Day: May 2, 2018

The Wall Street Journal reported Telegram has raised $1.7 billion in anticipation of an initial coin offering (ICO). However, the company has instead decided to scrap its much publicized ICO in favor of beefing up its popular messaging service and expanding into tokenization.

Also read: Microsociety Fort Galt in Chile Uses Bitcoin to Build Anew

Telegram Scraps ICO

Paul Vigna details how Telegram has “brought in so much money from a small group of private investors that it is calling off a planned sale of cryptocurrency to the wider investing public.” The company is effectively ditching its ICO after having raised a cool $1.7 billion.

It’s an interesting time for Telegram, to put it mildly. Recently, the encrypted messenger service celebrated gaining 200 million users. Almost immediately, the Russian government attempted to force it to provide user information, and a way to backdoor decrypt, in an effort to combat terrorism. Pavel Durov, Telegram’s charismatic founder, flatly refused, pulling lawyers from the determinative Moscow hearing. Soon after, the service was summarily banned throughout Russia.

That, in turn, set off a wave of protests, including supporters in the country flying paper airplanes (the company’s logo) as a symbol of resistance. Even Mr. Durov openly engaged in the fight, using his personal channel to suggest ways to hack around the ban. If all that wasn’t enough, Telegram’s European services ghosted for most of the continent a few days ago, and sporadically throughout the rest of the world, causing major disruptions.

Perhaps then it’s no wonder Mr. Durov is looking not to explore the ICO realm further but will instead use that newly raised cash to beef up existing services.

Telegram Open Network

According to the Journal, the company is expanding into a “digital payments platform” to compete with the likes of Bitcoin core. It will point a great deal of its new money in that direction, titling the effort the Telegram Open Network. “The network, which will be built using ‘blockchain’ ledger technology, ‘can become a Visa/Mastercard alternative for a new decentralized economy,’ the company noted in a 23-page description of its plans,” Mr Vigna described.

If these plans sound vaguely familiar, they should. In 2017, the company looked toward raising over a billion dollars in hopes of bringing-forth a token, “gram,” which would exist on a larger online platform. The company, again, has often pit its future against that of bitcoin core (BTC), suggesting the reason BTC hasn’t been widely adopted is the result of fundamentally chronic and crippling issues.

A first mover advantage Telegram might have is its near quarter of a billion user base, a built-in ready market for its services. And according to Mr. Vigna, “Telegram reported in a February Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it raised $850 million from 81 investors in a private deal. In March, the company said it raised another $850 million from 94 investors in a second private deal. The offerings were open only to accredited investors, which meant participants needed to exceed income requirements or have net worth of at least $1 million.”

Speculation, besides the above, is that the growing noose around ICOs and their pumpers from regulatory bodies around the world caused Telegram to shift away. This would also make a huge amount of business sense, as typical regulations would expose the likes of Mr. Durov to many more bureaucratic eyes. A private fundraising is just that, private.

Do you think Telegram is making a smart move? Let us know in the comments below.

Images via Pixabay, Telegram. 

Looking for a Bitcoin Cash Block Explorer? Check out Bitcoin.com’s BCH Block Explorer today to find transactions, blocks, and other important blockchain data. 

The post Telegram Rakes in Over $1.5 Billion, Ditches ICO for an Open Network & Token appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Previously hacked crypto exchange Bitgrail was open for three hours yesterday before a court ordered their temporary closure

Telegram has scrapped ICO plans after record-breaking private fundraising, and plans a new form of digital payment system on their own network.

ICO isn’t needed after raising $1.8 billion in private funds

Telegram Group Inc. announced that it is ending plans for public fund raising since it has raised so much money from private investment. Originally the startup messaging service created by Russian brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov planned to launch their public ICO for the gram coin in order to fund their Telegram Open Network (TON) but since they took in almost $2 billion in two rounds of private funding the ICO has been scrapped.

As was reported in the Wall Street Journal Telegram’s initial plans were to raise $1.2 billion dollars to build their TON network evenly split between private and public rounds of fundraising. After it raised a reported $850 million in its first round of private investment in February and then matched that number in another private round in March they decided to cancel the public funding round.

An unnamed source told the WSJ that it was because the regulatory environment had changed over that time period. That is the SEC has begun to focus on ICO’s which in this case could bring scrutiny onto company executives. Private fundraising isn’t subject to the same rigorous examination as a public round would be.

Money Will be Used to Expand the TON

Telegram has released a 23-page description of it’s updated plans since their private investment rounds. In it, they describe building out the technology for the TON network as well as further development and maintenance of its main messenger service. In addition the plans mention a “Visa/Mastercard alternative for a new decentralized economy,” to be based on their blockchain network.

Telegram has argued that current cryptocurrencies in the form of Bitcoin and Ether haven’t attracted a mass market due to structural flaws but with their access to such a large user base, they will be able to bring the new technology to a broader market.

Pavel Durov is the well-known face of Telegram who started the Russian equivalent of Facebook, VKontakte, which he sold in 2013 in order to start Telegram. Since then Telegram has gained over 200 million users and some controversy as well. Described as the messaging platform for criminals by some detractors because of its inherent encryption, Telegram is banned in the brother’s home country of Russia.

When the Russian government recently blocked 18 million IP addresses in the country in hopes of blocking the messaging service, Durov encouraged users to toss the companies signature paper airplanes out of their windows.

Image from Shutterstock

The post Telegram Cancels ICO After Raising Nearly $2 Billion in Private Money appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Highlights

• Ripple price is slowly moving higher and is currently trading above $0.8400 against the US dollar.
• There is a key connecting bullish trend line forming with support at $0.8650 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair (data source from Kraken).
• The pair is currently facing resistance at $0.8750, which is a major pivot level for more gains.

Ripple price is preparing for more upsides against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. XRP/USD should clear $0.8750 for a push above the $0.9000 level in the near term.

Ripple Price Support

There was a nice recovery from the $0.7800 swing low in Ripple price against the US Dollar. The price traded higher and broke the $0.8000 and $0.8400 resistance levels. The current move is encouraging since the price surpassed the $0.8500 resistance and the 100 hourly simple moving average. There was also a break above the 61.8% Fib retracement level of the last downside move from the $0.9105 high to $0.7815 swing low.

At the moment, the price is testing a major hurdle at $0.8750. The stated $0.8750 level acted as a resistance on many occasions and is currently preventing an upside break. Once buyers succeed in clearing $0.8750, the price could move further higher towards $0.9000. Above this last, the price may perhaps retest the last swing high of $0.9100. On the downside, there is a key connecting bullish trend line forming with support at $0.8650 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair.

Looking at the chart, the pair remains well supported on the downside at $0.8600. Moreover, the 100 hourly simple moving average is near $0.8500 to prevent declines. Therefore, if the price corrects lower, buyers are likely to protect losses below $0.8500.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for XRP/USD is now back moving nicely in the bullish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for XRP/USD is moving higher towards the 70 level.

Major Support Level – $0.8500

Major Resistance Level – $0.8750

The post Ripple Price Technical Analysis – XRP/USD Could Rally Towards $0.9100 appeared first on NewsBTC.

Some bitcoin data points seem easy enough to measure, but beware, there’s more nuance to those numbers than you might think.

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

• Bitcoin price is still in an uptrend and attempting to break past the $9000 barrier.
• Price is also inside an ascending channel on its 1-hour chart and appears to be setting its sights on the top.
• A continuation of the rally could take bitcoin price up to the $9500 level.

Bitcoin price bounced off the bottom of its ascending channel pattern on the 1-hour chart to show that bulls are still in the game.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is above the longer-term 200 SMA to indicate that the path of least resistance is to the upside. In other words, the rally is more likely to continue than to reverse. However, the gap between the moving averages has narrowed to signal weaker bullish momentum.

If a downward crossover materializes, bitcoin price could fall back to the channel support at $9000 for another test. Stochastic is already dipping into overbought territory to reflect exhaustion among buyers, which suggests that sellers have a chance at taking over.

Market Factors

The dollar got a boost even after a brief selloff during the FOMC statement. Policymakers made some notable changes in their actual statement, leading some to have doubts about the pace of tightening in the months ahead.

Bitcoin price has managed to stay resilient, though, as Goldman Sachs reportedly has plans to have bitcoin trading operations. This way, it can allow its clients to invest some of their funds in the industry, which would be supportive of liquidity and volumes.

As it is, bitcoin is already gaining adoption as a store of value and medium of exchange, which could continue to keep prices supported. Apart from that, many expect more exchanges to go live or tap into more markets, also supporting trade activity.

Lastly, the emergence of ETFs based on bitcoin could create simpler ways for the investing public to enter the space.

The post Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis for 05/03/2018 – Can Bulls Keep Charging? appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Highlights

• ETH price is trading higher and it recently broke the $700 resistance against the US Dollar.
• There was a break above yesterday’s highlighted key bearish trend line with resistance at $685 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).
• The pair may continue to gain traction and it could even break the $720 level in the near term.

Ethereum price is gaining momentum against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. ETH/USD is back in a positive zone and it could trade towards $725-730.

Ethereum Price Trend

A good support base was formed near $660 in ETH price against the US Dollar. The price started trading higher and it broke the $665 and $670 resistance levels. It opened the doors for more gains above $670 and $700. During the upside move, the price succeeded in clearing the 76.4% Fib retracement level of the last drop from the $700.53 high to $584.50 low.

Finally, there was a break above yesterday’s highlighted key bearish trend line with resistance at $685 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. The pair even broke the $700.00 level and the last swing high at $700.53. This means the price may continue to trade higher towards the 1.236 Fib extension of the last drop from the $700.53 high to $584.50 low. At the moment, there are many positive signs above $700 and it seems like buyers could push the price towards the $725 and $730 levels. On the downside, the broken resistance near $685 may act as a support if the price corrects lower.

Looking at the chart, the price is placed nicely above $700 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. Any correction from the current or a bit higher levels are likely to find buyers near $700, $685 and the 100 hourly SMA.

Hourly MACD – The MACD is moving nicely in the bullish zone.

Hourly RSI – The RSI is heading higher towards the 75 level.

Major Support Level – $685

Major Resistance Level – $727

The post Ethereum Price Technical Analysis – ETH/USD Could Surpass $725 appeared first on NewsBTC.

FOMO Moments

Markets are slowly inching upwards as we near the end of another week in cryptoland. The dip was short-lived and total market capitalization is at a two monthly high of $440 billion. Bitcoin has not made significant gains over $9,000 but is up 2% on the day at $9,250. The momentum this time is coming from the altcoins and most of them are in the green during the morning’s Asian trading session. Today we feature a new altcoin that has just pushed its way into the top 25 and it is Bytecoin.

The revamped Coinmarketcap website is reporting a 24% jump in BCN which has nudged Zcash out of the top 25 this morning. Currently trading at $0.0064 this relatively unknown altcoin has spiked from $0.0051 this time yesterday. The pump started a couple of hours ago and this crypto is now on the move. Over the week Bytecoin is up 30% mostly due to this morning’s spike. Monthly gains are an impressive 190% from $0.0022 this time last month. Against Bitcoin this newcomer to the top 25 has made 22% on the day at 70 satoshis and 25% on the week from 56 sats this time last Thursday.

BCN is another privacy focused altcoin with its own wallet, according to the blurb on the website instant private transactions are provided all around the world by the Bytecoin Network, they are totally untraceable, and they don’t require any additional fees. There have been no significant announcements on the Twitter feed to produce this spike but it has been enough to boost market cap to almost $1.15 billion, on a par with Zcash.

Most of the trading volume in BCN has been on HitBTC as this altcoin has yet to be listed on the major exchanges in Southeast Asia. Daily volume is around $8 million at the moment and rising. Bytecoin is another of those high supply, low price coins with 184 billion of them supplied and circulating.

Total market capitalization for all cryptos has risen again today by 4.75% to $441 billion, the highest it has been for two months. Trade volume is up 17% to $27 billion and most altcoins are looking bullish right now. Others performing well during Asian trade this morning are Bitcoin Cash up 12%, Iota jumping 15.5% and VeChain up 10%.

More on Bytecoin can be found here: https://bytecoin.org/

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 possible fundamentals.

The post Asian Cryptocurrency Trading Roundup May 3: Bytecoin Breaks $1Billion Market Cap appeared first on NewsBTC.

AUSTIN, Texas, May 02, 2018 – Algebraix has assembled an accomplished team of advisors with a wide range of industry experience. The Algebraix Advisory Board is made up of experts from finance, media, and blockchain technology.

The Advisory Board members are the following:

Rob Gregory, President of WhoSay, a Viacom company

Ichiro Minamikawa, CEO at Cointed Japan, a multi-service blockchain company

Eric Ervin, CEO of Reality Shares, Inc, creator of the first Blockchain ETF BLCN
Andrew Essex, Co-founder and CEO of Droga5

Richard Li, General Partner at Alphablock.com

Charles Silver, CEO of Algebraix commented, “We are fortunate to have such an elite group of advisors help us grow and establish a new media paradigm where individuals control their data and get paid from advertisers. It’s time to end data exploitation and this group of elite executive advisors can help Algebraix achieve its mission.”

About Algebraix.io

Austin, Texas-based Algebraix is a leading media company empowering individuals with control over their personal data and putting revenue where it belongs: in the wallets of consumers. For more information, visit algebraix.io

###

Media Contact

Michelle Ray
[email protected]

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.

On the back of the break-out year for ICOs in 2017, in which $5.6 bn was raised, 2018 has already proven that the ICO is not a fad — funds raised through ICOs by the end of April have already exceeded $6.3bn. After the resounding success of ICOs in 2017, Invictus Capital expects to see an increase in projects focused on leveraging the unique attributes of blockchain technology towards industry-specific sectors and use cases.

The Hyperion fund is a syndicated venture capital fund focused on early-stage investing through SAFTs, private and public pre-sales and ICOs. The Hyperion Fund provides investors access to a diversified portfolio of professionally vetted early stage investment opportunities, and additionally offers many benefits to entrepreneurs, going far beyond financial support. On the 30th of April, the priority sale for the Invictus Hyperion Fund will begin, followed by the public sale on 3 May.

“We have been thoroughly impressed with the applications for funding that we have already received and are excited to partner with present and future applicants,” – Daniel Schwartzkopff, CEO Invictus Capital.

The application portal on the Invictus Capital website is where relationships with entrepreneurs begin. Invictus Capital’s goal is to make sizable investments in the best emerging projects, and to discourage opportunists who know their project has little merit and will not withstand the scrutiny of Invictus Capital.

The team at Invictus Capital are experienced entrepreneurs and held an ICO (CRYPTO20) that was one of the top 25 most successful of all time at its conclusion.

Once Invictus Capital has completed the due diligence process and has moved to support a project through an investment typically in the range of $250k to $2m, it will begin to leverage relationships within the venture capital community, inviting investors to support a project alongside Invictus Capital. Investment networks of this type are highly beneficial as a degree of confidence can be placed in a project when another team of experts has already vetted it. Similarly, co-investing increases the chances of a project succeeding by ensuring that it can acquire the necessary budget to continue its development and hold a successful ICO.

Receiving support from Invictus Capital through the Hyperion Fund gives credibility to a project, ensuring that a professional team has thoroughly vetted it and chosen to invest — furthering the chances of success. Beyond this, Invictus also assists with smart contract auditing, token economics and introductions to their exchange, legal and marketing partners to assist with the public ICO raise and eventual token listing.

“As the ICO market matures, we are confident that independent investors are getting wiser, making it more difficult for entrepreneurs to simply ride the wave of ICO-hype to succeed. While the amount of funding raised globally through ICOs will continue to increase, so will the degree to which entrepreneurs need to justify their value proposition to investors, the credibility of their team and business model, and tokenomics,” concludes Schwartzkopff.  

Invictus Capital will partner with talented visionaries, giving them practical support to fortify their pitches and credibility with which to distinguish themselves from the crowd. To entrepreneurs in need of early-stage support, Invictus Capital looks forward to reviewing your applications and beginning a partnership with you.

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.

Goldman Sachs is launching a new operation that will use the firm’s own money to trade bitcoin related contracts on behalf of its clients.