Month: March 2018

The world of cryptocurrency is always full of surprises. Some of the market movements are not entirely surprising, although that doesn’t make them any less intriguing to keep an eye on. The Waltonchain price, for example, has seen a massive dip over the past 24 hours thanks to their social media campaign turning into a bit of a disaster.

Waltonchain Price Takes a Major Beating

Even though the start of 2018 was not all that terrible for WTC, things have taken a big turn for the worse. More specifically, in the first weeks of 2018, we have seen the Waltonchain price from $10 all the way to $40. Such spectacular gains are not uncommon in the world of cryptocurrency, even though this value is driven by speculation first and foremost.

In a way, it is not entirely surprising to see the Waltonchain price come down after that spectacular uptrend. With the value dropping from $40 to $20 in a matter of days, the speculators have cashed out their profits and flocked to a new currency altogether. Ever since that time, we have seen a few positive spikes for the Waltonchain price, but nothing that could effectively form a new support level. It now seems things will continue to go down from here, at least for the foreseeable future.

Thanks to the recent social media campaign blowing up in the team’s face, the Waltonchain price is now suffering from another 10% decline. This pushes the Waltocnhain price down to below $19.5, although it is expected this value will go a bit lower in the coming hours. It also represents an 11.15% decline in BTC value and an 11.06% loss over Ethereum. Not a positive trend for Waltonchain, but it is entirely justifiable at this time.

With just $32.58m in 24-hour trading volume, the demand for Waltonchain is not there either. In fact, one could argue things are not looking all that great for this particular altcoin as of right now, even though the opinions will certainly be divided on that front. With more and more people now doubting the honest intentions of this company and its staff members, it remains unclear whether or not the future Waltonchain price will improve or not. People tend to forget these sorts of setbacks rather quickly, though.

As of right now, Binance is the only cryptocurrency exchange generating any notable WTC trading volume. Their BTC and ETH pairs combine for over 93% of all trades, which is not entirely unexpected. Coinnest completes the top three, although their WTC/KRW pair isn’t even generating $1m in volume right now. Binance’s BNB pair is in fourth place, with Kucoin’s WTC/BTC market completing the top five. No non-KRW fiat currency pairs for Waltonchain can prove to be a big problem when looking toward the future, although it is unclear how things will evolve in the next few days and weeks.

The way things look right now, we will see a further Waltonchain price decline throughout most of the day. That doesn’t mean the market will not recover eventually, but for now, it may not make for the best of investments whatsoever. At the same time, every dip is an opportunity to buy in and score big profits when the market recovers eventually, Whether or not the Waltonchain price will ever return to $40 or more, remains impossible to predict as of right now.

The what, why and how of the decentralized banking. #EXPLAINED

Russia is reportedly hoping to pass long-discussed new cryptocurrency legislation by July 1, a report suggests.

A lot of things may happen in the Bitcoin world very soon. The controversial scaling solution known as SegWit is finally improving its market position. While this feature has been available for over a year, it is only now starting to make an impact.

An Increase in SegWit Adoption

Ever since SegWit was released on the Bitcoin network, there has been very little interest in it. More specifically, its usage has remained below or around 10% for several months. Things are finally coming to change in a positive manner. Bitcoin direly needs this scaling solution to kick in. Otherwise, users are at risk of dealing with major fees and transaction delays once again. Such issues always cause major friction among Bitcoin users, for obvious reasons.

With SegWit adoption now on the rise, things are looking good. There are multiple reasons as to why this is happening right now. Some of the key service providers have finalized their integration of this scaling solution. As such, we see a lot more native SegWit transactions on the network as a whole. With exchanges and wallet providers finally getting on board, this situation will continue to improve for some time to come.

The way things look right now, nearly 30% of all network transactions use Segregated Witness. That is a healthy increase, but it’s far from sufficient. In an ideal situation, this number needs to be at least above 65%. Whether or not that will effectively happen, remains to be seen. The new Bitcoin Core client makes it easier to send SegWit-capable transactions, which should help prop up the numbers moving forward.

Can SegWit Save Bitcoin?

Even though this positive trend is materializing, there are still some concerns over Bitcoin’s future. Even with SegWit adoption, a lot of damage to Bitcoin’s image has been done in recent months. Altcoins are cheaper to use, provide virtually the same advantages, and they have a lot of price growth potential for the future. At the same time, Bitcoin has successfully remained the world’s leading cryptocurrency despite serious market volatility.

Furthermore, one has to keep in mind SegWit is only the foundation for bigger and better things. With the Lightning Network inching closer to being finalized, micropayments will come to Bitcoin soon. When that happens, there will be dozens of new market opportunities involving the world’s leading cryptocurrency. All of this is assuming the LN will work as advertised. For now, it is still in beta testing as we speak. No one knows for sure if the Lightning Network will come to fruition this year or the next.

For the time being, we have to wait and see how the SegWit situation evolves. This current trend is extremely encouraging, but it’s only a fraction of what needs to happen. Until the majority of network transactions use this scaling solution, the lingering concerns will not go away anytime soon.

Some of the biggest companies are still on the fence about integrating SegWit as of right now. Moreover, one should not ignore Bitcoin Cash either. Despite its on-chain scaling solution, BCH seems to grow a very loyal following as well. The future looks pretty interesting for both of these currencies in many different ways.

The post Increased SegWit Adoption for Bitcoin, is Lightning Network Next? appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin is stuck in $10,000 range and could witness a big move in either direction, technical charts indicate.

Singapore’s de facto central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, is looking at whether new regulations are needed to protect crypto investors.

Bitcoin still remains largely inaccessible to the majority of people. Anyone can sign up for an exchange, but few people feel comfortable sharing their identity and associated documents. Newsagents in Australia will try to address this problem moving forward. Bitcoin and Ethereum can be purchased in-store at over 1,200 locations.

Newsagents Back Bitcoin and Ethereum

This news comes a rather big surprise to everyone outside of Australia. The country is relatively quiet on the cryptocurrency front, for the most time. With newsagents now offering Bitcoin and Ethereum purchases in-store, things will head in a different direction. Purchasing Bitcoin or Ethereum this way is also a lot more convenient. With no verification procedures to account for, it is a matter of handing over cash and an email address.

For the interested users, this new service will go live as of today. There is a minimum purchase amount of AU$50 to take into account. Bitcoin.com.au is the company responsible for bringing this new service to 1,200 newsagents. The company has been working on making cryptocurrencies more accessible for a while now. Purchasing Bitcoin and Ethereum in-store seems to solve a lot of problems for most consumers.

Gaining trust is pretty difficult in the world of cryptocurrency. This is especially true when trying to sell the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum. An in-store presence seems to be an approach which instills this necessary confidence. Tapping newsagents to provide this invaluable service seems to be the most logical option on the table as of right now. Whether or not consumers will pay more attention to these currencies moving forward, remains to be seen.

Can Cryptocurrency Thrive in Australia?

There is a big market waiting to be tapped when it comes to cryptocurrencies. Most people who buy Bitcoin own Ethereum or vice versa. Attracting completely new users and investors is not all that easy as of right now. When newsagents sell Bitcoin and Ethereum directly to customers, a new market is created. All users need is a mobile device with a compatible wallet to complete the purchase. The process is very simple and can be completed within mere minutes in general.

More importantly, Bitcoin.com.au waves all transaction fees for purchases made today. As of tomorrow, the transactions will carry a fee of five percent, which is only normal. It is a pretty intriguing development that will bring more positive attention to Australia as well. Although they were one of the first countries to ‘legalize’ Bitcoin through taxation, things have been quiet on the Australian front so far. Whether or not this situation can improve, remains to be determined.

A total of 1,200 newsagents will offer this service. It does not sound like an impressive number, but it is a good start. We may even see this feature roll out to other locations throughout Australia moving forward. A lot of people will enjoy the added benefit of buying Bitcoin or Ethereum where they also buy soft drinks and stationary. It may lead to some impulse purchases to help grow the cryptocurrency ecosystem altogether.

The post Australian Newsagents Now Offer In-Store Cryptocurrency Purchases appeared first on NewsBTC.

After months of government action aimed towards curbing crypto trading in India BTCIndia and ETHEXIndia exchanges have announced that they will cease trading by March 5, as reported by the Economic Times.

Indian Exchanges Suspend Trading

BTCXIndia informed it’s customers via email that due to continuing government pressure it would not accept deposits post dated from January 1 and that any deposits received would be automatically returned to customers.

Furthermore, they have advised any customers with existing accounts to withdraw all funds before March 4. Since 2013 BTCXIndia had provided real-time trading of cryptocurrency and Indian Rupees. BTCXIndia made its case here abstracted from the original email.

“Until new rules are in place for tokens on public blockchains, we are halting our trading ( XRP/INR pair) platform and will focus 100% on our consultancy working with permissioned (sic) blockchains. All trading activity will be halted as of March 5th 2018. Please withdraw all assets from your account before then.”

The company stated it would launch it’s blockchain lab this month.

In parity with BTCXIndia, ETHEXIndia announced it too would cease trading any and all cryptocurrency and would return any deposits to its customers automatically. These announcements come after months of contentious relations between government regulators, banks, and cryptocurrency exchanges.

Late in 2017 Indian banks froze the accounts of some of the countries largest exchanges as most of the exchanges were running on borrowed money with little private funding to back them. It was also reported at the time that banks feared cryptocurrency exchanges were using their accounts for purposes other than they listed upon opening and froze assets as a cautionary move.

These actions interested the Indian Income Tax Department which went on to audit several of the larger exchanges including BTCXIndia as well as some private investors. At the time (December 2017) the tax department speculated that the cumulative revenue of the ten largest exchanges in India amounted to around $6 billion.

Ripple Partners with Indian Bank

On the flip side, banks in India are still eager for blockchain technology as Induslnd Bank proved by forming a partnership with Ripple in order to make transferring currency in and out of the country easier and more convenient.

Ripple.net, Ripples blockchain network, now has over a hundred members and can provide instant access to funds all over the world including India, China, and Brazil which are all under-serviced by traditional banks.

“The payments problem is a global problem, but its negative impact disproportionally affects emerging market. Whether it’s an engineer in the U.S. sending money to his family in India, or a small business owner in Brazil trying to move money to their suppliers in another country, it’s imperative that we connect the world’s financial institutions into a payments system that works for their customers, not against them,”

Patrick Griffin, Head of Business Development at Ripple, said.

The post Two Indian Exchanges Suspend Trading as Ripple Gets Another Partner appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Highlights

• Ethereum classic price faced an increased selling pressure and declined below $34.00 against the US dollar.
• There is a major bearish trend line forming with resistance at $34.50 on the hourly chart of the ETC/USD pair (Data feed via Kraken).
• The pair may correct a few pips higher, but it remains sell on rallies near $34.50.

Ethereum classic price is now back in a bearish zone against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. ETC/USD is facing a lot of resistances on the upside near $34.00 and $34.50.

Ethereum Classic Price Resistances

A fresh downside wave was initiated from well above $37.00 in ETC price against the US dollar. The price declined and traded below a couple of important support levels such as $35.00 and $34.00. It even traded below the $33.25 support and settled below the 100 hourly simple moving average. It traded as low as $31.36 and it is currently correcting higher.

It is currently testing the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $37.11 high to $31.36 low. On the upside, the broken support at $33.25 may act as a strong resistance. Moreover, there is a major bearish trend line forming with resistance at $34.50 on the hourly chart of the ETC/USD pair. An intermediate resistance is around the 50% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $37.11 high to $31.36 low at $34.28. Therefore, it seems like there are many barriers on the upside starting with $33.25. The most important hurdle is near $34.50, which won’t be easy to break in the near term.

On the downside, the recent low of $31.36 is a short-term support. A break below the $31.30 level could ignite a downside reaction towards the $30.00 level.

Hourly MACD – The MACD for ETC/USD is currently in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI – The RSI for ETC/USD is now well below the 50 level.

Major Support Level – $31.30

Major Resistance Level – $34.50

Charts courtesy – Trading View

The post Ethereum Classic Price Technical Analysis – ETC/USD Turned Sell on Rallies appeared first on NewsBTC.