As is usually the case when Bitcoin loses value, altcoins and digital assets will follow a very similar path first and foremost. In the case of the Stellar price, its losses are starting to pile up rather quickly. Thanks to the latest setback, the XLM value has now dropped below $0.21 again and could go […]
As is usually the case when Bitcoin loses value, altcoins and digital assets will follow a very similar path first and foremost. In the case of the Stellar price, its losses are starting to pile up rather quickly. Thanks to the latest setback, the XLM value has now dropped below $0.21 again and could go below $0.2 over the weekend.
Stellar Price Decline Accelerates
These are not the promising times many cryptocurrency investors, holders, and speculators had hoped for. The year 2018 has been very rough so far and the bearish pressure is not relenting in the slightest. This latest setback is fueled by another SEC ETF rejection, even though this was a predictable outcome. Even so, panic selling has ensued once again, and the markets are bleeding value as we speak.
For the Stellar price, things look anything but promising at this point in time. Its value continues to decline rather quickly, mainly because of Bitcoin’s ongoing struggles in the price department. Over the past 24 hours, the Stellar price has lost another 6.96%, although that may only be a sign of what is yet to come this weekend. Cryptocurrency is not the flourishing and attractive industry it was last year, that much is evident.
To make matters even worse, all altcoins and digital assets will lose value to Bitcoin as well. In the case of Stellar, the XLM/BTC ratio has decreased by 3.28% in the past 24 hours. This only pushes the Stellar price down even further, which seems to indicate this may not be the bottom just yet. A dip below $0.2 is not out of the question at this stage, unless Bitcoin miraculously recovers in the coming hours.
With all cryptocurrencies suffering from a dip in trading volume, it is only normal Stellar fails to escape this gravitational pull. In fact, its trading volume has dipped to just over $50.2m, which is far from impressive. It is insufficient to stop the current price decline, and may signal at another wave of bearish momentum to follow. With no real influx of fresh capital, things do not look good for the cryptocurrency industry as a whole.
Binance is the place to buy, sell, and trade XLM at this point in time. Its BTC and USDT pairs are ahead of BCEX’s BTC and CKUSD markets. CoinEgg adds another BTC market to the five, further confirming fiat currency support is non-existent in these top rankings. Upbit is the first fiat currency pair in the entire top 13, which doesn’t bode well for the future Stellar price momentum.
It is unclear how all cryptocurrency markets evolve in the coming hours and days. All signs point toward even more negative pressure, even though that is the last these markets need right now. For the Stellar price, it seems things will not necessarily improve anytime soon, although cryptocurrencies and digital assets remain unpredictable markets first and foremost. Anything can and eventually will happen in this industry.
China is banning all public venues from hosting any crypto-related events in Beijing’s Chaoyang district, as well as moving to close loopholes for online crypto-related activities
China is banning all public venues from hosting any crypto-related events in Beijing’s Chaoyang district, as well as moving to close loopholes for online crypto-related activities
A bank in tiny Liechtenstein has announced its own security tokens and fiat backed cryptocurrency. Liechtenstein Union Bank AG is to issue Union Bank Payment Coin (UBPC) and suggests that it is planning to become “full-service blockchain investment bank”. The Liechtenstein government has a very pro stance on new technology and has suggested in the …
A bank in tiny Liechtenstein has announced its own security tokens and fiat backed cryptocurrency.
Liechtenstein Union Bank AG is to issue Union Bank Payment Coin (UBPC) and suggests that it is planning to become “full-service blockchain investment bank”.
The Liechtenstein government has a very pro stance on new technology and has suggested in the past that it wants to provide sensible but cohesive blockchain regulations in order to create a stable legal environment that will help further the country’s innovation within the sector.
Under pressure from other European nations to change the status quo in Liechtenstein following the global economic crisis, the county started to look at digital currency at about the same time that Bitcoin was beginning to become a byword in financial markets.
In the meantime, crypto-to-crypto trading hasn’t been regulated and exchanges are beginning to make a home in the country. Once the blockchain legislation goes through, further developments are predicted to be swift. Patrick Bont, the country’s top regulator explains:
“Because we are so small, blockchain companies can move a lot faster here than other countries… You can call us for a meeting on Monday morning and we can meet you for lunch on Tuesday or Wednesday. Very few other places can do that consistently.”
The Union bank has said that the launching of the new UBPC coin is a further step to becoming a blockchain-friendly nation and that the coin will be backed by major currencies such as the Swiss franc. The bank’s chairman Mohammad Hans Dastmaltchi was positive about the new release:
“Our goal is to become the world’s first blockchain investment bank and to provide tangible solutions which help drive efficiencies, reduce cost base and open up new revenue opportunities for our customers and intermediaries alike.”
Both Binance, new to the tiny principality, and Union Bank were highly complimentary about the government’s open stance on blockchain and cryptocurrency. Under the most recent guidelines from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the first fully compliant cryptocurrency exchange is now open for registration.
Japan’s positive stance on cryptocurrencies just got reaffirmed. “We have no intention to curb (the crypto industry) excessively,” said Toshihide Endo, the commissioner of Financial Services Agency (FSA), Japan’s top financial regulator. No Plans to Curb Crypto In a recent interview with Reuters, Endo said that the FSA was trying to promote technological innovation while…
Japan’s positive stance on cryptocurrencies just got reaffirmed. “We have no intention to curb (the crypto industry) excessively,” said Toshihide Endo, the commissioner of Financial Services Agency (FSA), Japan’s top financial regulator.
No Plans to Curb Crypto
In a recent interview with Reuters, Endo said that the FSA was trying to promote technological innovation while ensuring that consumers were protected. He also said that they would like to see the cryptocurrency industry grow under appropriate regulations.
The FSA cracked down on cryptocurrency platforms after the $530 million crypto theft from Coincheck, a bitcoin wallet and exchange headquartered in Tokyo. In July, the authority revealed that it was considering regulating crypto exchanges under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA), instead of their current legal foundation, the Payment Services Act, to bolster consumer protection. If the change is implemented cryptocurrencies, which at present are positioned as electronic money, will be considered as financial products thereafter.
Japan’s push for crypto regulation is for good
The rise of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies is a phenomenon which has left governments across the globe struggling with the issue of how to legally position this new class of assets. Some countries, such as China, have banned cryptocurrencies entirely, some are still brainstorming on how to deal with them, while some are designing regulations which promote their development while ensuring consumer security.
Japan belongs to that class of countries which recognise the disruptive potential of blockchain and cryptocurrencies and are in favour of their growth in a regulated environment. Japan has 16 government-approved and licensed cryptocurrency exchanges, which are also members of the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA). The JVCEA recently applied with the FSA to become a self-regulatory body for cryptocurrency exchanges. The body, which was established after the Coincheck hack, aims to restore the trust of the people in the cryptocurrency industry.
In July the JVCEA proposed a limit on how much investors can borrow in margin trading. Among other regulations which the JVCEA has proposed are a ban on insider trading, trading cap for consumers, and trading restrictions on the under-aged and elderly. The FSA, in its investigation of cryptocurrency exchanges, had found out some major shortcomings which include improper registration of users, shortage of employees, lack of basic internal controls to prevent money laundering, and scope for arbitrary price manipulation. JVCEA’s initiatives for more stringent regulations on cryptocurrency exchanges is a move in favour of stronger consumer protection.
In April, a government-backed study group in Japan also proposed guidelines for ICOs which included rules for identifying investors, ensuring KYC compliance and preventing money laundering, enabling traceability of the progress of projects, and protecting consumers from fraud and manipulation. The proposal, which is being studied by the FSA, may become a law in the coming years.
CoinDeskBitcoin Price Defends Key Support Despite ETF RejectionsCoinDeskBitcoin is teasing a minor rally today, having defended key support at $6,230 despite a string of bad news. At press time, the leading cryptocurrency is changing hands at $6,400 on…
Despite the recent SEC decision to not approve the ProShares, Direxion or the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETFs, the time is almost right for approval of such products. There is, however, at least one structural impediment that should be addressed first.
Despite the recent SEC decision to not approve the ProShares, Direxion or the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETFs, the time is almost right for approval of such products. There is, however, at least one structural impediment that should be addressed first.
FOMO Moments More big declines today; Stellar, VeChain and Iota losing a lot, Bitcoin Diamond the only winner. A predictable market dump has occurred following the US SEC’s decision to deny nine further Bitcoin ETF proposals. This news has not been unexpected so the slump just highlights how immature crypto markets still are. Roughly $14…
More big declines today; Stellar, VeChain and Iota losing a lot, Bitcoin Diamond the only winner.
A predictable market dump has occurred following the US SEC’s decision to deny nine further Bitcoin ETF proposals. This news has not been unexpected so the slump just highlights how immature crypto markets still are. Roughly $14 billion was dumped out of cryptocurrencies as total market capitalization dropped below $210 billion a few hours ago.
Bitcoin has dropped almost 3.8% on the day back to $6,440 and trade volume has dipped below $4 billion. BTC is back to the same level this time last Thursday wiping out all gains it made yesterday. Ethereum, which was already getting hammered, has fallen even further, losing 4% to trade at $275.
As expected the altcoins are all in the red this morning, some getting hit harder than others. In the top ten Stellar has taken the biggest hit losing 7% to fall back to $0.209. Not far behind are EOS, Cardano and Monero all losing around 6%. Tether is moving up the market cap charts as a result of other cryptos continually declining, USDT is now at 8th spot, passing ADA which has crashed over 93% this year.
Similar pain can be seen in the top twenty altcoins with VeChain getting hit 10% and Iota dropping 9% on the day. The rest are also suffering 6-8% losses at the moment and all gains in the short lived rally over the past few days have been wiped out again.
Only Bitcoin Diamond is showing any real gains today, BCD is up 18% to $1.30. The jump has come from what it claims is the first ever e-commerce store, BCD Bazaar, powered by BCDPay with a rather misleading graphic displaying the Apple logo;
Bitcoin Diamond is leading Crypto into Mainstream by now accepting Bitcoin and Bitcoin Diamond to purchase Apple iPhones and Apple iPads and soon will be adding 10,000s of products, available to ship globally to your doorstep! pic.twitter.com/t9Kv9tFrjO
The biggest drops are Nebulas, Cortex, PivX, and Moac all losing 14-18% on the day.
Total crypto market capitalization has fallen 4.6% on the day to $207 billion. A slight recovery from a low of $203 billion a few hours ago has happened. The predictable dump occurred just after the SEC announcement which was fully expected, markets lost $14 billion in eight hours. It seems that any news now is taken as an excuse to dump cryptocurrencies, many of which are at their lowest levels for over a year. The only good news today is for Bitcoin as its market dominance has climbed to 53.4%.
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 one, looking for trends and possible fundamentals.
In a Bitcoin News exclusive, Bitcoin Venezuela founder Randy Brito reveals a wealth of ideas about how cryptocurrency can be used to combat the effects of extreme hyperinflation in Venezuela right now. He takes us on an insightful journey on the ground in the South American nation, uncovering deep skepticism from Venezuelans of both the Petro crypto token …
In a Bitcoin News exclusive, Bitcoin Venezuela founder Randy Brito reveals a wealth of ideas about how cryptocurrency can be used to combat the effects of extreme hyperinflation in Venezuela right now. He takes us on an insightful journey on the ground in the South American nation, uncovering deep skepticism from Venezuelans of both the Petro crypto token and an uncorrupted future for local cryptocurrency exchanges.
When Bitcoin News caught up with him, yesterday had been a crazy day. All API had stopped working (Bitcoin Venezuela’s API is popularly used by locals to keep track of crypto prices) but because the banks were already non-functional, people were more concerned about the latter.
”But Bitcoin is 24/7”, Randy critiqued, wondering why people didn’t care more about the APIs.
What is really happening in Venezuela?
Hyperinflation is hitting Venezuela hard, with consumer prices increasing 82,766% last month compared to July last year. What does this mean for the people of the country?
Randy described the scene in the streets as near chaos; workers desperately try to spend their wages as soon as they are paid on whatever they can find in the streets to store value, later trading their goods with others who have the products they need. People need to bring five bags of cash with them just to buy their weekly groceries. Yesterday, he said, with the new rates only one bank made their new ATM limits public at one million bolivars – nearly enough to buy one-third of a cup of coffee.
Those lucky enough to be in full-time employment are unable to take care of themselves sufficiently without going to the black market, he said, highlighting multiple issues: ”People don’t have bank cards, the banks don’t even have plastic to make new cards.”
Even when workers receive their wages in a bank transfer, they are required to pay a premium of several thousand per cent on anything they buy. Cash is far more valuable right now as there are many things that can only be purchased with physical money to avoid these costs.
Enter Bitcoin
As Randy sees it, cryptocurrency could provide a solution to at least some of these problems: ”Bitcoin could be a common currency denomination… it already has an international market traded against currencies. Bitcoin could create frictionless trades.”
It is also a way of getting around bank transfer limits. As of yet, however, it is difficult to find vendors or service providers willing to accept cryptocurrency payments. This is predominantly because people do not understand how the payment methods work but many more issues surround adoption.
The economic crisis in Venezuela means that many people are not equipped with the necessary tools to trade cryptocurrencies, as they lack smart devices with wallet applications to hold funds. Combined with a lack of relevant education or economic understanding, a Bitcoin revolution in the country is far from imminent. Not to forget also that it is illegal to accept any currency in Venezuelan stores other than the bolivar unless you accept the government imposed exchange rates, or face a fine or even prison. The rates the government has set are so high that nobody is willing to use them and suffer financially.
According to UNICEF, severe food shortages compounded by extreme hyperinflation have led to record levels of malnutrition among Venezuelan children. Photo:Bitcoin Venezuela
Randy believes that the people willing to accept cryptocurrency payments are those who have a history in tech or the digital trading of foreign currencies but it is his ambition to change that with his non-profit, Bitcoin Venezuela.
Nobody should trust Petro
For a Venezuelan like Randy, the Petro token is a laughable concept. He states frankly, “People don’t trust the government here on anything to do with economics or currency management because they have proven to be so bad.”
He believes the idea that each Petro is backed by a barrel of oil is simply not true: ”The Petro is not backed by anything, there is no way to back a digital currency to a physical asset like a barrel of oil without having to trust a third party. Here, that is that government, so I don’t think anyone that understands this concept believes that they are telling the truth.”
Randy said he finds it shocking that anybody from the cryptocurrency or tech community would get excited about it or actually believe the idea, putting it down to either ignorance of how assets actually work or an attempt to do more harm than good. Just as currency traders are unwilling to buy the bolivar, they are unwilling to invest in Petro; there is no trust in the government to produce a barrel of oil in exchange for a Petro as theoretically promised.
While oil production is several times lower than it was ten years ago, what is being produced is being done so to pay off debts. Randy sees Petro as a ”digital bond so they can get debt issued” as it is being offered to countries such as India, who have already refused to use or accept Petro for anything it exports to Venezuela, demanding strong fiat currencies instead.
The issue the government faces now, Randy detailed, is that it needs to produce something that can be exchanged for a stable fiat currency in order to import needed goods.
”Printing another good looking bolivar is not the solution,” he said.
Too early for airdrops
The Bitcoin Venezuela humanitarian aid project began around two years ago, initially raising funds of around USD 200 per month in cryptocurrency. Randy is trying to increase this substantially now, as they are currently feeding over 2,000 Venezuelans a day in their soup kitchens. While he would like to send cryptocurrency directly on the ground to citizens, the current climate does not allow for that.
”People have old cheap phones because of the crime. That’s what is safe to take out on the streets,” he said, referencing the lack of proper tools people have to access cryptocurrency.
Locals line up at a Bitcoin Venezuela soup kitchen. Photo: Bitcoin Venezuela
According to Randy, the few that have been organized by those like the Bitcoin Cash and Nano communities have been small, and the organizers of the bigger ones scheduled in the near future have apparently just been learning that most people don’t have any way to store or spend the cryptocurrency. So whether they really happen or not, or what good they can do is still a question.
Instead, he has different ideas about how cryptocurrency can positively impact change in the country. Ideas that span around empowering people to have their own economic independence before airdrops can really work.
Crypto-driven humanitarian aid
Randy’s non-profit, open source project for cryptocurrency has an objective of improving the tools for people themselves. This involves adapting and translating user interfaces to reach Venezuelans, researching solutions like Bitcoin’s Lightning Network to launch in the country when it is ready, and creating a cryptocurrency index price in bolivar based on the real market price.
Right now, he said, cryptocurrency value is based on the black market dollar with a guide changed manually on a computer just once a day via Bitcoin Venezuela’s API. Randy has coded and rewritten this himself and it has been working pretty well… minus yesterday’s API crash incident.
Another innovation they are working on is the development of cheap, interconnected devices that anyone can set up in their house or around the city that works on a network alternative to the internet. This is to solve problems such as what happened last week when everything crashed: ”People couldn’t make calls, send SMS, or access the 3G mobile network.”
They are currently trying to recruit more help and funding so they can launch these devices, with the ambition of enabling people to transact cryptocurrencies with one another regardless of the country’s poor infrastructure and rid the need of spending bolivar altogether.
A sketchy future for crypto exchanges
Right now, Localbitcoins is the only exchanging pairing Bitcoin with the Bolivar, offering just enough volume to calculate the index price and real market price, as well as having an appealing escrow system. Randy noted that Paxful is looking to enter the market after the last two or three exchanges got shut down for operating without governmental permission that they were required to pay for. He commented, ”This is what Venezuela is about: paying people to do things that you are supposed to be able to do freely.”
With around 16 exchanges planned to open in the country next month, Randy shared some local rumors that they would be run by government officials and their families. As well as this, each exchange apparently had to fund the government by buying Petro tokens and pairing Bitcoin with Petro on the platform.
He speculates that the government hopes to create liquidity for Petro so people around the world might want to actually start buying and selling it themselves, potentially making it the much-needed commodity to export for strong fiat currency.
Changing the perception of crypto
One of the ongoing issues in the cryptocurrency industry is the negative attention it receives in the mainstream press, which often labels it as a tool for illicit activities. As Randy has shown, there is much more to it than that.
”There are people actually using crypto as a tool for solving peoples problems, or at least teaching them how to solve their own problems. Almost no one wants to talk about this because it’s not a good story to put in the news sites, you don’t get something that is clickbait enough and they don’t want to talk about the economics behind it,” he said.
Randy believes that press coverage of humanitarian program such as Bitcoin Venezuela is crucial to getting the positive message about cryptocurrency out there.
To read more about Bitcoin Venezuela or to donate to their humanitarian efforts, visit the website or follow them on Twitter.
Ethereum based tokens, which have recorded astronomical gains against Bitcoin in the bull market of 2017, are on track to see all-time low prices against both Bitcoin and the US dollar. Throughout the past eight months, the Bitcoin price has dropped by more than 70 percent, from $19,500 to $6,500. In contrast, tokens have fallen…
Ethereum based tokens, which have recorded astronomical gains against Bitcoin in the bull market of 2017, are on track to see all-time low prices against both Bitcoin and the US dollar.
Throughout the past eight months, the Bitcoin price has dropped by more than 70 percent, from $19,500 to $6,500. In contrast, tokens have fallen an additional 70 to 80 percent against Bitcoin, demonstrating massive losses in value.
Ontology, Wanchain, OmiseGO, Zilliqa, Pundi X, ICON, and other tokens that were recording 50 to 200 percent gains against Bitcoin up until early 2018, have fallen by drastic margins.
Apart from certain exceptions like 0x and VeChain, the vast majority of tokens remain 80 percent down against Bitcoin.
What is the Future of Tokens?
In the crypto market, tokens are like leverage trading; if the price of Bitcoin remains stable or slightly increases, tokens skyrocket by 10 to 30 percent, but if the price of Bitcoin slightly declines by 1 to 2 percent, tokens see 10 to 30 percent drops.
But, despite the occasional spikes in the value of tokens, it is important to acknowledge that a large drop in value does not guarantee a large spike on the upside.
Jonathan Cheesman, a partner at Distributed Global and a cryptocurrency investor, recently argued that tokens have not fallen dramatically against Bitcoin and the US dollar because of the correction but rather due to the overly high expectations of the cryptocurrency community towards the process being made by decentralized applications (dApps) and blockchain networks.
“The crypto pendulum has likely swung into negative territory on Ethereum. The problems they are addressing — building a decentralized, secure & scalable smart contract protocol — is an extremely difficult innovation. Expectations were clearly too high and we are now gravitating back to a more reasonable place,” Cheesman said.
Building decentralized systems is difficult, as it is solving unprecedented problems related to cryptography, encryption, and security. Augur, for instance, a decentralized prediction marketplace on Ethereum, took more than two years to be deployed on the smart contract protocol of Ethereum, due to the complexity in deploying projects in a decentralized manner.
Tokens present high-risk high-return opportunities, which are challenging for investors in the cryptocurrency market to ignore, given that many investors attempt to inflate their holdings of existing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum with short-term token trades.
But, as Cheesman said, the 2018 correction has been a wakeup call for tokens and major cryptocurrencies in the sector, and investors within the market will have to treat cryptocurrencies as an emerging asset class based on a technology that is still at its infancy.
“That said, this is a necessary wake up call for the folks at Consensys and other projects. Once you open the door to market forces it cannot be closed and investors have expectations that need to be managed. The primary mismatch here is on timeline — this is an early stage technology and should be appreciated as such,” he added.
Where Do Tokens Go Next?
On the base protocol level, many public blockchain networks like Ethereum have seen real progress in scaling with the development of solutions like Plasma and Sharding. Until dApps demonstrate strong network effect and interconnectedness, as Gnosis creator suggested, it will be highly unlikely that tokens reach previous levels they secured in the 2017 bull market.
Despite the recent SEC decision to not approve the ProShares, Direxion or the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETFs, the time is almost right for approval of such products. There is, however, at least one structural impediment that should be addressed first.
(@BitcoinDiamond_) 
