Day: February 2, 2018

With all of the cryptocurrency markets in the red once again, there isn’t much to be excited about as of right now.  In fact, it is difficult to find any market,  which has lost less than 20% of its value in the past 24 hours. Especially when it comes to the XRP price, things are looking absolutely dreadful for now. More specifically, the XRP price has dropped by another 31.04%, pushing the value down to $0.74. It is evident this massive market correction may not even be over just yet.

XRP Price Hits a Massive Snag

It is safe to say all cryptocurrency markets have seen a major correction over the past few days. More specifically, we have seen so many currencies drop in value over the past few weeks, and things won’t improve anytime soon whatsoever. This major drop in Bitcoin and XRP price was bound to happen sooner or later, as the market has seen massive growth throughout 2017. All good things must eventually come to an end, and the XRP price is no exception in this regard.

More specifically, the XRP price hit $3.2 not that long ago. People assumed that owed be the start of bigger and better things, but that is not the case whatsoever. Instead,  we have seen a slow and steady price drop ever since that time. With the XRP price dropping below $3, and then below $1.5, it quickly became evident reaching the all-time high again would not be all that easy.

Over the past 24 hours alone, we have seen the XRP price drop by another 31.04%. It is evident this is mainly due to Bitcoin losing over 15% in value overnight as well, but there is also a steady decline in the XRP/BTC ratio right now. To put that latter part into perspective, the XRP/BTC ratio declined by as much as 19.15% as well. When Bitcoin loses value in spectacular fashion, it is only normal all other cryptocurrencies will follow automatically. There is no way to prevent this type of momentum, unfortunately.

With $1.9bn in 24-hour trading volume, the demand for XRP is certainly there. Right now, it seems there is a growing demand to sell XRP rather than buy it, but things can always turn around in the world of cryptocurrency and digital assets. Any massive decline in XRP price today can quickly result in massive profits six to twelve months from now. For new people looking to enter the world of cryptocurrency and digital assets, the current prices present an interesting buying opportunity.

Bithumb is once again the leading exchange for XRP trading volume. Considering how they generate over 35% of all trades as of right now, it has become rather evident this particular platform is worth keeping an eye on. Upbit is in second place, followed by Bitfinex and Coinone. Bitbank completes the top five, which also, means we have five fiat currency pairs in the top five for XRP. Whether or not this means a price reversal will occur soon, remains to be determined.

For the time being, it remains to be seen what the future will hold for XRP. With the current negative XRP price momentum, it is evident there will be some major volatility to contend with in the coming hours and days. Especially with the weekend almost upon us, things can easily go from bad to worse in quick succession. Whether or not the XRP price will continue to drop during that period, remains to be seen. It is evident there is a good chance XRP will hit $0.70 and potentially lower. Should Bitcoin suddenly decide to reverse its trend, we may see an XRP price of $1 sooner rather than later. It is unclear what the future holds, as everything is possible as of right now.

Japan’s Financial Services Agency is conducting an on-site inspection at Coincheck to see if it can afford to compensate victims of its recent hack.

Opinions on the Bitcoin price are not hard to come by these days. The results are also very interesting and contradictory. Some people, like John McAfee, expect a Bitcoin price of $500,000 or more. BK Capital Management founder Brian Kelly feels very different. In his opinion, it’s still overvalued by at least 15%. An interesting statement, considering the price has dropped below $8,600 overnight.

It is evident Brian Kelly isn’t the biggest fan of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. More specifically, he is concerned the current value per BTC isn’t on par with the real value in current market conditions. It seems a lot of people took his advice to heart, as the Bitcoin price plummeted by over 15% in the past 24 hours. Whether or not this is the proverbial bottom, remains to be determined at this point. There is still a lot of bearish momentum on the market and that will not change anytime soon either.

Brian Kelly Sees No Point in Shorting Bitcoin

Determining the intrinsic value of Bitcoin is not all that easy. Brian Kelly states this can only be measured based on the number of transactions. If that is the case, Bitcoin isn’t necessarily in the best of places right now. It is evident the network can’t handle too many transactions whatsoever. Until that situation is resolved, the Bitcoin price will continue to suffer a bit. According to Brian Kelly, the current transaction throughput puts Bitcoin at a value of $8,000. It seems the market agrees with him on that front.

Even so, there is still a lot of potential growth for Bitcoin. Multiple parts of the infrastructure have yet to be fully optimized for the future. So far, that hasn’t happened, even though the foundation is certainly in place. It is safe to say the Bitcoin price simply got ahead of itself throughout 2017. A value increase from $1,000 to over $19,000 is not exactly normal in any market. Especially not for a form of money which is a store of value rather than an actual currency.

Surprisingly, Brian Kelly has no intention to short the Bitcoin price either. In his opinion, doing so makes no sense whatsoever. There is a real chance the Bitcoin value goes up by 20% or more in a single day. It has certainly gone down by over 20% in one day, as we witnessed last night. It will be interesting to see what the future will hold for the world’s leading cryptocurrency. For now, things are looking a bit bleak. The bigger picture, however, shows the uptrend is still firmly intact as of right now.

The post This Hedge Fund Manager Would Never Consider Betting Against Bitcoin appeared first on NewsBTC.

From economic principles to market movements and pressure, there is a lot that goes into determining the price of one Bitcoin. #ANALYSIS

Which coins saw big price gains in January? Data shows it wasn’t a great month for the more name-brand assets.

When Louis Meza met his victim at a Ruby Tuesdays in Times Square he thought his cryptocurrency ship had come in. Now he’s being sent up the river for the very real crime of kidnapping for Ethereum.

Cryptoloot Too Tempting For Idiot Criminal

The Ethereum spawned crime was first reported in December but the New York’s District Attorney’s office has recently released new information fully fleshing out the crime.

The victim, a business associate of Meza disclosed during dinner and drinks at the franchise restaurant that he had bought Ethereum in 2012–even though Ethereum launched in 2015 and did not exist in 2012–while it was selling for pennies. The cryptocurrency had soared in value since to over $1,000.

Meza insisted that his associate share his Uber car. Once the two were inside a gunman appeared demanding his apartment keys, phone and the 24 digit password to his Ledger Nano S, a device known as a hardware wallet used to securely store cryptocurrency offline.

Meza entered the victim’s apartment found his wallet and successfully transferred the Ethereum to his own account. He then transferred the Ethereum to a well known American cryptocurrency exchange where he transferred it to Bitcoin in his own name.

The would-be mastermind was not only recorded by security cameras in the victims building entering his apartment but was even overheard the next day bragging about having become a real player in the cryptocurrency market.

Had Meza actually known what he was doing he could have transferred the currency to his own cold wallet where it would be virtually untraceable instead of sending it to the cryptoworlds version of Citibank. The District Attorney’s office, known for its technical know-how, was easily able to track the trades back to Meza, arrest him, and seize the assets.

Cryptocurrency But Real Crimes

This case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing highlights the growing global trend of very real crimes being enacted to gain access to cryptocurrency.

in December, crooks in Ukraine kidnapped a bitcoin analyst and held him until he paid them $1 million worth of bitcoins. Even more recently a Russian couple was robbed of their crypto savings while on holiday in Thailand.

On a final twist in Mr. Meza’s story, the Etheruem he stole was valued at $308 at the time when he transferred it to Bitcoin which then shot up in value meaning the recovered funds are worth much more than what was stolen. The question is who gets the profits; the victim, the cops or the crook?

The post Hightech Ethereum Kidnapping Botched By Old Fashioned Stupidity appeared first on NewsBTC.

Asia seems to be leading the big crypto selloff at the moment. Fake news of a complete ban in India sparked off the self-perpetuating slide yesterday. There was no ban but mainstream media won again by disseminating more FUD. Some countries remain fully open to crypto and Thailand at the moment is among them.

According to reports in local media a crypto committee is expected to clarify its stance on how to regulate digital currencies within the Southeast Asian nation this month. As in South Korea, again where there has been no ban, Thailand aims to safeguard against fraudulent activities and duplicitous investments.

Direction needed

Finance permanent secretary Somchai Sujjapongse told media;

“Allowing bitcoin transactions to be made without warnings and direction from regulators is not acceptable,” 

There could have been something lost in translation with this quote. The real motives from The Bank of Thailand, Finance Ministry, and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are to issue warnings about the risk of trading unregulated digital assets.

The triumvirate is in the process of setting up a working panel to tackle the issue of regulation. Somchai went on to say;

“The working panel must work more rapidly over the next month to inform regulators on how to handle bitcoin. However, it is not correct to consider blockchain harmful if we do not prefer… bitcoin, as blockchain technology can create benefits. We can reap benefit from using blockchain technology.” 

Again loosely translated this means that there will be no ban but a little more regulation which is essentially what most governments want. Only China and Vietnam have banned trading in the region. It is likely that Thailand will coordinate with other countries on how to tackle cryptocurrency regulation.

Regional influence

Currently Japan and Singapore are the two most liberal countries in Southeast Asia towards crypto trading. South Korea simply cannot make its mind up. Every week another threat or warning emerges yet citizens are still trading freely, albeit using their own names now since anonymous accounts have been banned.

Ministers in India yesterday stated that cryptos would not be allowed for illegal activities and that the government;

“will take all measures to curb the use of these crypto-assets in financing illegitimate activities or any part of payment systems,” 

Contrary to the FUDfest that spewed out of mainstream media following the speech, Indian citizens are still trading cryptocurrencies.

Thailand currently only has one crypto exchange, BX Thailand, which lists 11 digital currencies for trade in fiat and several others for trade in crypto. It has a daily trade volume of around $16 million.

The post Thailand Cryptocurrency Committee to Clarify Stance, Stricter Regulation appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Highlights

• ADA price faced a lot of sellers and moved below the $0.4000 support against the US Dollar (tethered).
• There is a declining channel forming with current resistance at $0.3950 on the hourly chart of ADA/USD (data feed via Bittrex).
• The pair is likely to decline further and it could even break the $0.3500 support area in the near term.

Cardano price is trading in a bearish zone against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. ADA/USD may extend the current decline below the $0.3500 support area.

Cardano Price Decline

There was a nasty downtrend initiated in ADA price from well above the $0.6000 level against the US Dollar. The price faced a lot of sellers and it recently moved below the $0.5000 and $0.4000 support levels. The most important move was a break of the $0.4600 support area. It has opened the doors for more declines and the price is now trading well below the $0.4000 level.

The recent low was $0.3602 and the pair is currently poised for further declines. An initial resistance on the upside is around the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last drop from the $0.5200 high to $0.3602 low. There is also a declining channel forming with current resistance at $0.3950 on the hourly chart of ADA/USD. However, the most important resistance is around the $0.4400 level. It is the 50% Fib retracement level of the last drop from the $0.5200 high to $0.3602 low. Above $0.4400, the previous support at $0.4600 may now act as a crucial barrier for more gains.

On the downside, the price may easily break the recent low of $0.3600. The next break could be below the $0.3500 level. Any further declines could take the price towards the $0.3000 level.

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

Hourly RSI – The RSI is now placed near the oversold levels.

Major Support Level – $0.3500

Major Resistance Level – $0.4400

Charts courtesy – Cryptowat, Bittrex

The post Cardano Price Technical Analysis – ADA/USD to Decline Further? appeared first on NewsBTC.