Month: February 2018

Alibaba’s T-Mall Global e-commerce platform is reportedly applying blockchain in its cross-border supply chain.

Key Highlights

• Ripple price failed to move higher and declined below the $0.9000 support against the US dollar.
• There is a connecting bearish trend line forming with resistance at $0.9100 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair (data source from Kraken).
• The pair is currently at a risk of more declines below the $0.8800 and $0.8600 support levels.

Ripple price is struggling to gain upside momentum against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. XRP/USD is testing the $0.8800 support and it decline further in the near term.

Ripple Price Resistance

There was a minor upside move from the $0.8900 swing low in Ripple price against the US Dollar. The price traded higher, but it was not able to break the $0.9100 resistance. It also failed to near the 100 hourly simple moving average and declined below $0.9000. There was an hourly close below the $0.9000 support and the 100 SMA, which is a bearish sign.

The recent low was formed at $0.8749 and the price seems to be holding the $0.8800 support. An initial resistance on the upside is around the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $0.9596 high to $0.8749 low. There is also a connecting bearish trend line forming with resistance at $0.9100 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair. Moreover, the trend line resistance is close to the 38.2% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $0.9596 high to $0.8749 low. Therefore, if the price corrects higher, it may face sellers near the $0.9100 resistance level.

On the downside, a break below the $0.8800 support could ignite more declines. The next major support is at $0.8400 followed by the $0.8200 level.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for XRP/USD is mostly in the bearish zone with negative signs.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for XRP/USD is currently well below the 50 level.

Major Support Level – $0.8800

Major Resistance Level – $0.9100

Charts courtesy – Trading View

The post Ripple Price Technical Analysis – Can XRP/USD Hold This? appeared first on NewsBTC.

It has been a while since any positive news came out of China regarding cryptocurrencies. That trend is likely to continue as the People’s Republic ramps up its censorship machine to include cryptocurrency chat groups and messenger services.

This zero tolerance policy is also expanding to international crypto trading activities by Chinese citizens.  It has been reported that the crypto community in China is on edge over another regulatory crackdown which is expected in a couple of weeks.

Messaging and Chat Censorship

Since the PRC banned ICOs, and then clamped down local exchanges, traders have taken to messaging and chat platforms to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. The burgeoning Chinese internet police division has now eyed those in its latest efforts to stamp out all instances of cryptocurrencies within the country.

Wechat is huge in China and many have taken to it as a blockchain and crypto forum for discussion and trading. Some groups however have been closed down ahead of another potential crackdown on crypto. The pressure is mounting and one “3am Sleepless Wechat Group” focused on crypto was self-silenced yesterday.

Telegram is also popular in the country as it is encrypted. A screenshot from one conversation has been widely shared claiming that a People’s Bank of China clampdown announcing major policies to restrict cryptocurrency in China will occur around March 15. This date is a holiday in China and one often used by the government for imposing new policies.

Banning the Banned

What else can be done is still unclear. China has already taken a number of steps to eradicate cryptocurrencies in the county which include outlawing ICOs, restricting exchanges, and forcing mining operations overseas. Many have shifted businesses to Hong Kong where the atmosphere is far more relaxed and crypto trading is open and unencumbered.

One of the remaining exchanges in the country, Huobi, was reportedly moving its remaining staff in China to Singapore as the crypto exodus continues. It had also been reported that China’s Public Information Network Security Supervision has been closely monitoring foreign cryptocurrency exchanges, in addition to domestic platforms that have shifted overseas.

Crackdowns are nothing new in China, the internet itself behind the Great Firewall is one of the most heavily censored networks in the world. What the government expects to achieve by quashing chat groups and harassing at those that have moved is a mystery. What has been confirmed though is that China still remains extremely anti-crypto.

The post China Targets Crypto Chat Groups Ahead of Possible Further Regulation appeared first on NewsBTC.

The Securities and Exchange Commission papered cryptocurrency and blockchain based technology companies with subpoenas and demands for information yesterday in a widespread effort to control fundraising according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Tip of the Iceberg

There have been warning shots and talks of the coming regulations for a while but this seems like the first steps towards widespread regulatory oversight of the multi-billion dollar market for cryptocurrencies in the US.

ICO’s have already raised over $1.66 billion this year, which is on pace to top the $6.5 billion tally from last year. With that kind of investment happening regulatory bodies are going to have to get involved.

“We’re seeing the tip of the iceberg … there is going to be a ton of enforcement activity,”

Said Dan Gallager last week at an SEC conference in Washington. Gallager a former SEC commissioner who now sits on the board of a blockchain technology company called Symbiont spoke about the world of unregulated ICO being like the “the freaking Wild West—it is ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ on steroids.”

So far the cryptocurrency market has remained outside of any specific US framework for regulation. The governing bodies that be haven’t been able to pin down who should be looking at what and this confusion has carried down to the state level leaving the playing field wide open for a small number of crooks and criminals to take advantage of the lack of information in the general public.

An as yet released Massachusetts Institute of Technology study has determined that something in the range of 270 – 317 million dollars raised by ICOs have been done by fraudulent companies set up to scam people. Head of the SEC’s cyber-enforcement unit Robert Cohen said last week that at least a dozen companies have delayed their ICOs since the agency has raised questions concerning their practices.

SEC to Look Into SAFTs

Much of the SEC’s scrutiny is focused on ‘simple agreements on future tokens’ which have been issued in some of the largest fundraising cases according to industry experts. SAFT’s are generally purchased in private offerings given before the public sale of tokens to well-placed investors who can then flip the agreements even before the coin has launched.

The SEC takes notice of this practice because it sees these SAFTs as being traded like securities without conforming to any of the strict rules that already exist for that market. In the end, the WSJ which initially reported on this mass of subpoenas issued to the crypto industry had little information as to why this is happening now and what the SEC is attempting to accomplish. Except perhaps that the unregulated environment of speculation and trade in digital coins and burgeoning blockchain technology could soon be over.

The post SEC Subpoenas Crypto Companies to Route Out Fraud appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Highlights

• ETH price failed to move higher and it traded below the $862 support against the US Dollar.
• There is a connecting bearish trend line forming with resistance at $865 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via SimpleFX).
• The pair may correct a few points in the short term, but it could face sellers near $865-870.

Ethereum price declined recently against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. ETH/USD now remains at a risk of more declines as long as it is below $865.

Ethereum Price Resistance

There was a minor downside wave initiated in ETH price from the $876 swing high against the US Dollar. The price declined and traded below the $860 and $862 support levels. During the downside, there was a break below a short-term bullish trend line at $863 on the hourly chart. Moreover, there was a close below the $860 support and the 100 hourly simple moving average, which is a negative sign.

A low was formed at $835 from where the price started an upside correction. It is currently testing the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last drop from the $876 high to $835 low. However, the 100 hourly SMA is acting as a resistance near $852 and is prevented gains. On the upside, there is a connecting bearish trend line forming with resistance at $865 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. An intermediate resistance is the 50% Fib retracement level of the last drop from the $876 high to $835 low.

Therefore, if the price corrects higher, it may face sellers near the $860 and $862 resistance levels. On the downside, a break below the recent low of $835 may call for more declines towards $800 and $785.

Hourly MACD – The MACD is gaining momentum in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI – The RSI is now well below the 50 level with many negative signs.

Major Support Level – $835

Major Resistance Level – $862

Charts courtesy – SimpleFX

The post Ethereum Price Technical Analysis – ETH/USD Remains at Risk appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

• Bitcoin price is consolidating inside a symmetrical triangle as it formed lower highs and higher lows.
• A bounce could be due as the triangle support lines up with a longer-term area of interest around $10,000.
• Technical indicators are showing mixed signals, though.

Bitcoin price has formed a symmetrical triangle pattern and might be due for a breakout soon.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is below the longer-term 200 SMA to suggest that the path of least resistance is to the downside. This signals that a break of support is possible, likely sending bitcoin price down by the same height as the chart pattern. However, the gap has narrowed significantly to show that an upward crossover is underway.

In that case, a bounce off support could take bitcoin price back up to the triangle resistance or even on a breakout. The moving averages line up with the support zone, adding to its strength as a floor as well.

Stochastic looks ready to turn higher, also another signal that buying pressure could return. However, RSI has some room to fall so sellers could stay in control for a bit longer.

Market Factors

Dollar strength came back in play during the latest trading sessions as risk aversion returned and weighed on higher-yielding assets. Stocks and commodities took hits but bitcoin price was a bit more resilient as the cryptocurrency is still enjoying the positive sentiment from Circle’s acquisition of Poloniex.

Then again, reports that SEC is looking into the structuring of initial coin offerings. According to the Wall Street Journal, the SEC has issued “scores of subpoenas” to obtain information from technology companies and advisers tied to the digital currency markets.

Recall that the US regulator has previously warned that investors should be more careful about investing in ICOs. Chairman Clayton noted:

“A number of concerns have been raised regarding the cryptocurrency and ICO markets, including that, as they are currently operating, there is substantially less investor protection than in our traditional securities markets, with correspondingly greater opportunities for fraud and manipulation.”

The post Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis for 03/01/2018 – Another Area of Interest appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Points

• Bitcoin cash price failed to remain above $1,220 and declined against the US Dollar.
• There is a key bearish trend line forming with resistance at $1,225 on the hourly chart of BCH/USD (data feed from SimpleFX).
• The pair may continue to move down and it could trade below the $1,180 and $1,150 support levels.

Bitcoin cash price faced an increased selling pressure below $1,250 against the US Dollar. BCH/USD declined below $1,220 and it remains at a risk of more losses.

Bitcoin Cash Price Decline

There was no upside move above $1,250 in bitcoin cash price yesterday against the US Dollar. The price started a downside move and traded below the $1,240 and $1,220 support levels. The decline gained pace and the price even traded below the $1,200 support level. During the slide, there was a close below the 50% Fib retracement level of the last upside move from the $1,125 low to $1,283 high.

More importantly, there was a close below $1,200 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. It has opened the doors for more losses below the $1,150 level. At the moment, the price is testing the 61.8% Fib retracement level of the last upside move from the $1,125 low to $1,283 high. On the upside, there is a key bearish trend line forming with resistance at $1,225 on the hourly chart of BCH/USD. Therefore, if the price corrects higher, it may face sellers near the $1,220 and $1,225 resistance levels.

On the downside, a break and close below the $1,180 support level could push the price towards $1,150. An intermediate support is near the 76.4% Fib retracement level of the last upside move from the $1,125 low to $1,283 high at $1,162.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for BCH/USD is back in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BCH/USD is currently well below the 50 level.

Major Support Level – $1,150

Major Resistance Level – $1,225

Charts courtesy – SimpleFX

The post Bitcoin Cash Price Technical Analysis – BCH/USD Could Slide Further appeared first on NewsBTC.

It seems like everywhere you turn, people are talking about the meteoric rise of bitcoin. Bitcoin, the most well known cryptocurrency, seems to be a topic that people can’t get enough of. But here’s one thing most bitcoin enthusiasts aren’t talking about: bitcoin taxes.

So, how do taxes apply to bitcoin? While bitcoin is a new kind of currency, the IRS doesn’t tax it like a currency. Technically, the IRS treats bitcoin as property, and all the general tax principles that apply to other properties apply to bitcoin. But how do these property taxes apply when selling bitcoin or making purchases with bitcoin?

 Taxes and Selling Bitcoin

Paying taxes on bitcoin sales is actually very simple. Like any other capital asset, there’s a simple formula you can use to find out the amount of money you owe taxes on. Essentially, if you sell bitcoin, you owe taxes on any capital gains you might have, which is the amount of money you made from the sale. That number can be found by subtracting the amount you bought your bitcoin for from the amount you sold that same bitcoin for. If the number is positive, you have a capital gain you’ll need to pay taxes on. If the number is negative, you’ve had a capital loss, which you can deduct from your taxes.

Since bitcoin seems to only be going up in value, most bitcoin sales right now will likely involve having capital gains. So, if you have capital gains, you’ll need to pay taxes on the gain amount. And there are two things that affect your tax rate on these gains: your income and whether the gain was short-term or long-term. Capital gains are taxed at different rates over different income brackets and short-term and long-term gains are also taxed at different rates, with long-term gains having lower rates.

When selling bitcoin, the most important thing to do is to record and file all your information accurately when you fill out your tax returns. Tax expert Saro Der Ohanessian of Vangaurd Tax Relief says, “The IRS is aware of— and has laws for— all the ways bitcoin is mined, sold, and used in place of traditional currency. You should never try to hide a bitcoin sale from the IRS and should always report your bitcoin sales or losses in full.”

Taxes and Buying With Bitcoin

Because bitcoin is such a new currency— it’s been around for less than a decade— it’s not as widely accepted as other currencies, like the dollar or the euro. But a growing number of businesses, both online and in brick and mortar stores, have started accepting bitcoin. You can use bitcoin to buy things on Overstock.com or book your next trip on Expedia. You can even use bitcoin to shop at luxury retailers, like luxury diamond and engagement ring jeweler RockHer, or to pay for your parking at the Denver airport.

While more and more businesses are taking bitcoin, making using it to shop more convenient than ever, it’s important to remember that buying with bitcoin isn’t exactly like buying with traditional currency. While buying with bitcoin doesn’t incur you any extra fees, it also doesn’t let you avoid paying taxes on any bitcoin profits.

So, say you buy a television online using bitcoin. You’ll need to make note of the amount of bitcoin you used to make the purchase the television, as well as how much that bitcoin was worth at the time of the television purchase. Then, come tax time, you’ll need to calculate your capital gain or loss and pay the appropriate tax. So, while paying with bitcoin can be incredibly convenient, you still need to remember to pay taxes on the bitcoin you use for purchases.

The Future of Bitcoin Taxes

Right now, bitcoin is taxed like any property would be. But, as the future of bitcoin itself is unknown, so is the future of how it will be taxed. For bitcoin to be taxed like any other currency, it would likely have to be internationally recognized as such the same way the dollar is. Which could happen soon, in the distant future, or never. The future of bitcoin is in flux at the moment— only time will tell how bitcoin will make its mark on society.

The post Buying BTC Using Online or Offline Retailers – How Does Taxing Work appeared first on NewsBTC.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has been “shotgunning” subpoenas to token sellers, advisors, investors and exchanges. What will come of it all?

FOMO Moments

The pullback after a couple of days in the green is becoming a regular pattern now. Markets can’t seem to garner any serious upward momentum and have been relatively flat and slightly down for a few weeks now. Bitcoin has retreated 4% back to $10,400 which is pretty much what it started out at on the 1^st of February. Altcoins are pretty much all in the red, declining from the small gains they have made over the past couple of days. Only DigixDAO marches relentlessly upwards leaving all of its brethren behind.

DGD was the top performing cryptocurrency in February, doubling in price. According to Coinmarketcap it is also the top performing altcoin yet again today, up 15% over the past 24 hours. Trading now at around $570 from $485 this time yesterday DGD seems unstoppable. Over the past seven days it has jumped an impressive 87% while most other altcoins have declined slightly.

Being linked to the gold standard has obviously helped in these times of crypto uncertainty as it is the third time DigixDAO has been top coin in a month. At a devcon at the National University of Singapore earlier this week the team announced that;

“The Smart Contracts for our DGX product has been fully completed and we are tying up some loose ends on the physical operations part where bullion and banking are concerned. We still plan to launch our marketplace for DGX end Q1 2018.”

DigixDAO is very hot property at the moment, leaving all others in the dust as it makes daily gains of 15-20%. Binance has the lion’s share of the trade with almost 90%, and $141 million has been traded in the past 24 hours. There are 2 million DGD tokens circulating and it has just entered the top 25 with a market capacity of $1.1 billion.

Very few other altcoins are performing well during the Asian trading session this morning. A couple that are still green at the time of writing are Tron and Nano. Taking a hit of over 10% loss are Neo, Cardano, VeChain and Lisk.

More on Digix can be found here: https://digix.global/

FOMO Moments is a section that takes a daily look at the top 25 altcoins during the Asian trading session and analyses the best performing one, looking for trends and fundamentals.

The post Asian Cryptocurrency Trading Roundup: Top Altcoin is DigixDAO appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin (BTC) continues to recover from this years low, set earlier this month. The market cap now stands at US$177.78 billion, with US$3.69 billion traded on exchanges in the past 24 hours.

China’s police force isn’t just focusing on domestic crypto activities, they’re eyeing overseas exchange platforms as well, according to reports.

It is fitting that a casino with a name like bitcoincasino.us would accept Bitcoin Cash as a form of deposit. The casino has long been an advocate for allowing deposits of Bitcoin onto the platform. Now, it is taking the extra step and allowing for the cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin Cash to go along as well.

Bitcoin Cash broke away from Bitcoin itself and has become its own thing. However, a lot of merchants and others have been slow to adopt it or accept it as a form of payment. They are simply behind the times when it comes to cryptocurrencies. They are not paying nearly enough attention to the way that the world is moving. It is a common issue for a lot of people.

Unfortunate though it may be, without acceptance from merchants, it is difficult to get a cryptocurrency to gain much traction at all. This is why it is such exciting news that bitcoincasino.us has decided to start accepting this form of payment.

In general, the casino industry has also been slow to accept Bitcoin Cash as a means of deposit. Most of the casinos cite a concern that they might confuse their players given the similarities between the name of Bitcoin Cash and regular Bitcoin. However, players are telling these casinos that they actually want the opportunity to play at these casinos with as many means of deposit as possible. The casinos need to listen to what their players are saying.

There are numerous advantages to Bitcoin Cash in comparison to Bitcoin or credit cards. The transactions are faster, the fees are lower, and customer satisfaction is very high. It seems that there is little to fear with accepting this type of currency.

Once more casinos realize all of these different benefits the acceptance rate for Bitcoin Cash should continue to increase. In the meantime it is just a waiting game for those who would like to play with this type of currency.

Bitcoincasino.us now makes it possible for their players to enjoy the game play with this type of currency. They can wager Bitcoin Cash deposits on popular classics like slots, roulette, blackjack, and more. Mostly any kind of game that you could find in a traditional casino is available at bitcoincasino.us. Given that is the case, why not use this casino instead of some of the others that are out there? It is better than trying to play with cash at a casino that you have to travel to in order to go play in the first place.

Many Americans (and others) do not have a casino that is near them geographically. There are different laws in different areas that may not permit this kind of activity in the first place. As such, it is nice to know that online casinos like this exist that can be accessed to help a person who wants to play the games have the opportunity to do exactly that. Now that it is accepting Bitcoin Cash as well it is all the better of an opportunity.

Considering all of this, it is quite clear that bitcoincasino.us is at least worth a look around for all of the improvements that it has over rivals who have not put into play some of the things already mentioned. Give it a look today.

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.