Day: August 15, 2018

With the massive crypto market rout that has occurred in ‘red August’ many are now talking of an altcoin extinction which could spell the demise for the majority of them. Which ones are likely to survive is the key question.

Most of the altcoins have dropped way below their price levels this time last year and are 80-90% down from their all-time highs. This has led many to surmise that it could be game over for many of them. According to Ted Rogers, the president of crypto wallet provider Xapo, this extinction level event could wipe out 90% of the altcoins;

We could be in the midst of the extinction-level event for “cryptoassets” that many maximalists have predicted. 90%+ of @CoinMarketCap list will disappear eventually – might as well happen now. Meantime, lower BTC price means incredible opportunity to buy more #bitcoin

— Ted Rogers (@tedmrogers) August 14, 2018

This sentiment has been echoed by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin when he famously said that most of the coins on Coinmarketcap will go to zero back in October before the big run up. Buterin’s comments were aimed more at low quality alts, or ‘shitcoins’ as they’re commonly known in the trade. Rogers, however, believes that only Bitcoin is the king and now is the best time to buy it. He may be onto something since Bitcoin’s market dominance has increased to 53.7%, its highest level this year.

Surviving the Extinction

If there is merit to these words, which altcoins will survive? To find out we need to look back to the ones that have survived such market drops in the past. These are most likely to survive this slump and possibly grow stronger in the future. Going back to 2013/14 is an almost mirror image of the current market situation with a huge pump at the end of the year and a massive dump throughout 2014 when markets shed 80% before recovering again in 2015.

Total Market Capitalization 2013-14

Looking back at altcoins in 2014 we can see Litecoin as the second most popular cryptocurrency, priced at just $9. Also in the top twenty altcoins back then were XRP, Dash, Nxt, Dogecoin, Bytecoin, Maidsafe, and Monero with a few others. The rest have faded into obscurity so it is likely that these few will survive the current market depression.

More recently there were a couple of smaller jumps and drops in 2016. Altcoins around back then include Ethereum which has taken and held the second spot as it is now the platform of choice for 90% of blockchain startups. Also in the top twenty were the same coins as in 2014 plus Nem, Lisk, DigixDAO, Waves, Steem, Siacoin and Stellar. This is not to say that they will definitely be around next year but they have a better chance than some of the newcomers simply because they have weathered these storms before.

A Working Product or System

Another factor to consider is whether a project has a working product or is just still a concept or work in progress. This could be fodder for extinction as non-operational altcoins are weeded out in favor of ones that actually have something on the table or have made significant partnerships.

Looking at today’s top ten Cardano is the worst performing altcoin dropping 93% from its all-time high. It does not yet have a fully working product and is largely conceptual though the roadmap does look busy, whether this is enough to avoid extinction remains to be seen. EOS is similar with no real functioning product and a massive slide of 80% since the hyped pump it had in April. Iota also seems ahead of its time and has lost over 90% since its ATH, and then there is Tron which must be the most overhyped altcoin in the list that still doesn’t really do anything yet.

There are too many to mention, 1845 on Coinmarketcap in fact, and this article is largely hypothetical but if such an apocalypse is to occur, only those that have survived the test of time and have some degree of product functionality have the best chances of surviving again.

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The post Which Cryptocurrencies Will Survive The Altcoin Apocalypse? appeared first on NewsBTC.

Several blockchain associations in South Korea are pushing back against a government proposal they fear will stifle industry innovation.

Playboy is reportedly suing a Canadian cryptocurrency firm for allegedly failing to integrate a “wallet that would support a range of cryptocurrencies across the company’s online media, digital and casual gaming businesses.” Playboy.tv was supposed to be the first of the company’s platforms to feature the new crypto wallet and payment options.

Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space

Playboy Sues Canadian Crypto Company

Playboy Enterprises Inc., the parent company of the Playboy magazine empire founded by Hugh Hefner, is suing a cryptocurrency firm listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) “on allegations of fraud and breach of contract,” the LA Times reported Monday.

In the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles, Playboy claims that Global Blockchain Technologies (CSE: BLOC) “failed to live up to an agreement to integrate blockchain technology into Playboy’s online media channels,” the publication elaborated. The Beverly Hills-based company is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Global Blockchain Technologies, on the other hand, dismissed the suit as a “normal dispute” between two firms, calling the fraud allegation “frivolous.” In a statement to the news outlet, the Vancouver-based company wrote, “Global believes it has a strong defense to the action and will be vigorously defending same.”

Playboy’s Crypto Integration Plan

The two companies made an agreement in March, according to the lawsuit. At that time, Playboy announced:

The company is developing an online payment wallet that will support a number of cryptocurrencies across the company’s online media, digital and casual gaming businesses.

“Playboy.tv will be the first of the company’s media platforms to feature the new digital wallet,” the company wrote, adding that it “will enable the online platform to accept vice industry token (VIT), among other leading cryptocurrency tokens, for access to the brand’s exclusive content.” The crypto wallet is expected to be “available before the end of the year,” Playboy confirmed at the time. Playboy.tv currently advertises over 80 TV shows and over 2,000 episodes.

Launched in April, VIT aims to be a payment medium for the adult, gambling, and cannabis industries. Its market cap quickly rose to a high of $7 million after launch but has been falling steadily to just above $1 million today, with each token currently worth two-thirds of a penny at the time of this writing.

Global Blockchain Technologies made a separate announcement in May that it was “building a cryptocurrency wallet for Playboy that can hold VIT” to be integrated into “the Playboy.tv web media portal.” The company also confirmed at the time that “the integration of VIT into Playboy.tv and the wallet is set to be launched before the end of 2018.”

However, in the lawsuit filed, the LA Times reported:

Playboy said GBT [Global Blockchain Technologies] hasn’t made good on the deal and also failed to pay the $4 million it promised as part of the agreement.

What do you think of Playboy suing Global Blockchain Technologies? Do you think Playboy will find another way to integrate crypto? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Global Blockchain Technologies, and Playboy.

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The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) announced on 14 August 2018 that it will begin offering cryptocurrencies for trading by the end of 2018.

The JSE has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with blockchain and crypto firm Blockstation, who will be developing a digital assets platform for JSE. It will create the cryptocurrency side of the platform, while the JSE will integrate their infrastructure into the platform. Apparently, Blockstation has already been developing this crypto trading platform for the JSE for the past six months.

Most importantly, this new crypto platform will be completely regulated with the same laws used to run the JSE, making the crypto investments safe for institutional investors. This could be a way for institutional investors to buy crypto, which is something much desired in the crypto space now that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not be approved any Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF). A Bitcoin ETF would have paved the way for institutional investment into Bitcoin.

There is some speculation that the JSE will launch its own cryptocurrency and this could become a major asset, similar to how Binance Token (BNB) has become a major cryptocurrency as a utility token on the Binance exchange.

Blockstation co-founder and chief architect Jai Waterman, says, “Our mission is to provide a secure method of trading cryptocurrencies with broker-dealers and stock exchanges. We’re providing the stock exchange the technology for a broker-dealer network and repository, so that from end-to-end, their life cycle of trading – just like with securities – they can do the exact same thing with blockchain and cryptocurrencies.”

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While the cryptocurrency market has tanked in recent months, many cryptocurrency advocates remain unfazed, with some claiming that the adoption rates will only continue to swell. Critics may classify this sentiment as unwarranted optimism, but Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has recently disclosed figures that allude to the fact that the cryptocurrency market is set on growing.

Coinbase Signs Up 50,000 Users A Day

Coinbase has long been at the helm of the cryptocurrency market, holding the business of 25 million consumers to its name. But as this year’s correction hit crypto investors square in the gut, many pessimists began to speculate that it was the beginning of the end for exchanges. Bloomberg reports that this is far from the case, with Brian Armstrong, the CEO and co-founder of Coinbase, recently speaking at the Bloomberg Players Technology Summit to give an inside look into one of the most influential firms in this industry.

Thank you @emilychangtv for talking all things crypto today pic.twitter.com/sEK7P8kd6S

— Coinbase (@coinbase) August 14, 2018

During the interview, Bloomberg host Emily Chang asked the following pressing question — “is this the price of what Bitcoin should be?” Turning the question on its head, Armstrong responded, stating:

“This technology is going through a series of bubbles and corrections. So we’ve been through four or five of them now where Bitcoin made this big runup in price and there was irrational exuberance, and then it corrected back 60 or 70 percent… It has kind of matched the growth of the company (Coinbase). If you go back to 2012/2013 when we started, we had 500 people a day signing up. After the next bubble and correction, we had 5,000 people a day sign up. And now its more like 50,000 a day signing up.”

If these figures prove to be accurate, the Menlo Park-based platform will signup upwards of 350,000 users each week and 18.25 million a year, a breathtaking feat to say the least.  As reported by NewsBTC previously, Binance has also been seeing rampant growth in the face of a bearish market, with CEO Changpeng Zhao claiming that the exchange’s user base has quintupled from two million to ten million since the start of 2018.

Adding a bit more fuel to this cautiously optimistic sentiment, Armstrong drew common connections between the cryptocurrency market to the early-stage Internet-centric market. In the Internet boom at the turn of the century, companies hoping to make it big were popping up left and right. While many would suggest that the most successful firms are established as prices rise, Armstrong noted that Facebook was founded after the Nasdaq’s 70% tumble, which was one of most dismal eras in Internet history.

The Coinbase executive said its much of the same now, alluding to the countless crypto startups that have a shot at becoming the next ‘Facebook’ in the face of a bear market. Furthermore, Armstrong also noted that the adoption of cryptocurrencies is still on the rise, stating:

“People’s expectations are all over the map, but the real world adoption and usage (of cryptocurrencies) are pretty steadily increasing each year.”

If the cryptocurrency market lives up to its full potential, experts like Meltem Demirors expect these early-stage technologies could impact the lives of tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide. This factor, coupled with the ones aforementioned, are just some of the reasons why Coinbase’s CEO believes “that it’s getting harder and harder to become a crypto skeptic.”

Featured Image from Shutterstock

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Bitcoin looks to have fought off recent bear attacks that saw prices landing just above the yearly low of $5,755.

Lu Qi, the head of Y Combinator’s new China division, believes blockchain has great potential for entrepreneurship in the long run.

FOMO Moments

Markets are bouncing from the bottom, XRP, Litecoin, Tezos and Tron recovering from major losses.

After five days of heavy losses resulting in $40 billion being dumped out of crypto markets a bounce has finally occurred. The boards are all green this morning as cryptocurrencies rebound from the yearly bottom a couple of days ago. Market capitalization has climbed back above $200 billion but is still very low looking at the big picture.

Bitcoin has led the charge recovering 6% on the day to $6,420. BTC held support at $6k and has yet to plunge below it again which is a good sign generally. Ethereum, which has been utterly smashed over the past week has gained 6.7% back to trade at $285 which is still close to its lowest levels in a long time.

The altcoins fall harder but they also make bigger gains when things turn around, which they always do. Ripple’s XRP is posting the biggest recovery in the top ten with 8% to $0.286 closely followed by Litecoin with a similar gain to $56.5. The rest are recovering between 5-6% at the time of writing. Bitcoin Cash is the only laggard showing only 4% on the day to pull it back to just below $520.

Further down greater gains can be seen from coins that made greater losses. On the charge at the moment is Tezos up 14% to $1.37, followed by Tron 12% higher to $0.20. Iota, Dash and Binance Coin are also showing double digit gains at the moment. The rest are showing 7-8% gains aside from Zcash which is only up 1.7%.

The top running altcoins in CMC’s top one hundred at the time of writing are Bitcoin Private surging 27%, TenX jumping 25%, Nano climbing 21.5%, BAT up 21% and Zcoin rising 20%. Still getting crushed are Dentacoin losing 6.4% and MOAC dropping 5% on the day.

It goes without saying though that a rally from such a huge drop is totally naturally and the bears could still be lurking to push things further south. Many of these altcoins have dumped in excess of 50% of their value over the past month or two so there is nothing to get excited about with today’s rebound.

Total crypto market capitalization has managed to claw back 6.7% of its losses to $206 billion. Since last Wednesday markets are down 11% and on the month they have been hammered almost 20%. Trade volume has fallen slightly from $15 to $13 billion and things are still pretty dire in 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.

The post Cryptocurrency Market Update: Altcoins Bounce From The Bottom appeared first on NewsBTC.

From the belief that Satoshi is Craig Wright, to some considering that Bitcoin is going zero, this nascent industry has had its fair share of unpopular and contrasting opinions. A former Paypal CEO’s appearance on CNBC has only cemented this theme, with this legacy market proponent likening crypto to a cult.

Bitcoin Is A Cult? I Don’t Think So

Although the cryptocurrency market has undoubtedly gained some steam over the past year, there are still some, mostly those ingrained with an affection for legacy systems, who still believe cryptocurrencies are a scam. One of these naysayers is Bill Harris, who notoriously called Bitcoin “the greatest scam in history” at an earlier date this year. For those who are unaware Bill Harris held a position as Paypal’s CEO from 1999 to 2000, later moving on to found an online financial services firm.

While his extensive resume may make it sound like he’s a proponent of the digital age, his sentiment on cryptocurrencies seems to tell a different story. So isn’t Harris the perfect guest for CNBC’s near-daily coverage of the cryptocurrency market? Right…?

Against all the odds, the former Paypal executive appeared on Tuesday’s Fast Money episode and seemed to be dead set on bashing cryptocurrencies and its underlying technology.

#Bitcoin bulls beware. Former PayPal CEO Bill Harris calls the #crypto a cult and says it is headed straight to zero. pic.twitter.com/SQgf6pIEVk

— CNBC's Fast Money (@CNBCFastMoney) August 14, 2018

Harris opened up his segment on CNBC Fast Money by first calling the community surrounding crypto a “cult” and then slamming down the features that make Bitcoin, well… Bitcoin. Only adding to his unpopular opinion, he stated:

“The ‘cult’ of Bitcoin make many claims — that it’s instant, free, scalable, efficient, secure, globally accepted and useful. It is none of those things.”

In what world was the internet globally adopted in nine years? Out of all people, a former internet-centric company CEO should know that adoption is far from an instantaneous process. Keeping Harris’ statement in mind, it is apparent that he might not have done his research right. Bitcoin has quickly become one of the most secure networks in the world, with immutability through decentralization being one of this network’s primary calling cards.

Last but not least, the Bitcoin Network is scalable, with rapid progress being made on the Lightning Network on a day-to-day basis. And once the Lightning Network or similar scalability solutions come to fruition, it is (more than) likely that instantaneous, (essentially) free and efficient transactions will come closely behind, with a global network of merchants, individuals, and corporations utilizing Bitcoin like never before.

Not only are his criticisms wrong, but the former Paypal CEO forgets to point out the most important thing, Bitcoin is a decentralized network, which facilitates uncensorable, immutable and cross-border transactions. With what legacy payments system can you move hundreds of millions of dollars of value across the world in ten minutes, with a less than $1.00 fee?

Despite the fact that Brian Kelly, CNBC’s in-house crypto analyst and founder of the crypto-centric BKCM fund, also pointed this strength out to the Bitcoin critic, Harris wanted nothing to do with it, further doing his best to bash this nascent asset class.

This negative statement should be a rallying call, or a “call to arms” if you may, that should spark an unrelenting drive for innovation and adoption. As those who truly understand the importance of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies, unlike Harris, aren’t going to miss the crypto (and blockchain) revolution.

Featured Image from Shutterstock

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Key Points

• Bitcoin price recovered nicely after trading as low as $5,894 and moved above $6,200 against the US Dollar.
• There is a new connecting bullish trend line forming with support at $6,180 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
• The pair could revisit the $6,550 resistance zone as long as it is above the $6,150 level.

Bitcoin price rebounded more than $300 from lows against the US Dollar. However, BTC/USD is facing many resistances near $6,450 and $6,550.

Bitcoin Price Analysis

Recently, we saw a downside push in bitcoin price below the $6,000 support against the US Dollar. The BTC/USD pair traded to a new monthly low at $5,894 and later it started an upward correction. Tt recovered nicely and moved above the $6,200 resistance zone. The price even broke the 50% Fib retracement level of the last key downside move from the $6,550 swing high to $5,900 swing low.

It opened the doors for more gains and the price settled above the $6,200 level plus the 100 hourly simple moving average. It is currently consolidating gains near the $6,300 level. On the upside, an initial hurdle for more gains is near $6,390. The stated level is close to the 76.4% Fib retracement level of the last key downside move from the $6,550 swing high to $5,900 swing low. Above $6,390, the price could trade towards the next important resistance around $6.500-6,550. Finally, a push above $6,550 is needed for a real and substantial recovery in bitcoin.

Looking at the chart, BTC is showing a few positive signs above $6,200 and the 100 hourly SMA. However, as long as the price is below $6,550, it could drop once again. On the downside, supports are at $6,200 and $6,180.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for BTC/USD is placed nicely the bullish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI is placed well above the 60 level.

Major Support Level – $6,200

Major Resistance Level – $6,550

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