Day: August 2, 2018

Key Points

• Bitcoin cash price failed to recover and declined further below $740 against the US Dollar.
• This week’s highlighted crucial bearish trend line is intact with resistance at $745 is intact on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
• The pair is likely to extend the current decline back towards the $680 level in the near term.

Bitcoin cash price declined heavily below $740 against the US Dollar. BCH/USD remains at a risk of more losses below the $700 level.

Bitcoin Cash Price Decline

Yesterday, there was a minor recovery above the $750 level in bitcoin cash price against the US Dollar. However, the BCH/USD pair failed to hold gains and declined back below $750 and $740 support levels. It traded close to the $700 level and formed a low at $705. The current bias is very negative since the price is placed well below the $750 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

If the price breaks the $705 low, it could decline sharply in the near term. The next support below $700 is at $680, which may act as a decent buy zone. Below this, the price could revisit the $650 support area. On the upside, an initial resistance is the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last drop from the $840 swing high to $705 low. More importantly, this week’s highlighted crucial bearish trend line is intact with resistance at $745 is intact on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair. Above the trend line, the next resistance is near the $770 level and the 100 hourly SMA.

Looking at the chart, the price is clearly in a major downtrend below $750. Should there be a break below $705, it won’t be easy for BCH buyers to bounce back.

Looking at the technical indicators:

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

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

Major Support Level – $705

Major Resistance Level – $745

The post Bitcoin Cash Price Analysis: BCH/USD Primed for More Declines appeared first on NewsBTC.

Inconsistency in the way data providers count trades across exchanges has overstated the yen’s importance as a trading pair, CoinDesk research finds.

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

• Bitcoin price is still in pullback mode as it broke below the first Fib and may be setting its sights on the next ones.
• Bulls could be waiting at the rising trend line connecting the lows since late June and the 61.8% Fib.
• Technical indicators are hinting that the uptrend still has a chance at resuming at some point.

Bitcoin is still in pullback mode as it retreats below the 38.2% Fib level and might find support at the next ones.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is still above the longer-term 200 SMA to confirm that the path of least resistance is to the upside. This means that the uptrend is more likely to resume than to reverse. Also the gap between the two is widening to reflect strengthening bullish momentum.

Bitcoin price has tumbled below the 100 SMA dynamic support, though, indicating the presence of selling pressure. Price could still find support at the 200 SMA dynamic inflection point just above the 61.8% Fib.

This retracement level lines up with the $7,000 major psychological mark around the rising trend line connecting the lows since the third week of June. It also coincides with a former resistance area around $6,800, which might hold as support moving forward.

RSI is pointing down but dipping into oversold territory to reflect exhaustion among sellers. Turning higher could bring buyers back in and lead to a continuation of the uptrend. Stochastic is already attempting to pull up from the oversold region to show that buyers might be ready to push bitcoin price back up to the swing high again.

BTCUSD Chart from TradingView

Market Factors

Bitcoin price has taken several hits these days, causing a retreat from the rallies in the previous weeks. However, many say that price is still safely within correction territory as FOMO traders may have also booked profits at higher levels and buyers are just waiting to jump in at cheaper prices.

Still, it would take another set of positive updates to revive optimism in the industry, possibly those pertaining to institutional interest or acquisitions in the space.

The post Bitcoin (BTC) Price Watch: Larger Correction in the Works appeared first on NewsBTC.

Cannabis culture media organization High Times is supposedly the first company to accept cryptocurrencies in an Initial Public Offering.

Arizona Bitcoin dealer Thomas Mario Costanzo, who worked under the pseudonym Morpheus Titania, has been sentenced to 41 months in prison for five counts of money laundering, supposedly to facilitate drug trafficking. His case reveals how far police can go to take down a Bitcoin dealer.

Costanzo’s legal problems started in 2015 with a felony conviction for marijuana possession, a substance which is now legal in most of the United States. In April 2017, police raided his apartment, on suspicions that he was operating an unlicensed money transmitter business via selling Bitcoin. They found no incriminating evidence besides three boxes of bullets. Since he had a felony conviction for marijuana, he was arrested for the bullets, even though it was a personal amount that most other Americans are allowed to possess.

Evidence indicates that Costanzo was a cryptocurrency enthusiast, who had a good reputation as a Bitcoin dealer, and went as far as selling Bitcoin ATMs and Bitcoin mining rigs. When police raided his apartment, they found all of this but there was no evidence they could arrest him for.

Undercover police were said to approached Costanzo, telling him that they were drug traffickers and that they wanted Bitcoin. It is undisclosed just how far these conversations went but some view this move to be tantamount to entrapment.

Further, the police bought Bitcoin from Costanzo for two years before arresting him, indicating that the undercover agent probably developed a friendship with Costanzo.

An undercover agent organized a BTC 80 deal, worth USD 1 million or more depending on when the transaction occurred, and that’s when they arrested Costanzo. The court has ordered the Bitcoins be forfeited, calling it a forfeiture for illegal activity.

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A newly published patent application by Walmart describes management systems of smart appliances using blockchain technology

The North Carolina electoral campaign finance board has denied a proposal made in April 2018 for cryptocurrencies to be allowed as campaign donation funds.

No crypto

Republican candidate Emmanuel Wilder asked the State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement to provide guidance on whether or not he could accept donations in cryptocurrency for his campaign.

In an email to the board, he wrote, “I know that this is new, but there is a great opportunity to show that North Carolina is truly open to new emerging markets.”

Unsurprisingly, Kim Westbrook Strach, the state elections executive director, responded in July, writing, “We do not have the confidence that we could adequately regulate contributions to a political campaign in North Carolina in the form of cryptocurrency.”

The board officially ruled that only US dollars can be used as campaign financing due to monetary limits detailed in state campaign finance regulations.

Wilder replied with some optimism despite his disappointment, writing in a statement, “Blockchain and other technologies hold the ability to improve how business and public institutions operate day to day… Although it might not be today, there will be a day when this technology will have a place in the political process.”

Bitcoin in campaign funds

In 2017, the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission declined to allow Bitcoin campaign contributions; at this point in time, perceptions of the soaring coin were skeptical at best. The response came after a candidate had queried the board on the legality of the accepting the digital currency as campaign contributions.

Executive director of the commission, Mark Skoglund said, “There is no physical manifestation of this currency in any way. It’s just alphanumeric characters that exist only online. It is not backed by any government. The value is subjective and highly volatile.”

In July 2018, candidate for state Governor and Chairman of the Wisconsin Libertarian Party Phil Anderson announced that he would be accepting Bitcoin campaign donations. However, his request for “formal guidance” from the Wisconsin Ethics Commission (WEC) was met with similar skepticism but not an outright ban.

The WEC responded after consulting the Senate and Assembly election committees, describing crypto donations as a “serious challenge” to the state’s law. However, the WEC has made no official challenges or complaint as of yet.

Anderson is undeterred by the cynicism and remains adamant that he and the Libertarian Party will “push all the way back” if the WEC does file a complaint.

Talk of cryptocurrency donations on the campaign trail comes at a very interesting time. A Democratic candidate for the 2020 US Presidential Elections has announced that he will be accepting Bitcoin, Ethereum and other ERC20 cryptocurrencies for his campaign.

There is yet to be any particular backlash at a federal level, which is a surprise considering that Bitcoin was utilized to tamper with the 2016 presidential election.

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An Australian state government has awarded $100,000 to a crypto travel company in an effort to bolster its tourism industry.

Until recently, M&A activity has been rather limited in the cryptocurrency ecosystem — but recent developments suggest an M&A wave is about to hit the blockchain sector

Crypto exchange BitBay has partnered with a Berlin-based equity fundraising platform to allow investors to buy and sell equity tokens with fiat currencies

Coinbase has made another change to its platform making it easier for UK users to deposit and withdraw UK pounds.

The current system has caused frustrations for users particularly those that have UK bank linked to their account and wish to deposit the proceeds of a transaction changing Bitcoin, Ethereum or Litecoin into sterling.

The current process requires users to transfer their cryptocurrency into sterling, then pay into a euro account on the Coinbase platform and only then transfer the funds in Euros to a UK account, incurring SEPA transfer fees and losing money on the exchange as the euros then get changed back into pounds sterling.

The new system was introduced due to numerous complaints regarding Coinbase’s lack of a user-friendly system. Users complained about the difficulties in withdrawing as opposed to depositing. The exchange clearly prefers clients to either buy cryptocurrency with money on the exchange or deposit their funds rather than leave it on the platform which is always a risk due to potential hackers but needs to speed up its process.

The new system, which apparently will not be available to all users immediately, was described by Coinbase UK’s chief executive Zeeshan Feroz as being “progress towards becoming a primary bank account”.

It is suggested that sterling support will mean Coinbase users get access to the UK’s Faster Payments system offering same day deposits and immediate transfers. Coinbase had previously partnered with UK bank Barclays and currently allows most banks to transfer funds into UK accounts.

Last week, the San Francisco Exchange introduced a digital gift card program aimed at revamping old business models, offering European clients other ways of accessing cash for crypto. Many potential clients are dissuaded from signing up to platforms such as Coinbase due to lengthy verification processes, sometimes waiting many weeks before a user’s bank can be verified and linked for payments.

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TRON’s purchase of BitTorrent plus the successful launch of its own mainnet and increasing transaction volumes, appear to show the network is maturing positively. Its recent price movements, however, have not reflected this good news.