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Coinbase: 42% of World’s Best Universities Offer Crypto Courses

Coinbase: 42% of World’s Best Universities Offer Crypto CoursesThe ecosystem’s largest bank and quasi-exchange, Coinbase, commissioned a survey about higher education (students and faculty) attitudes toward crypto and blockchain. They found over 40% of leading universities around the world offer at least one course in blockchain or crypto, and 25% of all students, regardless of major, said they would consider taking classes in […]

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Coinbase: 42% of World’s Best Universities Offer Crypto Courses

The ecosystem’s largest bank and quasi-exchange, Coinbase, commissioned a survey about higher education (students and faculty) attitudes toward crypto and blockchain. They found over 40% of leading universities around the world offer at least one course in blockchain or crypto, and 25% of all students, regardless of major, said they would consider taking classes in either subject.

Also read: EXCLUSIVE: 3D Gun Proponent Cody Wilson Defiant, Offers Firearm Blueprints for Sale

Coinbase and Qriously Team to Survey University Attitudes Toward Crypto

US crypto bank and exchange Coinbase has an interest in taking temperatures regarding cryptocurrency, especially in an extended bear market. That in mind, the bank teamed with Qriously to take the pulse of the top 50 universities in the world, as determined by US News & World Report rankings. They also asked students about their interest in subjects such as crypto and blockchain.

Takeaways of the study include finding nearly half, 42%, of the globe’s best universities offer at least one course on either the subject of blockchain or crypto. And, as Coinbase explains, “Students from a range of majors are interested in crypto and blockchain courses — and universities are adding courses across a variety of departments.”

Coinbase: 42% of World’s Best Universities Offer Crypto Courses

Researchers at Qriously sampled 675 students, 50 international universities, along with interviewing students and professors personally. One business school professor in the United States noted, in a matter of just four years, the amount of students enrolling for his offering on blockchain boomed from an initial 35 to 230, a 6X increase. 

Qriously, the company, hit its stride last year by reliably predicting the rise of certain political parties thought long dead in British politics. The London-based ad-tech company helps develop advertisements for mobile applications, using pointed questions to users while cataloguing their answers. Those answers are then repackaged as curated ads. The company has been around in one form or another since 2010.

Crypto Job Market Demanding Skilled Workers

New York University’s Stern School of Business finance department chair noted, “A process is well underway that will lead to the migration of most financial data to blockchain-based organizations. Students will benefit greatly by studying this area.” He believes the rise in student interest has been pushed along not only by interest in a new technology but also because more and more companies are searching for crypto-related skills.

Another finding had to do with interest among students not normally known for their tech acumen, namely the Humanities or Social Science areas. Dawn Song, University of California at Berkeley professor of computer sciences stressed, “Blockchain combines theory and practice and can lead to fundamental breakthroughs in many research areas. It can have really profound and broad-scale impacts on society in many different industries. The techniques used in blockchain aren’t necessarily new,” but rather are areas “where research and even education has been around for a really long time.”

Coinbase: 42% of World’s Best Universities Offer Crypto Courses
Coinbase continues, “Universities, in turn, are forming research centers and adding more crypto-related courses, in part to meet rising demand and also because they now see cryptocurrency as an area worthy of serious academic study.” Indeed, their findings found crypto related classes smuggled into departments such as finance and anthropology, rather than just traditional computer science.

“In fact,” the survey asserts, “the rise in offerings across disciplines maps to student interest: Students with a diverse set of majors say they’d like to take cryptocurrency classes, […] Nearly half of all social science majors expressed interest in taking a crypto class.”

70% of All Universities Offer a Crypto-Related Class

Though their “analysis found that 42 percent of the top 50 universities offer at least one class on blockchain or cryptocurrency, and 22 percent offer more than one,” if their findings included already existing courses in crypto, a whopping “70 percent of universities offer at least one crypto-related class.”

The United States appears to be leading the pack, as only “five of the 18 international universities on the list, or 27 percent, offer at least one class on blockchain or cryptocurrency. And only two — Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and National University of Singapore — offer more than one.”

Coinbase: 42% of World’s Best Universities Offer Crypto Courses
And of those US colleges, “Cornell offers the highest number of classes when including cryptography, cryptocurrency, or blockchain. The 28 courses include ‘Anthropology of Money’ and ‘Introduction to Blockchains, Cryptocurrencies, and Smart Contracts,’ which covers the cryptocurrency bitcoin and ‘the technological landscape it has inspired and catalyzed,’ according to the course description,” the study detailed.

Stanford University is top among non-traditional crypto class offerings, and “its Center for Blockchain Research this summer to bring together students and faculty from across the school’s departments to work on various aspects of cryptocurrencies and blockchain,” the study revealed. Stanford professor of computer science, Dan Boneh, mentioned, “every time he talks with a new team in the group he finds himself walking away with three new research ideas. ‘There are new technical questions being raised by blockchain projects that we would not work on otherwise,’ he says.”

Is it important to onboard more college students and universities into crypto? Let us know in the comments below. 


Images via Pixabay.


We’re celebrating Bitcoin Journalist Pioneer Jamie Redman’s work. Check out Jamie Redman’s author archives. It’s an encyclopedia, a living history of crypto. 

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NASAA Provides Update on ‘Operation Cryptosweep’ Crypto Crackdown

The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), announced today, August 28, that the regulatory organization is actively investigating more than 200 initial coin offerings (ICOs) and cryptocurrency investment vehicles as part of the previously revealed Operation Cryptosweep initiative. Operation Cryptosweep Takes Aim at Unregulated Crypto Investments Back in May 2018, the NASAA announced Operation Cryptosweep

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The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), announced today, August 28, that the regulatory organization is actively investigating more than 200 initial coin offerings (ICOs) and cryptocurrency investment vehicles as part of the previously revealed Operation Cryptosweep initiative.

Operation Cryptosweep Takes Aim at Unregulated Crypto Investments

Back in May 2018, the NASAA announced Operation Cryptosweep – one of the “largest coordinated series of enforcement actions by state and provincial securities regulators in the United States and Canada”. The new task force immediately began investigating, at scale, a wide range of cryptocurrency-related investment products and ICOs. Today, the NASAA published a new press release providing an update, recommitting its efforts in cracking down against crypto-related fraud.

In the update, the NASAA revealed that since Operation Cryptosweep launched in May, the coordinated effort has resulted in a grand total of 46 “enforcement actions involving ICOs or cryptocurrency-related investment products.”

NASAA President and Alabama Securities Commission Director Joseph P. Borg said that in addition to “committing significant regulatory resources to protect investors from financial harm involving fraudulent ICOs and cryptocurrency-related investment products,” the NASAA is also working to raise awareness of the “regulatory responsibilities” industry participants bear.

Regulators aren’t just uncovering cases of fraud. They’re also finding “many potential violations of state and provincial securities laws,” mostly pertaining to a lack of properly registering products as securities before issuing the product to investors – as is the case with many ICOs.

“While not every ICO or cryptocurrency-related investment is a fraud, it is important for individuals and firms selling these products to be mindful that they are not doing so in a vacuum; state and provincial laws or regulations may apply, especially securities laws. Sponsors of these products should seek the advice of knowledgeable legal counsel to ensure they do not run afoul of the law. Furthermore, a strong culture of compliance should be in place before, not after, these products are marketed to investors.”

The NASAA took the opportunity to remind market participants to register with their respective regulatory agencies, and to remind investors to do their due diligence before investing in any product, registered or otherwise. Borg even suggests that just because an offering is registered, it can still be fraudulent so investors must do their “homework and contact your state or provincial securities regulator with any concerns before parting with your hard-earned money.”

How Can Investors Protect Themselves?

A recent study conducted by research firm Satis Group found that as much as 80% of all ICOs were identified as scam, proving that Operation Cryptosweep is necessary to enforce compliance across the booming ICO industry. So how can initial coin offering investors stay safe?

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission says to watch out for “red flags” commonly found in ICO investment schemes. These include endorsements from celebrities, the promise of guaranteed returns, a lack of regulatory compliance, optional credit card payments, and more.

 

Image from Shutterstock

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Deloitte: 84% of Businesses Say Blockchain Mainstream a ”Matter of Time”

Multinational professional services network Deloitte has published results of its 2018 Global Blockchain Survey, with significant findings including that 84% of businesses believe blockchain mainstream adoption is just a matter of time, with the biggest issue to this identified as regulatory concerns. A total of 1,053 companies took part in the survey across seven countries: Canada, the …

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Multinational professional services network Deloitte has published results of its 2018 Global Blockchain Survey, with significant findings including that 84% of businesses believe blockchain mainstream adoption is just a matter of time, with the biggest issue to this identified as regulatory concerns.

A total of 1,053 companies took part in the survey across seven countries: Canada, the US, Mexico, France, the UK, Germany and China. Respondents came from ten different industries, with the majority part of financial services, technology/media/telecommunications, and consumer products and manufacturing. Nearly all of the respondents held C-level or equivalent positions, with the largest functional area represented being from information technology.

Key Deloitte findings

  • 84% of businesses responded that they believe it was only a matter of time before blockchain ”achieves mainstream adoption”.
  • The most significant advantage of blockchain over existing systems in the respondents’ industries was voted as the potential for greater speed compared to that currently in use, at 32%; just 2% said they did not see any advantage of blockchain over their established systems.
  • 84% agreed that blockchain-based solutions brought higher levels of security than conventional information technologies.
  • When questioned on the greatest barriers for implementing blockchain technology, 39% cited regulatory issues, 28 % a lack of in-house skills or understanding, and 6% said there were no barriers.
  • The most dominant stakeholders enquiring about blockchain strategies were suppliers with 54% of the businesses experienced this, followed by market analysts at 48%; only 7% had received no such queries.
  • Supply chain blockchain solutions were the most popular response for current use cases the companies were working on at 53%, Internet of Things came second with 51%, and digital identity at 50%; of the businesses surveyed, 4% were not working on any.

The US is falling behind

When it comes to blockchain, the Deloitte survey indicates that the US is not number one. In fact, of the US companies that participated, blockchain had been deployed in production at a much lower rate than those from other countries; 14% of US respondents have begun internal blockchain productions compared to 50% in China and Mexico. It also fell behind other countries when it came to hiring new employees with blockchain experience with just 24% of countries doing so. China was the highest performing in this category with a staggering 86% investing in industry-skilled workers.

Canada is getting it right

In contrast to its neighboring country, Deloitte found a ”vibrant and growing community of blockchain enthusiasts and entrepreneurs” in Canada, putting it at the forefront of both blockchain and cryptocurrency innovations. There is apparently no signs of innovation slowing down in the country, not since Ethereum, in fact, the analysis states.

Part of this success can be attributed to a consistently evolving role of regulations that tend to keep up with changes that blockchain brings, something the US has been struggling with. Despite regulatory concerns being the top issue for the majority in regards to adoption, two-thirds of Canadian respondents do not believe this will be a barrier in their country.

Financial services face pivotal issues, lead progression

The financial services sector may have been the first to explore and globally recognize the potentials of blockchain but its investment is being outperformed by the automotive, life sciences, oil and gas, and tech, media, and telecom sectors. Several significant issues were cited by the participating financial service companies including scalability and security.

As organizations look to explore the extensive number of blockchain solutions within reach, scalability must be addressed. As referenced above, 84% of surveyed companies said they believed blockchain powered systems were more secure, although security is still a major topic discussed by financial services as the ”new threat matrix” is still emerging.

Interestingly, over half of respondents from the oil, gas and automotive industries said that they viewed blockchain uses primarily as ”a database for money or an application for the financial services industry”,’ in conflict with the significantly high number of executives from those industries that claimed to have ”excellent- to expert-level” blockchain understanding. Those from the life sciences and financial services sector voted in far greater numbers that the use cases for blockchain expand far past just financial service provision.

Executives from the financial sector have indeed been leading the way in reexamining areas where the technology can be used to improve the processes and functions of operations that have been static long-term, unsurprisingly ahead of their colleagues in other sectors in terms of development.

”Closer to its breakout moment every day”

The Deloitte survey concludes that academic hypothesis from five years ago is gradually coming into fruition; developers are moving past stages of learning and exploring its potential, to identifying and creating business directed applications. ”[Blockchain] is getting closer to its breakout moment every day”, analysis from the survey reads, pointing to the participating executives’ responses that they plan to make major moves in the field over the following several years.

It continues to suggest a practical future for the technology: ”Instead of concentrating on how to use blockchain to support a specific product or idea, the time has come to focus on evolving blockchain itself… we’re seeing the most dramatic progress being made by those organizations that have willfully jumped into the deep end of the pool.”

 

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Ripple Price Analysis: Buy Dips In XRP/USD Above $0.3300

Key Highlights Ripple price climbed further higher and traded above the $0.3500 resistance against the US dollar. There is a major bullish trend line formed with support at $0.3415 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair (data source from Kraken). The pair is currently correcting lower, but it is likely to find support near

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Key Highlights

  • Ripple price climbed further higher and traded above the $0.3500 resistance against the US dollar.
  • There is a major bullish trend line formed with support at $0.3415 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair (data source from Kraken).
  • The pair is currently correcting lower, but it is likely to find support near $0.3410 and $0.3350.

Ripple price is gaining pace against the US Dollar while it is stable vs and Bitcoin. XRP/USD could decline a few points, but buyers remain in control above $0.3300.

Ripple Price Support

There were solid bullish moves in Ripple price above the $0.3300 support area against the US Dollar. The XRP/USD pair traded further higher and climbed above the $0.3500 resistance. The trend was positive and the price settled above the $0.3400 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average. A fresh weekly high was formed at $0.3581 and later the price started a downside correction.

It declined below the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last ride from the $0.3248 low to $0.3581 high. However, there are many supports on the downside near the $0.3400 level. There is also a major bullish trend line formed with support at $0.3415 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair. The trend line support is just above the 50% Fib retracement level of the last ride from the $0.3248 low to $0.3581 high. Should the price decline below the $0.3410 and $0.3400 support levels, it could test the next support at $0.3350.

Ripple Price Analysis XRP USD

Looking at the chart, ripple price is moving nicely in a bullish zone above the $0.3300 pivot zone. If there is an extended correction, buyers are likely to appear near $0.3410 and $0.3350. On the upside, resistances are seen near $0.3500, 0.3580 and $0.3600.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for XRP/USD has moved back in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for XRP/USD is currently near the 50 level.

Major Support Level – $0.3410

Major Resistance Level – $0.3580

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Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD Could Correct Towards $285-286

Key Highlights ETH price traded above the $290 level and almost tested the $300 resistance against the US Dollar. This is an ascending channel in place with support at $291 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken). The pair is likely to correct lower in the near term towards the $286 or

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Key Highlights

  • ETH price traded above the $290 level and almost tested the $300 resistance against the US Dollar.
  • This is an ascending channel in place with support at $291 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).
  • The pair is likely to correct lower in the near term towards the $286 or $285 support.

Ethereum price is moving nicely above $285 against the US Dollar, but stayed bearish vs bitcoin. ETH/USD may well correct lower towards $285 before resuming upsides.

Ethereum Price Trend

There was a slow and steady rise in ETH price from the $274 swing low against the US Dollar. The ETH/USD pair traded higher and broke the $285 and $290 resistance levels. There was even a close above the $285 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average. The price climbed higher and it almost tested the $300 resistance zone. A high was formed at $298.31 and the price is currently correcting lower.

It is currently testing the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the recent leg from the $274 low to $298 high. More importantly, there is an ascending channel in place with support at $291 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. If there is a break below the channel support, the price may well test the $286 support. It represents the 50% Fib retracement level of the recent leg from the $274 low to $298 high. Additionally, the $285 level is also a decent support for buyers in the near term.

Ethereum Price Analysis ETH USD

Looking at the chart, ETH price is placed nicely above the $285-286 zone. If it bounces from the channel support, it could retest the $298 high. Above the high, the price is likely to break the $300 resistance for a new intraday high. On the downside, below $291, the $285 and $286 levels are important supports.

Hourly MACD – The MACD is slightly placed in the bullish zone.

Hourly RSI – The RSI is currently correcting lower towards the 55 level.

Major Support Level – $286

Major Resistance Level – $298

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Beyond bitcoin: How the world is experimenting with the blockchain – CNBC


CNBC

Beyond bitcoin: How the world is experimenting with the blockchain
CNBC
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) or blockchain as it’s more commonly known was pioneered by the creator of bitcoin, a digital currency. Bitcoin’s blockchain is a public ledger of activity that stores information about all the transactions taking

and more »


CNBC

Beyond bitcoin: How the world is experimenting with the blockchain
CNBC
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) or blockchain as it's more commonly known was pioneered by the creator of bitcoin, a digital currency. Bitcoin's blockchain is a public ledger of activity that stores information about all the transactions taking ...

and more »

Bitwise, Morgan Creek Set Up Digital Asset Index Fund

Morgan Creek Digital Assets and Bitwise Asset Management, two well-known cryptocurrency hedge funds, have launched the Digital Asset Index Fund to give institutional investors a safe, regulated and efficient way of investing in the crypto markets. An index fund like this provides a better alternative to exchange-traded funds (ETFs), especially since it is backed by …

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Morgan Creek Digital Assets and Bitwise Asset Management, two well-known cryptocurrency hedge funds, have launched the Digital Asset Index Fund to give institutional investors a safe, regulated and efficient way of investing in the crypto markets.

An index fund like this provides a better alternative to exchange-traded funds (ETFs), especially since it is backed by actual cryptocurrency and, therefore, directly impacts spot crypto demand. The launch illustrates how crypto hedge funds can provide the infrastructure institutional investors need amid the rapid growth in the number of hedge funds to 466. Some believe this is far more important than the approval of a Bitcoin ETF in the US.

The Digital Asset Index Fund covers 75% of the crypto markets, according to market cap and includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Litecoin, Dash, Zcash, Monero, Ethereum Classic and OmiseGo. Some 85% of the fund consists of Bitcoin and Ethereum, essentially bulking up with main cryptocurrencies with some slight diversification into others. The weighting for each crypto in the index fund is re-calculated every month to account for changes in market caps.

Ripple is specifically excluded from the Digital Asset Index Fund because Ripple Labs and the Ripple Foundation control more than half of its supply. The token is often excluded from crypto rankings due to this but when included, it is third in the ranks with a market cap of USD 14 billion. Stellar isn’t included in this index fund either, although the reasons for that are unclear.

This Digital Asset Index Fund is similar to the Coinbase Index Fund which launched in June 2018. The latter includes fewer cryptocurrencies, however, with only Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum Classic being accounted for. The Coinbase Index Fund requires a minimum investment of USD 250,000, while Bitwise’s minimum investment is a relatively smaller USD 50,000. Both index funds require investors to be accredited in the US.

 

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Litecoin Price Analysis – Smooth and cheap

The Litecoin network continues to run smoothly and cheaply, despite being less flashy than it’s competition. The project has suffered from a lack of planned development over the past few months, which shows in the lack of GitHub commits, tweets, and we…

The Litecoin network continues to run smoothly and cheaply, despite being less flashy than it’s competition. The project has suffered from a lack of planned development over the past few months, which shows in the lack of GitHub commits, tweets, and website. The Litecoin summit should serve as much needed lifeblood to rally the community towards new development and adoption goals. LTC led the charge towards SegWit adoption before Bitcoin, essentially acting as a live testnet.

Ripple (XRP) Price Watch: Rejected at Range Resistance

Ripple Price Key Highlights Ripple has been on a tear but is currently hitting a roadblock at the top of its 1-hour range. If the ceiling keeps holding, price could slide back to the bottom or the mid-range area of interest. Technical indicators are giving mixed signals on whether the range resistance would hold or

The post Ripple (XRP) Price Watch: Rejected at Range Resistance appeared first on NewsBTC.

Ripple Price Key Highlights

  • Ripple has been on a tear but is currently hitting a roadblock at the top of its 1-hour range.
  • If the ceiling keeps holding, price could slide back to the bottom or the mid-range area of interest.
  • Technical indicators are giving mixed signals on whether the range resistance would hold or not.

Ripple is currently testing the top of its range visible on the 1-hour time frame, still deciding whether to make a bounce or break.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA just crossed above the longer-term 200 SMA to suggest that the path of least resistance is to the upside. In other words, the uptrend is more likely to resume than to reverse. However, the moving averages could simply be oscillating at this point as price is still moving sideways.

RSI is on the move down to indicate that sellers could stay in control, possibly pushing Ripple price back to the bottom of the range near 0.3200 or at least halfway through until the area of interest at 0.3300-0.3350.

Stochastic is also heading south but is nearing oversold levels, which suggests that sellers might give in to exhaustion soon and allow buyers to take over. In that case, Ripple could make another attempt at breaking the range top.

XRPUSD Chart from TradingView

Ripple is stalling from its climb on news that the new Morgan Creek Asset Fund hasn’t included this particular altcoin. According to Morgan Creek Digital partner Anthony Pompliano:

“If there’s a central party that owns 30% or more of supply, then we withhold those from the index. Because we think that introduces a lot of additional risk that may not be there if it was a more decentralized network.”

This fund is backed by the Morgan Creek institutional investment house that currently manages $1.5 billion in assets. The index includes bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash, EOS, litecoin, zcash, monero, dash, ethereum classic and omisego.

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Bitcoin Cash Price Analysis: BCH/USD’s Dips Supported Near $550

Key Points Bitcoin cash price extended gains and moved above the $560 and $570 levels against the US Dollar. There are two bullish trend lines formed with support at $555 and $535 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair (data feed from Kraken). The pair is currently correcting lower from the $575 high and

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Key Points

  • Bitcoin cash price extended gains and moved above the $560 and $570 levels against the US Dollar.
  • There are two bullish trend lines formed with support at $555 and $535 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
  • The pair is currently correcting lower from the $575 high and it could test the $550 support.

Bitcoin cash price is back in a positive zone above $550 against the US Dollar. BCH/USD is likely to extend gains once it completes the current correction.

Bitcoin Cash Price Trend

Yesterday, we saw a decent upside move above the $530 resistance level in bitcoin cash price against the US Dollar. Later, the BCH/USD pair extended gains and traded above the $550 and $560 resistance levels. The upside move was strong as the price traded as high as $575. Later, the price started a downside move and declined below $570. There was also a break below the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last leg from the $525 low to $575 high.

However, there are many supports on the downside near the $550 level. An initial support is near $555, which is also a pivot zone. Moreover, there are two bullish trend lines formed with support at $555 and $535 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair. Below the first trend line, the 50% Fib retracement level of the last leg from the $525 low to $575 high is at $550. Therefore, the $550 and $555 levels are likely to act as strong supports if the price corrects lower further.

Bitcoin Cash Price Analysis BCH USD

Looking at the chart, BCH price is currently retreating from highs, but dips remain supported near $550. On the upside, the $575 and $580 levels are important hurdles for buyers in the near term.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for BCH/USD is slowly moving back in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BCH/USD is moving lower towards the 50 level.

Major Support Level – $550

Major Resistance Level – $575

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Bitcoin (BTC) Price Watch: More Buyers Waiting to Join

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights Bitcoin price is still on a tear, making its way up to the top of an ascending channel on the 1-hour chart. Price could be due for a pullback to the channel bottom from here in order to gain more bullish momentum. The Fib levels on the latest swing low and

The post Bitcoin (BTC) Price Watch: More Buyers Waiting to Join appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

  • Bitcoin price is still on a tear, making its way up to the top of an ascending channel on the 1-hour chart.
  • Price could be due for a pullback to the channel bottom from here in order to gain more bullish momentum.
  • The Fib levels on the latest swing low and high show the areas where buyers might be waiting.

Bitcoin price could be due for a quick pullback from its ongoing climb as buyers wait to hop in at better prices.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is safely above the longer-term 200 SMA to confirm that the path of least resistance is to the upside. In other words, the uptrend is more likely to resume than to reverse.

The gap between the moving averages is also widening to signal strengthening buying momentum. The 100 SMA lines up with the 38.2% Fib at $6,800 while the 200 SMA is closer to the bottom of the channel, which might be the line in the sand for a bullish pullback.

In addition, this is near the area of interest or former resistance around $6,700 which might hold as support moving forward. If so, bitcoin price could resume the move to the swing high or the top of the channel closer to $7,200.

BTCUSD Chart from TradingView

BTCUSD Chart from TradingView

RSI is on the move down, though, so there may be some bearish pressure left. This oscillator has a bit of room to head south before indicating oversold conditions, so the correction could go on for a bit longer.

Similarly stochastic is pointing down to confirm that sellers are in control for now. Once both oscillators hit oversold levels and start turning back up, buying pressure could return and allow the climb to resume.

Speculations for a rebound until the end of the year are being revived as traders are now turning their attention to potential approval from the SEC when it comes to bitcoin ETF applications.

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Researchers Find Discrepancies With Top Exchange Volumes

Researchers Find Discrepancies With Top Exchange VolumesThis month the Blockchain Transparency Institute (BTI) published a research report that claims quite a few of the top cryptocurrency exchanges are overstating their trade volumes or participating in wash trades. BTI explains that out of 130 of the top cryptocurrency trading platforms researched, the organization estimates that every 24-hours over $6B worth of digital […]

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Researchers Find Discrepancies With Top Exchange Volumes

This month the Blockchain Transparency Institute (BTI) published a research report that claims quite a few of the top cryptocurrency exchanges are overstating their trade volumes or participating in wash trades. BTI explains that out of 130 of the top cryptocurrency trading platforms researched, the organization estimates that every 24-hours over $6B worth of digital asset trade volumes are faked.

Also Read: Lloyd’s of London Insures Cryptocurrency Custody Service Kingdom Trust

Suspect Exchanges Ratio Ranged Wildly

Every single day billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies are swapped, and today there’s been about $12.9B traded over the last 24-hours. Over the past year or more many exchanges have been scrutinized for false reporting and various data sites have been called into question for over-exaggerated trade volumes. For example, this past March Sylvain Ribes has published a study that revealed some interesting information about trade volumes stemming from exchanges like Okex and Huobi. This month the Blockchain Transparency Institute (BTI) published its research that explains 70 percent of the top 100 exchanges listed on data sites like Coinmarketcap are reporting phony volumes.

Researchers Find Discrepancies With Top Exchange Volumes
List of the top twenty exchanges from BTI’s research.

The methodology in the study used the trading platform’s order book liquidity and the exchange’s unique daily visitor counts. The research was conducted using web traffic data websites like Google Analytics and Similarweb. The BTI researchers detail that the study also used Sylvain Ribes’ slippage paper which BTI says gave them a more accurate analysis of exchange volumes.

“The accurate exchanges outside of the big money exchanges typically have a volume/user to unique visitor ratio of around between 2% and 5% (3.5% average). The suspect exchanges ratio ranged wildly from 10% up to over 655,000%.

For example, Lbank and ZB exchanges which both claim to be in the top 10 of all exchanges, are also claiming to have volume/unique visitor numbers over $214,000 and $74,000 per day, respectively. This is outlandish considering known high liquid markets Bitfinex, Binance, and Coinbase fall between $5,000 and $8,500 per visitor per day.       

Three Times the Stated Volumes

BTI also says there are discrepancies with the exchanges Okex and Huobi as well as the trading platform Bibox. The study details that Binance commands the largest unique visitor per day count, and the top trading platform in the USA is Coinbase. As far as South Korea, the BTI researchers state Bithumb outpaces Upbit’s volumes. However, Upbit disputes this statistic and has contacted the BTI team. The researchers detail they will look into Upbit’s mobile app user count and are willing to work with any exchanges who provide verifiable data. In the end, the study concludes that roughly $6B stemming from 130 exchanges reporting trade volumes are likely phony.  

Researchers Find Discrepancies With Top Exchange Volumes
CMC volumes August 28, 2018 (left adjusted) – (right reported)

“Tallying up the volume numbers of the top 130 exchanges, it is estimated that over $6 billion dollars in daily trade volume is being faked with over 67% of daily volume being wash traded,” details BTI.

Over 70% of the CMC top 100 is likely engaging in wash trading by at least 3x their stated volume.

Phony trade volumes are nothing new to the cryptocurrency industry as there have been accusations since the first exchanges opened. Back in 2013 and 2014, there were many studies and editorials concerning exchanges reporting false numbers. This past July Crypto Exchange Ranks published a report that accuses the site Coinmarketcap (CMC) of incentivizing fake volumes. CMC had made some adjustments to the portal this year which make for a different display of exchange rankings.     

What do you think about BTI’s study concerning discrepancies with exchange activity? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.


Images via Shutterstock, Pixabay, CMC, and the BTI report.


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