Day: December 21, 2017

As the market is seemingly rather bearish on Bitcoin, it is not surprising to see alternative cryptocurrencies make a big impact. Bitcoin Gold, the hard fork few people seemingly cared about two weeks ago, has now seen an intriguing value increase. More specifically, the Bitcoin Gold price has risen all the way to $484. An interesting development, although it remains to be seen if this hard fork will ever gain any major traction other than for speculative purposes.

Bitcoin Gold Price Surpasses $440

When the Bitcoin Gold futures markets were opened to the public, it seemed this altcoin would easily surpass a value of $450. When the actual coins became available, the altcoin was off to a good start, although it quickly became evident there would be a fair amount of sell pressure to contend with. This became even more apparent when the Bitcoin Gold price immediately plunged and struggled to remain above $200 for a few days.

Slowly but surely, things have turned in favor of the Bitcoin Gold price once again. Even this past week, we have seen some remarkable price stability at the $300 mark before the Bitcoin Gold price started making some big waves. In the last 24 hours, the Bitcoin Gold price successfully surpassed $350,m $400, and even $450 in quick succession. Finding stability after such major gains is a different matter altogether.

More specifically, the Bitcoin Gold price is now trying to remain stable at $440, but that will be quite challenging. A lot of people took profits once the value hit $450, which is only to be expected. Minor dips can often trigger a shockwave of sell-offs in the cryptocurrency world, and it is doubtful Bitcoin Gold will be immune to such developments.  This doesn’t mean there isn’t any upside potential for the Bitcoin Gold price, though, as reaching $500 is still possible.

With $490.8m in 24-hour trading volume, there appears to be a genuine demand for BTG. Although people can almost invest in anything at random and expect a profit right now, it is evident the recent Bitcoin hard forks still attract a lot of positive attention from investors. Especially with the Bitcoin network struggling quite a bit, it is evident alternative solutions which solve most of these issues will be in high demand.

It is mainly thanks to the Bithumb trading volume we see such a spike in the Bitcoin Gold price right now. With $290m in volume and a price of $483.77, Bithumb is trading well above the market average. At the same time, we see Coinone value BTG at $794.99 right now. It is evident this skews the actual value of BTG quite a bit, although most holders will be pretty happy with how things are progressing right now. Fiat currency gateways are vital for any cryptocurrency these days.

How all of this will play out for the Bitcoin Gold price in the coming days, remains a bit unclear. There’s certainly a good amount of trading volume, but the Western exchanges trade it well below the average on Coinmarketcap. This situation has affected most altcoins right now, which is not necessarily a positive trend. One could argue Western traders simply don’t want to make good money, but that would be overstating things.

Bitcoin regulation has never been a popular topic whatsoever. Many people still see regulation as a negative development for the cryptocurrency ecosystem as a whole. At the same time, it also provides some legal recognition, which shouldn’t be dismissed too easily either. The Philippine central bank is looking to introduce some official regulation for Bitcoin. It will be interesting to see what they can come up with in this regard.

Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas has kept close tabs on Bitcoin’s progress. More specifically, their plan has always been to introduce some form of regulation at some point. Until now, those efforts were never fully realized. That will come to change thanks to the help of local regulators. New standards will be created for digital assets and cryptocurrencies alike. It is a big step forward, although it remains to be seen if any negative repercussions will come of it.

Philippine Central Bank is Open-Minded

More specifically, the Deputy Governor of the central bank has been working with the SEC regarding ICO regulation. Moreover, there have been active talks with the US entity regarding licenses for service providers. Regulating Bitcoin seems to be the next logical step in this regard. For now, the focus is mainly on exchanges, which is only to be expected. It is also the only aspect of cryptocurrency anyone can regulate right now.

Moreover, it seems there won’t be any negative repercussions for crypto-to-crypto exchanging anytime soon. Instead, the Philippine central bank aims to regulate virtual currencies being converted to fiat currency. That makes a lot of sense, as anything else is well outside of anyone’s jurisdiction. A few million dollars worth of Bitcoin is traded in the Philippines every single day. Without any official guidelines, it could become problematic in the country. Around a dozen exchanges are applying for approval, which is a good sign.

How all of this will play out, remains to be seen. The overall sentiment is how the Philippine central bank will legalize Bitcoin in some way. Whether or not that plan is still on the table, remains anyone’s guess right now. The open-minded approach toward both cryptocurrencies and ICOs is well worth taking note of, though. The Philippine central bank is bound to set a precedent in one way or another. For now, there is no official guideline as to when we can expect any further news regarding this topic.

The post Philippine Central Bank may Decide to Regulate Bitcoin After all appeared first on NEWSBTC.

The price of Ripple’s XRP token has passed a dollar for the first time in its history, thanks to a boost from Asian traders.

Tether, a startup that provides a dollar-pegged token, has said it plans to launch a new platform following a claimed security breach in November.

Although the opinions on Ripple and their XRP asset may still be somewhat divided right now, it is evident this particular project is doing something right. Over the past few weeks, we have seen the XRP price rise to $0.70 and last night to more than $1. No one expects to see the XRP price hit such highs this year, but it is evident no project should be ignored in the world of cryptocurrency and digital assets.

XRP Price is Setting new Records

As the year 2017 is almost coming to a close, we will see some more fireworks in the cryptocurrency industry moving forward. Whereas the Bitcoin price is no longer breaking records right now, most altcoins are appreciating in value over the past few weeks. One of those altcoins – even though it is not a cryptocurrency –  is Ripple’s XRP. More specifically, the XRP price has increased all the way from $0.25 a few months ago to just over $1 last night.

While some industry experts had expected the XRP price to rise to $2 in 2018 or later, very few people thought $1 was possible. Especially when considering how the XRP price has hovered near the $0.006 mark until March of this year. It has been an extremely bullish year for XRP holders, even though many people still dismiss this asset as a bankers’ coin. That may very well be true, but it doesn’t make Ripple’s asset any less valuable compared to normal cryptocurrencies.

Over the past 24 hours, we have seen the XRP price rise from $0.725 all the way to $1.02 without too much opposition. Granted, there has been some profit taking at the $0.85, $0.92, and $0.95 levels, but nothing has been able to keep the XRP price down for more than a few minutes. Whether or not XRP can maintain this momentum above the $1 threshold, is very difficult to predict right now. Anything is possible in the world of cryptocurrency, even with Bitcoin falling short pretty much every day.

Thanks to a strong trading volume of over $2.3bn, the demand for XRP has certainly been solidified. Looking at the charts, it seems more and more people are interested in buying XRP compared to selling it, which means there may be even more bullish momentum yet to come. The lockup of 55bn XRP by the Ripple team has done wonders for the value of this digital asset, that much is rather evident.

Unsurprisingly, Bithumb is the primary catalyst for this XRP price change. In South Korea, XRP is valued at $1.17, which means the rest of the world still has plenty of catching up to do in the coming hours. Whether or not we will see any western exchanges reach the $1 price for XRP later today, remains to be seen. Right now, none of them are even close to doing so, as the highest value is recorded on Bitfinex at $0.94. This will be a pretty interesting situation to keep an eye on moving forward, to say the very least.

All things considered, it seems the best is yet to come for all cryptocurrencies in 2017. While the Bitcoin momentum has seemingly run out, the altcoins and digital assets which effectively bring something useful to the table are surging in value. Bitcoin Cash has had a good run, the XRP price is moving up, and Monero set a new all-time high yesterday as well. This is not the last big run we will see in the cryptocurrency world this year, although it is evident Bitcoin may not be the currency to watch in this regard.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney has said that bitcoin’s meteoric price gains do not pose a threat to global financial stability.

We know OpenBazaar will integrate support for a few different altcoins. Both Bitcoin Cash and ZCash are in the testing phase already, which is good news. Moreover, it seems Litecoin integration is also on the agenda. That is a good thing, as Bitcoin remains a far too expensive payment method right now. Come January 2018, things will get very interesting for OpenBazaar, by the look of things.

No one can deny good things are happening for OpenBazaar. This peer-to-peer marketplace solution has been well-received by the cryptocurrency community. However, this solution has always been hindered by only supporting Bitcoin. Although it is still the world’s leading cryptocurrency, it also has a lot of problems right now. Slow transactions, network congestion, and high fees are just some of the issues. Not an ideal situation by any means.

Litecoin may Come to OpenBazaar Soon

As a result, it makes a lot of sense for protocols such as OpenBazaar to support alternative currencies. Bitcoin Cash will certainly play a big role in this regard. This alternative version of Bitcoin has seen some major success in recent weeks. Its price has also soared to a new all-time high not that long ago. It is unclear how all of this will play out in the long run, though. For now, supporting BCH makes a lot of sense.

Additionally, we also see ZCash integration. A coin with optional privacy and some questionable development decisions is an interesting addition, for sure. Whether or not anyone will ever spend ZEC on OpenBazaar, remains highly doubtful at this point. There are a few different coins which could provide more privacy and would generate more transaction volume as well. An interesting decision by the protocol developers, but it may not yield any significant results.

Last but not least, the team is working on Litecoin integration as well. That in itself is pretty interesting. It is true Litecoin has had a good year throughout 2017. It would make a lot of sense to use this payment method on a decentralized peer-to-peer platform. For now, the Litecoin implementation is still in the exploration phase and actual testing has yet to begin. We can only hope to see a few more prominent altcoins get added to this platform in Q1 2018.

The post Bitcoin Cash and ZCash Are Coming to OpenBazaar in Early January, Litecoin to Follow Soon appeared first on NEWSBTC.

The gift that keeps giving? Give the ‘nocoiner’ in your family a crypto-gift this holiday season. They’ll probably thank you next Christmas. #ADOPTION