Day: August 30, 2018

As Bitcoin began its monumental run in 2017, rumors began floating around that China was set to crack down on the nascent crypto market. Eventually, those rumors became reality, with the heavy-handed Chinese government reportedly establishing a blanket ban on crypto trading and ICOs. While the crypto restriction was initially effective, it seems that China’s ban hammer isn’t ready to rest on its laurels just yet, with local regulatory bodies setting its eyes on crypto yet again and apparently video games too.

Chinese Regulators Turns Their Eyes On Video Games, Following Crypto Crackdown

As reported by NewsBTC on multiple occasions, regulators across China recently doubled-down on its efforts to restrict the propagation of the crypto industry. Within the past week or two, Chinese regulators have taken the crypto industry by storm, taking drastic measures in an apparent show of force. Some of the country’s measures include restrictions placed upon WeChat’s crypto news outlets, Alipay’s OTC exchanges, crypto-related events, and 124 foreign exchanges that were somehow still available in the country’s intranet.

Most recently, Baidu, the Chinese equivalent of Google, has silenced crypto discussion. According to local media, Baidu has started to impede Chinese citizens from accessing crypto-centric forums, discussion boards, and chat rooms. If any China-based user attempts to access the forums, which have been dubbed the “digital currency bar” and “virtual currency bar,” they will be prompted with a message that notes that the sites are closed due to “relevant laws, regulations, and policies.”

While this is only one of the country’s many crypto-averse moves, it goes to show how adamant Chinese regulators are to stamp the spark that is the cryptocurrency industry.

Although China’s crypto ban may have already thrown some for a loop, in an unexpected turn of events, the Chinese government is making moves to curb the development and use of video games. Citing gaming addictions as a primary issue, China’s regulators are reportedly set to limit the number of new online games released by gaming firms, reports Bloomberg.

For those who are unaware, gaming has become an integral part of the daily lives of Chinese youth and young adults alike. Although some would beg to differ, video game critics tend to believe that video games only hamper the development of Chinese children, and subsequently, the growth and long-term performance of the booming Chinese economy.

Such a ban was seen as a ludicrous move by some, with many critics of the regulatory move noting that China may just be a bit too trigger happy when it comes to imposing restrictions on products, assets, or entire industries. Following the second coming of China’s crypto police, Joseph Young, NewsBTC editor and crypto commentator, joking alluding to the “trigger happy” nature of China’s government in the following tweet.

Waiting for China to ban Chinahttps://t.co/0OjlbZ8d4v

— Joseph Young (@iamjosephyoung) August 24, 2018

Some pundits argue that in the case of crypto and video games, moves to restrict these industries will only backfire. Keeping this in mind, should their bans really be taken seriously? For now, it seems that the Chinese government resolute in its decision to keep these bans in place. But as the age-old saying goes, “rules are meant to be broken.” So maybe these irrational regulatory acts may just be a temporary setback, or roadblock if you may.

Featured Image From Shutterstock

The post China Banned Everything Bitcoin, Video Games Seem To Be Next appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Highlights

• Ripple price extended its downside move and broke the $0.3400 support area against the US dollar.
• Yesterday’s highlighted key bullish trend line was broken with support at $0.3405 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair (data source from Kraken).
• The pair declined towards the $0.3200-50 support area and is currently correcting higher.

Ripple price faced an increased selling pressure against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. XRP/USD is moving higher, but the previous support at $0.3400 could act as a resistance.

Ripple Price Resistance

Yesterday, a short-term downside correction was initiated from the $0.3580 high in Ripple price against the US Dollar. The XRP/USD pair declined and broke the $0.3500 and $0.3450 levels. Later, sellers gained traction and the price declined below the $0.3400 support and the 100 hourly simple moving average. The price also broke the 61.8% Fib retracement level of the last leg from the $0.3190 swing low to $0.3579 high.

More importantly, yesterday’s highlighted key bullish trend line was broken with support at $0.3405 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair. The pair traded towards the $0.3200 support and established an intraday low at $0.3230. Later, the price corrected higher above the $0.3300 level. It also broke the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last slide from the $0.3579 high to $0.3230 low. It seems like the price may slowly climb higher towards the $0.3400 resistance and the 100 hourly SMA. However, it won’t be easy for buyers to clear $0.3400 and the 50% Fib retracement level of the last slide from the $0.3579 high to $0.3230 low.

Looking at the chart, ripple price is following an ascending channel and it could rise towards $0.3400. If it fails to break $0.3400, it could decline back towards the $0.3200 support in the near term. Conversely, above $0.3400 the price may climb back above $0.3500.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for XRP/USD is slightly placed in the bearish zone.

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

Major Support Level – $0.3200

Major Resistance Level – $0.3400

The post Ripple Price Analysis: XRP/USD’s Support Turned Resistance at $0.3400 appeared first on NewsBTC.

A bill has passed both houses of the Californian state legislature which, if brought into law, will define blockchain and require the forming of a government blockchain group within a year.

The bill AB 2658 is now awaiting Californian governor Jerry Brown’s approval. If implemented, it would define blockchain as “a mathematically secured, chronological, and decentralized ledger or database“, representing a huge step in accepting blockchain in the state and elsewhere in the US.

This is a growing trend in the US as Bitcoin News has reported over the course of 2018, with US states signing up to blockchain. Arizona has officially signed into law a bill that allows for corporations to hold and share data on a blockchain. First introduced in February by state representative Jeff Weninger, the bill is intended “to open the door for emerging technologies in Arizona”.

In May, the New York state legislature also presented a bill to create a blockchain task force. If created, the New York task force would prepare a report for the governor, the temporary president of the state senate, and the speaker of the assembly by December 2019. Also, Colorado has passed its own bill which will use blockchain for government record keeping and cybersecurity.

Tennessee signed a bill recently that legally recognizes blockchain technology and smart contracts for electronic transactions. The bill also makes a provision that “protects ownership rights of certain information secured by blockchain technology”.

California’s bill requires that the blockchain group should represent a widespread from the public domain, comprising those from within the industry as well as members of the legal profession, private companies and consumer groups.

Moves at integrating blockchain into legislation has become a race in the US with  Nebraska, Florida, Arizona, Nevada, and Vermont, along with Maine, Hawaii, Illinois, and North Dakota, some of the many US states notably either in the process of presenting bills, enacting legislation or actively utilizing blockchain in state legislation.

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Yesterday, the majority of investors in the cryptocurrency market were bearish towards the short-term movement of major digital assets like Bitcoin, as BTC dipped below the $6,900 mark.

In the past 24 hours, Bitcoin has recovered from $6,800 to $7,000, during a period in which analysts expected the price of BTC to fall to major support levels at $6,500 and $6,300.

Optimistic Daily Close

On August 31, the daily candle of BTC as seen below was formally closed, establishing an optimistic short-term trend that will highly likely be sustained throughout this week. Bitcoin, which traders predicted to fall to the mid-$6,000 region, rebounded strongly to $7,000 and if BTC breaks out above the $7,100 mark in the next 24 hours, a move to $7,000 is said to be a possibility.

1-day Bitcoin price chart taken from Cryptowat.ch

Lil Uzi Vertcoin, a widely recognized technical analyst, said on August 30:

“BTC topped the bollinger bands and rejected the ichimoku cloud resistance here, $7,130 is the resistance to break but it looks more difficult now, expecting $6,700 to $6,500 to be good support. I’ll probably long if we test $6,500-$6,600 again.”

Some traders have suggested that the reverse trend of BTC can be attributed to the expiration of the CME Bitcoin futures market on September 1, which may create a short squeeze and trigger an upward movement for BTC.

Previously, CNBC Fast Money contributor and BKCM CEO Brian Kelly stated that a short squeeze created by the US Bitcoin futures market can contribute to a 10 to 15 percent short-term rally for Bitcoin, leading other tokens and small market cap cryptocurrencies to also recover by intensified margins.

“They (altcoins) are still quite correlated (with Bitcoin). Over the last 60 days or so, Bitcoin has really been the leader — a lot of that had to do with the speculation about an ETF. But what you did see today is stuff like Ethereum almost 10% off yesterday’s lows, stuff like Stellar Lumens — still holding up quite well. So yes, if you get a 10 or 15 percent run on Bitcoin on a short squeeze, it should bring everything else backup,” Kelly said earlier this month.

If the expiration of Bitcoin futures have a similar impact on the price of BTC as it did in early August, then a positive upward movement can be expected.

Stability

In previous months, BTC was wildly volatile in the $6,000 to $10,000 range, spiking from $6,000 to $8,000 within 30 minutes and plunging from $10,000 to $7,000 in hours.

Researchers at Diar said:

Month-on-month volatility has decreased from December 2017 peak, when futures began trading, from 8% now down to 3% (see chart). Whether or not Bitcoin Futures are at play in this instance would be speculative considering that both CME and CBOE Bitcoin Futures trading volume account for a mere 2% against spot trading (Diar, 6 August).

In August, BTC demonstrated the highest level of stability in 14 months, showing that the worst part of the bear market has gradually come to an end and the market has become more stable from the 80 percent correction it has experienced since early 2018.

The post Traders Expect Bullish Bitcoin Move After Daily Candle Close, Tokens Rising appeared first on NewsBTC.

Both the growth in users and increasing economic activity suggests a trend of new entrants using the Stellar blockchain. This is in stark contrast to most other coins in the market. XLM also appears on the cusp of a Coinbase listing, and is working closely with several prominent partners.

After having tracked crypto prices for years, Yahoo Finance now adds a new feature to let users trade 4 cryptos on its iOS app, including dogecoin.

BitMEX says that mining giant Bitmain has “legendary” potential, but future success will depend on management

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

• Bitcoin price pulled back to the area of interest marked previously and bounced off support.
• Price is setting its sights back on upside targets indicated using the Fibonacci extension tool.
• Technical indicators are giving mixed signals in terms of direction, but bearish pressure appears to be fading.

Bitcoin price is resuming its climb after testing the rising trend line connecting the lows since mid-August.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is still below the longer-term 200 SMA on the 4-hour time frame to indicate that the path of least resistance is to the downside. In other words, there’s still a chance for the selloff to resume at this point.

However, the gap between the moving averages is narrowing to indicate slowing selling pressure. The 200 SMA, which lines up with the trend line, also held as dynamic support and could continue to do so moving forward.

In that case, bitcoin price could aim for the 38.2% extension at the swing high next or the 50% extension just past the $7,200 major psychological resistance. Stronger bullish momentum could bring it up to the 61.8% extension at $7,315 or the 78.6% extension at $7,457.70. The full extension is just above the $7,600 mark.

BTCUSD Chart from TradingView

RSI is on the move up so bitcoin price could follow suit while buyers have the upper hand. This oscillator has some room to climb before hitting overbought levels, which means that buyers could stay in the game for a bit longer.

Meanwhile, stochastic just pulled up from the oversold area to indicate a return in bullish pressure. This has more room to head north, also suggesting that the bounce could be sustained.

A bit of month-end profit-taking flows could be seen so be mindful of any sharp dips as traders try to book profits off recent positions. In the meantime, traders still seem optimistic that the SEC could have a more positive decision in the pending bitcoin ETF applications.

The post Bitcoin (BTC) Price Watch: Bulls Defend Uptrend Line, Aiming Higher appeared first on NewsBTC.

A recent study by Satis Group states that the BTC price could potentially reach $98,000 in the next five years