Day: January 8, 2018

All of the turmoil taking place in the cryptocurrency world right now is throwing a lot of people for a loop. All prices seem off right now, but that is only to be expected at this point in time. The XRP price has taken some big hits in the past 24 hours, even though very little has changed in reality. More specifically, the XRP price still hovers near the $2.5 mark, as it has done across Western exchanges for the past week or so.

XRP Price is Still in a Good Place

Although the numbers on Coinmarketcap may tell a different story, very few currencies have lost any value in the past 24 hours. In fact, most of them haven’t budged at all, even though their global average is a lot lower compared to what it was. Now that Coinmarketcap no longer includes South Korean prices, things are finally returning to normal. Across Western exchanges, the XRP price has been close to $2.5 for quite some time now. Coinmarketcap now also shows the global average XRP price as $2.49, which is all that has changed in the past few hours.

Keeping this information in mind, very little has changed for the XRP price in the past day. Granted, the global average has dropped by 25.43% due to no longer tracking Korena prices, but for the rest of the world, nothing has changed whatsoever. No one can take advantage of the arbitrage opportunities with Korean exchanges, thus it makes virtually no sense to count their inflated prices as part of the global average. The individual prices are still visible on Coinmarketcap as we speak, though.

As a result, we now see a lot of people panicking due to this sudden “drop” in XRP price. It is always important to put things into their proper perspective. XRP hasn’t lost much value against Bitcoin either, as it is still trading at 0.00016472 BTC as we speak. This hasn’t changed in any spectacular fashion either, even though Coinmarketcap says it’s a drop of 18%. That BTC average for XRP was only partially based on Korea’s prices, thus it is not an actual decrease in value either.

The important aspect is how XRP still has over $2.36bn worth of 24-hour trading volume. That in itself is a pretty interesting number, although it is a fair bit lower compared to late last week. Do keep in mind the XRP trading volume still takes Korea’s volume into account, as that has not been excluded from Coinmarketcap just yet. Nor should it be right now, as the trading volume is always worth keeping track of at any given time.

Speaking of which, Bithumb is the main trading market for XRP right now. They are well ahead of Binance’s BTC/XRP market and Coinone’s XRP/KRW pair. The first actual fiat currency market still being tracked is Bitfinex’ XRP/USD pair, which brings in $145.7m worth of volume. Korea is still trading XRP at $3.80 right now, although those numbers have now officially become irrelevant to the rest of the world. It will be interesting to keep an eye on this trend moving forward, though.

All things considered, there is a lot of panic on the market right now. Most people have no idea what is going on but they would rather sell their assets before trying to figure things out. As a result, we will see a fair amount of volatility, which will impact the XRP price as a result. Right now, it will mainly depend on how the Bitcoin price evolves in the coming hours. So far, things aren’t looking all that great in this regard, and it may only be a matter of time until the XRP price drops below $2.15 for a few hours.

As cryptocurrency continues to grow, more and more new investors are flocking in every day to buy into the coins they think are next slated to moon. Current exchanges are experiencing so much activity that they’ve been forced to turn away new users. In response, some individuals have gone ahead and purchased existing accounts, spending up to thousands of dollars for a single account.

Popular exchanges such as Binance, Bittrex, Bitfinex, and Cryptopia have all elected to forbid new account creations while they work to expand their infrastructure in order to take on more clients and server load. While these restrictions are only temporary – and likely only for the immediate future – impatient investors are willing to trade a significant amount of Bitcoin (BTC) in the hopes that they can earn back the costs with access to the best exchanges.

While it’s difficult to pinpoint the going rate for these accounts, it seems that sellers and buyers are agreeing on rates between .1 and .3 BTC for Binance accounts, or about US$1,650 to US$5,000. Other exchange accounts are selling for less, but still for amounts close to or more than US$1,000. Accounts are being offered largely on Bitcointalk’s Market forum and Twitter.

The trading of crypto accounts is nothing new. Bitcointalk forum accounts have been traded in large volume for years, with high ranking accounts sometimes fetching over US$1,000. These accounts have value as they can earn rewards through forum posting if they participate in a signature campaign, in which an advertisement for a project or company is placed in a user’s signature.

However, the amount of exchange accounts being traded and the prices they are fetching suggest that there is a huge number of wealthy investors currently blocked out of cryptocurrency markets. While 2017 saw a gargantuan explosion for cryptocurrencies, these trades suggest that there is still a significant amount of wealth trying to enter the market. This implies that, once these exchanges expand their operations, more massive booms may be seen as new money rushes in once more to join in the crypto craze.

Anyone keen to sell me a Binance account ? Willing to pay around 0.25BTC.

— Hercules (@hercules_stry) January 7, 2018

Binance has stated that it advises individuals not to buy or sell exchange accounts, as doing so is a security risk and a potentially dangerous transaction. Moreover, it will not refund any losses that result from a traded account. However, the platform did not mention any penalties that would be imposed on accounts that have switched hands.

Banks excited about their blockchain work may do well to monitor their signal-to-noise ratios in 2018.

Japan has become a bit of a haven in the East for Bitcoin with its receptive approach to the digital currency. #ADOPTION

The founding director of the government-backed Delaware Blockchain Initiative has departed for a consultancy based in the state.

The post appeared first on NewsBTC.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin fell a bit during the trading session on Monday, as traders came back to work. It looks as if we’re going to go looking towards the $15,000 level, but the stochastic oscillator on the 4-hour chart is starting to get a little oversold. We could drift as low as $13,000 though, so be careful and wait for a bounce accompanied by the stochastic oscillator rising.

BTC/JPY

Bitcoin also drifted a little bit lower against the Japanese yen, but seems to be supported at several different places. Because of this, I am waiting for some type of bounce to get involved. Alternately, if we can break above the ¥2 million level, the market should be free to go to the ¥2.225 million area.

Thanks for watching, I’ll be back tomorrow.

The post Bitcoin Analysis January 9, 2018 appeared first on NewsBTC.

Medici Ventures, a subsidiary of online retail giant Overstock.com, has led the seed funding round of mobile voting platform Voatz.

The issues affecting Bitcoin have been documented multiple times in recent months. Slow transactions and high fees make it an unusable way of transferring money. As these issues linger, the situation sends shockwaves throughout the Bitcoin industry. Advertising platform, A-Ads plans to drop Bitcoin support in the near future. Instead, they will integrate withdrawal support through various unspecified altcoins.

In this day and age, using Bitcoin for payments is anything but convenient. There is nothing about the whole experience which is even remotely appealing. Add in the high fees and confirmation delays, and it is evident something needs to change. Until that happens, more and more platforms will drop Bitcoin support altogether. If even advertising solutions want to ditch the world’s leading cryptocurrency, it’s evident things are not looking great by any means.

A-Ads Prepares to Ditch Bitcoin due to Growing Issues

More specifically, A-Ads has announced their plans to integrate altcoin support. Right now, the advertising platform works with Bitcoin only. However, due to mounting fees, the withdrawals are becoming pretty expensive. Users need to pay a lot of money to get their earnings out. It is an unacceptable situation which needs to be resolved. Unfortunately, A-Ads will be forced to pivot toward altcoin withdrawals in this regard.

We're working 24×7 to bring altcoins withdrawal support. Bitcoin advertising on the Internet is becoming less and less convenient for publishers and we're determined to fix this issue ASAP. #UPD

— A-ADS (@aads_network) January 7, 2018

Which currencies they aim to support, remains undetermined at this point. There are quite a few options at the company’s disposal right now. Bitcoin Cash is definitely an option, but nothing has been confirmed just yet. Bitcoin itself simply isn’t suited for these smaller payouts right now. A lot of withdrawals from A-Ads remain pending due to network delays as well. Something will need to change sooner rather than later. It will not necessarily be on Bitcoin’s end, by the look of things.

Other services may follow the example set by A-Ads. Although a lot of companies remain loyal to Bitcoin, the issues can no longer be ignored. How all of this will play out in the long run, has yet to be determined at this point in time. Adding altcoin support will free up a lot of resources and keep A-Ads users happy. At the same time, issues like these should have never existed in the first place. A very uneasy situation that only grows worse as more time progresses.

The post A-Ads Plans to Drop Bitcoin in Favor of Cheaper Altcoins appeared first on NewsBTC.

Telegram aims to launch giant pre-ICO to accrue $500 mln funding for its Blockchain plans. #BRIEF