Day: August 9, 2018

Ledger has added 8 new cryptocurrencies, which will now be supported by its Ledger Nano S devices. The company, on August 7, tweeted about the development as a part of its #FirstTuesdayCrypto Initiative – a “monthly rendezvous” for announcing third party app releases.

Good News No Longer a Price Catalyist

Ledger Nano S devices will support PoA, VeChain, Icon, WanChain, Ontology, Kowala, particl and RSK, totalling the number of its applications to 37. The company plans to announce the release of new cryptocurrency applications every first Tuesday of the month.

“Additionally, from now on, the release of new coin applications will happen every first Tuesday of the month, with new third-party device applications bundled in a single release. This will help make expectations clearer for both users and developers, as they will know when to expect new releases to launch. This will also make it easier for Ledger to streamline third-party apps validation, and make sure Ledger devices can support more applications quicker, while keeping the highest standard of security and asset protection,”

the company posted on its website.

The new applications will be available for installation on Ledger devices through its native companion app Ledger Live. However, since the newly added cryptocurrencies are not directly compatible with Ledger Live, users will be required to use a compatible third-party wallet for transactions. Ledger also has plans of developing its own device applications to increase its crypto assets coverage.

Cryptos Gaining Traction But Bears Still Selling

While such news have been observed to have a positive impact on the market value of cryptocurrencies, Ledger’s additions have experienced a sharp dip coinciding with Bitcoin’s price dip in the last 48 hours. PoA fell by nearly 10%, VeChain by 7%, Icon by nearly 4%, Wanchain by over 7%, Ontology by over 12% and Particl by over 3%.

The announcement comes a few days after Coinbase announced that it is considering including a range of new crypto assets to its custodial services. The inclusion of newer, lesser-known cryptocurrencies by major companies like Ledger and Coinbase seems to have spurred from the recognition and acceptance these cryptos are receiving from crypto-enthusiasts globally.

Many educational institutions are including cryptocurrency and blockchain awareness and education courses in their offerings. Investors are diversifying their investment portfolios with new crypto assets as their adoption increases. Goldman Sachs is also considering offering custodial services for crypto assets to institutional investors and thus, contributing to pushing the capital markets industry. According to Jesse Powell, founder and CEO of Kraken, the cryptocurrency market will grow to reach a total valuation of $1 trillion this year.

Hard wallets like Ledger are being adopted by cryptocurrency holders for the enhanced security that they offer. They store the private keys in a secure area of the device, because of which they never leave the device. In 2017, Ledger sold a million hardware wallets worth nearly $53 million. Other major cryptocurrency hardware wallets in the market include Trezor Wallet, Keepkey, Digital Bitbox and Bitlox. Trezor, which support 689 coins in all with a majority of them being ERC20 tokens, is soon going to add support for Ripple (XRP), Stellar (XLM), Cardano (ADA), Monero (XMR) and Tezos (XTZ).

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The two cryptocurrencies most predominantly invested in were surveyed as Bitcoin and Ethereum, with Bitcoin the crypto of choice five times more frequently.

About 76% of respondents who had purchased cryptocurrency said that their primary motive was to make a profit, with half of them saying that they had achieved their set financial goal.

Following profit, 26% said that they were motivated by a wish to follow current trends, 16% said they used it to purchase goods, and 15% invested because of increased media attention and advertising.

Romir conducted the survey as a branch of the Gallup International Association in Russia, with 1,500 Russian respondents taking part. The results were initially published on Tuesday.

Commenting on the survey, Romir’s president Andrey Milyokhin said that the results conclusively show that cryptocurrencies have not yet formed a meaningful financial instrument, dismissing them as a get-rich-quick scheme that the Russian population has experienced before and learned the better of.

A similar survey conducted in January by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion found that over 56% of Russians had heard of Bitcoin in particular, while 74% of Moscow’s population did have knowledge of it.

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Bittrex has finally stepped into the fiat sub-industry of crypto exchanges, recently introducing a plan to roll out USD trading pairs to its thousands of users.

Welcome XRP And Ethereum Classic To Bittrex’s Fiat-To-Crypto Lineup

On Wednesday morning, the Seattle-based Bittrex Exchange announced that it would be launching two new trading pairs come August 20th. This announcement comes amidst the exchange’s plan to finally offer fiat support, which many saw as a long time coming for one of the leading platforms in this rapidly growing space.

Get ready – we’re adding more US dollar (USD) markets on @BittrexExchange. On August 20, we’re launching USD (fiat) markets for ETC & XRP. https://t.co/UVlW4g2B1h

— Bittrex (@BittrexExchange) August 8, 2018

As per a blog post, Bittrex will be adding Ethereum Classic and XRP fiat support, with these two additions joining the company’s exclusive fiat-supported crypto roster, which currently consists of BTC, ETH, USDT, and TUSD.

This release stays in-line with Bittrex’s so-called “phased approach,” whereas the exchange adds fiat trading pairs over time, instead of an ‘all-or-nothing’ approach. The firm added that this procedure eases stress on the exchange’s employees and servers, ensuring that any risk of a mishap is mitigated. Issuing information on the “phased approach,” Bittrex’s communication team wrote:

“While we dream big, we also plan wisely. That’s why we will continue to use a phased approach for USD trading. We are taking our time and ramping up these markets, processes and systems through a measured approach before we open it up to all qualified customers… Our phased approach not only allows us to stress test our systems, but also ensures we have time to properly evaluate which tokens should be added to our USD markets and when.”

A Lifeline for XRP?

While Bittrex’s addition of an XRP/USD trading pair seems mundane at first glance, many were caught by surprise by this move, as it remains to be seen whether XRP is a security in the eyes of U.S. regulatory bodies. With this addition, Bittrex will become one of the first American crypto exchanges to support XRP-to-fiat trading, beating Coinbase and Gemini to the punch. XRP is in need of a lifeline having crashed 90% from its ATH in January, this could prove to be it. XRP is currently trading at $0.342, a new 2018 low.

As it stands, not all users will be able to utilize Bittrex’s fiat features, with only the customers “who reside in eligible states and qualified international regions” and who hold the required documentary prerequisites being allowed to take advantage of Bittrex Fiat.

Can Ethereum Classic Proponents Find Shelter In This Bear Market?

While the market isn’t looking all too healthy, Ethereum Classic (ETC) has continued to be the ‘talk of the town’ in cryptocurrency circles. This is a result of Robinhood and Coinbase both introducing ETC trading integration within the past week. Many saw these two listings as a bullish sign for the price of the asset, but the array of positive developments have had no initial impact on the price of the asset.

So for now, it seems that Ethereum Classic proponents will have to take the full brunt of the stormy market conditions.

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By creating a federally-regulated crypto ecosystem, industry giants aim to make bitcoin a trusted global currency 

TradeLens has attracted a wide variety of entities ranging from port operators and customs authorities to logistics companies and even rival carriers.

Bitcoin could defend the support at $6,000 as the cryptocurrency is closing on oversold conditions as per the technical charts.

FOMO Moments

The train wreck is not over, EOS, IOTA, Ethereum Classic, VeChain still slumping

More doom and gloom this morning in crypto land as traders are dumping digital coins like hot rocks. Another new yearly low point has been hit as market capitalization fell below $225 billion for the first time in nine months. The crypto winter of 2018 is far from over.

Bitcoin has broken through several levels of support over the past couple of days tumbling back another 2.5% today to $6,350. BTC has shed 24% in two weeks, sliding from a high point of $8,400 to its current levels. On the month however the picture does not look as bleak as it is almost back to the same point this time last month. Ethereum has not been so fortunate and is also down 2.2% to $360 which is a new 2018 low.

Altcoins continue to bleed today as many reach lows not seen for over a year. It appears that the entire crypto market has taken the past 12 months to correct itself. While losses in the top ten are not as heavy as yesterday many cryptos including EOS, Stellar, Litecoin and Iota are down over 5%. EOS has lost 73% since April and is down to $5.66 today. Litecoin is back to early November prices and has fallen further today to $62.7.

Further down the list the picture gets bleaker with Ethereum Classic, OmiseGO, VeChain and Qtum dumping another 6-7% on the day. In the top thirty only 0x, Decred, and Maker have not lost any more in the past 24 hours, though their gains are tiny.

Making a recovery at the moment is ChainLink adding 12.4% back to its value, and Japan’s Monacoin which has clawed back 10% on the day. A few other obscure alts are making a little back but the majority are still dumping as the markets get mauled.

Total crypto market capitalization has fallen a further 3% on the day to $224 billion at the time of writing. A dip of $219 billion was made a few hours ago signaling a loss of over $80 billion in a fortnight. This is the new low for 2018 and markets have not been at this level since mid-November when they were strongly bullish. Daily trade volume is currently around $14 billion as the bears continue to dump their altcoins in a FUD fueled frenzy. Will August 9 be known as the lowest level in 2018 or is more pain yet to come to crypto land?

FOMO Moments is a section that takes a daily look at the top 25 altcoins during the current trading session and analyses the best performing ones, looking for trends and possible fundamentals.

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Numerous leading cryptocurrencies have chosen StatX’s new mobile app to share information and directly message contacts through the Crypto and Blockchain community. The app is currently available for free on the App store and Google Play.

StatX: Helping Users Stay Up-to-Date on Their Favorite Crypto

StatX is led by a team of various expertise. Based in Silicon Valley, USA, the executive team consists of technologists and innovators who are funded by top-tier Venture Capitalists. Their vision is to deliver a consistent high-quality service, building an engaging crypto community (critical to blockchain company brand perception and value), where users can interact with one another and stay up-to-date with the latest information.  

The new mobile-app is specifically designed for ICO Investors Relations Communication Managers, Crypto Data Aggregators and Exchanges, Ethereum Smart Contract Followers, Blockchain Creators, Crypto Fund Managers, and Developers. Currently, there are a number of leading cryptocurrencies on board with the unique mobile app – some of these include: Decred, Zcoin, Safe Haven, Chainium, Boosto, and BCT (Blockchain Terminal).

Noah Pierau, Community Builder at Decred, (a leading cryptocurrency with a focus on governance) stated the following about StatX;

“While there are many pure chat applications, StatX has the unique ability to combine technical indicators such as exchange rate and PoS info conveniently with chat functionality, all in one beautiful mobile app. StatX improves the signal to noise ratio in the blockchain community.”

Making an Information-centric Application

The team at StatX have expressed that the issue with current messaging apps, for example Telegram, is that they are ‘conversation-centric’, rather than, ‘information-centric’. Telegram is a widely known application – a sharing platform for messaging and information sharing for ICO/Token companies.

However, many users dislike it, and have been hoping for a new and improved app of its kind, this is where StatX kindly stands in. StatX want to take the opposite approach, providing users with special facilities for the sharing of persistent and dynamic data (which investors and followers are craving).

Some of the information users can expect to see often includes the latest updates on financial data and metrics – for example, market cap, price, token, distribution, social reach, and product roadmap milestones.

Users will never miss an update as the application features notifications that can be enabled so that users are alerted anytime a dashboard stat changes. Additionally, the messaging service promises to deliver a high-quality service at just one tap away. The dashboard addresses the majority of the communities FAQ’s and needs. Only value-add topics and questions are raised and users will no longer need to go on a hunt for admin posts to obtain the information desired.

StratX’s “Secret Sauce”

Prasad Raje, StatX co-founder and CEO offered these words on StatX and it’s growing network;

“Our secret sauce is the unique way StatX combines information and conversation to drive a higher quality and higher value user experience. It’s gratifying to see that our approach has been validated in the marketplace by a growing number of crypto industry innovators such as Boosto, Decred, Foleum, MediBloc, ZCoin and many others.”

There are no disadvantages to the unique mobile app. The high level security system is designed to minimize spam and scams. StatX does not publish an open API (unlike Telegram). Amongst this, Admins have the advantage to have a streamlined and automated process (for sharing information) via the dashboard. Furthermore, admins have the benefit of leverage tools, such as ‘quick reply’ which enables answers to be instantly replied for frequently asked questions.

Reuben Zap, COO of Zcoin, had this to say about the company’s partnership with StatX;

“Zcoin is happy to partner with StatX to deliver Zcoin price and blockchain metrics to our community via StatX. We want this to be a high quality information and conversation channel with all parties interested in Zcoin.”

Boosto CPO Rock Zhang stated;

“By presenting the metrics and company data that we want to share and driving the conversation around that, StatX provides an excellent tool for proactively building and controlling our brand online,”

With many leading cryptocurrencies already on board with the StatX app, the success rate is well and truly clear. StatX is available to download for free on the App Store and Google Play.

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2018 is proving to be a game-changer for the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. Not only are cryptocurrencies witnessing more widespread awareness and adoption, but many countries across the globe are recognising the need for making their stand on the industry clear.

The Philippines Becomes Crypto Positive

Several Asian countries have already done the needful – they are either supporting cryptocurrencies and blockchain-powered projects, or they have banned them. Philippines has decided to take a crypto-positive position, and the country is ready with a 37-page document which delineates its rules for local ICOs. The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission will now require entities planning to conduct ICOs to file an application with it for approval.

“All start-ups and/or corporations organized in the Philippines and/or duly registered with the Commission who proposes an ICO, and start-ups and/or corporations conducting or who will conduct an ICO targeting Filipinos must submit an initial assessment request including the attachments required under these Rules to the Commission in the form and manner directed under these rules not later than ninety days before the start of the pre-sale period,” the SEC states.

The prerequisites for filing an application with the SEC include submission of all team members and advisors to the NBI and police clearances for a reputation check, a detailed White Paper explaining the operations of the company, system architecture & the function of the token, payment of application fees, and a report by an independent legal counsel attesting that the tokens qualify as utility tokens, and not securities.

The Philippines’ move for regulating ICOs, and not banning them, puts it in line with other Asian countries such as Japan and Singapore, which already have a legal framework for allowing blockchain-projects to raise funds from the public. Thailand too has come up with a regulatory framework for ICOs, which mandates any entity seeking to conduct an ICO to first file an application with the Thai SEC for approval.

The South Korean regulators are also working on developing new rules for cryptocurrencies and ICOs are realising that banning cryptocurrencies is an unpopular move with the people. India, on the other hand, has put a banking ban on cryptocurrencies, as a result of which banking platforms are not allowed to interact with cryptocurrency platforms. According to a recent report by Incrypt, a blockchain community, India’s undecided stance on cryptocurrencies may cause 80% of its blockchain engineers to move to more crypto-friendly countries for seeking favourable employment opportunities.

Inarguably, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, which are contributing to a shift in the global economic order by revamping many business processes, are here to stay. The Philippines, with its crypto-friendly move, has stepped up its game in embracing the technology and the trends associated with it, and set an example for many other Asian countries where cryptocurrencies and ICOs are still in a grey area.

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Listen to the 8 August 2018 Bitcoin News Radio Show below.

On this edition of the Bitcoin News radio show, we discuss how the Bitcoin market has dropped significantly following the rejection of the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust ETF and the delay of the VanEck SolidX Bitcoin ETF. We then discuss how quantum computers could be a threat to Bitcoin in the future, but how a possible solution could be switching to a quantum blockchain. Finally, we talk about Honeyminer, which is an easy way to mine cryptocurrency on your personal computer.

Follow the Bitcoin News Radio Show on Anchor, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public, Pocket Casts, and Breaker. We broadcast a new episode every day, covering the most important topics in the crypto, Bitcoin, and blockchain world!

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After a net loss reported in Q1, the Japanese IT giant says it made an 11 percent profit through its crypto business this last quarter.

The current momentum across all cryptocurrency markets does not instill any degree of confidence. All markets are still in the red, primarily because of the Bitcoin price suffering from a major setback in the past 48 hours. Although the momentum seems to improve, the going remains tough for nearly all altcoins. The EOS price is seeing its fair share of problems in this regard.

EOS Price Struggle is Very Real

Even though there are a few altcoins which are hyped up as “Bitcoin killers’, it is evident they all rely on the Bitcoin price momentum first and foremost. No altcoin, asset, or token on the market today can effectively find its own path when the Bitcoin price is going down. The EOS price is a good example of this situation, as it continues to lose value at a rather alarming rate.

Over the past 24 hours, the EOS price has lost another 6.58% in value. This is a rather worrisome setback, although it is not entirely uncommon given the current market conditions. Because of this ongoing decline, the EOS price has dropped to $5.64, a low point which hasn’t been seen since May of 2018. That is anything but a bullish indicator, although there is still a good chance the markets will recover later this year.

Because of the ongoing Bitcoin price declines, the EOS price is also dropping thanks to a setback in the EOS/BTC ratio. Another 3.78% decline in this ratio seems to spell short-term price disaster for this altcoin, although it is still too early to say for sure what the future will hold for the cryptocurrency industry. Any EOS price recovery will not materialize anytime soon, that much is rather evident.

Even though the EOS trading volume still looks very promising, it doesn’t necessarily matter if the market is dominated by sellers rather than buyers. For the time being, the panic selling will continue to affect the EOS market in a spectacular fashion, and a further EOS price decline seems highly likely. It may even drop as low as $5 before the week is over.

Based on the current information, it appears OKEx is leading the pack in terms of EOS trading volume. Its USDT pair is a bit ahead of Huobi’s USDT market and Bitfinex’s USD pair. Binance and BigONE add two more USDT pairs to the top five, although CMC disregards the latter platform for some reason. As such, its fifth place is taken over by Huobi’s BTC market. It will be interesting to see how all of these markets affect the EOS price moving forward.

Until the Bitcoin price recovers some of its lost value, it seems highly unlikely any of the altcoins will benefit from any positive momentum. Given the current market sentiment, it seems highly unlikely the Bitcoin price will see any real uptrend in the coming days, as investors have cooled off on this industry in spectacular fashion. Keeping the overall crypto market cap above $215bn will be a struggle as well, as more bearish pressure looms overhead.