Day: September 10, 2018

Kucoin is expanding into Australia after it agreed to invest $3 million in Bitcoin Australia. The deal is seen as a win-win for both cryptocurrency exchanges, each seeking to expand into its own direction – Kucoin establishing a niche in the rapidly growing Australian market. Bitcoin Australia is targeting the UK next.  

Also read: As Zimbabweans Struggle For Cash, Even The Country’s Only Bitcoin ATM Has Run Dry

Kucoin Gets Leg Up In Australia

Kucoin chief executive Michael Gan on Sunday announced the Singapore cryptocurrency exchange had injected $3 million into Bitcoin Australia in a deal that is expected to grow its footprint in Australia.

“Now, I would like to inform you about our latest key partnership,” Gan said in an update on Twitter. “I have been told that some users noted that Kucoin has accomplished investing in Bitcoin Australia, a leading Australian cryptocurrency exchange. I want to confirm that this is true,” he said.

Earlier, Rupert Hackett, Bitcoin Australia’s chief executive, told the Australian Financial Review that the cash injection will help Bitcoin Australia expand operations into 27 new markets in the next two years. The company currently operates only in Australia, the Netherlands and Canada.

UK is Next Target

Hackett said the deal will result in increased demand for cryptocurrency from both Australian and international investors.

“It will effectively create an exchange for intermediate and advanced traders,” he was quoted as saying. “The UK is our next primary target. We want it to be seamless with the payment infrastructure in the UK and build up the brand,” Hackett said. He added that Bitcoin Australia presently offers the ability to purchase cryptocurrency, and wants to diversify to include a bespoke experience.

Kucoin has more than four million users on its books and transacts over half a billion United States dollars per month. In the 24 hours to press time, about $13.1 million worth of bitcoin had changed hands on the exchange. “This (deal) is not only a great strategic decision but will be an excellent long-lasting partnership for us to help cryptocurrency grow,” said Gan, Kucoin chief executive.

Threats Of Harm

Last week, Australian financial markets regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), said it will tighten control of cryptocurrency exchanges and token sales to eliminate “potential harm” from emerging technologies. In its “Corporate Plan” plan for the next four years, ASIC revealed: “We will continue to focus on monitoring threats of harm from emerging products, cyber resilience, the adequate management of technological solutions by firms and markets, and misconduct that is facilitated by or through digital and/or cyber-based mechanisms.”

Hackett, the Bitcoin Australia chief executive, was not particularly perturbed by the state of regulation in the Pacific nation. He told the Australian Financial Review that the country’s regulatory environment was “very progressive based on the global climate.” He hopes that “because we’re a regulated cryptocurrency exchange, we can leverage that in these international markets and foster business relations on that foundation.”

Australia is booming as a market for cryptocurrency, both as means of payment and as a store of value. About 14 percent of Australians now own a cryptocurrency of one sort or another, according to a report by Hive Ex, and payments are increasingly being settled in bitcoin.

Do you think Kucoin in Australia is a good venture for the company? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Images via Shutterstock.

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The post Kucoin Expands Into Australia After $3M Bitcoin Australia Deal appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Bitcoin’s recovery from 25-day lows near $6,100 is likely a “dead cat bounce” rather than a bullish reversal, charts suggest.

An acquisition that finds two of crypto’s leading entrepreneurs teaming to back the world’s sixth-largest blockchain has been confirmed.

FOMO Moments

Markets are in a bad shape on Monday; but Bitcoin Diamond and Waves recovering.

Crypto markets are still in the doldrums as we start the week. A very small bounce yesterday prevented them reaching a new yearly low but levels are not far off it. Still under $200 billion, markets are at their lowest point since the end of October last year.

Bitcoin made a small upward movement yesterday but has stayed flat since then trading at $6,320. Further losses look likely for BTC which is not showing any bullish indicators at the moment. Ethereum is going from bad to worse as it plummets even further, remaining under $200. ETH at the moment is trading at $195 and any further dips could spell very bad news for the world’s second largest crypto.

Altcoins are quite mixed at the moment with some still falling but others recovering a little from last week’s rout. In the top ten XRP, Stellar and Cardano are still dropping 2-3 percent on the day while EOS has gained 2.6% to pull itself back to $5.

More movement can be seen further down the charts with Dash and Dogecoin streaking back up with 7% clawed back on the day. Iota and VeChain are also gaining, but only by 3% at the time of writing. The rest are plus or minus a percentage from yesterday’s prices.

Bitcoin Diamond is having the biggest pump of the day with a 22% gain to trade at $2.06. BCD spurted two hours ago when volume over doubled to around $19 million. The largest OTC exchange in Asia, OTCBTC, now supports Bitcoin Diamond;

NOW， OTCBTC supports BitcoinDiamond BCD.
OTCBTC is focused on building an efficient cryptocurrency exchange platform, and is currently the largest OTC exchange in Asia. https://t.co/1z57A3Sk1p

— Bitcoin Diamond[BCD] (@BitcoinDiamond_) September 10, 2018

A Korean news article about BCD Bazaar, the new partnership driven e-commerce platform, could also be driving momentum. Binance currently has over 50% of the trade volume in BCD.

Waves is also performing well at the moment with a similar 22% spike, as is Bitcoin Dark which is up 20%. At the painful end of the top one hundred is Rchain and GAS dumping 7% each.

Total crypto market capitalization has slid a further 1.5% on the day and is currently at $195 billion. Ethereum is leading the losses as most ERC20 tokens are also in a bad way. The only good news out of crypto land at the moment is Bitcoin’s dominance which has climbed to another yearly high of 55.8%.

More on Bitcoin Diamond can be found here: http://btcd.io/

FOMO Moments is a section that takes a daily look at the top 25 altcoins during the current trading session and analyses the best performing ones, looking for trends and possible fundamentals.

The post Cryptocurrency Market Update: Bitcoin Diamond (BCD) Pump Defies the Dump appeared first on NewsBTC.

Investor “confusion” leads to U.S. regulator issuing ban on two pioneering crypto-related ETNs

WeChat has just blocked an official sales channel for Bitmain miners, along with several accounts that analyse the crypto markets.

The cryptocurrency markets will either see massive gains this week or continue down the beaten path of declines. It seems some altcoins are already preparing for a bull run, as the IOTA price begins noting some impressive gains. This momentum shows this week may turn out alright, albeit it is still too early to tell what will happen.

IOTA Price Reversal is Promising

The cryptocurrency markets are almost starting to look like a rather active yo-yo these days. Gains are followed by steep losses and further gains accordingly. It is good to see some attempts to break the overall negative momentum, albeit one has to wonder if and when there will be extended upward momentum in the cryptocurrency industry.

For the time being, the IOTA price changes instill a bit of confidence, at least for now. With a 6.56% increase in USD value and a 5.05% gain over Bitcoin, things are looking rather good. Even so, some of the IOTA price gains are already being negated, with no apparent reason for such a short-term outlook becoming apparent. It is evident there are a lot of people looking to take profits, but it should not impede the IOTA uptrend, for the time being.

The IOTA community is abuzz with excitement, for a wide variety of reasons. The newly released Trinity wallet is being well received so far, as it highlighted the need for an additional IOTA wallet solution. Convenience is critical in the world of cryptocurrency, and Trinity Wallet seems to provide exactly that without sacrificing security or usability.

It also seems a new digital ID project is being built with the help of IOTA. There is a growing need for digital ID solutions, and blockchain-oriented projects can play a big role in this regard. Despite IOTA not using a traditional blockchain, digital ID ventures will be worth exploring where this project is concerned. There is no official timeline for the project just yet, but it will make use of the Verifiable Claims protocol.

We formed a team this week for our #digital_id project with #IOTA. As a team of 5 we have now started development for an implementation of the #VerifiableClaims protocol and create a matching app. #iotastrong

— Jelle Millenaar (@JelleFm) September 7, 2018

Last but not least, one has to keep the core principles of IOTA in mind at all times. The use of zero-fee transactions can easily lead to mass adoption in many different ways. Bitcoin often struggles because of its fees, and most other altcoins do not fare much better in this regard as of right now. IOTA is poised to undergo some other core changes, which may further enhance the mainstream appeal of this cryptocurrency.

#IOTA has set the standard! Any crypto which requires a fee for each transaction will never be mass adopted Any crypto with a fixed block size and fixed time interval will also fail. Once the coordinator is removed and #Qubic is realised then IOTA will become a huge #Crypto asset

— Ian Roberts (@ianroberts79) September 5, 2018

All of these developments are bound to make their mark on the IOTA price at some point. So far, the momentum favors this cryptocurrency, and the associated trading volume has also begun to pick up a bit of steam. Reaching a value of $0.6 is not out of the question later today, although nothing is ever certain in the cryptocurrency world either.

The post IOTA Price: Trinity Wallet and New Digital ID Project Push Value Toward $0.6 appeared first on NullTX.

Key Points

• Bitcoin price is currently consolidating below a major resistance at $6,500 against the US Dollar.
• There is a short-term breakout pattern in place with resistance at $6,380 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
• The pair has to move above $6,380 and $6,500 to gain upside momentum in the near term.

Bitcoin price is struggling to clear the $6,500 barrier against the US Dollar. BTC/USD could extend slides if it fails to move above $6,380 and $6,500.

Bitcoin Price Analysis

This past week, we saw a major downside move below $6,500 in bitcoin price against the US Dollar. The BTC/USD pair traded as low as $6,070 and later started an upward move. It corrected above the $6,200 and $6,300 resistance levels. However, the upside move was capped by the $6,440 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average. Moreover, the price failed to settle above the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last significant drop from the $7,391 high to $6,070 low.

The price moved down, but the $6,200 level prevented declines. It seems like there is a short-term breakout pattern in place with resistance at $6,380 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair. The pair has to move above the triangle resistance at $6,380 and the 100 hourly SMA to recover. The next major resistance is $6,500, which acted as a resistance on many occasions. If buyers succeed in clearing the $6,500 resistance, the next stop could be $6,730. It represents the 50% Fib retracement level of the last significant drop from the $7,391 high to $6,070 low.

Looking at the chart, bitcoin could soon make the next move either above $6,380 or below $6,200. If there is a downside break, the price might even break the $6,070 low and test $6,000.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for BTC/USD is currently in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI is currently above the 45 level.

Major Support Level – $6,200

Major Resistance Level – $6,500

The post Bitcoin Price Watch: BTC/USD Remains At Risk Below $6,500 appeared first on NewsBTC.

Mexico’s Central Bank, the Bank of Mexico, has updated regulations for financial entities that restrict the services they can provide to regular cryptocurrency investors.

Financial entities are first required to identify all the customers they have involved in cryptocurrency trading, and then sort out those operating on a regular or professional basis. Those that fall into this category must only be given demand deposit accounts and are required to provide additional identification data.

Banking service providers are told to refrain from opening new accounts to regular or professional traders, and any funds transferred to crypto beneficiaries are required to undergo additional validation checks. Each financial entity must provide accessible policies and procedures to prevent any illicit proceeds from being transferred to or from crypto-related accounts.

The regulations go as far as to prohibit banks from making resources available to crypto clients on the same banking business day that funds are deposited; should the Bank of Mexico issue any last minute notice that the bank should intensify the monitoring of the clients.

The central bank said that measures have been taken in order to prevent money laundering or illicit financial activities in Mexico. However, banks have raised concerns over how the new policies will be a detriment to market efficiency. Cryptocurrency exchanges have also expressed their views that the new know-your-customer (KYC) guidelines combined with the regulations will slow the speed of transactions and increase the cost for the process.

All authorized cryptocurrency exchanges must also comply with an additional set of guidelines issued by the Bank of Mexico, under the FinTech law that sets terms and conditions relating to the custody and control of digital currency assets.

Financial entities have until September 2019 when the regulations will be in effect, to comply with the new rules.

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The crypto market has undoubtedly begun to permeate into legacy systems, with several forward-thinking firms beginning to make a foray into this space over the past months. While these moves are often seen as high-risk, as a result of the negative image propagated by the mainstream media and consumers, firms adopting cryptocurrencies have actually excelled and expanded, much to the dismay of naysayers.

People Hate Change

Despite this industry’s infancy, financial-technology (fintech) firms have embraced crypto assets with open arms, with firms like Robinhood, Square, eToro, and Revolut all taking a unique take on cryptocurrencies over the years. And while this would be a hazardous choice for traditional institutions, some say that crypto and fintech go hand-in-hand, as the next era of the financial world will likely involve some form of blockchain-backed digital assets in one way or another.

Regardless, as addressed by a recent tweet from Kevin Rooke, a Canadian cryptocurrency & blockchain researcher, crypto-friendly fintech firms have actually seen their “user numbers shoot up” in a non-linear fashion following the launch of a crypto feature, contrary to popular belief.

People hate change.

Want people to use your crypto application? Don't force them to learn new skills.

Square figured this out – and they tripled their user base in 9 months pic.twitter.com/LnXfgZ8aHi

— Kevin Rooke (@kerooke) September 9, 2018

The most notable example pointed out by Rooke was Square’s Cash mobile application, which introduced Bitcoin purchasing abilities in November 2017, and subsequently saw its user base swell from three million to nine million users in the time since. Although Cash’s growth can’t be solely attributed to the Bitcoin feature, as the app saw its fair share of non-crypto expansion maneuvers in the aforementioned timespan, naysayers would be remiss to believe that crypto actually hurt the performance of the app instead of aiding its development.

While not as drastic, Revolut, Robinhood, and eToro also saw significant upticks in their user counts following the introduction of a Bitcoin CFD in the case of eToro and low-fee cryptocurrency trading in the case of Revolut and Robinhood.  Explaining why this is the case, the researcher alluded to the ease-of-use these often mobile-centric platforms provide for the average Joe, which is evidently a dominant factor that draws users to utilize crypto features. Rooke wrote:

“The surges are likely the result of many ‘pure’ crypto exchanges not being beginner-friendly or as straightforward to use as these highly-user optimized apps. When crypto-trading was enabled on them (fintech apps), people who had heretofore followed the phenomenon from the sidelines decided to join in. Marketing and communication efforts also contributed to making new crypto-features go viral.”

In short, the introduction of cryptocurrency trading features on the four aforementioned apps, which are seemingly marketed at common consumers, allowed interested individuals to take their first meaningful steps into this early-stage market. So maybe the key to worldwide adoption isn’t the development of advanced platforms, but rather, the propagation of easy-to-use, accesible and low-fee platforms that make investing in cryptocurrencies a breeze.

However, some criticized Rooke’s analysis, noting that Robinhood and eToro do not offer “physical” cryptocurrencies via their trading features, which removes the ethos of decentralization and user-owned digital assets. Responding to the criticism, Rooke wrote that this is beside the point, alluding to the low levels of adoption that current “crypto applications” are struggling with as we speak, while these retail-focused platforms are seeing thousands, if not millions of active users.

The hope is that eventually, as Vitalik Buterin recently put it, to get those who are already interested in crypto assets to eventually take part in “real applications of real economic activity.”

Featured Image From Shutterstock

The post Square and eToro 3x User Base by Integrating Crypto, Others Lag Behind appeared first on NewsBTC.