Day: March 14, 2018

When crypto markets plunge towards another monthly low some assets will fare better than others. As usual big daddy Bitcoin has led the way and when it shed 14% over night the outlook for all others appeared grimmer. Ethereum has fared badly this time falling harder and faster than usual.

Ethereum, which usually fares well during major downturns, has taken a particularly painful slide over the past couple of days. This could well be a result of the ICO and crypto advertising bans by internet monopolies Facebook and Google. ETH has also become the second cryptocurrency of choice for trading altcoins after Bitcoin so when panic selling on altcoins overwhelms the markets, Ethereum will suffer.

Ethereum ICO Boost Slows

Ethereum has been the platform of choice for the majority of ICOs over the past year. When they are heavily regulated Ethereum takes a beating, likewise if avenues of advertising are closed off to startups looking for exposure for their blockchain projects. ICOs have come under heavy scrutiny from regulators across the globe, principally due to their methods of raising capital.

In order to protect citizens from scams and fraudulent practices governments have put the kibosh on unfettered ICO promotion and marketing. Social media and web giants have followed suit though their motives remain questionable.

Google for instance, up until very recently, still permitted rogue ads linking to mining malware and phishing websites to run on its platform yet wants to ban all crypto advertising later this year. Facebook still allows deceitful member accounts to disseminate clickbait and scams yet banned ICO advertising a couple of months ago. It has also been speculated that Twitter, another social platform allowing fake accounts, could be the next to ban crypto advertising.

ETH Heading for Three Month Low

ETH has reached its lowest point since early December when a huge rally sent it from around $475 to $700 in a matter of days. Currently trading at just under $585 Ethereum has hemorrhaged 16% in the past 24 hours, over the week ETH has lost over 20%, and over a month it is down 37%.

Ethereum has broken several major support levels and continues to slide at the time of writing. If the rout continues it could well head back to late November levels around $450. Looking at the brighter side, in March 2017 Ethereum was less than $40, however if it gets anywhere near that again a lot of investors will have lost a lot of money over the past 12 months.

The post Ethereum Battered on ICO Regulation and Ad Ban appeared first on NewsBTC.

UK based cryptocurrency exchange operator Coinfloor is about to become the first exchange for digital assets to include physically delivered Bitcoin futures contracts.

First Physically Delivered Bitcoin Futures

Mark Lamb CEO of Coinfloor speaking from Boca Raton Florida introduced the new London based trading platform known as CoinfloorEX. The platform is aimed at commercial traders generally; hedge funds, proprietary trading firms and also a select group of retail investors as well as cryptocurrency miners.

During an interview at the Futures Industry Association’s annual conference about the launch of CoinfloorEX CEO Lamb said;

“When you talk to the liquidity providers, they all say the same thing, which is they want a physically delivered futures contract so they can hedge their exposure across exchanges,”

Though a few traditional futures exchanges already offer Bitcoin futures they are cash settled so that the actual cryptocurrency does not change hands.

Lamb detailed the problems that many proprietary trading firms and large investors have with the cash settled process. Saying that it can be too easily manipulated by moving the prices of the indexes or auctions on spot exchanges in order to set prices more favorably for their moves.

Coinfloor Made Buying Bitcoin Simple

Coinfloor, which is London’s biggest Bitcoin exchange, also established the first exchange-backed Bitcoin Marketplace Coinfloor Market in July 2015.

Coinfloor Market established a secure environment for retail investors in the United Kingdom to trade in Bitcoin. Buyers are provided with a direct interface to a vetted Coinfloor Market Broker who can directly stream Bitcoin to Sterling and vice versa from the Coinfloor Exchange.

Mark Lamb compared the model of Coinfloor Market to the start of the NYSE as “committed to a decentralized network of brokers backed by a centralized exchange, Coinfloor is the first institution in the Bitcoin industry to mirror this proven model.”

Storage and security of customers’ Bitcoin is provided by Coinfloor which is 100% cold storage encrypted with multiple layers of security keys in underground vaults. Coinfloor was started in 2013 and includes Chicago based proprietary trading firm DRW among its investors. It runs the largest UK-based cryptocurrency spot exchange and another in Gibraltar. CoinfloorEX expects their first physically delivered contracts to launch in April.

The post Coinfloor to Launch World’s First Physically Settled Bitcoin Futures appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Highlights

• Ripple price is under a lot of pressure as it moved below the $0.7000 support against the US dollar.
• This week’s highlighted monster contracting triangle pattern with support near $0.7500 was broken on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair (data source from Kraken).
• The pair is currently trading above the $0.6000 level, but it remains at a risk of more losses.

Ripple price fell sharply against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. XRP/USD could extend declines in the near term as long as it is below the $0.7000 level.

Ripple Price Resistance

Buyers failed to initiate an upside move above $0.8200 in Ripple price against the US Dollar. As a result, there was a downside move and the price dropped below a major support at $0.7700. More importantly, this week’s highlighted monster contracting triangle pattern with support near $0.7500 was broken on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair.

The price even broke the last swing low of $0.7400 and the $0.7000 support. It is now trading well below the $0.7000 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average. The recent low formed was $0.6246 and it seems like the price may extend the current decline. An initial hurdle on the upside is around the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $0.7900 high to $0.6246 low. However, the most important resistance is near $0.7000, which was a support earlier. The same level is also the 50% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $0.7900 high to $0.6246 low.

On the downside, the recent low of $0.6246 could be breached for a test of $0.6000. Below $0.6000, there are chances of XRP price moving towards the $0.5000 level.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for XRP/USD is now in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for XRP/USD is consolidating near the oversold levels.

Major Support Level – $0.6000

Major Resistance Level – $0.7000

Charts courtesy – Trading View

The post Ripple Price Technical Analysis – XRP/USD Could Test $0.50? appeared first on NewsBTC.

Muscovites can now vote on things like whether to change the building entrance door or hire a new management company using an ethereum-based platform.

It’s bad guys and if anything, we can start meditating and hope Satoshi appears out of thin air to support BTC. Vitalik in the meantime can say something so nice to neutralize all this FUDs.

ETH and BTC drives cryptocurrencies prices and if there is indirect threat of their underlying economics through outright ban of ICOs without reconsideration or excessive regulation, prices tumble. They already are.

NEO, EOS, Lumens, LTC and NEM (despite recent higher highs) are on a meltdown. However, you are probably a trader reading this. The first reaction is to liquidate your DA holdings until BTC finds strong footing say at $5000 or there about.

Let’s have a look at these charts:

XLM/USD (Stellar Lumens)

The slide is on guys. Taking cue from yesterday’s preview, we can confidently say that sellers are in charge. Yes indeed, Lumens prices are $0.05 away from the main resistance line at $0.30 and while at it, the slide and break below the middle BB in the weekly chart is nothing but chilling for positional traders.

Anyway, with this technical development, we should be aligning our positions and looking for sell entries in lower time frames. I will recommend selling Lumens with every retest of $0.28-$0.30 with immediate targets at $0.20 which coincidentally is the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement level and our key support line.

XEM/USD (NEM)

Admittedly, many thought NEM prices were finally on a recovery path after losing more than 90% of its value since peaking in late December 2017. Well, the appreciation has been short lived if current technical formation is anything to go by.

To begin, we can zoom out to the weekly chart and while NEM is still trading above last week’s highs, yesterday’s bear candlestick threatens to erode recent gains.

The altcoins slide in general will drag NEM down and that’s why I will be bearish despite the 15% gain on March 12-13. Any close below $0.25 and last week’s low will definitely invalidate this weak bull move.

On the contrary, if buyers “band” and drive prices past $0.60, there will be some flicker of hope for NEM. Before then, bears are fattening.

EOS/USD (EOS)

Picking out bottoms or tops is dangerous and catching a falling knife is not always something to smile about. In the daily chart, EOS prices were in a brief accumulation but that seem to be bread for bears.

Sellers are on the roll and even after some higher highs relative to the lower BB in the daily chart, the depreciation in the weekly chart is nothing but RAPID! Not only are sellers confirming last week’s bears but that close below the middle BB is worth noting.

Besides, even last year’s highs of $5.5 seem not to deter sellers. From the charts, immediate bear targets should be between $4.2 and $4.4 and remain that way until after there is a shift of momentum.

At the moment, every stochastic high in the lower time frames (<4HR) should be selling opportunities.

LTC/USD (EOS)

I must admit, LTC is on the sword and maybe Charlie Lee knew something! Damn! Even after a reprieve a couple of weeks ago, prices are now sliding down the roller-coaster and I mean this is hard to see!!

First, should this week end up bearish and below $200, then know for a fact that $100 is the next destination. That is not rocket science guys. If we infer historical set ups even from other securities and /or assets, a strong break below the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement of this coins high lows mean odds of prices testing 78.6% Fibonacci retracement level is high.

It’s the same pattern happening over and over again. At the moment, bears might hit $160, pause, recover slightly before the assault and the battle for $100 begins. That’s around last year’s highs and a main break out level.

NEO/USD (NEO)

It’s a meltdown in NEO and this might rage on for sometimes. Well, maybe not forever but how about this facilitator losing more than 80% of its value? After all, this is the only coin under our radar that has been a tad bit resilient when bears were running havoc in IOTA and the likes.

In the weekly chart, it’s a shower moment and while we were hopeful of a slight appreciation towards $100, sellers are actually stepping on gas. NEO prices are actually trading below the middle BB.

Bear momentum is high, sellers are having field day! I recommend shorting on every stochastic high with ambitious targets of $40 with first pay load release at $55 or last week’s highs.

All BitFinex, Bittrex and CoinBase charts courtesy of Trading View

The post NEO, EOS, LTC, NEM, Lumens: Technical Analysis March 15, 2018 appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Highlights

• ETH price declined sharply and moved below the $650 and $620 support levels against the US Dollar.
• There was a break below a major bullish trend line with support at $685 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).
• The pair is now trading well below the $600 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

Ethereum price is under heavy selling pressure against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. ETH/USD remains at a risk of more losses towards $520 and $500.

Ethereum Price Trend

There was a new bearish trend initiated from well above $700 in ETH price against the US Dollar. The price declined heavily and broke a few important support levels such as $680, $650 and $620. It even moved below the $600 level and traded towards $550. The worst part is the fact that the price is now trading well below the $600 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

The downside move was initiated after a break below a major bullish trend line with support at $685 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. The pair traded as low as $569 recently and it may continue to slide in the near term. An initial resistance on the upside is around the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last drop from the $703 high to $569 low. However, the most important resistance is near $635-650. The mentioned zone is near the 50% Fib retracement level of the last drop from the $703 high to $569 low.

Any further gains could be limited and the price may face sellers near $650. On the downside, the price may break the recent low of $569. Once there is a break below $569, the price could head towards the $550 and $540 levels.

Hourly MACD – The MACD is placed heavily in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI – The RSI is currently in the oversold region.

Major Support Level – $550

Major Resistance Level – $650

Charts courtesy – Trading View

The post Ethereum Price Technical Analysis – ETH/USD Decline Below $600 appeared first on NewsBTC.

You’ve probably heard of “forks,” a way of making changes to cryptocurrencies. Now researchers are realizing there’s a new kind.

A new gaming ecosystem could empower players and help casinos reduce risk. #SPONSORED

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

• Bitcoin price continues to exhibit downside momentum as it tests the 38.2% Fibonacci extension level on the daily time frame.
• Recall that price broke below a double top pattern to indicate that bearish pressure is picking up.
• The Fib extension tool shows the next potential downside targets if this behavior keeps up.

Bitcoin price appears to be aiming for the next support levels on the daily time frame as shown by the Fibonacci extension tool.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is above the longer-term 200 SMA on this time frame to indicate that the path of least resistance is to the upside. This suggests that bullish momentum is still present and that the longer-term uptrend could still resume.

However, the 100 SMA has been holding as dynamic resistance recently and bitcoin price has broken below the 200 SMA dynamic inflection point to signal that it could also hold as a ceiling from here.

Stochastic is indicating oversold conditions, though, so sellers must be exhausted from the latest drop. RSI has some room to fall, so bitcoin price might follow suit.

At the moment, bitcoin price is finding support at the 38.2% extension near the $8000 marl. Stronger selling pressure could take it down to the 50% extension near the swing low at $6450 then further on to the 76.4% extension at $3610.4. The full extension is located at $1063.4.

Reports that Google will ban cryptocurrency ads weighed heavily on bitcoin price, as well as other altcoins, starting in June. Recall that Facebook previously took similar action, banning ads on binary options, initial coin offerings and cryptocurrencies back in January.

To top it off, the CFTC issued a subpoena to major cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex while the SEC announced an emergency asset freeze on an initial coin offering. Rumors are also swirling about potential bans in China, something that has already led to a sharp selloff in bitcoin in the past.

The post Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis for 03/15/2018 – Longer-Term Downside Targets appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Points

• Bitcoin cash price declined sharply and moved below the $1,000 support against the US Dollar.
• There was a break below a crucial bullish trend line with support at $1,010 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
• The pair is now trading below the $900 level and it remains at a risk of more losses.

Bitcoin cash price is under a lot of pressure below $1,000 against the US Dollar. BCH/USD is likely to extend declines below the $900 level.

Bitcoin Cash Price Decline

There was a solid rise in selling pressure on bitcoin cash price, which pushed it below $1,000 against the US Dollar. The price declined sharply after it failed to move above the $1,050 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average. Sellers got control and pushed the price below the $950 and $900 support levels, which is a bearish sign in the near term.

More importantly, there was a break below a crucial bullish trend line with support at $1,010 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair. The pair traded as low as $870 recently and it remains at a risk of more losses. An initial resistance on the upside is around the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $1,060 high to $870 low. However, the most important resistance is now around $960-970. The 50% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $1,060 high to $870 low is also near $970.

Any major upside correction from the current levels could face sellers near $960 and $970. Above $970, the $1,000 level is a key barrier. On the downside, the recent low of $870 is a short term support followed by $850.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for BCH/USD is showing a lot of bearish signs.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BCH/USD is now in the oversold levels.

Major Support Level – $850

Major Resistance Level – $970

Charts courtesy – Trading View

The post Bitcoin Cash Price Technical Analysis – BCH/USD Crashes Below $1,000 appeared first on NewsBTC.

Crypto market: down but still strong. #PRICE_ANALYSIS

The ATO has officially warned the public to beware of scammers demanding fake tax payments in the form of Bitcoin.

ATO Doesn’t Take Bitcoin Yet Mate

It is a scenario that is most often related to the elderly. A scammer calls on the phone and delivers a line about back taxes or some tax refunds due, then asks for a credit card number to go ahead and clear up the problem. The old scam has taken on new currency though as reported by the Australian Tax Office on their official website.

Assistant Commissioner Kath Anderson was quoted in the online notice as saying “We became aware of scammers seeking payment in Bitcoin last year. So far we have seen over $50,000 paid in Bitcoin to scammers claiming fake ATO tax debts,”

Though it should seem obvious that the tax office isn’t yet taking cryptocurrency to settle debts the site lists even stranger, less legitimate ways people have been tricked into making payments. Some of the other most frequently reported methods people have been hoodwinked into paying with are iTunes, pre-paid Visa gift cards, and even direct deposit into third-party bank accounts.

“Even more concerning at the moment is that more than half of all losses are a result of scammers convincing taxpayers to make deposits or transfers directly into third-party bank accounts. Roughly $1.2 million was reported lost in this way in 2017.”

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies prove to be especially popular with online scammers due to the anonymity inherent in the transactions from one owner to another. Once the coin has been transferred it is almost impossible to track down either the location or the identity of the recipient.

Scammers Prey on Greed

There is a whole online economy now based on crypto scams which mostly entail convincing someone that are going to increase their Bitcoin holdings overnight somehow.

Two prevalent scams are Bitcoin flipping and Bitcoin pyramid. Flipping scams usually will offer holders of Bitcoin the highest possible rate in cash for their coin after a small registration fee is paid. The cash, of course, is never paid and very often the Bitcoin is stolen as well.

Bitcoin pyramids work like any other pyramid scheme except the pay in is in Bitcoin, the payout is nothing except for the scammer that started it and then it is everything. Bitcoin or any of the top cryptocurrency names are often used as bait to get personal information from people. It may be a key number for your coin or information linked to social media to gain personal information.

The ATO has posted a checklist of ways to protect yourself from scammers by controlling personal information. Warning against sharing any kind of tax, drivers license or passport identification numbers. As well as being cautious about what types of information gets posted on social media platforms.

Overall they suggest thinking over any request from supposed tax officials to make sure they sound legitimate. And a reminder that no, they don’t accept either Bitcoin or iTunes gift cards as forms of payment, yet.

The post Australian Tax Office Warns Public About Bitcoin Scammers appeared first on NewsBTC.

The parent company of beer maker Anheuser-Busch has taken part in a blockchain pilot in a bid to test the tech for global shipping uses.