November 2015 high of $502 ended near $360 with the weekly MACD falling below zero in February 2016. The cryptocurrency then picked up a strong bid in April and rose to highs near $800 by mid-June 2016. On similar lines, BTC charted a higher low at $592 with the MACD’s bearish turn in the first week of August 2016. Further, the negative MACD bar seen in March 2017 turned out to be a bear trap. So, the latest bearish crossover on the MACD is a strong reason for sellers to observe caution – more so, as BTC is in a long-run bull market, as stated by Mahmudov. That said, the outlook would turn bullish if and when BTC prints a weekly close (Sunday, UTC) above $12,000. Weekly chart BTC fell 10.49% in the second week of this month, strengthening the case for a deeper pullback put forward by the repeated failure to close above $12,000 seen in the preceding weeks. Essentially, the rally from lows near $4,050 seen in April has stalled near $12,000 and a weekly close above that level is needed to confirm bullish revival. Daily and 4-hour charts Bitcoin has consistently found takers below $10,000 over the last eight weeks (above left). However, recovery rallies from sub-$10,000 levels have been shallow, as represented by the falling trendline. That indicates a weakening of bullish momentum. The cryptocurrency’s inability to produce a stronger bounce from the 100-day moving average (MA) support line is also a cause of worry for the bulls. Further, the rising wedge breakdown, a bearish reversal pattern, witnessed on the 4-hour chart (above right) last week is still valid. All-in-all, the cryptocurrency remains in the hunt for a drop to the recent low of $9,467. The bearish case would weaken if prices rise above $10,956 (Aug. 20 high), invalidating the lower highs pattern on the daily chart. Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing. Bitcoin image via Shutterstock; charts by Trading View Related Stories Bitcoin Price Looks Bearish Despite Bounce to $10.2K Litecoin’s Mining Power Has Fallen 28% Since Its Halving || CipherTrace Scout App Takes Crypto Investigations Mobile: Blockchain forensics firm CipherTrace has developed a mobile tool for flagging bitcoin and ethereum tokens with a criminal past. Announced today, CipherTrace Scout grants street-level investigators more freedom to identify, track and document illicit crypto transactions from the field, company representatives and law enforcement experts said. The software builds on a suite of investigatory tools investigators already use. An app-based interface “traces” addresses through the blockchain to identify what coins may have been used by the crypto underworld, in dark market purchases or in ransomware extortion attacks. Related: CipherTrace Enters Race to Solve Crypto’s FATF Compliance Headache Users input an address and CipherTrace Scout generates an instant report. It flags potentially criminal addresses “with a high degree of certainty,” according to Julio Barragan, a financial crime and compliance analyst at CipherTrace . “You can imagine some beat cop in a high risk area, literally finding something that appears to be tainted,” Barragan said. “He can share a case with an analyst at headquarters and that analyst could do the tracing very quickly to determine where the source of the funds were.” Casey Bohn, a high-tech crime specialist and educator for the National White Collar Crime Center who trains agents to use CipherTrace, said that the new technology will be of immediate use in the field. “I think a scenario like this [CipherTrace Scout], where I can put an address in and see: ‘hey, this [address] has been involved in some sort of nefarious activity,’ I think that can be huge,” Bohn, who teaches law enforcement officials how to use tracking services, said. “You can almost rule in and rule out things at that point.” New Spin on an Old Service Related: New IRS Warning Letters Target Crypto Investors Who Misreported Trades Federal agencies, police investigators and auditors already use cryptocurrency tracking software for finding crooks. Story continues The Internal Revenue Service contracted crypto transaction tracer Chainalysis from 2015 through at least 2017. Then, America’s tax service called the software “necessary to identify and obtain evidence on individuals using bitcoin” for criminal dealings. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents cross-reference ransomware attacks against an internal database called the Internet Crime Complaint Center, which maintains a list of every such instance. They also use a blockchain-based tool to process victim addresses. Federal agents want to move their tracing ever deeper. In a pre-solicitation document at the end of last year, the Department of Homeland Security mulled the feasibility of tracing privacy tokens, which confound easy research with complex security. Technologies such as CipherTrace and Chainalysis now pervade law enforcement agencies across the country, according to Bohn, the tech crimes expert. He says that Chainalysis is something of a federal standard. But CipherTrace Scout builds on what Bohn called a law enforcement favorite: visualization. “We can visualize the transactions [using the software]. I can see ‘from A to B” and then I can start pivoting from there in a visual manner, which is often times easier for someone to understand.” “I like the visualization, the students like the visualization,” he noted. Adapting to Trends CipherTrace Scout’s rollout comes alongside a spike in street-level cryptocurrency use. Bohn said law enforcement partners reported a surge in low-level uses cases: prostitution, drug sales, child pornography trades. “We have found that your drug dealer on the street has gotten savvy. They’ve gotten a little more savvy and they have started to develop these trades online, using other cryptocurrencies.” Barragan, the CipherTrace analyst, credits the proliferation of Bitcoin ATMs and other crypto-capable kiosks . “There are approximately 900 Coinstar machines embedded in Safeways across the U.S. that spit out crypto,” he said. “It’s becoming very very easy anyone to acquire crypto, and it’s starting to be used for street crimes. The Scout flags nefarious addresses. But it also ignores every-day users, a feature Bohn calls critical. “While there is criminal activity that occurs with these technologies, there’s a lot of normal, regular people who are taking part in this technology as well.” Hacker image via Shutterstock Related Stories Exit Scams Swindled $3.1 Billion From Crypto Investors in 2019: Report IRS Warnings to Bitcoin Traders Offer Clues to Coming Tax Guidance || BitMEX hit by UK’s ad regulator for ‘misleading’ bitcoin graph in a newspaper: Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX has been hit by the U.K. Advertising Standards Authority, the country’s independent ad regulator, for providing a “misleading” bitcoin price graph on the front page of a national newspaper. The authority announced Wednesday that BitMEX advertised in The Times newspaper in January of this year, showing a graph of bitcoin price between Jan. 2009 and Jan. 2019, but did not provide clear explanatory information and breached an ad code. The authority received four complaints, who believed that the ad "exaggerated returns" and "failed to illustrate risks", and challenged whether it was "misleading." BitMEX, from its side, argued that the purpose of the graph was not intended to advertise either bitcoin or any of its products. However, the authority ruled that the ad was "a clear promotional statement of Bitcoin's merits and did very little to warn consumers of any risks." It added: “For those reasons we considered that the ad had misleadingly exaggerated the return on investment, failed to illustrate the risk of the investment and therefore concluded it was in breach of the Code [CAP Code, the rule book for non-broadcast advertisements].” BitMEX has, therefore, been ordered to ensure its ads are readily understood by the target audience and that risks of investments are “sufficiently clearly signposted.” Back in October, Crypto Bank Global also faced a similar ruling by the authority. || Former PayPal executive joins crypto lending startup Cred as CFO: Cryptocurrency lending and borrowing startup Cred has hired former PayPal executive as its chief financial officer (CFO), according to an announcement Monday. The executive, Joe Podulka, worked as head of finance for PayPal Europe and PayPal New Ventures during 2010-2014, according to his LinkedIn profile . Podulka also had a stint at eBay in his 20+ years of experience. “Cred is solving concrete problems for individuals, companies, and governments,” said Podulka, adding that it is also “insured, licensed, and compliant.” The startup has also hired Dan Wheeler, a former partner at the international law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP, as its general counsel. Founded by former PayPal veterans - Dan Schatt and Lu Hua, Cred offers two products “Borrow” and “Earn.” The former allows users to borrow fiat currencies such as U.S. dollars and euros with cryptocurrencies as collateral, while the latter offers interest-earning opportunities on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and XRP, as well as on fiat currencies. Backed by notable investors including Binance Labs and Arrington XRP Capital, Cred claims to have raised over $300 million of lending capital. Earlier this year, crypto exchange Binance also partnered with Cred to offer lending and borrowing services across its ecosystem. || Natural Gas Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Warm Pattern to Drive Down Heating Demand: Natural gas futures closed lower last week, producing a technical closing price reversal top in the process while signaling the start of the long awaited correction. If confirmed the market could trade lower for the next two to three weeks. The selling pressure was fueled by a larger-than-expected government storage report and a warm pattern into October that could curb heating demand. Last week, November natural gas futures settled at $2.555, down $0.098 or -3.69%. Bespoke Weather Services said the losses were attributed to “weakening cash prices and a “very bearish” EIA storage report. Natural Gas Intelligence said, “Analysts at EBW Analytics Group also pointed to the potential for the widespread above-normal temperatures in the forecast to start having impact on demand as the calendar flips to October.” “Over the next three weeks…as warmer-than-normal weather extends further into October, air conditioning demand will largely disappear and early-season space heating demand will remain depressed,” the EBW analysts said. “As this occurs, injections could reach the mid-90s to 100 Bcf level, eliminating the storage deficit versus the five-year average almost entirely by mid-October and limiting the potential for futures to rebound.” Weekly U.S. Energy Information Administration Report On Thursday, the EIA reported an 84 Bcf injection into U.S. natural gas storage for the week-ended September 13. This was higher than the consensus estimate of 75 Bcf. Reuters analysts predicted a 78 Bcf consensus, with predictions ranging from 71 Bcf up to 85 Bcf. The Intercontinental Exchange EIA Financial Weekly Index futures contract settled at 86 Bcf on Tuesday. Natural Gas Intelligence’s model forecast a 79 Bcf build. Last year, the EIA recorded an 84 Bcf build for the period, and the five-year average is an injection of 82 Bcf. Stocks were 393 Bcf higher than last year at this time and 75 Bcf below the five-year average of 3,178 Bcf, according to the EIA data. Story continues Short-Term Weather Outlook According to NatGasWeather for September 23-29, “A messy pattern this week as numerous weather systems impact the US with showers and cooling. One system will track across the Midwest and New England the next couple days, while a more prominent cool shot will arrive mid-week across the Northwest to the Northern Plains. A warm tropical system will bring showers to the Southwest, cooling Las Vegas and Phoenix. Texas, South and Southeast will continue to be very warm to hot with highs of upper 80s to lower 90s for regionally strong demand. Overall, lighter demand this week versus last week and moderate to low mid-week before increasing next weekend.” Weekly November Natural Gas Weekly Forecast The main trend is up according to the technical swing chart, but last week’s chart pattern indicates that momentum may be getting ready to shift to the downside. A trade through $2.532 will confirm the potentially bearish chart pattern. A move through $2.745 will negate the closing price reversal top and signal a resumption of the uptrend. The main range is $3.035 to $2.135. Its 50% to 61.8% retracement zone at $2.585 to $2.691 is resistance. This zone essentially stopped the rally last week. The close under $2.585 is another sign of weakness. The short-term range is $2.135 to $2.745. If sellers can take out $2.532 this week with conviction then look for a two to three week break with $2.440 to $2.368 the next likely downside target. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Price of Gold Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Light Report Week Shifts Focus to U.S. Dollar USD/JPY Fundamental Weekly Forecast – BOJ Gov Kuroda Could Hint at October Rate Cut U.S Mortgage Rates Rally Supported by Housing Sector Data BOJ Hints at Rate Cut, SNB Ready to Intervene, BOE Warns About Brexit Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 22/09/19 Private Sector PMIs, Brexit and Trade in Focus || Bitcoin is surging, bringing altcoins along for the ride: Good news for day traders. After a bearish week,Bitcoinis seeing new green pastures with a remarkable recovery after breaking below the $10,100 per coin mark for a brief time. The bounce-back is significant for several reasons. Had this zone been broken to confirm the bearish trend, the closest support was close to $9,000, according to several technical analysts. Throughout the course of the day, Bitcoin had four big green candles (those bars on trading charts that indicate the high, low, open, and closing prices of the asset). First, the price went from $10,100 to almost $10,300 per BTC in just two hours. Then, it corrected to $10,150, gaining momentum for a new bullish impulse that took it above $10,250 per bitcoin. And the altcoin market replicated this bullish behavior. According to CoinMarketCap, about 90 percent of the top 100 alts went bullish during the last 24 hours, though it’s difficult to determine the stability of this trend over a longer period. Among the top 10 coins by market cap, ETC and XRP stand out with the most impressive growth rates. While ETH has gone up by almost 10 percent, breaking the $200 barrier to settle near $208 per coin, XRP just had its biggest bullish candle in months—increasing by 12.4 percentin the last 24 hours to reach $0.029. The outlook is more optimistic for those who trade BTC fast. However, slow traders with overnight positions may be approaching a decisive moment in their trends. The $10,100 zone has been a support that the bears have not been able to break, and the charts show a possible closing of a descending triangle that—if confirmed—could result in a nice bullish move for BTC in the next few days. || Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 20/09/19: Bitcoin Cash – ABC – Avoids sub-$300 Bitcoin Cash ABC gained 0.45% on Thursday. Following on from a 2.35% gain from Wednesday, Bitcoin Cash ABC ended the day at $323.52. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC rise to an early morning intraday high $323.45 before succumbing to market forces. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $331.51, Bitcoin Cash ABC slid to an early morning intraday low $305. The reversal saw Bitcoin Cash ABC fall through the first major support level at $317.14 and second major support level at $310.20. Finding support through the late morning, Bitcoin Cash ABC moved back through the second major support level. Through the 2 nd half of the day, Bitcoin Cash ABC found support from the broader market. Bitcoin Cash ABC broke back through the support levels and into the green in the final hour. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was up by 0.28% to $324.41. Bitcoin Cash ABC rose from an early morning low $324.08 to a high $324.41. Bitcoin Cash ABC left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, a hold onto $320 levels through the morning would support a run at the first major resistance level at $329.65. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin Cash ABC to move back through to $330 levels. Barring a broad-based crypto rally, the first major resistance level at $329.65 would likely cap any upside. Failure to hold onto $320 levels could see Bitcoin Cash ABC take another slide. A fall through to $317 levels would bring the first major support level at $311.2 into play. We would expect Bitcoin Cash ABC to steer well clear of the second major support level at $298.87 on the day. Litecoin back at $76 Litecoin fell by 1.23% on Thursday. Partially reversing a 4.84% rally from Wednesday, Litecoin ended the day at $76.82. Tracking the broader market, Litecoin tumbled from an early morning intraday high $77.78 to an early morning intraday low $72.58. Story continues Litecoin fell through the first major support level at $74.47 before finding support from the broader market. In the late morning, Litecoin recovered back through the first major support level, ahead of a late afternoon rally that cut the deficit on the day. At the time of writing, Litecoin was down by 0.74% to $76.25. A bearish start to the day saw Litecoin fall from an early morning high $77.2 to a low $75.77 before finding support. Litecoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, Litecoin would need to steer clear of sub-$75.70 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $78.87. Litecoin would need sentiment across the broader market to improve, however, to break out from Thursday’s high $77.78. Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, Litecoin would likely come up short of $80 levels on the day. Failure to steer clear of sub-$75.70 could see Litecoin test the first major support level at $73.67 before any recovery. Barring an extended sell-off through the day, Litecoin should steer well clear of the second major support level at $70.53. Ripple’s XRP Gives up $0.30 Ripple’s XRP tumbled by 3.84% on Thursday. Partially reversing a 9.85% rally on Wednesday, Ripple’s XRP ended the day at $0.30209. Bearish through the morning, Ripple’s XRP fell from an early morning intraday high $0.31414 to a late morning intraday low $0.28238. Steering clear of the major resistance levels, Ripple’s XRP fell through the first major support level at $0.2911. Finding support from the broader market, Ripple’s XRP broke back through the first major support level going into the afternoon. Through the 2 nd half of the day, Ripple’s XRP found further support from the broader market to move back through to $0.30 levels At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was down by 1.38% to $0.29791. A bearish start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP fall from an early morning high $0.30334 to a low $0.29585. Ripple’s XRP left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, a move back through to $0.30 levels would support a run at the first major resistance level at $0.3167. Ripple’s XRP would need the support of the broader market, however, to break back through to $0.31 levels. Barring a broad-based crypto rally, the first major resistance level, and Thursday’s high would likely limit any upside. Failure to move back through to $0.30 levels could see Ripple’s XRP slide deeper into the red. A fall through to $0.2920 levels would bring the first major support level at $0.2849 into play. Barring another crypto meltdown, Ripple’s XRP should steer clear of sub-$0.28 levels on the day. Please let us know what you think in the comments below Thanks, Bob This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude oil markets respect 200 day EMA GBP/JPY Price Forecast – British pound pulls back slightly GBP/USD Price Forecast – British pound continues to hover near large figure U.S. Crude Steady After Unexpected Inventory Surplus Gold Price Forecast – Gold markets continue to hold support at major figure Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural gas markets roll over || Tether's use of Ethereum rises 1,000%, clogging up the network: Tether has switched its focus to Ethereum , and it's already putting a heavy load on the blockchain platform. The stablecoin was mostly based on Bitcoin (via a tool called the Omni layer ) but has recently swapped the majority of its tokens over to Ethereum instead. In fact, since July, the number of Ethereum-based Tether transactions has increased from around 18,000 per day to 187,912 as of September 9, according to data from Coin Metrics. These transactions now account for 25% of all Ethereum activity. Tether is making full use of the Ethereum blockchain. Photo credit: Coin Metrics And it's starting to play havoc with the network. The amount of Gas used per day (a second cryptocurrency used to pay transaction fees) has risen to, at one point, 50 billion Gas ($183,000). This is up 152% since lows in July and is on track to surpass Bitcoin's daily transaction fees, which currently sit around $186,000. People making Tether transactions are now paying $21,000 a day in transaction fees—$525,000 over the last month—on Ethereum alone. In response, Ethereum miners are testing raising gas limits, to allow for more transactions per block. This is roughly equivalent to increasing the block size for Bitcoin blocks. However, when looking deeper—it's not just Tether that has been clogging up the network. A provably fair betting game, called Fair Win, is also on par with Tether's transaction fees–it spent some $531,000 over the last month. While Ethereum is making developments on its scaling solution, called Ethereum 2.0, it's still a long way away, which begs the question: How will the network cope until then? || tZERO security tokens now open for trading to retail investors: Security token trading platform tZERO, a subsidiary of retail giant Overstock, has now opened up its TZROP security tokens to non-accredited or retail investors. Previously available only to accredited or wealthy investors, TZROP tokens can now be traded by all investors, regardless of their net worth, tZEROannouncedMonday. “TZROP provides investors with direct exposure to tZERO’s revenue growth through its quarterly dividend model,” the firm said, adding that it may distribute a quarterly dividend “equal to 10% of tZERO’s adjusted gross revenue” to the token holders. Dividends could be paid in U.S. dollars, bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) or additional security tokens. tZERO’s year-to-date financials, however, have been somewhat disappointing, with a net loss of $25.4 million (slightly higher than the $22.3 loss from Overstock’s retail business). But now, given that TZROP tokens have been opened up for all investors and the likelihood that tZERO will add more security tokens to its platform, the firm could see increased revenues within the next few quarters,per The Block’s research. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] La CTB profite de la hausse des prix USD / CNH – Actualités Bitcoin https://t.co/eRAkAnGdRB https://t.co/9RvaVqc0k2 || WILL BTC WIN THE BATTLE?!!! https://t.co/mOheRhiPvr 🚀Nash (NEX) about to Mo0n? ⟶ https://t.co/ibHB6cxFSX √ https://t.co/5vvSIOkPYa || Teammates! Can you all help us with a retweet? We are a team of crypto enthusiastic, who uses Bitcoin to evade blocks from governmet and help people in our country. #TwitterPhilanthropy Actually with a project that we hope benefit 25,000+ people https://t.co/gpNSZiDFZY || このXPC/BTCはダブルトップですか？ https://t.co/EpgXATHRWi || #DNTBTC 🚀 4.40% in 3 minutes Price: 0.00000095 Volume: 2.87888124 $BTC #binance #crypto $DNT $BTC https://t.co/SRLq8fqOF7 || system maintenance. || ビットコインはもう遅いかも！？ 海外の取引所なら10倍とか100倍とかになる通貨もあるよ！！ お小遣い程度で買ってみたら、もしかしたら1億円とかになっちゃうかも！！ これから伸びる通貨はcoinexchange→　 https://t.co/50e8bZF2BY #BTC #ビットコイン　#仮想通貨 #XRP #ETH #XRP #裏垢 #JC #JK || VanEck, SolidX to Offer Limited Bitcoin ETF for Institutions Via Exemption https://t.co/Af8G0EJBUO https://t.co/mfYYXvK9Kx || #bidcoin social #reward program gives you #FREE bid token to #play right away! NO need to recharge!! 😍 click now https://t.co/FC1A5UP0OI for your #gift and #win #crypto like #bitcoin #ethereum #dash #btc #eth #xmr #ltc #zec without any #exchange, only on https://t.co/dAfxkvseq4 https://t.co/CEXnljyFce || No shit, all us idiots over here have been able to tell you that for many years. Good to see you finally catching on.
Trend: no change || Prices: 8245.92, 8104.19, 8293.87, 8343.28, 8393.04, 8259.99, 8205.94, 8151.50, 7988.16, 8245.62
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2022-09-23] BTC Price: 19297.64, BTC RSI: 43.23 Gold Price: 1645.30, Gold RSI: 30.89 Oil Price: 78.74, Oil RSI: 32.76 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] CME Group launches euro-denominated Bitcoin, Ether futures: CME Group — the world’s largest operator of financial derivatives markets, including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange — has launched euro-denominated futures on Bitcoin and Ether. See related article:New US crypto bill seeks to make CFTC top Bitcoin, Ethereum watchdog • Six euro-denominated Bitcoin futures contracts were sold on Monday, while Ethereum futures sold five. • In derivatives, “futures” are contracts in which the investor must buy or sell the underlying asset at a given price on the expiration date. • EUR-denominated Bitcoin and Ether futures contract sizes are 5 BTC and 50 ETH per contract, respectively, according to CME’s announcement. • “The launch of these new futures contracts builds on the strong growth and deep liquidity we have seen in our existing U.S. dollar-denominated Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts,” said Tim McCourt, Global Head of Equity and FX Products, CME Group. • In August, CME Group announced it will launch Ethereum futures options on Sept. 12, before the expected completion of Ethereum’s “Merge” — a planned upgrade of one of the world’s largest blockchain networks. • CME already has multiple cryptocurrency futures and options. It launched its earliest cryptocurrency futures, Bitcoin futures, in 2017, thenEthereum futuresin 2021, followed bymicro-sizedEthereum and micro Bitcoin futures in 2022. See related article:Here comes the crypto derivatives boom || How Germany’s regulators beat the SEC in the race for crypto regulation–and convinced me to establish my business there: There is prestige to be had building a successful business in the U.S. and, when we set out to build a liquidity solution for security tokens, it was a U.S. launch we had firmly in our sights. However, the U.S. lacked the regulatory framework to facilitate a service model that could leverage asset digitalization and the benefits of blockchain technology, let alone support its development. This was not the place to build innovative blockchain technology. Instead, we went to Germany to found our business–and we weren’t alone in doing so. Thanks to the attitude of the financial market regulator BaFin, Germany is home to a vibrant blockchain ecosystem that’s surprisingly ahead of the U.S. While not everything is rosy when working with regulators, at least the regulatory process has been converging. The German authorities have been consistently working towards the goal of legitimizing the digital asset landscape and integrating it into the financial markets. Today, BaFin has become a world leader in applying existing financial market law to crypto–and Germany has been propelled to the forefront of industrial nations embracing crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi). Supervised innovation An amendment to the German Banking Act introduced in 2020 brought crypto assets in line with traditional securities. The move provided clear direction to the market and meant that service providers needed to be licensed, a requirement that elevated crypto providers and created parity with traditional financial players. This approach by BaFin has delivered meaningful benefits to the German financial sector. By nailing its colors to the mast and classifying crypto as a financial instrument, BaFin has offered innovators the clarity and confidence needed to build projects. It’s the reason Germany is leading the way in crypto and blockchain technology in terms of progressive tax laws and forward-leaning fiscal policy, allowing its largest funds and assets managers to hold digital assets on their balance sheets. Story continues The regulator’s stated mid-term goals (which will carry it through to 2025) will see it extend regulation to DeFi with the aim of protecting market participants from unreasonable risks. Although it’s been careful to stipulate that regulation must be tailored and appropriate to prevent stifling the development of new technologies, BaFin has been clear that DeFi won’t get regulatory carte blanche. And that’s critical. This technology has the potential to overhaul our entire financial system; it needs suitable, specific regulation if it is to compete with traditional financial markets. The question of securities While BaFin has made strides toward understanding the technology and encouraging progress, the SEC has issued a litany of statements that lack tangible guidance on how to view blockchain-based models. At the heart of the confusion is an inability to determine whether digital assets are a security. In the U.S., the Howey Test sets the bar for what does and doesn’t constitute a financial security. A transaction deemed by Howey to be “investment of money in a common enterprise with a reasonable expectation of profits to be derived from the efforts of others” is an “investment contract” and so qualifies as a security. If classed as a security, digital assets would be subject to federal securities law, they would fall within the ambit of the SEC and would need to be traded via a securities exchange or SEC-registered broker-dealer. That would take unregulated crypto trading platforms out of the mix and would severely hamper protocols with tokens that aren’t designed as investment instruments. Both the past and present SEC chairs have stepped gingerly around the subject, hinting that the regulator considers all digital assets (with the exception of Bitcoin) to be securities but stopping short of actually confirming it. The impact of this approach has been to chase innovators out of the U.S. to markets with regulatory clarity, where there is less risk of projects being derailed or shut down instantly by the regulator. But the tide is changing and the SEC is making great efforts to better understand the crypto industry. It will head up an international DeFi working group within IOSCO to “further explore the market integrity, investor protection and financial stability risks of DeFi”, building on the regulator's DeFi report published earlier this year. We’ve also seen the introduction of two bipartisan crypto bills this year, the Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act and the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act of 2022 . Digital assets are a thorny topic for an election year, and both are unlikely to pass, but they do demonstrate a growing understanding among lawmakers across the aisle of the problems facing crypto regulation in the U.S. Both bills work to establish jurisdiction between the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC) and SEC. Unfortunately, it's a feat that requires a clear definition of which digital assets constitute a security and, since both bills default to applying Howey, it’s not a solution either provides. A regulatory blueprint for DeFi Just as the DeFi industry is bifurcating into regulated and unregulated entities, so too are we seeing a divide open up between national regulators. The different approaches of the SEC and BaFin are just two examples of a situation that is playing out daily around the world. Never before has the impact of a regulator supportive of development been so obvious. Innovations are coming thick and fast, and regulators that don’t make efforts to understand the technology, support its development, and regulate it appropriately pose a serious risk to the growth of their economies. Forward-looking regulators such as BaFin have been successful because they sought to understand the potential of the technology. By engaging with entrepreneurs and innovators of all sizes rather than just big players, BaFin has developed a broad understanding and position that will be applicable for years to come. If the SEC wants to understand what the future of DeFi is in the U.S., it can look into use cases in Germany and how they operate in practice. It will find a fully-fledged regulatory blueprint to follow. Philipp Pieper is co-founder of Swarm , a regulated DeFi platform under BaFin in Germany. He sits on the Digital Finance Forum, which advises the German finance minister on the future of financial markets. The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune . More must-read commentary published by Fortune : Amazon and Walmart want the FAA to let them use part of your property. Here’s how drone delivery companies are coming for your airspace Howard Schultz once spoke of the ‘reservoir of trust’ he had with Starbucks employees–but his war on unions risks destroying that bond Why India could single-handedly shape the future of e-commerce this summer Here’s how the pandemic-fueled surge in gaming is reshaping our understanding of its effects on mental health Stop calling them ‘job creators’ This story was originally featured on Fortune.com || AscendEX Announces Revamped Earn Platform: New York, NY - ( NewMediaWire ) - September 8, 2022 - AscendEX , a leading global cryptocurrency exchange, is excited to announce the overhaul of its native earning platform, AscendEX Earn , including increased yields on 100+crypto assets such as BTC, ETH, USDT, and CRV. The updates are inspired by AscendEX's ongoing commitment to offering everyone, from the novice investor to the crypto veteran, the opportunity to access the power of DeFi with confidence. The new and improved interface allows users to visualize their potential returns, manage the assets in their portfolio, and explore new ways to earn using the most comprehensive portfolio management tools on the market. The user's Earn Dashboard features not only the functionality to view historical returns, but also the opportunity to project future earnings across various timeframes. For maximum transparency, AscendEX allows users to toggle between the yield-generating products available for eligible assets within their portfolio, or browse by their preferred mechanism for earning yield and then see the featured and suggested assets associated with it. Efficiency, clarity, and ease-of-use were at the forefront of these user-centered designs. AscendEX Earn's new quick trade tools allow for one-click delegation of your crypto assets. These quick trade tools make buying and earning more streamlined than ever, allowing users to instantly purchase and delegate using a credit or debit card. Additionally, the "Earn Max. Yield" feature allows users to achieve their maximum earning potential on the platform with a one-click delegation of their entire AscendEX portfolio. The new Earn Dashboard is optimized for both browsing and seamlessly comparing all earning opportunities. The section dedicated to these Earn opportunities allows users to quickly compare AscendEX's full suite of yield generating mechanisms such as staking, lending, DeFi yield farming, and promotional products, so users always know where AscendEX is holding or placing their funds. If users are interested in a particular set of assets, the "Opportunities by asset" view compares the individual assets available in Earn for generating yield and allows users the chance to create a tailored "Favorites" list of only the assets they care about. Filter 100+Earn products by risk profile, earning potential, or assets of interest to find the products that best suit your goals. Story continues Additionally, AscendEX is excited to announce as part of this launch the Earn platform's new "Passive Income" feature, which offers users the chance to put their investing on autopilot by setting their income goals, their desired timeframes, and letting AscendEX do the rest. AscendEX continues to revamp and revitalize its products to honor the commitment to its users to offer the best access to DeFi opportunities, to maintain the transparency and usability of a leading centralized exchange, and to help enable users to reach their highest peak. To read more about the offering, see AscendEX's Official Website: https://ascendex.media/3qd0567 Media Contact Brand: AscendEX Contact: Media team Email: dan.mulligan@ascendex.com Website: https://ascendex.com/ PR Contact info@finpr.agency https://finpr.agency SOURCE: AscendEX View the original release on www.newmediawire.com || Opinion: What Elon Musk Can Learn from an Oil and Gas Producer: Presented by: Oil and Gas Investor (Editor's note: This article was written on June 15 and published in Oil and Gas Investor July 1.) It would be Harold Hamm. The morning of June 14, shortly after seeing Hart Energy’s breaking news alert about Hamm bidding to take Continental Resources Inc. private , I received a text. Someone had replied to a Twitter post about the news, commenting, “Wonder what he’s seeing.” Without knowing more details yet, I replied, “Wall Street doesn’t want oil and gas producers using equity to grow, so why be public?” Getting into the Securities and Exchange Commission filing, I read Hamm’s letter to employees. Yep, that’s his point. It would be Harold Hamm who would go first to tell Wall Street, “Nope.” When he took his already 40-year-old Continental public in 2007, it had found a game-changing treasure in the Bakken Shale and needed access to large amounts of capital to develop it. “At that time, the public market rewarded companies for both growth and performance,” he wrote. Today, though, Wall Street doesn’t want oil and gas producers to spend money; they want to harvest it instead. The ever-fewer public operators out there, Hamm wrote, “is illustrative of a lack of support from the public market, and we believe there is a resulting underappreciation of Continental.” That’s how it is in 2022. That’s what Hamm sees. He wrote that private operators have “the freedom to operate.” And, like Continental was before May 16, 2007, “aren’t limited by public markets.” He concluded, “Continental is a strong company built to last, and our family believes being private will make it even stronger and more competitive.” RELATED: Analysts: Hamm’s Offer to Continental Points to Industrywide Undervaluing of E&Ps Immediately, the market appreciated Continental, driving the stock price up well beyond Hamm’s $70 per share offer, 16% from the prior-day closing to $74.88. Nitin Kumar, oil and gas securities analyst for Wells Fargo Securities LLC, said traders might be expecting a rival bid. But the Hamm family isn’t interested in selling any of their 83% holding. The other bid would have to be for the 17% alone—essentially a silent partner. Story continues What is certain, though, is that Continental shares are actually worth $80, Kumar said. And that’s at only $60 oil. Meanwhile, it’s irresistible (yes, I’m going there) to compare how Harold Hamm makes an offer and how Elon Musk makes an offer. Clearly Hamm’s was contemplated for, well, 15 years, plus four weeks. He wrote in his letter that he’s always said that “as long as we were appreciated in the market, we would remain a public company, but if our opportunities were limited by being public, we should look at alternatives.” Meanwhile, Musk’s bid for Twitter looks like an accident—a pocket tweet to which he woke the next morning and felt more compelled to follow bad thinking with more bad thinking (oblivious that no one really takes him seriously anymore) than to tweet his usual mea culpa: “Haha.” Hamm bid $70; the stock appreciates to $75. Musk bid $54.20; the stock tanks to $37. Hamm and the Hamm family’s Continental holding appreciated this year 40% through June 13. Musk’s holding—about 15%—in Tesla Inc. depreciated this year 46% through June 13. Continental likely holds only U.S. dollars. Tesla’s quarterly report filed April 25 reported it “invested” $1.5 billion in Bitcoin in the first quarter of 2021. “We believe in the long-term potential of digital assets both as an investment and also as a liquid alternative to cash,” it added. The crypto would have been acquired at between $32,150 and $58,745. On June 14, a Bitcoin was worth $22,000. I gave a nephew 0.001 Bitcoin last summer for his 10th birthday. It was worth $45 at the time. He said, “I want to sell it.” I suggested he hold. He asked again last November, when it was worth $67. I suggested he continue to hold it. I said something about “you have no better use of the proceeds” and other things that I now see could roughly be translated as “blah blah blah.” Today, a Pokemon card would have been a better investment, after all. I could learn a lot from a 10-year-old. Elon Musk could learn a lot from an oil and gas producer. First, all property owned should be real. Second, write a letter to the employees—a nice letter. Third, do due diligence. Fourth, do this due diligence before making an offer. Fifth, don’t tweet crazy stuff. Sixth, maybe just don’t tweet. || Shorting Bitcoin (BTC): An Easy-To-Follow Guide: Shorting Bitcoin (BTC): An Easy-To-Follow Guide In times of a bear market, a lot of investors get frightened due to the massive losses they can have at a certain moment. But many traders are counting profits while others are losing. This is how shorting becomes a great opportunity for a lot of traders to possibly gain huge returns. For many professional crypto traders, learning how to short Bitcoin (BTC) is a very important skill. Shorting is a sophisticated investment or trading technique that incorporates an extremely high level of risk. On the other hand, if you can master the skill of shorting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, you can potentially acquire enormous returns when the crypto market is down and crashing. Bitcoin (BTC) is one of the best choices for shorting among other digital currencies. Its price volatility provides agile traders with a huge opportunity to gain profits during negative price fluctuations. Learn more details in this article about shorting Bitcoin when the crypto market is down. A Guide to Shorting Bitcoin (BTC) Shorting allows traders to take advantage of the price drops of cryptocurrencies and other financial assets. When traders or investors can see a potential decline in the price of Bitcoin and other assets, they can acquire huge returns by shorting . When shorting, a trader bets against the price of an asset. Is Shorting Bitcoin Essential? One can short Bitcoin for significant reasons. These include: Paying Attention to Price Volatility Knowing Bitcoin’s history, its price value can quickly rise and drop. Many traders have a high-risk appetite and are attracted to extremely volatile assets that can potentially reap massive rewards or equally produce enormous losses. Some traders rely on pure luck and speculation when shorting Bitcoin ; however, others utilise a systematic approach that is based on knowledge and experience. Hedging the Risk of a Huge Portfolio A trader or investor shorts his/her assets to hedge the risk of their large portfolio. For instance, when a Bitcoin holder speculates or sees a potential price decline, he/she decides to open a short-sell position. One of the ways to hedge your risks against potential losses when trading or investing in Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets is to use a trading software with a high success score like the Bitcoin Up app. Staying Objective Against Scepticism There are traders who are shorting Bitcoin for a short term only and hold bearish sentiments towards the market. They keep themselves updated with the latest advancement in Bitcoin and the blockchain . Story continues These traders make sure to keep an objective mindset and do not allow opinions to interfere and influence their decisions. Asset Valuation Some investors wait for a downward trend to occur before deciding to short Bitcoin since they speculate that Bitcoin is overvalued or exists in a price bubble. An investor or trader who trades Bitcoin using valuation metrics primarily follows a fundamental style of trading, studying the speculated innate value of an asset against its current market price. What You Need to Understand When Shorting Bitcoin In some particular times, shorting Bitcoin becomes more complex. For instance, opening a short position against a long-term upward trend is risky . Bitcoin has a way of gradually rising in price value. In the opposite manner, this crypto asse t can shed thousands of dollars in market value in minutes. These conditions put into perspective why shorting becomes more complicated for newbie investors to execute the strategy successfully. Consider the Mentality of Other Traders in the Crypto Market It’s also essential to consider the mentality of other traders in the market. When an investor shorts Bitcoin and its price instantaneously starts to rise quickly, he/she will need to rebuy his/her assets. Unluckily, every other trader who makes a similar decision will have to achieve the same task. This instant drive to rebuy Bitcoin drives the market value up sharply. When this instance takes place, it’s called a “short squeeze”. Short squeezes add to your losses in this position. An investor or trader should be cautious when evaluating the market to prevent this kind of scenario. Closing Thoughts Shorting is one of the best ways to earn profits when an asset’s price declines. But if you are a beginner in trading and investing and are not totally familiar with the crypto market, you can quickly lose your positions. To avoid this, one must need to study and master how shorting works. By successfully mastering this technique , a trader can possibly generate huge returns. View comments || Avoid Vinco Ventures. Why BBIG Stock Is a No-Go Right Now.: WhileVinco Ventures(NASDAQ:BBIG) stock languishes in the market graveyard, some traders continue to dabble in it. Maybe it’s as a result of it being a possiblegamma squeezeopportunity (asInvestorPlace’sChris MacDonald discussed on Sept. 9), or for reasons more related to its fundamentals (namely, its stake in video-sharing appLomotif). I wouldn’t hold my breath when it comes to a gamma squeeze. So far, this has failed to play out. Furthermore, as negative overall market sentiment keeps dampening the appeal of meme stocks, it’s doubtful shares in this digital holding company will see the sort of en-masse buying necessary to drive such a squeeze. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips As for the Lomotif catalyst? Even as the high potential of this key asset may have made this stock worth a closer look, this is no longer the case after some boardroom drama that played out over the summer. [] Vinco Ventures experienced an organizational shakeup over the summer as a battle broke out in its boardroom. Back in July, the faction of the company’s board associated with its strategic partnerZASH Globalallegedly attempted to take over the companywithout full board approval. As a result, the board removed the ZASH-associated insiders from their co-CEO roles, leaving John Colucci as its sole CEO. Besides sending BBIG stock sharply lower after all of this was disclosed to the public on July 25, it also led to the trading of shares being temporarily halted on theNasdaqexchange, between Aug. 4 and Aug. 16. This was due to the exchange requesting additional information from Vinco, most likely related to this incident. Since the company no longer had a majority-independent board, it wasout of compliancewith Nasdaq’s director independence rules. After trading resumed, the stock surged back above $1 per share. Short-lived renewed excitement for meme stocks beat out any concerns about the boardroom/C-suite chaos. Shares have pulled back, but many traders are still oblivious to this factor. Even as the battle rages on and could still materially affect the company’s future. The fight between Vinco and the ZASH-associated insiders (also known as the “Farnsworth Group,” after ZASH co-founder Ted Farnsworth) is far from over. It’s simply changed venues. The two groups are now duking it out in the courts, with the company suing the Farnsworth Group for its above-mentioned actions. While the case plays out, former Co-CEO Lisa King has been reappointedper a court order. In addition, the court has also appointed a third, independent Co-CEO (Ross Miller). Both King and Miller will serve alongside Colucci. Only time will tell whether the company will prevail in its case and perhaps receive compensation for damages caused by the Farnsworth Group’s actions. However, anything it receives monetarily could be severely outweighed by the negative effect this clash causes, which is bad news for BBIG stock. As you may know, Vinco and ZASH co-own a joint venture that holds an 80% stake in Lomotif. The two entities have been at work to scale up the startup, which is very similar to TikTok. With the two parties now on bad terms, it’s unclear whether further development of Lomotif remains in the cards. To say that the Lomotif catalyst could be coming off the table is more than mere speculation. On Aug. 15, Vinco announcedplans to launch a completely different social media venture, using technology licensed fromAI-Pros Inc. It may be gearing up to move on from Lomotif completely. In short, it may be becoming far less likely this key potential catalyst will ever play out. It’s debatable whether this new social media “venture” of Vinco’s will get off the ground. Much less, achieve the kind of success Lomotif may have been able to achieve. As there’s far more uncertainty behind its main positive (Lomotif), this may not be enough to counter its many negatives. These include a history of shareholder dilution, as well asdelays in its financial filings. With all of this in mind, BBIG stock (which earns a D in myPortfolio Grader) is a no-go situation. On the date of publication, neither Louis Navellier nor the InvestorPlace Research Staff member primarily responsible for this article held (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. Louis Navellier, who has been called “one of the most important money managers of our time,” has broken the silence inthis shocking “tell all” video… exposing one of the most shocking events in our country’s history… andthe one move every American needs to make today. • Buy This $5 Stock BEFORE This Apple Project Goes Live • The Best $1 Investment You Can Make Today • Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” • It doesn’t matter if you have $500 or $5 million. Do this now. The postAvoid Vinco Ventures. Why BBIG Stock Is a No-Go Right Now.appeared first onInvestorPlace. || Bitcoin falls below $19,000 as cryptos creak under rate hike risk: SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Cryptocurrencies fell to fresh lows on Monday on regulatory concerns and as investors globally turned shy on risky assets with interest rate rises looming around the world. Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency by market value, fell about 5% to a three-month low of $18,387. Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency, dropped 3% to a two-month low of $1,285 and is down more than 10% in the last 24 hours. Most other smaller tokens were deeper in the red. The Ethereum blockchain, which underpins the ether token, had a major upgrade over the weekend called the Merge that changes the way transactions are processed and cuts energy use. The token's value has fallen amid some speculation that remarks last week from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler implied the new structure could attract extra regulation. Trades around the upgrade also were unwound. "It's speculation as to what might or might not happen," said Matthew Dibb, COO of Singapore crypto platform Stack Funds, on the regulatory outlook. "A lot of the hype has come out of the markets since the Merge," he said. "It's really been a sell-the-news type of event," he added, given the nervous global backdrop, and said ether could test $950 in coming months. "Looking at the landscape right now, both fundamentally and technically, it's not looking great. There's no immediate bullish catalyst that we can see that's going to prop up these markets and bring in a whole lot of new money and liquidity." (Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Kirsten Donovan) || Bitcoin ATMs are spreading. They’re legal but can be tools for cyber crooks: Walk into a smoke shop or small convenience store in South Florida — anywhere from Homestead to Boynton Beach — and you might find not one, but two, ATM machines. Look closely before you try to get cash because there’s a big difference. One dispenses paper bills, greenbacks to spend. The other spits out a paper receipt for Bitcoin, far and away the most popular crypto currency. Nothing wrong with that if you’re comfortable with converting your honestly earned dollars into crypto. But South Florida’s cybercrime detectives also say crooks are using the growing number of Bitcoin machines for nefarious purposes. They say the machines, though perfectly legal, are also largely unregulated and are often used to “wash” dirty money — cash that has come from drug dealing, robberies or other illegal activities. When it’s easy to invest in cryptocurrency online, Miami-Dade Cyber Crimes Task Force Cmdr. George Perera questions the need for the Bitcoin ATM machines, which don’t leave much of a financial trail. “Why have those unless it’s for criminal activity?” he asked. Finding a machine is as easy as turning on a computer or a cellphone. The website bitcoindepot.com — which helps you find a Bitcoin ATM by simply inserting an area code or city — shows there are 1,691 machines in Florida and 384 between Boynton Beach and Homestead. The machines, which have gained popularity in the past few years along with cryptocurrencies, are believed to number more than 50,000 across the country. There’s a reason they’re attractive to the small businesses where they are most common — they’re profitable at several levels. The largest manufacturers of the machines are the companies Genesis Coin and General Bytes. They sell the machines for as much as $5,000. They’re basically internet-connected kiosks that send cryptocurrency to a digital wallet after actual money is inserted. Machine operators pocket fees, which at Bitcoin ATMs represent a percentage of the transaction. Story continues Store operators, meanwhile, collect rents from the machine operator or owner for a three-by-three foot space. Bitcoin ATMs can be found across the country and around the world. This one is in Hong Kong. In South Florida, law enforcement agencies say they are increasingly being used for illegal money laundering. In a speech about the industry in 2021, Digitalmint director of compliance Seth Sattler acknowledged there were some “bad actors” who gave the machine industry a bad name by continuing to allow anonymous transactions. Digitalmint is one of the leading providers of Bitcoin machines and technology in the nation. “While a small number of Bitcoin ATM operators go above and beyond ... others in the cash-to-crypto industry simply turn a blind eye and are complacent to these bad actors by simply applying the bare minimum customer protections, which in many cases allow for completely anonymous transactions,” Sattler told the news site. The Bitcoin ATM machine looks almost exactly like its counterpart, with a computer screen, a keyboard and a slot to slide in money — as if you were making a deposit at a regular ATM. And the way criminals clean money with it is as brilliant as it is simple. Here’s a scenario: A small-time drug dealer makes a few thousand dollars on a sale. The dealer then hires a kid for a few dollars to type in a cryptocurrency address and insert the money into the machine. In exchange, the machine spits out a Bitcoin receipt worth the same or a similar amount. Miami-Dade’s cyber cops say one problem is that the machines are very lightly regulated. Most have a video recording device and some ask to scan driver licenses. Crooks, though, can work around that easily, said Miami-Dade cybercrimes Sgt. Bridget Doyle. In the case of the example cited above, the kid hired by the launderer would be videotaped. And he or she could easily have used fake identification. As for checking on a crypto address, it changes for each action and is difficult to trace, detectives say. Doyle said most companies notify a shopkeeper if more than $6,000 is deposited. She said there are about a dozen companies that she’s aware of that now sell cryptocurrency machines. “When criminals move into crypto, the first thing they do is go about finding a new ID,” she said. || Crypto ATM Market to Hit Sales of 1352.36 Million By 2028 | Falling Prices of Cryptocurrency is Slowing Down in Installations: SkyQuest Technology Consulting Pvt. Ltd. Global crypto ATM market was valued at USD 99.77 million in 2021, and it is expected to reach a value of USD 1352.36 million by 2028, at a CAGR of more than 45.12 % over the forecast period (2022–2028). Westford, USA, Sept. 05, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Crypto-trade is booming and this is not surprising as the number of investors and traders in the crypto ATM market keeps on growing. Among the many benefits that cryptocurrency trading has to offer, one of the key ones is its potential to reduce transaction fees. And this is where crypto ATMs come in, as they allow you to convert cash into various cryptos hassle-free. Crypto ATM growth is being propelled by a number of factors. Chief among them is the large and rapidly growing crypto market. As bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continue to grow in value, more people are beginning to explore their options for buying and selling them. Other factors driving growth in crypto ATM include regulatory uncertainty surrounding cryptocurrencies, which is creating an opportunity for providers of these machines to expand into new crypto ATM markets. Additionally, the advent of blockchain technology has created opportunities for new applications that can be built using crypto assets. This includes use cases such as payment platforms and smart contracts. As a result, providers of these machines are expanding their operations into new markets in an effort to capitalize on this growing trend. Get sample copy of this report: https://skyquestt.com/sample-request/crypto-atm-market Over 39,000 Crypto ATMs are Present Across the Globe and the Number is Expanding at Staggering CAGR of 45% As of August 2022, there are more than 39,000 crypto ATMS around the globe out of which the US and Canada are home to over 90% of the global crypto accounting for over 34,400 and 2552, respectively. In fact, over 20,000 ATMs were added across the global crypto ATM market in just 1 year. The latest location to add onto this list is Singapore. The city state is home to a staggering number of ATMs bearing the names of popular digital tokens such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin. In fact, there are now more than 20 operational ATMs in Singapore that allow users to convert their cryptocurrencies into local currencies like SGD and USD. Apart from this, Hong Kong has over 148 bitcoin ATMs. India become the latest country to install 2 crypto ATM in August 2022. Story continues According to SkyQuest study on global crypto ATM market, the operators of these machines say they hope this initiative will lead to increased interest in the underlying blockchain technology and prompt more people to explore the potential benefits of cryptocurrency ownership. “We’re excited to push the envelope in bringing convenient and affordable access to cryptocurrency for our customers,” said Ivan Poon, managing director of Chaintech International Pte Ltd, one of the operators of the crypto ATM network in Singapore. However, the Singapore government has started crackdown of crypto ATM and Shutting them down since January 2022. Rapid Fall of Cryptocurrency Market has Slowed Installation of New Crypto ATM, Says Analyst at SkyQuest Globally, more than 39,000 crypto ATMs are installed and more than 20,000 of them came in 2021 in the global crypto ATM market. However, since then, only 5,000 new ATMs are installed in the year 2022 as the cryptocurrency market has undergone a rapid fall, leading to a decrease in the number of crypto ATMs installed around the world. According to data from Coinmap, as of January 2022, there were 1,029 crypto ATMs installed globally. However, this number has since decreased by significantly and 4,012 new crypto ATMs are added in the span of 7 months thereafter. Although there are a few possible reasons for this decrease in the number of crypto ATMs being installed, one of the main factors could be the fall in the value of cryptocurrencies. For instance, at the time of writing this PR, Bitcoin has eroded over 56% of its valuation in just one year. Since most ATMs require users to deposit fiat currency in order to withdraw cryptocurrencies, an increase or decrease in the value of cryptocurrencies could lead to an overall decline or increase in the number of installations respectively in the crypto ATM market. Another potential reason for this decrease in the number of crypto ATMs is due to increased regulatory scrutiny. Earlier this year, many governments around the world began to take a stricter stance on cryptocurrencies and their associated activities. This stricter stance could lead operators in the global crypto ATM market to decide that it is not worth installing them in certain locations due to the high level of risk involved. For instance, Singapore once considered a crypto friendly country has already started crypto ATM in January 2022. As a result, ATM operators are hesitating to install new machine in the country. Browse summary of the report and Complete Table of Contents (ToC): https://skyquestt.com/report/crypto-atm-market Crypto ATM operators are struggling to keep up with a surge in demand, and some have even gone out of business. In addition, a number of hospitals and casinos have also stopped installing crypto ATMs, as they do not make enough money from them. Popularity is mainly due to the booming value of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and Ethereum. But once the price of cryptocurrencies drops, so does the revenue from crypto ATMs. Despite these challenges, there are still a number of crypto ATM operators in the global crypto ATM market who are confident about the long-term prospects for this technology. Barry Silbert, the founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group, commented on the fall in value of cryptocurrencies: “The experience of 2018 will help inform future innovation and regulation in this new digital asset class. This Wasn’t supposed to be easy or perfect from day one.” SkyQuest has published a report on global crypto ATM market and provided a detailed analysis of global installation of crypto ATM, factors driving its growth, threat, opportunities, and trends. Apart from this, the report provides deeper insights about current government regulations, and its impact on ATM operators. Recent Developments in Global Crypto ATM Market In August 2022, BitBase announced to open a Crypto ATM in Venezuela In August 2022, BleepingComputer suffered attacks by hackers and stole cryptocurrency of customers and siphoned the deposits or purchase to their account by exploiting zero-day bug In August 2022, Bitcoin Depot, world’s largest player in crypto ATM market, announced to go public through SPAC deal. The acquisition value was stood at over $885 million In August 2022, a crypto ATM was installed in Japan after 4 years In August 2022, two crypto ATM were installed in Delhi and Gugugram, India In January 2022, Singapore started shutting down crypto ATM SkyQuest has tracked over 150 recent developments in terms of new launch, new installations, acquisition, and government regulations. In addition, the report provides a detailed analysis of its impact on global crypto ATM market by value and volume. Speak to Analyst for your custom requirements: https://skyquestt.com/speak-with-analyst/crypto-atm-market Top Players in Global Crypto ATM Market General Bytes (Czech Republic) Genesis Coin (US) Lamassu (UK) COVAULT (US) Bitaccess (Canada) Coinme (US) Coinsource (US) Bitxatm (German) Orderbob (Austria) RUSbit (Russia) Bitcoin Depot (US) Bitstop (US) Cash Cloud, Inc (US) Related Reports in SkyQuest’s Library: Global Crypto Wallet Market Global Cryptocurrency Market Global 3D Mapping And Modelling Market Global Accounting Software Market Global Smart Manufacturing Market About Us: SkyQuest Technology is leading growth consulting firm providing market intelligence, commercialization and technology services. It has 450+ happy clients globally. Address: 1 Apache Way, Westford, Massachusetts 01886 Phone: USA (+1) 617-230-0741 Email: sales@skyquestt.com LinkedIn Facebook Twitter || CoinShares to launch crypto platform for retail traders: European based digital asset manager CoinShares is launching an algorithmic trading platform for retail traders. Named HAL — a wink to both the early bitcoin contributor Hal Finney as well as the artificial intelligence in Stanley Kubrick’s "2001: A Space Odyssey" — the platform aims to give retail traders access to a range of algorithmic trading strategies for $20 per month. The platform is designed for long-term crypto holders who want to achieve better risk adjusted returns in volatile markets as well as those who want to be more active traders. The platform can be overlaid with other crypto exchanges, but traders can't buy and sell cryptocurrencies with it. “Crypto is an extraordinarily volatile asset class where a lot of consumers tend to get their hands burned. Sometimes it's because crypto is complicated, trades 24/7, and investors don’t always know what to do,” CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti told Yahoo Finance. “In a new, still-evolving ecosystem, we are very proud to be at the cutting edge of providing professional-level products with simple user experience to traders, enabling them to do much more with their crypto than simply hold." It's become easier to facilitate algorithmic trading for retail investors as the costs of computing power have dropped in recent years, Ben McMillan, founder and chief investment officer of IDX Digital Assets, told Yahoo Finance. “Not unlike the Nasdaq stocks during the dot-com boom and bust period, any time you have a high beta asset class there’s an opportunity to take a rules-based approach and frankly, make smarter decisions,” McMillan said. Last quarter, CoinShares reported a $8.2 million adjusted EBITDA loss for Q2 2022, down year over year from $28.6 million, according to its latest quarterly report. The firm still saw $105 million net inflow to its spot exchange-traded products over the first half of the year. The offering this week follows the firm’s acquisition in December of French fintech Napoleon for $15.8 million, according to Crunchbase. Story continues - David Hollerith is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance covering the cryptocurrency and stock markets. Follow him on Twitter at @DsHollers Click here for the latest crypto news, updates, values, prices, and more related to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, DeFi and NFTs Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance Download the Yahoo Finance app for Apple or Android Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter , Facebook , Instagram , Flipboard , LinkedIn , and YouTube [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 18937.01, 18802.10, 19222.67, 19110.55, 19426.72, 19573.05, 19431.79, 19312.10, 19044.11, 19623.58
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Discussion On Marijuana Reclassification Back On The Table: The U.S. government’s classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug has been up for debate for nearly a decade as more and more U.S. states begin to legalize marijuana use for medical purposes. While studies regarding the drug’s effects on the body are extremely limited, doctors and scientists alike claim that initial research is promising for certain conditions. Now, a legal dispute in California is bringing the divide in Washington, D.C. into the spotlight and could expedite discussions about reclassification. Schedule I Classification: ‘Unconstitutional’ Nine men who’ve been accused of illegally growing marijuana on private and federal land are arguing that their charges should be dropped because the drug has been improperly classified by the federal government. Defense attorneys for the men, who are fighting a penalty of life in prison and a $10 million fine, say the fact that so many states have legalized the drug for medical use makes the government’s Schedule I listing unconstitutional. Judge Kimberly J. Muller, who is overseeing the proceedings, said she was taking the defense’s argument very seriously and promised to deliver a ruling within 30 days. Related Link:Is The U.S. Prepared To Legalize Marijuana? Questions Raised At Federal Level The California case underscores the growing need for uniform drug policies across the nation. President Obama has said that the federal government will not interfere with states’ decisions to legalize marijuana and that the Schedule I classification will be evaluated in the future. The president also expressed concern over the steep penalties assigned to people facing drug charges, but the deep divide in Washington over whether or not marijuana should be made legal has kept policymakers from making any changes at the federal level. See more from Benzinga • Apple Store To Offer Weed App Once Again • Top Wall Street Executives To Gather At White House Cybersecurity Summit • New York Could Become First City To Accept Bitcoin © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin Gets A Makeover: Scandals like the Silk Road trials and the Mt. Gox exchange collapse have severely damaged the public’s perception of bitcoin and slowed the rate of adoption considerably. Worries about security and stability have kept the average investor from using the cryptocurrency despite growing enthusiasm among supporters about the possibilities that digital currencies provide. However, some bitcoin-based firms are looking to reverse public opinion by embarking on abitcoin image makeoveraimed at promoting the cryptocurrency among millennials who are most likely to use it. Bitcoin Targets Millennials Firms like Bitcoin Foundation, BitFury and BitGo are counting on ad agency TheAudience to rework bitcoin’s image and renew the enthusiasm that surrounded the cryptocurrency in 2013. The agency is planning to use online influencers to get bitcoin in front of millennials who will ultimately be the future of its adoption. Platforms like Twitter, YouTube and SnapChat will be vital to the campaign’s success and ‘microcelebrities’ with large followings online will be tapped to promote their own use of bitcoin. Related Link:Bitcoin And Tax Season - What You Should Know Bitcoin Bowl This is not the first time bitcoin has been force-fed to the public. BitPay tried to help the cryptocurrency go mainstream by signing-on to a college football bowl sponsorship and holding the Bitcoin Bowl. The mobile pay company ran its own TV ads during the game, and while BitPay gained some brand recognition, the campaign did little to wipe away bitcoin’s tarnished reputation. See more from Benzinga • Wearables Not Just For Humans Anymore! • Deal On Tehran's Nuclear Activities Makes Iran An Attractive Investment • Investors Begin To Turn Toward Greece © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bayside Corp. Announces The Launch Of Vault 51 In Vietnam: DALLAS, TX / ACCESSWIRE / March 8, 2015 / Bayside Corp. (BYSD.PK) today announced through its subsidiary company Bitcoinz USA, the official launch of Vault 51, a secure offline storage for Bitcoin is now available to all consumers in Vietnam. Furthermore, Bitcoinz USA is now offering Bitcoin for sale to consumers in Vietnam through the Vault 51 website. Currently, the company's management team believes that Vietnam has the potential to become a huge catalyst for Bitcoin worldwide. To continue, "as an emerging growth market with aggressive technological advances, and a burgeoning population, Vault 51 in Vietnam provides a tremendous amount of growth potential not only for Vault 51 but the Bitcoin eco community in general"- JW Walker President Bitcoinz USA. Vault 51 is an offline storage system for Bitcoin users, which is represented by a Physical Bitcoin. The electronic Bitcoin is then stored off-line in a secured computer chip known as Vault 51 and embedded in a Physical Bitcoin, which is not connected to the internet. This process is also known as cold storage and is done to avoid hacking, loss, or theft. - Official Vault 51 Website - Official Facebook Page - Official Google Plus Page - Official Twitter Page About Bayside Corp. Bayside Corp. is an American multinational corporation that manages multiple subsidiary companies engaged in a variety of business industries and sectors. At Bayside Corp. we believe that the future is now and that our efforts today will have a long lasting impact for generations to come. For additional information on the Company visit our website at: http://www.baysidecorp.com Certain statements in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" All forward-looking statements are based on Bayside's current expectations, estimates, projections, beliefs and assumptions based on information available at the time the statement was made and in light of Bayside's experience and its perception of historical trends. The forward-looking statement in this news release includes reference to: Bayside's ability to execute on its strategy and deliver strong results on behalf of its shareholders. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks and uncertainties; some that are similar to other related companies and some that are unique to our company. Bayside's actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on them . Story continues Contact: 15400 Knoll Trail Suite 501 Dallas, TX 75248 800-719-1310 SOURCE: Bayside Corp. View comments || Hacking Fears Boost Cybersecurity Shares: One of the most watched industries this year has been cybersecurity as several high-profile cyber attacks have drawn attention to the fact that hackers seem to be one step ahead of the programs protecting companies' data. Not only have private firms been spending more on new security tools to keep their customer data safe, but cybersecurity businesses are also being granted large government contracts in order to thwart hacking attacks from foreign countries as well. Threats Rise On Wednesday,a surveyshowed that security threats against American, British and Canadian companies are quickly rising and businesses are struggling to keep up. The move toward cloud-based computing has created an entirely new range of cybersecurity threats that most firms are not prepared to deal with. Additionally, a lack of training among employees has made it easier for hackers to get inside company databases through workers' personal phones and computers. Investors Get On Board Investors have also taken notice of the industry setting shares of cybersecurity companies on fire over the past couple months.FireEye Inc.(NASDAQ:FEYE) saw its fourth quarter revenue jump by 150 percent last year and shares ofCyberArk Software Ltd(NASDAQ:CYBR) have increased by more than 40 percent so far this year. A relatively new ETF has emerged in the sector calledPureFunds Cyber Security(NYSE:HACK) in order to give investors a way to play the sector as a whole; FireEye, CyberArk andInfoblox Inc.(NASDAQ:BLOX) make up the fund's largest holdings. Related Link:How Contract Management Helps Hedge Against Financial Services Cyber Threats A Bubble About To Burst? Many worry that the recent rise in cybersecurity share prices can't be sustained. However, some analysts say the rise has been warranted as the firms aren't just trading on headlines. The hacking attacks like those carried out atSony Inc.(NYSE:SNE) andAnthem Inc.(NYSE:ANTM) not only dominated the news, but genuinely boosted security firms' balance sheets. FireEye was hired by both companies to clean up the aftermath of the attacks, while other firms saw an influx of new corporate customers looking to prevent similar situations. Also, with more and more businesses taking their data online, the threat of a breach is set to keep rising— making the demand for security firms likely to continue. See more from Benzinga • Declining Euro Stokes Currency War Fears • Marijuana Remains The 'Wild West' Of Investing • Meet The 3 Companies Goldman Sachs Says Are Leading The Bitcoin Revolution © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Why This Internet Pioneer Believes Bitcoin Has the Power to Break the Cycle of Poverty: When millionaire Wences Casares speaks of poverty, and he often he does, he’s not blowing hot air. He’s speaking from firsthand experience. The Argentina-born serial Silicon Valley startup investor and bitcoin entrepreneur grew up on his parents’ sheep ranch, 20 miles from the nearest neighbor and 100 miles from the nearest town. Isolated in the rugged Patagonia region, he watched his family lose their life savings, not once but three times due to hyperinflation. “I remember my parents losing everything,” Casares told TechCrunch . “I was 14.” Bearing witness to his parents’ devastating consecutive losses cut deep, fueling his ongoing global mission to leverage technology to help spare others from similar straits. Related: NYC Wants Drivers to Pay For Parking Tickets Via Apple Pay, Mobile Apps and Bitcoin He set out to help impoverished and underserved people gain access to critical financial services that often only the well-to-do throughout much of Latin America are privy to. In 1994, at the age of 20, he made history when he founded Argentina’s first Internet Services Provider. The startup was eventually scooped up for a cool $750 million. Casares later launched a successful video game development firm that gaming goliath Activision acquired. He also created a retail bank that grew to more than 7,000 branches in marginalized neighborhoods throughout Brazil and provided 15 million customers with their first bank accounts. It was another triumphant venture acquired for a hefty sum. Steamrolling ahead, Casares then founded Lemon, a digital wallet startup that LifeLock purchased for $43 million in 2013. Today Casares, now 40, a college dropout and self-taught coder, is the chief executive officer of yet another promising technology startup, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Xapo . He co-founded the bitcoin wallet, bitcoin storage and bitcoin debit card provider, described as “ an FDIC for BTC ,” in 2012 with payments industry veteran Federico Murrone. To date, the company has secured $40 million in venture capital, with backing from some of Silicon Valley's biggest players, including Benchmark, Greylock Partners, Index Ventures and PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and the Winklevoss twins. Story continues Related: Bitcoin in 10 Years: 4 Predictions From SecondMarket's Barry Silbert An early bitcoin adopter and bitcoin miner himself, Casares told Entrepreneur he went into the bitcoin business because he thinks bitcoin “may be the best form of money we have ever seen in the history of civilization.” Its value lies in its ability to be transferred for free, in real-time and without an intermediary, he says. Those properties resonate with him particularly given his childhood roots. “It gave me hope for the 5 billion people in the world who have cell phones but don’t have a bank account or a credit card, who have to live mostly with cash and are terribly taken advantage of in the process, neglected people who would die without a bank account if they relied on the traditional banking system.” Casares wasn’t always such a staunch bitcoin believer. When he first got wind of the fledgling cryptocurrency in 2011, two years after it was invented, he was “very skeptical.” His passion for bitcoin, he said, didn’t ignite until a friend of his from Argentina asked him to send him some of the virtual cash for a project that they were working on. Related: Why Bitcoin Is Still a Blank Slate Ripe for Disruption “I bought some [bitcoin] in Palo Alto from some person that I found on Craigslist,” he recalled. Casares met the seller at a cafe and paid him in good, old-fashioned U.S. greenbacks for BTC. He sent the funds to his friend using a desktop bitcoin client and was amazed when his friend actually received it. “It was like science fiction for someone like me, a person who has been in the finance and payments technology space for a long time. That’s when the lightbulb clicked on and made me kick into overdrive, reading and learning and meeting people and trying to understand what bitcoin is.” It wasn’t long before he became a bitcoin fanatic and evangelist, mining bitcoins himself and eventually exploring ways to expand mass adoption. He had his work cut out for him, and, to a large extent, still does. A full three-quarters of Americans don't know what bitcoin is and have no interest in using it, according to a recent study. Plus, the digital currency's use within illegal drug-trafficking platform Silk Road as well as several Ponzi schemes hasn't exactly boosted consumer trust. “I quickly realized that, in addition to misconceptions about bitcoin being used for porn or fraud, security was one of the main hurdles holding it back to wider use,” he said. “It poses security challenges that we’ve never seen before as the first digital asset that is scarce and very valuable, so how to safeguard it is anything but trivial and probably beyond what the average consumer should undertake or have to worry about.” Related: Why Bitcoin Is Like 'Email for Money' So he took up the challenge himself. The result was an early secure bitcoin wallet platform that later evolved into Xapo, which Casares describes as “ the Swiss bank of bitcoin ” and claims is “the first bitcoin vault fully protected and insured against hacking and bankruptcy.” Xapo locks down the private keys to its customers’ bitcoin wallets via multi-signature authentication and encryption, and by copying them “onto external drives and paper” offline. The data is distributed to several secret underground “deep cold-storage” servers scattered across different continents and protected by 24/7 video surveillance, biometric sensors and armed guards. The servers are housed in radio wave-blocking Faraday cages . We’re talking “ security fit for a super villain’s hideout .” The startup, insured by its own Xapo Insurance Limited, formerly monetized its services by charging an annual fee of 0.12 percent for each vault deposit made. It recently nixed the fee and began offering its vault services for free. Customers who use Xapo's bitcoin debit card are charged fees laid out by its card service provider. Related: Why Bitcoin's Future Is Bright With the security arm of Xapo well-established and thriving “as the largest custodian of bitcoin in the world,” Casares claims, his next quest is to bring bitcoin to remote, underserved communities throughout the world, places similar to where he grew up, where access to money makes “ the difference between having clothes for winter or not ,” between eating and going hungry. (Xapo does not share the number of customers it has.) “We don’t want to just expose people in need [to bitcoin], we want to make it a lot easier for them to get, understand and use as a payment mechanism. I truly believe bitcoin is the best hope for the 5 billion people who don’t have bank accounts to take part in the global economy.” Related: 50 Insane Facts About Bitcoin (Infographic) || Bitcoin Startup Coinbase Is Raising $75 Million In New Funding: Brian Armstrong Coinbase Anthony Harvey/Getty Images Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong talks at the 2014 TechCrunch Disrupt conference in London. The price of Bitcoin has plummeted in recent weeks, dropping to low levels not seen since the end of 2013. But this hasn’t put off investors. Virtual currency startup Coinbase has just closed a $75 million round of funding, Fortune is reporting — the largest ever for a Bitcoin company. Coinbase offers customers digital wallets allowing them to store their Bitcoin, as well as providing an exchange platform. Launched in 2012, the company has now raised $105 million in venture capital funding. Investors in this most recent round include the New York Stock Exchange, banks USAA and BBVA, and former Citibank CEO Vikram Pandit, as well as Andreesson Horowitz, Reddit Capital and Union Square Ventures (who had all previously invested). The $75 million funding round is believed to value the company at $400 million, though this couldn’t be confirmed. Coinbase’s platform is used by several major Bitcoin-accepting mainstream companies, Re/code reports , including Overstock and Expedia. The service also has almost 2 million customers. Co-founder Fred Ehrsam told Fortune that Coinbase has grown extensively over 2014 , despite the slump in price. “Price volatility isn’t good for certain uses of Bitcoin,” he said. “But, in that same time period, we went from 600,000 users to 2.1 million users.” The company also aims to help develop apps on top of the Bitcoin platform, and make the virtual currency more straightforward to ordinary people. Speaking in London in 2014, CEO Brian Armstrong likened Bitcoin’s current state to “the early days of the Internet” prior to mass adoption. Here’s a tweet confirming the news: Pleased to share we’ve raised $75M led by @dfjgrowth @USAA @nyse @bbva @docomo and others. Focused on helping #bitcoin grow in 2015 & beyond — Coinbase (@coinbase) January 20, 2015 It’s much-needed good news for the Bitcoin community, which has been through a tumultuous few weeks. The virtual currency’s value is currently hovering around the $210 mark — down $100 from just a month ago. The price drop has forced cloud mining service CEX.io to halt operations because they’re no longer profitable. And hackers recently made off with $5 million in Bitcoin from exchange Bitstamp . Interestingly, though the drop in price hasn’t been accompanied by a decrease in trading. It’s actually quite the opposite: amid mass speculation, the volume of trades surged to record levels last week . Read more stories on Business Insider , Malaysian edition of the world’s fastest-growing business and technology news website. || Bitcoin just getting started and its potential is "almost unimaginably broad": Bitcoin is an "exciting new technology" but Bill Gates doesn't think it's a proper tool for the world's roughly 2.5 billion 'unbanked' poor."We don't use bitcoin specifically for two reasons,"Gates said Wednesdayduring a Reddit 'Ask Me Anything' session. "One is that the poor shouldn't have a currency whose value goes up and down a lot compared to their local currency. Second is that if a mistake is made in who you pay then you need to be able to reverse it so anonymity wouldn't work."Those are "valid criticisms," according to Wall Street Journal reporter Paul Vigna, but should not detract from bitcoin's huge potential to fundamentally change the world of finance.Bitcoin is "one of the most powerful innovations in finance in the past 500 years," Vigna and co-author Michael Casey argue in their new book:The Age of Cryptocurrency. (Coincidentaily, the authors did their own Redditt AMA today which can be foundhere.)In the accompanying video, Vigna compares bitcoin to the "horseless carriage" in the late 19th century. "This thing was just invented," he says of the digital currency. "We are just figuring out what can be done with this.  They are just starting to build it."Indeed, bitcoin has come a long way since its launch in late 2008: More than 82,000 merchants currently accept bitcoin, including Microsoft, and global usage of the currency averaged $50 million a day in 2014,The WSJ reports. Coinbase, the first U.S.-based bitcoin exchange, just launched this month after receiving $75 million in backing from investors including the NYSE and Spain's Banco Bilbao. And the Winkelvoss twins have committed to launch their own exchange, Gemini, which they claim will be'the Nasdaq of Bitcoin'."What most excites these" -- and other investors like tech legends Marc Andreesen and Reid Hoffman -- "is bitcoin's promise as a platform whose future applications are almost unimaginably broad," Casey and Vigna write. "Already, hundreds of specialized apps are being built on top of the digital-currency blockchain software, which is seen in this context as a kind of base operating system."Bitcoin's benefits -- including transaction speed and anonymity -- and its potential to disrupt the current system where banks serve as financial intermediaries, aka middle men -- have been widely discussed and debated.But what aboutthe price?Bitcoin fell over 60% vs. the dollar in 2014, which also saw the bankruptcy of one of its biggest exchanges, Mt. Gox. This year didn't start much better in terms of price; an early drop to start the year left bitcoin, at its recent nadir, more than 80% below its 2013 high."The market is volatile because it is very thin and it is still being built," Vigna explains. "If [bitcoin] keeps growing, if it keeps building the price will smooth itself out. It will become a more stable currency as more people use it.  And you’ll see that [volatility] go away and then they will build the rest of the products around it. The biggest thing is these are very early days for this. This is a very, in my mind, it’s a very exciting technology."On that, at least, Vigna and Gates are in agreement. What do you think? Is bitcoin a scam? A flash in the pan? A profound advance in currency? Something in between? Let us know in the comments section below or reach out to me on Twitter:@aarontask || Bitcoin Expert Jason Brailow, Talks About the Future of Cryptocurrency: LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - Jan 30, 2015) - The first U.S. Bitcoin exchange in the United States, backed by $106 million in investor funding, opened this week, allowing users to buy and sell Bitcoins in 24 states, including New York and California. After the significant downward spurt of the digital currency earlier this month, this announcement may seem unexpected, but Bitcoin experts includingJason Brailoware not surprised by this development: "I believe the recent price drop we have witnessed is a benefit for Bitcoins in the long run. The market needed to be corrected -- the Bitcoin could not continue to sustain itself at such an overinflated price." Brailow's optimism is supported by an increasing number of new applications and products that are based on Bitcoin technology. Encouraged by the exponential growth of the virtual currency over the last five years, major players including Dell Computers, Dish Network, Bloomberg LP, PayPal, and Expedia.com started to accept Bitcoins, fostering the currency's credibility and stability. "Bitcoins are not just a trend, they are the currency of the future," states Brailow, who in 2014 launched a Bitcoin company as a division of Advanced Global Concepts, a highly successful direct marketing business. "As the Bitcoin continues to see corrections, it will likely attract more long-term investors which will only strengthen our business model as well as our partners." Venture capitalists funding Bitcoins are investing in the brilliant idea behind the cryptocurrency, which can change the online trading landscape as we know it.Jason Brailowwas one of the first entrepreneurs to recognize this potential and was quick to build a novel financial infrastructure to guarantee safe handling of the digital currency. Asked about the motivation to bring his Bitcoin project to life, Brailow raves: "Virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin, use digital wallets and peer-to-peer Internet connectivity, rather than bank accounts and traditional wire transfer networks. The benefits of these digital alternatives to national currencies include low-cost, high-speed transactions, privacy, and easy access through the Internet. Bitcoin transactions are conducted using unique value addresses and private key cryptography, providing a high degree of anonymity. I believe it is only a matter of time until it will become a worldwide recognized means of payment." Advanced Global Concepts received its first round of financing of $5 million for Bitcoin exchange and has experienced an overwhelmingly positive response on the marketplace since its launch in November. Founder, owner, and CEO of Advanced Global Concepts, Jason Brailow, built a proprietary infrastructure for Bitcoin based on high-performance exchange technologies, which allows him to offer clients secure, high-performance storage solutions. The result is a robust trading engine that serves many of the world's most influential banks, hedge funds, brokerages, FX dealers, and trading firms, and set a new standard in the rapidly growing Bitcoin market. To learn more about Jason Brailow, visit:http://www.JasonBrailowNews.com Twitter:http://twitter.com/JasonBrailowUT LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/in/jbrailow Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=2758812 || Here Are The Top 5 Priorities For Apple, According To Top Apple Analyst Gene Munster: Tim Cook iPhone 6 Apple Watch According to Apple analyst Gene Munster, these are the company's top-5 priorities in order of importance: iPhone iOS Apple Watch Mac Emerging What's missing? The iPad. "We believe that at this point, the iPad is largely just an offshoot of iPhone in that the iPad does not have any significantly unique features that iPhone does not other than a larger screen," said Munster in a note for clients. "While this may seem a negative view on iPad, it is not meant as such and more of a commentary on the power of the iPhone and iOS that it extends to create a sub-segment that is ~13% of Apple’s core business." So, why does he think those other categories are important? The iPhone, because, duh, Apple is the iPhone company. Apple's stock swings higher or lower depending on iPhone sales. iOS, because according to Munster, it is "the future of the company." iOS is the operating system that powers the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple TV, and the Apple Watch. It is at the core of Apple's biggest new products. It also is the base for future expansion into home automation and health. Moreso than hardware design, iOS is what's separates the iPhone from an Android phone. The Apple Watch is Apple's first new product category since the iPad, and it's Apple's first stab at wearable computing. Munster also thinks it could be massive down the road: " Today the Watch is an accessory for the iPhone, but we believe core features like calls, voice control, messaging, etc. could be controlled via a Watch, implant, light field technology or other evolving technology, leaving the smartphone as we know it irrelevant. Therefore we believe that Apple’s foray into wearables via the Apple Watch may be more important in them figuring out how wearables will change the smartphone market than it is as an individual business line in the next couple of years." The Mac is a bigger part of Apple's business than the iPad, and it's growing. Munster thinks Apple can be a little more creative with the Mac as opposed to the iPad. The iPad is just a bigger iPhone, whereas the Mac is its own product. Emerging products are things that haven't even been rumored yet. Munster, because he's Munster, thinks Apple will eventually do something in television. " Fundamentally, we believe that Apple looks for areas in which they can deliver great experiences by marrying hardware and software. We believe television is the most obvious and most significant remaining market opportunity." But, if not television, then it has to be something else. Apple is always looking for the next major opportunity. More From Business Insider Why Bitcoin's Astonishing Price Collapse Doesn't Matter Why Apple Will Do A $200 Billion Cash-Return Program, According To Credit Suisse The CEO Of Sling TV Defends His Company's Radical Plan To Change TV Forever || US-Based Bitcoin Platform Harborly Integrates with Vogogo: CALGARY, AB & PALO ALTO, CA/ACCESSWIRE /FEBRUARY 19th, 2015/ Payment processing compliance & fraud mitigation specialistVogogo Inc.(TSX VENTURE:VGO) today announced a technical Integration with US-based Bitcoin platformHarborly. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Texas, USA, Harborly is an online Bitcoin platform designed with the intention of lowering the barrier to access Bitcoin globally. Currently, Harborly's new website has integrated Vogogo's payment processing and risk management platform for Canadian customers. As well, it is expected that Harborly will fully integrate Vogogo's platform which will enable it to offer users seamless transactions between Bitcoin and fiat currencies in the EU and the US in addition to Canada. Through the latter half of 2014 Vogogo prepared its payment processing and risk management platform to effectively service the crypto industry. Vogogo is now actively boarding new crypto based clients onto the Vogogo platform with the goal of creating transactional growth throughout 2015. Vogogo CEO Geoff Gordon said of the announcement, "We're excited to have Harborly integrate with our platform and are in the process of finalizing similar agreements with numerous other exchanges at this time. This activity helps to further solidify Vogogo as an important part of the overall crypto currency ecosystem and it will certainly help us grow our processing volumes as we move forward. " Connor Black, Harborly's CEO remarked, "We are excited to launch our new website in Canada and are extremely pleased to partner with an industry leader like Vogogo. Consolidating our foothold in the Canadian Bitcoin market is an important step toward our broader business goals." AboutVogogo Vogogo is a TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") publicly traded payment services company with integrated risk management and compliance. Founded in 2008, Vogogo designed, built and launched its web-based payment processing technology while growing its expertise in software development, payments, risk management, compliance and related financial services. Vogogo is now executing on its plan to serve global markets. The plan focuses on market opportunities where Vogogo believes it has a competitive advantage due to its positioning and technology. For further company information please view theVogogo Media Kit For information or interview please contact: Geoff Gordon Chief Executive Officer 403-648-9292 Rodney Thompson Chief Revenue Officer 403-648-9292 AboutHarborly Pangaea International Limited, a Belize international business corporation (d/b/a Harborly), is a platform to buy and sell Bitcoin headquartered in Texas, USA. Founded in 2014, Harborly was designed to lower the barrier to access Bitcoin globally and enable individuals and businesses to access and transact in Bitcoin and fiat currencies alike. In addition to Canada, the Harborly team is currently working on expanding the service to strategic markets across the world including Eastern Europe, India, South America, Southeast Asia and the United States. Over the course of 2015, the team has further plans to layer a remittance functionality on top of its current infrastructure. Connor Black Chief Executive Officer 713-574-9913 READER ADVISORY Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. None of the information contained on, or connected to, Vogogo's website is incorporated by reference herein. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Statements in this press release contain forward-looking information including, without limitation, timing for integration of the Vogogo platform with Harborly, expansion plans of Vogogo and anticipated dates for commercial trading volumes. The words "will," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intent," "may," "project," "should," and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are founded on the basis of expectations and assumptions made by Vogogo. Readers are cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of such information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Vogogo. Vogogo does not have any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements except as expressly required by applicable securities laws. SOURCE:Vogogo Inc. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Cotización del #bitcoin a las 00:00hs Venta: 2859 ARS Compra: 2735 ARS || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 20 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $90.75 #bitcoin #btc || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 23 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $675.12 #bitcoin #btc || Current price: 210.24€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-02-03 06:00:03 CET || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 15011.00 INR Sell : 14499.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 16 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $134.30 #bitcoin #btc || $225.01 at 12:45 UTC [24h Range: $220.00 - $260.41 Volume: 33311 BTC] || Buying bitcoins can be delicious at https://Bittylicious.com/refer/2465  £175.00 per BTC. (BPI +6.77%) #buy #bitcoin #banktrans || $247.29 at 01:30 UTC [24h Range: $244.00 - $247.80 Volume: 3159 BTC] || 2015年3月15日 23:00:02 BTC_MONA 買[bid]:1990.00000000MONA 売[ask]:2080.00000000MONA API by もなとれ
Trend: down || Prices: 290.59, 285.51, 256.30, 260.93, 261.75, 260.02, 267.96, 266.74, 245.60, 246.20
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-01-15] BTC Price: 36825.37, BTC RSI: 61.62 Gold Price: 1829.30, Gold RSI: 41.25 Oil Price: 52.36, Oil RSI: 66.76 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Market Wrap: Bitcoin Hits $18.8K as Total Crypto Locked in DeFi Passes $14B: The price of bitcoin hit new 2020 highs as the “alternative to gold” narrative increases. Meanwhile, smaller crypto tokens might be helping push DeFi to new heights. • Bitcoin(BTC) trading around $18,638 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 3.5% over the previous 24 hours. • Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $17,723-$18,813 (CoinDesk 20) • BTC above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bullish signal for market technicians. Bitcoin’s price made gains Friday, going as high as $18,813, according to CoinDesk 20 data. The world’s oldest cryptocurrency then dropped a bit, to $18,638 as of press time. The last time bitcoin traded at the $18,800 level was back on Dec. 19, 2017, when the price went as high as $18,984. Some analysts see $19,000 as certainly within reach, but bitcoin won’t shoot straight up getting there, noted John Kramer, a trader at crypto firm GSR. “It feels more and more like we’re hitting a bitcoin tipping point,” Kramer told CoinDesk. “That’s not to say that the price will rocket past $19,000; in fact, a cooldown is to be expected.” Related:John Lennon's Son Says Bitcoin ‘Empowers’ People Like Never Before Read More:BlackRock’s Chief Investment Officer Says Bitcoin Could Replace Gold Despite any cooldown that may occur, bitcoin is certainly hotter than gold so far in 2020, with bitcoin up 147% year to date versus the yellow metal’s 22% performance. “I expect a lot more media coverage and reinforcement of the narrative around bitcoin being a better alternative to gold in the near future as more and more prominent Wall Street investors like BlackRock are openly sharing their positive views,” said Jason Lau, chief operating officer for San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin. Read More:Y Combinator, Pantera Backs $3M in New Crypto Derivatives Exchange Related:Bitcoin Shortage? Pantera Thinks Market Rally Driven by PayPal Buys Lau was referring to an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” by Rick Rieder, fixed income CIO at BlackRock, the $7 trillion assert manager. “Do I think it’s a durable mechanism that … could take the place of gold to a large extent? Yeah, I do, because it’s so much more functional than passing a bar of gold around,” Rieder said of bitcoin during the program. In the derivatives market, options traders are betting on some bitcoin uncertainty for December expiration. Traders expect a 54% chance of bitcoin staying over $18,000, a 44% chance of $19,000 per 1 BTC and a 35% chance of $20,000. Denis Vinokourov, head of research at digital asset prime broker Bequant, said many are dismissing the impactethercould have on the derivatives market heading into 2021. “If one goes by the notion that bitcoin will become a more commonly held asset in traditional space, then there is little that would prevent [ether] in following suit,” Vinokourov told CoinDesk. “Expect the CME to launch ether futures and options in due course, as the current market positioning and flow clearly show growing demand.” Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was up Friday, trading around $510 and climbing 7.5% in 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). The total amount of cryptocurrency “locked” (TVL) in decentralized finance, or DeFi, has passed $14 billion for the first time, at $14.1 billion as of press time. However, the amount of ETH locked has been declining, perhaps becausesome stakers are moving the asset over to Ethereum 2.0 contract. In addition, the amount of bitcoin locked is also dipping in DeFi. It seems that smaller tokens are seeing major gains along with BTC and ETH, likely contributing to TVL gains, although as of press time DeFi Pulse did not respond to a request for comment on how it accounts for those tokens in its metrics. “The substantial recent price run-up in ETH and BTC have caused in nominal dollar terms the TVL to balloon as the smaller absolute number of tokens of each is still representing a much larger dollar amount,” noted John Willock, chief executive officer of crypto custody provider Tritium. Digital assets on theCoinDesk 20are mostly green Friday. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): • omg network(OMG) + 10% • cardano(ADA) + 8.6% • xrp(XRP) + 6.6% Notable losers: • ethereum classic(ETC) – 1.3% • kyber network(KNC) – 0.37% • tezos(XTZ) – 0.15% Read More:US Firm Launches Company-Sponsored Bitcoin Retirement Plans Equities: • The Nikkei 225 ended the day in the red 0.42% as arecord number of coronavirus cases in Japan had investors concerned about economic prospects. • The FTSE 100 in Europe closed in the green 0.27% asBrexit talks continue with optimism a deal can be made within the next two days. • In the United States the S&P slipped 0.50% asinvestors signaled concern for the overall economy as coronavirus cases surge. Commodities: • Oil was up 1.6%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $42.40. • Gold was in the green 0.43% and at $1,873 as of press time. Treasurys: • The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield fell Friday dipping to 0.826 and in the red 0.19%. • Market Wrap: Bitcoin Hits $18.8K as Total Crypto Locked in DeFi Passes $14B • Market Wrap: Bitcoin Hits $18.8K as Total Crypto Locked in DeFi Passes $14B || Wednesday’s 10 Notable Stocks in Focus: U.S. stock futures tied to all three major indexes rose in the premarket trading Wednesday. At 2:18 p.m. ET, S&P 500 Index advanced 0.16 percent to 3,733.03, Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.28 percent to 30,419.75, and Nasdaq jumped 0.27 percent to 12,885.38. U.S. stocks were trading higher yesterday but suddenly slipped later in the day when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell objected to the revised stimulus payments proposed by President Donald Trump on Monday. McConnell blocked the increase in stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000. However, he still has a choice to decide about the revised amount later. Trump previously criticized the $600 payment, saying the amount is low for U.S. citizens who need extra money for buying groceries and paying rent. In major news stories, the U.S. trade deficit in goods increased 5.5 percent to $84.8 billion in November, as compared to $80.4 billion in October, as the pandemic weighed on the overall exports. Meanwhile, Bitcoin climbed over $28000 on Wednesday, and it is on track for the biggest monthly surge in more than a year. Its price has surged over 40 percent in the current month. The confirmed coronavirus cases in the world surpassed 82 million and the casualties from the deal virus crossed 1.79 million, as of Wednesday. The numbers were reported by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. is the hardest-hit country from the pandemic, with over 19.5 million positive cases and a death toll of 338,656 and counting. More than 200,902 new Covid-19 cases were reported on Tuesday, with a death toll of 3,626, according to the New York Times. Congressman-elect Luke Letlow also lost his life on Tuesday, just a few days after getting infected with the virus. He was 41 years old and the news came as a shock to many. The U.K. government has approved the Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca (AZN) and the University of Oxford. The home-developed vaccine will be easy to ship and store for the health authorities in the country. The U.K. has now enough doses to vaccinate the majority of its population, according to health secretary Matt Hancock. However, a recently discovered new strain of the coronavirus has further deteriorated the situation. The authorities are planning to impose more restrictions to limit the spread of the virus. Story continues Meanwhile, the dollar fell to new 52-week lows against several currencies on Wednesday, while gold prices moved up, with U.S. gold futures rising more than 0.6 percent today. Moreover, U.S crude oil futures also rose about 0.7 percent earlier today. Among the major U.S. stocks, Tesla ( TSLA ) stock rose nearly 2 percent, while shares of Apple ( AAPL ), Microsoft ( MSFT ), Facebook ( FB ), Amazon ( AMZN ), and Alphabet ( GOOGL ) were marginally down this morning. Here are today's 10 notable market movers: 10. AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ: AZN ) AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ: AZN ) shares inched higher this morning after the U.K health authorities approved its Covid-19 vaccine, marking the first approval from any country. The government initially plans to vaccinate those who are most vulnerable to the virus, with shots beginning next Monday. AstraZeneca stock value has increased over 290 percent in 2020, with most of the surge associated with its Covid-19 vaccine development. 9. Codexis Inc. (NASDAQ: CDXS ) Codexis Inc. (NASDAQ: CDXS ) shares are trading 3.3% higher in the current trading session after receiving a price target hike from Benchmark. The research firm lifted the price target for CDXS stock from $21 per share to $29 per share, while maintaining a “Buy” rating for the protein engineering company. 8. Acadia Healthcare Company Inc (NASDAQ: ACHC ) Acadia Healthcare Company Inc (NASDAQ: ACHC ) shares hit a new 52-week high of $50.98 this morning after the company announced that it has inked a deal to sell its UK-based operations to Waterland Private Equity for nearly $1.47 billion. ACHC intends to use the proceeds from the deal to reduce debt and other general business purposes. The two parties expect the transaction to close next month. 7. WiMi Hologram Cloud Inc. (NASDAQ: WIMI ) WiMi Hologram Cloud Inc. (NASDAQ: WIMI ) shares rose nearly 3 percent today after Benchmark analyst Fawne Jiang started coverage on the stock. Jiang issued a “Buy” rating for WIMI with a price target of $8 per share, as compared to the current trading price of around $5.8 per share. WIMI is a provider of holographic services and products based on augmented reality (AR). 6. Sundial Growers Inc. (NASDAQ: SNDL ) Sundial Growers Inc. (NASDAQ: SNDL ) shares slightly moved up this morning after the Canadian cannabis company announced that it has closed the acquisition of a special purpose vehicle in a cash deal valued at $46 million. SNDL stock did not perform well in 2020. The stock lost more than 80 percent of its value on a year-to-date basis. 5. Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA ) Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA ) shares rose nearly 3 percent in the mid-day trading Wednesday after Wedbush analyst Dan Ives stated in a note that the San Carlos, California-based electric vehicle manufacturer could accomplish its target of 500,000 deliveries for the current fiscal year. Strong demand in China along with the higher demand in Europe and the U.S. in the second half of 2020 will help TSLA achieve its vehicle-deliveries goal, according to Ives. TSLA did exceptionally well this year. Its share price skyrocketed more than 700 percent in 2020. Get real-time email alerts: Follow Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) Tesla 4. Marathon Patent Group Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA ) Marathon Patent Group Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA ) shares rose more than 5 percent on Wednesday morning. This is the second time the stock has moved up this week. MARA is one of the largest enterprise bitcoin mining companies. It recently announced that an agreement to buy 70,000 Antminer S-19 ASIC miners from Bitmain in a transaction valued at $170 million. Moreover, today’s surge also follows the record trading price of Bitcoin, which crossed $28,000 today. Get real-time email alerts: Follow Marathon Patent Group Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA) 3. Fubotv Inc. (NYSE: FUBO ) Fubotv Inc. (NYSE: FUBO ) shares are down for the fifth consecutive trading session. The stock has lost more than 35 percent of its value since December 22, after LightShed Partners analysts set a price target of $8 per share for FUBO stock. LightShed Partners analyst Rich Greenfield said in a statement, “FUBO may be the most compelling short we have ever identified in our career as analysts." On the other hand, Needham & Co. analyst Laura Martin remains bullish on the stock. Last week, Martin lifted her price target for FUBO to $60 per share. Get real-time email alerts: Follow Fubotv Inc. (OTCMKTS:FUBO) 2. Osmotica Pharmaceuticals PLC (NASDAQ: OSMT ) Osmotica Pharmaceuticals PLC (NASDAQ: OSMT ) shares plummeted more than 22 percent in the mid-day trading Wednesday after the FDA responded to its new drug application for a drug candidate to treat spasticity. FDA stated in its response, “The Company did not provide adequate justification (including in its most recent NDA amendment) for the statistical analysis of the change from baseline to Day 84 in TNmAS-MAL scores comparing arbaclofen 40 mg to placebo, one of the co-primary endpoints.” Get real-time email alerts: Follow Osmotica Pharmaceuticals Plc 1. Net Element Inc. (NASDAQ: NETE ) Net Element Inc. (NASDAQ: NETE ) shares skyrocketed more than 35 percent this morning after Mullen Technologies announced on Wednesday that it has received an offer for the purchase of about 10,000 of its MX-05 electric vehicles. If it agrees to the order, it will have to initially deliver 1,500 EVs with nearly 8,500 through the next five years. For those of you thinking what Net Element stock price hike has to do with Mullen Technologies? The two companies are currently moving forward with their merger plan. Get real-time email alerts: Follow Net Element Inc. (NASDAQ:NETE) Suggested Articles: 10 Best Genomic Stocks To Buy Now Billionaire Barry Rosenstein's Top 10 Stock Picks 12 Best Autonomous Vehicle Stocks For 2021 Disclosure: No positions. Wednesday’s 10 Notable Stocks in Focus is originally published at Insider Monkey. || FOREX-Dollar downtrend takes breather amid higher yields as jobs report looms: * Dollar gained most in two months overnight as positions unwound * Many analysts see dollar resuming decline on increased stimulus * Graphic: World FX rates in 2020 https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E By Kevin Buckland TOKYO, Jan 8 (Reuters) - The dollar held on to its biggest gain in more than two months against its major peers on Friday as a rise in U.S. yields triggered some unwinding of bearish bets on the currency. The greenback bounced off a nearly three-year low, with traders taking profits against the euro in particular, following a slide in the dollar index of nearly 7% in 2020 and as much as 0.9% in the new year amid expectations of U.S. fiscal stimulus. Democrats won effective control of the Senate this week, giving President-elect Joe Biden scope to push through more spending, which analysts say will be negative for bonds and the dollar. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield topped 1% on Wednesday for the first time since March. "There were some aggressive dollar shorts being bought back," said Bart Wakabayashi, Tokyo branch manager of State Street Bank and Trust. "The selloff in Treasuries provided a trigger." Investors now await U.S. nonfarm payrolls later on Friday for clues on whether significantly more stimulus will be needed to keep the economic recovery alive. The dollar index was little changed at 89.859 in Asian trading, after dipping to an almost three-year low of 89.206 on Wednesday. It rose more than half a percent on Thursday, but remains on track for a weekly decline. The euro was mostly flat at $1.22605 following Thursday's 0.5% drop. The riskier Aussie dollar was also little changed at 77.70 U.S. cents after sliding 0.5% in the previous session. The greenback bought 103.900 yen after gaining 0.7% to close at 103.830 in New York. "The U.S. payrolls report might be viewed as a potential litmus test for USD bears," TD Securities analysts wrote in a client note. "Positioning is stretched and the backup in U.S. yields has some investors nervous. Our call for a negative print might not be large enough to trigger a liquidation in shorts, but we think a defensive posture is tactically warranted nonetheless." Bitcoin slid 3.3% to $36,198, and dipped as low as $36,618.36, a day after smashing through $40,000 for the first time. The world's most popular digital currency soared as high as$40,420 on Thursday, less than a month after crossing the $20,000 milestone on Dec. 16. ======================================================== Currency bid prices at 2:53PM (553 GMT) Description RIC Last U.S. Close Pct Change YTD Pct High Bid Low Bid Previous Change Session Euro/Dollar $1.2260 $1.2270 -0.08% +0.34% +1.2272 +1.2235 Dollar/Yen 103.8870 103.8300 +0.05% +0.57% +103.9850 +103.7850 Euro/Yen 127.39 127.37 +0.02% +0.37% +127.4300 +127.2300 Dollar/Swiss 0.8857 0.8855 +0.03% +0.12% +0.8871 +0.8851 Sterling/Dollar 1.3560 1.3565 +0.04% -0.67% +1.3571 +1.3540 Dollar/Canadian 1.2678 1.2690 -0.08% -0.42% +1.2700 +1.2677 Aussie/Dollar 0.7771 0.7769 +0.04% +1.03% +0.7775 +0.7741 NZ 0.7260 0.7256 +0.11% +1.16% +0.7265 +0.7240 Dollar/Dollar All spots Tokyo spots Europe spots Volatilities Tokyo Forex market info from BOJ (Editing by Sam Holmes and Kim Coghill) || OKEx Sees Biggest Bitcoin Outflow in 8 Months After Resuming Withdrawals: Update (11:10 UTC, Nov. 27 2020): OKEx saw a total outflow of 24,631 bitcoin on Thursday, according toCryptoQuant,the largest amount since the March markets crash. Cryptocurrency exchange OKEx recorded a major bitcoin outflow just minutes after it lifted a five-week-long withdrawal suspension at 08:00 UTC Thursday. About 2,822BTCwas moved from OKEx in block number 658,728 mined at 08:12 UTC. That’s the biggest single-block outflow since May 2019, according to blockchain analytics firmCryptoQuant. Related:Canada-Listed Investment Firm Sells All Its Ether, Monero to Buy More Bitcoin Of the 2,822 coins withdrawn, 456were transferredto cryptocurrency exchange Binance and more than 400 were moved to other exchanges. Meanwhile, 54 accounts or addresses took direct custody of some coins. OKExhalted withdrawalsindefinitely on Oct. 16 after one of the exchange’s key holders went “out of touch” with the exchange because they were held by authorities to “assist an investigation.” Some analysts have associated bitcoin’s recent meteoric rise to 35-month highs above $19,000 with a supply shortage due in part to OKEx’s suspension of crypto withdrawals. That’s because the price rally began after OKEx’s decision, dated Oct. 16. However, many market observersdo not seea strong reason to link the latest price rally with OKEx’s issues. “The ‘perfect’ timing of OKEx’s suspension and the price rally could be purely coincidental,” Ryan Watkins, bitcoin analyst at Messari,told CoinDesk. Related:Quick Bitcoin Price Recovery Looks in Doubt as Whales Move Coins Onto Exchanges Bitcoinplunged nearly $3,000on Thursday, shortly before OKEx was due to restart withdrawals. It’s also not clear if the two events may be linked. Also read:OKEx’s Withdrawal Suspension Isn’t Behind Bitcoin’s Rally: Analysts • OKEx Sees Biggest Bitcoin Outflow in 8 Months After Resuming Withdrawals • OKEx Sees Biggest Bitcoin Outflow in 8 Months After Resuming Withdrawals || Cypherpunk Holdings Inc. Announces Updated Bitcoin Holdings: Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - November 26, 2020) - Cypherpunk Holdings Inc. (CSE: HODL) (" Cypherpunk " or the " Company ") is pleased to announce that it has increased its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings to BTC 276.479. This represents a net increase since June 30, 2020 of 72.979 BTC. The increase in Bitcoin holdings is a result of the full liquidation of positions in Monero (XMR) and Ethereum (ETH), as well as the partial use of proceeds from a private placement of $505,000 CAD that closed on August 27 th , 2020. During October 2020, Cypherpunk Holdings Inc. was added to the unofficial list of public companies with a treasury position in Bitcoin alongside other companies such as MicroStrategy [MSTR], Square [SQ], and Galaxy Digital Holdings [GLXY]. The web site for Bitcoin Treasuries can be found at https://bitcointreasuries.org/ Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Generally, any statements that are not historical facts may contain forward-looking information, and forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or indicates that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be" taken, "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to the Company's intention to complete the private placement offering and its goal of making investments in the blockchain and other sectors and enhancing value. There is no assurance that the Company's plans or objectives will be implemented as set out herein, or at all. Forward-looking information is based on certain factors and assumptions the Company believes to be reasonable at the time such statements are made and is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by law. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. Story continues Investor Relations Contact: Lana Thompson Operations Coordinator, Cypherpunk Holdings Inc., info@mail.cypherpunkholdings.com Office: 416.599.8547 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/69049 || Skyledger Tech Corp. Announces Amended Deadline to Enter into Definitive Agreement in Connection with Proposed Transaction to Acquire Yukon Properties: Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 17, 2020) - Skyledger Tech Corp. (CSE: SKYL) (the " Company " or " Skyledger ") announces that, further to its news release dated October 15, 2020 wherein it announced a transaction (the " Transaction ") with 18526 Yukon Inc. (the " Vendor ") pursuant to which Skyledger will acquire certain mining claims located in the Yukon, it has entered into an amending agreement with the Vendor extending the time by which the parties must enter into a definitive agreement (the " Definitive Agreement ") in connection with the Transaction and complete due diligence from November 17 th to November 30 th . Further Information Further details about the Transaction will be provided in a comprehensive news release when the parties enter into the Definitive Agreement. Investors are cautioned that any information released or received with respect to the Transaction in this news release may not be complete and should not be relied upon. Completion of the Transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including but not limited to, Canadian Securities Exchange and shareholder approval. Where applicable, the Transaction cannot close until the required shareholder approval is obtained. There can be no assurance that the Transaction will be completed as proposed or at all. Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the listing statement to be prepared in connection with the Transaction, any information released or received with respect to the Transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. The Canadian Securities Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed Transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. The securities to be issued in connection with the Transaction have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the " U.S. Securities Act ") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons (as defined in Regulation S promulgated under the U.S. Securities Act) unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. Story continues About Skyledger Tech Corp. Skyledger is a Bitcoin mining company that gives shareholders access to the potential price appreciation of Bitcoin. The Company currently owns ASIC S17 and S9 Rigs that are located in Gibsons, British Columbia. On behalf of the Board of Directors James Liang Chief Executive Officer (604) 681-0911 CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, including statements about the Company's completion of the Transaction as well as its future plans and intentions. Wherever possible, words such as "may", "will", "should", "could", "expect", "plan", "intend", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "predict" or "potential" or the negative or other variations of these words, or similar words or phrases, have been used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management as at the date hereof. Forward-looking statements involve significant risk, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results discussed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's ability to complete the proposed Transaction; and other risks and uncertainties. These factors should be considered carefully and readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure readers that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law. THE CSE HAS NEITHER APPROVED NOR DISAPPROVED THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for dissemination in the United States . To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/68407 || How 2020 Unlocked a New Generation of Investors, feat. Jill Carlson: No one would have expected an economic crisis to bring a new generation of investors to the table, but that’s exactly what it did. For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , iHeartRadio or RSS . This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com and Nexo.io . Related: It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Bitcoin | 2020 Holiday Episode Download this episode Jill Carlson is an investor with Slow Ventures and the co-founder of the Open Money Initiative. In this wide-ranging discussion with NLW she discusses how an economic crisis brought in a new generation of investors and why political moderation will be all the rage in 2021. Find Our Guest online: @jillruthcarlson See also: Jill Carlson – Experiments in Crypto’s Governance Lab Related: Bitcoin News Roundup for Dec. 23, 2020 For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , iHeartRadio or RSS . Related Stories How 2020 Unlocked a New Generation of Investors, feat. Jill Carlson How 2020 Unlocked a New Generation of Investors, feat. Jill Carlson || MassMutual’s Bitcoin Buy May Presage $600B Institutional Flood: JPMorgan: JPMorgan analysts have said the recent bitcoin purchases by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. are a sign of growing mainstream acceptance for the cryptocurrency. • “MassMutual’s bitcoin purchases represent another milestone in the bitcoin adoption by institutional investors,” JPMorgan’s strategists said,according to Bloombergon Monday. • “One can see the potential demand that could arise over the coming years as other insurance companies and pension funds follow MassMutual’s example,” they added. • On Thursday, the 169-year old insurance firmannounced bitcoin purchasesworth $100 million, as well as a $5 million equity stake in NYDIG – a financial services firm focused onbitcoinwith $2.3 billion in the asset under management. • MassMutual’s move suggests insurance firms and pension funds are beginning to look at bitcoin as an investment/reserve asset alongside increased demand from wealthy investors and family offices. • According to JPMorgan, bitcoin may find an additional demand of $600 billion if pensions insurance firms in the U.S., European Union, U.K. and Japan allocate 1% of assets to the top cryptocurrency. • Regulatory hurdles, however, may complicate matters for such firms, limiting their participation in the bitcoin market, the strategists said. Read more:Bitcoin’s Rising Popularity With Investors Means Gold Will ‘Suffer’: JPMorgan • MassMutual’s Bitcoin Buy May Presage $600B Institutional Flood: JPMorgan • MassMutual’s Bitcoin Buy May Presage $600B Institutional Flood: JPMorgan • MassMutual’s Bitcoin Buy May Presage $600B Institutional Flood: JPMorgan • MassMutual’s Bitcoin Buy May Presage $600B Institutional Flood: JPMorgan || HIVE Blockchain Announces Closing of USD $15 Million Convertible Debenture Private Placement: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 12, 2021 /HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (TSXV:HIVE)(OTCQX:HVBTF)(FSE:HBF) (the "Company" or "HIVE") is pleased to announce it has closed its previously announced non-brokered private placement (the "Transaction") of unsecured debentures (the "Debentures"), for aggregate gross proceeds of USD$15,000,000 with U.S. Global Investors, Inc. ("U.S. Global"). The Debentures will mature on the date that is 60 months from the date of issuance, bearing interest at a rate of 8% per annum. The Debentures will be issued at par, with each Debenture being redeemable by HIVE at any time, and convertible at the option of the holder into common shares (each, a "Share") in the capital of the Company at a conversion price of CAD$3.00 per Share. Interest will be payable monthly and principal will be payable quarterly. In addition, U.S. Global will be issued 5.0 million common share purchase warrants (the "Warrants"). Each whole Warrant will entitle U.S. Global to acquire one common at an exercise price of CAD$3.00 per Share for a period of three years from closing. The issuance of the Debentures received conditional approval by the TSX Venture Exchange on December 31, 2020. The Debentures and Warrants are subject to a hold period and may not be traded until May 13, 2021 except as permitted by applicable securities legislation and the rules and policies of the TSX Venture Exchange. The Company intends to use the proceeds from the Transaction for general corporate purposes and working capital and expansion of its business plan. Mr. Frank Holmes, Interim Executive Chairman of HIVE, commented, "The Transaction is an excellent opportunity for HIVE to enhance liquidity, maintain momentum and deploy capital into additional miners and infrastructure. U.S. Global has recently sold shares of HIVE in order to redeploy capital back into HIVE. No shares have been sold by me personally. The purchase of an 8% debt instrument by U.S. Global is consistent with its investment criteria and assists HIVE by providing working capital for its growth strategy. The financing is being completed without the usual 6% broker fees, and the cost of capital is much less than the 16% cost of capital associated with leasing equipment for crypto mining." For additional information please see the Company's news release dated December 24, 2020 for more details. About HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. is a growth oriented, TSX.V-listed company building a bridge from the blockchain sector to traditional capital markets. HIVE owns state-of-the-art green energy-powered data centre facilities in Canada, Sweden, and Iceland which produce newly minted digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum continuously on the cloud. Our deployments provide shareholders with exposure to the operating margins of digital currency mining as well as a portfolio of crypto-coins. For more information and to register to HIVE's mailing list, please visitwww.HIVEblockchain.com. Follow@HIVEblockchain on Twitterand subscribe toHIVE's YouTube channel. On Behalf of HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. "Frank Holmes"Interim Executive Chairman For further information please contact: Frank HolmesTel: (604) 664-1078 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Forward-Looking Information Except for the statements of historical fact, this news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation that is based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release.Theinformation in this news releaseabout future plans and objectives of the Company, are forward-looking information; and includes the intentions, plans and future actions of the Company, the expected expenditure of the proceeds of the Transaction, the Company's ability to successfully mine digital currency, the construction and operation of expanded blockchain infrastructure, and the regulatory environment of cryptocurrency in the United States and other jurisdictions where the Company may operate. This forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time it was made, and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others: the COVID 19 crisis; the transaction described in this news release may not occur on the terms as proposed and described herein or at all and, if such transaction is completed, the cryptocurrency operation may not meet expected performance levels for one or more reasons;the proposed transaction may not have a positive impact on HIVE's revenues, or gross mining margin; the impact of new electrical power rates which could impair profitability and operating performance; the operation of the acquired assets may not occur as currently planned, or at all; expansion may not materialize as currently anticipated, or at all; the digital currency market; the ability to successfully mine digital currency; revenue may not increase as currently anticipated, or at all; it may not be possible to profitably liquidate the current digital currency inventory, or at all; a decline in digital currency prices may have a significant negative impact on operations; the volatility of digital currency prices; the Company may never realize more efficient operations, a lower cost structure, or greater flexibility inoperation;risks relating to the global economic climate; dilution;and other related risks as more fully set out in the Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for the year ended March 31, 2020, and other documents disclosed under the Company's filings atwww.sedar.com. The Company has also assumed that no significant events occur outside of theCompany'snormal course of business. Although the Companyhas attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance onforward-looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking informationother than as required by law. SOURCE:Hive Blockchain Technologies Ltd. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/623928/HIVE-Blockchain-Announces-Closing-of-USD-15-Million-Convertible-Debenture-Private-Placement || These DeFi Tokens Have Double-Digit Gains as Bitcoin’s Growth Tapers: As the recent price rally in bitcoin and ether cools down, investors and traders are taking a closer look at alternative tokens (“altcoins”), particularly those from the decentralized finance (DeFi) subsector. Multiple DeFi tokens this week saw double-digit gains, including 0x (ZRX), aave (AAVE), and maker (MKR). Prices for 0x were at $0.52 at the time of writing, up 20.42% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk 20. Maker’s price, at the same time, saw near-160% growth year to date. “I think the biggest thing is bitcoin’s momentum finally cooling and giving DeFi tokens some room to breathe,” Ryan Watkins, research analyst at Messari, told CoinDesk. “On top of that there are a lot of exciting new releases coming out in DeFi these next one to two weeks which is creating momentum as well.” Related: Bitcoin Bounces as Options Market Sees 20% Chance of $50K at Month's End 0x, an Ethereum-based decentralized exchange, announced its version 4 upgrade plan on Jan. 7, which caused a sudden rally in the protocol’s ZRX token. The upgrade will include new customizable modules that are able to execute trades without interruption and gas efficiency optimization. The vote for the upgrade is scheduled for Jan. 16. Trading volumes on major decentralized exchanges also saw rapid growth in the past month, up 95% to approximately $37.58 billion, according to data from Dune Analytics . On derivatives exchange FTX, perpetual futures for their DeFi index were also trading near their all-time high again as of press time. However, this time is unlike the last “alt season” that appeared temporarily after bitcoin’ s bull run in 2017 or the “DeFi summer” boom, which was caused by “hype” on high yields from liquidity mining, according to Peter Chan, lead trader for crypto trading firm OneBit Quant. He told CoinDesk he does not see any new exciting projects that are attracting particular liquidity to altcoins. Rather, the current renewed growth in DeFi has some wondering whether DeFi will become something that is much bigger than just the potential high returns from so-called “ yield farming. ” Related: Deribit Exchange Raises Maximum Bitcoin Options Strike Price to $400K Read More: What Is Yield Farming? The Rocket Fuel of DeFi, Explained In a Financial Times op-ed written by Brian Brooks and published Tuesday, the outgoing acting head of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) wrote on the  future “self-driving” banks, raising the possibility that the DeFi sector is here to stay if regulations are able to catch up with the fast-growing technology and ensure compliance and safety. Story continues “Although these ‘self-driving banks’ are new, they are not small,” Brooks wrote. “They are likely to be mainstream before self-driving cars start to fly.” Watkins said that “continued growth and maturation of DeFi infrastructure” is the next move for the DeFi sector, which involves increased layer 2 adoptions , more protocol-to-protocol corporations and cross-chain DeFi projects. Improved fundamentals are usually good news for DeFi tokens, which could see continuous price growth in the long term, according to Watkins. Related Stories These DeFi Tokens Have Double-Digit Gains as Bitcoin’s Growth Tapers These DeFi Tokens Have Double-Digit Gains as Bitcoin’s Growth Tapers View comments [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 36178.14, 35791.28, 36630.07, 36069.80, 35547.75, 30825.70, 33005.76, 32067.64, 32289.38, 32366.39
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-10-03] BTC Price: 4317.48, BTC RSI: 57.04 Gold Price: 1271.50, Gold RSI: 36.14 Oil Price: 50.42, Oil RSI: 53.86 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin up sevenfold since Warren Buffett warned digital currency was a 'mirage': When a billionaire investment manager and a Nobel-Prize winning economist are sounding the alarm over the speculative fever in digital currencies, it may be prudent to review the sage old wisdom on the topic from the Oracle of Omaha himself. Warren Buffett was specifically asked for his views on bitcoin several years ago. "Stay away from it. It's a mirage basically. It's a method of transmitting money. It's a very effective way of transmitting money and you can do it anonymously and all that. A check is a way of transmitting money too. Are checks worth a whole lot of money? Just because they can transmit money?" Buffett said on CNBC in 2014. "I hope bitcoin becomes a better way to do it. But you can replicate it a bunch of different ways. The idea that it [bitcoin] has some huge intrinsic value is just a joke in my view." Digital currency advocates will point out that the price of bitcoin has risen more than sevenfold since Buffett expressed his negative view. In addition, the cryptocurrency was up nearly 380 percent this year through Thursday morning, according to data from industry website CoinDesk. But the famed investor never said he can predict exactly when bubbles peak, just that the feverish times will end some day. He specifically warned about the perils of "effortless money" through speculation during the dot-com bubble time period: "The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money … But a pin lies in wait for every bubble. And when the two eventually meet, a new wave of investors learns some very old lessons: First, many in Wall Street - a community in which quality control is not prized - will sell investors anything they will buy. Second, speculation is most dangerous when it looks easiest." - Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway 2000 shareholder letter In similar fashion, billionaire investor Howard Marks told his clients to avoid high-flying digital currencies in July. "In my view, digital currencies are nothing but an unfounded fad (or perhaps even a pyramid scheme), based on a willingness to ascribe value to something that has little or none beyond what people will pay for it," Marks wrote in an investor letter. The manager then compared cryptocurrencies to the tulip mania of 1637, the South Sea bubble of 1720 and the internet bubble of 1999. To be sure, there is no way to know we are near the top even if digital currencies are similar to previous asset bubbles. However Buffett has proven to be rarely wrong over the long run and investors should be cognizant of his warnings on bitcoin.WATCH: Bitcoin mining can land you in jail in this country When a billionaire investment manager and a Nobel-Prize winning economist are sounding the alarm over the speculative fever in digital currencies, it may be prudent to review the sage old wisdom on the topic from the Oracle of Omaha himself. Warren Buffett was specifically asked for his views on bitcoin several years ago. "Stay away from it. It's a mirage basically. It's a method of transmitting money. It's a very effective way of transmitting money and you can do it anonymously and all that. A check is a way of transmitting money too. Are checks worth a whole lot of money? Just because they can transmit money?" Buffett said on CNBC in 2014. "I hope bitcoin becomes a better way to do it. But you can replicate it a bunch of different ways. The idea that it [bitcoin] has some huge intrinsic value is just a joke in my view." Digital currency advocates will point out that the price of bitcoin has risen more than sevenfold since Buffett expressed his negative view. In addition, the cryptocurrency was up nearly 380 percent this year through Thursday morning, according to data from industry website CoinDesk. But the famed investor never said he can predict exactly when bubbles peak, just that the feverish times will end some day. He specifically warned about the perils of "effortless money" through speculation during the dot-com bubble time period: "The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money … But a pin lies in wait for every bubble. And when the two eventually meet, a new wave of investors learns some very old lessons: First, many in Wall Street - a community in which quality control is not prized - will sell investors anything they will buy. Second, speculation is most dangerous when it looks easiest." - Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway 2000 shareholder letter In similar fashion, billionaire investor Howard Marks told his clients to avoid high-flying digital currencies in July. "In my view, digital currencies are nothing but an unfounded fad (or perhaps even a pyramid scheme), based on a willingness to ascribe value to something that has little or none beyond what people will pay for it," Marks wrote in an investor letter. The manager then compared cryptocurrencies to the tulip mania of 1637, the South Sea bubble of 1720 and the internet bubble of 1999. To be sure, there is no way to know we are near the top even if digital currencies are similar to previous asset bubbles. However Buffett has proven to be rarely wrong over the long run and investors should be cognizant of his warnings on bitcoin. WATCH: Bitcoin mining can land you in jail in this country More From CNBC Cramer: How the 2008 financial crisis changed my investing approach forever Cramer's top 4 rules for owning stock Cramer: How I used the stock market to pay for Harvard Law school || Bitcoin Is Plunging After Jamie Dimon Called It a 'Fraud': Bitcoin’s value has dropped 10% sinceJ.P. MorganCEO Jamie Dimonslammedthe cryptocurrency Tuesday, briefly falling below the $3,800 mark on Wednesday. Speaking at aBarclays conference, the longtime banking exec pulled no punches, calling the cryptocurrency a “fraud.” Dimon also argued that a government crackdown on the digital currency was imminent. “It’s worse than tulip bulbs. It won’t end well. Someone is going to get killed,” Dimon said, referring to the economic bubble that formed around tulip bulbs in the17th century. The price of bitcoin dropped to about $3,885 as of mid-day Wednesday, about 24 hours after Dimon spoke. At one point in trading, the cryptocurrency fell as low as $3,777. That’s down from an all-time high of$5,000 just two weeks ago—a drop of 22%. It’s unclear to what extent Dimon’s comments were responsible for Bitcoin’s subsequent falloff. But they certainly added to a bearish mood that’s been brewing since China began cracking down last month oninitial coin offerings and, reportedly, cryptocurrency exchanges. The plunge has been painful for investors who bought into bitcoin seeking high gains. At its all-time high, the value of all bitcoins in circulation was about $81.2 billion. Now, it’s $63.5 billion. Still the currency is up over 300% since the start of the year, perhaps owing in part to the euphoria surrounding the digital coin. At CNBC’s Delivering Alpha conference on Tuesday, three of four investing professionals who were asked about bitcoin spoke of younger relatives who weredabbling or interested in the cryptocurrency. The fourth investor, venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, has been long on bitcoin since as early as 2012. The price of other cryptocurrencies were also falling on Wednesday. Ethereum dropped 8% to $269, while bitcoin cash fell 2% to $506. This is part ofFortune’snew initiative,The Ledger,a trusted news source at the intersection of tech and finance. For more onThe Ledger,click here. || Bitcoin tumbles on report China to shutter digital currency exchanges: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Angela Moon NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin fell sharply on Friday after a report from a Chinese news outlet said China was planning to shut down local crypto-currency exchanges, although analysts said this was just a temporary setback. Sources close to a cross regulators committee that oversees online finance activities told Chinese financial publication Caixin that authorities plan to shut key bitcoin exchanges in China. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the report. But two sources in direct contact with officials at three Chinese bitcoin exchanges - Beijing-based OKCoin, Shanghai-based BTC China, and Beijing-based Huobi - said the platforms told them that they have not heard anything from the Chinese government. The news follows China's move earlier this week to ban so-called "initial coin offerings," or the practice of creating and selling digital currencies or tokens to investors in order to finance start-up projects. Greg Dwyer, business development manager at crypto-currency trading platform BitMEX, said there was confusion over whether China would close bitcoin exchanges following the ICO ban. "If this turns out to be true, then this sell-off is substantiated, and we could see further downside over the weekend, as it could mean the large bitcoin/Chinese yuan exchanges will need to halt trading," he added. Bitcoin dropped to a low of $4,227 (BTC=BTSP) on the BitStamp platform and last traded at $4,309.80, down 6.6 percent. On Sept 2, it hit a record high of nearly $5,000. Sharp losses such as Friday's are par for the course for an asset like bitcoin, analysts said. Over the course of its eight-year history, bitcoin has on a daily basis risen as much as 18 percent and fallen as much as 13 percent. Still, bitcoin was still up nearly 346 percent this year. John Spallanzani, chief macro strategist at GFI Group, said Friday's losses could be short-lived. "Bitcoin is here to stay," he said. Story continues Jehan Chu, a partner at Jen Advisors, a Hong Kong-based early-stage blockchain venture capital firm, noted that should China shut down bitcoin exchanges, it will not be the end of the crypto-currency world in the country. Blockchain, a digital ledger of transactions underpinning bitcoin, has leapt to prominence as it enable users to track and record assets across all industries. "This is just China pressing the 'Pause button," said Chu. A big part of bitcoin's recent surge was the ICO craze, which exploded this year. Bitcoins and ether, another digital currency, are used to purchase tokens for ICOs. By mid-July, tech firms had raised about $1.1 billion in 89 coin sales this year, roughly 10 times more than in all of 2016, data from crypto-currency research firm Smith + Crown showed. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Angela Moon; Editing by Dan Grebler and Chizu Nomiyama) || Gulliver's Gate is a $40 million world of miniatures in Times Square: If you’ve ever been yelled at by someone in authority, you already know what it’s like to feel very small. But now, thanks to a $40 million tourist attraction in Times Square, you can become very small forever. It’s called Gulliver’s Gate, and its strange and quixotic mission is to reproduce the world at 1/87th scale. The model makers have used every trick in the book — laser cutting, CNC milling, 3D printing, and regular handwork — to create 300 miniature scenes depicting 50 countries. These vignettes include Big Ben, the Colosseum, the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, and so on, spread out over 50,000 square feet. When I visited recently, a cool-looking miniature airport, complete with planes that taxi and take off, was under construction. These aren’t just static scenes. Using an elaborate system of radio waves, ultrasound, and software, Gulliver’s Gate brings its cities to life. A thousand trains and 10,000 cars move constantly through the tiny cities. Millions of tiny LED lights twinkle. The locks of the Panama Canal actually fill with water, empty, open, and close, and container ships actually move through them. In the control center, you can watch the technicians in action and ask questions. Each miniature country in Gulliver’s Gate was built by artistsinthat country—the Russian scenes were built in Russia, for example—but an on-site repair and maintenance model shop is also visible, and you can also speak to the model builders there. When you enter, you’re given a tiny, shiny chrome key (which you can keep as a souvenir). It fits into special keyholes at each scene; when you turn it, a hidden RFID tag in the key triggers an animation in that scene. In Iceland, you can make Santa’s sleigh and eight tiny reindeer fly overhead (on wires, of course). In London, you can make the Queen exit her palace and get into a tiny limousine. In Scotland, you can trigger an appearance by the Loch Ness Monster. In Greece, you can summon a lightning storm by the gods of Mount Olympus. Here and there, the model makers have planted tiny Easter eggs—little jokes—for you to find. If you look closely, for example, you’ll find Spider-Man crouching atop the Brooklyn Bridge, or a bull holding the red cape in a Spanish arena, or police helping out a woman who’s dropped her purse onto the subway tracks in New York City. You can spend hours in Gulliver’s Gate; it’s vast, alive with sights and sounds, and awe-inspiring. It is not, unfortunately, cheap; an adult ticket is a gulp-inducing $36. What may be the coolest part, though, is even more expensive: the full-size Cobra 3-D scanning booth, studded with 128 Canon SLR digital cameras—one of only three such booths in the world. In a split second, it can capture you in a pose, digitizing you in 3D. The scan data is sent out to a 3D printing company, and in a few weeks, you get back a perfect, colorful, resin scan ofyou,in your choice of Small ($130), Medium ($190), or Large ($290). As part of that package, you also get a second 3-D print of yourself — at 1/87th scale, just like the rest of the attraction. There’s not much detail in this half-inch plastic statue, so you’ll have to trust that it’s you. You’re invited to place your tiny MiniMeintoone of the Gulliver’s Gate scenes, your feet pinned down with SuperGlue, joining the 100,000 other micro-people and becoming part of the tiny world forever. For my tiny replica, I chose a spot along the water at Chelsea Piers, where I can gaze out to sea forever. I can face the future proudly, knowing that, in a very small way, I’ll never leave New York. Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Gulliver’s Gate is the size of a city block. In fact, it is 50,000 square feet. The error has been corrected. More from David Pogue: The 5 best new features of this week’s YouTube redesign Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant is ambitious, powerful, and half-baked Is through-the-air charging a hoax? Electrify your existing bike in 2 minutes with these ingenious wheels Marty Cooper, inventor of the cellphone: The next step is implantables The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update Now I get it: Bitcoin David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’sdavidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s@pogue. On email, he’s poguester@yahoo.com. You canread all his articles here, or you can sign up toget his columns by email. || Strong Investor Confidence Failed to Lift European Shares: European stock markets are mixed as a stronger than expected German ZEW reading failed to lift the Dax as investors turn cautious ahead of tomorrow’s Fed announcements and Sunday’s general election in Germany. At still over 12500 the index has made quite a recovery from the readings below 19000 at the end of August and investors seem reluctant to push things further for now, especially as the EUR is starting to eye the 1.20 against the dollar again and a strong ZEW only adds to the arguments of the hawks at the ECB. The FTSE 100 is up as the pound has dropped back from the post-BoE highs against the EUR. Japanese markets rallied in catch-up trade and the nearly 2% gain in the Nikkei was underpinned by a weaker Yen and reports that Prime Minister Abe is considering calling snap elections next month. Elsewhere in Asia markets reported modest losses as investors turn cautious ahead of tomorrow’s Fed announcement. Oil prices are also up, with WTI at USD 50.40 per barrel. German Zew Investor Confidence Rebounded in September German ZEW investor confidence jumped to 17.0 from 10.0 in the previous month. Expectations had been for an improvement given the stabilization in stock markets, but in the event, the rise turned out to be more pronounced than anticipated and the current conditions indicator also improved to 87.9 from 86.7 in August. The bounce back in the September reading is encouraging, although it still didn’t bring the reading back to levels seen in July and all in all the numbers confirm that the German recovery remains on track, but also that growth dynamics in the second half of the year are likely to be slightly lower than in the first half. Eurozone current account surplus widened to EUR 25.1 billion in July, from EUR 22.8 billion in the previous month. The trade surplus narrowed, the services surplus was pretty much unchanged, but the primary income revenue expanded sharply. The unadjusted financial account showed direct and portfolio inflows of EUR 23.1 billion, up from EUR 5.5 billion in the previous month, bringing the total for the year to July to EUR 493.5 billion, down from EUR 560.9 billion in the first seven months last year. The unadjusted current account surplus in the period to July this year amounted to EUR 338.5 billion, down from EUR 373.4 billion in the corresponding period last year. Story continues This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Bitcoin Traders: Embrace the Volatility or Perish Market Snapshot – Markets in Consolidation Phase Trump, Federal Reserve and German Elections will Set the Tone Strong Investor Confidence Failed to Lift European Shares Daily Markets Brief – Interest Rates in Focus, Trump Set to Speak to UN Trump’s U.N. Speech will Make Headlines, Focus Turns to the Fed || Bitcoin's price tanks after report China may shut down exchanges: The price of bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=-USS) fell sharply after a report China's regulators are planning a further crackdown on the digital currency.Local outlet Caixin is reporting the Asian country is planning to shut down local bitcoin exchanges, according to a Google translation. Bitcoin's price fell 7 percent midafternoon Friday after the news, according to Coindesk market data. On Monday, Chinese regulators announced a ban on organizations from raising funds using initial coin offerings (ICOs), which sparked a $200 decline in the price of bitcoin. The price of the cryptocurrency is still up nearly 350 percent year to date. But billionaire investor Howard Marks is not impressed, telling his clients Thursday he will not invest in bitcoin even though it can be used as a legitimate form of currency. "I think I understand what a digital currency is, how bitcoin works, and some of the arguments for it. But I still don't feel like putting my money into it, because I consider it a speculative bubble," Marks wrote in an investor letter. WATCH: Bitcoin mining can land you in jail in this countryMore From CNBC • GE shares are trading below where they were the day of Lehman's bankruptcy • Investor psychology is now in a brand new post-crisis phase, fund manager says • Stocks head for weekly decline as insurance shares fall on Irma risk || Bitcoin's meteoric rise is costing some investors billions: (REUTERS/Neil Hall) • Companies that make the semiconductors for cryptocurrency mining have been a hot-button topic in the investment world, with the fate of their stocks closely tied to the prices of bitcoin and ether • Hedge fund Carlson Capital has a fund that's lost 14.2% this year because of bad short wagers on Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices The meteoric rise ofbitcoinis rippling through financial markets, and not everyone is enjoying the ride. The scorching-hot cryptocurrency has tentacles that stretch into many different parts of the investment landscape, and some traders are finding out the hard way how much influence it can wield. Just ask the unfortunate souls who have been trying to short chip makers and learning the hard way that their share prices are closely linked to interest in bitcoin. The stocks of companies likeNvidiaandAdvanced Micro Devices, which make chips used to mine, or produce, bitcoin — a process that involves heaps of computers solving complex equations — have surged alongside the cryptocurrency, destroying the short positions. Short sellers betting against those two companies have lost a combined $1.8 billion this year as Nvidia has skyrocketed by 57% and AMD has climbed by 16%, according to data provided by the financial analytics firmS3 Partners. And the fallout is already beginning. The Dallas-based hedge fund Carlson Capital's $1 billionBlack Diamond Thematic fundlost 14.2% this year through July, and it blamedbitcoinfor the hit, according to a client update reviewed by Business Insider. The fund chose chipmakers as its top short theme earlier this year, citing "high inventories, double ordering, massive capex supply responses and actual pockets of weakening demand in smartphones, autos, and the Chinese optical market." Needless to say, that hasn't translated into weak share prices — and now Carlson has an ax to grind with the massively popular cryptocurrencies it sees keeping the space afloat to an unsustainable degree. "The sector has turned into something of a bubble characterized best by the surge in GPU stocks, Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia, driven by a cryptocurrency mania," portfolio managers Richard Maraviglia and Matthew Barkoff wrote in the fund's second-quarter investor letter. "We believe the other side of this incredibly powerful consensus move in technology will be very profitable for us but to date, it has been a significant drag on performance." As for those directly trading bitcoin, the ride has been bumpy but ultimately quite lucrative. It's up by more than 200% in 2017 alone, minting big profits for traders willing to take a chance on such a speculative entity. (Bitcoin has surged more than 200% this year.Markets Insider) But by no means does the burgeoning cryptocurrency mania start and end with bitcoin. There's also ether, the bitcoin rival, which is powered by theEthereumblockchain. It has been gobbling up market share, surging from 5% of the cryptocurrency market in January to 30% as of June 22. In fact, until June, ether was on track to surpass bitcoin as the world's largest digital currency. Regardless of whether bitcoin, Ethereum, or another vehicle strikes your fancy, the process of mining for new blocks requires the same kinds of semiconductors. So as cryptocurrencies go, so do the stock prices of the companies making those chips. And as Carlson doubles down on its bearish chipmaker stance, other hedge funds are proving happy to chase the runaway performance of cryptocurrencies. Last Friday, the activist investorElliott Management disclosed a 6% stake in NXP Semiconductorsand said it was pushing for a higher price in the company's pending $38 billion sale to Qualcomm. Elliott did not specifically cite the white-hot cryptocurrency industry and its effect on chipmakers in a regulatory filing. After all, semiconductors are also crucial components for smartphones, a familiar stomping ground for the world's biggest company. So any bet on the industry can also be read as a play on Apple. But even if Elliott's investment has nothing to do with cryptocurrencies, some market watchers will still interpret it that way. And that line of thinking represents the new reality facing investors of all types: This area of the market is attracting and churning through billions of dollars, so either adjust to it or risk getting caught off guard. This article has been updated to reflect bitcoin's recent year-to-date growth above 200%. NOW WATCH:Wells Fargo Funds equity chief: Shorting anything is 'playing with fire' More From Business Insider • Tesla's surging stock is crushing short sellers • It's about to get a lot easier to bet on the backbone of the stock market • STOCKS DO NOTHING: Here's what you need to know || 'Not scared': Australian regulator takes aim at country's powerful banks: By Swati Pandey and Paulina Duran SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's corporate regulator took aim at the nation's four major banks, saying the powerful institutions "with a lot of hubris" aren't used to being taken on by regulators who have stepped up scrutiny of the scandal-hit sector. Australia's highly profitable banks have been hit by a series of scandals including allegations of benchmark rate-rigging and, in the case of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, alleged money-laundering breaches. "When I became chairman I decided we need to build a war chest to take on big cases...I am not scared of anybody," Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) Chairman Greg Medcraft said at a Reuters Newsmaker event in Sydney, as he prepares to step down in November. One of the emerging problems in the sector is loan fraud in the mortgage market, Medcraft said. But it has been out-of-cycle mortgage rate changes that have generated the biggest public and political outcry, as home-owners struggle to meet high repayments with modest wages growth. The banking sector should start repairing its reputation by offering variable mortgages at a set level above the cash rate rather than exposing customers to irregular pricing changes, he said. "I would think the biggest thing the banks could do to win the trust of Australians would be to at least offer the option of a variable rate mortgage priced over something like the cash rate." Australian regulators have been pushing banks to tighten mortgage lending standards on worries a debt-fuelled bubble and bust in the country's property market could destabilise the financial system and hurt the broader economy. Medcraft censured the banks for increasing home loan rates for existing customers while offering discounts to entice new borrowers. Representatives of Australia's four biggest retail banks were not immediately available to comment on Tuesday. The head of the Australian banking lobby Anna Bligh said offering such a product would "add considerable risk into the banking system" due to the volatility of banks' cost of funding. Medcraft said improving the culture and conduct of the biggest banks was one of his "unfinished businesses" as he prepares to step down in November. END TO PRIVATE DIGITAL CURRENCIES? Medcraft was not surprised that China had started to clamp down on private cryptocurrencies, which included last week's move to ban so-called "initial coin offerings", or the practice of creating and selling digital currencies or tokens to investors in order to finance start-up projects. He said that while it wasn't the job of the Australian regulator to ban private digital currencies, he added it was becoming problematic. "It's classic non-cash economy in digital form," he said. "If you don't cut it off quickly, it will flower." "Having something that is issued by the state is going to be something more likely in the future than essentially a cryptocurrency." Bitcoins are not regulated in Australia as a financial product. The government recently proposed new laws to bring in bitcoin providers under the regulatory fold for the first time ever. U.S. MARKET PUSH Australia would make a renewed push to integrate its capital markets with the United States, Medcraft said, opening up the country's A$2.3 trillion ($1.85 trillion) retirement savings to American companies while giving Australians access to the deepest capital market in the world. "What Canada has is what we want...which is mutual recognition," he told the conference, adding he would raise the issue the next time he met the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chair. Australia and the United States signed a cooperation agreement to mutually recognise each other's laws for raising capital in 2008, but little has come from it. Local media has speculated that Medcraft will be heading to Paris when he finishes up at ASIC in November, likely as a special adviser to the OECD secretary general. The former investment banker lived in Paris for three years in the late 1980s when he worked for Societe Generale. "It would be a very interesting area wouldn't it," Medcraft told Reuters, without elaborating. ($1 = 1.2427 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Swati Pandey and Paulina Duran in SYDNEY. Additional reporting by Tom Westbrook. Writing by Jonathan Barrett.; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Jacqueline Wong) || Gene Munster predicts an 8% drop in Apple's stock after the iPhone event: Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) 's stock will likely see a significant drop after the company's highly anticipated iPhone event Tuesday, Loup Ventures' Gene Munster told CNBC on Monday. "We're probably expecting more like ... a 7 or 8 percent drop," Munster said on " Halftime Report ." Munster didn't specify a time frame for that fall, but last week he predicted a 10 percent pullback in Apple's stock over the next one to three months. Munster said while investors will be excited about the launch of new products on Monday and Tuesday, they will quickly look toward the company's next few quarters."Fast forward to a few weeks from now — there's going to be some wringing of hands as people start to think about what the March and June quarters of next year look like," he said.The closely followed venture capitalist spoke as shares of Apple were higher Monday, one day before the company is expected to unveil three new iPhones and an Apple Watch, among other products. But an unreleased build of iOS 11 that was leaked to the press over the weekend spilled almost all of the secrets on Apple's big announcement. Munster said one leak, in particular, caused him to believe the stock wouldn't fall as much as he originally predicted: "The idea of an LTE watch.""The watch is 3 percent of Apple's business today and if they allowed it to be untethered to the phone ... it creates a bigger opportunity. We think it will essentially double the size of that business," Munster said.Regarding Apple's anticipated high-end iPhone, Munster said: "I believe this phone will deliver on a much higher growth rate for the iPhone." Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) 's stock will likely see a significant drop after the company's highly anticipated iPhone event Tuesday, Loup Ventures' Gene Munster told CNBC on Monday. "We're probably expecting more like ... a 7 or 8 percent drop," Munster said on " Halftime Report ." Munster didn't specify a time frame for that fall, but last week he predicted a 10 percent pullback in Apple's stock over the next one to three months. Munster said while investors will be excited about the launch of new products on Monday and Tuesday, they will quickly look toward the company's next few quarters. "Fast forward to a few weeks from now — there's going to be some wringing of hands as people start to think about what the March and June quarters of next year look like," he said. The closely followed venture capitalist spoke as shares of Apple were higher Monday, one day before the company is expected to unveil three new iPhones and an Apple Watch, among other products. But an unreleased build of iOS 11 that was leaked to the press over the weekend spilled almost all of the secrets on Apple's big announcement. Munster said one leak, in particular, caused him to believe the stock wouldn't fall as much as he originally predicted: "The idea of an LTE watch." "The watch is 3 percent of Apple's business today and if they allowed it to be untethered to the phone ... it creates a bigger opportunity. We think it will essentially double the size of that business," Munster said. Regarding Apple's anticipated high-end iPhone, Munster said: "I believe this phone will deliver on a much higher growth rate for the iPhone."More From CNBC • Almost everything Apple is set to announce Tuesday was leaked this weekend • Bitcoin price falls again on reports that China is shutting down local exchanges • Apple iPhone X will be in 'severe short supply,' KGI says || US bank CEOs are likely 'very afraid' of bitcoin, says wealth advisor: CEOs of U.S. banks are likely "very afraid" of bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=) , according to a wealth advisor. Some financiers have said the cryptocurrency is an unwise investment because of its volatility or supposedly weak store of value, but bank chiefs have another reason to dislike bitcoin, said Rainer Michael Preiss, executive director at Taurus Wealth Advisors."Of course, if you run a very large U.S. bank, most probably you are afraid of blockchain and bitcoin," said Rainer Michael Preiss, executive director at Taurus Wealth Advisors. His comments came after JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) CEO Jamie Dimoncalled bitcoin a "fraud" last Tuesday. Preiss countered, however, that cryptocurrencies could present investors with a viable alternative given the uncertainty from banking's lack of transparency. "The concerns are about the fractional reserve banking system, and the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve at $4.5 trillion, where the Fed officially refuses an audit ," he said. "On the other hand, on the bitcoin blockchain, you have an audit everyday because it's open-sourced." The digital currency uses blockchain technology to record every transaction that occurs, granting all users full view of the digital ledger.Cryptocurrencies could also be a "systemic hedge" against the risk of asset price inflation — an increase in the prices of assets that are not everyday items — which central banks have potentially helped to create, Preiss added.Bitcoin's price has jumped from $700 to $4,000 since Jan. 2014, he said, adding that the hike has signalled "a good store of value" for some. He noted that Dimon had claimed the exact opposite about currency's value store in a 2014 interview with CNBC. The digital currency was priced at about $3,900 Wednesday afternoon in Asia. It had rebounded nearly $1,000 after a huge plunge last week following announcements by major bitcoin exchanges in China that they planned to close by month-end. WATCH: Here's why a BitcoinIRA is enticing some to risk their savings CEOs of U.S. banks are likely "very afraid" of bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=) , according to a wealth advisor. Some financiers have said the cryptocurrency is an unwise investment because of its volatility or supposedly weak store of value, but bank chiefs have another reason to dislike bitcoin, said Rainer Michael Preiss, executive director at Taurus Wealth Advisors. "Of course, if you run a very large U.S. bank, most probably you are afraid of blockchain and bitcoin," said Rainer Michael Preiss, executive director at Taurus Wealth Advisors. His comments came after JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon called bitcoin a "fraud" last Tuesday. Preiss countered, however, that cryptocurrencies could present investors with a viable alternative given the uncertainty from banking's lack of transparency. "The concerns are about the fractional reserve banking system, and the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve at $4.5 trillion, where the Fed officially refuses an audit ," he said. "On the other hand, on the bitcoin blockchain, you have an audit everyday because it's open-sourced." The digital currency uses blockchain technology to record every transaction that occurs, granting all users full view of the digital ledger. Cryptocurrencies could also be a "systemic hedge" against the risk of asset price inflation — an increase in the prices of assets that are not everyday items — which central banks have potentially helped to create, Preiss added. Bitcoin's price has jumped from $700 to $4,000 since Jan. 2014, he said, adding that the hike has signalled "a good store of value" for some. He noted that Dimon had claimed the exact opposite about currency's value store in a 2014 interview with CNBC. The digital currency was priced at about $3,900 Wednesday afternoon in Asia. It had rebounded nearly $1,000 after a huge plunge last week following announcements by major bitcoin exchanges in China that they planned to close by month-end. WATCH: Here's why a BitcoinIRA is enticing some to risk their savings More From CNBC Your first trade for Wednesday, September 20 Here are 7 ways to cut college costs Stocks in danger zone: Economist Shiller says market looks like 1929 [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Sep 07, 2017 17:00:00 UTC | 4,642.40$ | 3,860.20€ | 3,545.70£ | #Bitcoin #btc pic.twitter.com/v5FlRtbVo2 || Média de preços #BTC Preço: R$15.964,79 Horário: 12:00 https://watchcoins.net  #CotacaoWatchCoins #Bitcoin || Free bitcoin faucet & dice game, Provably Fair Games. http://www.overcrave.com  @altcoindicegamepic.twitter.com/cLHPw851Wm || Bitcoin - BTC Price: $4,545.36 Change in 1h: -0.99% Market cap: $75,220,989,916.00 Ranking: 1 #Bitcoin #BTC || Bitcoin just passed $4,000 http://dlvr.it/PdjBDf pic.twitter.com/UdtShFmkN2 || Bitcoin just passed $4,000 What a day for Bitcoin. 24 hours ago the cryptocurrency was trading below $3,700. A http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Ohvz7pQ9d3c/ …pic.twitter.com/qYpTAw1edY || $4265.00 at 13:30 UTC [24h Range: $4218.00 - $4429.94 Volume: 11554 BTC] || Easiest bitcoin investment! Bit coin is now rising, it's a big chance!! https://coincheck.com/?c=YfHEcm5DStY pic.twitter.com/rroKBtazu3 || Cotizaciones al 02/10/2017 04:00 AM Bitcoin (BTC): 24.926.161 Ethereum (ETH): 1.690.816 Litecoin (LTC): 307.598 BTC Cash (BCH): 2.349.025 || Sep 24, 2017 20:30:00 UTC | 3,655.80$ | 3,071.00€ | 2,711.10£ | #Bitcoin #btc pic.twitter.com/mxJjbEDzKf
Trend: up || Prices: 4229.36, 4328.41, 4370.81, 4426.89, 4610.48, 4772.02, 4781.99, 4826.48, 5446.91, 5647.21
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2015-10-02] BTC Price: 237.29, BTC RSI: 53.51 Gold Price: 1137.10, Gold RSI: 54.45 Oil Price: 45.54, Oil RSI: 51.24 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Flow to Establish State-of-the-Art Customer Call Centre of Excellence Bringing More Than 300 New Jobs to Jamaica: KINGSTON, JAMAICA--(Marketwired - Aug 31, 2015) - Flow, the new Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) consumer retail brand, today announced plans to establish a new, state-of-the-art Customer Call Centre of Excellence in Kingston, Jamaica and create more than 300 full-time jobs over the next two years. The innovative Customer Call Centre of Excellence is part of the Company's bid to become the leader in service excellence and revolutionise customer experience across the Caribbean. The Customer Call Centre of Excellence, to be established in the coming months, follows the recent merger with Columbus International Inc and is part of Flow's new compelling plan to provide an enhanced customer experience. This initiative is also consistent with plans laid out by CEO Phil Bentley last year that will see C&W invest US$1.5bn over 3 years to upgrade infrastructure and overhaul service delivery throughout the Caribbean and Latin American region. "Through investments like these, we are putting the customer at the heart of the business," said Bentley. "We are committed to anticipating their needs at every contact point and to delivering a customer care experience that is unparalleled across the region. Together, with our other existing Call Centre in Trinidad, we will revolutionise customer service in the Caribbean, and be the leader in recruiting the best talent in the region. We want Flow to be a business that everyone in the Caribbean is proud of," said Bentley. Branded as an innovative Customer Call Centre of Excellence, the facility is being designed to provide customers with multiple touch points including warm and friendly service agents, Email, Virtual Chat, Mobile App and other technology-enabled support systems . Combined with increased service agent efficiencies, state-of-the-art technology tools will improve call routing and reduce call waiting time, making for an overall superior customer experience. Managing Director, Flow Jamaica, Garry Sinclair is extremely pleased that the new Centre will be located on the island. "It is a testament to the growing confidence of Jamaica as a central hub for investment, the large pool of skilled labour that exists here, and the rapid growth of the ICT sector led by Flow, that we are making this investment here in Kingston." He added, "In addition to the investment in the new Customer Call Centre of Excellence, Flow is also investing in the best mobile and fibre networks across the island to deliver more technologically advanced quad play products, better value, and superior broadband connectivity to exceed our customers' expectations." Sinclair also stated that, "We are excited to recruit the best team on the island for this Centre and we will implement an extensive training programme to deliver an incomparable customer experience." Story continues Responding to the announcement, Hon. Phillip Paulwell, Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining commended Flow's decision to establish the Customer Call Centre of Excellence in Jamaica. "The establishment of Flow's Customer Call Centre of Excellence in Jamaica attests to the tremendous growth potential of the nation's ICT sector and affirms Flow's commitment to development of the local and regional economies. With the commitment to create new jobs, the investment also supports the country's goals to reduce unemployment, builds new skill sets and advances the country's vision to make Jamaica a place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business." Since 2012, the Jamaican Government has had an ongoing drive to engage the private sector in the 'Jamaica Employ' programme, which seeks to increase prospects for job seekers and to bring critical new jobs to the island. "We love doing business in Jamaica and we are happy to partner with the Government in their various initiatives, including the 'Jamaica Employ' programme," Phil Bentley concluded. About Cable & Wireless Communications: Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full service communications and entertainment provider, operating in the Caribbean and Latin America. With annual sales of over $2.4bn, it operates both mobile and fixed networks, supported by submarine and terrestrial optical fibre backhaul capacity. Through the acquisition of Columbus International Inc. on 31 March 2015, CWC now delivers superior high-speed mobile data, broadband and video services. It has leading market positions in Mobile, Fixed Line, Broadband and Video consumer offers. Through its business division, CWC provides data centre hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customised IT service solutions, utilising cloud technology to serve business and government customers. The company also operates a state-of-the-art subsea fibre optic cable network that spans more than 42,000 km -- the most extensive in the region -- as well as 38,000 km of terrestrial fibre providing wholesale and carrier backhaul capacity. CWC has more than 7,000 employees serving over 6 million customers (Mobile 3.8m; Fixed Line 1.1m; TV 460k and Broadband 665k) as well as over 125k corporate clients across 42 countries. The Company's leading brands include; LIME and Flow in the Caribbean; BTC in The Bahamas; Mas Movil in Panama; C&W Business and C&W Networks. CWC is the market leader in most products offered and territories served. It is a major contributor to local communities through its corporate social responsibility programmes. Cable & Wireless Communications' shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CWC. The company is headquartered in London with its operational hub located in Miami, within close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America. For more information please visit: www.cwc.com || Your first look for Friday: The "Fast Money" traders revealed what's on their watch list. Dan Nathan was watching the Nikkei 225(Nihon Kenzai Shinbun: .N225). Steve Grasso had theiShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF(IBB)on his radar. Brian Kelly was looking at the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF(NYSE Arca: TLT). Guy Adami had his eye on the CBOE Crude Volatility Index(^OVX). Trader disclosure: On September 10, 2015 , the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders:Dan Nathan is long QQQ Oct put spread, XBI sept put spread, TWTR, PG. Steve Grass is long AAPL, BA, BAC, CC, DD, DIS, DECK, EVGN, FIT, KBH, MJNA, MU, PFE, PHM, STRP, T, TWTR, GDX, firm is long BP, COP, CVX, FCX, NE, NEM, OXY, RIG, WYNN, AMZN His kids own EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY. Brian Kelly is long BBRY, TWTR calls, Bitcoin, U.S. Dollar; he is short British Pound, Euro, Yen, Yuan, US Treasuries. Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC • Top News and Analysis • Latest News Video • Personal Finance || Could this split be the end of bitcoin?: With a market valued currently at more than $3 billion, and hundreds of millions invested in related technologies, a lot is riding on bitcoin(: BTC=). But the digital token some say could replace government-backed currencies is facing a crisis that experts warn could potentially render it worthless. Over the weekend, two well-known bitcoin developers "forked" the technology, releasing software that will allow the community to split away from the core program. This contentious split arose overa long-running squabblebetween developers that started as a disagreement about the way data is packaged, and morphed into a philosophical question about the future of the technology. That very future-as CNBC predicted in July-could conceivably be threatened by the new software-called Bitcoin XT. "Contentious hard forks are bad for Bitcoin," the semi-official site Bitcoin.org's David Harding wrote ina policy post. A "hard" fork such as XT is not backwards-compatible with other versions of the software, meaning that any divergence in adoption is more difficult to reconcile. "At the very best, a contentious hard fork will leave people who chose the losing side of the fork feeling disenfranchised. At the very worst, it will make bitcoins permanently lose their value. In between are many possible outcomes, but none of them are good," the post continued. Here's the gist of the squabble: Bitcoin transactions are packaged into blocks before being recorded on bitcoin's permanent ledger. Developers disagree over what the maximum size of those blocks should be. On one hand, smaller means more security, but on the other hand bigger means that bitcoin technology can more easily scale into wider adoption and noncurrency applications. And beyond just the technical matter, the fight comes down to a more human dilemma: Who gets to decide which way the whole community, which is effectively leaderless, has to go? Mike Hearn, one of the developers behind XT,wrote in a lengthy postexplaining the fork that the current limitations of the original software are blocking the growth of bitcoin and its blockchain currency. He disputed Bitcoin.org's assessment of worst-case scenarios, and said that the fork may be the best way to save the currency from becoming irrelevant. Read MoreThe details of the debate can be found here. "There's no reason to believe a hard fork would make bitcoins permanently lose their value. On the contrary, it should increase them, as it'd prove the system is robust against poor decisions by any one group of developers," Hearn said in an email to CNBC. "By asking Bitcoin users to believe that a contentious fork can destroy the system, all they're really saying is that the community must obey the wishes of a tiny group of developers regardless of whether those wishes are bad or not." The way the XT fork works is that miners (who process transactions by solving complex math problems) can vote for whether they want to switch to the new system or stick with the core program. After Jan. 11, 2016, once 75 percent of mining power is voting for the fork, a two-week waiting period begins, and then the new rules take effect. Several polls and projections have indicated that miners may favor the primary XT change-making the maximum size for a "block" of data eight megabytes instead of one megabyte-so a fork could be in the future. Still, several core developers of the technology-who have taken over maintenance and growth of the technology from mysterious creator Satoshi Nakamoto-have come out against the change, and online discussions seem to indicate an ideological split in the community. Those core developers against the block size increase either did not respond to request for comment from CNBC or denied via a representative. But Adam Back, who developed one of the key algorithms behind bitcoin and still works with core developers, said the complaints about XT are manyfold, including worries that a 75 percent activation vote is too low, and that some of the other changes to the program are not sufficiently secure. Back said the community is actively working on finding solutions (with developer workshops scheduled) to the block size problem, and that jumping ahead of the normal review system is "a little puzzling" and "kind of disappointing." One major expert in the communitywrote in a Reddit postthat XT "represents a somewhat reckless approach, which in the name of advancement shatters existing structures, fragments the community and spins the ecosystem into chaos." Read MoreBitcoin firm raises $116M, including Qualcomm investment Hearn, however, told CNBC he thinks that assessment is "completely wrong," and that the XT approach has been debated for month with every objection considered. After all, the development of the potentially world-changing Bitcoin technology has been largely developedwithoutmuch structure, he said. "You can't shatter something that doesn't exist. Unfortunately a whole lot of people in the bitcoin community who aren't [closely] involved haven't fully realized or accepted how ad-hoc the Bitcoin Core project truly is," Hearn said, adding that "underlying contradictions and inability to make decisions" are actually the major problems that XT seeks to address. Hearn's desire to alter the decision-making process behind bitcoin would see him and XT co-developer Gavin Andresen jointly managing the technology, rather than a group of developers. Back acknowledged that the emergence of XT partially stems from resentment about other developers' ideas being shot down, but he said he believed a distributed power structure works best. "It's intentionally a decentralized process. People are worried that with $4 billion on the line someone could be blackmailed or could intentionally insert a bug," Back said. "They didn't think about the risks of being the sole maintainer of $4 billion of other people's money.... They're not thinking ahead far enough about the implications for all of this." (Thetotal value of all existing Bitcoinswas about $4 billion at the beginning of August; it's closer to $3.4 billion now.) As for concerns that his actions could spin the multibillion-dollar ecosystem into chaos, Hearn said he is in fact saving the technology. "[Andresen] and myself have said since the start that Bitcoin is a risky experiment. I'm sure everyone who invested knew that," Hearn wrote. "But if they invested, they presumably invested in the hope that Bitcoin would take off and become really mainstream. Right now, the only way to get there is via Bitcoin XT. So they should consider helping us out to ensure the outcome they would like." Investor Roger Ver-so-called "Bitcoin Jesus"-is one of several prominent voices in the community to voice his approval of the XT project. Additionally, a statement from all of the Chinese mining pools-which account for much of the power in the network-came out in favor of a block size increase. Still, Hearn could not say how he thought the community would swing, but underscored his contention that a vote for the core software could stymie future growth. "Well, Bitcoin will still exist no matter what happens. But obviously if there's no chance of growth and the community decides to follow the Bitcoin Core developers (without even knowing who exactly is in that group), then a whole lot of other developers and entrepreneurs will leave," Hearn said. "Because you can't build a successful business on an infrastructure with no chances of growth." All of this occurs against a background of increasing corporate and financial interest in bitcoin and its backing blockchain technology. Bitcoin runs on a blockchain that is more secure and decentralized than any of its competitors because of its large user base and its comparatively lengthy history. If those users were to splinter, then the entire enterprise could be compromised. Read MoreWhy is it called the 'blockchain?' Hearn wrote in his explanation of the fork that there are few risks of breaking the community: If less than 75 percent votes for XT, then nothing changes, and if more than 75 percent is in favor, then the rest of the marketplace will follow suit so as not to be left behind. "We don't think the sky will fall if the chain forks. We think people on the small-blocks side of the chain will upgrade and continue on the bigger-blocks side. There will be plenty of time for them to know about the change and prepare," he wrote. Still, if a sizable minority decides to hold out against XT and its bigger blocks, then presplit bitcoins could be spent twice-violating one of the key facets of the digital currency, and potentially harming trust. Back warned that the results of the fork could be disastrous. Anti-XT programs have sprung up to corrupt the vote, so even if it appears that there's been a 75 percent majority, the community could still be split 50-50. "If you get some kind of 50-50 split," Back explained, "you have two ledgers, not accepting each other's blocks ... inconsistent ledgers and exchanges that were out hundreds of thousands, or millions, of dollars." "Nobody wants it to go there, but the Bitcoin XT thing is teetering into a dangerous situation and dynamic," he added. "The safest thing to do is to stop that dynamic well before activation." Jeff Garzik, another bitcoin core developer who has expressed support for bigger blocks, told CNBC in June that creating a contentious fork would be the "worst of all possible options." As Hearn said in his letter to the community: "So this is it. Here we are." More From CNBC • Top News and Analysis • Latest News Video • Personal Finance || Bank Of America Prepares For Bitcoin Revolution: Bitcoin has been slow to catch on across the globe as uncertainty about safety and security has kept the general public from embracing the cryptocurrency. However, many businesses are preparing themselves for a day when cryptocurrencies are widely accepted as such a time may not be far off in the future. Bank of America Corp(NYSE:BAC) is one such firm, which has seen the potential of using bitcoin to improve its operations. Patent Application On September 17, Bank of Americasubmitteda patent application for the use of bitcoin in order to facilitate international money transfers. The bank is not the first to see bitcoin as a game-changer when it comes to cross border payments. At the moment, sending money to an account abroad is time consuming and costly, but using bitcoin for the same transaction would significantly reduce the time spent and fees charged as the cryptocurrency eliminates the need for a third party intermediary. Related Link: Bitcoin Gaining Traction At Colleges Around The World Bitcoin Catching On Bank of America's application is the first from a major retail bank, suggesting that bitcoin may finally be shedding its "dangerous" image. However, this is not the first time a big name firm has applied for a bitcoin-related patent,Mastercard Inc(NYSE:MA),International Business Machines Corp.(NYSE:IBM) andAmazon.com, Inc.(NASDAQ:AMZN) have all applied for patents to protect their own proposed usage of the cryptocurrency. Patents Criticized Some within the bitcoin community have been critical of companies like Bank of America and bitcoin firm Coinbase, which recently applied for bitcoin patents. As bitcoin was designed to be an open source software that works around traditional financial models, many believe that patenting bitcoin systems goes against the purpose of digital currencies. However, others say it is a necessary step for businesses that want to get into the space and if one firm doesn't patent something, another eventually will. See more from Benzinga • Fed Could Raise Rates In September: What Does It Mean? © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || MarilynJean Media Interactive (OTCQB:MJMI) Today Announced Cancellation of Over 100,000,000 Convertible Preferred Shares: HENDERSON, NV / ACCESSWIRE / September 22, 2015 / MarilynJean Media Interactive ( MJMI ) today announced cancellation of over 100,000,000 convertible preferred shares representing over 35% of its fully diluted share total. As previously disclosed, on March 28, 2013, we acquired 100% of the issued and outstanding common shares of MarilynJean Media Inc.. Pursuant to that transaction, 106,651,250 Exchangeable Preferred Shares were issued. These were convertible into common shares of our Company on a one-for-one basis. On September 22, 2015 all 106,651,250 Exchangeable Preferred Shares were cancelled and returned to treasury, pursuant to Return to Treasury Agreements entered into with the holders of these shares. The shareholders agreed to cancel the shares and return them to treasury, in consideration for the issuance of promissory notes in the aggregate amount of $226,756. The promissory notes are due and payable upon our company completing a financing for gross proceeds of not less than $375,000. The cancelled shares represent 35.4% of the Company's fully diluted share total. Peter Janosi, MJMIs president said: With the cancellation of a significant portion of the Company's fully diluted share total, we believe we have dramatically increased the companys options for financing and growth. MJMI is in the business of providing safe and accessible services for the users of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies. MJMI is currently exploring partnerships with several existing Bitcoin and crypto-currency exchanges as well as manufacturers and operators of Bitcoin ATMs. Such a combination would place the company in an exciting position to offer an end to end solution for trading in various crypto-currencies and potentially capture a share of the lucrative markets of Bitcoin trading and remittance services, just as these markets appear poised to undergo massive growth. About Bitcoin and Crypto-Currencies Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies are a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure transactions and control the creation of new units. Bitcoin became the first decentralized crypto-currency in 2009. Crypto-currency is produced at a rate which is defined when the system is created and publicly known. By contrast, in centralized banking and economic systems, such as the Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency by printing units or demanding additions to digital banking ledgers. However, neither companies nor governments can produce units of crypto-currency and as such the value of crypto-currencies are completely based on supply and demand, free from any governmental control. Many people believe crypto-currencies, and in particular bitcoin, hold the promise of being the most significant advancement in global finance in modern history. The advent of bitcoin creates a secure, easily accessible and transferable transnational currency that is completely liberated from political influence. Story continues Richard Branson, head of the Virgin Group, is quoted on his company's website as saying: I have invested in Bitcoin because I believe in its potential, the capacity it has to transform global payments is very exciting. Heavyweight investment bank Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), announced on April 30th 2015 that it had partnered with Chinese investment firm IDG Capital partners to invest $50 million in a Bitcoin start-up. Numerous high-profile firms have begun accepting Bitcoin as a payment method including: Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH), Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE), and Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK). MarilynJean Media Interactive is among the first publicly traded companies focussed on bitcoin and the crypto-currency space. The company's trading symbol is OTCQB:MJMI. Website: www.marilynjean.com Press Contact: bonnie@marilynjean.com SOURCE: MarilynJean Media Interactive || Your Old Credit Card’s Now Obsolete. Now What?: (Rob Pegoraro/Yahoo Tech) Something weird has been happening to our wallets: Computers have invaded them, one credit card at a time. This overdue migration from cards with magnetic stripes on the back to “EMV” cards that add a tiny computer chip on the front reached a semi-important point Thursday: the “liability shift,” a rebalancing of powers between card issuers and merchants in the U.S. that may change who eats the cost of a bogus transaction. For most of us, Liability Shift Day should be the most boring holiday ever. Only a minority of debit and credit cards have EMV chips (“EMV” stands for “Europay, MasterCard and Visa,” the three parents of the system ), and the share of retailers taking chip payments is even smaller. But over time, things will change. Here’s how: How exactly do I pay with a chip? Instead of swiping a card with that satisfying flick of the wrist, you pop the card into a slot in a card terminal. Then you leave it there as the chip generates a one-time code (like the three- or four-digit number on your card for online purchases), the terminal processes the transaction, and you sign to complete it. In my experience, that takes a few seconds longer than a mag-stripe card—assuming the stripe was able to read on the first try, which we all know doesn’t always happen. Where can I pay with the chip? Your chip transactions may be confined to major merchants like Walmart, Home Depot, and Target. It’s not enough to see a “point of sale” terminal with an EMV slot; that part may be inactive. For example, my neighborhood’s Whole Foods accepts Apple Pay and other phone payments but not EMV. Spokesman Michael Silverman said the chain plans to fix that across its stores… by the end of 2016. A complete upgrade across U.S. retail will take longer. On a conference call Wednesday, Visa vice president Stephanie Ericksen said 314,000 establishments take chip payments, up from 55,000 last September—but that’s out of a total of maybe 6 million to 8 million. Story continues How do I get EMV versions of my cards? If you haven’t already been issued chipped versions of your cards—those in my wallet reached that blessed state in July —you’ll have to ask your issuer what the holdup is. While you wait, you might as well use that time to shop around and see if you can switch to a card with better cash-back or travel rewards . Will chip cards stop data breaches? Sorry, no. With EMV, your card number and expiration date still get sent in the clear to the store and beyond. If somebody hacks the terminal or the software upstream, they can still go to town with your card. “It does not take care of making sure that the data is protected as it travels through the various layers of payment systems,” explained Erik Vlugt, a vice president at the payment-processing firm VeriFone . EMV cards also remain usable if lost or stolen unless they’re further secured with a PIN. That’s common with European but not U.S. cards. (More on that later.) So what security problem does EMV actually solve? Chip cards can’t be cloned the way stripe cards can. Counterfeiting is a huge problem, accounting for 37 percent of all U.S. credit-card fraud in 2014 —second only after “card not present” theft staged online or over the phone, according to the research firm Aite Group . Crooks have had a clear economic incentive to clone cards, security researcher Brian Krebs noted in a 2014 explainer : A counterfeiter “walks into a big box store and walks out with high-priced electronics or gift cards that he can easily turn into cash.” Who pays with the liability shift? Definitely not you — just like today, fraud isn’t your problem as long as you report it. But merchants can pay more, subject to various rules. As National Retail Federation general counsel Mallory Duncan summed up in an e-mail: “Whomever has the more evolved equipment (in a counterfeit situation) wins.” That is, if the bank issued a chip card, the crook shows up with a counterfeit version of it, and the merchant doesn’t process chip transactions, the merchant is liable to eat the cost. But it can get complicated: “There are scenarios where both parties accept a certain percentage of the responsibility,” MasterCard product-delivery head Carolyn Balfany said over e-mail. Note, too, that retailers already pay for some fraudulent transactions, as you can see in Visa’s “chargeback” rules . In turn, all of us pay in the form of slightly higher prices, same as we collectively pay for the “shrinkage” of shoplifting and employee theft. What if a store doesn’t take EMV? Good luck judging a store’s security, although some modern payment gadgets like Square’s card readers do encrypt card numbers automatically. If you can use your phone to pay for things, do it. Apple Pay and Android Pay do “tokenization,” meaning they generate a new card number for each transaction. Or you could pay with cash, Bitcoin , bartered chickens , or any other mutually agreeable medium of value. What about chip-and-PIN? You may have read that chip-and-PIN cards are more secure because you have to type a number matching the one stored on the chip. But that’s not why they exist: When EMV cards arrived in Europe, many establishments didn’t have online access to verify transactions with issuers and so needed authentication that worked offline. U.S. banks have avoided PIN because, hey, who wants to remember another number? (A few months ago, Underwriters Laboratories innovations director Maarten Bron said he’d seen too many chip-and-PIN holders write down their PIN on the back of their cards .) International travelers have complained that signature EMV cards don’t work at kiosks in Europe. Visa’s rules now require those unattended terminals to waive the PIN; it says that in a recent test across five EU states, 90 percent of signature-card transactions worked . So how do we stop online fraud? Payment-processing systems can ensure they have nothing worth stealing by not keeping card numbers intact—what Visa calls “devaluing” that data. In that respect, the slow adoption of EMV security could give lagging merchants a chance to jump to an Apple Pay level of security. Said PCI Security Standards Council chief technology office Troy Leach: “We’re hoping that they buy the next generation of security, which is encryption and tokenization.” I hope he’s right. But I won’t be too surprised if five years from now, a shop with connectivity issues still has to dust off a “knuckle buster” card imprinter to take my payment on a slip of carbon paper. Email Rob at rob@robpegoraro.com ; follow him on Twitter at @robpegoraro . || Bitcoin Rewards Gain Popularity: While the general public may be hesitant to convert their existing money into bitcoins, some are betting that being rewarded with the cryptocurrency will prove more appealing. Bitcoin rewards are being used by some firms to get customer feedback or provide incentives for loyal use. The idea has been a step forward for the bitcoin community, as it gets digital currencies into the hands of more people who otherwise may not use it. Microsoft Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT )'s Bing search engine has launched a platform called Bing Rewards in which users can earn credits that are redeemable for things like gift cards and other products. The site is aimed at boosting the search engine's user base. In an effort to rope in the growing bitcoin community, Bing Rewards has launched a sweepstakes that will enter participants in a drawing for $500 worth of bitcoin. The company's partnership with Tango Card is responsible for the offering, as Tango Card recently made a deal to incorporate bitcoin processing service SnapCard. Related Link: Venture Capitalists Pouring Money Into Bitcoin Qualtrics Survey moderator Qualtrics is also using bitcoin as an incentive to get people to answer questions and participate in research. Again, Tango Card and SnapCard are behind the bitcoin offerings, which are given to survey participants. Qualtrics users are able to earn points by completing surveys and those points are redeemable for gift cards at retailers like Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN ) or they can be transferred into bitcoins. See more from Benzinga Firms' Perks Competing To Attract Top Talent Google Pushes Back In EU Privacy Case Will Video Game Makers Profit In China? © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || Fidelity May Abandon American Express. What's Wrong With AmEx?: This week, Bloomberg reported that Fidelity Investments is considering dropping American Express Company (NYSE: AXP ) to search for new partners. The company may bring Visa Inc (NYSE: V ) or MasterCard Inc (NYSE: MA ) onboard instead, something that traders see as a significant threat to American Express' growth model. A Concern For AmEx? American Express' Global Network Services business represents a major growth catalyst for the company, so being abandoned by Fidelity could be a blow to the firm's future plans. The rumors about Fidelity came shortly after AmEx split from partnerships with Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST ) and JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ: JBLU ), a worrying trend for investors. Facilitating transactions is an important part of American Express' business, and many analysts believe that the recent failed partnerships suggest that the company is facing competitive challenges. Related Link: Baird: Mastercard's Growth 'Is A Little Bit Slower,' Next Year 'Should Have Nice Acceleration' Bigger And Better While the break-up rumors are concerning, things aren't all bad for the credit card company. Earlier this year, American Express revealed a new loyalty program that included partnerships with several big name retailers. Companies like AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: ATT ), Macy's, Inc. (NYSE: M ) and Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM ) have signed on to AmEx's latest loyalty program, Plenti. Plenti, though managed by American Express, allows members of the loyalty program to use any purchase, whether it's with an AmEx card or not, at a participating partner toward their loyalty points. Points accrued at one retailer can then be spent at another. What's Next For AmEx? While Plenti represents an opportunity for American Express, many wonder if the loyalty program is enough to offset the company's difficult year. Merchant coalitions like Plenti are generally difficult to manage as they require that none of the participating companies are competitors. That will limit the number of vendors who can participate and could make it difficult for the scheme to grow its customer base. Story continues Image credit: Marcus Quigmire, Wikimedia See more from Benzinga What Effect Does Marijuana Have On Your Brain? Bitcoin To Expand In Iran Another Trading Glitch Underscores The Need For Backup Plans © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Phone Carriers Hoping To Profit From New iPhone: With Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL ) expected to unveil its latest iPhone model on Wednesday, many are already beginning to speculate as to how the new handset will be received by customers. However, it isn't just Apple that will benefit from the highly anticipated phone. Carriers like AT&T Inc. (NYSE: ATT ) and Sprint Corp (NYSE: S ) are also expected to receive a boost as customers look to upgrade their phones by switching providers or signing on for a new plan. New Ways To Pay While a new iPhone used to set U.S. customers back by about $200, the new iPhone is expected to be heavily marketed for installment and leasing plans . By offering customers the potential to upgrade their phone without a large initial investment, U.S. carriers are hoping to attract more customers. A price war between companies like AT&T, T-Mobile US Inc (NYSE: TMUS ), Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ ) and Sprint has made it increasingly difficult for companies to get, and keep customers. Related Link: The iPhone Generates More Revenue Than Google, eBay And Facebook Combined Getting A Phone The new iPhone is expected to be a big hit for companies like Sprint and T-Mobile which are offering leasing plans. For between $22 and $27 per month, customers can lease a new iPhone for two years. The deal means that they can upgrade to the latest and greatest smartphone more often, something that has appealed to many in the rapidly changing tech space. Others like Sprint are calling for customers to switch providers by offering the phone for $200 when signing up for a new contract. All of the U.S.' big name carriers allow users to upgrade to the new phone by paying in monthly installments until the cost of the device has been paid off. Biggest Winners While the big name carriers are all offering some sort of deal that includes a shiny new iPhone, many analysts believe that the biggest winners from the new iPhone release will be Sprint and T-Mobile because they are offering leasing plans. The leasing option is a relatively new offering that Sprint rolled out when the iPhone 6 came out. Story continues The idea of getting a new phone every two years and avoiding a huge initial investment has appealed to U.S. consumers and could become even more popular once the iPhone arrives. See more from Benzinga Apple Aims To Read Your Mind Is Europe The New Home For Bitcoin? iBusiness, iPrograms: Apple Stretches Its Legs © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Small Businesses Turn To Online Lenders: The tech sector has reached into a new industry over the past year, as more firms rush tomake loansto small businesses. Despite the U.S.'s recovery since the financial crisis, banks have been cautious about doling out small business loans. In 2008, banks held $711 in small business loans; that figure has decreased significantly to just $599 billion as of the second quarter of 2015. For that reason, there has been a gap in the marketplace as entrepreneurs look for ways to fund their growing companies. Lending To Well Known Firms While small business owners might be required to make a pitch to a bank or private investor in order to secure funding, some companies are using their existing relationships with entrepreneurs in order to make loans. Intuit Inc.(NASDAQ:INTU) together withOn Deck Capital Inc(NYSE:ONDK) havelaunched a financing productthat allows users of the firm's QuickBooks to secure small loans. Related Link:Intuit And OnDeck To Launch 0M Small Business Lending Fund The firm is able to use existing data from the user to determine how risky the loan would be, making it easier to deliver lower-rate loans for businesses with strong financials. Knowledge Is Power Other firms have created similar programs that use data gathered from customers in order to determine whether a loan is worthwhile. Online lender Kabbage Inc. has partnered withUnited Parcel Service, Inc.(NYSE:UPS) to make loans using the firm's shipping history as a gauge of how many orders they're fulfilling.PayPal Holdings Inc(NASDAQ:PYPL) similarly uses vendors' transaction history to determine whether a loan would be high-risk. High Interest Rates However, such loans can be difficult for small business owners to repay. As online lenders become plentiful, many are jockeying for clients by offering more money at higher rates. The ease of borrowing money online has also given rise to a slew of cash advance firms that are able to approve huge sums of money quickly, but charge annual percentage rates of more than 100 percent. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga • Logistics Firms Prepare For 3D Printing's Future • The Biggest Losers From Monday's Market Meltdown • Louis C.K. Embraces Bitcoin © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Current price: 147.97£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2015-09-17 09:00:04 BST || Another Bitcoin XT node started for 1.00 months! 57.12 months total provided by http://nodeup.xk.io . n=2 || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 21 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $320.64 #bitcoin #btc || 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes: $232.19/$232.53 #Bitstamp $228.00/$228.69 #BTCe ⇢$-4.53/$-3.50 $232.81/$232.98 #Coinbase ⇢$0.28/$0.79 || My robot has 1,00 hp left! I've earned a total of 14,205,504 free satoshis from http://www.robotcoingame.com/?id=59280  #robotcoingame #Bitcoin #FreeBitcoin || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 17168.00 INR Sell : 16642.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin || In the last hour, 9 people won 1.00 BTC playing Bitcoin lottery at http://10xbtc.com , the easiest BTC lottery, 160BTC Jackpot || One Bitcoin now worth $234.39@bitstamp. High $237.25. Low $232.00. Market Cap $ 0.000 Billion #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/BrhvaN7WvT || Current price: 234.91$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-09-25 22:00:02 EDT || BTCTurk 810.07 TL BTCe 279.486 $ CampBx $ BitStamp 282.00 $ Cavirtex 372.46 $ CEXIO 282.75 $ Bitcoin.de 261.90 € #Bitcoin #btc
Trend: up || Prices: 238.73, 238.26, 240.38, 246.06, 242.97, 242.30, 243.93, 244.94, 247.05, 245.31
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2015-10-14] BTC Price: 251.99, BTC RSI: 68.08 Gold Price: 1180.10, Gold RSI: 68.34 Oil Price: 46.64, Oil RSI: 51.18 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Mission Accomplished -- CWC's Chris Dehring Departs: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Sep 25, 2015) -Cable & Wireless Communications, Plc (CWC) announced today that Chris Dehring, Chairman of LIME Jamaica and a member of the senior executive team, has decided to return to the forays of entrepreneurship after six transformative years with the Company, effective September 30, 2015. "On behalf of the Board of Directors and the management and staff of C&W, I want to thank Chris for his outstanding contributions to our business during his time with the Company," said Phil Bentley, C&W's CEO. "Chris has been a key leader in our business, spearheading the largest market in the Caribbean for over six years as Chairman, and building a solid foundation to drive growth and profitability in one of our most important markets. His outstanding reputation throughout the Caribbean and strategic acumen proved invaluable to the success of the merger with Columbus and we thank him for his leadership, and wish him well in his future endeavours," said Bentley. "On a personal note, I'd like to thank Chris for working so closely and effectively with me on gaining the support across the Caribbean for the acquisition of Columbus -- this has been a game changer for C&W!" added Bentley. Chris, who has an outstanding track record in business across the region, orchestrated new emergency legislation and the historic regulatory rulings that redressed the anomalies in the Jamaican telecommunications market, paving the way for the company to grow its mobile subscriber base from just over 200k to 900k currently. He was instrumental in reviving the LIME brand (now Flow), and business with innovative marketing and innovations such as LIME Skool Aid which continues today. Considered a maverick among his peers, Chris played a key role in the regulatory approval negotiations across the region to facilitate the successful merger with Columbus International Inc. Commenting on his tenure, the affable Chairman and Senior Vice President for Government and Regulatory Affairs, said, "It was an honour to serve with so many outstanding colleagues at Cable & Wireless Communications and to be able to close this remarkable era of my career by playing such an integral role in finalising what undoubtedly is a transformational merger with Columbus. Similar to the regulatory obstacles we overcame in Jamaica, there were massive regulatory hurdles with the merger, but I'm delighted to have had the opportunity to leverage my expertise and be a part of a US$3 billion dollar transaction spanning 42 countries. Coupled with the turnaround and upward trajectory of C&W in Jamaica and the Caribbean, I feel like my mission has been accomplished and it is time to move on to my next adventure!" Prior to joining C&W, Chris earned a solid reputation in Jamaica and across the Caribbean as a marketing specialist and entrepreneur. He was one of the founders of Jamaica's first investment bank and the Caribbean's first sports television cable channel, and as Managing Director & CEO, led the region in staging its first global sporting event -- the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2007. About Cable & Wireless Communications:Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full service communications and entertainment provider, operating in the Caribbean and Latin America. With annual sales of over $2.4bn, it operates both mobile and fixed networks, supported by submarine and terrestrial optical fibre backhaul capacity. Through the acquisition of Columbus International Inc. on 31 March 2015, CWC now delivers superior high-speed mobile data, broadband and video services. It has leading market positions in Mobile, Fixed Line, Broadband and Video consumer offers. Through its business division, CWC provides data centre hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customised IT service solutions, utilising cloud technology to serve business and government customers. The company also operates a state-of-the-art subsea fibre optic cable network that spans more than 42,000 km -- the most extensive in the region -- as well as 38,000 km of terrestrial fibre providing wholesale and carrier backhaul capacity. CWC has more than 7,000 employees serving over 6 million customers (Mobile 3.8m; Fixed Line 1.1m; TV 460k and Broadband 665k) as well as over 125k corporate clients across 42 countries. The Company's leading brands include; LIME and Flow in the Caribbean; BTC in The Bahamas; Mas Movil in Panama; C&W Business and C&W Networks. CWC is the market leader in most products offered and territories served. It is a major contributor to local communities through its corporate social responsibility programmes. Cable & Wireless Communications' shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CWC. The company is headquartered in London with its operational hub located in Miami, within close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America. For more information please visit:www.cwc.com Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=2894129 || Investors Look To China For Bargain Buys: August was a messy month for Chinese share markets, but many believe that Beijing's plans to modernize financial markets and shift toward a consumer-focused economy will be enough to turn things around in the future. For that reason, some investors are picking through the Chinese market's rubble andlooking for bargain buys. Who Stands To Gain While commodities are still considered too risky, investors are turning to promising sectors like insurance and consumer goods which are expected to weather the economic storm.China Taiping Insurance Holdings Co.(OTC:CTIHY) lost 35 percent following the yuan's devaluation, but the company's growth in recent years suggests that its financials are solid. Firms like liquor retailer Kweichow Moutia Co., maintain high profit margins, but the recent crash has stripped more than 20 percent from their share values. Related Link:Why China Isn't Killing Alibaba Location, Location, Location Many investors are looking to blue chip stocks traded on American exchanges but headquartered in China for a good deal. China Mobile(NYSE:CHL), has long been considered a good buy as the company's position as China's largest network provider and its partnership withApple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) have given it a leg up over other telecoms. However, the company's shares have fallen 8.5 percent over the past month as uncertainty in China persists. Worth The Risk? While investing in China now could be a profitable decision, many are still wary of taking positions at such an uncertain crossroads. While Chinese officials have promised to make the nation's markets more approachable to Western investors, their tactics to restore balance to share markets have been questionable. Limits on buying and selling coupled with government led efforts to inflate prices have made China's share markets arisky bet for outsiders. Others worry that the nation's economy is doomed to continue declining despite lawmakers' best efforts, something that would weigh on even the country's strongest firms. See more from Benzinga • Phone Carriers Hoping To Profit From New iPhone • AXA Interested In Bitcoin's Potential • IBM Uses Tennis To Demonstrate Its Dominance In Data © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || SunGard And HSBC's Massive IT Glitches: Why Customers Freaked Out Last Friday: Last Friday, two major banks were reported to be experienced big IT problems, affecting thousands of customers. HSBC Leaves Thousands Without Salaries According to a recent Finextraarticle, a big tech issue surfaced on Friday morning when HSBC customers checking their account balances noticed their latest monthly salaries were not accounted for. Apparently, the glitch affected roughly 275,000 Bacs payments – Bacs is the system used for fund transfers in the UK. Bacs released a statement assuring that it is "aware of an isolated issue that has affected one of its member organizations. The Bacs system is operating as normal and we [Bacs] are currently working with our partners to help them resolve this as quickly as possible." Related Link:Barclays Becomes First Big UK Bank To Accept Bitcoin The HSBC bank is owned byHSBC Holdings plc (ADR)(NYSE:HSBC), which fell 0.65 percent on Friday trading and continues to tumble on Monday. BNY Mellon, Mispriced Funds Cause Panic Another third-party service provider that had trouble on Friday is SunGard. It seems like its InvestOne system, used by custody bankBank of New York Mellon Corp(NYSE:BK) to price funds, failed on Friday, causing panic among the bank’s U.S. fund management clients. The main fear was that the system failure had led to a mispricing of hundreds of funds “during a week of especially high market volatility,” another Finextraarticleexplained. In a public statement, SunGard assured that, while they “are confident that no data was lost as a result of the incident, calculation and processing of net asset values (NAVs) of certain mutual funds and ETFs was disrupted." They added that, despite the speculation, no “external or unauthorized systems access” had caused the glitch, which wasn’t a result of "recent turmoil in the equity markets” either. Instead, the issued derived from “an unforeseen complication resulting from an operating system change carried out by SunGard last Saturday.” SunGard pledges this was an isolated incident, and that it is now working with Bank of New York Mellon to resolve the problems caused. Research firm Morningstar calculated that approximately 796 funds were missing NAVs as of Wednesday. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga • Social Media Pulse: Volatility, The Fed Meeting, Oil -- And A Look At 3 Related ETFs • This Analyst Loves Depomed And Its Nucynta Prescription • Seabridge Gold's Stock Could Hit , Another Deposit Site Extended © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Pot-Friendly Candidates Emerge In 2016 Election: Marijuana will play an unprecedented role in the 2016 Presidential race as the drug has never before been regarded by the public in such a favorable light. In previous elections, marijuana was used as a weapon and candidate after candidate denied using, or liking the drug at all. However, this year pot is expected to come up several times on the campaign train, but as an issue rather than a shameful allegation. A Big Issue? It remains to be seen just how important a candidate's stance on marijuana legalization will be when it comes to the election. Most candidates have been vague about their views on the drug, saying that the Obama administration's decision to let states decide for themselves whether or not marijuana should be legalized has provided a good framework to see just how a legal marijuana market will affect the United States. Related Link: How Every Presidential Candidate Wants To Change The Economy Pot Friendly Candidates Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have voiced their support for the marijuana market, saying that it should be each state's right to determine the laws governing marijuana. Paul also became the first candidate to turn to marijuana industry groups for campaign support. Others, like Chris Christie claim they will take a hardline against marijuana and reverse states' decisions to legalize the drug. Unknown Others, like Hillary Clinton, have taken a wishy-washy view— saying that they'd like to see how things go in Colorado and Oregon before making a firm decision or avoiding the issue all together. However, this week, Bernie Sanders appeared to be planning to take a stand on marijuana and many speculate that stand will be pro-legalization. On Tuesday, Sanders spoke out against the war on drugs and promised voters that his campaign would release his marijuana platform in a month. See more from Benzinga Despite Record Profits, Turbulence Ahead For The Airline Industry One Man's Journey Around The World Using Only Bitcoin What The Fed Minutes Could Say About A September Rate Hike © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin exchange Gemini safe and legal: Founders: Bitcoin is often associated with illegal activity and the dark corners of the Internet. But the Winklevoss twins believe their new exchange will help investors get involved with the digital currency safely and legally. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, famous for their legal spat with Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) founder Mark Zuckerberg, launched bitcoin exchange Gemini on Thursday. While the currency has received criticism for its role in exchanges such as online black market Silk Road, the brothers contend they have established sufficient safeguards to unlock its potential. "We built with a security mentality from Day One," said Tyler Winklevoss. Cameron Winklevoss added that Gemini has "the highest regulatory policies and capitalization requirements." The brothers said they implemented background checks and protections against money laundering. Read More NY issues license to Winklevoss bitcoin venture Specifically, they contended that their platform gives hedge funds and market makers a secure platform to dive into the digital currency. Tyler Winklevoss also touched on Facebook, saying it is a "great company" and Zuckerberg deserves credit for its growth and success. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || The 'Wolf of WhatsApp' wants to sell you penny stocks: (Paramount)The “pump and dump” scam is a classic stock trick. Someone ruthlessly promotes a stock they hold, driving up the price based on artificial interest, and then sells before everyone realizes the interest was just manufactured. Oftentimes, those stocks are “penny stocks,” which don’t trade on an exchange and are worth only a few cents a share. Real life “Wolf of Wall Street” Jordan Belfort was famous for perfecting the pump and dumpto the tune of millions of dollarsfor himself and his posse. But on Friday a new cadre of penny stock villains struck, this time on the popular messaging app WhatsApp. I first noticed the scam when a friend of mine posted this screenshot on Facebook along with the caption,“Umm...What? Someone got the serious wrong number on Whatsapp.” (Facebook) But I didn’t put the pieces of the scam together untilThe Awl’sJohn Herrmanpointed out that the spam seemed to be part of a coordinated pump and dump scheme. AVRN is the stock sign for Avra, Inc., which is a digital currency (think Bitcoin) company. And the scam seems to have been dastardly effective. As you can see from this chart from Yahoo Finance, the stock for Avra shot up at around 11 a.m. before crashing shortly thereafter: (Yahoo Finance) Some people were clearly fooled, and assuming the scammers timed it right and didn’t totally bungle the operation, they probably made some cash. This isn’t the first time that potential pump and dumpers have used an innovative messaging medium to cut through the noise.Last month,Twitter shares spikedbased on a phony report on awebsite made to look like Bloomberg.com. The story had said that Twitter was fielding an offer to be taken over for $31 billion. NOW WATCH:The story behind the famously offensive twitter account that parodies Wall Street culture More From Business Insider • Here's what to expect from the next iPhone's camera, according to a person who's making it • Make no mistake — this is the opening of the 'China Decade' • It's no longer all about ads — Here's how publishers, streaming sites, and apps are using subscriptions to boost revenues || Greece could soon get 1,000 bitcoin ATMs: Bitcoin(: BTC=)ATMs could spring up across Greece as soon as October as citizens and businesses become increasingly desperate to move their money despite capital controls. BTCGreece, which bills itself as the country's first bitcoin exchange, plans to eventually install 1,000 ATMs nationwide, in partnership with European bitcoin platform, Cubits. Thanos Marinos, the founder of BTCGreece, told CNBC on Wednesday that a soft launch was on the cards for October. "It is part of my vision to create a block chain ecosystem in Greece," he told CNBC. "If all goes as expected with no major issues we will launch first ATMs October 2015." Bitcoin is adecentralized digital currency that can be used around the world. Transactions are listed in a shared public ledger called the block chain. The digital currency has been touted as one way to to circumvent Greek capital controls. These have been in place since June and limit domestic investors to withdrawing no more than 60 euros ($66) per day from Greek banks, making life extremely tough for companies that need to pay or receive bills. Greek individuals and businesses are also forbidden from moving money to bank accounts abroad. The ATMs envisaged by Marinos could allow users to convert fiat currency into bitcoin and potentially vice versa. As yet, BTCGreece has no ATMs in Greece. However, Marinos said he had already received requests from 300 shops for bitcoin ATMs. "We want to do it cautiously," he told CNBC, adding that BTCGreece would announce more partnerships next week. Bitcoin rallied in Juneamid reports that Greeks were flocking to the currency in order to circumvent the controls. However, the currency's decentralized nature makes it challenging to say how many Greeks currently use it. Bitcoin ATMs have already been installed in other countries, predominately in the U.S. and Western European countries like the U.K., the Netherlands and Spain. "There has been a focus on bitcoin and Greece and the economic instability there," Akif Khan, chief commercial officer at digital commerce company, Bitnet, told CNBC on Wednesday. "So in one sense it will be an interesting experiment to see if Greeks do gravitate towards bitcoin as one of the tools in their financial toolkit to try and cope." Read MoreTrack Bitcoin versus the euro(Unknown: BTCEUR=) Belfast-based Khan added that Greece's regulatory environment was conducive to introducing ATMs. "In principle, putting bitcoin ATMs into Greece is just as feasible as in any other European country... Greece does not have a prohibitive regulatory environment in this regard," he told CNBC. -By CNBC'sKaty Barnato. Follow her@KatyBarnato. More From CNBC • Top News and Analysis • Latest News Video • Personal Finance || Medical Marijuana May Help Transplant Patients: In recent years, the use case for marijuana for medicinal reasons has expanded exponentially. As the drug becomes widely accepted across the US, more research has been done to better understand the effects of marijuana on certain ailments. Everything from Alzheimer's to Epilepsy is said to benefit from the components of a marijuana plant and now a newstudyshows that the drug which has long disqualified patients from receiving a transplant could actually aid in their recovery. Mouse Study Scientists at the University of South Carolina have found that Tetrahyrodcannabinol, the psychoactive component of marijuana, may help to delay the rejection of organs in transplant patients. The study examined the effects of THC on mice that received skin grafts and found that those exposed to the drug were better able to accept a foreign graft. Related Link:Marijuana-Specific Doctors Can Make It Difficult To Take Medical Marijuana Seriously New Uses Based on this data, scientists believe that THC suppresses a patient's immune response, something that could prove beneficial for transplant patients or those struggling with other inflammatory diseases. For marijuana supporters, the data represents another reason why federal laws should be relaxed in order to make studies like this one more accessible. Still Some Concerns Much like many other studies touting the effectiveness of marijuana treatments, the scientists at the University of South Carolina cautioned that the results don't tell the whole story. So much is unknown about how marijuana affects the human body that the possibility of using THC in this capacity for humans any time soon is slim. However, it illuminates a new use case and will likely encourage researchers to continue finding ways to use marijuana components to fight illnesses and improve patients' quality of life. See more from Benzinga • Netflix Viewing Stats Reveal That All Shows Aren't Created Equally • Charlie Shrem Weighs In On Bitcoin From His Prison Cell • China's Weakness Isn't All Bad © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin Driven HashingSpace Launches HashScanner to Maximize Bitcoin Payouts: HashingSpace Corporation ( HSHS ) Announced Today That It Has Launched a New Service, HashScanner, to Maximize Bitcoin Mining Capabilities. HashingSpace's Mission Is to Build out Key Infrastructure for the Global Adoption of Bitcoin and Blockchain Services with Hosted ASIC Mining WENATCHEE, WA / ACCESSWIRE / September 1, 2015 / HashingSpace Corporation ( OTCQB: HSHS ), a Bitcoin ASIC mining and hosting company, announced today that the company has made available HashScanner, a proprietary service to maximize Bitcoin payouts for HashingSpace miners. The new service allows miners to scan P2Pools to see which has the lowest latency. It also shows pools score, efficiencies, uptime, location, fees, hash rate and version number. This free service shows how HASHPOOL ranks with HashingSpace's 13 nodes located across the world. Our HashPool.com mining pools are GEO-IP load balanced through DNS to allow mining pools one address, which load balances and fails over for all of our the nodes. We also allow for individual node access. "We are excited to bring to the Bitcoin marketplace this free HashScanner service. We feel it is well designed and user friendly. It is a definitive source for the highest paying p2pool mining pools. This allows our customers to maximize their mining capabilities and increase their profits and shows how HashPool ranks among the P2Pools," stated Timothy Roberts, CEO of HashingSpace Corporation. "This completes another goal of ours to provide intuitive, convenient, robust and secure bitcoin solutions to the Bitcoin community." HashScanner can be accessed at www.hashscanner.com and also through the HashingSpace mining portal at www.hashpool.com . HashingSpace Corporation's business will provide a wide range of services to include: FORTRESS ONE HOSTING: Tier 3+ Enterprise Class, Green High Intensity Hosting for Blockchain CRYPTOHASH HOSTING: Tier 1 Green High Intensity Hosting for Crypto Currency ASIC Mining CLOUDHASH: Cloud mining servers that can be rented with full hashing power Story continues HASHMINING: Our own Mining Farm HASHATM: Owner and operator of Bitcoin ATM machines HASHWALLET: Bitcoin consumer wallet for bitcoin banking and transactions HASHPOOL: Public Stratum and P2Pool (Web/IOS/Droid) HASHTICKER: Free Ticker for tracking Bitcoin Value (Screen Saver/Web/IOS/Droid) HASHVAR: A wholesaler of Bitcoin servers and Bitcoin ATM machines All company information, including stock trading, filings, and market data related to the company, is reported under the ticker symbol, HSHS. About HashingSpace Corporation HashingSpace Corporation is a Bitcoin ASIC mining company, hosting provider, and service provider of blockchain transactional services. HashingSpace's high density datacenters are designed to meet the demanding power and cooling needs of client hosted Bitcoin mining gear with unparalleled pricing, cooling and green energy. The Corporation is continuing to expand its datacenters to satisfy the shortage of low cost hosting facilities catering to the Bitcoin and blockchain mining and transactional verification services industry specifically. HashingSpace Corporation manages HashWallet, a Bitcoin wallet; HashPool, a Bitcoin mining pool; and HashATM, the owner and operator of Bitcoin ATM machines. The company is a wholesaler of Bitcoin mining servers and Bitcoin ATM machines. Bitcoin businesses interested in reselling HashingSpace products and services are invited to reach out to HashingSpace Corporation for more information. HashingSpace Corporation is headquartered in Wenatchee, Washington. For more information, visit www.hashingspace.com . Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements may not be currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase HashingSpace services should make their purchase decisions based upon features currently available. For more information please visit http://www.hashingspace.com or call 1-855-HASHING (427-4464). Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based on the current plans and expectations of management and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could significantly affect the Company's current plans and expectations, as well as future results of operations and financial condition. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Company Contact: HashingSpace Corporation 5042 Wilshire Blvd. #26900 Los Angeles, CA, 90036 855-HASHING (427-4464) Investor Relations: ir@hashingspace.com SOURCE: HashingSpace Corporation || Is Europe The New Home For Bitcoin?: The tech sector has grown exponentially over the past decade, and most of that innovation has come from the United States. Industry giants likeGoogle Inc(NASDAQ:GOOG),Microsoft Corporation(NASDAQ:MSFT) andApple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) were all born on American soil. However, as financial technology emerges, some experts arepredictingthat it will be Europe which pulls ahead in that sector. Cryptocurrency Friendly Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are still a relatively new development in the fintech sector, but many believe that blockchain, the ledger like system that powers bitcoin, will be one of the most important innovations of the decade. Despite that, the general public has been hesitant to embrace cryptocurrencies after the coins' reputations were marred by several high-profile scams. Many believe that the only way to gain mainstream approval is by laying out regulations that govern cryptocurrencies in order to protect consumer interests. Regulations That Work Critics say that regulations undermine the reason bitcoin was developed — to create a decentralized financial system free from traditional barriers. With this in mind, many U.S. states have begun to crack down on bitcoin businesses in hopes of making the industry more streamlined and safer to use. However, in New York, a new rule requiring firms in the industry to apply for bitcoin licenses led to the shutdown of 15 bitcoin companies, which opted to take their businesses elsewhere rather than complying with the new rules. Progressive Regulation In Europe, the response by regulators has been vastly different. Many major cities like London have expressed a need for bitcoin regulation, but have worked together with major industry players in order to create a set of rules that helps the industry continue to grow and develop. For that reason, many believe that cryptocurrency-based firms will make their homes in Europe rather than the US. See more from Benzinga • The Sharing Economy Sparks A New Class Of Startups • Is The Soda Industry Doomed? • Bitcoin Firms Could Join Forces To Promote Adoption © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] BTCTurk 709.4 TL BTCe 226.356 $ CampBx $ BitStamp 228.00 $ Cavirtex 302.92 $ CEXIO 229.01 $ Bitcoin.de 204.65 € #Bitcoin #btc || Current price: 239.01$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-09-12 10:00:03 EDT || Current price: 229.5$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-09-22 12:00:01 EDT || people used to tell me bitcoin wasn't real. back when that not real currency cost $6.00 @KC5uJG. @C1TYofFL1NT || In the last hour, 9 people won 1.00 BTC playing Bitcoin lottery at http://10xbtc.com , the easiest BTC lottery, 160BTC Jackpot || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000004 Bittrex: 0.00000005 Average $1.0E-5 per #reddcoin 21:00:01 || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: Error Bittrex: 0.00000005 Average $1.2E-5 per #reddcoin 23:00:02 || Current price: 233.77$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-09-18 01:00:01 EDT || Current price: 233$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-08-20 12:00:04 EDT || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000005 Bittrex: 0.00000005 Average $1.2E-5 per #reddcoin 19:00:01
Trend: up || Prices: 254.32, 262.87, 270.64, 261.64, 263.44, 269.46, 266.27, 274.02, 276.50, 281.65
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Here’s How to Earn Bitcoin with Your Everyday Spending: Advertiser Disclosure: At Slickdeals, we work hard to find the best deals. Some products in our articles are from partners who may provide us with compensation, but this doesn’t change our opinions. In 2008, Bitcoin became the first decentralized cryptocurrency. Since then, widespread adoption and acceptance have been slow. But in 2021, the currency is legitimate as a payment method and an investment. But while many people aren’t concerned about converting their cash into Bitcoin, others may feel more reluctant. Whether you’re all-in on Bitcoin or you’re intrigued, but don’t necessarily want to use your own money to invest, here are some ways you can earn the cryptocurrency with your everyday spending without changing much about your habits. 3 Ways to Earn Bitcoin Every Day Cash-back rewards have been around for a long time, but the chance to earn Bitcoin is becoming increasingly popular. If you’re interested in earning cryptocurrency instead of points, miles or cash back on your everyday shopping, here’s how you can do it. Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card In early 2021, BlockFi launched the world’s first credit card that offers cryptocurrency instead of more traditional forms of credit card rewards. The BlockFi Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card offers 1.5% back on every purchase you make in the form of Bitcoin. You’ll also earn $250 worth of Bitcoin after you spend $3,000 in the first three months, along with 3.5% Bitcoin rewards on all purchases during the first four to six months from account opening. Each month, the rewards you earned from the previous month will be added to your BlockFi Interest Account , which offers up to 8.6% APY. The only drawback is that the card charges a $200 annual fee. In other words, it may be better for Bitcoin enthusiasts than for people who are just looking to dip their toes into the water. Read our full review of BlockFi. Bitcoin Debit Cards While there’s only one Bitcoin-powered credit card, there are several debit cards that offer the cryptocurrency as a reward every time you swipe. While some charge fees, there are low and even no-fee cards available. Some of the options include: BlockCard : You can earn up to 6.38% back, depending on how much TERN you stake. You can then exchange your TERN for Bitcoin. It charges a $5 monthly fee, but that fee is waived if you spend more than $750 on the card every month. Crypto.com Visa Card : You’ll earn between 1% and 8% back, depending on how much CRO you have, which is Crypto.com’s native coin. Once earned, you can exchange CRO for Bitcoin. The card has no enrollment fee or annual fee. Coinbase Card (coming soon): Will offer up to 4% back, and there’s no signup fee or annual fee. Story continues Each card has its own features, but they all offer the chance to earn high rewards rates. Before you apply for one, though, make sure you understand the fees, and how they’ll impact the value you gain from using your card. Also, read the fine print to determine whether there are any limitations or restrictions for earning and redeeming your Bitcoin. Finally, compare these cards with what you could get with a regular debit or credit card. In order to get the best rewards rates, you typically need to own a lot of cryptocurrency, so the rates may be mediocre for beginners. Online Shopping Portals Shopping portals are a dime a dozen. In addition to cash-back websites, there are also portals for various credit card, airline and hotel rewards programs. Now, though, you can also earn Bitcoin. Lolli has a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, which notifies you when you’re shopping with one of its 1,000+ retail partners. When you checkout using Lolli, you can earn up to 30% back in the form of Bitcoin rewards. Some popular retailers that participate include Nike, Groupon, eBay, Sam’s Club, Microsoft and Staples. The Bottom Line If you’re looking for opportunities to earn Bitcoin without digging into your savings, there are a handful of options available. Before you apply for a card, though, make sure you consider all the benefits and drawbacks. With some debit cards, for instance, you won’t be earning Bitcoin directly, but you can exchange the cryptocurrency you earn for Bitcoin. With shopping portals like Lolli, earning Bitcoin can be incredibly easy because you just add the browser extension, and it lets you know when you can use it to earn the currency. Even then, though, you’ll want to compare what you could get with Lolli to what you can earn elsewhere. The website Cashback Monitor lists the rewards rate for a long list of cash-back websites, as well as shopping portals for airlines and hotel brands. Related Financial Offers >> WIN: Biggest Bank Bonuses for Opening New Accounts >>EARN : Best High-Yield Checking Accounts >>SAVE: Best High-Yield Savings Accounts >>FREE: Best Free Checking Accounts >> INVEST: Biggest Brokerage Bonuses: Earn Promo Cash and Free Stock >>SECURE: Best Small Business Checking Accounts >> RECOVER: How to Improve Your Credit Score Quickly for Free While we work hard on our research, we do not always provide a complete listing of all available offers from credit-card companies and banks. And because offers can change, we cannot guarantee that our information will always be up to date, so we encourage you to verify all the terms and conditions of any financial product before you apply. View comments || As Ether Pushes Ever Higher, Crypto Traders Plot Price in Bitcoin Terms: Cryptocurrency-focused financial firm Apifiny has been granted a broker-dealer license from the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), according to anannouncementThursday. Apifiny Prime, the trading arm of Apifiny (pronounced the same as “epiphany”), joins a select group of crypto companies such as Coinbase, Gemini, eToro and Circle in holding a FINRA broker-dealer license. Slowly but surely, institutional-grade infrastructure is being built to connect the global cryptocurrency industry. New York-based Apifiny is building a kind of crypto conglomerate involving trading, market-making andbitcoinmining. Related:As Ether Pushes Ever Higher, Crypto Traders Plot Price in Bitcoin Terms “A broker-dealer license will allow us to bridge the traditional financial market with the crypto market,” said Apifiny CEO Haohan Xu. “As a broker-dealer, we are able to offer securities to our clients, such as closed-end funds. That could be a fund that tracks a basket of crypto or a fund that tracks the performance of a sub-sector of crypto like DeFi (decentralized finance).” Getting hold of a license from FINRA was a long and involved process, said Bob Morris, Apifiny’s chief compliance officer. “FINRA looked into our background and our large footprint in the digital asset business,” Morris said in an interview. “They tread very carefully when it comes to crypto, and we had to provide a lot of due diligence. It was a yearlong process, and of course, COVID-19 didn’t help matters.” For the crypto sector to recreate the all-in-one white glove services institutional investors expect in the traditional world has been a goal of firms like Coinbase, Genesis and BitGo, but Xu said Apifiny’s prime brokerage service is mostly focused on trade execution. Related:Mastercard Plans to Explore Applications It Can Build on Top of CBDCs Apifinyconnects professional traders with 40-odd global exchanges to search the best execution prices, the company said. It has recently added Crypto.com, Huobi Global, OKEx, Kucoin, AscendEX, HBTC and Blockchain.com as trading venues. “One of the biggest problems in the crypto space is around price discovery and liquidity,” Xu said, adding: “Bitcoin may be more global in nature than Apple stock or even USD, but it’s traded in a very localized way with regional exchanges dominating their respective markets, creating many isolated liquidity pools. This has prevented institutions from getting involved and is a problem we are helping to solve.” • Why Is Ether Rising, Bitcoin Stalling? BNY Mellon on Its Move Into Crypto • Commerzbank, Deutsche Börse Team Up for Tokenized Real Estate and Art Marketplace || Factbox: Bitcoin's march towards the mainstream: LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin hit a record high just shy of $65,000 last month, the latest landmark on its march to wider acceptance. A growing embrace by major companies and financial firms, particularly in the United States, have fuelled its gains. Here are some of the steps that have pushed the world's largest cryptocurrency closer to the mainstream this year: ACCEPTANCE May 2021: * Auction house Sotheby's says it would accept bitcoin and second-largest cryptocurrency ethereum as payment for a work by street artist Banksy, a first for a physical art auction. April 2021: * Swiss arm of French insurer AXA allows its customers to pay for non-life insurance products with bitcoin https://www.axa.ch/en/ueber-axa/blog/trend/bitcoin-cryptocurrency%20.html. March 2021: * PayPal Holdings Inc allows U.S. consumers to use their cryptocurrency holdings to pay at millions of its online merchants globally. * Tesla Inc customers can now buy its electric vehicles with bitcoin, its boss Elon Musk says. Feb. 2021: * Mastercard Inc unveils plans to support cryptocurrency payments across its network. * Bank of NY Mellon Corp announces a new unit aimed at helping clients trade and own cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. * Canada's main securities regulator clears the launch of the Purpose Bitcoin ETF, the world's first bitcoin exchange traded fund. INVESTMENT May 2021: * The S&P Dow Jones Indices launches a series of cryptocurrency indices, tracking bitcoin and other major tokens, with plans to add other coins later this year. April 2021: * U.S. digital wealth manager Wealthfront says it will start allowing clients to invest in cryptocurrencies later this year, a shift for the California startup whose investment strategy has traditionally been more conservative. * Inflows into cryptocurrency funds and products hit a record $4.5 billion in the first quarter, digital asset manager CoinShares says. * UK-based hedge fund Brevan Howard sets up a new fund to invest in digital assets, focusing on a long-only range of digital assets including bitcoin, according to a personal familiar with the matter. Story continues * U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc COIN.O was valued at $86 billion at the end of its Nasdaq debut, the biggest listing yet by a crypto company. * U.S. business software firm MicroStrategy Inc, a major investor in cryptocurrency since 2020, says it now holds 91,579 bitcoin. March 2021: * Morgan Stanley becomes the first big U.S. bank to offer its wealth management clients access to bitcoin funds, CNBC reported. * Goldman Sachs Group Inc reopens its crypto trading desk and says it will offer investments in bitcoin and other digital assets to its wealth management clients from the second quarter. * Daniel Loeb's hedge fund Third Point uses as a custodian cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc, a regulatory filing shows. Feb. 2021: * Carmaker Tesla Inc announces it bought $1.5 billion in bitcoin and says it will soon accept the cryptocurrency as payment for its vehicles. (Compiled by Tom Wilson, Editing by William Maclean) || Why Buying A Tesla With Bitcoin Isn't Really A Good Idea — For Now: Buying aTesla Inc(NASDAQ:TSLA) vehicle withBitcoin(BTC) requires quick action and nerves of steel thanks to a small 30-minute purchase window and the inherently volatile nature of the cryptocurrency. What Happened:Tesla will give users about 30 minutes to make a payment in Bitcoin from placing the order, a representative of the electric vehicle maker for the Northeast region said, CoinDeskreported. This 30-minute payment window sheds some more clarity on the “Bitcoin Price Window” the company referenced in its terms and conditions. See also:How to Invest in Tesla Stock There is no early-adopter discount available for those choosing to make payment for their vehicles with BTC either, as noted by CoinDesk. As per the automaker's terms, it is the responsibility of the customer to input the alphanumeric code provided to make the payment accurately in the recipient field while making a BTC payment to it. The terms also contain a section on underpayments and overpayments ad make it clear that if "you transmit more than the Bitcoin Price, you will not be entitled to reimbursement of the excess amount." Adding to the uncertainty of buying a vehicle in BTC from Tesla are the tax implications. The apex cryptocurrency is taxed as property instead of like currency. Althoughtaxes on any resultant capital gainsare less than income taxes. Why It Matters:Last week, it was reported that If payment for the vehicle is not initiated in the price window, the price will expire and Tesla will provide a new price and window on customer requested. See Also:Tesla Begins Accepting Bitcoin Payments This time-sensitive purchase methodology is an attempt to mitigate BTC’s volatility. In the 24-hours leading up to press time, BTC touched an intra-day high of $56,610.31. The cryptocurrency was trading 1.14% lower at $55,465.73, a decline of over 2% from intraday highs. This month alone, BTC surged to an all-time high of $61,683.86 and is currently trading over 10% below that level. In 2013, a person had purchased a Model S through a car dealership in California for 91.4 BTC at the rate of $1,126 per coin, Coindeskreported. The amount of BTC today equals $5.07 million approximately. A very expensive purchase indeed. See more from Benzinga • Click here for options trades from Benzinga • Can You Mine Bitcoin With A Game Boy? This Guy Gave It A Go • Bitcoin Has Dropped To Below ,000 And Analyst Says Further Downside On The Horizon © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Retail Sales, Stocks Rebound, Colonial Restarts - What's Moving Markets: By Geoffrey Smith Investing.com — Stocks and other risk assets are rebounding after heavy sell-offs but retail sales data for April will test the market's nerve again. Colonial has restarted the pipeline that supplies 45% of the East Coast's gasoline and diesel supplies. The closure of the Mississippi continues to disrupt flows of agricultural commodities, and both Disney and Airbnb disappoint with their quarterly reports. Here's what you need to know in financial markets on Friday, May 14th. 1. Retail sales, industrial production data Market nerves over inflation will be tested again by the release of U.S. retail sales data for April at 8:30 AM ET (1230 GMT), which are expected to slow markedly after household stimulus checks fueled a nationwide binge in spending in March. Overall sales are expected to have risen 1.0% in the month, while core retail sales are expected to have risen 0.7%. Anything markedly stronger than that may revive concerns that the economy is already running too hot for comfort, despite largely soothing words from the Federal Reserve this week. Industrial production data for April are also expected at 9:15 AM ET, and will be scanned for further evidence of capacity bottlenecks contributing to the current squeeze in prices. 2. Grains hit by Mississippi blockage A spectacular new bottleneck is fouling up agricultural commodity markets. The closure of the I-40 Interstate bridge in Memphis indefinitely, due to the cracking of a steel beam, has effectively stopped traffic in both directions on the Mississippi, the U.S.’s biggest waterway and a crucial conduit for wheat, corn, soybeans and other crops. Disruptions are likely to last until alternative routes to market can be established. U.S. Soybeans Futures rose 2.7% in overnight trading, while Wheat Futures rose 2.2% and Corn Futures rose 1.2%, although these movements need to be seen in the context of a broad and heavy sell-off in the previous two sessions. Story continues 3. Stocks set to rebound despite Disney, Airbnb disappointments U.S. stock markets are set for a substantial bounce to end the week, recovering from the shock of a much higher-than-expected inflation stamp for April. By 6:30 AM ET (1030 GMT), Dow Jones futures were up 135 points or 0.4%, while S&P 500 futures were up 0.6% and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 1.1%. All three are still on course for their first synchronized negative week since early March, however. Stocks likely to be in focus later include Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB), whose report of recovering booking volumes on Thursday wasn’t enough to stop the stock sliding in after-hours trading, and Disney, which followed Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) in reporting disappointing subscriber growth for its streaming business after the bell. Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) will also be in focus after reporting its first quarterly loss as a public company due to a Chinese antitrust fine. 4. Colonial restarts pipeline operations Colonial Pipeline Company has restarted its main lines that ship some 2.5 million barrels of fuel a day to the U.S. east coast, a move set to alleviate an increasingly acute regional shortage of gasoline and diesel. Bloomberg cited unnamed sources as saying that the company had agreed to pay the ransom demanded by the hacking group DarkSide, and that the decryption tool provided by the group to unlock its systems had not been effective. Instead, the company relied on system backups to restore operations. Elsewhere. Toshiba Corp. (T:6502) became the latest high-profile company to say it had been the victim of a ransomware attack by DarkSide. Crude oil prices advanced in line with other risk assets in overnight trading, U.S. crude futures rising 0.9% to $64.38 a barrel and Brent futures rising 0.9% to $67.62 a barrel. 5. Musk back in DogeCoin hodlers' good books Bitcoin recovered some ground after falling in response to Elon Musk voicing concern about its environmental impact. By 6:30 AM ET, it had rebounded over the $50,000 mark, although it remains down some 14% on the week. DogeCoin has been the main beneficiary of reallocations between crypto asses. It’s up 36% overnight after Musk tweeted that he’s helping the founders of DogeCoin work on the energy efficiency of its processing of transactions. Musk’s reversal on Bitcoin comes in the wake of widespread criticism of ESG-themed investors who have drawn attention to Bitcoin mining is largely powered by coal-fired power stations in China, undercutting the core mission of Musk’s car company in combating pollution and climate change. Related Articles Retail Sales, Stocks Rebound, Colonial Restarts - What's Moving Markets Japan PM Suga seeks minimum wage hike 'sooner', despite business resistance Lines, tokens and money brokers: Myanmar's crumbling economy runs low on cash || SEC Pushes VanEck Bitcoin ETF Decision to At Least June: Bitcoin ( BTC ) has traded in a tight range over the past two days after rallying nearly 18% from the April 25 low around $47,000. The cryptocurrency was trading around immediate support at $54,700 at the time of writing and has nearly retraced 50% of the prior two-week downtrend. Lower support is around $52,000. BTC stalled just below $56,000 resistance after the relative strength index ( RSI ) reached overbought levels on intraday charts. Lower highs on the hourly RSI indicates slowing upside momentum after the 18% price rally. Typically slowing momentum suggests profit taking as buyers look to establish positions at lower support levels. BTC is trading just above the 50-period volume weighted moving average on the hourly chart, which could provide immediate short-term support. BTC will need to return above $56,000 to sustain the recovery from last week’s sell-off. Related Stories SEC Pushes VanEck Bitcoin ETF Decision to At Least June Bumper, a DeFi-Based Crypto Volatility Protection Plan, Raises $10M As Ether Soars to New All-Time Highs, JPMorgan Notices Bitcoin’s Recovery Rally Stalls as Fed Meeting Draws to a Close || Northern Data sells Texas data center operations to Riot Blockchain Inc. for approximately EUR 550 million - operational EBITDA guidance for fiscal year 2021 remains unchanged: Due to strong, profitable growth of remaining six sites within Northern Data's multi-site strategy, operational EBITDA guidance for fiscal year 2021 remains unchanged Additional eight new highly efficient locations in development worldwide All newly developed sites are entirely based on renewable energy sources FRANKFURT, GERMANY / ACCESSWIRE / April 8, 2021 / Northern Data AG (XETRA: NB2 , ISIN: DE000A0SMU87 ), a leading developer and operator of High-Performance-Computing ("HPC") infrastructure solutions, sells its U.S. subsidiary Whinstone Inc., which operates a high-performance data center facility based in Rockdale, Texas, to Riot Blockchain Inc. (NASDAQ: "RIOT"), one of the largest U.S. based publicly-traded bitcoin miners in North America. The consideration in the transaction consists of EUR 67 million in cash component (cash and debt-free) and 11.8 million shares of common stock of Riot Blockchain Inc., which, based on the Riot Blockchain Inc. last closing share price (record date April 7, 2021: USD 48.37), corresponds to a total value of EUR 481 million. Consequently, the total volume of the transaction amounts to approximately EUR 548 million. Upon closing of the transaction, Northern Data AG will own approximately 12% of the total outstanding common stock of Riot Blockchain Inc. Northern Data AG pursues a multi-site strategy with strong focus on value-accretive HPC business. The Company's leadership in cost, speed, availability and scale maximizes hardware profitability and is rewarded by adequate profit share agreements as well as fix base remunerations. The Company pursues a clear strategic roadmap using the transaction proceeds to further expand its six existing HPC locations in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, including the new ultra-efficient Boden Facility in Sweden. Given all sites in operation and construction are already sold out, the proceeds will allow Northern Data to directly accelerate the development of eight new HPC locations in North America and Europe. Concerning the eight new sites in development, the Company further diversifies geographically and will expand even beyond in the coming years. Story continues The sites stand out by time to market of 2-4 months, data sovereignty principles, tier 3 DC standards and sustainability attributes such as renewable energy usage of >90%, mild climate (around 6 degrees C) and Northern Data's proprietary software-controlled cooling solution leading to an above-market standard power usage effectiveness (PUE) of around 1.04. All newly developed sites are entirely green and the Company is building towards a circular ecosystem. The Company's strategic roadmap is set and the corresponding growth goals for the next years are already covered by the new sites in planning as well as the placed hardware orders. As a result, the Company will be able to meet the exponentially growing customer demand for high-performance computing power for a broad range of applications, including artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, graphics rendering, blockchain businesses such as Bitcoin mining and other scientific use cases. Riot intends to not only utilize Whinstone's existing operational capacity for their own mining operations but also to scale capacity and establish themselves as the leading Bitcoin miner in the US. By becoming a minority shareholder in Riot going forward, through its equity stake in Riot, Northern Data will be able to benefit from the synergies generated by the transaction and continues to directly participate in the growth of Bitcoin value potential. "Northern Data has been able to create a versatile multi-site network of efficient HPC capabilities with an industry-leading sustainability focus by offering secured access to renewable energy sources. With the proceeds from the transaction, we can accelerate our expansion significantly and reinforce the focus on value-accretive HPC services," said Aroosh Thillainathan, CEO of Northern Data AG. Due to the strong, profitable growth of the other data center sites the operating EBITDA forecast for 2021 in the order of EUR 100 million to EUR 125 million remains unchanged. The operating EBITDA forecast includes the YTD business performance, but no one-off effects from the transaction and effects from the current fiscal year of Whinstone US Inc. in the order of a mid-three-digit million-euro range. Accordingly, the reporting of Northern Data AG will be continued without the consolidation of Whinstone US Inc. in the future. The company now expects to generate revenues in the amount of EUR 285 million to EUR 325 million in fiscal year 2021. Originally, revenues of EUR 350 million to EUR 400 million and EBITDA of EUR 100 million to EUR 125 million were forecast. For the years to come, management expects a continuation of the strong profitable growth. Greenhill is serving as exclusive financial adviser to Northern Data. Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is acting as legal counsel to Northern Data. About Northern Data: Northern Data AG develops and operates global infrastructure solutions in the field of High- Performance Computing (HPC). With its customer-specific solutions, the company provides the infrastructure for various HPC applications in areas such as bitcoin mining, artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data analytics, IoT or rendering. The internationally active company was formed from the merger of the German company Northern Bitcoin AG and the American company Whinstone US, Inc. and is today a leading provider of HPC solutions worldwide. Northern Data offers its HPC solutions both in large, stationary data centers and in mobile high-tech data centers that can be set up at any location worldwide. The company combines self-developed software and hardware with intelligent concepts for a sustainable energy supply. The Northern Data group currently employs around 200 people. Investor Relations: Jens-Philipp Briemle Head of Investor Relations An der Welle 3 60322 Frankfurt am Main E-Mail: jens-philipp.briemle@northerndata.de Phone: +49 171 557 6989 SOURCE: Northern Bitcoin AG View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/639455/Northern-Data-sells-Texas-data-center-operations-to-Riot-Blockchain-Inc-for-approximately-EUR-550-million--operational-EBITDA-guidance-for-fiscal-year-2021-remains-unchanged || Bitcoin tumbles below $50,000, other cryptos sink over Biden tax plans: By Stanley White, Anna Irrera and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss TOKYO/LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies posted sharp losses on Friday, on concern that U.S. President Joe Biden's plan to raise capital gains taxes will curb investments in digital assets. News reports on Thursday said the Biden administration is planning a raft of proposed changes to the U.S. tax code, including a plan to nearly double taxes on capital gains to 39.6% for people earning more than $1 million. Bitcoin, the biggest and most popular cryptocurrency, slumped to $47,555, falling below the $50,000 mark for the first time since early March. It was last down 4% at $49,667. Smaller rivals Ether and XRP fell 3.5% and 6.7%, respectively, while dogecoin, created as a joke for early crypto adopters and which had surged about 8,000% this year prior to this latest setback, was down 20% at $0.21, according to price and data tracker CoinGecko. The tax plans jolted markets, prompting investors to book profits in stocks and other risk assets, which have rallied massively on hopes of a solid economic recovery. "With a high growth rate in the bitcoin price, crypto holders that have accrued gains will be subjected to this tax increment," said Nick Spanos, founder at Bitcoin Center NYC. He sees bitcoin dropping further in the coming days. Bitcoin is on track for an 11.3% loss on the week, its worst weekly showing since late February. On the year, however, it was still up 72%. But while social media lit up with posts about the plan hurting cryptocurrencies, and individual investors complaining about losses, some traders and analysts said declines are likely to be temporary. "I don't think Biden's taxes plans will have a big impact on bitcoin," said Ruud Feltkamp, CEO at automated crypto trading bot Cryptohopper. "Bitcoin has only gone up for a long time, it is only natural to see a consolidation. Traders are simply cashing in on winnings." Story continues Others also remained bullish on bitcoin's long term prospects, but noted it might take time before prices start increasing again. "Investors will see the price drop across the crypto market as an opportunity to widen their portfolio by averaging up their investment outlay and buying new altcoins," said Don Guo, chief executive officer at Broctagon Fintech Group. He added that for bitcoin, investors will see it as an opportunity to buy bitcoin at a lower price. Shares of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase were up 0.5% at $294.86 in early afternoon U.S. trading. The public floatation of its shares on April 14 had seen bitcoin prices rise to $65,000, before pulling back 25% in the following days. "The Coinbase listing – the ultimate poacher-turned-gamekeeper moment - might have been the high watermark for bitcoin," said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com. Graphic: Crypto tumbles - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/qzjvqzmdjpx/bitcoin.PNG (Reporting by Stanley White and Kevin Buckland in Tokyo, Anna Irrera in London; Gertrude Chavez in New York; Additional reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan, Sujata Rao and Karin Strohecker in London; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell, Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Frances Kerry, Peter Graff) || Minerco (MINE) Developer of SHRUCOIN a Cryptocurrency That Can Be Purchased Online With VISA & MasterCard, Launches Shrucoin Pay Platform For Online Payments That Allows Merchants to Accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, DASH and EOS for Cannabis & Psychedelics Sales: Company Also In Talks To Acquire Cannabis Mobile Delivery Services To Utilize Shrucoin Pay As Method Of Payment: Will Allow Company To Enter Into The Rapidly Growing Global Cannabis Dispensary Delivery Services Market Which Is Expected To Reach $30 Billion By 2024 ANN ARBOR, MI / ACCESSWIRE / April 21, 2021 /Minerco, Inc. "The Magic Mushroom Company" (OTC PINK:MINE) today announced that it has launchedShrucoin Pay(https://shrucoinpay.com) a payment services platform that allows merchants in the Cannabis and Psychedelic sales market to receive Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, DASH, and EOS for online payments that go straight into the merchant's accounts. Julius Jenge, Chief Executive Officer of Minerco, Inc., said: "Shrucoin Pay, a global network that eliminates fraud, provides a quick, easy, and cost-effective way for merchants to receive crypto payments from customers without the risk of volatility exposure. Leveraging our frictionless, blockchain-based payment processing technology, the cryptocurrency will automatically and instantaneously be converted to a fiat currency of the merchants' choice and deposited directly into their bank accounts. Whether the merchant is an eCommerce business looking to accept crypto or a freelancer hoping to gain a competitive edge by enabling Bitcoin payments on its invoices, Shrucoin Pay enables them to seamlessly receive cryptocurrency payments - securing market share today and for the years to come." He continued: "We have also decided to enter into the rapidly growing global cannabis dispensary delivery services market to maximize the value of Shrucoin Pay. Cannabis companies that provide delivery services - including delivery operators and retailers - are seeing an ever-increasing amount of orders as customers stock up on marijuana products in the wake of coronavirus pandemic concerns, plus the reports project substantial increases in the global licensed dispensary market, predicting that by 2024 the global licensed dispensary sales of cannabis will reach$40.6billion." Not only do we have the payment method, but we also provide the digital blockchain technology required. A cannabis dispensary delivery provider must adhere to multiple local, state, and national regulations, including licensees, transportation, and delivery requirements. Our digital blockchain digital supply chain technology apps will address these issues and allow the Company to be compliant and adhere to the regulations across all national markets." To be added to the Company's investor email lists, please emailbmiller@irpartnersinc.com. About Minerco, Inc. Minerco, Inc., "The Magic Mushroom Company" (OTC Pink:MINE), is the pioneering company specializing in the research, production, and distribution of psilocybin mushroom products ("Magic Mushrooms"). The Blockchain token SHRU can be used for purchases relating to psilocybin and cannabis. SHRU can be purchased atwww.shrucoin.com. Consumers can also utilize the SHRUCOIN Pay app by visitingwww.shrucoinpay.com. To learn more about Minerco, Inc. please visitwww.minercoinc.com. SITE IS NOT UP To learn more exciting info about Minerco, clickhere. Follow us on twitter@minercoinc Investor relationsminers@minercoinc.com MINERCO, INC. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains statements that the Company believes to be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than historical facts, including, without limitation, statements regarding the investment offerings and the terms thereof, are forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, words such as we "expect," "intend," "plan," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "should," or the negative thereof or similar terminology are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, such statements. Investors should not place undue reliance upon forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Minerco Investor RelationsPhone: 323-380-4500 See more from Benzinga • Click here for options trades from Benzinga • Alterity's Stock Is Trading Higher As ATH434 Preserves Neurons, Motor Performance In Animal Model With Neurodegenerative Disorder • Coinbase Now Offers Ethereum 2.0 Staking Rewards © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – May 8th, 2021: Bitcoin , BTC to USD, rose by 1.59% on Friday. Partially reversing a 1.80% loss from Thursday, Bitcoin ended the day at $57,349.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning intraday low $55,300.0 before making a move. Steering clear of the first major support level at $55,040, Bitcoin rallied to a late afternoon intraday high $58,635.0. Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $58,101 before easing back to sub-$57,000 levels. Finding late support, however, Bitcoin moved back through to $57,000 levels to deliver the upside on the day. The near-term bullish trend remained intact supported by the recovery to $57,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $27,237 to form a near-term bearish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Friday. Chainlink rose by 4.24% to lead the way, with Cardano’s ADA (+0.21%) and Crypto.com Coin (+1.33%) also avoiding the red. It was a bearish day for the rest of the majors, however. Bitcoin Cash SV slid by 11.54% to lead the way down, with Polkadot falling by 5.59%. Binance Coin (-1.52%), Ethereum (-0.22%), Litecoin (-2.61%), and Ripple’s XRP (-1.44%) saw relatively modest losses. In the current week, the crypto total market fell to a Tuesday low $2,064bn before rising to a Thursday high $2,447bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $2,332bn. Bitcoin’s dominance rose to a Monday high 49.39% before falling to a Thursday low 44.65%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 46.10%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 0.11% to $57,411.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning low $57,267.0 before rising to a high $57,583.0. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day. Binance Coin (-0.09%), Cardano’s ADA (-0.26%), Crypto.com Coin (-0.94%), and Polkadot (-0.16%) saw early red. Story continues It was a bullish start for the rest of the majors, however. At the time of writing, Chainlink was up by 0.92% to lead the way. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to avoid a fall through the pivot level at $57,095 to support a run at the first major resistance level at $58,889. Support from the broader market would be needed for Bitcoin to break out from Friday’s high $58,635.0. Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level and resistance at $59,000 would likely cap any upside. In the event of an extended crypto rally, Bitcoin could test resistance at $60,000 before any pullback. The second major resistance level sits at $60,430. Failure to avoid a fall through the pivot at $57,095 would bring the first major support level at $55,554 into play. Barring an extended sell-off on the day, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$54,000 levels. The second major support level sits at $53,760. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Rise but Remain Rangebound The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – May 8th, 2021 Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Continue to Threaten Breakout S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – Stock Markets Have Fallen a Week but End on Strength Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – Ready to Challenge $1858.90 as Long as $1788.50 Holds as Support U.S. Dollar Index (DX) Futures Technical Analysis – Downtrend Reinstated as Treasury Yields Plunge [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 34770.58, 38705.98, 38402.22, 39294.20, 38436.97, 35697.61, 34616.07, 35678.13, 37332.86, 36684.93
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Value vs. Growth: Which Is the Better Strategy?: There are many different ways to be a successful investor, and many people have fundamentally different ways in which they seek out the stocks they think will do best. One particularly wide gulf within the investment community is betweenvalue investorsand growth investors. Listening to the debate between the two groups, you'd think that there'd be a clear-cut answer to which strategy is superior. Yet in the end, a lot depends on how you define investment success -- particularly where your tolerance for risk lies in pursuit of the best possible return. One difficulty in comparing the two strategies stems from the fact that there's no perfect definition for what value investing and growth investing are. In general, though, most people believe that value investing hinges on the idea that the best stocks in which to invest are those whose current share price doesn't accurately reflect the full potential that the company has to produce future income and growth. Many value investors focus on stocks that have seen their share prices beaten down substantially, believing that in many cases, shareholder panic in such situations is overblown. Others tend to define value stocks simply as the opposite of growth stocks, essentially relegating all companies with below-average growth rates to the value stock bin. Image source: Getty Images. Growth investing, on the other hand, is a little bit easier to recognize. Growth investors like to buy stocks that are seeing the biggest gains in revenue or net profits. Some growth investors focus on early stage small-cap companies that often haven't even become sustainably profitable yet, seeking out the highest sales growth in the belief that eventually, earnings will follow. Other investors look for better-established growth stocks that are already solidly in the black yet have further chances to expand their reach. When you look over the past 10 years at how value and growth stocks have done, it isn't even close. Growth has dominated value, with theiShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF(NYSEMKT: IWF)producing total returns of 174% since 2008, compared to just 100% over the same 10-year period for theiShares Russell 1000 Value ETF(NYSEMKT: IWD). Using other fund families to compare leads to similar results. For instance, comparing two major growth and value ETFs from Vanguard, growth beats value 163% to 117%. However, there are trade-offs when you go with growth. The thing about growth stocks is that they often underperform during bear markets, just as they outperform during bull markets. For instance, between mid-2000 and the beginning of 2003, the iShares growth ETF fell more than 50%, compared to just a 14% drop for the iShares value ETF. Over the longer-term history of the stock market,value stocks have had an edge. From 1926 to 2016, value stocks returned an average of 17% annually, compared to 12.6% for growth stocks. Interestingly, the survey found that value stocks tend to do better when the economy turns around, but worse when the economy is weakening. Indeed, value stocks aren't always invulnerable to downturns. Between the market highs in the fall of 2007 and the bottom of the financial crisis bear market in early 2009, both growth and value stocks took huge hits. In fact, value stocks underperformed, with losses of 51% compared to 43% losses for growth stocks. That was due largely to the fact that banking stocks generally qualify as value rather than growth stocks, and they were among the hardest hit during the financial crisis. Most investors find that they simply like one style of investing better than the other, and you should generally go with that preference in making individual stock selections. You'll do a better job of picking stocks if you're passionate and motivated to look at the companies you want to invest in. So ifcutting-edge growth stocksinterest you, go with that. If you prefer well-known companies and think you can pick the ones that will rise from the ashes, that can serve you well too. Yet more importantly, don't fall into the trap of thinking that either strategy is the end-all be-all solution. The best stocks combine both growthandvalue, trading at a reasonable price compared to their impressive growth potential. When you find the best of growth and value in a single stock, that's usually a good sign that you've discovered a great investment. More From The Motley Fool • 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices • 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 • 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Dan Caplingerhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Why Intrepid Potash Stock Just Popped 21%: Shares ofIntrepid Potash(NYSE: IPI)stock are soaring, up 20.7% as of 1:20 p.m. EDT after the company reported earnings Tuesday -- but probably not because of earnings per se. Fact is, Intrepid Potash "missed" on earnings, reporting a penny-a-share profit instead of the $0.02 per-share profit that Wall Street had predicted it would earn. What got investors excited, more likely, was the $53.2 million in sales that Intrepid Potash reported. Intrepid sold a tall pile o' potash last quarter. Image source: Getty Images. Why are sales the bigger story here? Simply because of this:Wall Street analystshad been telling investors to expect Intrepid Potash to report only about $36.5 million in sales for the first quarter of 2018, a decline from last year's $48.6 million in reported sales. As it turned out, though, Intrepid reported $53.2 million in sales, a 9% increase over Q1 2017. Thus, while Intrepid Potash may have missed on profits, it beat on sales -- by a bunch. What's more, even the profits story wasn't as bad as it seems. While Intrepid clearly "missed" on profits, it still did at least earn a positive profit for Q1 2018, which was better than the $0.17 per-share loss it reported in the year-ago quarter. Whether Intrepid can remain positive on profits in the second quarter and beyond remains to be seen. Management did not give investors any guidance on this score in its report. Still, analysts who follow the stock are predicting Intrepid Potash will earn $0.03 in Q2 and remain in positive territory throughout the year, ending with $0.11 per share in profits on sales only slightly below what the company had last year. When you combine that expectation with the very real possibility that Intrepid will now also be able to grow sales (thanks to Q1's astoundingly good sales number) for the year, you can understand why investors are so very enthusiastic about Intrepid Potash stock today. More From The Motley Fool • 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices • 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 • 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Rich Smithhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || 3 Dividend Stocks That Should Pay You the Rest of Your Life: Income investing is harder than it seems. Finding the most generous dividend yields on the market simply isn't good enough, and that strategy will lead you into many value traps along the way. Long-term investors with a yen for dividend payouts must focus on stable and flexible businesses with plenty of fiscal discipline. To help you in this difficult quest for the perfect dividend stock, we asked for some help from a few of your fellow investors. Read on to see why our panelists recommend Enbridge (NYSE: ENB) , Kyocera (NYSE: KYO) , and Boeing (NYSE: BA) for income investors seeking long-term dividend growth. Coins stacked around a large hourglass. Image source: Getty Images. A titan in its very critical industry Chuck Saletta (Enbridge): Imagine what would happen if energy pipelines suddenly vanished. Gas for your car would quickly become hard to come by. Natural gas for heating homes or running power plants would also become scarce in a hurry. It's incredibly important to not only produce all that energy but also to get it from where it's produced to where it's consumed. And that transportation is what Enbridge specializes in. A Canada-based energy transportation titan, Enbridge has growth through both natural expansion and acquisitions to become North America's largest energy infrastructure company. It, more than any other company, is responsible for moving all that energy around the continent. From a dividend perspective, the company boasts a 64-year history of paying dividends to its shareholders. In addition, it has managed to increase its dividend at a better-than-11% annualized rate over the past 20 years. While past performance is certainly not a guarantee of future results, it can certainly provide you with strong reasons to consider what might be possible. When you combine the company's rich history of dividend payments with its strong market position and the criticality of its industry, you get a very good reason to believe that Enbridge may be able to continue paying its dividend for a long time to come. Perhaps it may even be able to keep it up for the rest of your life. Story continues Kyocera checks all my dividend boxes Anders Bylund (Kyocera): When looking for truly long-term dividend stocks, I'm interested in three things above all else: A flexible business model, giving the company lots of options in response to changing markets. A proven commitment to creating shareholder value through a combination of dividends and share buybacks. Enough free cash flow to fund those buybacks and dividend payouts -- with some cash left over for other uses. I like flexibility, remember? The first requirement makes for a success story with strong prospects for the long haul. The second ensures that shareholders get to participate in those long-haul wins, and the third one provides a stable foundation for the other two. Take out any one of these three support pillars and the whole dividend strategy is sure to come crashing down over time. Kyocera easily meets all three of these criteria, making it a top-notch dividend stock in my book. The dividend yield stands at a modest 1.9% today, but I'm much more interested in signs that the policy will be around and well-funded for decades to come. What started as Kyoto Ceramics nearly six decades ago has grown and evolved into a cross-sector conglomerate. Kyocera's operations include consumer electronics, solar panels, telecommunications equipment, semiconductor packaging, manufacturing services, and advanced ceramic materials. The company often jumps into new markets by acquisition, buying out a thought leader or promising underdog in a new field. Kyocera has enough operations going on to unlock synergies in many adjacent markets. Kyocera generated $950 billion of free cash over the last four quarters out of $13.8 billion in top-line revenue. The company has used this strong cash machine to double its dividend payments over the last decade. Dividends still account for just 45% of Kyocera's annual free cash flow, leaving lots of room for other cash investments. So Kyocera ticks all the boxes I require from a strong dividend investment for the long term. Let your dividends fly higher Dan Caplinger (Boeing): Boeing isn't the first stock you'd probably think of as being a dividend leader, with its current 2.1% yield just barely topping the overall market's average. Yet what smart dividend investors realize is that it doesn't just matter what a stock pays out right now. It also matters whether a dividend stock will give you steadily growing payouts well into the future, and Boeing is among the best-positioned stocks in the market to give you that growth for years to come. Boeing has been amassing a huge backlog of aircraft orders for years, taking advantage of favorable conditions in the airline industry to provide customers with the opportunity to upgrade their fleets. Competition among airlines has gotten fierce, and no company can afford to give a rival the advantage of a newer lineup of aircraft that cuts operating expenses and boosts profits. Already, Boeing has returned much of its bounty to shareholders, with dividend increases ranging from 20% to 50% in each of the past five years. With no signs of good conditions letting up, Boeing should be able to sustain similar dividend growth for the foreseeable future, and any further share-price gains that the aircraft manufacturer can deliver will just be icing on the cake. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Anders Bylund has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Chuck Saletta owns shares of Enbridge. Dan Caplinger owns shares of Boeing. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Enbridge. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Why Ambarella Stock Jumped Today: Shares of video compression and image processing chip companyAmbarella Inc.(NASDAQ: AMBA)surged on Wednesday despite no news. The stock has been volatile over the past year, rising sharply and tumbling multiple times. Wednesday's move may just be a continuation of that volatility. Ambarella stock was up about 10.7% at 3:40 p.m. EDT. The last meaningful development for Ambarella was its fourth-quarter report on March 1. The companybeat analyst estimatesfor both revenue and earnings, although both numbers slumped. Sales of $70.6 million were down 19.3% year over year, while adjusted earnings per share tumbled 51%. Image source: Ambarella. On top of the revenue and earnings decline, Ambarella provided guidance that was below expectations. The company expects first-quarter revenue between $54.5 million and $57.5 million, below the consensus analyst estimate of $58.27 million. The stock surged in the days following this report, peaking in mid-March. It then began to decline, wiping out all its post-earnings gains. Wednesday's rally undoes some of that decline, but the stock is still below where it was a month earlier. AMBAdata byYCharts One reason for this volatility could be the valuation. Ambarella is valued at about $1.78 billion, six times sales and nearly 100 timesGAAPearnings. That lofty valuation is despite revenue and earnings slumping in fiscal 2018. Stocks can make big moves up and down for all sorts of reasons, and sometimes for no reason at all. Ambarella's surge today falls into the latter category. More From The Motley Fool • 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices • 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 • 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Timothy Greenhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Ambarella. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || ‘Drunk on Bitcoin Nonsense’: Anti-Crypto Short Seller Pounds the Table on Square: Squareshares took a brief hit Monday after noted short seller Andrew Left of Citron Research said interest over its recently introduced bitcoin trading product was exaggerated, according toCNBC. The app lets customers trade BTC from their mobile payment app almost instantaneously, which is an attractive feature for traders. In a Monday afternoon tweet, Citron said Square is a “collection of yawn businesses,” adding “WallSt. drunk on Bitcoin nonsense. SQ-Cash to BTC trading has been insignificant. Even w/ hyper growth still 40% too rich.” Citron also set a short-term price target of $30 on the stock, or 36.9 percent below Friday’s close. Square’s stock briefly lost 3.8% as the price fell to $45.76 before recovering much of the loss to close only 0.48% lower. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Shares remain little changed since Square, run by Twitter co-founderJack Dorsey, launched bitcoin trading in January for most of its Cash mobile payments app users. Also read:Bitcoin helps Square’s stock bounce Dorsey is a bitcoin bull who believes it will surpass fiat money and emerge as the “single currency” of the world and internet over the course of the next decade. Dan Dolev, Nomura Instinet research analyst, reiterated his position that bitcoin’s impact will be “material” in the long run. Square got a boost a week and a half ago when Wall Street analysts said BTC trading would bolster the company’s quarterly results. Dolev raised his price for Square to $65 on April 18, believing that launching bitcoin trading could contribute 10 percent to adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Dolev expected Square could experience a “sizeable boost” to its top-line and bottom-line results in the current quarter, which the company reports on May 2. He said between 2% and 6% of Square Cash customers trade BTC, which could bolster Square’s adjusted revenue by as much as 3%. Left in December said he believed theBitcoin Investment Trust(OTC: GBTC) represented one of the easiest — and most profitable — short opportunities, regardless of what happens to the bitcoin price. Featured Image from Shutterstock The post‘Drunk on Bitcoin Nonsense’: Anti-Crypto Short Seller Pounds the Table on Squareappeared first onCCN. || 1 Top Small-Cap Stock to Buy in April: Small-cap stocks can deliver explosive gains -- or sizable losses. Choose well, and these high-risk yet potentially high-reward stocks can deliver multibagger returns and turbocharge your portfolio's overall performance. But choose poorly, and a small-cap stock can produce painful losses, up to and including a complete loss of capital should the business be forced into bankruptcy. That's why it's so important to invest in only the strongest of these companies -- those that possess the best business models and enjoy the largest growth opportunities. In this regard, here's one of the most intriguing small-cap stocks available in the market today. Increasingly large stacks of gold coins, with green plants growing on them This small-cap stock can grow into something much larger in the years ahead. Image source: Getty Images. In the mold of a young Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) , Boston Omaha (NASDAQ: BOMN) is a small conglomerate designed to generate attractive long-term returns through the consistent acquisition of undervalued assets. Its current businesses include insurance, real estate, and advertising, and the company plans to expand within these areas and others via both acquisitions and organic growth. Interestingly, Boston Omaha co-CEO Alex Buffett Rozek is Warren Buffett's grandnephew, though Berkshire Hathaway is not affiliated with the company in any way. Still, it's clear that Buffett holds Rozek in high regard. "I think the world of Alex, but we don't have anything to do with his decision-making or anything of the sort," Buffett said in a Wall Street Journal interview (may require subscription). "He's got a good mind, a very good mind, and he certainly has good values." Moreover, like both Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman Charlie Munger, Rozek and his co-CEO Adam Peterson have their interests well-aligned with those of long-term investors; Peterson and Rozek both own large stakes in Boston Omaha. In addition, their base salaries have been set at the federal minimum wage, and they don't earn a bonus unless they grow Boston Omaha's book value per share -- which, not incidentally, is Buffett's preferred way to measure performance -- by more than 6% annually. All told, Boston Omaha is still very early in its life as a public company -- its initial public offering was in June 2017 -- and not yet profitable. Yet Rozek and Peterson are currently building the infrastructure to support a far larger business, and as the company gains scale, sizable profits are likely to follow. Additionally, with a market cap of just $400 million, Boston Omaha will find it much easier to identify needle-moving investments than the massive, $500 billion Berkshire Hathaway. Thus, unlike Berkshire itself, this baby-sized version of Berkshire can look to nearly any area of the market to deploy its $90 million in cash reserves as it seeks to create value for its investors in the years ahead. Story continues Better still, Boston Omaha's shares can currently be had for around 2 times book value -- a fair price to pay for a business that could potentially compound its shareholders' wealth for decades to come . More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Joe Tenebruso has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). The Motley Fool recommends Boston Omaha. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . View comments || Why Did Starbucks Change This Frappuccino Promotion?: Since 2010, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) has offered Happy Hour, a seasonal promotion where customers could get Frappuccinos for half their regular prices at certain times of the day. That, as you might imagine, was a popular offer that drove afternoon traffic (albeit at the expense of putting stress on the chain's baristas, who had to make the somewhat complicated concoctions). In recent years, though, interest in the promotion has faded and in January, the company reportedly confirmed to employees that it would not be having the promotion this spring. But that turned out not to be true. Happy Hour came back, but in April instead of May, when it usually appears. It's also not limited to Frappuccinos, and this time, it's invitation-only. A Starbucks beverage surrounded by toy aniamls in party hats. Starbucks Happy Hour is back, but it's changed. Image source: Starbucks. What is Starbucks doing? Under the new system, Happy Hours will appear year-round and include more products. The most-recent promotion was one day long and it offered half-off on espresso drinks from 3 p.m. to close at participating Starbucks. In addition, the new deal isn't open to just anyone. It's "invitation-only" and it requires a code that Starbucks Reward program members can get in the chain's app. Non-members, however, can get a code by going to Starbucks.com/HappyHour and signing up with an email address. "With nearly 100 million customers in our stores every week, we're looking for more opportunities to engage directly and personally, providing them with special benefits and offers that are meaningful," said Starbucks Chief Strategy Officer Matt Ryan in a press release. Why is Starbucks doing this? There are at least two reasons the company is doing this. First, it lets the company have a nimble way to test short-term promotions to drive afternoon traffic. It will get to see what products and price points entice people to buy while also testing things like what days of the week or times of day work best for messaging and the sales. Story continues This new Happy Hour allows Starbucks to try a lot of ideas without committing to any. (Baristas should be happy because even if Frappuccinos are the offer, it may only be for a day or two, not a two-week period.) Second, making the offers limited to members and people who provide an email in exchange for a code fits the chain's digital strategy . Starbucks wants to capture emails from the 60 million customers who visit its U.S. stores who are not loyalty program members. It has changed its Wi-Fi login system to accomplish that, asking for an email in exchange for the customer to never have to log in again on that device in any company-owned store. Will this work? The limited-time and changing nature of the Happy Hour discounts should reinvigorate the program. That should help afternoon sales and give Starbucks increased same-store sales , which is something the chain has struggled with. On the digital side, collecting more emails makes sense. Doing that will let the company market to people who have yet to commit to its app or loyalty program. Figuring out what works and getting consumers to understand the new offers may take time. Still, this is a smart play that takes something familiar and makes it new. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Daniel B. Kline has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Starbucks. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || 0x, Zilliqa, Aelf, and Ontology Record 10% Gains as Tokens Outperform Bitcoin: In yesterday’s report, CCN noted that Aelf, the decentralized cloud computing blockchain network developed by a team of Chinese developers, increased by more than 17 percent against bitcoin. Today, on May 20, the price of Aelf increased by another 10 percent, becoming the second best-performing cryptocurrency in the market for two straight days. Throughout May, tokens have demonstrated an intensified movement on both the upside and downside, following the price movement of bitcoin. As the price of declined, the value of tokens fell by substantially larger margins and as the price of bitcoin increased, the value of tokens surged significantly more than bitcoin. Essentially, investing in tokens in a recovery period with extreme volatility and uncertainty is similar to leverage trading and depending on the price trend of bitcoin, the value of tokens can either plunge or surge by large margins. On May 17, the bitcoin price reached a two-month low at $7,925 and as the bitcoin price fell, the price of Aelf (ELF) and 0x (ZRX) also fell to their monthly lows. However, as the bitcoin price rebounded from $7,925 to $8,300, ELF rose from 0.00014 BTC to 0.000162 BTC and ZRX rose from 0.00015 to 0.000174 BTC, both recording large gains against bitcoin. Despite their 20 percent gains over the past 48 hours, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) of both ELF and ZRX are at around 55, signifying a neutral zone for the two tokens. ELF and ZRX are still in an ideal position to record a short-term rally as the exponential and simple moving averages of both tokens demonstrate a positive price trend in the upcoming days. As of current, because the price of most alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) and tokens heavily rely on the short-term price trend of bitcoin, investors have to focus on the price movement of bitcoin throughout the next few days. If the bitcoin price can sustain its momentum in the $8,400 region and break the $8,800 support level, it could enter the $9,000 region relatively quickly and secure a chance to surpass the $10,000 support level by the end of May. However, if the bitcoin price falls back below the $8,200 resistance level, it is possible that the bitcoin price falls back to the $7,900 region again, which is unlikely considering the stability in the price of bitcoin since May 18. The price of bitcoin has not been able to secure sufficient momentum to test the $8,800 support level which eventually could lead the bitcoin price to the $10,000 region in the short-term. The struggle of bitcoin can be attributed to the concerns of investors on major exchanges like Bitfinex that have started to demand users to forfeit their tax IDs and social security number, possibly due to increasing pressure from governments. Although Bitfinex is not the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, it is considered as one of the largest cryptocurrency-to-fiat exchange and the exchange’s new taxation policy led investors to panic and become fearful towards gains tax that could be imposed by the financial authorities in their countries. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post0x, Zilliqa, Aelf, and Ontology Record 10% Gains as Tokens Outperform Bitcoinappeared first onCCN. || 3 Dividend Stocks That Thrive in Both Bull and Bear Markets: The stock market has been experiencing wild gyrations in recent trading periods, suggesting investors are trying to decide whether this bull market will suddenly turn bearish. Trying to divine which way the market will go is a (small-f) fool's errand, though, because as pundits have noted, it can remain irrational far longer than your money can last. A better bet would be to select stocks that do well in both bull and bear markets, andBrookfield Renewable Partners(NYSE: BEP),Microsoft(NASDAQ: MSFT), andClorox(NYSE: CLX)are three stocks that might just fit the bill in these dicey times. Image source: Getty Images. Travis Hoium(Brookfield Renewable Partners):Whether the market is going up or down, the sun will shine, the wind will blow, and rain will fall. Those natural forces are what provides the energy Brookfield Renewable Partners' power plants need to generate electricity and, ultimately, the cash flow that drives the company's dividend. Brookfield Renewable Partners is a yieldco that owns renewable energy assets that sell electricity to utilities, businesses, and homeowners. CEO Sachin Shah explained the strategy best during the company's fourth-quarter conference call: Our strategy is simple: acquire renewable power assets and businesses at below intrinsic value, finance them on an investment-grade basis, and optimize cash flow and value utilizing our depth of operating expertise. Being a successful yieldco isn't just about owning renewable energy assets, it's about being an opportunistic acquirer of assets. Few companies have a long-term track record of strong portfolio management like Brookfield,exemplified by its recent acquisitionsofTerraForm Globaland a controlling stake inTerraForm Power(NASDAQ: TERP). These acquisitions gave Brookfield Asset Management a 100% stake in TerraForm Global and a 51% stake in TerraForm Power, with Brookfield Renewable Partners owning 31% and 16%, respectively, and are already adding to the company's cash flow. It's the growth in cash flow that Brookfield Renewable Partners uses to pay its annual dividend of $1.96 per share. Management intends to grow the dividend 5% to 9% annually by using excess cash to fund growth acquisitions like the TerraForm companies. With a strong track record of profitable and opportunistic acquisitions in renewable energy, this is a dividend I would count on no matter what the market does. Image source: Microsoft. Rich Smith(Microsoft):Last time I was asked to pick a stock that could thrivein both bull and bear markets, I suggested that investors consider computer software magnate Microsoft. That turned out to be pretty good advice: Microsoft stock is up 12% in the last four months, or roughly 12timesthe S&P 500's 1% gain. So, I think I'll pick Microsoft again. After all, not much has changed to dissuade me from my original thesis, which was not so much that Microsoft is a dominant software company, whose Windows operating system runs on more than four out of five computers worldwide (although it is, and it does). Rather, I argued that Microsoft is worth owning primarily because it is such a good producer of cash -- and cash is something that appeals to investors in both good markets and bad. According to data fromS&P Global Market Intelligence, Microsoft generated $33.3 billion in positive free cash flow last year, which is more than enough to cover the $12.5 billion in dividend checks that Microsoft cuts every year. Even in the event a bear market curtailed or eliminated that flow of cash, though, Microsoft has already built up a cash hoard of some $45.3 billion net of debt. That's enough cash to fund Microsoft's $12.5 billion in annual dividend payments for the next three and a half years straight -- even if the company stopped making money tomorrow. If you're looking for a great dividend stock that can guarantee your dividends in good markets and bad, look no further than Microsoft. Image source: Getty Images. Rich Duprey(Clorox):Although bleach might be the first thing that comes to mind when Clorox is mentioned, it also owns a broad portfolio of other brands including Glad trash bags, Kingsford charcoal, and Fresh Step and Scoop Away kitty litter. Still, cleaning products generate the most revenue for Clorox, some one-third of the total, with household products like Pine-Sol accounting for almost another 30% of the $6 billion total. While Clorox gives homeowners a sense of familiarity with its portfolio, it gives investors stability. The cleaning agent is a powerhouse of dividend payments, having raised its shareholder payout every single year since 1977. That's a record that puts it among the Dividend Aristocrats that have weatheredmany storms, from war and global disasters to market turmoil and recessions. Today, its dividend yields a healthy 2.9%. Over the past decade, Clorox's stock price has gained 135% compared to the S&P 500's doubling in value. Not bad for a mundane consumer-products company. Although it expects sales growth to only rise by 1% to 3% this year, it raised its full-year earnings per share forecast to a range of $6.17 to $6.37, helped along by tax reform. Investors should remain confident that regardless of which way the market goes in the future, bull market or bear, Clorox will be there, plugging away as it always has, and continuing to pay out a dividend to shareholders. More From The Motley Fool • 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices • 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 • 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Teresa Kersten is an employee of LinkedIn and is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft.Rich Dupreyhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned.Rich Smithhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned.Travis Hoiumhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || How can I buy bitcoin in the UK?: Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency everyone is talking about, has seen spectacular price rises in recent months, with huge numbers of people keen to make a quick buck off the back of its soaring value. Google queries for "buy bitcoin" surged passed "buy gold" when the currency's price shot from less than $1,000 (£742) at the start of 2017 to almost $20,000 in December. But armchair and professional investors have been shaken by sudden drops in the currency's value which began just before Christmas. It now stands at about $8000. Few can predict with any certainty whereBitcoinwill go from here and many believe we're coming to the end of a bubble - but one thing's certain: if you'd invested five years ago you'd be doing very well for yourself now. There are two main ways to get hold ofBitcoin- buying an expensive supercomputer (with a whopping electricity bill to match), and using it to "mine" bitcoins, the process of solving the cryptographic codes that keep the entire network running. This isn't a realistic scenario for most people, so the alternative is to buy. Buying bitcoins used to be a complicated affair - long waits, massive fees and foreign websites. Now there are a number of consumer-friendly websites for buying and selling not only bitcoin, but ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. However, the process isn't always entirely straightforward. Legal bitcoin services are heavily regulated, given the currency's association with online black markets, and its cryptographic nature means security protocols can be complicated. A bitcoin wallet is where you hold your bitcoins. Alternatively you candownload the entire bitcoin program(around 150GB), but you're probably not going to go to those lengths, and there's no reason why your computer is more secure than a popular website, so the best option is to use an online wallet, which is sort of like a digital bank account. There is no shortage of wallets, but among the biggest and most popular are Blockchain.info and Coinbase, which are backed by millions in venture capital funding and have easy to use websites and mobile apps. It also takes security steps to make sure your Bitcoins are as safe as they can be. For Blockchain, go toBlockchain.info/walletto sign up, or download the mobile app. For Coinbase it'sCoinbase.com/signup. The sign up process is as easy as doing so for an email or social media account. Reputable Bitcoin wallets have a series of security measures that you should take to make sure your Bitcoins are safe once you do get your hands on them. Other wallets are likely to have the same protocols. Note down your Wallet ID, found in Settings (you'll need it again to log in in future), and use the security centre to verify your email, set up two-factor authentication and so on. After that, you're ready to buy. Once you've got your wallet, you're ready to add some Bitcoins to it. As of the time of writing, one Bitcoin is worth over £10,000, but fear not - they are infinitely divisible, so you can buy £10 worth (about 0.0008 bitcoins) if you want. To do this, you have to find a broker. If you're getting confused, think of it like buying a foreign currency from the Bureau de Change: the wallet is your bank account and the broker is the Bureau de Change. Brokers are the ones handling your real money - you send them cash via a credit card, bank transfer or some other method, and they send bitcoins to your account. Because of this, they often have strict "Know Your Customer" requirements that include identity verification. They vary on exchange rates, fees, method of payment and quality of service. Credit card payments are often quicker, but can incur a fee, for example. The websiteBittybotallows you to compare brokers, including trust ratings. To begin with you might want to stick with something easy to use and reliable. Popular sites includeCoinify, which is integrated with Blockchain.info, andBittylicious, which is a peer-to-peer site. Once you have found the right broker, buying is simply a case of spending money with your credit card or with a bank transfer. It might be best to stay away from sites that require international bank transfers, since they can hold up the process. The crucial piece of information you need is a bitcoin address - that's the unique identifier on the Bitcoin network that represents your account. Crucially, this is different from the login details on your Blockchain.info (or other wallet) account - but it can be found there. On Blockchain.info, it can be found in the Request tab - it will look something like this: 1CdDgoU4QqZPhD8QSXdNjPT7Cbuug9Viy2. Every Bitcoin broker will ask for your bitcoin address - that's the code you give them. Buying bitcoins can take anywhere from seconds to a few hours depending on who you use, but if you return to your Blockchain.info account you should find the coins there. Voila - now just wait for them to surge in value (or fall dramatically, either way). A note on fees In recent months, the costs of sending Bitcoins has risen dramatically, due to the enormous strain on the network. Some brokers have decided to bear the cost of sending them, while others are passing them on to consumers. Buying £50 of Bitcoin on one exchange and sending it to your wallet could mean you losing almost half of your cryptocurrency just on fees, so it's worth checking each exchange for fees. This can be mitigated by using one of the exchanges that the wallets partner with. You can do this buy simply buying through your wallet's website or app. If you want to sell up, it's much the reverse of a purchase - people are quite happy to trade bitcoins for cash just as the other way around. You can use the same broker websites to sell your bitcoins back. This will involve the broker giving you an address to send your bitcoins to - which you do from your wallet. Once the transaction has been confirmed, you should receive a bank transfer or some other form of payment back. Spending is similar - there's alist of places that accept bitcoin here. You simply have to enter the bitcoin address of the place you want to send it to. The inefficiences of buying and selling Bitcoin - the high transaction fees, long wait times and lengthy identity checks - could easily put people off buying it directly. If that's you then there are ways to ride the value of Bitcoin without having to actually own it. Since many people simply see Bitcoin as an investment, not the future of money, this may be just as good. There are a number of ways to invest in Bitcoin without actually buying it. One isRevolut, a popular banking app, which allows people to "buy" Bitcoin without actually accessing the network itself - you can't send your Bitcoin to anyone apart from other Revolut users, for example. It also claims to have lower fees than other ways of buying cryptocurrencies. Go toRevolut.com/cryptocurrencyfor more. Alternatively, you can use a trading platform like IG, which allows users to bet on the cryptocurrency rising or falling. There's more information atig.com/uk/bitcoin-btc. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] 05/05 22:00現在(Zaif調べ) #Bitcoin : 1,076,245円↑0% #NEM #XEM : 47円↑0% #Monacoin : 566円↑0.35% #Ethereum : 88,650円↑0% #Zaif : 1円↑0% || #BACE Exchange - Links conventional exchange pairs like Fiat/BTC and BTC/Altcoin to allow a whole new kind of trading options. This affordable project is important in our modern world. We can trade with various digital assets for Fiat. Join now https://www.bace.io  ! || Apr 30, 2018 21:30:00 UTC | 9,232.60$ | 7,644.20€ | 6,706.80£ | #Bitcoin #btc pic.twitter.com/qrSdJUeoQp || Bitcoin Cash: $779 +2.05% (+$15.66) High: $785.00 Low: $740.00 Volume: 842 $BCC #BCC #bitcoincash || $trx den $xvg nin geçmiş hareketine benzer hareket bekliyorum dikkatli olunmalı btc etkisi göz önünde bulundurulmalı piyasa pozitif duruyor satış baskısı azalıyor şimdilik || Bitcoin Price Leads Crypto Comeback after Market Briefly Dips Below $250 Billion #news #btc https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-price-leads-crypto-comeback-after-market-briefly-dips-below-250-billion …pic.twitter.com/jHJlBnYBdN || #FreiExchange #DIME / #BTC : 0.00000001 | Volume : DIME 0.00000000 | http://bit.ly/2mJO3PJ  #freiexchange #DIME #bitcoin #trade #rt || LINE@登録してくれたら、総額10万円のビットコインをプレゼント！！ 詳しくはこちらまで、LINE@→https://goo.gl/Np7gWy  #暗号通貨 #ビットコイン #仮想通貨 #bitcoin　#副業　#主婦　#ビジネス　#稼ぐ　#ネットビジネス || The price of bitcoin and a slew of other cryptocurrencies have started to see some slight recovery on Tuesday, April 3rd’s morning (EDT) trading sessions. The entire economy of over 1,500... https://news.bitcoin.com/markets-update-cryptocurrency-prices-see-some-slight-recovery/ … || 2018-04-14 10:00:04 UTC BTC: $8053.44 BCH: $746.6 ETH: $505.96 ZEC: $232.45 LTC: $127.5 ETC: $16.05 XRP: $0.6493
Trend: up || Prices: 7368.22, 7135.99, 7472.59, 7406.52, 7494.17, 7541.45, 7643.45, 7720.25, 7514.47, 7633.76
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Tax Day 2017: Poem for When Taxes Are Due and It's the Last Day to File: It’s the day before Tax Day: Have you filed your taxes yet? If not, you’re not alone. The Internal Revenue Service says there were as many as40 million people who had yet to filetheir tax returns late last week, just before April 15 (which fell on a Saturday this year). Waiting until the last minute, of course, is practically an American pastime: as many as 25% of taxpayers file in the last two weeks before the deadline, according to the IRS. But U.S. filers areespecially late this year, which means that procrastinators will have their work cut out for them this week: The tax deadline for 2017 is tomorrow, April 18, at midnight (Eastern time). With those of you in mind, we thought we’d ease your pain by creating a lighthearted diversion: A true story about Tax Day 2017-set to rhyme. From the problems plaguing the people who collect your taxes, to the hopes of at least some in Donald Trump’s administration-namely, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin-to make Tax Day better (not only with tax cuts but with other reforms), this poem has everything you need to know, whether you’re settling your tab with the government or expecting an ample refund. Please enjoy, even if you don’t enjoy paying Uncle Sam. Twas right before Tax DayWhen the word got aroundChanges were comingAnew boss was in town. Secretary of the Treasury,Mnuchin was his name;He would oversee the IRS,FromGoldman Sachshe came. But on Wall Street they knew littleOf the troubles the taxmen hadFor all its fearsome powerCould theIRS really be this bad? Itsproblems were increasing;They were under attack;Not just from politicians,But also fromhack after hack. “I was surprised,”Mnuchin cried,“30 percent staff cuts in such a short time!Why can’t doing our taxes beJustas easy as going shopping online?” To make matters worsePeople were late to payHoping that TrumpWould make their taxes go away. Ignorant as he wasOf why it’s still so hard to file,Mnuchin hoped that CongressWould help on both sides of the aisle. Politicians laughed at the banker;And as the taxmen processed the news,“We thought you wanted to abolish us!”They said, “Haven’tyou heard of Ted Cruz?” But the Secretary had a visionAs he surveyed his new domainAnd he pledged to pursue a new mission:To make the IRS Great Again! But as Tax Day got closerSome hurdles came to ariseWhen Trump unfurled his budgetThere was another surprise. Mnuchin did not get his wishFor enough money to hire,Theproposal was just more cuts;The funding was even more dire. “No matter,” said MnuchinAs the IRS begged for deliverance,As cheap e-filing increases,“It’ll surely make up for the difference!” By then the Secretary was on boardWith the President’s ambitious planNone of it would even matterTil tax reform was law of the land. For filers, there was one small reprieve:Amid the tax prep rush, aholidayfell betweenMeaning this year’s taxes are not dueOn their usual deadline of April the 15. “Take the weekend,” IRS said:“Tax Day’s the 18th; that’s a Tuesday.If you needed an extension,Forget about it, you’re excused, k?” But a different deadline was loomingIn the mind of Steven Mnuchin;His boss wanted tax cuts by August;So far there wasonly confusion. “I’m going to cut taxes big league,”Was the promise Donald Trump made:“Those companies who moved to Europe?How they will all wish they had stayed!” “We’ll slash rates for corporations,For individuals, we’ll whack it,Americans’ tax’ll be so low,Youwon’t even have the same bracket.” The price of making it happen, though?It may be theBorder Adjustment Tax.Meanwhile, Americans dreamed of refunds,The size of bonuses at Goldman Sachs. Thatcould take a while, Mnuchin knew,And Trump, after all, kept changing the deal;One minute he wanted tax reform,Now he wants Obamacare repeal? Plus, it had also become harderTo convince some people it was fairThat they had to file their tax returnsWhen the President’s wereGod know’s where. Many people hadn’t paid what they owed;It became clear there were far too few:Bitcoin investors who disclosed profitsNumbereda mere eight-hundred-and-two. Mnuchin had to find the answerThe U.S. can’t afford to lose this bet;To pay for Trump’s infrastructure planThe country needs every cent it can get. Maybe we would collect more money,The Treasury Secretary mused,If filing were a bit easier,The tax laws wouldn’t be so abused! Finally, the key to fixing the state;Mnuchin may have discovered the clue:If you want to make America great,We’ll also need a better Tax Day too. For moreFortunepoetry, seethe week’s news review in haiku. This article was originally published on FORTUNE.com || Flow Customers Get Behind the Scenes Look At TV Production as CTI's "Me On My TV" Reality Show Comes to Flow 1: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - May 12, 2017) - Flow Caribbean viewers will get a chance to go behind the scenes of the CaribbeanTales Incubator Program (CTI) and see what it takes to bring a TV production to life, as " Me On My TV " reality show comes to Flow's new regional network Flow 1 starting on May 17. The newest product of Flow's partnership with CaribbeanTales, Me On My TV chronicles the journey of ten (10) teams of Caribbean and Caribbean Diaspora filmmakers who come together to compete for the opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to create an original Caribbean-based TV series for Caribbean screens . In Me on My TV , the 10 teams -- selected from hundreds of applicants for the CTI, which Flow sponsors -- embark on five action-packed creative days in Toronto. Under the guidance of 12 international mentors, they pitch their TV series concepts to a room full of television industry executives at the largest film event in North America: The Toronto International Film Festival. In eight episodes viewers get to share in the tears and laughter, camaraderie and resolve, as each filmmaker works for the chance to bring their show to Caribbean TVs -- but only three will come out on top. "It's been a pleasure to work alongside CaribbeanTales and continue to deliver Caribbean-focused content to our Flow TV viewers across the region," said John Reid, CEO of Cable and Wireless , operator of Flow. "This series in particular is significant because it brings audiences closer to Caribbean filmmakers, letting them witness the creative process and glimpse what goes on during those inspiring CTI sessions in Toronto. Flow believes in providing original, high-quality Caribbean content to our audiences and supporting our region's filmmakers -- Me On My TV achieves both." CaribbeanTales Incubator founder and CEO Frances-Anne Solomon says, "Having this TV series released in the lead up to launching pilots for three original TV series is a dream come true. When we started the CaribbeanTales Incubator, this is what we envisioned: the opportunity for Caribbean audiences to watch Caribbean content designed, produced, and marketed for, by and about them." Story continues Multiple-award winning Martiniquan filmmaker Alain Bidard says of his experience with CTI, "It was a life-changing experience for me. I think differently, I understand the industry and I am not lost anymore. Thank you to both Flow and CaribbeanTales for the invaluable opportunity." Me On My TV's executive producer is Christopher Laird and the directors are Lisa Rideout and Marvin Raftopoluos. Viewers can tune in to Flow 1 on May 17 to find out what new shows are going to hit their TVs later this year. About C&W Communications C&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business 2 division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more at http://www.cwc.com/ , or follow C&W on LinkedIn , Facebook or Twitter . About Liberty Global Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enable us to develop market-leading products delivered through next generation networks that connect our 25 million customers who subscribe to over 50 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve over 10 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across 6 million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group ( NASDAQ : LBTYA ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYB ) and ( NASDAQ : LBTYK ) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group ( NASDAQ : LILA ) and ( NASDAQ : LILAK ) ( OTC PINK : LILAB ), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 11 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The Liberty Global Group also owns 50% of VodafoneZiggo, a Dutch joint venture, which has 4 million customers, 10 million fixed-line subscribers and 5 million mobile subscribers. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Más Móvil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a sub-sea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visit www.libertyglobal.com || Bitcoin value rises over $1 billion as Japan, Russia move to legitimize cryptocurrency: Bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=-USS) is up nearly $100 in the past week, hitting levels not seen since mid-March after Japan legalized the cryptocurrency as a payment method and Russia is seeking to regulate it too. The digital currency was trading at around $1,223.04 at the time of publication, up from highs of $1,124.88 on April 5, and hitting prices not seen since March 16, according to Coindesk data. Bitcoin's market capitalization has risen from $18.34 billion on April 5, to $19.5 billion on Wednesday, according to Coinmarketcap.com data. Bitcoin has suffered a recent dip in price thanks to a debate over the future of its underlying technology , but the recent support appears to have come from Japan. Earlier this month, Japan began accepting bitcoin as legal currency with major retailers backing the new law. Consumer electronics retailing giant Bic Camera began accepting bitcoin last week. Bitcoin trading in Japanese yen is the second-most liquid market globally, according to data compiled by cryptocurrency trading platform Gatecoin. "The Japan virtual currency act has likely had a major impact, as there has been a lot of buzz in Japanese media over the ruling over the last few months," Aurélien Menant, founder and CEO of Gatecoin, told CNBC by email. At the same time, Russia, one of the strongest opponents of bitcoin is seeking to regulate the digital currency. Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev told Bloomberg in an interview this week that the authorities hope to recognize bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a legal financial instrument in 2018 in a bid to tackle money laundering. "The state needs to know who at every moment of time stands on both sides of the financial chain," Moiseev told Bloomberg. "If there's a transaction, the people who facilitate it should understand from whom they bought and to whom they were selling, just like with bank operations." Increasing state regulation around bitcoin could make the cryptocurrency an attractive investment for investors who previously shied away from it due to the high risk and price swings. More From CNBC Adyen, the firm that processes payments for Uber, Netflix, saw 2016 revenues rise 99% India’s mobile market is seeing a huge shift but Apple might not benefit for a while Another Apple supplier tanks amid fears it could lose its key contract || 10 things you need to know before the opening bell: The last surviving male northern white rhino (A warden guards Sudan, the last surviving male northern white rhino, at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia national park, KenyaReuters/Baz Ratner) Here is what you need to know. The jobs report is coming . The US economy is expected to have added 190,000 nonfarm jobs in April as the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.6%, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Additionally, average hourly earnings are expected to have held steady at up 2.7% year-over-year. The data will cross the wires at 8:30 a.m. ET. Oil plunges suddenly . In a matter of 20 minutes, West Texas Intermediate crude oil tumbled 3.6% to a low of $43.76 a barrel. However, it has recovered its losses, and now trades little changed near $45.55. Bitcoin is swinging violently. The cryptocurrency gained as much as 9% on Thursday, putting in a record high of $1,652 a coin before plunging below $1,500. On Friday, bitcoin trades up 6.4% at $1,598. The 1st large Chinese-made passenger jet took off on its maiden voyage . The C919 took off from Shanghai Pudong International Airport, making China the fourth jumbo jet producer after the US, Europe, and Russia, Reuters says. Warren Buffett unloads some of his IBM stock . Buffett sold one-third of Berkshire Hathaway's 81 million shares saying he " revalued it somewhat downward" from six years ago. Berkshire's annual meeting will take place on Saturday, and Business Insider will have full coverage. ChemChina clinches its $43 billion takeover of Syngenta . " At the end of the main offer period on May 4, based on preliminary numbers, around 80.7 percent of shares have been tendered," the companies said in a joint statement. "Subject to confirmation in the definitive notice of interim results scheduled for May 10, the minimum acceptance rate condition of 67 percent of issued Syngenta shares has been met." Shake Shack same-store sales whiff . The burger chain said sales at stores open at least a year fell 2.5%, missing the 0.2% growth that Wall Street analysts were expecting. Shake Shack shares sank more than 7% in extended trading on Thursday. Story continues Stock markets around the world are lower . Hong Kong's Hang Seng (-0.8%) lagged in Asia and Germany's DAX (-0.3%) trails in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open little changed near 2,391. Earnings reporting slows down. Cigna, Cognizant, and Fannie Mae are among the names reporting ahead of the opening bell. Aside from the jobs report, US economic data is light. Consumer credit will be released at 3 p.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is unchanged at 2.35%. More From Business Insider Watch one of the baddest A-10 pilots ever land after being hit by a missile This upgrade will extend the life of your MacBook Air for years 10 things you need to know before the opening bell || What You Must Know Before Subscribing to a VPN: When the U.S. Congress voted recently to overturn a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule requiring internet service providers (ISPs) to get a customer's permission before selling personally identifiable information, that kicked off a land rush to find virtual private network (VPN) providers to protect consumers' online privacy. There are literally hundreds of VPNs to choose from, however, and if you're not sure what these do and what they don't do, you could easily end up with a VPN that doesn't add much to your privacy except another subscription fee. The idea of a VPN is quite simple: it provides a secure (encrypted) tunnel between your device and a website, bypassing the traffic logs kept by your ISP. For example, if your ISP is in New York City, a VPN service allows you to connect with any of several servers anywhere in the world, making it look to the website that the connection is being made from one of those servers and not the ISP you use in New York. ALSO READ: Nearly 400 2017 Data Breaches Have Exposed More Than 7 Million Records Your ISP can't keep a useful log of your VPN activity because it doesn't know who requested the data or from where the requested data is coming. But your VPN knows, and that's the first thing you want to learn about any VPN provider: does the VPN keep traffic logs and, if so, what does it do with them? Some VPNs do keep traffic logs in order to provide themselves with legal protection in the event of a government request. Others keep some minimal data in order to help maintain their servers. Still others, sadly, collect the data and sell it to third parties. Because that's what you are probably trying to avoid, read the fine print and be sure to choose a service that states categorically that it does not keep logs, making sure to specify exactly the logs they don't keep. Be especially sure that the ISP does not keep activity or connection logs. ALSO READ: 14 Million Credentials Stolen from US Universities for Sale on Dark Web Story continues A good general overview of online privacy and VPNs is posted at Krebs on Security. More comprehensive tips on selecting a VPN, with more details and a comparison chart for nearly 200 VPN providers is available at That One Privacy Site. Here's a much shorter version of some of the site's guidelines: Beware of VPN review websites, which are nearly always paid reviews. Also look more carefully at affiliate VPN programs. Be aware of where the VPN service's servers are located and where in the world you will be connecting to the VPN. Check on payment methods, such as Bitcoin, cash or anonymous gift cards, that allow you to maintain your privacy. Choose a VPN that maintains its own first-party domain name server (DNS) that doesn't leak, and check it to make sure. Choose a VPN that provides an IPv6 DNS server that is only reachable through a VPN tunnel, and then test it to make sure that's true. Choose a VPN that has strong data and handshake encryption. Deciding if you want a VPN and the features of the VPN that are most important to you will take some time, and it will come with a price of around $10 a month. It's up to you to make sure you're getting the privacy protection you're paying for. Related Articles Countries Buying the Most Weapons From the US Government States Where the Most People Have Green Cards America's Happiest (and Most Miserable) States || A.I. is in a ‘golden age’ and solving problems that were once sci-fi, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says: Artificial intelligence development has seen an "amazing renaissance" and is beginning to solve problems that were once seen as science fiction, according to Amazon ( AMZN ) CEO Jeff Bezos. Machine learning, machine vision, and natural language processing are all strands of AI that are being developed by technology giants such as Amazon, Alphabet's ( GOOGL ) Google and Facebook ( FB ) for various uses. For example, Amazon's voice assistant Alexa, which is in its Echo speaker, relies on natural language processing – the ability for computers to understand human speech. These AI developments were praised by the Amazon founder. "It is a renaissance, it is a golden age," Bezos told an audience at the Internet Association's annual gala last week. "We are now solving problems with machine learning and artificial intelligence that were … in the realm of science fiction for the last several decades. And natural language understanding, machine vision problems, it really is an amazing renaissance." Bezos called AI an "enabling layer" that will "improve every business." At Amazon, Bezos said that "cool" developments like Alexa and its Prime Air delivery drones use "tremendous amounts" of AI. But machine learning is being deployed across the company. "I would say, a lot of the value that we're getting from machine learning is actually happening kind of beneath the surface. It is things like improved search results, improved product recommendations for customers, improved forecasting for inventory management, and literally hundreds of other things beneath the surface," Bezos said. The Amazon CEO also said that the company is making AI techniques available to enterprise customers through its cloud division, Amazon Web Services. Bezos is the latest tech chief executive to address the topic of AI. He did not go into some of the dangers of the technology as many of his counterparts have. For example, Jack Ma, CEO of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba ( BABA ) , warned that society could face decades of "pain" due to technological advancements. More From CNBC Bitcoin hits another record high and could rally to $4,000, investor says Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has a good idea of quarterly results 3 years before they happen Stephen Hawking says humans must colonize another planet in 100 years or face extinction || First Bitcoin's COINQX Opening Offices in Shanghai, China: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 23, 2017 / FIRST BITCOIN CAPITAL CORP. (OTC PINK: BITCF) CoinQx Exchange LIMITED, a wholly owned subsidiary of FIRST BITCOIN CAPITAL CORP. and history's first publicly trading bitcoin business is pleased to announce the opening of its new offices in Shanghai, China to accommodate its rapid growth and future expansion plans into Chinese and other Asian markets. BITCF has designed its trading platform (currently in beta) to cater to Chinese Bitcoin traders and will be offered in Mandarin. New offices in China will provide capacity for customer support, engineering and other important functions for the Chinese market. CoinQX platform will enforce government imposed anti-money laundering (AML) and foreign exchange regulations. BITCF is expanding its cryptocurrency business model to focus on China where the majority of Bitcoin trading occurs. The COINQX bitcoin exchange can provide its Chinese customers access to competitive industry exchange rates and products specifically for the Chinese bitcoin traders. "Expanding COINQX.com in China will allow us to increase our customer base in key areas that align with our current and future growth plans. We will actively attract talent to join the team. Our team is excited about the rapid growth plans we have developed for China and this move represents a commitment to continue to expand into the world's largest Bitcoin trading market. " China remains the largest market for Bitcoin trading and is still responsible for over 91% of all Bitcoin trading volumes. Even the recent inquiries by the PBOC will not deter Chinese traders from getting involved in Bitcoin. Nor should that be the case, as the PBOC reportedly has no direct plans to ban Bitcoin. Volumes of bitcoin trading increased as China's foreign reserves shrank, by about 8% to $3.05 trillion in 2016. Meanwhile, the yuan weakened against the dollar, causing flow of money out of the country and increasing interest in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Story continues About the company: First Bitcoin Capital is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange- www.CoinQX.com . We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges) we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. At this time the Company owns and operates the following digital assets. www.CoinQX.com cryptocurrency exchange, registered with FINCEN. www.iCoiNEWS.com real time cryptocurrency and bitcoin news site. www.BITminer.cc providing mining pool management services. www.2016coin.org online daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL, $GARY & $BURN -commemorative presidential election coins. Company has recently introduced $XBU -Bitcoin Unlimited Futures available for trading on CoinQX.com and OMNIDEX exchange ( http://omniexplorer.info ) www.bitcannpay.com Open Loop merchant services for dispensaries. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file at www.OTCMarkets.com . Contact us via: info@bitcoincapitalcorp.com or visit http://www.bitcoincapitalcorp.com SOURCE: First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || Money is pouring in on Macron to win the French election: Centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen are set to square off in the second round of the French Presidential election this Sunday. People betting on the outcome — on sports-betting websites and in currency and bond markets — seem to be pretty sure Macron will win. Macron, who saw his lead in apoll conducted by Elableextend to 62% to Le Pen's 38%, has attracted about 76% of all bets, totaling $1.1 million, according toSportsbet.com.au. A winning bet on Macron will pay out $1.11 for every $1 wagered. Previously those bets were paying out $1.14. Of course people were similarly sure that a pro-Europe vote in the UK, just before the country chose instead to exit the union, and pollsters were predicting President Donald Trump would lose the US election. In this case, those willing to bet against the grain would get a $7 payout for every $1 wagered on a Le Pen victory at Sportsbet.com. It's not just the polls and betting markets pointing to a Macron win. The spread between the French 10-year yield and the German 10-year yield is narrowing, a sign that traders believe Macron will win and France will stay on the euro. (Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from Bloomberg) During her campaign, Le Pen said she would ask European leaders and the European Central Bank toreplace the eurowith a basket of new national currencies, in effect breaking up the single currency. "The euro is not a currency,"Le Pen said in February. "It is a political weapon to force countries to implement the policies decided by the [European Union] and keep them on a leash. Currency traders are also seemingly on board with a Macron win. The euro is near 1.0970 on Friday, its highest level in six months. More From Business Insider • One of the biggest pillars of the stock bull market is crumbling • Bitcoin is closing in on $1,500 • Stock market shorts are getting their faces ripped off || 10 things you need to know before the opening bell: (A warden guards Sudan, the last surviving male northern white rhino, at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia national park, KenyaReuters/Baz Ratner) Here is what you need to know. The jobs report is coming.The US economy is expected to have added 190,000 nonfarm jobs in April as the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.6%, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Additionally, average hourly earnings are expected to have held steady at up 2.7% year-over-year. The data will cross the wires at 8:30 a.m. ET. Oil plunges suddenly.In a matter of 20 minutes, West Texas Intermediate crude oil tumbled 3.6% to a low of $43.76 a barrel. However, it has recovered its losses, and now trades little changed near $45.55. Bitcoin is swinging violently.The cryptocurrency gained as much as 9% on Thursday, putting in a record high of $1,652 a coin before plunging below $1,500. On Friday, bitcoin trades up 6.4% at $1,598. The 1st large Chinese-made passenger jet took off on its maiden voyage.The C919 took off from Shanghai Pudong International Airport, making China the fourth jumbo jet producer after the US, Europe, and Russia, Reuters says. Warren Buffett unloads some of his IBM stock.Buffett sold one-third of Berkshire Hathaway's 81 million shares saying he "revalued it somewhat downward" from six years ago. Berkshire's annual meeting will take place on Saturday, and Business Insider will have full coverage. ChemChina clinches its $43 billion takeover of Syngenta."At the end of the main offer period on May 4, based on preliminary numbers, around 80.7 percent of shares have been tendered," the companies said in a joint statement. "Subject to confirmation in the definitive notice of interim results scheduled for May 10, the minimum acceptance rate condition of 67 percent of issued Syngenta shares has been met." Shake Shack same-store sales whiff.The burger chain said sales at stores open at least a year fell 2.5%, missing the 0.2% growth that Wall Street analysts were expecting. Shake Shack shares sank more than 7% in extended trading on Thursday. Stock markets around the world are lower.Hong Kong's Hang Seng (-0.8%) lagged in Asia and Germany's DAX (-0.3%) trails in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open little changed near 2,391. Earnings reporting slows down.Cigna, Cognizant, and Fannie Mae are among the names reporting ahead of the opening bell. Aside from the jobs report, US economic data is light.Consumer credit will be released at 3 p.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is unchanged at 2.35%. More From Business Insider • Watch one of the baddest A-10 pilots ever land after being hit by a missile • This upgrade will extend the life of your MacBook Air for years • 10 things you need to know before the opening bell || Swedroe: Private Equity Adds Risk, Little Return: The term “private equity” is used to describe various types (e.g., buyout funds and venture capital funds) of privately placed (nonpublicly traded) investments. Even though buyout (BO) funds and venture capital (VC) funds have similar organizational and compensation structures, they are distinguished by the types of investments they make and the way those investments are financed. BO funds generally acquire 100% of the target firm (which can be public or private) and use leverage. VC funds take minority positions in private businesses and do not use debt financing. Today BO funds account for about three-fourths of private equity deals. Private equity (PE) excites many investors, offering the opportunity for spectacular returns (although, as with most investments, we generally hear only the stories with happy endings). Even the term conveys an exclusive nature, especially for investors who yearn to be “players.” Capital committed to PE funds worldwide has risen substantially in the past two decades, thanks largely to U.S. pension funds searching for alternatives to public equity markets that might help them meet their return objectives. Endowments seeking to replicate the successes of the Yale Endowment have also contributed to the growth of PE funds. And it is reasonable to assume that high-risk, illiquid investments are priced by investors to deliver higher expected returns than publicly traded securities to compensate for the greater risk. The Historical EvidenceSteven Kaplan and Berk Sensoy contributed to the literature on the performance of PE funds through an extensive survey of current research on the performance of private equity. Following is a summary of the findings from their October 2014 paper, “Private Equity Performance: A Survey”: • BO funds have outperformed the S&P 500 net of fees by about 20%, on average, over the life of the fund. • VC funds raised in the 1990s outperformed the S&P 500, while those raised in the 2000s have not. • Before the 2000s, buyout and VC fund performance showed strong evidence of persistence. • Since 2000, there is little evidence of BO fund persistence (with the exception of persistence among those in the bottom quartile, the worst performers), while VC fund persistence has remained strong. Unfortunately, the returns data presented by Kaplan and Sensoy isn’t risk-adjusted. Private equity is really much riskier than an investment in a publicly traded S&P 500 Index fund, making it a wholly inappropriate benchmark. For example ... • Companies in the S&P 500 are typically among the largest and strongest companies, while VC typically invests in smaller and early-stage companies with far less financial strength. Studies have estimated betas for BO funds at about 1.3 and for VC funds at 1.6 to 2.5. Adjusting for the higher betas alone would have erased any evidence of outperformance. Similarly risky but also publicly available small value stocks have also outperformed the S&P 500 by a wide margin—from 1927 through 2016, the S&P 500 returned 10.0%, while the Fama-French Small Value Index (ex utilities) returned 13.6%. • Investors in private equity forgo the benefits of daily liquidity. It’s well-documented in the literature that investors will demand a premium for investing in illiquid assets, especially those that perform poorly in bad times (like PE). There’s no adjustment in the returns data for the risk of illiquidity. In addition to the lack of liquidity relative to investments in mutual funds, private equity investors also forgo the benefits of transparency and broad diversification (and for individuals, the ability to harvest losses for tax purposes). • The median return of PE is much lower than the mean (the arithmetic average) return. PE’s relatively high average return reflects the small possibility of a truly outstanding return, combined with the much larger probability of a more modest or negative return. In effect, PE investments are like options (or lottery tickets). They tend to provide a small chance of a huge payout but a much larger chance of a below-average return. And it’s difficult, especially for individual investors, to diversify this risk. • The standard deviation of private equity exceeds 100%, in comparison to standard deviations of about 20% for the S&P 500 and about 35% for small value stocks. In their survey, Kaplan and Sensoy observed that the authors of the 2013 study, “Limited Partner Performance and the Maturing of the Private Equity Industry,” found that, in the more recent sample of PE funds raised between 1999 and 2006, there was no evidence that endowments outperform other limited partner types or display any superior skill at selecting general partners. According to Kaplan and Sensoy, this study (which Sensoy also co-authored) concluded that “the disappearing endowment advantage is consistent with other secular trends in the industry, particularly the decline in VC performance since the late 1990s and the decline in performance persistence in BO firms.” Latest Evidence Reiner Braun, Tim Jenkinson and Ingo Stoff contribute to the literature on private equity performance and its persistence with their study, “How Persistent is Private Equity Performance? Evidence from Deal-Level Data,” which was published in the February 2017 issue of the Journal of Financial Economics. Their findings were consistent with those of Kaplan and Sensoy. Their study covered timed cash-flow data at the deal level for 13,523 investments made by 865 buyout funds (not VC funds) run by 269 general partners (GPs). The investments were split roughly equally between the U.S. and Europe, with a few in other regions, and span the period 1974 to 2012. This is important, as most other studies examined only U.S. data. The authors noted: “As well as being extensive and detailed, for the vast majority of the GPs in our sample we have their complete investment history. This is clearly critical when analysing performance persistence, and lack of completeness is a problem that has plagued earlier analyses. We source the data from three fund-of-fund managers who required all GPs who sought capital to provide this detailed deal-level information in a standardized format. Importantly, the sample includes all the GPs upon which the fund-of-fund managers performed due diligence, whether or not they actually chose to invest.” They also partitioned the data sample into an early period up to the end of 2000 and a later period from 2001 onward. Following is a summary of their findings ... • While there was evidence of performance persistence in the early period, it was weaker than performance persistence found in previous studies and has largely disappeared in recent years. The authors stated: “This is consistent with the PE sector maturing, with financial engineering and valuation techniques becoming commoditized, professionals moving between or forming new GPs, and the ways to create operational improvements to portfolio companies becoming assimilated across firms.” • Competition has clearly increased in recent years, but not evenly over time or by region. When a large amount of capital chases deals, persistence tends to be lower. • There is significant evidence of top-quartile performance persistence but only in low competition states. On the other hand, GPs who make bad deals tend to repeat, irrespective of the state of competition. Braun, Jenkinson and Stoff concluded: “Overall, the evidence we present suggests that performance persistence has largely disappeared as the PE market has matured and become more competitive.” They add: “Those Limited Partners (LPs) who were early investors in PE—such as endowments—established relationships with successful GPs which were valuable when the market was developing. However, those relationships, and access to funds—at least on the buyout side—are now much less valuable and are no longer a source of LP out-performance.” For investors, the research has an important implication: If past performance provides little guidance on the choice of GPs, how can one identify the future top performers? Swensen On Private EquityIf you’re considering investing in PE or sit on the board of a committee that is doing so, be sure to consider these sage words of advice from David Swensen, chief investment officer of the Yale Endowment: “Understanding the difficulty of identifying superior hedge fund, venture capital, and leverage buyout investments leads to the conclusion that hurdles for casual investors stand insurmountably high. Even many well-equipped investors fail to clear the hurdles necessary to achieve consistent success in producing market-beating active management results.” In his book, “Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment,” Swensen offered the following observation on BO funds: “Investors in buyout partnerships received miserable risk-adjusted returns over the past two decades. Since the only material differences between privately owned buyouts and publicly traded companies lie in the nature of the ownership (private vs. public) and character of capital structure (highly leveraged vs. less highly leveraged), comparing buyout returns to public market returns makes sense as a starting point. But because the riskier, more leveraged buyout positions ought to generate higher returns, sensible investors recoil at the buyout industry’s deficit relative to public market alternatives. On a risk-adjusted basis, market equities win in a landslide.” Swensen also cited a Yale Investments Office study that provides some insight into the additional return required to compensate for the risk in leveraged buyout transactions. He writes: “Examination of 542 buyout deals initiated and concluded between 1987 and 1998 showed gross returns of 48% per annum, significantly above the 17% return that would have resulted from comparably timed and comparably sized investments in the S&P 500. On the surface, buyouts beat stocks by a wide margin. Adjustment for management fees and general partners’ profit participation bring the estimated buyout result to 36% per year, still comfortably ahead of the marketable security alternative…. Because buyout transactions by their very nature involve higher-than-market levels of leverage, the basic buyout-fund-to marketable-security comparison fails the apples-to-apples standard. To produce a risk-neutral comparison, consider the impact of applying leverage to public market investments. Comparably timed, comparably sized, and comparably leveraged investments in the S&P 500 produced an astonishing 86% annual return. The risk-adjusted marketable security result exceeded the buyout result of 36% per year by an astounding 50%age points per year.” Summary The bottom line is that if you’re willing, able and have the need to take more risk in search of higher returns, the most likely to place to find that is not in PE, but rather in publicly available small value stocks. And you can access these higher expected returns through low-cost, passively managed and tax-efficient funds. You can globally diversify their risks as well. In addition, you’ll have all the benefits of daily liquidity and transparency. Larry Swedroe is the director of research forThe BAM Alliance, a community of more than 140 independent registered investment advisors throughout the country. Recommended Stories • Monday Hot Reads: Positive Buzz Sends First Marijuana ETF High • How New Short Squeeze ETF Can Juice Returns • Swedroe: Private Equity Adds Risk, Little Return • How Hedge Funds Use ETFs • Bitcoin ETFs For Dummies Permalink| © Copyright 2017ETF.com.All rights reserved [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] 紹介すると仮想通貨をゲット あとは毎日ログインでゲット(^｡^) 私の紹介IDは、PQO6NP6A です ▼▼▼ http://bit.ly/2kEuZ3b  #小遣い稼ぎ #仮想通貨 #暗号通貨 #在宅 #ビットコイン #nagezeni #bitcoin || Order your secure and smart Bitcoin hardware wallet - Only 34.80 EUR https://www.ledgerwallet.com/r/4518?path=/products/1-ledger-nano … #bitcoin #btc 00:17 pic.twitter.com/TaMeEw0bOY || 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes: $1086.01/$1088.00 #Bitstamp $1096.57/$1097.77 #BTCe ⇢$8.57/$11.76 $1084.07/$1095.29 #Coinbase ⇢$-3.93/$9.28 || ☞ Web2Tor Vs Tor Browser http://ift.tt/2prHeGL  #bitcoin || BTC/NGN: LB - ₦431,181.88 BitSSA - ₦422,860.00 Luno - ₦415,000.00 Average - ₦423,013.96 || #UFOCoin #UFO $0.000012 (2.08%) 0.00000001 BTC (0.00%) || Giving = Happiness! PayPal: http://giving.love .charity@gmail.com BTC: 15gwd7HtZ95gpwX2zAwwHFD8hsPs76wjq1 #gratitude || 2017/04/15-00:10 ZaifExchange BTC:131460JPY(+180) XEM:2.4701JPY(-0.0086) MONA:13.7JPY(+0.1) #monacoin #bitcoin #nem || Current price of Bitcoin is $1106.00 via Chain || $1338.10 at 23:45 UTC [24h Range: $1299.00 - $1347.02 Volume: 8189 BTC]
Trend: up || Prices: 1738.43, 1734.45, 1839.09, 1888.65, 1987.71, 2084.73, 2041.20, 2173.40, 2320.42, 2443.64
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Market Wrap: Bitcoin Makes Headway to $10.3K; Ether Volatility Highest Since May: Bitcoin is eking out gains Wednesday while ether’s volatility is up on DeFi drama. Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $10,299 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 2.7% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $9,818- $10,349 BTC above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bullish signal for market technicians. Bitcoin is slowly making gains Wednesday, reaching as high as $10,349 as of press time. Read More: Bitcoin’s Correlation With Gold Hits Record High Related: First Mover: DeFi 'Vampire' SushiSwap Sucks $800M from Uniswap; BitMEX Basis Lags “After the Sept. 2-3 drop, bitcoin has been stuck in a narrow range of $10,100 to $10,500, looking for direction,” said David Lifchitz, chief investment officer for crypto quantitative firm ExoAlpha. “Each drop below $10,000 has been furiously bought, keeping BTC above that,” he added. Over the past week, traders have come in and scooped up sub-$10,000 bitcoin, with $9,800 being a level tested but retraced. While bitcoin is trending upward, the cryptocurrency needs volume to boost it further, Lifchitz added. “This is typical of a wounded asset recovering,” Lifchitz added.” Contrary to traditional assets, there’s no federal printing press to artificially prop up digital assets, only good old demand,” he said. So far Wednesday, demand as measured in volume is relatively flat – a paltry $245 million combined on major spot exchanges according to Skew. This is much lower than a week ago, when spot volumes hit a one-month high of $1 billion. Related: Ether Traders May Be Hedging Against DeFi Slowdown: Analyst John Willock, CEO of digital-asset liquidity firm Tritium, says the ebb and flow in the bitcoin market is simply natural. “This short-term dip down to current levels was a reasonable pullback,” he said.  “A steady move upwards in BTC is fully in line with my expectations for the medium-term and through the end of the year.” Story continues Read More: ‘High’ Severity Bug in Bitcoin Software Revealed 2 Years After Fix According to ExoAlpha’s Lifchitz, “Until bitcoin reaches above $10,600, there’s no hope for a retry toward $12,000 anytime soon.” Read More: Huobi Launches Crypto Saving Products to Compete With DeFi Ether volatility up Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was up Wednesday, trading around $357 and climbing 6% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). Read More: Firms Warn of Potential DeFi Scam After $2.5M in ‘Locked’ Cryptos Moved Ether’s one-month realized volatility, a measure of the standard deviation of returns based on historical data, is at 106% on an annualized basis, its highest point since way back on May 6. It is clear that ether is more volatile than bitcoin, which, at 57% one-month realized annualized volatility Wednesday, is at a level consistent with its August volatility numbers. Vishal Shah, an options trader and founder of derivatives exchange Alpha5, said uncertainty surrounding decentralized finance, or DeFi, is helping drive volatility in ether, and not in the derivatives that are usually the culprit in crypto. “I don’t think much of this volatility is driven by ETH optionality, as the market is relatively small,” Shah said. “Rather, it seems to be a byproduct of pent-up disbelief in gas prices and the large rotations in total value locked in DeFI,” he added. Read More: NY AG Asks Court for New Order to Make Bitfinex Turn Over Documents Other markets Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are all in the green Wednesday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): chainlink (LINK) + 8.3% 0x (ZRX) + 8.2% iota (IOTA) + 8% Read More: Arca to Gnosis: Show Us a Turnaround Plan or Give Investors’ Money Back Equities: In Asia, the Nikkei 225 closed down 1% as a clinical trial pause for a potential coronavirus vaccine damped sentiment in Tokyo . In Europe, the FTSE 100 ended the day up 1.3% as a falling pound, which boosts overseas earnings for multinationals in the index, helped sentiment . In the United States, the S&P 500 climbed 2% as tech stocks made gains, including Microsoft jumping 4.2%. and Apple up 4% . Read More: Court Denies Bitmain $30M in Damages From Co-Founders of Rival Poolin Commodities: Oil is up 3.3%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $37.96. Gold was in the red 0.90% and at $1,948 as of press time. Read More: DCG Enters Retail Crypto Market With Acquisition of Luno Wallet Treasurys: U.S. Treasury bond yields all climbed Wednesday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were up most on the two-year, coming in at 4.2%. Read More: Mastercard Platform Enables Central Banks to Test Digital Currencies Related Stories Market Wrap: Bitcoin Makes Headway to $10.3K; Ether Volatility Highest Since May Market Wrap: Bitcoin Makes Headway to $10.3K; Ether Volatility Highest Since May || Bitcoin miner manufacturer Ebang plans to launch crypto exchange in Singapore: Nasdaq-listed bitcoin miner manufacturer Ebang is preparing to launch its own cryptocurrency exchange in Singapore. To that end, the China-based company has set up a subsidiary in Singapore, it and would seek relevant approval and license to expand its business, according to anannouncementon Friday. Ebang, however, cautioned its shareholders that there is "no guarantee" the company will receive the regulatory green light and that it may not even go ahead with its exchange plans at all. Ebanggot listed on Nasdaqin June and raised $101 million by offering its shares at a price of $5.23. The stock is currentlytrading ataround $6.78 a piece. Ebang's cryptoexchange plans come amid lossesfor the last two consecutive years. The company suffered net losses of $11.8 million and $41.1 million in 2018 and 2019, respectively.Ebang rival Bitmain's spin-off Matrixport, which is based in Singapore, also recentlylaunchedcrypto derivatives exchange Bit.com. © 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. || Top Bitcoin Mining Pools See 15% Hashrate Drop Amid Continuous Rainstorms in China: Major Chinese bitcoin mining pools are each seeing daily hashrate drops of between 10% and 20% following continuous rainstorms in Sichuan. China’s southwestern Sichuan province, a mountainous region that is estimated to have over 50% of the Bitcoin network’s total computing power, has been hit by heavy rainstormssince last week, which peaked over the last two days. The heavy rainstorms have caused electricity outages in parts of the region as hydro-plants stop generating power to help discharge the floods. Some counties are also experiencing telecommunication and internet breakdowns, said Kevin Pan, CEO and co-founder of PoolIn. Related:PayPal Co-founder, DCG-Backed BTC Mining Firm Layer1 Accused of Patent Infringement As result, impactedbitcoinmining farms in the region are forced to unplug from the network for the time being. It’s not clear when the situation will prove as the rainstorms are still ongoing. Data from BTC.com shows the world’s top four bitcoin mining pools – PoolIn, F2Pool, BTC.com and Antpool, all based in China – have each seen their hashrates drop between 10% and 20% over the last 24 hours. The computing power connected to these four pools accounts for around 50% of the Bitcoin network’s total. Pansaidin a Weibo post Tuesday China time that in addition to mining farms being forced to unplug due to electricity and internet disruptions, some have also proactively paused operations ahead of time and evacuated their on-site staff for safety precautions. According to theXinhua News Agency, the accumulated rain volume in a dozen most-impacted cities in Sichuan between Aug. 10-15 alone has already surpassed the average August monthly volume in any year’s record. Related:Mining Firm Hut 8 Reports 28% Drop in Q2 Revenue Following Bitcoin Halving Further, one major highway that leads to Sichuan’s mountain area, where most of the mining farms are located, isshut downdue to severe floods and mudslides. Meanwhile, bitcoin’s last three-day and one-day average hashrate has dropped to around 123 and 110 exahashes per second (EH/s), respectively. These numbers are down over 3% and 10%, respectively, from the seven-day rolling average around 127 EH/s, which is still at an all-time high. Read more:The 2020 Rainy Season Is Tougher Than Ever for China’s Bitcoin Miners The monsoon season in China every year brings abundant rain and thus excessive hydropower resources especially in the country’s southwestern regions, including Sichuan and Yunan. Such energy excess leads to cheap electricity prices that have been attractive to bitcoin miners. But over the years, the unpredictable weather also caused floods and mudslides, which resulted in bitcoin mining farmshaltingoperations temporarily or even being completely destroyed. • Top Bitcoin Mining Pools See 15% Hashrate Drop Amid Continuous Rainstorms in China • Top Bitcoin Mining Pools See 15% Hashrate Drop Amid Continuous Rainstorms in China || A world in isolation, a surge of new users for Twitter: LONDON (AP) — The global pandemic and U.S. protests are forcing a pullback by advertisers on Twitter, but it's also led to an unprecedented surge of users. Average daily user growth spiked 34% in the second quarter, the company said Thursday, the largest jump in users ever recorded by the company. In an earnings call, CEO Jack Dorsey addressed an embarrassing hacking incident last week that compromised the accounts of high profile users, saying he felt “terrible" about it. Shares of San Francisco-based Twitter bounced 4% higher in Thursday trading. But the company took a huge tax hit to earnings, posting a net loss of $1.2 billion, or $1.56 per share, in the April-June period, compared with profit of $1.1 billion, or $1.43 per share, a year earlier. Revenue fell by about a fifth to $683 million, far short of the $702 million Wall Street had expected, according to a survey of analysts by FactSet. Twitter’s advertising business was hit harder than its larger rivals Google and Facebook, and analysts had expected the bleeding to continue in the second quarter. The company said ad revenue made a “gradual, moderate recovery” relative to levels in March but many brands then slowed or paused their spending in late May to mid-June, following the outbreak of Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S. “We continue to see headwinds from lower global advertising demand due to COVID and civil unrest," Dorsey said. Ad revenue fell 15% in the last three weeks of June, which was better than the 27% decline in the final three weeks of March, with advertiser demand returning as the protests subsided, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal said in the earnings call. New users have been flocking to the platform as they isolate, with the number of daily active users jumping to 186 million. “Twitter’s strength as a news and entertainment source has helped buoy engagement during the pandemic as housebound consumers use the platform for real-time news and information,” said eMarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg. But she does not expect this to continue as stay-at-home restrictions begin to lift and people start returning to more normal routines. Story continues Investors have been waiting for Twitter to explore new revenue options — and offering paid subscriptions is one long-floated idea. Dorsey said the company is exploring this and other options, although he said the process is in the “very very early stages.” “Most importantly we want to make sure that any new line of revenue is complementary to our advertising business. We do think there is a world where subscription is complementary,” he said in a conference call with analysts, according to a transcript. “We think there’s a world where commerce is complementary. You can imagine work around helping people manage payrolls as well that we believe is complementary.” He said Twitter will likely begin testing these new ideas this year. The earnings were overshadowed by the continuing fallout from a hack last week that targeted 130 accounts, including world leaders, celebrities and tech moguls, that appeared designed to lure their Twitter followers into sending money to an anonymous Bitcoin account. The company revealed more details Wednesday, saying hackers accessed the direct message inboxes of 36 accounts, including an elected Dutch official. It didn't identify the official but Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders said it was him. “Last week was a really tough week for all of us at Twitter," Dorsey said. “We feel terrible about the security incident that negatively affected the people we serve and their trust in us." Twitter executives deflected questions on another challenge: a social media ad boycott running for at least the month of July, and therefore not counted in the second quarter. Facebook is the primary target of the boycott by hundreds of advertisers over its policies and actions on hate speech and misinformation. Its effect on Twitter is less clear, with some advertisers pausing ads on all social media, though some analysts believe some ad dollars could be redirected away from Facebook to Twitter. ____ Follow Kelvin Chan at twitter.com/chanman AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in Oakland, California, contributed to this story. || Binance Unveils New Product for ‘Yield Farming’ Crypto Assets: Popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance has released Launchpool, a way for users to make income by staking tokens for so-called yield farming. According to a Binance announcement on Sunday , users of Launchpool will be able to stake Binance’s BNB token and BUSD stablecoin, as well as the ARPA token, for interest-bearing rewards. The first project to be hosted on Launchpool is Bella Protocol (BEL), which recently raised $4M in a seed funding round led by Arrington XRP Capital. The BEL project aims to fix the complex user experience issues related to DeFi assets, such as the need to hop among different protocols and platforms in search of higher yields. Users will be able to stake their tokens in three separate pools to farm – earn profits by providing staked liquidity – BEL tokens over a 30 day period starting Wednesday. A week later, on Sept. 16, Binance will list BEL for trading and open trading pairs on its exchange for BEL/ BTC , BEL/BNB, BEL/BUSD and BEL/ USDT . The news comes on the heels of Binance’s recent mainnet launch of its smart contract-enabled blockchain and introduction of staking for its BNB token. It also launched a new DeFi-like platform last week, allowing trades via an automated market maker exchange. Staking involves committing funds as collateral onto an existing protocol in order to increase the liquidity of a project and brings voting rights to help decide on governance issues. Stakers in such decentralized finance projects earn rewards in the form of interest ranging generally up to 10%, though it can be much higher, according to DeFi Rate . For Launchpool, Binance is offering BEL rewards at 1% for users staking ARPA, 9% for staking BUSD and, it claims, 90% for staking BNB. See also: What Is Yield Farming? The Rocket Fuel of DeFi, Explained Related Stories Binance Unveils New Product for ‘Yield Farming’ Crypto Assets Binance Unveils New Product for ‘Yield Farming’ Crypto Assets Binance Unveils New Product for ‘Yield Farming’ Crypto Assets Binance Unveils New Product for ‘Yield Farming’ Crypto Assets || 7 Ways to Build a Diversified Portfolio Without a Ton of Money: You know it’s a bad idea to pour your life’s savings into a single investment. It’s personal finance 101: Invest regularly and diversify your portfolio. But a lot of times, there isn’t much guidance beyond that. So as an investor, you’re left wondering: How do you know if your portfolio is diversified? How many investments do you need in a diversified portfolio? How are you supposed to find the time and money for so many investments, especially if you’re a beginning investor ? Why Diversification Is Hard for Regular Investors to Achieve There are two things you need to know about diversifying your investments: One, it’s ridiculously difficult, if not impossible, for ordinary investors like you and me to build a diversified portfolio from scratch. Two, it’s easy for ordinary investors to own a diversified portfolio if you’re willing to take a few shortcuts. Stick around and we’ll discuss those later. The Goal of Diversification Diversification isn’t just about picking a bunch of great companies to buy stock in. What happens when the stock market crashes? “If the stock market drops, you wouldn’t want your entire portfolio to drop along with it,” said Taylor Jessee, a certified financial planner and CPA who is director of financial planning at Taylor Hoffman Wealth Management in Richmond, Virginia. “The idea behind diversifying is to play defense.” But the goal goes beyond risk management. “In a general sense, it’s about spreading your risks around,” said Jacob Sadler, CFP with Woodstone Financial LLC in Asheville, North Carolina. “Of equal importance, however, is positioning yourself to capture opportunity when and where it occurs.” In other words, diversification also helps you seize higher returns. What a Diversified Portfolio Really Looks Like Your investment portfolio needs a mix of stocks and bonds. Investing in stocks is where you’ll get the big growth, but it’s also high-risk. Investing in bonds has less earning potential, but bonds add stability to offset stock market risks. Story continues Your ideal asset allocation, e.g., how much of your portfolio is invested in stocks vs. bonds, depends on your age, how much time you have until retirement and your risk tolerance . Sounds simple so far? We’re just getting started. To have a diverse portfolio, you’d need the following. Stocks in Companies of All Different Sizes Stock in small companies tends to have the biggest potential for profits, which is why it’s often called growth stock. But growth stock is also risky. Investing in giant corporations offers slow and steady returns but less potential growth. Government and Corporate Bonds Government bonds are among the safest investments, but they still have risk. The interest they pay is so low that your investment might not keep up with inflation. Corporate bonds pay significantly higher interest rates, but you could lose the money you invested if the corporation defaults on its debt. International Stocks and Bonds Spreading out your investments geographically reduces your risk and also allows you to take advantage of growing markets throughout the world. A Broad Range of Sectors Investing in a variety of sectors of the economy — like health care, financial products, real estate and utilities — reduces your risk in case one part of the economy collapses. For example, you’re better protected from a housing bubble collapse or a global pandemic that brings travel and hospitality to a standstill. Investments That Don’t Move With the Stock Market To achieve diversification, you don’t want all your investments to rise and fall with the stock market. That’s why you want investments that are stable even when the stock market is volatile — and some that increase in value when the market tanks. For example, sales at discount stores often rise during recessions and their share prices often increase altogether. Many investors diversify by going outside the stock and bond markets by buying different asset classes. They might invest in commodities like gold, which usually increase in value during downturns. Or they invest in real estate , which is usually less volatile than investing in stocks. 7 Tips for Building a Diversified Portfolio Without Spending a Fortune Now, let’s get to what we promised you: an easy way to build a diversified portfolio that doesn’t require a Ph.D. in economics. Here’s how to diversify in the simplest way possible. 1. Invest in an ETF That Tracks the Stock Market The great thing about both exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds is that they let you invest in hundreds or even thousands of companies with a single purchase. The majority of ETFs and some mutual funds are index funds . That means instead of having humans actively managing the investments, the fund is designed to reflect the makeup of a market index , like the S&P 500, which is itself diversified. “You don’t necessarily need to own a lot of ETFs or funds to be diversified,” Jessee said. “Owning just one S&P 500 index fund means you have your money invested in the 500 largest companies in the U.S.” You can go even broader than an S&P fund by buying an index fund that tracks the overall stock market. These are known as total market funds. Pro Tip ETFs tend to have lower fees than mutual funds because they aren’t actively managed. 2. Add in a Broad Market Bond Fund Investing in a broad market bond index fund gives you broad exposure to the entire bond market in the same way that a total market fund lets you invest in the entire stock market. The tricky part is deciding how much to put in the stock fund vs. how much to invest in the bond fund. You typically want to invest mostly in stocks when you’re young. Then, you allocate more toward bonds when you can’t afford as much risk. Reviewing your asset allocation once a year with a financial pro is well worth the cost. 3. Follow the 5% Rule for Individual Investments It’s actually OK to have a large chunk of your assets in a single fund, provided that the fund is sufficiently diversified. It’s also fine to invest in individual stocks when you’re diversifying — but caution is required. “For diversification, avoid investing more than 5% of your assets in any one firm, such as your company’s stock, and 20% in any particular industry because unforeseen events can quickly destroy values,” said Jeffrey Barnett, founder, president and chief investment officer at Fintegrity in Tenafly, New Jersey. “However, it is fine to have concentrated holdings of a fund that owns a portfolio of 50 or more securities.” 4. Use Sector Funds to Invest in Specific Industries The key to diversifying your portfolio is to be invested in the overall stock and bond markets. But if you want to invest in a certain type of company, like biotech or telecommunications, consider investing in a sector fund that focuses on that industry. You’ll get greater diversity than you’d get by picking individual stocks in the same industry. Just be careful not to invest too much in a single sector. 5. Don’t Assume More Is Better Many investors mistakenly think investing in more funds helps them diversify. “We see this frequently with investors’ investment selections in their 401(k)s,” said Betty Wang, a Denver-based CFP who is founder and president of BW Financial Planning. “The investor is overwhelmed by the many choices of their 401(k) plan so she decides to contribute 5% to each fund offered.” But a lot of these funds have the same underlying investments, meaning you aren’t getting more diversification. You can often achieve your goals with a single fund or two. “Overall portfolio performance is unrelated to the number of funds in a portfolio,” Sadler said. “What matters is the number of underlying stock and bond holdings, their weighting and their characteristics.” FROM THE INVESTMENT FORUM Bitcoin? | I want to make the right choices with my money and there's lot's of scams out there ! 5/7/21 @ 1:16 PM AC Carrillo Investing in Cryptocurrency 4/20/21 @ 2:19 PM Jean Marmion Is there a way to invest but still have immediate access to the money? 4/25/21 @ 2:24 PM M A. I 3/1/21 @ 7:08 PM Nicole Bowman See more in Investment or ask a money question 6. Automate Your Investments There’s a way to make portfolio diversification even more brainless, which is to automate things. One way is by investing in a target-date fund. “[It] automatically invests and diversifies your money according to your age and when you want to retire,” Jessee said. “It is basically a one-stop-shop fund.” Most 401(k) plans offer these as an option, though you can also invest in one on your own. If you have a Roth or traditional IRA or a taxable brokerage account , you can automatically diversify by using a robo-advisor . A computer algorithm will create a custom mix of assets based on your age, goals and how much risk you’re willing to take. 7. Try to Pick a Winning Team, Not an MVP For investors who dream about picking the winning penny stock that becomes the next Apple or Microsoft, diversification may seem like a boring strategy. But don’t think of investing as trying to pick the person who becomes MVP. Wang suggests treating your portfolio like a team of players, each of whom has different strengths and weaknesses. “If one player is having a bad game, the other players can carry the team for a win,” she said. “The more diverse your players are, the more likely your team can be successful in various scenarios where different strengths are needed to win.” Robin Hartill is a certified financial planner and a senior editor at The Penny Hoarder. She writes the Dear Penny personal finance advice column. Send your tricky money questions to DearPenny@thepennyhoarder.com. This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder , which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017. || Ethereum 2.0: Closer Than Ever, Still Plenty of Work to Do: “Though now evolved in many ways,” Gavin Wood wrote in Ethereum’s 2015yellow paper, “the key functionality of a blockchain with a Turing-complete language and an effectively unlimited inter-transaction storage capability remains unchanged.” Five years and thousands of bits later, Ethereum is still chugging along as a decentralized platform for self-executing code. And it has “evolved in many ways,” with the largest yet to come: Ethereum 2.0. Related:Five Years In, DeFi Now Defines Ethereum Call itSlasherorCasper,ShasperorSerenity, Eth 2.0 has had as nearly many names as unrealized goals. For all the hubbub, a physical implementation is knocking on the cryptocurrency gates and is set to debut (by most estimates) this fall. Eth 1.x (the current blockchain) and Eth 2.0 will have some similarities, namely blocks attached in chains. But as CoinDesk’s Michael Caseypointed outrecently, much rests on the technical ideas Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and others like Wood or Vlad Zamfir staked their reputations to in the project’s early days. Read more:Ethereum’s Renaissance Creates an Opportunity – And a Major Test The most important idea being the transition to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm from Proof-of-Work (PoW). Indeed, a future swap of the Ethereum blockchain’s consensus algorithm has been a core part of the network’s thesis from its early days. Related:Market Wrap: Bitcoin Pushes to $11,450, DeFi Value Locked Now at $4B In short, PoS verifies a transaction getting from point A to point B by having coin depositors agree to validate the transfer in return for a small reward. If the depositor interferes with the transfer and commits fraud, then their funds can be seized by the network. The algorithm pulls from older Bitcoin-based projects as well as Buterin’s “weak subjectivity” model to create a more elastic consensus model with reasonable boundaries for transaction success. Yes, PoS systems should theoretically send more coins more quickly than Bitcoin’s PoW. Other projects such as Tron, EOS and Tezos use variations of PoS, too. How to implement PoS without fraud is what the Eth 2.0 project has mainly been about. Not switching over to PoS has consequences, however. Eth 1.x has seen outsized pressure from users demanding to use its blockspace over the past four months in what is turning into a constant friction for applications. Ethereum “killers” such as theNEAR Protocolare banking on a future where applications migrate to other blockchains in order to escape Ethereum’s fee pressure. Other technical upgrades such asoptimistic rollupsorEIP 1559don’t present the optimal solution, but only complement the decentralized tech stack Buterin and others envision. Today, nine teams are coding Eth 2.0 in various programming languages in what are called clients. Most teams expect the project to rollout by October to November. (In fact, you can bet on when the network will deploy inthis Omen prediction market.) Eth 2.0 will be deployed in multiple steps, beginning with the Beacon chain. This chain will act as the orchestrator of the new PoS network, which will be separated into multiple blockchains called “shards.” Just last week, a new and“final” testnetwas announced to precede the multi-client release of Eth 2.0’s first part, called phase 0. Read more:Ethereum 2.0 Developers Announce ‘Final’ Testnet Before Network Launch “Maintaining the set of validators and progressing the beacon chain and reaching finality come with phase 0,” Prysmatic Labs founder Preston Van Loon told CoinDesk. “The hardest part of [Eth 2.0] is getting this backbone together. … Everything revolves around the beacon chain and then we can add other layers on top of it.” All that to say, Eth 2.0 is quite close, but for real this time. The network’s long-awaited launch also allows for reflection on the road to Serenity. Ideas only alluded to by Buterin in the project’s white paper have come to fruition with market value (though many still lack maturity). “The first category is financial applications, providing users with more powerful ways of managing and entering into contracts using their money. This includes sub-currencies, financial derivatives, hedging contracts, savings wallets, wills, and ultimately even some classes of full-scale employment contracts,” Buterin wrote in 2013. Take for example the charcuterie board of lending and trading applications known as decentralized finance (DeFi) with nearly $4 billion in crypto assets locked in various protocols, according toDeFi Pulse. Read more:One Billion, Two Billion, Three Billion, Four? DeFi’s Knocking on TradFi’s Door Quantstamp CEO Richard Ma told CoinDesk in a phone interview that the ecosystem around Ethereum has grown horizontally as much as it has aspired to new heights with Eth 2.0. He pointed to the Solidity programming language and tooling set around it as one poignant example. Kosala Hemachandra, CEO and co-founder of MyEtherWallet, told CoinDesk that Etheruem has mainly grown in stages. Hemachandra said the beginning years were all about “documentation” with the current story being DeFi. Hemachandra said Ethereum has matured over the years, regardless of Etheruem’s central story rapidly blinking from decentralized organizations (DAOs) to stablecoins to DeFi. The next Ethereum needs to be even more robust than the current blockchain if it is to build a new financial backbone as intended. To those currently building their livelihoods on Ethereum, Eth 2.0 needs to work. “Ethereum is no longer a brand-new child, a brand-new baby,” Hemachandra said. • Ethereum 2.0: Closer Than Ever, Still Plenty of Work to Do • Ethereum 2.0: Closer Than Ever, Still Plenty of Work to Do || Coinbase Now Offers 2% Rewards on Dai Stablecoin Accounts: U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase has launched arewards programfor customers holding thedaistablecoin from popular DeFi project Maker. • Coinbase said Wednesday that users holding more than 1 dai will see returns at 2% annual percentage yield (APY). • The program applies to customers residing in the U.S., U.K., The Netherlands, Spain, France and Australia. • Rewards are to be distributed within the first five business days of receiving dai in a Coinbase account and will be handed out daily after the first payout. • Coinbase has asimilar programfor U.S. customers that rewards users based on the amount of USDC held in their exchange wallets. Staking rewards are also offered ontezos (XTZ)holdings. • The exchange already rewards users for interacting with educational content with dai as part of the Coinbase Earn project. • Dai-issuer MakerDAO is the biggest platform in decentralized finance (DeFi). Earlier this week, the total value of cryptocurrency locked into the platformcrossed $1 billion– a first for any DeFi project. • Maker itself offers interest on holdings of dai, however Coinbase said the rewards scheme is a promotion funded by itself. See also:IRS Enlists Coinbase in Latest Crypto Tracing Deal Correction(July 29, 21:05 UTC): Coinbase is not planning to offer rewards on cardano (ADA) accounts, as was misreported in an earlier version of this story. There are plans forCoinbase Custodyto support the staking of ADA tokens later this year. Related:Paxful Chips Away at LocalBitcoins' Russian P2P Market Dominance Edit(07:52 UTC, July 30): Updated with further information from Coinbase regarding the funding behind the rewards scheme. • Coinbase Now Offers 2% Rewards on Dai Stablecoin Accounts • Coinbase Now Offers 2% Rewards on Dai Stablecoin Accounts • Coinbase Now Offers 2% Rewards on Dai Stablecoin Accounts || How Much Ether Is Out There? Ethereum Developers Create New Scripts for Self-Verification: Ethereum and Bitcoin advocates have engaged in spirited Twitter exchange since Friday to answer an ostensibly simple question: What’s the total supply of ether? It’s not quite clear where the question originated. But providing one agreed-upon value for Ethereum’s native currency, ether (ETH), proved contentious enough to warrant new code. “Adding a proper total supply command to the client seems like a low-cost and reasonable thing to do,” said Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in the Ethereum R&D Discord channel last Friday. Related: Bitcoiners Launch Cryptocurrency Relief Fund Following Beirut Explosion Multiple independent developers jumped on the opportunity to set the “world computer’s” supply schedule straight. The coin supply brouhaha takes place in the context of Bitcoin’s more-easily verifiable coin supply, thanks to the gettxoutsetinfo command, which every Bitcoin node can execute to calculate the current supply. Due to its distinct design features, Ethereum lacked such a command, hence the impetus behind independent developers writing code to calculate its supply. The total supply of ether is 111,562,994 as of publishing time, according to Messari . (The firm pulls data directly off the blockchain, Messari director of research Eric Turner told CoinDesk.) Ether, bitcoin and verifiability The verifiability of assets is both a strong and novel feature of blockchains. Only rough supply counts exist for other assets such as gold or dollars. The supply of a given cryptocurrency, on the other hand, can be parsed down to the exact unit. This is valuable for modeling or auditing, among other reasons. Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Stumbles to $11,300; USDC Lending Rates Skyrocket Bitcoin proponents – notably Kraken developer Pierre Rochard – recently pointed out that Ethereum had no simple method for verifying the supply of its native unit. Bitcoin’s value and perception as “digital gold” emphasizes its supply characteristics – namely scarcity – moreso than Ethereum, which aims to serve as a developer platform for decentralized financial applications. Story continues Read more: Bitcoin and Gold: Evaluating Hard-Cap Currencies in Times of Financial Crisis Indeed, many Ethereum community members were dismissive of the supply question. “I don’t give a shit about the supply,” said Augur co-founder and early cryptocurrency investor Jeremy Gardner on Twitter. Beyond simply running the numbers, however, an additional concern voiced after the fact was the difficulty of running a full Ethereum node . Users who run their own nodes can “self-verify” not only the number of ethers in existence but also the validity of transactions on the Ethereum network. Self-verification is a popular social concept, as well as an ethical touchstone, for Bitcoin proponents. The argument mainly relies on the ease of bootstrapping a Bitcoin node. Running an Ethereum node, on the other hand, is a much more time- and memory-intensive undertaking, one that’s led to the emergence of a small class of infrastructure service providers . Read more: Ethereum 2.0 Testnet Medalla Goes Live With 20,000 Validators Ethereum community members are more dismissive of running a full node based on arguments from Buterin in the project’s early days. Ethereum 2.0 developers are also shooting for self-verification via lightweight clients made possible through Proof-of-Stake (PoS). Third-party scripts As attention paid to the supply discussion on Twitter grew, Ethereum developers started building scripts to calculate the supply. Developers were quick to note that many data sites posted wrong figures because of faulty modeling of coin issuance. In Ethereum, many third party-scripts fail to calculate a few complexities such as uncle or nephew blocks and burner addresses, cryptocurrency educator Andreas Antonopoulos said in a tweet . Bitcoin developers have often made similar mistakes, Casa CTO Jameson Lopp tweeted . Lopp said many scripts fail to take into account block rewards, called the coinbase, left unclaimed by miners. Regardless, Ethereum does have one actual supply figure even if it has been difficult to locate, Geth team leader Péter Szilágyi said in a tweet . If it did not, Ethereum wouldn’t work. “Ethereum has multiple client implementations, so a supply bug in one would instantly break consensus,” Szilágyi said. Related Stories How Much Ether Is Out There? Ethereum Developers Create New Scripts for Self-Verification How Much Ether Is Out There? Ethereum Developers Create New Scripts for Self-Verification || Gearing Up For Launch: BlockQuake Taps Crypto Risk Monitoring Firm Solidus Labs To Ensure Market Integrity and Compliance: The regulatory-driven digital asset trading platform, designed by finance veterans and traders, will harness Solidus' solutions to remove market manipulation, protect investors and comply with regulatory requirements NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 19, 2020 /Solidus Labs, provider of crypto-native market surveillance and risk monitoring solutions, andBlockQuake™, a regulatory-driven digital asset exchange based in New York, announced today they are partnering ahead of the exchange's upcoming launch. By partnering withSolidus Labs, BlockQuake will be adopting the highest standards of digital asset market surveillance and risk monitoring. Solidus Labs' tailored software will allow BlockQuake to proactively detect, investigate and prevent market manipulation and compliance threats, in order to protect the integrity of BlockQuake's markets. The partnership will help ensure all trading activity on BlockQuake's platform is legitimate and that its users are protected from suspicious and artificial market activities and manipulation. Solidus Labs' solutions are tailored to address traditional market threats, such as wash-trading, pump-and-dump and spoofing, as well as abuse schemes unique to crypto. Crypto-specific concerns include, for example, cross-market and cross-asset manipulation, and fraud associated with account-takeover scams - whichhave been increasingly afflicting the crypto landscapeduring the Covid-19 pandemic. Solidus will also assist in bridging regulatory gaps, allowing BlockQuake to satisfy current, and anticipated, governmental requirements for market surveillance and risk monitoring. "We are proud to partner with Solidus Labs to provide BlockQuake's users with trading activity transparency and maintain the integrity of our regulatory-driven exchange," says Antonio Brasse, CEO, and Co-Founder of BlockQuake™. Brasse added that "Solidus is a true leader in market surveillance and like BlockQuake is built by financial veterans who understand the complexities of the modern digital asset space, even as it rapidly evolves. This partnership puts us at the forefront of global compliance and is integral to protecting our users by operating an exchange that is built on security, transparency, and trust." Studies consistently estimate that as much as 90% of crypto trading volume may be subject to manipulative activity. Due to the current lack of high market surveillance standards across the crypto industry, it is difficult to account for the exact amount of funds manipulators are able to swindle from legitimate crypto traders, but the number is estimated at tens of billions of dollars annually - and growing. Ananalysis by the Wall Street Journalin August 2018, as one example, estimated that pump & dump schemes in crypto markets accounted for $825 million in trading activity in only six months, translating to hundreds of millions of dollars in lost funds. Market integrity is one of the biggest hurdles to increasing institutional adoption and regulatory approval of digital assets. Citing concerns about high levels of manipulation, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has so far consistently rejected Bitcoin-ETF applications, with Chairman Jay Clayton statingthe agency will need to see effective market surveillance. Regulators globally are introducing compliance guidelines and intensifying licensing requirements. Leading agencies like theNew York Department of Financial Services, theHong Kong Securities and Futures Commissionand theMalaysia Securities Commissionlisting detailed requirements for market surveillance and automated risk monitoring. Asaf Meir, Solidus Labs' Chief Executive, added that "Like BlockQuake, Solidus was developed by a team of blue-chip financial veterans who are using over 30 years of financial, compliance, and engineering experience from leading financial institutions to improve the cryptocurrency landscape." "It is thanks to exchanges like BlockQuake - which are committed to market integrity, compliance, and user protection in actions and not just words - that the crypto industry is able to continually raise standards and accelerate institutional and mass adoption," Meir Added. About BlockQuake New York City FinTech startup BlockQuake™ is a regulatory-driven, one-stop-shop digital asset trading platform that will support 6 fiat currencies (USD, CAD, GBP, EUR, JPY, AUD) at launch, as well as major cryptocurrencies and stablecoins (e.g. BTC, BCH, ETH, LTC, XRP, XLM, ETC, TUSD, USDT), representing over 90% of the existing markets. Created by a team with over 100 years of collective experience in blue-chip financial services, the BlockQuake™ Exchange aims to be an industry-standard in global compliance. For more information, please visitBlockQuake.com. About Solidus Labs Founded in New York in 2017 by Goldman Sachs FinTech veterans, Solidus Labs offers acrypto-nativemarket surveillance platform built from the ground up for the unique compliance challenges of digital assets and crypto data. Harnessing advanced technologies like machine learning and SaaS principles, Solidus Labs' mission is to help crypto businesses grow faster - and safer - by reducing the operational costs of compliance and minimizing regulatory risk. The firm currently serves a global client base including exchanges, brokerages, regulators, self-regulatory organizations and others. For Inquiries: Chen AradChief Operating OfficerSolidus Labschen@soliduslabs.com SOURCE:Solidus Labs View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/602410/Gearing-Up-For-Launch-BlockQuake-Taps-Crypto-Risk-Monitoring-Firm-Solidus-Labs-To-Ensure-Market-Integrity-and-Compliance [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: no change || Prices: 10938.27, 10462.26, 10538.46, 10246.19, 10760.07, 10692.72, 10750.72, 10775.27, 10709.65, 10844.64
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-07-12] BTC Price: 2398.84, BTC RSI: 43.36 Gold Price: 1218.10, Gold RSI: 37.22 Oil Price: 45.49, Oil RSI: 50.13 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Top Tech ETFs Of The Year: Technology investors are partying like it's 1999. That was the infamous final year of the dot-com bubble, when the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose a whopping 86%, an impressive end to one of the greatest bull markets in history. Today's rally may not be as heady as it was back then―nor share prices as inflated―but for the first time in nearly two decades, tech is back to hitting new highs on a consistent basis. As measured by theTechnology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK), tech is the top-performing sector of the year, with a return of 15.8%, more than double the gain of the broader S&P 500. Tech heavyweights like Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook are hitting new records seemingly every day. Their combined weighting in the S&P 500 is now 11%, while tech as a whole accounts for 23% of the index. It's not just the giants. Tech companies big and small are performing well this year, as evidenced by the 15.9% return for theGuggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight Technology ETF (RYT), a fund that gives the same weighting to Apple as it does to every other tech stock in its portfolio. Indeed, to see the best returns among tech-focused exchange-traded funds, investors must venture outside of broad tech ETFs into more niche areas, and in a few cases, outside the U.S. altogether. Here are the top tech ETFs of the year so far. China Internet ETFs At the top of the tech heap are internet ETFs focused on China. TheEmerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce ETF (EMQQ)holds internet-related companies across emerging and frontier markets, but China accounts for about two-thirds of the portfolio. Top holdings such as Tencent, Alibaba and Naspers have been on fire this year, buoying EMQQ to a year-to-date gain of 43.4%. TheKraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB)and the broaderGuggenheim China Technology ETF (CQQQ)are in the same boat, with returns of 41.4% and 29.9%, respectively, in the period. Though not focused on China, another international tech fund to see sizzling returns this year is theSPDR S&P International Technology Sector ETF (IPK), with its 23.4% gain. IPK holds a market-cap-weighted basket of tech stocks in developed markets outside of the U.S. Because it targets developed markets, it excludes China, giving it much different exposure than the aforementioned ETFs. Currently, its three largest holdings are Samsung, SAP and ASML Holding. Disruptive Technology ETFs Back in the U.S., the top tech-focused fund is theARK Web x.0 ETF (ARKW), with a nice 33.5% return for the year so far. ARKW is an actively managed ETF that invests in companies that are "expected to benefit from shifting the bases of technology infrastructure to the cloud." Stocks held include firms tied to cloud computing, cyber security, big data, e-commerce and social media platforms. The ETF also holds a 6% position in the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC), something that has served it well, as prices for the digital currency have exploded to the upside recently. Other top holdings include Athenahealth, Amazon and 2U Inc. ARKW is one offive ETFs from ARK Invest, an issuer that focuses on "disruptive innovation." Another of the firm’s active funds to do well so far this year is theARK Industrial Innovation ETF (ARKQ), with its 29.3% return. ARKQ invests in companies that are poised to benefit from technological advances related to energy, automation, manufacturing and transportation. Top holdings include Stratasys, Tesla and Nvidia. Social Media ETFs Shares of Snapchat parent Snap Inc. may be struggling this year, but an ETF that holds social media companies more broadly is doing just fine. TheGlobal X Social Media ETF (SOCL)is up a solid 32.7% year-to-date. As the name suggests, SOCL holds a basket of social media stocks from all around the world. From Tencent to Twitter to Facebook, SOCL is a social media pure-play ETF. Sharing some overlap with SOCL is thePowerShares Nasdaq Internet Portfolio (PNQI). PNQI's focus is broader in that it holds shares of internet companies in general. All of its holdings are U.S.-listed, but can be headquartered anywhere. Amazon, Facebook and Netflix are the top three holdings currently, and the fund is up 25.2% year-to-date. For a full list of this year's top technology ETFs, see the table below: Top 15 Technology ETFs [{"Ticker": "EMQQ", "Fund": "Emerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce ETF", "YTDReturn(%)": "43.40"}, {"Ticker": "KWEB", "Fund": "KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF", "YTDReturn(%)": "41.41"}, {"Ticker": "ARKW", "Fund": "ARK Web x.0 ETF", "YTDReturn(%)": "33.53"}, {"Ticker": "SOCL", "Fund": "Global X Social Media ETF", "YTDReturn(%)": "32.65"}, {"Ticker": "CQQQ", "Fund": "Guggenheim China Technology ETF", "YTDReturn(%)": "29.91"}, {"Ticker": "ARKQ", "Fund": "ARK Industrial Innovation ETF", "YTDReturn(%)": "29.26"}, {"Ticker": "PNQI", "Fund": "PowerShares NASDAQ Internet Portfolio", "YTDReturn(%)": "25.22"}, {"Ticker": "IGV", "Fund": "iShares North American Tech-Software ETF", "YTDReturn(%)": "25.08"}, {"Ticker": "IPK", "Fund": "SPDR S&P International Technology Sector ETF", "YTDReturn(%)": "23.40"}, {"Ticker": "PSI", "Fund": "PowerShares Dynamic Semiconductors Portfolio", "YTDReturn(%)": "22.47"}, {"Ticker": "PRNT", "Fund": "3D Printing ETF", "YTDReturn(%)": "22.35"}, {"Ticker": "QTEC", "Fund": "First Trust NASDAQ-100 Technology Sector Index Fund", "YTDReturn(%)": "21.44"}, {"Ticker": "FINX", "Fund": "Global X FinTech ETF", "YTDReturn(%)": "20.65"}, {"Ticker": "IXN", "Fund": "iShares Global Tech ETF", "YTDReturn(%)": "20.39"}, {"Ticker": "MTK", "Fund": "SPDR Morgan Stanley Technology ETF", "YTDReturn(%)": "20.29"}] Contact Sumit Roy atsroy@etf.com. Recommended Stories • Similar Sector ETFs Not Built The Same • Tech ETFs Retreat: Pullback Ahead? • Best Performing ETFs So Far This Year • Top Tech ETFs Of The Year • ARKQ Vs. ROBO: Battle Of Edgy Tech ETFs Permalink| © Copyright 2017ETF.com.All rights reserved || GDP and consumers — What you need to know in markets on Friday: Stocks are at record highs. After rising yet again on Thursday, both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed at record highs with most of the market’s focus zeroing in on Amazon ( AMZN ), which came within a few bucks of hitting $1,000 a share for the first time. Thursday also saw a reversal of fortune for some names in the retail sector as shares of Sears ( SHLD ) spiked after earnings and Best Buy ( BBY ) shares rose over 20%. On Friday, markets will get a few key pieces of economic data to focus on, with the second estimate of first quarter GDP due for release as well as the final reading on consumer sentiment in May from the University of Michigan. The earnings calendar will be quiet with no S&P 500 company due to report results ahead of the three-day Memorial Day holiday weekend. Bitcoin mania On Thursday morning, Bitcoin traded above $2,700 for the first time. By the afternoon, Bitcoin prices were back near $2,400. “This is the perfect asset for a speculative bubble,” said Henry Blodget , CEO of Business Insider on Thursday. “There is a finite supply and no intrinsic value… If anyone is persuading you it should be related to GDP or gold, put down the Kool-Aid… The logic of folks who are buying [Bitcoin] is, ‘All I can lose is 100%. I could make 10x, 100x, 1000x, it’s all possible.’ … [Bitcoin] could literally go to $1,000,000.” Blodget added that if you want to look at some way to find the “intrinsic” value of the currency, look at transactions per day, which have been on the rise over the last several years. Ultimately, however, Bitcoin right now is seeing the second wave of a mania that took hold back in 2013 when the price of the cryptocurrency rose from around $80 to $1,100. Bitcoin prices have gone bananas recently. (Source: Coindesk) Last week, Yahoo Finance’s Dan Roberts outlined why Bitcoin prices keep going bonkers. And while a number of factors including digital currency getting recognition as legal tender from governments, including Japan, aid the positive sentiment towards bitcoin prices, the latest spike is ultimately backed by a simple economic principle: scarcity. Story continues There are a limited numbers of Bitcoins. And while the current owner of Bitcoin or the speculator wondering whether now is the right or wrong time to take a nibble at owning some, each person who hears about the latest spike becomes a potential marginal buyer. Even at these prices. — Myles Udland is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @MylesUdland Read more from Myles here: Money is pouring into tech stocks at the fastest pace in 15 years Here’s what the stock market did during Watergate — and why How Trump can fix the most persistent problem in the U.S. economy This is the moment America met Warren Buffett Why you should always be ready for a big, scary stock market sell-off || Follow Buffett Into Bank of America Corp (BAC) Stock: InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips On the off chance there was any doubt about the matter, Warren Buffett just verified he’s the greatest investor of all time. How so? He’s about to make a trade that will instantly net him a gain of $12 billion on a position in Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC ). Follow Buffett Into Bank of America Corp (BAC) Stock Source: Shutterstock Granted, the trade is still technically an unrealized profit on BAC stock. But it doesn’t matter. As long as Buffett — through his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A , NYSE: BRK.B ) fund — doesn’t turn the unrealized gain into a real one, he’ll collect at least $300 million in dividends from the position. Plus, he’ll have the option of exiting the trade and banking the gain anytime he wants. That’s why the call him the Oracle of Omaha. The Planets Align There’s a short backstory to the trade. The 7 Best Dividend Stocks to Buy for Q3 and Beyond Back in 2011, when Bank of America was still struggling to dig its way out of the 2008 subprime mess, Warren Buffett was more than glad to provide it with much-needed funding … on one condition. Buffett forked over $5 billion then to buy dividend-paying (a 6% yield) preferred shares , plus the rights to buy 700 million common shares in the distant future at a price of $7.14 apiece. For perspective, BAC stock is presently trading at $24.39, or 240% more than the price Buffett will be paying. With 700 million shares on the table, the total difference between his cost and the trade’s current value is just a tad over $12 billion. Not bad, even if it took six years to get there. The timing of Buffett’s decision and news that Bank of America just passed its so-called “stress test” isn’t a coincidence. With the Federal Reserve effectively saying BofA is financially sound enough to return more capital to BAC stock owners than it’s been able to dish out in the recent past, Bank of America is forging ahead with its plans to gradually raise its dividend from the current annual payout of 30 cents per share to a pace of 48 cents per share beginning in the third quarter of this year . Story continues At an annual payout of 44 cents, it becomes more fruitful — meaning the dividend is bigger — for Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway to own the common stock rather than the preferred stock. Berkshire will simply swap the latter for the former. Lessons Learned In the grand scheme of things, the successful trade from Buffett shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Warren Buffett practices what he preaches, and is impressively disciplined. Two of his axioms really come shining through with this particular trade, though. 1. Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years: This tip is arguably interchangeable with his similar sounding, “My favorite holding period is forever.” Though he only held the preferred stock and the warrants for six years, the plan all along was to turn it into a long-term trade in BAC stock. It’s just that his entry allowed him to lower his risk and his entry price. He’s still going to hold onto all those common shares indefinitely. 2. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get: That’s the more poetic way of saying you can’t be afraid to buy into good companies even when their stocks are being beaten to a pulp. Good companies always find a way to recover, and their stocks will eventually snap back to reflect that recovery. He was able to pay a low price for BAC stock, but the value was always there. It just needed some time to be unleashed. Looking Ahead for BAC Stock For those investors that didn’t get into BofA back in 2011 or didn’t get a sweet deal on warrants to purchase the stock, don’t sweat. Everyone has stories about “the one that got away,” including Buffett. Just take the fact that he’s sticking with BAC stock now at face value. He doesn’t have to do that. He’s choosing to do that. Indeed, with plans to ramp up the dividend to 48 cents per share before the end of next year, Bank of America shares are trading at a forward-looking dividend yield of just under 2%. Bank of America Corp (BAC) Stock Gets Fed Clearance for Takeoff That’s not huge, but it’s healthy, and BofA is sporting a very healthy growth trajectory … finally. The annual dividend is apt to keep growing well beyond the 48 cent mark too, barring some sort of major economic headwind that not even Buffett sees on the horizon. As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace 3 Stocks to Buy to Leverage the Bitcoin Craze Why I Won't Go Near Ford Motor Company (F) Stock 3 Great Fidelity Funds That AREN'T Magellan The post Follow Buffett Into Bank of America Corp (BAC) Stock appeared first on InvestorPlace . || Google Must Take Down Some Search Listings Globally After Canadian Lawsuit: Google must remove a company website from its global listings as the result of a ruling Wednesday from Canada’s Supreme Court. The 7-2 ruling in Google Inc. v. Equustek Solutions Inc. involves the networking hardware company Equustek Solutions, which is based in British Columbia. Equustek won an initial case against competing company Datalink Technology Gateways, which Equustek accused of relabelling and selling one of its products. Read: Google Will No Longer Scan Gmail Content For Targeted Advertising At first, Google voluntarily removed Datalink’s search results on Google.ca — the Canadian variant of its search engine — but Equustek pushed in a secondary injunction to have the results further removed from Google’s global search results. “The internet has no borders — its natural habitat is global,” the court wrote in its decision. “The only way to ensure that the interlocutory injunction attained its objective was to have it apply where Google operates — globally.” In response to the decision, several digital rights groups criticized the court’s ruling. Canadian advocacy group OpenMedia, which acted as an intervenor in the case, said free expression rights should be prioritized in cases involving the potential restriction of online content. In a blog post , the group argued the court did not emphasize this distinction in its ruling strongly enough. “The internet is a global phenomenon, and there is great risk that governments and commercial entities will see this ruling as justifying censorship requests that could result in perfectly legal and legitimate content disappearing off the web because of a court order in the opposite corner of the globe,” OpenMedia said. “That would be a major setback to citizens’ rights to access information and express ourselves freely.” The Electronic Frontier Foundation was similarly critical in a statement , arguing the Canadian court had potentially established a precedent for restricting online content that could be abused by foreign governments and courts. “The ruling largely sidesteps the question of whether such a global order would violate foreign law or intrude on internet users’ free speech rights,” the foundation said. “Instead, the court focused on whether or not Google, as a private actor, could legally choose to take down speech and whether that would violate foreign law. This framing results in Google being ordered to remove speech under Canadian law even if no court in the United States could issue a similar order.” Read: Canada Bans Phones Locked To Carriers, Removes Unlocking Fees Story continues However, the decision was championed by Equustek and others in Canada. Graham Henderson, president of Canadian trade group Music Canada, told CBC News he was pleased with the court’s ruling. Platforms like Google and YouTube have traditionally cited their position as general hosting platforms against claims that they’ve helped support illegal or pirated content. "Today's decision confirms that online service providers cannot turn a blind eye to illegal activity that they facilitate,” Graham told CBC News. “On the contrary, they have an affirmative duty to take steps to prevent the internet from becoming a black market." As for Google, the company cannot appeal the court ruling at the moment. But in a statement, the company said it is “carefully reviewing the court's findings and evaluating our next steps.” Related Articles Google Pixel 2 Specs Might Have Already Been Revealed Google Ventures Invests In Bitcoin Startup Blockchain View comments || New Flow Kids App Delivers Anytime/Anywhere Content To Caribbean Children: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Jun 8, 2017) -Flow's younger viewers now have a kid-friendly service that delivers children's content anytime, anywhere, on any device via the new "Flow Kids" appspecially developed byToon Goggles, the top kids' on-demand entertainment service. The Flow Kids appoffers viewers approximately 1000 hours of high-definition children's content -- thousands of fun and educational cartoons for boys and girls, live action shows, comedy, engaging games for preschool to older age groups -- something for every child. "We're pleased to have partnered with Toon Goggles as we introduce an exciting new option for children's educational and entertainment programming to the region," said James Tooke, SVP Content & Media atCable & Wireless, operator of Flow. "We've invested significantly to secure the world's best content for our audiences, and we of course wanted to ensure that the young ones weren't left out. WithFlow Kids, children now have the ability to stream their favourite shows and play fun, interactive games any time of the day, keeping them entertained for hours on end. Plus,Flow Kidsis not only jam-packed with fun games and entertainment -- it's also educational, intuitive, easy-to-use and a safe platform for kids of any age. We're confidentFlow Kidswill put a smile on every child's face." Aside from the diverse selection of content,Flow Kidsoffers other features to enhance the viewing experience for children and parents alike. For example, for those parents who'd like to ensure their children are watching content that's suitable for their age,Flow Kidshas a built-in parental control switch to allow them control over what shows, music or games kids can access. The app also allows for access over 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi, and has the ability to store content, so kids can watch their favourite shows even when they're not connected to the Internet. Commenting on the innovative app and the cosmopolitan perspective it offers children, Stephen L. Hodge, C.E.O. of Toon Goggles said, "Growing up on the small Caribbean island of Anguilla, and as a father of three myself, I know first-hand how important it is for kids to gain a global perspective, and the fun and educational content onFlow Kidshelps facilitate that. We feel that our partnership with Flow and Cable & Wireless meets both our companies' goals of increasing quality media options for kids everywhere." Flow Kidsis available to Flow subscribers forfreevia the mobile app, once they have a Flow broadband package, mobile bundle or TV account and a Flow ID. A premium version will also be available for a fee, which will give users the ability to access content via their mobileandFlow's video-on-demand service on up to 5 devices, including smart TVs and set-top boxes. Flow Kidsis available in twelve Flow markets: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and the Turks and Caicos Islands. About C&W Communications C&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more athttp://www.cwc.com/, or follow C&W onLinkedIn,FacebookorTwitter. About Liberty Global Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enable us to develop market-leading products delivered through next generation networks that connect our 25 million customers who subscribe to over 50 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve over 10 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across 6 million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group (NASDAQ:LBTYA) (NASDAQ:LBTYB) (NASDAQ:LBTYK) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group (NASDAQ:LILA) and (NASDAQ:LILAK) (OTC PINK:LILAB), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 11 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The Liberty Global Group also owns 50% of VodafoneZiggo, a Dutch joint venture, which has 4 million customers, 10 million fixed-line subscribers and 5 million mobile subscribers. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Más Móvil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a sub-sea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visitwww.libertyglobal.com || Hackers are trying to bring the WannaCry ransomware back from the dead: A little more than a week ago, a particularly nasty piece of ransomware dubbed “WannaCry” began spreading at an impressive clip all across the globe. Targeting Windows machines — and based off of a leaked NSA exploit — impacted users found that all of their computer files had been encrypted and could only be recovered by making a $300 payment in Bitcoin. With the ransomware showing no signs of slowing down, an enterprising researcher named Marcus Hutchins managed to effectively stop WannaCry dead in its tracks by inadvertently enabling a kill-switch. As we noted last week , WannaCry at the point of infection attempts to communicate with a domain name consisting of a long string of nonsensical characters. If the domain is registered, WannaCry will stop spreading. If the domain is not registered, WannaCry will go on about its havoc-wreaking business. Don't Miss : You won’t have to wait until November to buy Apple’s next-gen iPhone 8 After taking a look at the WannaCry code, Hutchins spotted an odd-looking domain name and out of mere curiosity registered it, having no idea at the time that he was enabling the ransomware’s kill-switch. Without question, Hutchins’ action here helped stopped the malware from spreading even wider, but not before it managed to infect more than 300,000 computers across the globe. Interestingly enough, security researchers now claim that there’s a clever and concerted campaign to bring the malware back from the dead. The strategy? Taking the kill-switch domain off-line by any means necessary. According to a report from Wired , botnets are now being mobilized to launch a DDoS attack against the kill-switch domain. Now a few devious hackers appear to be trying to combine those two internet plagues: They’re using their own copycats of the Mirai botnet to attack WannaCry’s kill-switch. So far, researchers have managed to fight off the attacks. But in the unlikely event that the hackers succeed, the ransomware could once again start spreading unabated. … If the DDoS assault did succeed, not all WannaCry infections would immediately reignite. The ransomware stops scanning for new victims 24 hours after installing itself on a computer, says Matt Olney, a security researcher with Cisco’s Talos team. But anytime one of those infected machines reboots, it starts scanning again. “The ones that were successfully encrypted are in this zombie state, where they’re waiting to be reactivated if that domain goes away,” says Olney. Story continues At this point, there’s no way of knowing if the folks behind WannaCry are the ones trying to resurrect the malware. Some security researchers, though, believe that the new botnet campaign is actually being carried out by folks looking to have a bit of ill-advised fun at the expense of innocent users. Incidentally, French security researchers have since come up with a fix for the WannaCry ransomware called ‘wannakiwi’ that can be downloaded here. Trending right now: Android O’s most exciting new feature is a total game-changer You won’t have to wait until November to buy Apple’s next-gen iPhone 8 The hottest new Nintendo Switch game that isn’t Mario Kart is $20 off on Amazon See the original version of this article on BGR.com || $12 billion wiped off value of bitcoin since record high 30 days ago as it floats near one-month low: Bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=-USS) hit a near one-month low on Wednesday and has seen more than $12 billion wiped off its value in the last 30 days, amid nervousness in the cryprocurrency market. The price of bitcoin fell to $2,272.32, its lowest level since June 15, when it slumped to $2,185.96, according to data from CoinDesk. The price did recover on Wednesday slightly to a high of $2,354.41. It's also significantly off the $3,025.47 all-time high reached on June 11 , just over a month ago. In this timeframe, its market capitalization or value has fallen by $12.2 billion. A major pullback is taking place at the moment in the cryptocurrency world after huge rallies. When bitcoin hit its record high in June, it had seen a more than 600 percent rally since the start of the year. Even with Wednesday's fall, it is still up nearly 450 percent year-to-date. That has raised concerns about the frothiness in the market at the moment, which could be part of the reason for the pullback. Richard Turnill, BlackRock's global chief investment strategist, earlier this week warned about a potential bubble in cryptocurrencies. "I look at the charts, and to me that looks pretty scary," Turnill said, according to a Reuters report. Cryptocurrency traders are also uncertain with some unsure about the future trading pattern for bitcoin. "I'm waiting for more downside before I rebuy, but frankly I'm even having trouble telling what it's going to do, which probably reflects the uncertainty in the market itself," cryptocurrency trader Jason Hamilton, told CNBC via Twitter. Roy Sebag, who is the CEO of GoldMoney, a platform to let people buy and trade the precious metal, is also a notable investor in cryptocurrencies. But the entrepreneur told CNBC via a Twitter exchange that he sold most of his bitcoin holdings because the market has reached the top. TWEET 'Fork' debate back in focus The bitcoin community is also nervous about a planned change to the underlying code of the cryptocurrency's protocol. Bitcoin transactions are taking longer than ever to process because the size of transactions on the blockchain, which is the technology that underpins the cyrptocurrency, is limited. This so-called "scaling debate" has led to two separate proposals about how to increase the block size and speed up transactions. Transactions by users are gathered into "blocks" which is turned into a complex math solution. So-called miners, using high-powered computers work these solutions out to determine if the transaction is possible. Once other miners also check the puzzle is correct, the transactions are approved and the miners are rewarded in bitcoin. Story continues But there is a big backlog in transactions and the speed at which these are processed is slowing. That's because the rules of bitcoin only allow a certain amount of transactions through in one block. One solution proposed by Bitcoin Core, a group of developers that guard bitcoin's code, suggests a solution known as SegWit, which is explained here . This would lead to a so-called "soft fork" which would increase the block size. But it could mean less fees for miners, which are the people who verify and process transactions on the blockchain. These miners are unhappy with SegWit and have suggested an alternative code change known as Bitcoin Unlimited. This would increase the block size significantly, but would also make their version of the bitcoin protocol incompatible with the original version. As a result, a "hard fork" would take place, splitting the bitcoin blockchain in two, and even resulting in two separate coins. Investors would theoretically then hold some of the original bitcoin tokens, as well as the new Bitcoin Unlimited. Each proposal requires large support from the participants in the bitcoin's ecosystem, but there is strong disagreement. BTCC is a massive bitcoin exchange in China which signaled support for the SegWit proposal. Its CEO Bobby Lee told CNBC that he is "confident" a solution will be found, but the uncertainty could be a reason why the bitcoin price has paused for breath. "Not everyone is on the same page, there are people worried, some may be selling bitcoin," Lee told CNBC by phone on Wednesday. WATCH: These are the unexpected winners of the cryptocurrency craze More From CNBC Samsung to back European start-ups with $150 million investment fund Bank alternative Revolut raises $66 million in venture capital investment; eyes expansion in Asia, US Digital currency ethereum crashes below $200 to hit 40-day low; down 50 percent since all-time high View comments || Get ready for a possible 'second wave' of that massive global cyberattack: Microsoft Windows users, brace yourselves. People are worried a second wave of cyberattacks could strike around the world on Monday as employees return to their desks and log onto their computers. Security experts say the unprecedented ransomware attack that on Friday locked up computers across the globe including UK hospital, FedEx, train systems in Germany among other institutions in exchange for payment, could cause even more trouble as the work week begins. On top of that, copycat versions of the malicious software have already started to spread. "We are in the second wave," Matthieu Suiche of the cybersecurity firm Comae Technologiestold theNew York Timeson Sunday. SEE ALSO:Meet the 20-somethings who stopped a worldwide cyberattack Officials urged companies and organizations to update their Microsoft operating systems immediately to ensure networks aren't still vulnerable to more powerful variants of the malware known asWannaCryor WannaCrypt. The outbreak, which began last Friday, is already believed to be the biggest online extortion scheme ever recorded. WannaCry locks up computers, encrypts their data, and demands large Bitcoin payments, which begin at $300 and rise to $600 before the software destroys files hours later. Cyber criminals targeted users in 150 nations, including the U.S., Russia, Brazil, Spain, and India, along with major government agencies, such as the U.K.'s National Health Service and Germany's national railway. Two researchers in their 20's hadhalted the ransomeware attackon Saturday after discovering and activating the software's "kill switch." The temporary fix initially helped slow down the rate of infected computers. But some networks may have caught the malicious bug after workers went home, meaning the malware is already there, waiting for employees to power up their computers. "The way these attacks work means that compromises of machines and networks that have already occurred may not yet have been detected, and that existing infections from the malware can spread within networks," Britain's National Cyber Security Center said ina statementon Sunday. "This means that as a new working week begins it is likely, in the U.K. and elsewhere, that further cases of ransomware may come to light, possibly at a significant scale," officials warned. The cyber criminals, whose identities are still unknown, also rebounded from the kill switch activation by releasing a second variation of the malware. Europol, the European Union's policing agency, said the attack remains an "escalating threat" whose numbers "are still going up" after a brief slowdown on Friday. The agency estimates some 200,000 victims — including 100,000 public and private sector organizations — have been affected since the start of the cyberattack. The 22-year-old British cyber researcher who found the kill switch said he was now looking into a possible second wave of attacks. "It's quite an easy change to make, to bypass the way we stopped it," MalwareTech, who uses an alias,told the Associated Press. The WannaCry malware exploits a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows that was reportedly developed and used by the U.S. National Security Agency. Experts said this vulnerability has been known for months, and Microsoft had fixed the problem in updates of recent versions of Windows. But many users did not apply the software patch, AP reported. So, in case you needed another reminder, update your software often. And maybe change your passwords while you're at it. || Bitcoin exchange Coinbase seeks new funds at $1 billion valuation: Wall Street Journal: (Reuters) - Bitcoin exchange Coinbase Inc is in talks with potential investors on a new round of funding at a valuation of more than $1 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. It is not clear which investors are committing to the round, which was described as targeting around $100 million or more, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. (http://on.wsj.com/2rtMkk8) That would represent the biggest funding round on record for venture-backed bitcoin companies, the report said. A Coinbase spokesman declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Coinbase, the world's largest bitcoin company, has seen heavy traffic and trading on its platform in recent weeks as bitcoin reached all-time highs. Demand for crypto-assets has soared with the creation of new tokens to raise funding for start-ups using blockchain technology. Coinbase said in January it raised $75 million from several major financial institutions including the New York Stock Exchange, USAA Bank and Spanish banking group BBVA. (http://reut.rs/2qKUcRm) Earlier this year, Coinbase received a virtual currency and money transmitter license from the New York Department of Financial Services. (Reporting by Bhanu Pratap in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar) || Wall Street firms are betting that the technology behind bitcoin could help them cut jobs: (A Bitcoin sign is seen in a window in Toronto.Reuters/Mark Blinch) Wall Street is convinced thatblockchainis set to radically transform the world of finance. But exactly how and when that transformation will transpire is uncertain. Blockchain, which gained notoriety as the technology behind the cryptocurrency bitcoin,is thought to have the potential to improve numerous businesses including banking, payments, and the capital markets. Cognizant, a US-based digital consulting firm, recentlysurveyed over 1,500 executives from over 570 financial services firmson their respective strategies for integrating the technology into their infrastructure. According to the firm, there are a few things financial execs are certain about when it comes to the future of blockchain: blockchain is important, it will save them money, and it will lead to job losses. "The vast majority of respondents (90%) said their firms has identified or is the process of identifying functions or processes that can be automated with blockchain," the report said. And 3/4 of those surveyed said they believe blockchain will enable them to automate at least 2.5% of their workforce. For large financial firms with tens of thousands of employees that could be hundreds of jobs. And this would be on top of automation that has already taken place. According to the report, Cognizant helped a US commercial bank useEthereum, a blockchain-based platform,to transfer deeds between buyers and sellers without the need of a middle-man. Wall Streeters, you have been warned. NOW WATCH:HENRY BLODGET: Bitcoin could go to $1 million (or fall to $0) More From Business Insider • 'This is huge': National security experts were floored by the leaked NSA document on Russian election hack • One map shows how much trouble Qatar Airways may be in • 'Psychologically scarred' millennials are killing dozens of industries — and it's their parents' fault [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Japanese Exchanges Say Volumes are Real Pushing Bitcoin Price Up https://oal.lu/7yikR  #business #technologypic.twitter.com/OfRe8S0P3D || Price Alert: BITCNY -10.00% 1h change $BITCNY - Current Price: 15300.00000000 BTC | More #BITCNY Info http://crypto.press/coins/BITCNY-BITCNY … #CryptoPress || 16:00~17:00のBitcoin市場は反落でした。 変化率は-0.3689% 18:00までは上げ一服かな? 直近の市場の平均Bitcoinの価格は266004.0円 【AIコメントです:テスト中@パターンB】 #bitcoin #AI || $2896.99 at 02:15 UTC [24h Range: $2800.00 - $2912.98 Volume: 9730 BTC] || $2564.00 at 01:15 UTC [24h Range: $2472.68 - $2595.00 Volume: 11367 BTC] || first ever quantum-secured blockchain #bitcoin https://twitter.com/Amb_Yakovenko/status/875338018260910080 … || Bitcoin is tumbling - Markets Insider Bitcoin is plunging on Thursday. The cryptocurrency trades down 5.1% at $... http://ow.ly/o2NQ50cbbkf  || Correction in the market do not panic. Also some changes coming to Bitcoin so there is uncertainty in the air for investors. No worries! || Crypto Tips: Understanding the Hype: Bitcoin Bubble Check it out at: http://ift.tt/2sd2fnb  #steem #photography #drone || $SING is working with a top talent scout in Silicon Valley to find expert Bitcoin developers
Trend: up || Prices: 2357.90, 2233.34, 1998.86, 1929.82, 2228.41, 2318.88, 2273.43, 2817.60, 2667.76, 2810.12
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-04-08] BTC Price: 7334.10, BTC RSI: 57.65 Gold Price: 1665.40, Gold RSI: 58.39 Oil Price: 25.09, Oil RSI: 42.05 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Coinbase Wallet Adds Short, Customizable Addresses to Simplify Sending Cryptos: Coinbase Wallet users can now send cryptocurrencies to “short human-friendly addresses” as well as ones creating using the Ethereum Name Service (ENS). Product lead Sid Coelho-PrabhuannouncedTuesday that Coinbase Wallet now supports customizable wallet usernames for sending cryptocurrencies, rather than traditional long-form ones such as “0x89136a83664fa0673930be34463e444260775dc.” “We believe these improvements will make cryptocurrency much easier to use and help drive adoption with a more mainstream audience,” Coelho-Prabhu said in a blog post. Related:February Gains Disappear as Bitcoin Drops Below $9k Sent live Tuesday, users can send cryptocurrencies by asking recipients for their wallet usernames like “@walletfan” and use them as the sending addresses. There is also an option to keep usernames private. To be clear, the short usernames do not replace 16-digit wallet addresses but instead provide a more user-friendly representative that sits on top. A user can send cryptocurrencies using the associated username rather than typing in the full wallet address. The new support also includes an integration with ENS, allowing Coinbase Wallet users to send cryptocurrencies to .eth addresses. Launching in 2018, Coinbase Wallet provides users with a service to store and transfer cryptocurrencies to one another. Users have been able to use adecentralized web featuresince August 2019. Related:CoolBitX Raises $16.7M to Make Crypto More Bank-Friendly Coelho-Prabhu confirmed that all cryptocurrencies supported by the app, includingbitcoin(BTC),ether(ETH) andXRP(XRP), can now be sent using the new username feature. • Coinbase Becomes First ‘Pure’ Crypto Firm Approved as Visa Principal Member • Coinbase Revives Margin Trading, With Conservative (for Crypto) 3x Leverage || Udi Wertheimer on Cypherpunk Myths and Bitcoin in Real Life: CoinDesk reporter Leigh Cuen is joined byVR meetup organizerUdi Wertheimer to talk about howbitcoin(BTC) fits into the broader cypherpunk movement. For daily insights and unique perspectives listen or subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast Network withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS. The cypherpunk movement has expanded far beyond the 2,000 people who subscribed tomailing listsin the 1990s. In 2018,Entrepreneurreported there are more than 8,000 posts on Bitcointalk every day, whileCoinbasegarnered millions of user accounts. Such experimental technology is no longer the realm of just a few thousand geeks. Related:‘Anything That Can Be Decentralized Will Be Decentralized’ 6 Years Later However, across the board, even in 2020 cypherpunk projects rarely exceed a few dozen regular contributors. For example, Exiledsurfer, an event organizer and hacker space co-founder from theParallele Poliscollective, said his space in Vienna was inspired by a collective in Prague that collects roughly $5,000 a month in cryptocurrency from members to share a venue. Likewise, the Vienna chapter accepts dues in DAI, monero and bitcoin, just to name a few. “We’re a crypto pure organization,” Exiledsurfer said. “This will be an alternative asset class or, in a hundred years, there will by three guys in a garage in Topeka, Kansas, tweaking on a 2020 computer to keep the chain alive, just like people tweak on old cars.” The cypherpunk movement appears to be growing, albeit slowly. “I still get people every week, young people and programmers who say they want to give their lives to this thing,” cypherpunk icon Amir Taaki said, underscoring why he believes the movement will only succeed through groups with “structured” training methods. Related:What Happens When Currencies Fail? Feat. Preston Pysh “There’s a yearning need for this…we can build our own financial networks outside of the control of the state,” Taaki said of the academy he plans to launch in Barcelona. “How do all of these pieces that we’re working on fit together to serve a higher goal? What’s our narrative?” Taaki said. Yet, even as a cypherpunk technology aficionado, Wertheimer disagrees with such collectivist views of “our” narrative or “pure” projects. “I don’t think we need bitcoin evangelists,” Wertheimer said. We’ll talk about why he views the ideological movement as divorced from user groups that may now utilize cypherpunk technology. Want more? Read myarticleabout how bitcoin compares to the early days of the internet. For daily insights and unique perspectives listen or subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast Network withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS. • 6 Good Reasons for Bitcoin HODLers to Stay Calm • Ben Hunt on Markets and Narratives in the Age of Coronavirus || Coronavirus Impacts on Bitcoin (And the IRS’s Dumb Singularity): T he best Sundays are for long reads and deep conversations. Earlier this week the Let’s Talk Bitcoin! Show gathered to discuss coronavirus and its potential impacts or disruptions to the decentralized world of bitcoin. Later, we hear from correspondent George Ettinger about the indications of a “Dumb Currency Singularity” taking place at the Internal Revenue Service right now (also presented in full text below). Listen/subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast feed for unique perspectives and fresh daily insight with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , IHeartRadio or RSS . Related: Bitcoin Rebounds as Coronavirus-Infected Stocks Get Jolt From Fed, BOJ On today’s podcast we discuss coronavirus and: The bitcoin mining industry and the slowing rate of hash-rate increases in the run-up to the 2020 halving Safe-haven, uncorrelated and risk asset narratives as the price of bitcoin (BTC) bounces defies expectations The potential for shifts in how society thinks about money in the wake of a highly transmissible global disease Plus a brief primer on virus families (skip to 13 minutes for blockchain only content if you’re already up to speed) Credits for LTB#429 – Coronavirus Impacts on Bitcoin (And the IRS’s Dumb Singularity) This episode of Let’s Talk Bitcoin! is sponsored by Purse.io and eToro.com . This episode featured Stephanie Murphy , Andreas M. Antonopoulos , George Ettinger and Adam B. Levine Today’s episode was produced by Adam B. Levine, edited by Adam B. Levine with music provided by Jared Rubens and Adam B. Levine Would you like to Sponsor a future episode of the Let’s Talk Bitcoin! show? Do you have any questions or comments? Email adam@ltbshow.com The Dumb Singularity: Crypto Currencies and Game Currencies are Overdue for a Collision Related: The View From China: Crypto, Crisis and Digital Currencies Feat. Matthew Graham So. It has come to this. One of the biggest barriers to entry for a disruptive technology is the incompetence of the average consumer. On the other hand, simply preying on the illiteracy of consumers can be a boon for some truly terrible inventions. It is in the clash of these two ideologies that we have reached the Dumb Currency Singularity. Story continues Digital currency has been on course for the Dumb Singularity for well over a decade, and we finally passed the event horizon late last year. At the end of 2019, the IRS quietly published a set of virtual currency guidelines that broadly lumped together mainstream cryptocurrency such as bitcoin and ethereum with honest-to-god Fortnite V-Bucks and Roblox Money. I have just been informed that the legal term for Roblox currency is “Robux.” That seems… fair. My point, however roundabout it may be, is that somebody in a position of some influence at the United States Internal Revenue Service saw their grandkid beg for a Roblox card in the Walgreens checkout line and thought, “MY GOD, THE BITCOINS HAVE COME FOR THE CHILDREN.” And then, when he put his horror to print, enough a phalanx of fellow IRS employees looked it over and thought “yes, that sounds right” that it was greenlit for public consumption. That advisement (to which the IRS claimed players of Fortnite and Roblox must report any purchases of “Bucks”, whether “V”- or “Ro”-) stood monolithically for nearly three months before it was escorted off the stage just as quietly as it had arrived. In a fit of Streisanding , this change caught more attention than the addition had garnered to begin with, and the IRS gave a formal explanation. “The IRS recognizes that the language on our page potentially caused concern for some taxpayers,” they said. “We have changed the language in order to lessen any confusion. Transacting in virtual currencies as part of a game that do not leave the game environment (virtual currencies that are not convertible) would not require a taxpayer to indicate this on their tax return.” This is, surprisingly, rather huge. Huge in that they got this follow-up explanation relatively right, and huge in that they still persist in getting so-called “virtual currency” wrong. You see, the IRS has been caught flat-footed over and over with every passing year that crypto currency has spread. They were slow enough recognizing the growing importance of bitcoin that it wasn’t until 2013 that they designated a team to begin planning for how to handle the currency… and they still haven’t figured out how to handle it. Yet, dating back even earlier than this, the IRS has ALSO been blindsided at every turn by non-crypto “gaming” digital currencies. Their official language conflating the two isn’t just a red flag- it’s a canary in the coal mine. Game Currencies – for simplicity, hereafter referred to as, uh, “Game Currencies”- run a wide gamut but the majority is exactly what the IRS failed to recognize in Fortnite and Roblox: a non-convertible, non-transferrable currency that cannot reasonably leave the confines of its game. Your Fortnite V-Bucks and Apex Legends Coins and… [SIGH].. Ro-Bux… are just an interstitial medium between your real money and the gameplay. You do not trade these with other players, nor do you have the options to take these chips up to the casino counter and cash them back out: once your USD enters the game, it cannot leave it in any reasonable form. After the original point-of-sale a Game Currency is no different from Sonic’s rings. So, for as correct as the IRS eventually got it, they’ve still been handling Game Currencies wrong , and it has informed the ways they still get Crypto wrong . Many game currencies ARE transferrable and ARE dangerously viable mediums for exchange and laundering, and they have been around longer than Bitcoin. It’s absolutely no secret that World of Warcraft gold is player-transferrable: it’s the entire reason “gold farming” remains a legitimate source of income for so many. Though less ubiquitous than Warcraft, the seminal Supply Chain Actuary Simulator EVE Online notoriously monetized its monthly subscription cards into a consumable ingame item . For those unfamiliar, this means that when you buy a month of game time, it isn’t simply added to your account: it becomes an item in your game inventory that can either be USED to extend your subscription, or TRADED with other players as a dollar-pegged commodity. Now, the truly fantastical economic tales of money laundering, actual virtual space piracy, and actual-million-actual-dollar banking deals in Eve Online can and HAS filled several books, so I will not go into detail here. The point is, simply, that player-exchangeable cash-value items have been a massive grey market for years and continued to slip under the IRS’s nose. They didn’t bat an eye at the horrifying headlines of Diablo 3’s aborted real-cash auction house fiasco, yet now in 2020 they’re fumbling to grasp onto its legacy. That fumbling is part-and-parcel with their fumbling of bitcoin, and the timeline tells a story. A recent Government Accountability Office review of IRS virtual currency policies painted a somewhat scathing picture of a bureaucracy that was slow to notice and even slower to adapt. The IRS initiative in 2013 was a knee-jerk response to the first truly landmark year of Bitcoin cash trading, where dollar parity was suddenly blown aside by hundred dollar parity. The impetus is obvious: disruptive changes to currency don’t matter to the IRS until they see it on the “Wacky Stories” segment of their local station news. The financial establishments that stood to gain from digital currencies were quick on the uptake, but the groups tasked with oversight were responding to changing conditions and new developments with the grace of a grandparent still giftwrapping cabbage patch dolls for the kids’ 35th birthdays. The GAO points out that, across three years, the IRS was trying to garner clues from the 900 people that had self-reported Bitcoin capital gains. That’s right – from 2013 to 2015, nearly a thousand god-fearing Americans had the saintly humility to self-report their bitcoin earnings to the feds, and it took three years of analysis for those feds to deduce that there might be more out there going un reported. Kudos, by the way, to those 900 honorable people who attempted to watch out for the watchmen while the watchmen weren’t even watching. In these years since, the spectrum of cryptocurrencies has exploded and the applications of game currencies has become strangely homogenized. Convertible game currencies like Warcraft gold persist, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Publishers have found that stifling a cross-player economy gives them a better control over the experience and far less accountability for what is done with that money. Fortnite follows this modern standard; real currency is an aggressively optimized one-way flow from player to publisher, with no convertible gains to tax. The IRS has long since missed the boat on game currencies. Why, then, did they so recently and so awkwardly collide with cryptocurrencies in the revenue service’s jumbled mind? This, my friend, is the beginning of the Dumb Singularity: Desperation and technological-illiteracy have finally boiled over, and the bureau is trying to play catch-up on the years that have passed it by. They may have smoothed over the initial blunder, but this is indicative of their intent to move forward with a more active hand, and the broad use the phrase “virtual currency” means that more blunders lie ahead. The GAO excoriated them for their slowness, vagueness, and all-around wishy-washiness in these regards, but to some extent it was not the IRS’s fault. The organization has struggled under budget cuts and a dangerous lack of new blood, and yes, you may read that as younger-and-more-savvy blood. It was that same old blood that struggled to make any headway with their internal Virtual Currency Issues Team in 2013 and still wasn’t seriously analyzing self-reported data from major crypto exchanges even into 2016. Some gentle flame finally reached their backsides sometime after, because by 2018 they were beginning to proactively reach out to users with obvious crypto gains and attempting to secure accurate reporting. Now, with the end of tax year 2019 upon us, they are finally facing the ontological conundrum at the center of the Dumb Singularity: What is the Enforceable Definition of “Virtual Currency?” What will distinguish between play money and dangerous money? While they dragged their feet comprehending the question, the answers have gotten only more muddled as technology blazed trails forward with no policy guidance. This year, game currencies are completely surpassing retail purchases as the primary source of publisher revenue and most of them aren’t convertible or taxable; most, but not all. The IRS’s complacency left it with a massive ecosystem to sift through and a lack of reliable, literate talent to do it. If their random grab at the most obvious game currencies they could think of was any indication, there will be more broad and clumsy strokes before there are any real answers. The IRS has the unenviable task of writing a perfect definition in a language it can’t seem to speak, all because they never got around the asking the question that I accidentally stumbled on twenty years ago. When my 13-year-old self spent 10 bucks on eBay for a wealth of obviously hacked Phantasy Star Onlin e loot, I wondered: What laws can actually apply to the man who Game-Genies his paychecks? Related Stories Bitcoin, Uncertainty and the Ultimate Narrative Bitcoin News Roundup for March 2, 2020 || Why Polynomial Commitments Might Be a ‘Breakthrough’ for Ethereum 2.0: The Ethereum community now has a roadmap, albeit a confusing one. Dropped Wednesday, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s state of the network map helps contextualize the next five to 10 years for a global community of 20,000 developers while highlighting a key issue for the blockchain’s next version: scalability. The Eth 2.0 research team is now leaning into a new concept called “polynomial commitments” to reduce the data used per computation on the network, according to a March 17 blog post by researcher Danny Ryan. Related: ‘SkyWeaver’ Didn’t Plan for a Captive Audience of Millions but It Sure Helps Dubbed “magic math” by Buterin , polynomial commitments are being eyed as a way to verify the state of the network at low computational cost, a key goal of the future network. Still, Buterin’s map tags his magic math for network integration not until at least the third phase in the multi-year push to Eth 2.0. “Polynomial commitments could be the major breakthrough we’ve been looking for,” Ryan said, specifically regarding the storage of account data in the next version of Ethereum. The Ethereum Foundation did not respond to a request for comment by press time. Magic math Related: Thousands of These Computers Were Mining Cryptocurrency. Now They’re Working on Coronavirus Research Polynomial commitments are similar to the polynomials we all came to learn and love in elementary school: a math expression with both variables and coefficients (i.e., Y=2X). But, again, this is magic math so it’s not quite so simple. Buterin describes polynomial commitments as “a sort of ‘hash’ of some polynomial P(x) with the property that you can perform arithmetic checks on hashes.” The original paper on polynomial commitments, meanwhile, synthesizes the math scheme as “six algorithms” that show proof of an event occurring with as little computing data as possible. “We suggest replacing Merkle trees by magic math called “polynomial commitments” to accumulate blockchain state,” Buterin said in the Ethereum Foundation blog post. “Benefits include reducing the size of stateless client witnesses (excluding contract code and state data) to near zero.” Story continues (For the mathematically inclined, a three-part series on polynomial commitments hosted by Eth 2.0’s Justin Drake can be found below .) The blockchain state Blockchains record both the ins and outs users create when transacting. On the whole, blockchain accounting systems come in two kinds: the Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) model and the account-based model. Bitcoin uses the former while Ethereum uses the latter. When a user wishes to spend bitcoin in the UTXO model, the transaction drags along with it the entire history of those coins, which is then checked by every peer on the network. The account model, on the other hand, records only the transaction between the two peers while directing questions of the transaction’s validity to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) in conjunction with a proof of the transaction. The EVM executes state changes – the current accounts and balances of the blockchain – on behalf of users. Each block on Ethereum – which binds transactions into just that, a block – also contains a proof, a Merkle tree , which connects itself to the beginning of the network’s history. This proof contains the receipt of the state referenced above and is needed for the EVM to execute a transaction. This last part has been a sticky issue for Ethereum, however. Why? Merkle trees are data-efficient, yet not data-efficient enough for Eth 2.0’s ambitions. This is where the magic happens. The current Merkle tree setup takes about 0.5 MB per transaction. Ryan estimates polynomial commitment schemes would reduce the weight of state proofs to between 0.001 and 0.01 MB. For a network that recently averages around 700,000 transactions per day , the savings in terms of data computation add up. As such the idea of a stateless client has been in the works since at least October 2017 to reduce the amount of data used for ethereum’s big upgrade. Multiple projects outside of Ethereum also lean on polynomial commitments in their own way, including Zcash’s zero-knowledge proof, Halo . Buterin said his implementation of polynomial commitments remains one of many. Moreover, it’s still in the research phase. “Although incredibly promising, some of this research and magic math is very new. We need to spend more time better understanding the complexities and tradeoffs, as well as just getting more eyes on this new and exciting technique,” Ryan concluded. Related Stories Gemini’s Nifty Gateway Bets on Celebs to Drive Interest in Crypto Collectibles Ethereum Community Grapples With Coronavirus as EthCC Cases Tick Upward || How Imposters Scam Entrepreneurs Out of Their Crypto: On Jan. 31, a Telegram user calling himself “Danny Nelson” contacted Karla Vilhelem, a public relations professional, with an unseemly proposal. Pretending to be the CoinDesk reporter of the same name, he said he would publish a post about her client but wanted $600 for his trouble, a small sum for exposure on the crypto site of record. Vilhelem was wary. After three years in the industry, she was used to scammers impersonating major players in the crypto ecosystem and, more frustratingly, so-called journalists asking for cash. She advised clients never to pay for coverage, and the proposition made her suspicious of this so-called Danny Nelson. Related: Hacker Exploits Flaw in Decentralized Bitcoin Exchange Bisq to Steal $250K “I knew CoinDesk doesn’t take money,” she said. Another tell-tale sign was her interlocutor’s atrocious grammar, and mispunctuation of the brand name, which is spelled with a capital D. “I’ll get the vital informations [sic] needed to write and publish your project article review on your website or whitepaper,” the faux Danny Nelson wrote. “It cost [sic] $600 to write and publish your project article on Coindesk because I’ll have to pay for some logistics.” Still, Vilhelem was curious. When would she have to pay? Related: FBI Used Bitcoin Trail to Catch Russian Rapper Accused of Money Laundering “You have to pay Before [sic] I can proceed with the work because I’ll have to pay for some logistics,” he said. Whatever the “logistics” involved, Vilhelem refused his offer after checking the real Danny Nelson’s Twitter profile and seeing his real Telegram handle. She contacted the CoinDesk team to report the imposter and sent along images of their Telegram exchange. (You can look for real contacts for CoinDesk reporters on our masthead .) This impersonator never made off with Vilhelem’s money. Others weren’t so lucky. At least three startup founders have been scammed in similar situations, CoinDesk has found. We explored two of these scams to better understand how they worked. Story continues Working with blockchain investigations company Coinfirm , we wanted to see where the money was going and if we could learn anything about the perpetrators. The ultimate goal: to prevent it from happening to anyone else. The grift This scam is as old as journalism. Someone pretending to represent a major media company will approach a small business offering to write about them… for a price. In the days before the internet, corrupt public relations professionals and fake reporters would offer pay-for-play articles in newspapers. Now, online imposters request products like computers, laptops and cameras from companies, offering to “review” them on major news sites. Thanks to anonymous payments, scammers can ask for cash in exchange for ink. What makes this particular scam unique are the lengths the perpetrators will go to appear legitimate. Many create fake Telegram accounts – the hacker who tried to scam Vilhelem used @danielnelson – and then approach entrepreneurs in chat rooms on the internet. The exchange usually is straightforward unless the victim asks for more proof. To maintain the facade, the scammers use a few other tricks, including spoofing email addresses. For example, some mail clients let you hide the source of emails, but in many cases, even the email headers are insufficient in identifying real or fake emails. In Gmail, users can click on “Show Original” from the top right: Yes, the header often can look very confusing to someone who’s never seen one. But here’s the most important part: The first thing to look for in the header is an email address that is not part of the email conversation. That’s clearly a sign of misdirection and something to bring up with a sender. Here’s a rough example (for illustrative purposes only, as headers are subject to change depending on email and anti-spam providers): Remy Eisenstein, victimized by a fake CoinDesk reporter, was so frustrated by past scams he created a system to prevent email spoofing. Called SafePost , he said it uses a blockchain to confirm emailers are sending from a verified address. So how did he, of all people, get hoodwinked? Eisenstein noticed his scammer (posing as CoinDesk’s Ian Allison) had a strong-looking LinkedIn profile, another tool scammers use to fool victims. “I told myself, ‘Okay, let’s imagine you have just 10 contacts on your Linkedin the page. I can imagine this is a fake’,” he said. “But in this case I saw more than 500.” In another case we saw, the scammers created a real-looking LinkedIn profile for a CoinDesk writer and then immediately deleted it after the victim checked him out, erasing the evidence. Almost all the scammers are stuck in the digital realm, although one sent a faked passport for CoinDesk Executive Editor Marc Hochstein, complete with a date of birth that made him seem older than he is. The constant know-your-customer (KYC) information requests of many exchanges seem to have trained scammers to forge official-looking documents. All these tricks are often enough to fool busy entrepreneurs who will happily send payment in exchange for coverage. Then the whole thing unravels. Once the scammers receive payment, said Pawel Kuskowski, CEO of Coinfirm, they usually transfer it to an exchange where they could, in theory, be tracked but in reality, rarely are. That’s where the trail ends because they never reply to the victim again. “Working with CoinDesk to highlight these cases shines a light on how industry players need to further work with security platforms so they don’t facilitate these scams,” said Kuskowski. The breakdown To understand more about the scammers and where they were sending their ill-gotten gains, we worked with Coinfirm to trace payments made by two victims who contacted us only after falling for our impersonators. First, we traced more than $2,000 worth of bitcoin (BTC) that one entrepreneur sent to a scammer in exchange for a post. The scammer asked the victim to send the 0.23 BTC to an address he controlled, 19BkZZKsQPv14QAP2MJr8fNdwBBTRQxHvT . The victim paid on March 4 and within hours the scammer sent the funds to another address he may also have controlled, 1GJDn7MezDZjvt8ECD6yDYxPdYPjLDNqai . The chain of transactions suggests the scammer has a verified account on Paxful. For one thing, the second address received a number of deposits from addresses Coinfirm identifies as belonging to Paxful based on regular patterns, or clusters, of transactions. And if we zoom out the lens, we see that on March 9, five days after ripping off our known victim, the scammer’s wallet received 0.37 BTC from another party , and deposited it straight into Paxful: Coinfirm researched another victim’s transaction and was able to track its path through the Ethereum blockchain. In this case, the scammer, the Hochstein impersonator with the forged passport, received $150 in USDC , a stablecoin that trades 1-for-1 with the U.S. dollar, from the victim. The victim’s wallet is in dark blue in this chart. About $35 went to 0xa356acd1e8cd97a33a65ab7845c7f21b8921b276 (the yellow wallet in the middle in the chart) and then sent to a wallet allegedly connected to lending platform BlockFi. For simplicity’s sake, these wallets do not include the standard Ethereum address header “0x” in the chart. The other $115 went to 0x87a1865e3ae422385b7d1beb66ad43b2e847f7f6 (green wallet in the middle of the chart ) and then went to a wallet that appears to be affiliated with crypto exchange NEXO. “Although the dollar amount itself isn’t substantial in this particular case, these methods are applied on a wide scale and have affected countless people as well as exposed companies to money laundering risks,” said Kuskowski. The ironic aftermath CoinDesk is in contact with representatives from Paxful and BlockFi and the companies are investigating the fraud and may be able to recover the funds. Teodora Atanasova, who does business development at NEXO, said the company is “extremely diligent in tracking down fake accounts, Telegram groups and all kinds of fraudulent activity and I have personally been dealing with a lot of scammers and impersonators lately as they seem to have gotten even more active in the current situation amid the market turmoil.” Indeed, a funny thing happened when I approached the company in a public Telegram group. Two users reached out to me, each identifying himself as Beyhan Ahmed , a community manager at NEXO. One of them was the real Beyhan, whose Telegram handle is @BeyhanNEXO. He put me in touch with Atanasova. The other one went by @BehanNexo, conspicuously missing the “y” in his handle. To hear him tell it, he was very high up in the organization. “I am Mr Beyhan, the officiating officer for nexo and head of marketing team,” he wrote. “You request for me, that’s why I have contacted you.” This obviously fake Beyhan offered me a “license” to write a story about NEXO and the opportunity to post my story on … the company’s website, I guess? The details weren’t exactly clear, but I strung him along for kicks, as one might do with a dodgy telemarketer . The discussion went back and forth for a few minutes and, as expected, my “officiating officer” needed a little cash to get the job done. For the record, I never sent him the money. Sadly, there is no sure-fire way to prevent these kinds of scams. Double- and triple-checking backgrounds is often insufficient and, given the ease with which scammers more sophisticated than “Behan” can recreate identities, due diligence is almost impossible. That said, respectable news organizations would never ask for cash in exchange for coverage, be it CoinDesk or the New York Times. Scammers are out there preying on the distracted and frustrated. Our hope is you don’t become one of their victims. As for my would-be scammer, he disappeared and deleted our conversation when I sent him a link to my “transaction” featuring a lurid picture from Wikipedia. We are currently tracing his bitcoin address, which seems to be empty. Last week another “NEXO representative” approached me on Telegram offering support. I blocked him. Related Stories AT&T Files for Dismissal in $24M Phone Hack Case, Claims Crypto Exec Didn’t Read Terms Thousands of Microsoft Servers Infected by Crypto-Mining Botnet Since 2018, Says Report || Venture production studio Thesis closes a $7.7 million funding round as it prepares for tBTC’s launch in April: Thesis, the team behind the Keep protocol, has secured $7.7 million in a fresh funding round led by Paradigm Capital, with participation from firms including Fenbushi Capital and Collaborative Funds. The venture production studio is preparing to launch its tBTC product on April 27. Thesis has been working with cross-chain financial service provider Summa to develop the tBTC protocol, which will be the first major app on the Keep network. As The Block previously explained , tBTC is an ERC-20 token fully collateralized by bitcoin and redeemable at any time. Users looking to spend their bitcoin on Ethereum can simply deposit their bitcoin into a threshold signature contact. After the signing group sends a proof of deposit to the Ethereum chain, a tBTC token will be minted and sent to the bitcoin holder’s Ethereum wallet. "Decentralized financial applications on Ethereum have seen clear demand," said Paradigm co-founder Fred Ehrsam said in a statement. "Bitcoin is the world's largest cryptocurrency. Building a bridge that allows Bitcoin to interact with DeFi makes a lot of sense, and tBTC is a credible attempt to do exactly that." There have been a number of Ethereum-based tokens pegged to Bitcoin, including Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), ImToken’s imBTC, and Synthetix’ sBTC. tBTC’s differentiator lies in its redemption feature, which is something that projects like WBTC still lack even until today. According to Thesis CEO Matt Luongo, the team plans to integrate with lending platforms like Compound shortly after launch. However, Compound CEO Robert Leshner previously told The Block that low liquidity could potentially prevent the token from becoming a collateral option in the near future. || Stablecoins Are Evolving to Make Crypto Assets Irresistible to Wall Street Investors: 2020 U.S. presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg has published a financial reform plan that among other things advocates for a stronger financial system. Part of the proposed reform also recommends the creation of a regulatory sandbox for startups and "providing a clear regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies." Wall Street still regards the cryptocurrency industry with a cautious degree of skepticism, but stablecoins are increasingly providing a clearer path to the mass-market adoption of the new asset class. Stablecoins have risen in popularity to become a major source of liquidity in the cryptocurrency market. They provide an on-ramp to enter the crypto markets and an off-ramp to exit the cryptocurrency market. The rising popularity of stablecoins is a function of their inherent stability relative to other types of cryptocurrencies. This piece discusses how stablecoins are free from the historical volatility of cryptocurrencies and how they are evolving to offer different types of on-and off-ramp opportunities that will make cryptocurrencies more attractive on Wall Street. Wall Street is already testing the crypto waters Even though Wall Street is yet to be fully onboard the cryptocurrency train, several equities, ETFs, and traditional instruments provide some level of exposure to the industry. For instance, Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) both have significant exposure to the crypto market because of the use of their graphics processors in crypto mining operations. In the year-to-date period, both Nvidia, and Advanced Micro Systems have delivered 23% as seen in the chart below. Other stocks such as Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust(GBTC)provides a more direct level of exposure to the crypto industry as a publicly-traded Bitcoin fund. Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSTK) is one of the first traditional companies to adopt crypto payments and it currently keeps about 50% of its crypto payments, which ties its fate to the success or failure of the crypto market. In the year-to-date period, both Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and Overstock have delivered 56% and 25% gains respectively. When compared to the rest of the US market in the year-to-date period, Wall Street assets with exposure to the cryptocurrency market have delivered double-digit gains. In contrast, the S&P 500, NASDAQ Composite, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average have only managed to deliver single-digit gains in the same period. The rising popularity of stablecoins across different market segments Tether USDTis unarguably the biggest stablecoin in the market – it has been enjoying a first-mover advantage since its launch in 2015. It has more than 80% of the market share for stable coins and it has managed to maintain parity with the USD despite the recurrent panic episodes that accompany significant drops in the price of Bitcoin. In 2019, the supply of USDT was increased from 2 billion tokens to 4.108 billion tokens to account for growing adoption. More so, the token was moved from the Omni-layer to the Ethereum network to facilitate the faster and cheaper transfer of value. Interestingly, a Chainalysis report shows that “for Chinese exchange users, Tether has replaced the yuan as the go-to fiat currency” as data from exchanges showed that almost all fiat-crypto trades in Mainland China was between Yuan and USDT. Dollar Neutrino USDNis an algorithmically stable USD-pegged asset that is collateralized with the WAVES blockchain platform. Waves is rapidly driving the adoption of DeFi products and they are gradually becoming a leader in the industry. In addition to providing stability, USDN provides token holders with additional revenue streams through staking in much the same way that traditional dividend stocks provide returns. Launched barely one month ago on January 28, 2020, the token now has more than $3.2 million staked as it delivers a staking reward of about 8.9% per annum. Whereas other stablecoins merely provide entry and exit into the crypto market, USDN also allows holders to stake their tokens for additional returns. Hence, when traders exit their crypto holdings into stablecoins to avoid the inherent volatility of the crypto market, USDN provides an opportunity to stake their funds and earn staking rewards until they are comfortable enough to return to the active trading of cryptocurrencies. In 2018, Coinbase and Circle created the CENTRE Consortium which in turn created theUSD Coin USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the USD. Interestingly, while the use case of the original USDT is limited to the crypto industry and USDN allows people to earn low-risk rewards on cryptocurrencies, the USDC is serving as a measure of value in the brick and mortar world. The USDC is gradually building a reputation as a stablecoin accepted by the government of a sovereign nation for the payment of taxes. Last year, Circle released a statement on how Bermuda became the first government to accept payments for taxes, fees and other government services using USD Coin (USDC). In less than two years, the market cap of USDC has grown to more than $430M and more than $700 million worth of the token are traded each day. Summary Cryptocurrencies are here to stay and stablecoins have an important role to play in driving the mass-market adoption of the new asset class. In 2019, JPMorgan revealed its plan to build a stablecoin,JPMCoin, and Facebook led a consortium of tech and payments companies to launch Libra. Going forward, the differentiation of stablecoins- USDT for facilitating crypto trades, USDN for facilitating low-risk crypto investments, and USDC for facilitating localized payments, among others, suggests that are different opportunities for Wall Street to leverage cryptocurrencies without being unnecessarily exposed to the volatility. Disclosure: None. || New Twitter Investor May Remove Bitcoin Advocate Jack Dorsey as CEO: Elliott Management Corp. – an activist investor owned by billionaire Paul Singer – has plans to shake up the management at Twitter. Asreported by Bloombergon Saturday, Elliott has taken a large stake in the social media messaging platform and, according to “people familiar with the matter,” has plans to remove Jack Dorsey as chief executive. The hedge fund has already nominated four directors to Twitter’s board, the sources said. Related:Bitcoin Drove Half of Square’s Cash App Revenue in the 4th Quarter Dorsey is also the chief of payments firm Square and has become a darling of the crypto community for his advocacy ofbitcoin(BTC). He recentlyintegrated a featureon Twitter that would display an icon for cryptocurrency if the #bitcoin tag was posted. Dorsey has also set up a dedicated unit within Square to work on helping advance bitcoin’s technology. Square’s Cash App offers bitcoin services, which providedalmost half its revenuein Q4 2019. In his time as Twitter’s commander-in-chief, though, he’s seen criticism over his management style, with the platform failing in some people’s eyes to be sufficiently innovative and focusing instead on its core messaging service. Since Dorsey returned to lead Twitter in mid-2015, the firm’s stock have dropped 6.2 percent. Facebook’s, on the other hand, have risen more than 121 percent over the same period, as per the report. Related:Retail Investors Aren’t Interested in Crypto Derivatives, Says eToro Executive Bloomberg’s sources suggested that, with three board places to become available at the firm’s next annual meeting, Elliott wanted to be sure to nominate enough candidates to fill the openings. The investment firm has been in private talks with Twitter about its concerns, Bloomberg said. • Jack Dorsey Enables Bitcoin Emoji on Twitter Posts • Court Documents Reveal More Possible Investors in Telegram’s $1.7B ICO || Latest Ripple price and analysis (XRP to USD): Ripple’s controversial XRP token is currently trading above the $0.14791 level of support after bouncing by 15% from its $0.12876 low. The relief rally comes after a troubling month for XRP with it losing more than 56% of its value since February 15. The sell-off has been reflected across all cryptocurrency trading pairs, with the likes of Bitcoin also suffering a 50% correction. XRP is occupying uncharted territory at the moment with it not trading this low since before the 2017 bull market. It needs to continue trading above $0.13, at the very least, in order to avoid a further plunge below the psychological level of support at $0.10. From a bullish perspective it needs to rally back above the $0.1691 level of resistance before taking a stab at the $0.20 level, although a spike in volume is required for a hike of that magnitude to come into fruition. Despite suffering a major sell-off XRP remains the third largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $6.5 billion with daily trade volume regularly exceeding $2.5 billion. Much of the upcoming XRP price action will depend on the trajectory of Bitcoin leading up to May’s halving, which has historically been a bullish even for cryptocurrencies. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . Latest Ripple price Current live Ripple pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Ripple price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: US Dollar – XRPtoUSD British Pound Sterling – XRPtoGBP Japanese Yen – XRPtoJPY Euro – XRPtoEUR Australian Dollar – XRPtoAUD Russian Rouble – XRPtoRUB Bitcoin – XRPtoBTC About Ripple (XRP) Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system (RTGS) developed by the Ripple company. It is also referred to as the Ripple Transaction Protocol (RTXP) or Ripple protocol. It can trace its roots to 2004 when a web developer called Ryan Fugger had the idea to create a monetary system that was decentralised and could effectively allow individuals to create their own money. Story continues Ripple is one of the largest cryptocurrencies and is one of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation. More Ripple news and information If you want to find out more information about Ripple or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Here’s a recent article to get you started: https://coinrivet.com/ripple-ceo-brad-garlinghouse-hits-back-at-critics-xrp-is-not-a-security/ As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. || Exchange Technology Developer AlphaPoint Raises $5.6M in Latest Funding Round: Exchange software provider AlphaPoint has secured funding it says will finance the development of sophisticated trading features. The New York-based firm said Thursday it successfully raised $5.6 million in an additional funding round, taking its total capital raised to date to $23.9 million. Established in 2013, AlphaPoint provides trading software used by over 150 exchange clients around the world, according to the firm’s figures. The companyadded support forsecurity token offerings (STOs) a year ago andmargin trading featuresin November. Related:That AlphaPoint $5.6M Funding Round? It’s a Band-Aid The latest investment will go towards developing new trading features including improved margin trading and liquidity solutions and advanced brokerage capabilities. AlphaPoint co-founder and Chief Executive Igor Telyatnikov commented that with the additional funding the firm could “continue delivering on our mission to enable access to digital assets globally.” AlphaPointraised$15 million in its first major funding round in June 2018, with assistance from crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital. An AlphaPoint spokesperson confirmed to CoinDesk that Galaxy had participated in this latest round, but that other investors had opted to not disclose their identities. In other news from the firm, the chief executive of financial advisory firm Janney Montgomery Scott, Tim Scheve, has joined AlphaPoint’s board of governors. Scheve is also a member of the board of governors at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the body responsible for regulating U.S. brokerage firms. UPDATE (Mar. 6, 15:05 UTC):This article has been updated with additional information about the investors who participated in the raise. • Crypto Exchange OKCoin Appoints New CEO to Drive US Expansion • India’s Central Bank Plans to Fight Supreme Court Crypto Ruling • How the Bitcoin Market Changed Since 2017’s Bull Run [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: no change || Prices: 7302.09, 6865.49, 6859.08, 6971.09, 6845.04, 6842.43, 6642.11, 7116.80, 7096.18, 7257.67