Day: September 8, 2018

Arthur Hayes, the CEO of BitMEX, predicted that once summer comes to a close, as it is now, the crypto market would see a resurgence in activity. So far, it seems that his prediction has come true, with the past week hosting a flurry of developments that have or will have an influence over this early-stage market.

Grayscale Investments Launches $6.3M Horizen Focused Fund

As reported by NewsBTC, Grayscale Investments, one of the foremost firms in the cryptosphere, has just made a $6.3 million investment into the lesser-known Horizen project via the purchase of ZEN tokens. With this investment, Grayscale will be establishing a trust fund specifically focused on ZEN, which will allow accredited investors and institutions to track the performance of the crypto asset via shares. Representatives from both Horizen and Grayscale shared their excitement for this move, which was somewhat unexpected. Horizen’s co-founder and president stated:

“The launch of the ZEN Investment Trust on Grayscale’s platform marks a significant milestone in the continued global expansion of the Horizen platform and the services we offer. Grayscale conducts unparalleled research and due diligence on their investment products, striving to offer regulated and professionally managed exposure to the digital currency market for institutional and accredited investors worldwide.”

For those who aren’t in the loop, the Horizen project (formerly ZenCash) forked off the ZCash blockchain in 2017, with developers seeking to build on top of zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-snarks) to create a privacy-centric ecosystem that offers appealing applications like private transactions, messages, data storage and even voting for secretive individuals and corporations.

Now, Grayscale’s ZEN fund joins seven similar vehicles also run by the San Francisco-based firm, which are the Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, XRP, and ZCash investment trusts. Following this move, ZEN saw a surge in value, even amidst an otherwise bearish market, as investors reasoned that Grayscale backing the project was undoubtedly a bullish signal.

Coinbase Explores Bitcoin-Backed ETF With BlackRock

In a surprising turn of events, Business Insider revealed that Coinbase’s top brass have reportedly set their eyes on launching a crypto-backed ETF. Although this move was to be expected, as Coinbase has long been at the forefront of innovation within the crypto industry, what made this announcement interesting was that the startup was seemingly seeking the help of BlackRock.

According to those familiar with the matter, Coinbase employees recently spoke with members of BlackRock’s blockchain division to tap into the Wall Street giant’s years of experience in launching exchange-traded investment vehicles.  Surprisingly enough, however, BlackRock employees were unable (or did not want) to assist Coinbase in its aspirations to launch a retail investor-focused ETF that would track an array of crypto assets.

It remains to be seen whether Coinbase’s involvement with BlackRock is an ongoing occurrence or just a one-off event, but many hope that it is the former, as a long-term working partnership between the two firms may birth some interesting cryptocurrency-related services, products, and investment opportunities.

Goldman Drops Plans For Crypto Trading Desk, Or Maybe Not?

On Wednesday, it was divulged that Goldman Sachs, a household name when it comes to legacy market financial institutions, would be putting its plans to establish a crypto trading desk on the back burner.

However, Marty Chavez, Goldman’s chief financial officer, rebutted this claim onstage at TechCrunch’s Disrupt San Francisco 2018 conference just days after the original Business Insider report, which has now been immortalized as “fake news” in the eyes of many. Chavez spoke more on the “fake news,” noting:

“I think one of the wonderful things about us is that we get written about a lot. I never thought I would hear myself use this term but I really have to describe that news as fake news.”

So for now, it seems that Goldman’s plan to create a fully-fledged crypto trading desk, which was hinted at in late-2017, will still be moving forward, at least for the time being anyway. Along with forming a desk, the Wall Street firm is still hard at work on an institutional-focused crypto custody service and still offers to make Bitcoin (BTC) futures markets for its clientele.

Former Deutsche Bank Trader Joins Japanese Crypto Exchange Startup

In a move that brings more legitimacy to this nascent industry, Yasuo Matsuda, a former legacy markets trader, has metaphorically downed the red pill, making his foray into the cryptosphere over the past week. Matsuda, who was a Deutsche Bank foreign-exchange dealer for three years, has reportedly been hired by FXCoin, a Japan-based crypto startup.

As per a report from Bloomberg, who originally broke the news, the Japanese trader will be taking up a position as a senior strategist, which will see Matsuda manufacture daily reports on the movements of the crypto market.

Although this may not be exciting news in and of itself, this shows that the crypto industry is gaining traction, even with investors, analysts, traders, and executives that hail from traditional markets. Mike Novogratz, a well-known cryptocurrency proponent and CEO of the crypto-centric Galaxy Digital fund, commented on the arrival of talent, stating:

“I’m sure that Joe Lubin, the guys at Consensus, us at our hedge fund, and [firms] all over the place (cryptocurrency industry) have their pick of hiring people. The young people see this as the next grand opportunity.”

And even though prices have plummeted in the aftermath of 2017’s jaw-dropping bull run, there still seem to be some forward thinkers who are still ready to dive headfirst into the 21st century’s greatest invention.

Market Falls Sharply After Weeks Of Sustained Bullish Action

Following weeks of a short-term recovery, which saw Bitcoin bounce off a $5,800 low to a high of $7,400, the cryptocurrency market saw a violent sell-off this week, even though there wasn’t a clear catalyst that drove prices lower. Throughout the past seven days, the total market capitalization of all crypto assets fell by 20%, moving from $240 billion to $190 billion courtesy of three bouts of acute selling pressure.

Image Courtesy of CoinMarketCap

The market started off the week relatively strong, with Bitcoin finding a place to stand at $7,400, with no easily apparent signs of weakness. But as reported by NewsBTC, the market saw a hefty sell-off on Wednesday night, as the crypto market saw its “largest daily dump of the year,” with $40 billion in market capitalization evaporating within a matter of a few hours. From there, many thought that it couldn’t get much worse, as prices saw some semblance of stability. But as is the unpredictable nature of this market, prices continued to fall on Saturday, with Bitcoin tumbling to $6,150.

Although Bitcoin’s performance was dismal by itself, many would say that BTC fared well when compared with specific altcoins that stuck out like sore thumbs, including Ethereum, Cardano, Bitcoin Cash, and EOS. Sore thumbs aside, a majority of altcoins posted losses of over 20%, leading the Bitcoin dominance statistic to rise to a new yearly high of 55.9%.

Image Courtesy of Coin360.io

Oddly enough, it seems that although fundamentals are trending in favor of the crypto market, technicals are depressing prices to new year-to-date lows. Regardless, as Charlie Lee stated in a recent CNBC appearance:

“I would like for people to focus on the technology, adoption, merchant adoption and also how to scale… I think with the price currently depressed, it’s a good time for people to sit down and have their head down and actually working to get stuff done.”

Featured Image From Shutterstock

The post Crypto Week In Review: Coinbase Ponders ETF, Market Sees Violent Decline appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Points

• Bitcoin price is bleeding and it could extend its slide below the $6,100 level against the US Dollar.
• There is a connecting bearish trend line in place with resistance at $6,300 on the 4-hours chart of the BTC/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
• The pair is clearly under pressure and it may perhaps slide to $6,000 and $5,950 in the near term.

Bitcoin price recently broke the $6,214 swing low against the US Dollar. BTC/USD is likely to extend declines and it could spike below $6,000 if sellers remain in action.

Bitcoin Price Trend

This past week, bitcoin price started a major downside move from well above the $7,200 level against the US Dollar. The BTC/USD pair broke many supports on the way down like $7,200, $7,000, $6,750, $6,600 and $6,400. There was also a break below a major bullish trend line with support at $7,200 on the 4-hours chart. The decline was such that the price even broke the $6,214 low and settled below the 100 simple moving average (4-hours).

Recently, the price broke a bearish flag with support at $6,400 to extend slides. It tested the $6,100 support and it is currently consolidating above the $6,150 level. It seems like it could correct a few points, but the $6,300 level is likely to act as a strong resistance. There is also a connecting bearish trend line in place with resistance at $6,300 on the 4-hours chart of the BTC/USD pair. Above the trend line, the previous support near $6,500 is the next major resistance. On the downside, the price could test the 1.236 Fib extension level of the last major wave from the $6,214 low to $7,406 high.

Looking at the chart, BTC price is clearly in a downtrend, but the $6,000 and $5,950 support levels could provide a strong base for a recovery.

Looking at the technical indicators:

4-hours MACD – The MACD for BTC/USD is slowly moving back in the bullish zone.

4-hours RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI is still well below the 30 level.

Major Support Level – $6,000

Major Resistance Level – $6,500

The post Bitcoin Price Weekly Analysis: BTC/USD Decline Could Extend to $5,950 appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Highlights

• ETH price is under heavy selling pressure as it recently broke the $200 support against the US Dollar.
• There is a major bearish trend line formed with resistance at $205 on the 4-hours chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).
• The pair remains sell on rallies near the $200, $205 and $210 levels in the near term.

Ethereum price is heading south versus the US Dollar and Bitcoin. ETH/USD could continue to move down until buyers take a strong stand.

Ethereum Price Decline

There was no major recovery above the $230 level in ETH price against the US Dollar. The ETH/USD pair remained in a bearish zone and it extended declines. It broke the last swing low near $209 and extended slides. Sellers even managed to push the price below the $200 and $190 levels. More importantly, the price is now trading well below the $230 resistance and the 100 simple moving average (4-hours).

Recently, the price broke a consolidating pattern with support at $225. It opened the doors for more losses and the price traded to a new monthly low at $185. It seems like sellers remain in full control and the price could decline further. On the upside, the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $287 high to $185 low is at $209. Moreover, there is a major bearish trend line formed with resistance at $205 on the 4-hours chart of ETH/USD. Therefore, if the pair corrects higher, it could face sellers near the $200, $205 and $210 levels in the short term.

The above chart indicates that ETH price is likely to extend declines below the $185 level. The next major support is near the $175 level where buyers may perhaps appear. To recover, the price has to move above the $200 and $220 levels.

4-hours MACD – The MACD is placed in the bearish zone.

4-hours RSI – The RSI is currently well below the 20 level.

Major Support Level – $175

Major Resistance Level – $209

The post Ethereum Price Weekly Analysis: ETH/USD Remains Sell on Rallies appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Points

• Bitcoin cash price is under a lot of pressure as it broke the $500 support against the US Dollar.
• There was a break below a major bullish trend line with support at $540 on the 4-hours chart of the BCH/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
• The pair is now trading below the $500 support and it could trade towards the $440 level.

Bitcoin cash price declined heavily recently against the US Dollar. BCH/USD may continue to move down towards the $440 and $420 levels in the near term.

Bitcoin Cash Price Decline

There was a sharp downside move from the $640 swing high in bitcoin cash price against the US Dollar. The BCH/USD pair tumbled and broke many supports like $560, $540, $500 and $480. The decline was such that the price even settled below the $550 pivot level and the 100 simple moving average (4-hours). Moreover, the price broke a key horizontal support near the $490 level.

During the decline, there was a break below a major bullish trend line with support at $540 on the 4-hours chart of the BCH/USD pair. All these are bearish signs and suggests more losses below the $500 level. The price recently took out the 1.236 Fib extension level of the last wave from the $522 low to $661 high. Therefore, it could extend losses below the $470 level in the near term. The next support lies near the 1.618 Fib extension level of the last wave from the $522 low to $661 high at $436.

Looking at the chart, BCH price is likely to accelerate declines towards the $440 level. And, if sellers remain in action, there could be a test of the $400-420 support area as well in the coming sessions.

Looking at the technical indicators:

4-hours MACD – The MACD for BCH/USD is placed heavily in the bearish zone.

4-hours RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BTC/USD is near the oversold levels.

Major Support Level – $435

Major Resistance Level – $550

The post Bitcoin Cash Price Weekly Analysis: BCH/USD Could Decline to $440 appeared first on NewsBTC.

After successfully completing its public crowdsale in May by raising over 10 million USD, the Eligma startup is now well on its way towards disrupting commerce with the latest technologies. The first of its roadmap milestones was reached on 5 September by presenting the MVP in the form of Elly, an AI shopping assistant. Elly is training to help users with personalized product discovery − suggesting not only the best price for the features important to the user but also alternative products with better qualities for the same or less money. On 12 September, this product will be followed by Elipay, a solution for paying with cryptocurrencies at online and offline stores to further the use of crypto in the mainstream. Arriving at the market ahead of the roadmap, Elipay is expected to be present at about 100 stores at the time of its launch. Numerous other innovations are to follow, enhancing daily shopping with AI and blockchain.

AI product discovery to save time and money

Commerce is experiencing an internetization, but the consequences may not always be positive for the consumer. Online product searching is not as easy as it could be because the current product search options result in an enormous quantity but not quality and personalization of the search results. Founded by technology experts and seasoned entrepreneurs, the Eligma company is set on transforming the way we buy and sell products online. Launched on 5 September 2018, chatbot Elly is the introductory version of their AI assistant training to help people shop. The aim is for Elly to evolve into a tool saving people time and money not only by finding the best deals online, but also by getting to know the user and offer price-to-quality recommendations based on what features the user finds the most important. As an MVP, Elly is being refined through early adopter feedback, so the more users she interacts with, the better and more knowledgeable she will become.

Elly as an MVP and final product

• Already as an MVP, Elly is available in both the computer and mobile versions, and supports voice recognition.
• She is based on an original chatbot framework as well as on product discovery algorithms.
• Like real sales assistants, Elly is being trained on product characteristics, at this MVP stage in one product category with a limited database (mobile phones), but there is further data added on a daily basis.
• Elly can remember interactions with an individual user for future reference and personalized shopping advice.

End product features:

• There will be more product categories and data added continuously.
• The (optional) memorization of the chat with a user will result in gathering knowledge on the user’s preferences and effective recommendations across a variety of product categories.
• User interaction and additional data will be used to shape the product according to user input, which will make Elly increasingly ‘smarter’ as time goes by.

Elipay: cryptocurrencies in daily shopping

As a member of Blockchain Alliance Europe, Eligma aims to contribute to the development and awareness of blockchain, and also develops products to further its use in the mainstream. Elipay, a mobile application for paying with crypto at offline and online stores, will be launched on 12 September – initially in Slovenia, with international markets to follow. Elipay is currently tested at BTC City, a major shopping and business complex in Central Europe. Consisting of over 450 stores, 70 bars and restaurants, a theatre, a Cineplex, a waterpark, etc., BTC City boasts 21 million visitors a year as well as a great amount of startups and other innovative companies in its area. In partnership with Eligma, BTC City is developing into the first Bitcoin City in the world – a commerce ecosystem offering latest technological solutions including Elipay. Initially, Elipay will accept Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Ether, with the technology to accept ERC-20 tokens developed as well.

A vision of smart commerce

The ultimate goal of Eligma is to create a commerce platform where people will be able to easily discover and buy items, track what they own through a digital inventory and be assisted with selling the items they no longer need; the latter will be done with an AI solution tracking the prices of the things they have and suggesting the best time to sell them. Most of the operations will run on Eligma’s native ELI token, which is currently listed on BitForex, Bancor, Livecoin, Coinbe and Tokens.

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of NullTX. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

The post Eligma’s MVP showcases its first step towards a commerce based on AI and blockchain appeared first on NullTX.

– Liquid accessibility to bolster sector-wide liquidity –

TOKYO, Japan, 7th September 2018 – Global fintech company Quoine has unveiled Liquid, a cryptocurrency one-stop trading portal, which will allow users to access a worldwide network of cryptocurrency exchanges.

At launch, Liquid allows users to match trades across multiple transactions and cryptocurrencies. For example, the orders of BTC/SGD, ETH/SGD and BTC/ETH can be matched together. This is expected to greatly increase the liquidity of all available cryptocurrencies on Liquid.

In subsequent stages, Liquid will offer a World Book technology that aggregates the orders and prices on various exchanges into a single highly liquid and tradable order book and allows orders to be placed in the currency of one’s choice.

A fragmented trading landscape and lack of liquidity have hampered the development of the cryptocurrency markets. Liquid will facilitate market stability, enhance liquidity and empower a new wave of digital asset traders to buy and sell tokens safely.

Quoine is the first global cryptocurrency exchange to be officially licensed by the Japan Financial Service Authority (FSA) for its Japanese operations. Moreover, Quoine’s existing trading platforms, Qryptos and Quoinex, are among the most advanced in the world. The existing digital currency exchange and trading platforms will merge into the new Liquid portal, providing access to liquidity pools sourced by a unified platform.

Currently, Quoine processes annual transactions worth over $50 billion and are amongst the top crypto-exchanges in the world[1]. In November 2017, Quoine successfully raised USD105M in an oversubscribed ICO, to fund the growth of the Liquid platform.

A fragmented and non-liquid crypto economy

Crypto exchanges offer an overlapping variety of cryptocurrency pairs. However, the fragmented trading landscape has led to price and volume discrepancies, creating individual currency silos, with greater liquidity on one exchange not reflected on the other. As liquidity and the best price constantly shifts from exchange to exchange around the world, it creates substantial price volatility and accessibility issues for traders.

“Cryptocurrency markets need stability. This year, the 30 day BTC/USD volatility [2] index has been above 3% for almost the entire year, with highs topping 8% at the start of the year. Liquid is paving the way to a less volatile future by improving liquidity within the cryptocurrency ecosystem,” said Mike Kayamori, Co-Founder and CEO of Quoine.

“However, Liquid is more than just a cryptocurrency exchange. Liquid is an all-in-one platform that will bridge the gap between traditional finance and the token economy. We offer everything you need within our suite of services, while our underlying tech will help connect a global crypto community.”

Introducing Liquid Platform

Liquid’s World Book will provide liquidity with its matching engine technology, which matches orders to ensure traders can always buy and sell into healthy order books.

Figure 1: Liquid Platform

Liquid’s World Book comprises an internal and external book:

Internal Order Book: At launch, the order book contains FX-adjusted orders for all orders placed by users internally within Liquid platform.

External Aggregated Order Book: Moving forward, the external order book will eventually contain all other orders (but FX adjusted) that exist throughout the world other than those placed in Internal Order Book. Each order in this book is linked to an order on the various exchanges internationally.

The World Book is driven by three technologies that have been utilised extensively by Quoine daily, powering the existing QUOINEX and QRYPTOS trading platforms and cryptocurrency exchanges:

1. Matching Engine (ME): The engine is capable of processing several million transactions per second, making it one of the most advanced matching engines in the industry.
2. Cross Currency Conversion Engine (CCCE): The CCCE allows for near-instant, automated currency conversions between cross currency pairs.
3. Smart Order Routing (SOR): The technology maintains low-latency, real-time (R/T) feeds for all major exchanges throughout the world.

In the first phase of the launch, Liquid is introducing new and refined features such as:

• Internal Order Book that will enable the matching of orders across orders books with different trading pairs
• Upgraded Matching Engine that processes up to several millions of transactions per second
• Improved User Interface (UI) which includes a Markets page allowing users to explore spot markets
• Advanced Features allowing users to execute iceberg orders
• Advanced Margin Trading allowing users to view unrealised penalties
• Lending feature allowing hodlers to earn interest on their crypto assets
• ICO Market 2.0 allowing users to access ICO token sales, private sales, and project analyses

Quoine will continue to roll out the following features in progressive phases:

•        External Aggregated Order Book that can aggregate the orders and prices on the world’s various exchanges into a single highly liquid and tradable order book
•        New KYC process enabling withdrawals under certain limits to be done without KYC
•        Use of credit card to fund accounts
•        Quick deposit/withdrawals of funds
•        Mobile app on Google and Apple app store

Fuelling the platform will be a utility token called the QASH token, which grants access to the full suite of services on Liquid, along with discounts and additional benefits.

“Quoine aims to provide liquidity to the non-liquid crypto economy. With the launch of Liquid, Quoine is building a solid, global financial utility. An advanced platform the entire crypto economy will use to great advantage; where anyone can participate as users and token holders,” said Mario Gomez Lozada, Co-Founder, President and Chief Product Officer of Quoine.

###

ABOUT QUOINE

Quoine is a leading global fintech company that provides trading, exchange, and next generation financial services powered by blockchain technology. With offices in Japan, Singapore and Vietnam, Quoine combines a strong network of local partners with extensive team experience in banking and financial products to deliver best in class financial services for its customers. More information is available at www.quoine.com

In 2014, Quoine launched Quoine Exchange, later known as Quoinex, which became one of the largest bitcoin exchanges in the world by transaction volume.

In June 2017, Quoine launched a cryptocurrency-only exchange and trading platform called Qryptos, exclusively for cryptocurrency trading. Both Quoinex and Qryptos offer powerful trading features, a sophisticated user dashboard, secure cold wallet storage and KYC compliance for individual and corporate customers.

In September 2017, Quoine Corporation became the first global cryptocurrency exchange to be officially licensed by the Japan Financial Services Agency for its Japanese operations.

In October 2017, Quoine became the first licensed global cryptocurrency exchange in Japan to launch a global Initial Coin Offering (ICO), also known as the QASHToken Sale.

In November 2017, Quoine successfully raised 350m QASH(the equivalent of 350K ETH or ~USD105m) in an oversubscribed ICO, to fund the growth of the Liquid platform. As part of the Liquid platform development,  Quoinex and Qryptos will be merged into Liquid.

As at July 2018, both Quoinex and Qryptos exceeded USD50 billion in combined transaction volumes in the past 12 months.

In September 2018, Quoinex and Qryptos was merged and relaunched as Liquid. Liquid is powered by Quoine’s World Book, which provides customers enhanced price matching and deeper liquidity for various fiat and cryptocurrency pairs. More information can be found at: https://liquid.com

MEDIA CONTACT DETAILS

Quoine Contact Person: Renee Tng

Email: [email protected]

Corporate Website: https://quoine.com

Liquid Website: https://liquid.com

Telegram Community: https://t.me/Quoine

Red Flag Contact Person

[1] According to CoinmarketCap rankings

[2] According to buybitcoinworldwide,com

The Internal Order Book completes an FX conversion of JPY/SGD in order to match a trade of different trading pairs within the Liquid platform.

The matching engine within the External Aggregate Order Book allows a trade of ETH/EUR to be matched with a trade of BTC/USD.

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of NullTX. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

The post Official launch of Liquid, a new crypto platform opening up liquidity for crypto markets worldwide appeared first on NullTX.

ARXUM has just taken a big leap by providing the first working PoC for plugging the IOTA Tangle into the ARXUM Production Protocol. The PoC starts the execution of the ARXUM Production Protocol with an Ethereum smart contract consuming the transaction cost through ARXUM’s ERC20 token AX.

This process is important so the AX token is always utilized by the network – an indispensable requirement for any AX token holder. While the transaction fee is paid through Ethereum, any other blockchain technology can be plugged into the mechanism to handle all production-related transactions. This has already been done with IOTA.

For ARXUM, it is important not to be bound to a single blockchain, but that it can be built on any available blockchain protocol that can run smart contracts. Each blockchain technology has its own advantages and disadvantages, such as specific programming languages, consensus protocols, transaction costs and speeds, scalability, security, and features such as state channels. As ARXUM provides a digital supply chain infrastructure for industrial manufacturing companies, ARXUM will select the best technology for any supply chain application.

Some production processes create a high number of payment transactions over time and thus, state channels could be beneficial. Other production scenarios may have low transaction volumes but require elaborated smart contract templates. Others may have a high number of participants interacting with a single manufacturing order over a long period of time. Several further scenarios could demonstrate ARXUM’s necessity for being agnostic to different types of blockchain protocols.

To maintain its claim of blockchain flexibility, ARXUM is currently conducting extensive research to implement proof-of-concepts for plugging in different blockchain base protocols. Therefore, they can be extended to potentially new, upcoming blockchain base protocol projects. Further research with other blockchain technologies is currently being conducted and will soon yield further announcements.

ARXUM is the new blockchain based solution to organize cross-company production of mass-customized products. The ARXUM Production Protocol brings all production peers together in one single smart contract per production order and uses blockchain-inherent features to implement a multitude of functionalities required in a digital supply chain.

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of NullTX This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

The post ARUXM has tested first ERC20 token-based Production Protocol with IOTA Tangle appeared first on NullTX.

Japan’s largest e-commerce platform, Rakuten, has announced that it will buy Everybody’s Bitcoin Inc, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, through its credit card subsidiary, Rakuten Card. 

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is of the opinion that the cryptocurrency market is unlikely to experience an explosive bullish rally similar to the one seen in late 2017 ever again. The ‘gold rush’ is in the past and now the average person is aware of blockchain and digital currencies, thus erasing the surprise element of last year.

Cryptocurrency Growth Based on Marketing is a Dead End Strategy

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, was at an Ethereum and blockchain conference in Hong Kong when he told Bloomberg that opportunities for 1,000-times growth in the cryptocurrency market are no longer out there.

The blockchain community is at a new level of growth, which is based on the adoption of real applications by real people instead of spreading the word to new enthusiasts willing to invest in digital assets.

“The blockchain space is getting to the point where there’s a ceiling in sight. If you talk to the average educated person at this point, they probably have heard of blockchain at least once. There isn’t an opportunity for yet another 1,000-times growth in anything in the space anymore”, Buterin said as he explained that the blockchain community’s marketing strategy throughout the first six or seven years “is getting close to hitting a dead end.”

Now it is up to the blockchain ecosystem to strive to get people who are already interested in cryptocurrencies to be involved as consumers of blockchain products in real life. “Go from just people being interested in real applications of real economic activity”, he said.

Ethereum is an open-source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform and operating system which enables developers to create all kinds of applications without a middleman or counterparty risk. The “next stage” Buterin talked about in the interview may eventually represent a bullish case for ETH if developers ‘en masse’ do decide to go with Ethereum to build their platforms. But the once innovative network is now facing increased competition.

While the real massified adoption of blockchain products is yet to occur, the price of Ethereum faces a bearish storm ever since capping around the $1,375 area in early 2018. In September, the cryptocurrency gave in to the downward pressure and lost the $300 handle. Ethereum is now trading just above $200 in a critical moment for the digital currency market.

“ETH shed another 4% on the day and is just below $220, a fall below $200 could be very bad for the world’s second largest crypto”, reports NewBTC. Bloomberg Intelligence commodity strategist Mike McGlone expects Ether to fall further to a support target of $155 “as it faces increasing competition, market volatility, and a maturing industry.”

Featured image from Shutterstock.

The post Ethereum Co-Founder: Blockchain Growth Based on Marketing is Hitting a Dead End appeared first on NewsBTC.

At press time, the bitcoin price has fallen even further, and is now sitting at just over $6,100. That means bitcoin has dropped by over $300 since yesterday, and over $1,000 in about a week. The bull run that enthusiasts were allegedly seeing is now a thing of the past, and we are back in the bears’ control.

Technical analysts Edward Morra appreciates that people want to stay confident and optimistic about bitcoin and cryptocurrency, though he advises that over-optimism is a bad plan. He says that bitcoin and several major altcoins are still trapped in a downward trend, and people must be realistic and face the music before things get worse:

“I’m not really sure why some people are still bullish, here. The market clearly showed the evidence of supply still completely dominating the place. Erasing two weeks-worth of gains in two days – that’s a failed rally, and this is a sign of weakness, not the spring. Springs occur at the bottom of the range, preferably on low volume. Instead, we got the most technically bearish 0.618 macro retest followed by a record $1 billion one-hour volume candle. That’s not bullish in any sense.”

Still, however, others refuse to believe anything other than the idea that bitcoin will once again reach a high note (or at least significant note) in the financial industry. Charles Hayter – CEO of the digital currency data platform Crypto Compare – says bitcoin isn’t so much trapped in a bearish downtrend as it is simply waiting around for the next big move to take it up or down.

“It’s waiting for the next catalyst,” he explains with ease.

Others go even further in their predictions, and say the future is nothing but bright for bitcoin and its digital alternatives. Samson Williams – an analyst of Axes & Eggs – believes that the price of bitcoin will move up to $20,000 again by December 31 of this year. He mentions:

“As fiat and stock markets correct, money will flee into the crypto market. Why? [Because] this will be the first time that such a liquid option will be available.”

Williams is up there with men like Tom Lee of Fundstrat fame who believe that bitcoin will once again strike its December 2017 high by the end of 2018, though it’s hard to believe this is still possible. Since mid-July, every time bitcoin has endured a bull rally, numbers have fallen almost immediately after. The ascensions do not last, and $6,000 is proving to become a difficult ordeal for bitcoin.

For $20,000 to become a reality and not just a mental goal, the currency will need to spike by nearly $14,000 in just under four months. That’s quite a feat, and given bitcoin’s recent behavior, one can’t help but wonder if the father of crypto is truly up to such a task.

Bitcoin Charts by TradingView

The post Bitcoin Price Watch: Currency Falls Again as Enthusiasts Try to Stay Positive appeared first on NullTX.