Day: October 21, 2017

An increasing Bitcoin price is often pretty bad news for altcoins. Even the top alternative currencies are struggling right now while Bitcoin keeps marching on. The Ethereum price, which was above $300 not too long ago, is now starting to slip pretty badly. With losses in both USD and BTC value, things aren’t looking all that great. Regaining the $300 support will be incredibly challenging.

Ethereum Price is Slipping Quickly

No one is surprised to see most alternative cryptocurrencies lose value against Bitcoin right now. After all, that is the normal outcome whenever the Bitcoin price is surging. Especially with Bitcoin’s new all-time high in place as we speak, the Ethereum price is taking a bit of a beating as we speak. Although the value still hovers near $296 for the time being, it remains to be seen if this price point can be maintained for much longer. Altcoins are literally bleeding value left, right, and center right now.

This also means the Ethereum price is losing steam in both the USD and BTC markets at the same time. Earlier this week, one Ether was worth over $345, but it quickly lost $50 over the past few days. The lowest point for this week was $291.59, which was reached before the Bitcoin price started moving up so spectacularly. At this rate, it is expected the Ethereum price will head well below this level and may even hit $285 or slightly less in the coming hours.

Whether or not things will ever hit that level, remains to be seen. No one can deny the Ethereum price has lost almost 3$ in USD value over the past 24 hours, but things will not end there by the look of things. The bigger concern is how the Ethereum price has lost over 10% in value against Bitcoin itself. While declines against Bitcoin are not uncommon in the world of altcoins these days, 10% is quite a spectacular drop for the world’s second largest cryptocurrency.

Additionally, the Ethereum trading volume isn’t looking all that hot either right now. With $442.5m worth of trading volume, Ethereum isn’t doing bad, but it’s not great either. This means the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap has one-sixth of Bitcoin’s trading volume right now. This would certainly explain by the Bitcoin Dominance Index is back at nearly 60%, compared to 43% not too long ago.

Not surprisingly, Poloniex is the largest exchange by trading volume for Ethereum right now. They are followed by Bitfinex and GDAX in this regard. With the ETH/BTC market being the largest in the world right now, it is evident there are plenty of people selling Ethereum in favor of Bitcoin. This course of action is set to reverse sooner or later, though, as most people know it is impossible to keep the Ethereum price below $300 for very long.

The bigger question is how long this momentum will last overall. Right now, it is evident Bitcoin is far form done, as a new all-time high is being set virtually every few hours. At the same time, the Ethereum price continues to go down accordingly, especially in BTC value. Cryptocurrency markets are never dull, although a lot of people would have liked to see things head in the other direction for the Ethereum price as we speak. An interesting future looms ahead, although most altcoins will continue to bleed for some time to come.

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As the work on Russia’s national cryptocurrency is underway, the city of Moscow is discussing issuing its own cryptocurrency, the Moscowcoin. This will be possible after the legal framework of cryptocurrencies is established for the whole federation, city officials explained.

Also read: Putin Orders the Issue of Russia’s National Cryptocurrency – the Cryptoruble

Moscowcoin Discussion

The head of the Moscow department of economic policy and development, Vladimir Efimov, confirmed to reporters on Thursday that the issue of the city’s own cryptocurrency, the Moscowcoin, is being discussed. “The Moscow government plans to create its own cryptocurrency,” RNS reported and quoted Efimov admitting “we are thinking about this topic.” Noting that “the discussion has not been completed yet,” he further elaborated:

Before implementing such technologies in the city, you need an understanding of how this will be resolved at the federal level…When there is a clear understanding of what can and cannot be done, where it is possible [to use] and where it is impossible, we, of course, will adapt to this.

Possible Use

According to Efimov, the Moscow city government is investigating the implementation of the technology in the city’s resident-facing web portals and services. “We are discussing the implementation of blockchain technology on the basis of the city’s metropolitan services,” he detailed. “We have a whole range of different portals and various forms of interaction with citizens, and now we are actively working out the question of how to implement this technology,” he described.

However, Efimov did reveal one detail about the likely scope of Moscowcoin. He told Tass:

As an option, Moscowcoin can be used by residents of the city on the ‘Active citizen’ portal.

Active Citizen is a project by the Moscow government in 2014 “as a venue for holding open referendums in electronic form,” its website states. The platform currently has 1,310,191 users, has conducted 1,667 votes and generated more than 47 million views. The Active Citizen app is available for iOS, Windows, and Android smartphones. It has over 46,000 downloads in the Google Play store.

Each week, the city mayor and the government of Moscow engage active citizens to discuss important issues related to the city, from transport and landscaping to health and education. By participating, users can earn “points” which can be exchanged for city services such as paying for parking, city excursion programs and tickets to theatres and museums.

Using this portal as a testbed, Efimov said “when we talk about the cryptocurrency, it means wider circulation, rather than narrowly focused. The prototype already exists – everyone has points, some loyalty cards. It’s just a matter of where and how you can use it.”

Previous Talks of Moscowcoin

This is not the first discussion of the Moscowcoin cryptocurrency. At the end of August, state-owned Vnesheconombank (VEB) Chairman Sergei Gorkov mentioned the idea. In an open conversation with the founder of the Ethereum platform, Vitalik Buterin, he said that “in the future, Moscow might start issuing its own cryptocurrency,” RNS reported at the time.

However, Moscow authorities immediately responded to his suggestion, stating that the city “will not be able to issue its own cryptocurrency.” They cited that the federal government is in charge of issuing money, the press service of the city’s finance department told the publication. According to the representative of the department, “the subjects of the Russian Federation do not have such powers. Monetary emission under Art. 71 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation is under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation.”

Nonetheless, the idea did not subside. In early September, Deputy Mayor of Moscow on economic policy and property-land relations, Natalia Sergunina, in the press conference for the Moscow financial forum also mentioned the possibility of creating Moscowcoin, Tass reported at the time.

Then on Thursday, Efimov explained:

Use [of Moscowcoin] will be possible only after the legislative and legal framework at the federal level is formulated.

Last week, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and top regulators decided that cryptocurrencies will be regulated in Russia, and the national cryptocurrency called the “cryptoruble” will be created. The finance ministry and the central bank are now working together to draft a bill to provide a basic legal framework for cryptocurrencies.

What do you think of Moscowcoin? Do you think Moscow will successfully issue its own cryptocurrency? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Tass, Moscow Investment Portal, and Kremlin’s website.

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Good things are happening to the Bitcoin price as we speak. Sometimes, it feels good to be wrong with one’s expectations, especially when things turn out a lot better compared to what we had originally assumed. The Bitcoin price, more specifically,  has seen some major growth last night, which took a lot of people by surprise. With the Bitcoin price finally above $6,000, the new all-time high is certainly making a lot of people very happy so far.

Bitcoin Price Reaches new All-time High

It is always good to see the Bitcoin price go up in value, especially when one least expects it. More specifically, things were looking pretty bleak for the Bitcoin price just yesterday, after nearly 24 hours of sideways trading momentum. Then again, sideways momentum often results in a major price change, and in the case of the Bitcoin price, the eventual momentum pushed BTC to a new all-time high in quick succession.

More specifically, it is the first time in history we witness a Bitcoin price of $6,091. This is a value most people wouldn’t have associated with the world’s leading cryptocurrency just a few months ago. Although the year 2017 has been extremely bullish for Bitcoin when looking at the bigger picture. Things could have easily reversed course. At one point, the price almost did revert, thanks to a major correction pushing the price down a few months ago.

Ever since that time, however, the momentum was headed in the right direction again. This trend is also clearly visible on the price charts. Around September 8th, we saw the Bitcoin price hover around the $3,000 level.Just over a month later, the value spiked to over $6,000. It is remarkable how things can change in this regard. It is also important to note how Bitcoin is still a very niche market for the time being.

Thankfully, we see some very strong trading volume for Bitcoin over the past 24 hours. More specially, over $2.661bn worth of Bitcoin has changed hands over the past 24 hours. For a trading period spanning both Friday and Saturday, that number is a lot higher compared to what most people would expect to see. A more than pleasant surprise, to say the very least, although it shows the upward Bitcoin price momentum may not be fully over whatsoever.

Things are also heating up in the world of Bitcoin exchanges right now. More specifically, Bitfinex is still clearly dominating the market in terms of trading volume. Bithumb is still in second place, with bitFlyer completing the top three. GDAX and Bitstamp also generate over $1200m in volume right now, which is pretty impressive overall. It doesn’t happen all that often we see five exchanges generated over 100 million in trading volume, which is pretty remarkable. All five exchanges are on this list due to their fiat currency pairs.

More importantly, we now have a Bitcoin market cap of over $101bn for the first time as well. The Bitcoin bull run throughout 2017 is exceptional, to say the very least. It will be interesting to see how things will play out in the next few days and weeks, though. More specifically, this massive spike will be met with some resistance and profit taking along the way. Things look very promising for the Bitcoin price right now, but one never knows what the future will bring whatsoever.

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