Day: January 6, 2018

Venezuelan president Maduro has ordered the issuance of the first 100 mln Petros, the national cryptocurrency, with each Petro worth a barrel of oil.

Key Points

• Bitcoin gold price is moving nicely and is forming support around the $210 level against the US Dollar.
• There is a major bearish trend line forming with current resistance at $270 on the 4-hours chart of BTG/USD (data feed from Bitfinex).
• The pair has to move above the $270 and $290 resistance levels to move back in the bullish zone.

Bitcoin gold price is slowly gaining pace above $220 against the US Dollar. BTG/USD must clear the $270 and $290 hurdles to gain traction.

Bitcoin Gold Price Support

There was a sharp downside move in bitcoin gold price from the $420 high to $192 low against the US Dollar. Later, the price formed a decent support base and moved above $200. It has formed a good base above the $200 level and is currently trading in a range above $200-220. It recently succeeded in breaking the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last drop from the $420 high to $192 low.

However, there are two important resistance forming on the upside at $270 and $290. Both acted as a major barriers for more gains. Moreover, there is a major bearish trend line forming with current resistance at $270 on the 4-hours chart of BTG/USD. The trend line resistance is above the 100 simple moving average. The current price action is positive above $240. Therefore, there is a chance that BTG could move above $270. However, the $290 resistance is the next barrier along with the 50% Fib retracement level of the last drop from the $420 high to $192 low.

A proper close above the $300 level is required for buyers to gain momentum. As long as the price is below the $300 level, there can be more ranging moves between $220-290.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for BTG/USD is slightly in the bullish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BTG/USD is moving higher toward the 70 level.

Major Support Level – $220

Major Resistance Level – $290

Charts courtesy – Trading View, Bitfinex

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Key Highlights

• ETH price is moving nicely above the $1,000 level and it heading higher against the US Dollar.
• There are two major bullish trend lines forming with support at $990 and $770 on the 4-hours chart of ETH/USD (data feed via SimpleFX).
• The pair might continue to move higher and the next target for buyers is around $1105.

Ethereum price is making a nice move against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. ETH/USD is likely to accelerate higher and it could test the $1105 level.

Ethereum Price Uptrend

There were nasty gains in ETH price this past week as it moved above the $900 and $1000 resistance levels against the US Dollar. There were a couple of swing moves from the $1000 level, but at the last, the price was able to settle above $1000. At the moment, the price is trading nicely above the $1000 level. The best part is the fact that the price has breached the 1.236 extension of the last drop from the $864 high to $475 low.

It has opened the doors for more gains above $1000. On the downside, there are two major bullish trend lines forming with support at $990 and $770 on the 4-hours chart of ETH/USD. The first trend line is the current trend support around $1000. However, the second one is more important around the $770 level since it is close to the 100 simple moving average. The current price action is positive and it seems like more gains are possible above $1000.

The next target could be the 1.618 extension of the last drop from the $864 high to $475 low near $1105. Above $1105, there could be limited gains before there is a correction back toward $1000 or $920.

4-hours MACD – The MACD is solidly placed in the bullish zone.

4-hours RSI – The RSI is moving higher in the overbought levels.

Major Support Level – $990

Major Resistance Level – $1105

Charts courtesy – SimpleFX

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Key Points

• Bitcoin cash price is struggling to move above the $2600 and $2700 resistance levels against the US Dollar.
• There is a crucial bearish trend line forming with resistance at $2600 on the 4-hours chart of BCH/USD (data feed from Kraken).
• The pair has to move above the $2600 and $2700 levels to gain traction in the near term.

Bitcoin cash price is finding bids above the $2200 level against the US Dollar. BCH/USD must close above $2700 to move back in the bullish zone.

Bitcoin Cash Price Upside Hurdle

After a sharp downside move toward $2000, bitcoin cash price found support against the US Dollar. The price started a recovery and managed to settle above $2200. There were a couple of upside attempts, but it struggled to move above $2800 and then at $2700. It seems like there is a crucial bearish trend line forming with resistance at $2600 on the 4-hours chart of BCH/USD.

The mentioned trend line is acting as a major upside hurdle and prevented gains above $2700. The trend line at $2600-2700 is also around the 100 simple moving average on the same chart. Therefore, a break above $2700 and the 100 SMA won’t be easy. The pair is currently above the 50% Fib retracement level of the last drop from the $2880 high to $2281 low.

However, it has to move above $2700 and the 61.8% Fib retracement level of the last drop from the $2880 high to $2281 low to gain upside momentum. Once there is a close above the $2700 resistance and the 100 SMA, the price could accelerate toward $3000 and then $3200. On the downside, the $2200 and $2000 levels are important supports.

Looking at the technical indicators:

4-hours MACD – The MACD for BCH/USD is mostly flat and is showing signs of a range.

4-hours RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BTC/USD is currently above the 50 level.

Major Support Level – $2200

Major Resistance Level – $2700

Charts courtesy – Trading View, Kraken

The post Bitcoin Cash Price Weekly Analysis – Can BCH/USD Break This? appeared first on NewsBTC.

An ongoing investigation has revealed multiple allegations that hot wallets from users of popular subreddit r/btc were hacked through Tippr, resulting in thousands of dollars worth of bitcoin cash (BCH) stolen. Early theories assumed this to be a new low in the so-called Civil War between supporters of bitcoin core and BCH. 

Also read: African Central Banks Urged to Ditch Dollar and Buy Bitcoin

Bitcoin Civil War Might’ve Gotten Uglier

Using a previously unknown third-party vulnerability, users of Reddit’s increasingly popular subreddit forum, /r/btc, a discussion board which often features positive comments by bitcoin cash supporters, were hacked for thousands of BCH.

Reddit is a news aggregator fueled by subreddit discussion boards which fill every kind of topic niche. It is owned by media conglomerate Advance Publications, and is routinely in the top ten most visited websites.

The attacks were seemingly so base, early thinking went toward an inside job. Perhaps a rogue Reddit admin had snatched bitcoin cash, came an initial theory. In the final month of last year, /r/btc’s moderator and a user who happened to work in the malware field were made vulnerable and hacked. For about half an hour, the subreddit itself was redirected to r/bitcoin. And then a half dozen other bitcoin cash-favoring forum users were compromised, especially those tipped through Tippr.

The conspiracies began. Obviously, bitcoin core supporters had taken to ire, doing so as a new low. They might hate bitcoin cash, but no one turns down free money.

50,000 USD of BCH Flowed Through Tippr in December

Tippr is a bot used on Reddit for the purposes of tipping users in BCH. Tippers send the bot a deposit, and then comment, noting they’re using u/tippr. An example might be: “Great point u/tippr $3.” The bot will chime in, confirming the tip. The recipient must have a BCH wallet, and then message the bot in return, listing the BCH wallet address and include the amount. The bot dutifully answers in confirmation, and so the recipient can now access funds. Estimates in the upwards of 50,000 USD worth of BCH has flowed through the bot in December of last year. The culprit evidently was tracking such public posts, causing Tippr to go dark, pending results, as the developer learned of the investigation.

The attack came as a reset from Reddit in email form. Immediately another email confirmed the password change…even if the email hadn’t opened for whatever reason. “My email provider is a very large provider with a name we all know,” a hacked user explained. “Logging is provided and there was no suspicious activity on my email account. My email account also has 2FA. The emails sent by reddit (first one ‘click here to change your password’ second one ‘your password has been changed) were unopened in my inbox.’”

Whatever the case, this does appear to be something of a new kind of attack allowing access to Reddit accounts, a vulnerability hitherto unknown. It now could at least be plausible either a Reddit employee was on the make or a dastardly bitcoin core jihadist was involved. 

It turns out one or the other might’ve been sufficient but not a fully necessary condition to launch the attacks. Tippr is the common denominator, and where there is money to be taken no other motive need be ascribed. Tippr is used not only on Reddit forums but also on Twitter.

Conspiracy Sufficient But Not Necessary

The bot’s creator, Rob Danielson, mused it was probably “someone [who] realized they had an opportunity to make a quick buck.” Through private messaging via Reddit, accounts gave up as much as $4,000 total worth of bitcoin cash. Once the incidents were discovered, Mr. Danielson disabled the bot for Reddit.

For its part, Reddit is pointing fingers at its automated email subcontractor Mailgun. Though the number of users impacted was roughly a dozen, someone could gain access to resetting emails through Mailgun, a potentially huge problem for Reddit going forward. The hacker could not access Reddit proper nor a user’s email account, they claim. Reddit has since dropped Mailgun in favor of its own server. Mailgun believes “less than 1% of our customer base was potentially affected.” Tippr is now available again on Reddit.

A Reddit engineer did finally respond to multiple requests by users for public comment. “Thanks for reporting – we’re not ignoring. This was reported privately via security at [Reddit] and we’ve been investigating.”

Moderator of /r/btc, Bitcoinxio, noted Reddit maybe “needed a kick in the butt after all this publicity about the hacks in the past couple days, but we’ve been telling them about the hacks now for some time,” he wrote. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the other hacks are related in some way or there are other exploits which they haven’t even investigated because they are ignoring our concerns and just shrugging them off.”

What are your thoughts on the bitcoin cash hacks? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Pixabay, Reddit, Tippr.

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

The post Bitcoin Cash Reddit Tip App Users Hacked for Thousands appeared first on Bitcoin News.

There has been much talk of how blockchain technology can improve mainstream financial markets. That cuts both ways. In particular, blockchain purports to fix post-trade, yet the crypto market itself fails miserably at it.

A Brand New Market Cap

Wow! Look at it go! I’m talking of course about that ever-expanding coin market-cap, touching $800 Billion as I write these words. Yes, that’s very close to a Trillion bucks. And it’s still growing. At the start of the year (just over 5 days ago) we sat around $670 Billion, when seemingly out-of-nowhere, we all started watching the Ethereum (ETH) in our digital-wallets expand with fiat value.

A World of Smart Contracts

First to $750, then to $1000. Ethereum (ETH) may not be finished yet as it skyrockets alongside this new market-cap. But Ethereum (ETH) isn’t the only game in town. Altcoins utilizing the Ethereum blockchain, incorporating smart contracts into their peer-to-peer platforms, are also benefiting greatly from the influx of cash into our favorite exchanges. As an example, Ethlend (LEND), a little-known lending platform based on Ethereum (ETH) and ERC-20 tokens, has more than doubled with the new growth. Tron (TRX), a potential digital media platform that will transfer user information across games, social media sites and even casinos, shot up from 5 cents to over 20 (quadrupling once again) in the immediate stages of this new cash-influx (yeah, I know, it fell a bit since).

But these aren’t the only examples. Go ahead and look at your own wallet(s) if you haven’t in a week or so. You might be surprised at what you find. It seems it’s an Ethereum (ETH) based world we live in now, and this doesn’t look to be the regular pump-and-dump kind of action we came to expect from the half trillion-dollar market of yester-year.

Predictability in the Market

Better still, the rise in all of our favorite altcoins (I’m thinking outside of the mainstream coins on Coinbase here) is happening on a somewhat predictable schedule with the slight dips we see in the price of Ethereum. In this new crypto-universe, it seems money is no longer held fast to Bitcoin’s (BTC) gravitational pull. Instead, after transferring Ethereum over to the exchanges, it is traded out to some degree for these smaller, lesser known coins.

And why not? How many quadrupling’s, how many 1000% gains, have to occur before we all realize where the real money is in the crypto-space.

Bitcoin (BTC) is Still the King

With great reward comes great risk, however. And as we dip our toes into the expanding options offered on these burgeoning exchanges (I’m looking at you Binance), we should both fear and respect the influence of the king, Bitcoin (BTC). After all, with this much money in the market, there should be no doubt any longer that Bitcoin (BTC) has survived the shock of winter and is coming right back to secure it’s place at the top of the heap (not that it ever lost it’s position).

And when Bitcoin (BTC) rises, the influence of Ethereum is again lost (if only temporarily). And with Lite-speed (we see you Litecoin (LTC)), our gains from the day seemingly vanish as the masses clamber to secure their wealth in this awesome powerhouse of value. With that said, you better believe that Bitcoin (BTC) is still very much king around here. It’s just not the only player in town anymore.

Conclusion

So whether you are an Ethereum (ETH) or Bitcoin (BTC) believer, chances are you will do well this year, as there just may be room for both with this brand-new market-cap. For Ethereum, the utility of the product and it’s derivatives are immutable. The smart contract and it’s effects on all of our lives will no doubt be solidified and documented throughout the year(s). And as for Bitcoin (BTC), the ultimate storage for our coveted Satoshis, we should probably all still pay homage when we’ve reached a comfortable level of gains in the alternative currency market (If we want to keep them).

There are quite a few issues in the world of cryptocurrency debit cards. More specifically, Visa seemingly suspended nearly all debit card providers. This includes the likes of Bitwala, Wirex, TenX, and even CoinsBan. All of these companies rely on WaveCrest as a card issuer and their partnership with Visa. It is evident, things are not looking all that great for the affected companies. Whether or not this issue can be rectified in the near future, remains highly unlikely.

Using a Bitcoin debit card has been pretty fun in Europe. It allows users to spend cryptocurrency at virtually all locations. Unfortunately, this also means none of the companies suffering from this suspension can provide proper services. It may very well be the final nail in the coffin for companies who solely focus on this business model. Thousands of users are affected by this ordeal, to much dismay of cryptocurrency enthusiasts worldwide.

Visa Terminates WaveCrest Membership

Users can still access the funds stored on the cards, though. However, they will no longer be able to use the cards themselves. Visa has forced companies to suspend all cards as of January 5th. There is no indication WaveCrest will be able to reverse this situation in the future. They are following the guidelines of Visa, which is not something to be trifled with. This is another crackdown against cryptocurrencies, by the look of things.

Surprisingly, it seems this problem affects all WaveCrest prepaid cards in circulation. While the company is cryptocurrency-friendly, they do have other clients as well. It is evident this situation is a big problem which will need to be addressed sooner or later. Visa has allegedly discovered some compliance issues when it comes to Wavecrest. As a result, their services have to be determined immediately and indefinitely.

For now, it remains unclear what triggered this decision exactly. Visa will probably have their reasons for this decision, which is not a good thing by any means. It seems an isolated incident which affects only Wavecrest and all programs in conjunction with this company. It is a very unfortunate situation which opens the doors for new players to enter the market. For now, using virtually any Bitcoin debit card in Europe is impossible/

Header image courtesy of Shutterstock

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